St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-04-07

God!" Death says: You declared
there was no God" Then the dying
skeptic says: pray for me-" and
Death says: ut is too late to pray;
you have only three seconds more to
live. and l will count them off-one.
two, three. Gone!" Where? Where?
Garry him out and lay hin 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
seduce you away. There is nothing
that would please them SO we'll as to
have you give up your employment and
consort with them.
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 res
taurant, giving the idea they have
dincd there. They have not timed
there. They never will dine there.
Before youinvite young man into your
association ask him plainly: "What
do you do for living?" If he says:
Nothing; I 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.
Idleness is the next door to villainy.
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 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, II work to keep out of mis-
chief" And no man can afford to be
idle. 1 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." 1 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 fortunes
to be made 20 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. 1t
is absurd for q Christian man to say
he has nothing to do.
I 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. Pow
erty to be comforted, sickness to be
alleviated, q 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.
People go to Florence and to Venice
and to Rome to see one of the works
of the great masters. I think I can
show you the picture of one of the
great masters. II went by the field
of the slothful and by the vineyard
of the man void of understanding,
and, 10, it 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 q 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. It first be-
gins to hiss like the fuse of cannon
and then bursts like . 54-pounder.
The old proverb was true: "The
devil tempts most men. but idlers
tempt the devil!" Therefore seek
something to do. II no worldly busi-
ness offers, then, in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ, go out on Christian
tof1, 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. I could not live
without them. Any man of sanguine
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 not 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 a 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 nountain as
it says: Il come down to water the
fields" The flowers standing under
the fence look gay and beautiful, but
they say: 1--WE stand here to refresh
the h0sbandmen at the nooning." The
brook frolics and sparkles and foams,
but it says: II 60 to baptize the moss;
I go to slake the thirst of the bird; /
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 yacht or engage in any kind of
merriment. These things are all beau
tiful and grand in their places, but
when they become the chief work of
life they become = mans destruction.
G>orge Rrummel was admired of all
England. He danced with peeresses
and went round Of mirth and folly,
until after awhile, exhausted of purse,
ruined of reputation blasted of .:ous.