Year: 1876

A NOBLE OCCUPATION.


Extracts from Recent Sermon by Prof Davit


Swing, of Chicago,


He fndeth IT empty.-Haf. rii. H.


IN TIE parable from which these word
are taken, Christ speaks of an exercised
spirit as having wandered all over tn,
country without finding suitable dwell
ing place. So the itinerant tiend concluded
to revisit the human being out Of whom i
had been expelled. 1t must have beer
surprised to find the old heart empty ant
idle, ready not only for the return of ;
Satan, but for the entertainment of sever
like the former evil one. The number
seven is rhetorical expression, super
lative degree, indicating the utter idlenest
of the man who had parted with the evi
spirit in the former time.


Out of this parable let us dcducc the
lesson that occupation is law of success
But let us mark, first, that the fact tina
former bad spirits have been expelled
from the world, and from all the individ
uals OF the world, does not imply tina
other bad spirits may not have come along
to settle down in the swept and garnisheC
hearts.


Mind is great vital force. It is no
like diamond which one may polish
and then wrap up and lay away. Some
of the crown Jewels have been stored away
for centuries, and to day they are as
bright as they were when Elizabeth was
Queen of England, or Louis XIV. King
Of France. Mind is nothing Of this quail
ity. 1t is an action 1t certainly is known
to us only by its movements. 1t reflect;
and reasons, and speaks, and sings, anc
loves, and prays, and hates. 1t is like
light-not a quantity that can be bottled
up and kept, but only an undulatiOn
When the undulation ceases We have
darkness. Or the soul is like musical
tone; you cannot store away a musical
tone. 1t exists only in a movement Of the
air, and when the air finds repOsc the
musical note has gone forever. Thus the
mind is an action, and having beer
helped away from the bad spirits that ab
sorbed its powers yesterday it cannot be
idle like Queens diamond. The beau
tiful wild creatures, from lark to lion
brought from the fields of nature to The
cage of man, will move all day or al
night to make in the narrow cage the dis
lance they once made in the great domain
Of liberty. The Bengal tiger will veal
out the floor of his prison in making as
many footsteps IS he was created by the
Almighty to make in the jungles of India
Thus all life is force, and hence it can
not pause. Death is the only cessation
Forbidden to walk in the lndian jungle
the foot must make its daily PAGES in the
confines of cage. Man is only the high
est order of all creatures. In him, there
fore, mind reveals itself as the highest form
of action, both az to fact of actor
and as to the object of activity. Like tht
flash of lightning, the soul must strike
somewhere, either among the clouds
causing the summer rain, or upon the
cottage, bringing death in an instant Tc
be without noble occupation is, therefore
not to be simply idle, or TO be non-pro
ducer, but it is to be the victim Of gnaw
ing, corroding force, that, having no fooC
to digest, will attack the stomach and di
gest the very source of life. Hence came
the aphorism, that ian idle brain is the
DEVILS workshop" A force is acting
that Graves something to do, just as thC
arunkard Graves its cup and as no yalua
BILE work is on hand TO meet the gnawiDg
of the minds perpetual action, the devi
can rush into that brain and make it {
shop of all acts and crafts to his malicious
fancy. Plato, in speaking OF souls es
sential life, says, in his poetic manner
"The bees permit no lroncs to dwell
among them, but kill any hees that be
rim to grow idle" In his Anatomy o
Melancholy" Burton says: " ldleness il
the bane OF the body and mind, the step
mother in discipline, the chief author o
mischief, one of the seven deadly sins
the cushion upon which the devil re
poses" Thus the absence of an ocCupa
ton does not leave us in peace, but in tht
very depth of temptation, for it leaves u
with great unbrdled power moving Il
and fro every day in the bosom-a power
that must be fed. Let us assume, then, tina
the soul is vital force, self-acting, ire
pressible, and hence, in the.abscncc o
great pursuit, will not be dormant, bu
will turn upon its owner and consume
him.


Let us turn now from this view of thu
evil OF iGleness to the direct value of no
Bile occupation. The first reflection tha
occurs is, that the mind itself needs it.
is pursuit that most educates. The mo
ment an individual has given his heart Il
some calling, then his mind daily wakcn
up, and from each hour gathers new de
velopment. The lawyer who properl,
loves his profession, and who cherishc
the true conception of that profession
does not enter it as lawycr-be enter
it as a novice, wearing indeed the garb 0
the craft, but able for a year or two onll
to swing the censor by the altar of Black
stone and Justinian. Many young law
yer has sat down, or moved that the Cour
take recess, because his voice had be
gun TO cleave to the roof of his mouth
But the great profession, and the grea
Beating heart devoted to the profession
have taken up the blurting youth, ane
have carried him right along for ten o
twenty years, and then giving the toilin,
one the composure, the peace, the power
the happiness of an esteemed barrister th,
school-house cannot educate. Its tern
is too short, and lies in a part of life no
sufficiently full of reflection. The schoo
house does avast work, but leaves th'
mind as Bromsnte left the Cathedral o
st. Peter-a thousand arches bendin.
everywhere, but making no perfect tenn
pie for God or man. Angelo came alony
and gathered up these arches, and mad
that sanctuary in which the music o
worship has resounded for centuries
Thus the great profession, be 1t law, o
medicine, or science, or art, or religion
or philanthrophy, comes to the founda