Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-12-01

wife obeyed the Divine injunction and
! been at work, they would not have
been sauntering under the trees and
hankering after that fruit which de-
troyed them and their posterity; a
proof positive for ali ages to come that
those who do not attend to their bust
ness are sure to get into mischief.
l 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
attack 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 pockets!
This Is the statement of a man who
has broken this Divine enactment: II
was engaged in manufacturing on the
Lehigh river. On the Sabbath / used
to rest, but never regarded God in 1t.
One beautiful Sabbath when the noise
was all hushed, and the day was all
that loneliness could make 1t. sat
down on my piazza, and went to work
inventing a new shuttle. / neither
stopped to eat nor drink till the sun
went down. By that time 1 had the
invention completed. The next morn
ing l exhibited it, and boosted OF my
days work, and was applauded. The
shuttle was tried, and worked well,
h,,t Coh hat mo
thirty thousand dollars. We branch
ed 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
statute. Gods special favor will be
upon that young man who scrupulously
observes it. This day, properly OBJ
served, will throw hallowed influence
over all the week. The song and ser
mon and sanctuary will hold back from
presumptuous sins. That young man
who begins the duties of life with
either secret or open disrespect to the
holy day, / venture to prophesy, will
| meet with no permanent 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 wonder
full child was born in Bagdad. and
magician could hear his footsteps six
| thousand miles away. But / can hear
in the footstep of that young man on
his way to the house of worship to-day
the step not only of a lifetime of use
fulness, but the oncoming step OF
eternal ages of happiness yet millions
of years away.
A noble ideal and confident expec-
tation of approximating to it are an in
fallible defense. The artist completes
in his mind the great thought that he
wishes to transfer to the canvas or the
marble before he takes up the crayon
or the chisel. The architect plans out
the entire structure before he orders
the workmen to begin. and though
there may for a long while seem to be
nothing but laundering and rudeness.
he has in his mind every Corinthian
wreath and Gothic arch and Byzantine
capital. The poet arranges the entire
plot before he begins to chime the first
canto of tingling rhythms. And yet.
tempt to build their character without
knowing whether in the end 1t shall
be rude Tartars tent or st. Marks
of Venice-men who begin to write the
intricate poem of their lives without
knowing whether it shall be Homer's
Odyssey" or a rhymester's botch.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine men
out of a thousand are living without
any great life-plot. Booted and
spurred and plumed, and urging their
swift courser in the hottest haste,
ask: Hello, man, whittier away?" His
response is, Nowhere" Rush into the
busy shop or store of many one, and
taking the plane out of the mans hand
or laying down the yardstick, say,
What, man, is all this about, so much
stir and sweat?" The reply will STUN
BILE and break down between teeth and
lips. Every ones duty ought only to
be the filling mp Of the main plan OF
existence. Let men be consistent. II
they prefer misdeeds to correct courses
of action, then let them draw out the
design OF knavery and cruelty and
plumber. Let every days falsehood
and wrongdoing be added as coloring
to the picture. Let bloody deeds red
stripe the picture, and the clouds Of a
wrathful God hang down heavily over
the canvas, ready to break out in clam
orous tempest. Let the waters be
chafed and froth-tangled. and green
with Unreasonable depths. Then take
a torch of burning pitch and scorch in
to the frame the right name of 1.-THE
souls suicide. If one entering upon
sinful directions would only In his
mind or on paper, draw out in awful
reality this dreadful picture, he would
recoil from it and say: "Am Dante.
that by my own life should write an
other Inferno'?" But il you are re-
solved to live life such as God and
good men will approve, do not let it
be a vague dream, an indefinite deter
mination, but, in your mind, or upon
paper, sketch 1t in all its minutiae.
You cannot know the changes to which
you may be subject, but you may know
what ALWAYS will he right and ALWAYS