Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-03-05

no. says the SkeptIc- do not breathe
that cold air into my face. You crowd
me too hard. 1t is getting dark in the
room. Here-take my rings and take
all the pictures in the room, but let me
off, NO" says Death. your soul!
Your soul,' Then the dying skeptic
begins to say, so Godr' 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 I will count them off-One,
two, three Gomez Where? Where?
Garry him out and lay him down be-
side his old father and mother, who
died under the decisions Of the Chris
tan religion singing the songs Of vic
tory.
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 well 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 restau-
rant They have not dined there. They
never dined there. They never will
dine there. Before you invite a young
man into your association ask him
plainly, 'What do you do for living?"
If he says. Nothing; l am a gentle
man." look out for him. l care not how
soft his hand or how elegant his ap
parel 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 Cen
trail 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 your responsibility, then you
will lose your soul.
door 10
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 re-
piled, Il work to keep out of mischiefp'
And no man can afford to be idle. I
care not how strong his moral charac-
ter, he cannot afford to be idle.
But you say: "a great many people
are suffering from enforced idleness.
During the hard times there were
great many people out of employ
ment.' 1 know it, but the times OF
dullness in business are the times
when men ought to be thoroughly en-
gagged in improving their minds and
charging 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 cultivat-
ed their minds and improved their
hearts. They will get the fortunes aft
Ell awhile, while those men who hang
around their stores, never engaging in
any useful occupation, will be as poor
then as they are now. 1t is absurd for
a Christian man to say he has nothing
to do.
l went into a store in New York
where there were five Christian men,
and they said they had nothing to do.
10 I1-i,o ~, cir
to be comforted. sickness to be alleviat-
ed, a Bible in the back office, every
opportunity Of mental culture, spir-
itual culture; every inducement to
work, yet Il Christian man, sworn be-
fore 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. l think | can
show you the picture of one of the
great masters. 81 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 thereof was broken
down. Then I saw and considered it
well. l looked upon it and received
instruction. Yet a little sleep, a little
slumber. Il 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 eX-
plosive passage in all the Bible than
that. 1t first begins to hiss like the
fuse of cannon and then bursts like q
"a FOUNDER. The old proverb was true,
''The devil tempts most men, but idlers
temnt the deYiIr' Therefore seek