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.