Year: 1871

to Find a Bug.


Fellow sisters, brethren, women


and children, generally and particu-


larly speaking. You needn't hustle


any pages for the text, for 1t amt


there. 1t is a special dispensation to


your appointed pastor, and he hnrls


it at you for what it is worth. -


"Where the hen scratches there she


expects to find a bug" Did you
come from the race track of the


world to prance your "trotting har.


ness" before the meek and lowly p


Have you dropped the dazzling rat


ties of business and pleasure to vile


an idle honr away listening to the


mournful melody that Is rung by an


gel hands from the sacred harp that


hangs forgotten on the dropping will


low of mortality? Or are you tus.


selling with the arch enemy for the


almighty dollara Verify, I say unto


you. where the hen. scratches there


she expects to find bug.


My drowsy hearers, we are q lot OF


damaged goods, trying to palm our
selves off upon each other, for more


than market value; and the old firm
of Time, Death & Co., is doing a


heavy commission business upon eur
stock in trade. / hear the maIlet OF


Death with its mechanical tap, tap,
and sulid monotone of going" 90.


ing, and the next moment down ii


will come upon some of our uncon-


scious heads, and we shall be folded


up like the tents of the Arabs and "a
silently borne away to the other side
OF Jordan, where the dry-goods man


refrains from troubling, aud the gro
Ger has nothing to say, and the weary


hen ceases from scratching, and the
precious bug Is found. In the midst
of life we are in dett, says a noble
prophet, who was near kin to your
beloved pastor. If any of you are
tempted to tarrry in the tavern of
life, and fail to settle your account
with the landlord, may the text rise
up before you like fabulous Arabian
hero, only to rest from the rough and
tumble giant, and deter you from
that sink of utter deprsvity where
bummers lead restful hens TO scratch
up the worms they devour,


Your undivided attention is farther.
more solicited to the significance of
the text, metaphorically and collect
lively, in small packages to suit every
capacity, from the boy shucking pea
nuts PEACEFUL in the corner, to the
hardened sinner who talks so proud
ly in your PASTORS presence. And
Woe upon you young woman, sea.
sawang up.the broad isle with your
bonnet aud streamers flying, for
your vanity Of vanities. And you
young man In your family neck. k.tie,
go on until you slip up over bale of
cotton and are left to drift away over
the broad birthstone sea of natural
disgrace, a bye-word, and just that
you love not wisely but too WE'LL
No, beloved, I warn you now, If you
manifest symptoms of such coward
Ice as has been handed down to YOU
from high places, the biggest pair of
stoga boots in this congregation shall
rise up in judgment against you, and
kick you out into the broad road that
leads to everlasting ruin.


And finally, when you cut the crust
from your brown bread loaf, and
scrape the hard beans from the top of
your noon tide pot, If you cut a little
below the crisp for the beggar's and
outcast's portion, your conscience
and digestion will trouble less; and
as you steal out as some of you will
tonight, where the silver moon of
memory hangs over the haunted hills
Of the past, and blow at some hal>
lowed finger post that points the
way beloved one went over your
broken heart to heaven, may the
eternal verdure OF the evergreen
hope spring up In the barren spots,
'rod hard by the busy feet of the ABB
now, and bring you 10 the
sweetness of that place and the ten
ierness of that love that overfiows
continually In deed and words, for
she ragamuffins who march In the
rear ranks of the great army of hu-
nanity; for the barbarians are not
all In the ragged file, but many
gem of purest ray serene wants but
lifting from the filth to shine. SO
mote 1t be. Brother Slowfast, circus
Iste the platter for the root OF evil,
until 1t is all rooted out of this place.
For verify say unto you, the hen
that scratches here expects to find n
Dug. Shell out.