Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1896-11-27

plain and plodding and useful, rather
than high flying and good for nothing
but to pick out the eyes Of carcasses. Ex-
traordinary capacity without work is ex-
traordinary failure There is no hope
for that person who begins life resolved
to live by his wits, for the probability
is that he has not any. It was not safe
for Adam, even in his unfallen state, to
have nothing TO do, and therefore God
commanded him to be farmer and hor
ticulturist. He was to dress the garden
and keep it, and had he and his wife
obeyed the divine injunction and been
at work, they would not have been
sauntering under the trees and banker
ing after that fruit which destroyed
them and their posterity, proof posi-
tive for all ages to come that those who
do not attend to their business are sure
to get into mischief
do not know that the prodigal in
Scripture would ever have been re-
claimed had he not given up his idle
habits and gone to feeding swine for
living. The devil does not so often at
tack the man who is busy with the pen,
and the book, and the trowel, and the
saw, and the hammer. He is afraid OF
those weapons. But woe TO the man
whom this roaring lion meets with his
hands in his pooketsl
Do not demand that your toll always
be elegant and cleanly and refined.
There is a certain amount Of drudgery
through which we must all pass, what
ever be our occupation. You know how
men are sentenced a certain number Of
years to prison, and after they have suf-
fered and worked out The time, then
they are allowed to 60 free. So 1t is
with all Of us. God passed on Us the
sentence, "By the sweat Of thy brow
shalt thou eat bread. We must endure
our time of drudgery, and then, after
awhile, we will be allowed to 60 into
comparative liberty. We must be will
ing to endure the sentence. We all
know what drudgery is connected with
the beginning Of any trade or profession,
but this does not continue all our lives,
if it be the students, or the merchants,
or the mechanics life. know you have
at the beginning many hard time,
but after awhile those things will be-
come easy. You will be your own mas
ter. Gods sentence will be satisfied.
You will be discharged from prison.
Bless God that you have brain to
think and hands to work and feet to
walk with, for in your constant activi-
ty, o young man, is one Of your strong
est defenses. Put your trust in God and
10 your best That child had it right
when the horses ran away with the load
Of wood, and he sat on it. When asked
if he was frightened, he said, mo; l
prayed to God and hung on like a
beaver"
Respect For the Sabbath.
Respect for the Sabbath will be to the
young man another preservative against
evil. God has thrust into the toll and
fatigue Of life recreative day, when
the soul is especially to be fed. 1t is no
new tangled notion Of wild Drained
reformer, but an institution established
at the beginning. God has made natu-
raj and moral laws so harmonious that
the body as well as the soul demands
this institution. Our bodies are seven
day clocks, that must be wound up as
often as that or they will run down.
Failure must come sooner or later to the
man who breaks the Sabbath. Inspira-
tion has called it the Lords day, and
he who devotes it to the world is guilty
Of robbery. God will not let the sin 60
unpunished, either in this world or the
world to come.
This is the statement Of a man who
has broken this divine enactment: Il
was engaged in manufacturing on the
Lehigh river. On the Sabbath l used to
rest. but never regarded God in II. One
beautiful Sabbath, when the noise was
all hushed and the day was all that
loyeliness could make it, sat down on
nv piazza and went to work inyenting
a new shuttle. | neither stopped to eat
nor drink till the sun went down. BY
that time | had the invention complet-
ed. The next morning | exhibited II and
boasted Of my days work and was ap-
plauded. The shuttle was tried and
worked well, but that Sabbath days
work cost me $50, 900. We branched
out and enlarged, and the curse OF
heaven was upon me from that day on
ward.
While the divine frown must rest
upon him who tramples upon this stat
ute. Gods special favor will be upon
that young man who scrupulously OBJ
serves it, This day, properly observed,
will throw hallowed influence over
all the week. The song and sermon and
sanctuary will hold back from presump-
tuous sins. That young man who begins
the duties Of life with either secret or
open disrespect to the holy day, ven-
ture to prophesy, will meet with no per
manent successes. Gods curse will fall
upon his ship, his store, his office, his
studio, his body and his soul. The way
of the wicked he turneth upside down.
In one Of the old fables it was said that
a wonderful child was born in Bagdad.
and magician could hear his footsteps
6, 600 miles away. But can hear in the
footstep of that young man on his way
to the house Of worship today the step
not only of a lifetime of usefulness. but
the oncoming step Of eternal ages oi
happiness yet millions Of years away.
High Ideals.
A noble ideal and confident expecta-
tion of approximating to it are an infai-
lible defense. The artist completes ID
his mind the great thought that be
/ wishes to transfer to the canvas or tn
marble before he takes up the erayor
} or the chisel. The architect plans ou
the entire structure before he orders th'
workmen to begin, and, though Their
} may for a long while seem to be nothing
but laundering and rudeness, he has II
his mind every Corinthian wreath ant
Gothic arch nkd Byzantine capital
} The poet arranges the entire plot befor
no begins TO chime the first canto o
! tingling rhythms. And yet, strange .
t saw. there are men who attempt TO bull
} their character without knowing wheth
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