The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-19

nine hours requisite in midIife six aours
will do for the aged, and he shall rise
up at the voice Of the bird" Let all
aged men and women remember that
they have been permitted TO do a great
deal OF sleeping in ti9elr time and that
II they do not sleep 50 well now as theyI
Cse6 to IL is because they do not re-.
quile so much sleep.
INSOMNIA A WARNING.
Remark the seventh: Insomnia is
probably a warning that you had bet
ter moderate your work. Most Of those
engaged in employments that pull on
nerve and brain are tempted TO omit
necessary rest, and sleeplessness calls
a halt. Even their ~pleasuring turns 10.
work. as Sir Joshua Reynolds. the
great painter, taking q walk with al
friend, met a sunbrowned peasant boy
and said, II must go home and deepen.
the coloring of my infant Hercules"
The sunbrowned boy suggested an i'm
provement in a great picture. By the
time most people have reached midlife
if they have behaved well, more doors
Of opportunity open before them than
they ought to enter. Power to decline
power to say NO" they should now
cultivate. When a man is determined
to be useful n satan canno dissuade
him from that course, the great deceiv-
er induces him to overwork in that
way get rid of him. We have Their
mometers to tell the e a n barome-l
tiers to tell the air, and ometers hung
in engine rooms to tell the pressure of
steam. and ometers to guage and meas
ure almost everything. Would that
some genius would invent an ometer
which. being hung around the neck
and dropped over heart and lung, |
would by the %pulsation and respiration
tell whether one is under too great
pressure or might carry more. ALI
brain workers would want such an
ometer and want it right away. For
the lack of it how many are dying and
how have died of overwork? Al
prominent financier who recently del
parted this life was an officer in over al
hundred financial and charitable insti-I
tutions. Thousands of editors, of law
yers, of physicians, of merchants, of
clergymen are now dying of overwork.
Do not be in the board of directors of
more than three banks and two trust
companies and five life and fire insur-
ance establishments. Do not as pas
tor preach more han three sermons al
Sunday and superintend your W Sab
bath school n conduct a Bible class
the same day. Do not edit a paper and
write for three magazines and go to-
four public dinners where you will be-
called on to make a speech more than
1OuI lit d Weeh- DO uOl 20 So OSept
into the real estate business hat be-
fore spring all the real estate you will
really possess will be a piece of ground
about six feet long and three feet wide.
Your insomnia is the voice of nature,
the voice of God, saying, Better slow
up" Stop that long, swift train, the
wheels of which are taking fire from
the velocity and smoking with the hot
box. Do not burn the candle at both
ends. Dc not under too many burdensI
sweat like a camel trudging from Alep-
pc to Damascus. Do not commit sui
eide.
Remark the eighth: All the victims
of insomnia ought to be conSoled with
the fact that they will nave a good long
sleep after awhile. Sacred and profane
literature again and again speak of
that last sleep. God knew that the
human race would be disposed to make
a great ado about exit from this world,
n so he inspires Job and David and
Daniel and John and a to call that
condition "sleep." When at Bethany
the brother who was the. support of
his sisters after their father and moth
err were gone had himself expired,
Christ cried out in regard to him, He
is not dead, but sleepeth." Cheering
thought to all poor sleepers, for that
will be a pleasant sleep, induced by no
narcotic disturbed by no frghtful
dream, interrupted by no harsh sound.
Better than any sleep you ever took, 0
child of God, will be the last sleep. In
your other slumbers your home may
be wade by burglars and your treas
ures carried off, but while here and
there, in one case out of millions, the
resurrectionist may disturb the pillow
of dust, the last sleep is almost sure
to be kept from invasion. There will
be no burglary of the tomb. And it
will be a refreshing sleep. You have
sometimes risen in the morning more
weary than when you laid down at
night, but waking from the sleep of
which I speak, the last fatigue, the last
ache, the asst worriment, will be for
ever gone. Oh, what a refreshing
sleep!
THE LAST SLEEP.
Most people are tired. The nights
do not repair the day. Scientists, by
minute calculation, say that every
night comes a little short of restoring
the body to where it was the day be-
fore, and so every seventh day was put
in for entire rest, to make up in repara-
ton for what the nights could not do.
But SO restful will be the last sleep that
you will rise from it without one sore
nerve, without one tired limb-rested,
forever rested, as only God can rest
you. o We tired folks all up and down
the world. tired with work, or tired
with prosecutions, or tired with all
ments, or tired in the struggle against
temptation, clap your hands with eter-
nal glee in expectation of that sleep
from which you will wake up so rest
ed that you will never need another
sleep or even another night. There
shall be no night there" because there
will be no need Of it's quoting infiu-
ences. No l~enthening of the shadows
of tower and wall and gate. No even
ing mist rising from the river. No
shutdown. Thy sun shall no more go
down, neither shall thy moon withdraw
itself, for the Lord shall be thine ever
lasting light, and the days of thy
mourning shall be ended"
So, my nearer, my reader. Good
night" May God give you such sleep
tonight as is best for you, and if you
wake too soon nay he fill your soul
with "reminiscences and expectations
that will be better than slumber. Good
night Having in prayer, kneeling at
the bedside, committed yourself and all
yours to the keeping Of the slumber-