The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1900-03-22

to me right away. Your soul" "Oh,
mol" says the skeptic. do not
breathe that cold air into my face.
You crowd me too hard. It is getting
dark in the room. Here-take my
rings and take all the pictures in the
room. but let me on" mo" says
Death. "Your soul! Your soul" Then
the dying skeptic begins to say, 20
God!" Death says: "You declared
there was NO God" Then the dying
skeptic says: "Prsy for me-" and
Death says: ut is too late to pray;
you have only three seconds more to
live, and will count them off-one,
two, three. Gone!" Where? Where? ?
Carry him out and lay him down beside
his old father and mother, who died
under the delusions Of the Christian
religion singing the songs of victory.
Again, avoid the idlers-that is, those
people who gather around the store or
the shop or the factory and try to Sc
duce you away from your regular call
ing and in your business hours try TO
scduce you away. There is nothing
/ that would please them so well as to
have you give up your employment and
consort with them.
Idleness is the next door to villainy.
When the police go to find criminals,
where do they go TO find them? They
And them among the idle-those who
have nothing to do, or, having some
thing to do, refuse to engage in their
daily work. Some one came to good
old Ashbel Green and asked him why
he worked at so years of age when it
was time for him to rest. "Oh," he
replied, 81 work to keep out of mis-
chief" And no man can afford to be
idle. care not how strong his moral
character, he cannot afford to be idle.
But you say: "A great many peo-
pie are suffering from enforced idle
ness. During the hard times there
were great many people out of en-
ployment." | know it, but the times
OF dullness in business ere the times
when men ought to be thoroughly en-
gagged in improving their minds and
enlarging their hearts. The fort unes
TO be made 90 years from now will be
made by the young men who in the
times when business was dull culti-
waited their minds and improved their
hearts. They will get the fortunes
after awhile, while those men who
hang around their stores, never en-
gaging in any useful occupation, will
be as poor then as they are now. It
10 absurd for Christian man to say
he has nothing to do.
People go to Florence and to Venice
and to Rome to see one of the works
Of the great masters. | think | can
show you the picture Of one of the
great masters. IL went by the field
Of the slothful and by the vineyard
Of the man void of understanding
and, 10, il was all grown over with
thorns, and nettles had covered the
face thereof and the stone wall there
of was broken down. Then | saw and
considered it well. | looked upon It
and received instruction. Yet a little
sleep, little slumber, little folding
of the hands to sleep. So shall thy
poverty come as one that traveleth
and thy want as an armed man"
There is no more explosive passage in
all the Bible than that. II first be-
gins to hiss like the fuse of cannon
and then bursts like 54-pounder.
The old proverb was true: "rhe
devil tempts most men. but idlers
tempt the devil" Therefore seek
something to do. If no worldly busi-
ness offers, then, in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, go out on Christian
toll, and the Lord will bless you, and
the Lord will help you.
AgainI counsel you, avoid the pleas
ure seeker. the man whose entire
business it is to seek for recreation
and amusement. / believe in the
amusements of the world so far as
they are innocent. l could not live
without them. Any man of sanguino
temperament must have recreation or
die. And yet the amusements and re-
creations of life must administer to
hard work. They are only prepara-
tive for the occupation to which God
has called us.
God would no. have given us the ca
pacity to laugh if he did not some
times intend us to indulge it. God hath
hung in sky and set in wave and print
ed on grass many n roundelay. But all
the music and the brightness of the
natural world were merely intended
to fit us for the earnest work of life.
The thundercloud has edges exquisite
ly purpled, but it jars the mountain as
it says: 81 come down to water the
fields" The flowers standing under
the fence look gay and beautiful, but
they say: "We stand here to refresh
the husbandmen at the nooning." The
brook frolics and sparkles and foams,
but it says: II 60 to baptize the moss;
l 60 to slake the thirst of the bird; l
turn the wheel OF the mill; in my crys-
tai cradle rock muckshaw and water
lily; play, but work"
Look out for the man who plays and
never works. Look out for that man
whose entire business is to play ball or
sail a yacht or engage in any kind of
merriment. These things are all beau
sf..v