NEGLIGENCE AND INDUSTRY.
THE largest city of the world is across the ocean, in England. In the busiest part of London is a very large building, called the Royal Exchange. On the top of the pinnacle, or tower, of this large stone building is a large grasshopper, and the English people have this legend in reference to it: It is related that some three hundred and seventy-five years ago, a woman, whose purposes we cannot know, might have been seen hurrying along a country lane, some distance outside of the city. Hastening along she came to a gate leading into a field, and looking in every direction to be sure that no one was near, she took off her shawl and wrapped it carefully around a little baby which she had concealed under her arm, and laid it gently by the side of a hedge. And then turning back to the lane, she soon disappeared in the distance. An hour or two later a little girl and a rollicking, frolicking boy, possibly returning from school, were crossing the field. It was in the later days of summer, when butterflies and grasshoppers abounded. As this light-hearted boy was whistling along his way, a large grasshopper bounded across his path, and, true to the instincts of childhood, the boy started in pursuit of the grasshopper. The chase was only begun when the grasshopper crossed the fence and landed in a grain field, which in England is called a corn field. Stooping to catch his prize, the boy discovered near by what proved to be a bright little baby, fast asleep in its mother's shawl. Joyful with the prize which they had found, the boy took it up in his arms, and hastened to his mother, who, although a farmer's wife, with many cares and several children, resolved to adopt the little stranger as her own.
The Royal Exchange, London.
Years passed on, and the infant boy grew to be a man of industry and economy, and finally became one of the richest and most influential men in the city of London. Queen Elizabeth, who was then upon the throne, often consulted him, and in after years, as an expression of gratitude to the great city in which he had accumulated his wealth, and for the royal favor which had been shown him, he built the Bourse, or what is called the Royal Exchange, and in recognition of the kind Providence which had used the grasshopper to lead the steps of the boy to where the baby was lying in the fields, Sir Thomas Gresham, for that was his name, placed this large grasshopper in stone, upon the topmost pinnacle of this Royal Exchange. While I cannot vouch for the historical accuracy of this legend, yet it beautifully illustrates the truth that God often uses an humble insect for the accomplishment of His great providences.
Grasshopper.
Now, I want to tell you something about the grasshopper, and also about the ant.
The grasshopper is very much like that class of boys who want to have a good time, play and frolic from day to day, but never go to school or work, but live for the play and pleasure to be enjoyed each day as it passes. The grasshopper jumps from place to place across the field, eating his food wherever he can find it, and then spends his days and weeks in idleness. He never stops to think that the summer will soon pass away, the fields will then be barren, the cold autumn will come, when the fields will be left desolate and covered with snow. So finally when the autumn comes, he has no food laid up for the winter, but dies of poverty and hunger. This little poem which I read in the schoolbooks, when I was a boy, will tell the whole story:
SONG OF THE GRASSHOPPER.
I saw a brown old grasshopper,
And he sat upon a stone,
While ever and anon he chirped
In a sad and mournful tone:
And many an anxious, troubled look
He cast around the naked plain;
Where now was but a stubble field,
Once waved the golden grain.
What ails thee, old brown grasshopper?
His voice was low and faint,
As in the language of his race
He made this dire complaint:
"O! in the long bright summer time
I treasured up no store,
Now the last full sheaf is garnered,
And the harvest days are o'er."
What didst thou, brown old grasshopper,
When the summer days were long?
"I danced on the fragrant clover tops,
With many a merry song;
O! we were a blithesome company,
And a joyous life we led;
But with the flowers and summer hours,
My gay companions fled:
Old age and poverty are come,
The autumn wind is chill,
It whistles through my tattered coat,
And my voice is cracked and shrill.
In a damp and gloomy cavern
Beneath this cold, gray stone,
I must lay me down and perish—
I must perish all alone.
Alas! that in life's golden time
I treasured up no store,
For now the sheaves are gathered in,
And the harvest days are o'er."
He ceased his melancholy wail,
And a tear was in his eye,
As he slowly slid from the cold gray stone,
And laid him down to die.
And then I thought, t'were well if all
In pleasure's idle throng,
Had seen that old brown grasshopper
And heard his dying song:
For life's bright, glowing summer
Is hasting to its close,
And winter's night is coming—
The night of long repose.
O! garner then in reaping time,
A rich, unfailing store,
Ere the summer hours are past and gone,
And the harvest days are o'er!
The little ant is not so foolish. For thousands of years the ant has always been wise and industrious. In the Book of Proverbs, written over twenty-five hundred years ago, Solomon tells us in the thirtieth chapter and twenty-fifth verse: "The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer." And in the sixth chapter, sixth, seventh and eighth verses he says, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise; which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest." You have probably noticed the industry, activity and perseverance of these little ants. They attempt great things. Sometimes you will see one of these little insects carrying a burden which is several times larger than its own body. If they come to a stone, or a log, or some obstacle, over which they must carry their burden, if they do not succeed the first time, they will try again; and even though they should fall, or fail as much as a hundred times, they will persevere until they have accomplished their undertaking. If you watch them, you will see how rapidly they move. They are not lazy, they do not loiter along the way, but are always in a hurry. They work with energy and gather food during the summer, which they lay up for their supply during the winter. Whatever the little ant can gather, it carries home and lays up in store, not for itself alone, but all work together, each laboring for the good and well-being of all the others.
Ants.
This grasshopper very fittingly represents the feeling and thought which come into the mind of every boy when he is at first required to work, to go to school and study, when he is being taught to be industrious and useful. When the days are pleasant, boys do not like to go to school. When a pleasant Sunday morning comes in the springtime, they often wish to stay at home, to go out to the park, or to roam about the fields, and if most of the boys and girls had their own way about it, in the beginning, they would live pretty much like the grasshopper. They would get what pleasure they could out of the days as they pass, grow up in ignorance and idleness, and in manhood and womanhood find themselves in poverty and want. I think that pretty much all boys and girls are naturally lazy, and that feeling can only be cured by being required to work, being compelled to go to school and study, and being kept persistently at it from week to week and year to year, until at last they learn to love to work. If the parents of the grasshopper had not themselves been lazy and grown up in idleness, they would have taught the young grasshopper that in the spring and summer he was to look forward to the wants and needs of the winter. The older ants always teach the young ants to work, and in that they are very wise.
Perhaps you have seen boys and girls who have learned to work, who are always very active, who seem always to be busy, but after all accomplish nothing of any moment in life. If we want to live to some purpose in this world, we must remember that we should have a purpose worthy of ourselves, and of the great Father in Heaven who has created us. After a few months and years the grasshoppers and the ants and all the insects die, but you and I shall live on forever and ever. These bodies will be laid away in the grave, but our immortal spirits shall still continue to live. The stars in heaven which have been shining for thousands and thousands of years shall eventually grow pale. The sun itself shall cease to shine, and all the heavens and the universe about us shall be rolled together as a scroll. But these immortal spirits of yours and mine shall live on with God throughout all eternity. It is important, therefore, that our industry and our thought and our labor should not be for those things which perish with the using; that we should not simply lay up treasures which we must after a time go away and leave behind us in this world, but that we should lay up treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; that where our treasure is, there our hearts may be also; and that we may possess and enjoy our treasure throughout all eternity.
I hope that every time you see a grasshopper or an ant, you will remember the lesson which I have sought to teach you to-day.
Questions.—What is on the top of the Royal Exchange in London? Who built the Exchange? Why did he put the grasshopper there? Tell all you can about the little boy and girl going through the field. What kind of boys and girls is like the grasshopper? What does the grasshopper do in summer? What happens to him when winter comes? Is the ant like the grasshopper, or is he industrious? What does the Bible say about the ant? How does he spend the summer? Does he have food for winter use? Does each ant work for itself alone? Who teach the young ants to work? Do boys and girls all have to be taught to work? Do all people who are busy accomplish something worthy of their effort? What should we live for?
