The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-05

Chicago. September 21.-sympathy and sound advice are given to worried. har- rassed men and women in this sermon by Rev. Frank De Witt Talmage. on the text Ecclesiastes xii. 5. 'The grasshopper shall be a burden"
 A unique text. capable of many dif- ferent interpretations. Some suppose the solomonic burden of the grasshopper. or. more strictly speaking. of the eastern locust, refers to the nagging palms of the chronic dyspeptic. The iocusts, properly cooked. were edible. They constituted one of the most delicate of foods. They were often served to invalids and to those whose weak stomachs were unable to as- simulate any other kind of diet Thus some commentators assert that the figure of the text is that of an old man con torted with pain because his digestive organs have given out. The dinner of To- custs which he has eaten instead of being transformed into blood and bone and nerve and muscle is lying like lump of lead within him. Others assert that tho text is the figure of an aged man whose emaciated body. with It's shiveled lim-J and curved backbone, has taken upon itself the form of a lean grass hopper. Thus Tithonus in his old age was supposed to have been changed into this chirping insect because the Greek gods who had promised him immortality upon earth had refused to endow him with eternal youth.
 But though many interpretations are offered to explain the meaning of my text, there is one simple interpretation which, l believe will appeal to the com mon sense of all. Solomon used the fig ure of the chirping grasshopper to Illus trate the fact that if we do not have the grace of God in our hearts there will come time when the little annoyances of life will tease and tantalize and trouble us, even as the buzzing of an Insect can destroy the slumbers of a sleeping Invalid or as the slamming of Q door makes nervously prostrated pa tient start up in fright and bedews his cold forehead with clammy sweat The wisest of all men seems to say to you and me, ftThe religion of the Lord Jesus Christ is just as essential for the little troubles as for the big, for the insectie trials as for the mountainous affictions. !" The purpose of this sermon is to discuss some. of the little annoyances of life and to state how, by the grace of Uod, we may combat them. I want to present this theme to those whose physical and mem tai frames have been prematurely weak ene6 by the strenuous hardworking lives they have been compelled to lead, as well as to those whose once strong bodies are bordering upon nervous collapse on account of the natural approach of old age.
 Petty Annoyances.
 me kitchen and bedroom and nursery I'll nf many of the .so-called petty annoyances which can render morbid and unhappy the minds and the hearts of the inmates, especially of the wives and mothers. It is the annoyance of trying to build a fire early in the morning. when the damper will not work that exemplifes how the grasshopper may become a bur den. It is the trouble of getting the children off to school at the right time, when the tired mother finds that her boy has worn a hole in one of his stock lngs and there is not another clean pair to put on. It is the annoyance of hunting up a pair of scissors which your little girl lost when she took them to make dolls dresses. It is the annoyance of having the butcher and groceryman fail to bring home the vegetables and the meat in time to be cooked for dinner And then there is the annoyance to the wife of having the husband complain be- cause his meals are not served oii time. It is the nagging annoyance that comes every little while to all good housekeep- CTS of having a lot of people drop in for dinner at the last moment when you are not expecting them and when you have nothing suitable in the larder to cook for them It is the same kind of annoyance that Martha, in the little village of Beth- any, experienced when her brother Lag arus brought Christ and some of the disciples to the home. Or it is the an noyanee of having company call when the children have been playing hide and seek in the parlor and have turned the furniture upside down as though a cy- clone had struck it. or the annoyance