Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

19 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

AGBICCLTCBAL NOTES.

* FARM SPBING WORK.

TENANT FARMERS AND THEIR .…

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OUR LONDON LET

OUR OLD MOBILITY.

THE AMERICAN CATTLE TRADE.

-..--..-------THE AKEMAMT…

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" THE RETIVALTST MOVEMENT…

A MODE UN SERMON.

Newyddion
Dyfynnu
Rhannu

A MODE UN SERMON. We extrpct from a Portsmouth contemporary the following satire on a certain claBs of sermons. We do so with little hesitation, for we are glad to think that sermons Buch as those aimed at are now less frequently heard than formerly. Not only can eermens of the highest order be heard by all who care to take a little trouble, but it may be safely eaid that at no previous time have more thought and earnestness been displayed in preaching by the clergy in general than at present, 'lhe followitff is the sermon in extenso :— Brethren, the words of my text are :— Old Brother Hubbard, she went to the cupboard, o get her poor dog a bone; But when she got there, the cupboard was bare, And so the poor dog had none.* These beautiful words, dear friends, carry with them a solemn lesson. I propose this even- ing to analyse their meaning, and to attempt to apply it, lofty as it may be, to our every-day life. •• Old Mother Hubbard, ehe went to the cupboard, To fetther poor dog a bone. Mother Hubbard, you see, was old; there being no mention of others, we may presume that she was alone; a widow—a friendless old solitary widow. Yet did she despair ? Did she sit down and weep, or read a novel, or wring her hands r No she went to the cupboard. And here observe that she went to the cupboard. She did not hop, or skip, or run, or jump, or use any other peripa- tetic artifice; she solely and merely went to the cupboard. We have seen that she was old and lonely, and we now further see that she was poor. For, nrark, the words are the cupboard.' Not one cf the cupboards,' or the right-hand cupboard,' or the left-hand cupboard,' or the one above, or the one below, or the one under the floor, but just the crpboard. The one humble little cup- board the poor widow possassed. And why did ehe go to the cupboard ? Was it to bring forth golden gobleta cr glittering precious atones, or eotitly apparel, or feasts, or any other attributes of wealth? It was to get her poor dog a bone! Not unly was the wHow poor, but her dog, the aolc prop of her age, was peor too. We can imagine the ecene. The poor deg crouching in the corner, looking wistfully at the solitary cup- board, and the widow going to that cupboard—in hope, in expectation may be—to open it, although we are not distinctly told th"tit waa not half open cr ajar, to open it for that poor dog. But wbenehe got I h ^e the cupboard was bare, And eo goitheinoor df g had none.' "'When she got there!' Yon see, dear brethren, what pereeverancs ia. You seo the t-faaty of pen ieience in Coirg tight. r She yo< there. There wa? no turrmig^ a .d t vMinga, r.o dippingB and slioings, no leaning to the right or faltejingB to t/ e left. Wiih glorious aimylioity we a?e tcld she,got there. .AEd how was her noble effort-rewarded P The ehpboard toas bare !r It Wis barfe 1 ■ There were to be found neither apples nor ( ranges, Iftr cheesecakes, nor penny buna, nor gingerbread, nor crackers, nor nuta, nor lucifer motcfaes. The cupboard waa bare! There waa butane, only one eolitary cupboard in the whole of that cottage, and that one the Bole hope of the widow, and the glorious loadstar of the poor dog, was bare! Had there been a leg of mutton, a loin of lamb, a fillet of veal, even an ice from Gunter's, the ease world have been very different, the incident would have been other- wise. But it waa bare, my brethren, bare as a bald head. Many of you will probably say, with all the pride of worldly sophistry—' The widow, no doubt, went out and bought a dog-biscuit.' Ah. DO Far removed from theae earthly ideas, these mundane desires, poor Mother Hnbbard, the widow, whom many thoughtless worldlings would despise, in that the only owned one cup- board. perceived—or I might even say saw-at once the relentleBB logic of the situation, and yielded to it with all the heroism of that nature which had enabled her without deviation to.re^ti the barren cupboard. She did not attempt, like the stiff necked scoffers of this govirdtion, to war against the inevititble; she did not try like the to-called ntn of science to explain what she did not understand. She did nothing. Thu poor dog had none And then at thia point our infor n ation ceases. But do we nat ki;ow suffijiep ? Are we not cognisant of enough ? Who would dare to pierce the v;' shrouds the ulterior fate of Old Mother '^f»iibard —ber poor, dog—the tupboard-or the < that was not theief Must we her still standing at the open cupboard ê'oar, depict to ourselves th« £ og still droopy disappointed tail tupftb the door, t^e, 'Bought-for boae remaining somewhere elPtl ? i no my dear brethren, we are not rj0 ^aresitted to attempt to read the future. Sp.'ffice ü tor us to glean from this beautiful story .its wuny lessons; suffice it for ns to apply theiat, t& study them as far as i us lies, and bearing ie mind the natural frailty of our nature, to a,void being widows; to shun the patronymic of Hnbbard; to have, if our means afford it, more than one cupboard in the house; and to keep stores in them all. And oh! dear friends, keeping in reoolleotion what we have learned this day, let U8 avoid keeping dogs that are fond of bones. But, brethren, if we do; if Fate has ordained that we should do anything of these things, let U8 then got as Mother Hubbard did, straight, without curveting or prancing, to our' cupboard, empty though it be-let us, like her, accept the inevitable with calm steadfastneas; and should we) like her, ever be left with a hungry dog and an empty cupboard, may future chronicles be able to write also of us, in the beautiful worda of our text— And so the poor dog had none.

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