Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1911 — DROWSY GOD A SHREWD FOE [ARTICLE]

DROWSY GOD A SHREWD FOE

Mate Churchgoers Find It Hard to Resist Hie Power, Though Worton Seem Immune. Why is it that men will go to sleep In church? the Washington Post in-, quires. What profound meanings lie at the bottom of this inclination to somnolence on the part of the brother dearly beloved when under the ministrations of the bishop of his soul? No one ever heard of a woman sleep-' -lnff during a sermon. She is as bright and as alert at the conclusion of the sermon as she was when the text was, read. But man, poor man—he, like the sluggard, slumbers and sleeps. His recordTs bad from the beginning. Acts XX contains the lnevorable record of the first offender—of one Eutychus, who, while Paul preached, sank into sleep and fell from the third window. Let a word be said In defense of the Order of Eutychus. And in thus coming to their support there is no wish to cast reflection upon the wideawake and breezy sermonizer. To begin with, man is inferior to his mate in the highest, sensibilities of the soul. Calloused in his nature, the assembled array of dresses and bonnets is wholly without appeal to his sordid instincts. What does he know about the cut bias or the latest effect in ruehlngs? Or whether the Jones girls have turned the black bombazine they have worn for two seasons already? Or how much Deacon put into the contribution box? None of these inspirations comes to bis relief. Instead he begins with good intentions, lining out the text, and setting himself resolutely to unimpeachable behavior. But tor no avail. The soft swish of the skirt of the late arrival, the hynotlc spell of the music, the murmur of repeated responses, the chanting intonations, the rising and falling inflections of. the speaker, are too much. The imp of insomnia flees, the eyelids fall and close, the drowsy gul usurps the throne of his righteous purpose, and he is disgraced again, as the audible snore resounds against the chancel and reverberates from the celling. He awakes with a start and tries to look solemn and duly impressed, but it is too late!