Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1900-03-08

the songs of victory.
Again. avoid the idlers-thnt is, those
people who gather around the store or
the shop or the factory and try TO scduce
you away from your regular calling and
in your business hours try to seduce you
away. There is nothing that would
please them so well as to have you give
up your employment and consort with
them.
what Does lie Dot
These idlers you will find standing
around the engine houses or standing at
MONDAY or about noon on the steps of
some hotel or fashionable restaurant,
giving the idea they have dined there.
They have not dincd there. TL,y
never dincd there. They never will
dine there Before you invite young
man into yeur association ask him plain
ly, "What do you do for living?" If he
says, Nothing; am gentleman" look
out for him. | care not how soft his
hand or how elegant his apparel or how
high sounding his family name. his touch
is death.
These people who have nothing to do
will come around you in your busy hours.
and they will ask you to ride with them
to Chevy Chase or to Central park. and
they will tell you of some excursion that
you must make, of some wine that you
must drink. Of some beautiful dancer that
you must see. They will try to take you
away from your regular work. Associate
with these men. and, first of all, you will
become ashamed OF your apparel: then
You will lose your place, then you will lose
lose your responsibility, then you will
lose your soul.
Illencss is the next door to villaiuy.
When the police go to find criminals.
where do they go to find them! They
find them among the idle--those who
have nothing to do, or, having something
TO do, refuse TO engage in their daily
work. Some one came to good old Ash
bel Green and asked him why he worked
at 50 years of age when it was time for
him to rest. oh" he replied, II work
TO keep out OF mischief" And no man
can afford to be idle. l care not how
strong his moral character, he cannot af-
ford to be idle
But you say: "a great many people are
suffering from enforced idleness. During
the hard times there We're Il great many
people out of employment" | know it,
but the times of dulncss in business are
the times when men ought to be thor
oughly engaged in improving their minds
and enlarging their hearts. The for
tunes to be made 20 years from now will
be made by the young men who in the
times when business was dull cultivated
their minds and improved their hearts.
They will get the fortunes after awhile,
while those men who hang around their
stores, never engaging in any useful oc-
cupation, will be as poor then as they are
now. 1t is absurd for q Christian man to
say he has nothing to do.
! went into a store in New York where
there were five Christian men, and they
said they had nothing to do. The whole
world lying in sin. Poverty to be COM
forted, sickness to be alleviated, a Bible
in the back office, every opportunity OF
mental culture, spiritual culture every
inducement to work, yet Christian man.
sworn before high heaven to consecrate
his whole life to usefulness. has nothing
TO do! If you have not any business for
this world, my Christian friend, then you
ought to be doing business for eternity.
Picture of q Great Master.
People go to Florence and to Venice
and to Rome to see one Of the works OF
the great masters. I think l can show
you the picture Of one of the great mas
tiers. 81 went by the field Of the slothful
and by the vineyard of the man void OF
understanding, and, 10, ii was all grown
over with thorns, and nettles had covered
the face thereof, and the stone wall
thereof was broken down. Then I saw
and considered it well. looked upon i,
and received instruction. Yet little
sleep, little slumber, n little folding OF
the hands to sleep. SO shall thy poverty
come as one that traveleth and thy wan,
as an armed man" There is no NOR,
explosive passage in all the Bible thar
that. II first begins to hiss like the fus,
of a cannon and then bursts like a 5
FOUNDER. The old proverb was true
1.-THE devil tempts most men, but idler
tempt the devil.' Therefore seek some
thing to do. If no worldly business Of
fers, then, in the name Of the Lord Jesu
Christ, go out on Christian toll, and tn,
Lord will bless you, and the Lord vii
help you.
Again l counsel you, avoid the pleas
ure seeker, the man whose entire bust
ness it is to seek for recreation an,
amusement. ! believe in the amusement.
of the world so far as they are innocent
| could not live without them. Any MAJ
of sanguine temperament must hav,
recreation or die. And yet the amuse
ments and rccreations of life raust ad
minister to ha , work. They are onl,
preparatve for the occupation to which
God has called us.
God would not have given us the ca
pacity to laugh if he did not sometime
intend us to indulge it. God hath hun
! in sky and set in wave and printed q,
grass many. a roundclay. But all the mu
sic and the brightness of the natura
world were merely intended to fit us 10
the earnest work of life. The thunder
cloud has edges eXquisitely purpled, bu
ii jars the mountain as it says. 81 com
down to water the fields" The flower
standing under the fence look gay an
beautiful. but they say, 1--WE stand her
to refresh the husbandmen at the noon
ing" The brook frolics and sparkles an
foams, but ii says: II go to baptize tn
moss; | go to slake the thirst of tn
bird; turn the wheel of the mill; in III
crystal cradle | rock muckshaw and wa
ter lily; play, but work"
Look out for the man who plays an
never works. Look out for that ma
whose entire business is to play ball O
sail a yacht or engage in any kind o
merriment. These things are all beaut
full and grand in their places, but whe
they become the chief work of life the
become a mans destruction. Georg
Brummel was admired of all England
He danced with peeresses and went
round of mirth and folly, until afte
awhile, exhausted OF purse, ruined of rel
utaton, blasted of soul, he begged n crus