Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1900-01-12
CAPACITY TO SLEEP.
Or. TALmAGE sGToLS THE POOR
MANS BLESSING.
He Has word- ~ Comfort Also For
tho Victims e. Tnsomnta-The Law
OF Compensation - wakefuIncxs n
Means Of Grace.
IcOpyright. louis Klopsch. 1eoo.l

OF Compensation - wakefuInexs n
Means Of Grace.
tCopyrisht. Louis Klopsch. 1901
WASHINGTON. Jan. 4. In this dis
course DIR. Talmage treats of style OF
not much discoursed upon and
unfolds what must be consolation 10
many people; text. Psalms lxxvii, 4.
'"rhou holdest mine eyes waking"
Sleep is the vacation of the soul; it
is the mind gone into the playground of
dreams; IL is the relaxation of the mus
cles and the solace of the nerves; it is
the hush of activities; 1t is the soft
curtaining 81 the eyes; II Is a trance of
eight hours: 1t is a calming of the
pulses; IL is breathing much slower.
though far deeper; ii is a temporary
oblivion of all carking cares, II is the
doctor recognized by all schools of
medicine; IL is divine narcotic; il Is
n complete an@sthetic; II is an angel of
the night; IL is a great mercy OF God
for the human race. Lack of il puts
patients on the rack of torture, or In
the madhouse. or in the grave.
blessed sleepi No wonder the Bible
makes much of 1t. Through sleep so
sound that surgical incision of the
side of Adam did not waken him came
the best temporal blessing ever afford
ed 20 man-wifely companionship.
While In sleep on pillow of rock ia
cob saw a ladder set up. with angels
coming down and climbing. So ~he
giveth his beloved Sleep" soliloquized
the psalmist. Solomon listens at the
door OF a tired workman and eulogizes
his pillow by saying. The sleep of a
laboring man is sweet" Peter was
calmly sleeping between the two con-
stables the night before his expected
assassination. Christ was asleep in q
boat on Galilee when tossed in the
euroclydon. The annunciation was
made to Joseph in sleep, and death is
described as only sleep and the resur
rection as a glorious Weakening out of
sleep.
On the other hand, insomnia or sleep
lessness is an old disorder spoken of
again and again in the Bible. Ahasue-
rus suffered from it. and we read, I'm
that night could not the king sleep"
Joseph Hall said OF that ruler, HE
that could command n hundred and
seven and twenty provinces could not
command sleep" Nebuchadnezzar had
insomnia, and the record is, His sleep
brake from him." Solomon describes
this trouble and says, Neither day nor
night seeth he sleep with his eyes"
Asaph was Its victim, for he complains
In, hos
midnight. some mysterious power keep
ing the upper and lower lids from join
ing. Thou holdest mine eyes wax
ing"
Insomnia, which has troubled all ma
lions and all ages, has It's widest swing
In our land because Of the push and
speed OF all styles OF activities as iD
no other land. Where there is one man
or woman with equipoise of nerve
there are dozen with overweight
and tangled ganglIon. At some time
In life almost every one has had n
touch OF IL. 1t has been called Amer
icanitis." Last night there were, as
there will be tonight. millions of peo-
pie TO whom the words OF the text are
appropriate utterance. Thou holdest
mine eyes waking"
Law OF Compensation.
Wonderful Is that law which Ralph
Waldo Emerson called the law of
compensation" and IL has been so ar
ranged that while the hard working
populations OF the earth are denied
many OF the luxuries they have at
least one luxury which many OF the
nffiuent OF the earth are denied and for
which some OF them would give mil,
lions Of dollars In cash down-namely.
capacity TO sleep. The most OF those
who toll with hand and foot do not
have TO send out Invitations to sleep
They require no bromide or valerian or
sulphonal or triavol 10 put them TO
nightly Inconsistencies. In five min
utes after their head touches their pil-
low they are as far OF from the wall
they were building. or the ditch they
were digging. or the anvil they were
pounding, or the wheels they were
controlling as heaven is from earth.
About 3 o'clock In the morning, the
body at lowest temperature and its
furnaces nearly out what n complete
quietudc for the entire physical and
mental structure! All night long. for
such. sleep Is busy with Its enchanted
amounting OF every corpuscle Of the
arteries and every molecule OF the en-
tire physical organism. and the morn
Ing finds the subjects OF such sleep re-
built. reconstructed and touched OF
God into n new life.
or eOnroa thn-o q.
sleep, as when Jonah, trying to escape
from duty. slept In the sides or the
ship while the Mediterranean was i'm
wrath because OF that prophetic pas
senger: as when Columbus i'm his first
voyage. exhausted from being up MANY
nights. gave the ship In charge of the
steersman and the crew, who. leaving
the management OF the vessel TO bows.
went asleep and allowed the shin TO
strike on the sand banks OF st. Thorn
as as when the sentinel goes to sleep
mt his post. endangering the whole
army; as VII IN the sluggard, who ac-
composites nothing the day before he
went 10 sleep and will accomplish moth
Ing the day after he wakes, fills mn
Soiomon's picture OF him as he yawns
out, a little sleep and little slumber
and a little folding OF the hands to
sleep" But sleep at the right time
and amid the right circumstances. can
you imagine anything more blessed?
II sleep. according TO sacred and pro-
zane literature. is an emblem OF death.
the morning TO all refreshed slumber-
ers Is n resurrection.
Remark The first: If you have oscar
60 the Insomnia spoken of in the text.
thank God. Here and there one can
command sleep. and Il comes the min
ute he orders 1t and departs at the min
ute he wishes 1t to so, as Napoleon
when nc wrote: Different affairs are
arranged In my head as In drawers.
when 1 wish to interrupt one train of
thought, / close the drawer which con-
tains that subject and open that which
contains another. They do not M
together or inconvenience me. / haye
never been kept awake by an invol-
untary preoccupation of mind. When
L wish for repose | shut uD all the