Year: 1870

help to make a fat churchyard, but


no better song can l sing in your ia


yor than this verse, as the parish


clerk said, "all of my own compos


ing"


good for nothing lazy lout,


Wicked within and ragged without,
Who can bear to have him about:
Turn him out! Turn him out.


"As vinegar to the teeth, and as


smoke to the eyes," so is the slug


gard to every man who is spending


his sweat to earn an honest living,


while these fellows let the grass


grow up to their ankles, and stand


cumbering the ground, as the Bible


says.


A man who wastes his time and
his strength in sloth offers himself
to be target for the devil, who is a
wonderfully good rifleman, and will
riddle the idler with his shots; in
other words, idle men tempt the
devil to tempt them. He who plays
when he should work, has an evil
spirit to be his playmate: and he
who neither works nor plays is a
workshop for Satan. If the devil
catch a man idle, he will set him to
work, find him tools, and before long
pay wages. Is not this where the
drunkenness comes from which fills
our towns and villages with misery?
Idleness is the key of beggary, and
the root of all evil. Fellows have
two stomachs for eating and drink
ing when they have no stomach for
work. That little hole just under
the nose swallows up in idle hours
that money which should put clothes
on the children's backs, and bread
on the cottage table. We have
Gods word for it, that 'sthe drunk
ard and the glutton shall come to
poverty; and to show the connec
tion between them, it is said in the
same verse, sand drowsiness shall
clothe man with rags" know
it as well as know that moss grows
ON old thatch, that drunken, loose
habits, grow out of lazy hours. !
like leisure when I can get it., but
that's quite another thing; that's
cheese and the other is chalk; idle
folks never know what leisure
means; they are always in hurry
and mess, and by neglecting to
work in the proper time, they al
ways have a lot to do. Lolling
about hour after hour, with nothing
to do, is just making holes in the
hedge to let the pigs through, and
they will come through, and no mis-
take, and the roofing they will do
nobody knows but those who have
to look after the garden. The Lord
Jesus tells us himself that when
men slept the enemy sowed the tares;
and that hits the nail on the head,
for it is by the door of sluggishness
that evil enters the heart more of
ten, it seems to me, than by any
other. Our old minister used to
say, ga sluggard is fine raw materi-
al for the devil; he can make any
thing he likes out of him from a
thief right up to a murderer. I'm
not the only one that condemns the
idle, for once when 1 was going to
give our minister pretty long list
of the sins of one of our people
that he was asking after, l began
with ''he's dreadfully lazy" That's
enough said the old gentleman,
call sorts of sins are in that one,
that's the sign by which to know
full-fiedged sinner"


My advice to my boys has been,
get out of the sluggard's way, or
you may catch his disease, and nev-
er get rid Of it. I am always afraid
of their learning the ways of the idle,
and am very watchful to nip any,
thing of the sort in the bud; for
you know it is best to kill the lion
while it is cub. Sure enough our
children have all our evil nature
about them, for you can see it grow
ing of itself like weeds in a garden.
Who can bring clean thing out of
the unclean? A wild goose never |
lays a tame egg. Our boys will be |
off to the green with the never-do-
wells unless we make it greener still
at home for them, and train them up
to hate the company of the sloth-
full. Never let them go to the "Rose
and Crown" let them learn to earn
a crown while they are young, and
grow the roses in their fathers gar
den at home. Bring them up bees
and they will not be drones.


There is much talk about bad
masters and mistresses nowadays,
and dare say that there is a good
deal in it, for there's bad of all sorts
now as there always was; another
time, if I am allowed, I will have a
say about that matter; but l am
sure there is plenty of room for
complaint against some among the
working people too, especially upon