Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1900-01-11

sleep The Vacation OF the soui--A
Divine Narcotic--sInir bY public
Life - Words of Consolation For
SuTcrcrs--The Inst sleep.
Copyright Louis 1llopsch. 1901
WASHINGTON, Jan. :. -- In this dis
course DIR. Talmagc treats of style of
disorder rot much discourscd upon and
urfolds what must be consolation to
many people; text, Psalms lxXvii, t.
"Pbou holdcst 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 muscles
and The soacc of the nerves; il is the
hush OF activities it is the soft curtain
ing Of the eyes; it is Il trance of eight
hours; it is a calming of the pulses it is
breathing much slower, though far
deeper; it is temporary oblivion Of all
carkng cares it is tho doctor recognized
by all schools of medicine; it is divine
narcotic; it is n complete anpsthctic; it is
an angel Of the night; it is great mercy
of God for the human race. Lack of It
ruts patients on the rack of torture or in
'hc madhouse or in the grave Oh, blessed
sleep, No wonder the Bible makes much
of it. Through sleep SO sound that a
surgical incision of the side of Adam did
not waken him came the best temporal
blessing ever afforded to man-wifely
compauionShip. While in sleep on n pill
low of rock Jacob saw a ladder set up,
with angels coming down and climbing.
So "he giveth his beloved Sleep sollo-
uuized the psalmist. Solomon listens ut
the door of tired workman and culo-
gi2rs his pillow by saying, The sleep Of
lahorinG man is sweet" Peter was
calmly sccnine between the two consta-
hles the night before his expected assaS-
pnatjou. Christ WAS asleep in boat on
Gahlcc when tossed in the euroclydon.
The 1nnunciation was made TO Joseph in
sleep. and j.ath is described rs only n
sleep and the resurrection as a glorious
Weakening out of sleep.
lie Could Not Commend sleep.
On the other hand. insomnia, or sleep
lossness. is an old disorder spoken Of
urain and again in the Bible. AEasuerus
suffered from it. and we read, "ln that
night could not the king sleep" Joseph
Hall said of that ruler. lie that could
command hundred and seven and TWEEN
~ provinces could not command sleep"
%cbuchadnezzar had insomnia and the
record is, His sleep brake from him"
Solomon describes this trouble and says,
| 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
tions and all ages. has 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 eQupoise of nerves there are do2-
On with overwrought and tangled gan
glon At some time in life almost every
one has had a touch of it. 1t has been
called "Amrricanitis." Last night there
were. as there will be tonight, millions Of
people to whom the words Of the text are
appropriate utterance, Thou holdest
mine eyes waking
Wonderful is that law which Ralph
Waldo Emerson called the law of com
pcnsaton," and it has been so arranged
that. while the Woodworking populations
of the earth are denied many of the luXu
RES. they have at least one luxury which
many Of the afluent OF the earth are de-
uicd and for which some Of them would
give Is.iiious of dollars in cash down
lamei1, capacity to sleep, The most Of
Lave to send out invit atoms to sleep
They require no bromide or valerian o1
sulphonal or triavol to put them TO night
~ Inconsistencies. IL five minutes afteI
their heads touch their pillows they are
MS far off from the wall they were build
ing, or the ditch they were digging, or the
anvil they were pounding, or the wheels
they were CONTROLLING as heaven is from
earth About > o'clock in the morning
he body at Lowest temperature and it.
furnaces nearly out, what n complct" qui
ctude for the entire physical and menta
structure! All night long, for such, sleel
is busy with its enchanted amounting o
every corpuscle of the arteries and ever,
Inolccule Of the entire physical organism
and the morning finds tho subjects O
such sleep rebuilt, reconstructed anc
touched Of God into new life.
The UnriRhtcous Sleep.
or course there is an unrighteous slcer
as WHOM Jonah, trying to escape iron
duty, slept in the sides of the ship Will
The Mediterranean was in wrath b-caus
Of that prophetic passenger; as when CO
iumbus in his first voyage, eXhauste
from being mp many nights, gave tn
,hip in charge Of the steersman and tn
rev. who leaving the management o
he vessel to boys, went asleep and a
owed the ship to strike on the san
hanks of St. Thomas; as when tn
sentinel goes to sleep at his post, endar
ccrng the whole army; as when the slug
Gard, who accomplishcs nothing the da
before he went to sleep and will accoE
plsh nothing the day after he wake'
ills up Solomon's picture of him as h
yawns out, "a little sleep and a littl
Elumber and n little folding Of the hand
so sleep" But sleep at the right time an
amid the right circumstances-can 70
imagine anything more blessed? If sleeI
according to sacred and profane liter;
ture, is an emblem of death, the morl
ing TO all refreshed slumbers is resu
roction.
Remark the first: If you have escape
the insomnia spoken Of in the text, than
God. Here and there one can commau
sleep, and il comes the minute he orde
it and departs at the minute he wishes
to 90, as Napoleon when he wrote: "Dl
ferent affairs are arranged in my hca
MS in drawers When wish to interrul
one train of thought, ! close the draw'
which contains that subject and opc
that which contains another. They
not mix together or Inconvenience IN
| have never been kept awake by an i
voluntary preoccupation OF mind. WhG
! wish FOR rcpose, | shut up all II
drawers, and | am asleep. | have alWa.