The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-02-15
FOR THE SLEEPLESS.
Dr.. Talnage Speaks on the Subject
of Insomnia.
Sleep the Vacation of the Soul - A
Divine NarcOtic-WOrds of Con-
ISOLATION for SuHerers-The
Last Sleep.
Copyright, 1900, by Louis klopsch. ]
-.

[Copyrigh., 1900, by Louis klopsch.1
Washington,
In this discourse DR.. Talmage treats
of style of disorder not much dis
coursed upon and unfolds what must be
a consolation to many people. Text,
Psalms 77:4: 'Thou holdest mine eyes
waking"
Sleep is the vacation of the soul. It
is the mind gone into the playground
of dreams; it is the relaxation of mus
cles and the solace of the nerves; it is
the hush of activities; it is the soft cur
tanning of the eyes; it is trance of
eight hours; it is a calming of the
though far deeper; it is temporary OBJ
livion of all carking cares; it is the doc
tor recognized by all schools of medi-
cine; it is divine narcotic; it is COM
plete anaesthetic; it is an angel of the
night; it is great mercy of God for
the human race. Lack of it puts pa
tients on the rack of torture or in the
madhouse or in the grave. Oh, blessed
sleep! No wonder the Bible makes
much of it. Through sleep so sound
that surgical incision of the side of
Adam did not waken him came the best
temporal blessing ever offered to man
--wifely companionship. While in sleep
on a pillow of rock Jacob saw ladder
set up, with angels coming down and
| climbing. So "He giveth His beloved
Sleep" soliloquized the psalmist. Sol
omon listens at the door of tired
workman and eulogizes his pillow by
saying: ''The sleep of laboring man
is sweet" Peter was calmly sleeping
between the two constables the night
before his expected assassination.
Christ was asleep in boat on Galilee
when tossed in the euroclydon. The an
nunciation was made to Joseph in
sleep, and death is described as only a
sleep and the resurrection as glorious
Weakening out of sleep.
On the other hand, insomnia, or sleep
tessness, is an old disorder spoken of
again and again in the Bible. Ahasuerus
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 a 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 mol
night seeth he sleep with his eyes,
Asaph was it's victim, for he complains
in my text that his eyes are wide oper
at midnight, some mysterious power
keeping the upper and lower lids from
Joining: sThou holdest mine eyes
waking"
Insomnia, which has troubled all ma
tions and all ages, and its widest swing
in our land, because of the push anG
speed of all styles of activities, as in nj
other land. Where there is one man o.
woman with equipoise of nerves there
are dozen with overweight and tan
gled ganglion. At some time in lift
almost everyone has had touch of it
It has been called "Americanitis." Las
night there were, as there will be to
night, millions of people to whom tn
words of the text are appropriate utter
ance: 'Thou holdest mine eyes wax
ing"
OF course there is an unrighteou
sleep, as when Jonah, trying to escap
, from duty, slept in the sides of the shil
while the Mediterranean was in wratl
because of that prophetic passenger
as when Columbus in his first voyage
exhausted from being up many nights
gave the ship in charge of the steers
!, man and the crew, who, leaving tn
management of the vessel to boys, wen
asleep and allowed the ship to strik
on the sand banks of st. Thomas; a
!, when the sentinel goes to sleep at hi
post, endangering the whole army; a
when the sluggard, who accomplishe
!. nothing the day before he went to slee
and will accomplish nothing the da
after he wakes, fills up Solomon's pis
ture of him as he yawns out: "a littl
sleep and little slumber and a littl
: folding of the hands to Sleep" Bu
,, sleep at the right time and amid th
right circumstances-can you imagin
: anything more blessed?
! If you have escaped the insomni
| SQOACu VI tAC tCAls tAoAA oOus AACA
; and there one can command sleep, an
it comes the minute he orders it an
departs at the minute he wishes it
: go, as Napoleon when he wrote: "Di
ferent affairs are arranged in my hea
as in drawers. When wish to inte
rupt one train of thought, close IL
drawer which contains that subject an
open that which contains anothe
They do not mix together or inconven
ence me. have never been kept avail
by an involuntary preoccupation I
mind. When wish for repose, sh,
up all the drawers, and / am asleep.
have always slept when I wanted re
and almost at will" But I think
most cases we feel that sleep is not Il
/, result of resolution, but direct 81
!. from God. You cannot purchase it.
great Frene b financier cried out: "Ala
Why is there no sleep to be sold 2"
Do not take this divine gift as ma
ter of course. Your sever or eig1
h:urs Of Ltalthful Inconsistencies