MODERN SERMONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2289, 13 January 1898, Page 53

MODERN SERMONS.

No. 6. " There was an old weman who lived in a shoe, She hart so many child* en she hardly knew what to do ; So she g*ve them some broth, without any bread, Then thrashed them all soundly and sent them to bed."

How fitquenf Jy, dear friends, is tbe commonplace followed by the mftrvellouei. We have an i:.s-tance of ib in our text. Had I sia ply said " Tnere was sn old woman" jou would have smiled and said within joarselveis, " Of coiitse there was an old woman ; t'uere is nothing new under the sun, and as Here are old woebcq at the present time, ifc fcl'ows that there was an old woman in bjgone days." Bab I did not; stop, I proceeded, and alter rayii g, ''There was an old woman," I read, "Who iivtd in a shoe."

Now, my dear friends, it is vsry easy for you io fiud an old woman, but fco fKd one who has livtd, or still lives, in a shoe is iio easy matter. Were we told hew this old woman lived in a shoe some of you m'fehb be foolish enough to make a similar experiment.

To prevent such foolishness was evidently the wish of the author of our t«xb. He ss»ys : " There was an old woman who lived in a shoe." He does not s*y how shecirae to live in a shoe, or whether she owned or rented ib. We are not told th&t she was troubled either by landlord or tax-gatherer.

But still trouble was no stranger io her, for

"She had so many children." So many, dear friends, that they formed a multiiude vhich no man has numbered. We are not even told whether some were boys and some girls, whether some of them were lisping infants and others children of a riper growth. Whatever may have betn their sex or their age, there were so many of them that the old woman

" Hardly knew what to do."

She may have endured many anxious days and sleepie&s nights before ib was revealed uuto her what was best for her to do. But at last the revelation came, and she was no lor-ger a prey to distracting thoughts. The time for action arrived,

" So she gave them some broth." The pott, not choosing to proveke a controversy by hazarding a conjecture as to the exact nature of this brobh, discreetly says

" She gave them some broth."

Sorry at not being able to give more definite information as to what was in the broth, he seeks to atone for the omission by telling ua what was not tn ifc. So, after iofoiming us that "she gaTe them some broth," he says that ifc was " Without any bread." Whether at any other time she gave them bread ■without broth is an open question ; but after the explicit statement made in our text it would be foolish to dispute the f acb that

" She gave them some broth, Without any bread." Poor woman ! how keenly she sympathised with tbe dear children ; Kow anxious she was to give them an equivalent for the missing bread ay, desirous of giving them something more than an equivalent ; for when

"She thrashed them all soundly" it involved »n immense amount of labour from her, though ifc was only necessary that the children should stand still and patiently receive the giffc. Had they received the bread ifc would have been necessary for it to have passed through the process of mastication, thus forcing them to work; but vhen

" She thrashed them all soundly " they h*d nothing whatever to do bab to stand S&iii.

Please to observe, my dear friends, tbafc this gift of the old woman was a free-will offering. The children did not ask for ib ; therefore, as an act of spenbaneous generosity, ib should raise her very much in our estimation. Then, again, notice that she gave them no reason to be jealous of each other. Nob only did she thra'h them all, but " Ske thrashed (hem all sound I 'y " ; so, you see, dear brethren, ifc was impossible for these children to quarrel among themselves, and say, "Ah ! she hke3 me more than &he does you ; ray thrashing was ever so much better than yours "

Let us now, beloved friends, hear the conclusion of the whole matter. The last four words of our text are

" Sent them to bed." The children may not have had a great; distance to go; bub still, my brethren, you see that even in this shoe they had to travt 1 a little way before they reached their bed. The curious amoDg ytu would, bo doubt, lite me to give you a description of this remarkable bed. This lam r.ot able to do. Many discoveries have been made ; many more have yet to be made ; so, perhaps, at some future time, when buried cities, like Herculaneum and Poiiipfii, are brought; to light, among the ruius this phenomenal shoe will be found. Then, what is a mysttry to us will be revealed fco our descendants. At present we can only say she " Sent them to bed."

Did nob put them to bed, bub sent them ; fhus instilling into their minds at an early p&riodthe principles of self-help. Many instances of selfhelp are rt-lated, and we are told how bhousands wbo practised it became fam us in their day and generation. Among the illustrious babd, who knows but what there may have been some of this old woman's children ? If so, how fervently must they have blessed her for having

" Sent them to bed."