MODERN SERMONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2286, 23 December 1897, Page 61

MODERN SERMONS.

No. 1/ Little Jack Homer Sat^in a corner, Eitiug a Chrismas pi« JHe put in his thumb And pulled out a plum, And cried, " What a Rood boy am I." —Old Nursery Khyme. Such, dear brethren, are the % simple words which are to occupy our thoughts to-night ; simple indeed, but, oh ! how suggestive I Even the most careless (or I might say cursory) reader cannot fail to perceive the beautiful lessons with which these words are laden. Leb us examine them. First : — " Little Jack Homer." Here, I think, brethren, we catch the keynote of the story at its very threshold, little Jack Homer. - Why was he little ? Manifestly because he was idle. Had he been otherwise, or I might say different — h&d he evinced a disposition contrary to idleness, who can tell but that he might have become tall and powerful ; might have assumed the propottions of a Goliath ; might even have rivalled. the Colqgsujs cf Rhodes? Bu 1 ; it was cot so— he was "little." " * Then " Jack " Homer. Of his patronymic I will siy notb'ing. I cannot, -I do not desire to, pierce the yeij, to pry into the inscrutable mastery which shroud* the fact of. hia parents. being named Homer," which naturally entailed that appellation as the heritage of their' son ; but "Jack" — here again we trace tha evidenca of !- idleness, the foster-brother (if not twin) of Caret. lessness, in that he who should doubtless have 'been called "Joha" submitted to have superimposed upon him the (I can use no milder word) nickname of "Jack." And now, in the second place, let us take particular notice of his position : He sat in a corner. He sat ; here again we see the same spirit <& idleness (shall 1 say lack of energy P). You observe he did not run about in pursuit ot a hoop, nor cause a top to gyrate by reason of strokes from his whip, nor hold a skipping rope whilst some fellow-athlete l'ghtly vaulted over" the strained cotd. No, he did nothing gf £hfc kind, he attempted nothing — he just sat sstiltl t and that in a corner. _ - , f , How often, brethren, have we lean people in. a-corner ! We can remember, perhapi,' having been placed in that position for scm? infantile offence, or at least can recall some of our childhood's friends who were subjected to this bind of punishment, although, alas ! not allowed to sit — in'^fact compelled to stand. " ,; J. And in more mature life how often do we find men driven into a corner through some concatenation of circumatancae, generally adverse, always unprovided for — sucfe, for instance, as impecuniosity or (as I might; say) the absence of money when its presence soemsd most needed, or the sudden meeting, during a rural ramble, with an excited quadruped of the bovine Species. Time wonld fail m»'to -notice all the 44 corners" -wh»c>j- might -ba mentioned — tha4> chimney corner," the) " cornet o£ 'a willjV^thjs•J warm corner in somebody's, affeotjons/ the " corner man " in an Ethiopian cute tainnient. Enough ; the3e are digres&ioQß— let u» resume the theme of our discoarse. - ■- And once again, lest I weary -you; • kindly notice that he of whom we are speakingSat ia a corner, : J Eating a Christmas pie. Observe the selfishness of the act. We ha.ye already seen the idleness evinced by Jack Homer ia simply sitting in his corner. Now, I think, we see his motive, for he was eating, or (to speak more particularly) he was in the aot of deglutition— he waa causing his digestive drgan3 to receive the substance?, which he (wisely or unwisely) deemed necessary or desir-* able for the susteutation of his physical system. Mark, my brethren, his — not joucp, not mine, nor the physical system of any oue else, not of one of our ancestors, not of one of our posterity, but simply, solely, entirely (may I not s*y only ?) his men. ' \

True, it was a Christmas pie he was eating, and we do not wish to condemn him for" indulging in a perhaps pardonable) luxury at such a joyful season ; but--, brethren, that season should be one of shared, nob selfish enjoyment, yet we have no hint that he of whom we apeak offered to share his pie with any one else — we Sod him simply sitting and oating ; selfish, utterly selfish.

And now, lastly, this selfishness, I fear, is not free from egotism, for we read that when Jack Homer had succeeded in extracting a plum from the pie which as we have already seen he was so covetously appropriating to himself he exclaimed " What a good boy am. I." Brethren ! how ofte"n do \ve aot ,in thi'l fashion ! We-just suit our own tastes, indulge our own fancies, aud then because we have not harmed any one by our own action we practically exclaim in the words of our text) " What a good boy am I." ■ - Brethren-! be not idle. Donot selfishly s'trin. a comer — eating — alone. Lay not yourselve*' opeu to a charge^of egotism by pi tuning your-* selves on. having gratified your own wishes. Share your pie with some needy brother ; and then, in the words of the great poet — May good digestion wait on appetite. If this happy result accrue from the consideration of this story, we shall feel how truly that s»me poet has said elsewhere that we may find Sermons in (plum> stonea And good in evety thing.