Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1881-01-06
Frittering Away Time.

| NORMAN MACLEOD, OF all men Gh(
last against whom any but himself
would have preferred such an accusa
ton, sometimes wrote in his journal his
sorrow that his time had been g fritter-
ed'' away. Pastor, editor, philanthro.
pist, he was constantly interrupted in
his work by calls from people who
wished to consult him about their va
rious interests, and it was inevitable
that he should sometimes feel that a
crowd OF petty cares were absorbing
and consuming his strength. In some
measure, the same experience comes to
all workers. We need patience with
ourselves and our circumstances, and
we need to guard our minds against un-
due depression, because our accom-
plishments fall ever short of our aims
and ideals. Still time, most precious
and most impartially distributed of
Gods gifts, is one of the talents for
which we are responsible, and we
should be certain that we are putting it
to the best use possible for us.
It is not frittering it away to spend it
in recreation, as many happy people
do, in the summer days. Our National
sin of overwork, of wasting and wear
ing hurry, has cut off many lives in their
prime. Slowly we are learning more
excellent way, and now the annual va
cation is planned for, by most men and
women, as an essential feature of the
year. That time is solid gain, and not
idle loss, which is emplOyedin climbing
mountain sides, rambling by ripping
brooks, and resting by the ever-chang-
ing sea. Few of us take SO much time
as we ought, to look at the beautiful
world where God has placed us, Few
of us are willing to discover its hidden
lOveliness, or to read, as we should, its
open secrets of delight. We should be
led from Nature upward to God, as
prophets and kings were of old. And
perhaps we oftener would be, were
we to spend more time in taking in the
new supplies of every fresh morning
and evening.
Time is not frittered away which is
used in healthful sleep. Economic
where you will, but if you are wise
never cut off an hour of needed sleep
at either end of the night When our
Father draws the curtain of darkness,
we children should obey the gracious
hint and seek the repose which is
and new creation Of our
iaded powers.
Let us glance at the other side of the
question. Some of the busiest people
in the world get the minimum amount
done, They are possessed of a restless
activity, but it eXpends itself on tritles,
They fly here and there like butterflies,
slipping here, pausing there; but the
sum of their efforts amounts to little,
md they divert and distract more seri-
Dus workers. Every church and every
has its share of this sort
If workers. They mean well. They
ak. They promise easily and largely.
They always want the hardest enter
)rises to be at least started, and they
ire energetic at the start. But their
,nergy is effervescent, and when the
eal work comes, and the time for show
nd talk is over, they are somewhere
Use. And that is why, in most schools
nd churches, the pressure of work al
Ways falls upon few faithful and tried
mes, who 60 quietly on, with little
tir.
We fritter our time away in study by
too much at once. Nobody
an profitably read half-dozen great
Ooks at a time, and so when one is
ipping into the Greek poets, and CLAN
ing at Shakespeare, and peeping into ,
Iilton, and flashing the lens on Dante, I
Il at the same time, that person is
aiming nothing. His mental amuse-
lent may not hurt him, but it does not
elp him, and IN most cases he is in
eril of intellectual dyspepsia. A great
cal of Bible reading is-from its man.
er, or from the readers state of mind
mere frittering Of time, because
lough the whole Bible is given for !
and all is profitable, if
isely used, yet even in hallOWed
lings we are not TO take leave of COM 1
ION sense. A chapter read with an
osent heart viii do us no more good t
ian if it we're a chapter of ChootaW, for Y
le Bible is not fetch. To Gods +
ord we should bring our entire mental t
rength, and should be solicitous rather '
comprehend what we read than to v
lad a great deal b
When the end Of the day arrives, and o