St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-02-10
FOR THE SLEEPlESs.
ID. Talmage Speaks on the Subject
Of Insomnia.

sleep the Vacation Of the so.l-
Divine NaFeetic-Words Of Con.
solation for S11erers-The
Last SleeD.
Copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.1
Washington
In this discourse DR.. Talmage treat
OF style of disorder not much dis
coursed upon and unfolds what must b,
consolation to many people. Text
Psalms 77:4: Thou holdest mine eye,
waking"
Sleep is the vacation of the soul. L
is the mind gone into the playground
OF dreams; it is the relaxation of mus
cles and the solace Of the nerves; it i.
the hush of activities; it is the soft cur
tanning Of the eyes; it is a trance o.
eight hours; it is calming of the
pulses; it is breathing much slower
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 fol
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 pillow Of rock Jacob saw ladder
set up. with angels coming down and
climbing. So HE giveth His beloved
Sleep" soliloquized the psalmist. Sol
cmon 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 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
lessness. is an old disorder spoken of
again and again in the Bible. Ahasuerus
suffered from it, and we read: IN that
night could not the king Sleep" Joseph
Hall said of that ruler: He that could
command hundred and seven and
twenty provinces could not command
Sleep" ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS had insomnia,
and the record is: His sleep brake
from him." Solomon describes this
trouble and says: "Neithcr day nor
night seeth he sleep with his eyes"
Asaph was its victim, for he complains
In my text that his eyes are wide open
at midnight. some mysterious power
keeping the upper and lower lids from
joining: Thou holdest mine eyes
waking"
Insomnia, which has troubled all ma
lions and all ages, and its widest swing
in our land, because of the push and
speed Of all styles Of activities, as in no
other land. Where there is one man or
woman with equipoise of nerves there
are dozen with overweight and tan
gled ganglion. At some time in life
almost everyone has had a touch of it.
1t has been called .Americanitis.. Last
night there were, as there will be to-
night. millions of people to whom the
words of the text are appropriate utter
ance: "Thou holdest mine ewes walk
Ing"
Wonderful is that law which Ralph
Waldo Emerson called the "law Of COM
and it has been so arranged
that. while the Woodworking popula-
ticns of the earth are denied many of
the luxuries, they have at least one lux
ury which many of the affiuent of the
earth are denied and for which some Of
them would give millions 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 invita-
lions to sleep. They require no bromide
or valerian or sulphonal or triavol to
put them to nightly Inconsistencies.
n Ave minutes after their heads touch |
heir pillows they are as far off from
he wall they were building, or the |
Itch they were digging. or the anvil |
hey were pounding, or the wheels they
we're CONTROLLING as heaven il from
.arth. About three o'clock in the morn |
ng, the body at lowest temperature
md its furnaces nearly out, what a COM |
,lete quietude for the entire physical |
md mental structure! All night long,
or such sleep is busy with its en-
hanted amounting of every corpuscle
Il the arteries and every molecule of |
he entire physical organism, and the
morning finds the subjects of such sleep
ebuilt, reconstructed and touched of |
iod into a new life.
OF course there is an unrighteous
leep, as when Jonah, trying to escape
rom duty. slept in the sides of the ship
lille the Mediterranean was in wrath
because of that prophetic passenger;
S when Columbus in his first voyage.
Exhausted from being up many nights,
ave the ship in charge of the steers
nan and the crew, who, leaving the
of the vessel TO boys, went
sleep and allowed the ship to strike
n the sand banks of St. Thomas; as
rhen the sentinel goes to sleep at his
ost, enGangering the whole army; as
hen the sluggard, who accomplishes
othing the day before he " mt to sleep
nd will accomplish nothing the Gay
fter he wakes, fills up Solomon's pic
ure Of him as he yawns out: "a little
eep and little slumber and little
,lding Of the hands to Sleep" But
leep at the right time and amid the
ight circumstances-cany you imagine
nything more blessed? If sleep, ac-
ording to sacred and profane litera-
nre, is an emblem of death, the morn
lg to all refreshed slumbers is a resur-
cotton.
II you have escaped the insomnia
poken of in the text, thank God. Here
nd there one can command sleep, and
comes the minute he orders it and
sparts at the minute he wishes it to
o, as Napoleon when he wrote: "Dif-