The devil’s tennis-ball – Thomas Brooks

“We urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle!” 1 Thessalonians 5:14

The hour of idleness is the hour of temptation. An idle person is the devil’s tennis-ball tossed by him at his pleasure.

Among the Egyptians idleness was a capital crime. Among the Lucans, he who lent money to an idle person was to lose it. Among the Corinthians idle people were delivered to the prison. By Solon’s law idle people were to suffer death. The ancients call idleness the burial of a living man. Seneca had rather be sick than idle.

Now shall nature do more than grace? Shall poor blind heathens be so severe against idle people and shall Christians embrace them? Shall they not rather turn their backs upon them, and have no communion with those who think themselves too great or too good to hold the plough?