Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-03
THE VALUE OF TIME.
Rev. George Hodges Puts Trite Old
Thoughts Into New Dresses.
4 TALK ON COMMENCEMENT DAY.
The Hour Is Worth Just What Is Put Into
1t by Each Individual.
DOLLAR TIME PUT INTO PENNY JOBS
WRITTEN FOR THE D1spArcH. ,

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcR.l
1t was the privilege of the parson, no
long ago, to address a company of youn{
men upon the occasion of the graduation o
dozen of them from one of the best school,
in the United States of America At tn,
request of some of their fathers and mother!
the words then spoken are here written out
as we'll as memory permits, for the sake o
any other boys who care to read them.
These young men, the parson said. arr
richer than many of u.s. because they havt
more time than we have-a great deal more
time, hope, in the future; and certainly
more time now. And time is one of the
most precious of all human possessions.
1t is not likely that you realize how rich
yoN are. You think, perhaps, that wher
you get out of school, and time, as you say
is your "own," that you will have more
leisure. But that is great mistake. YOU
will find as you grow older that the years
grow shorter. And if you succeed in life,
as we hope you will succeed, you will very
often find yourselves saying, o, that there
were 4S hours in every day and no night at
all
Modern Savings Banks for Tim.
The latter half Of this century has been
remarkable for the invention of appliances
| for saving time. The railroad the tele-
graph, the telephone, the. typewriter, the
phonograph-not to mention the great ma
chimes which save time in the mills-are
valuable in proportion IS they serve as
savings banks for time. And yet it some
how comes about that the more time we
save the less we have. No generation that
| has lived upon the planet since the day
when the morning stars sang together at
| the creation of the world, has ever known
such famine of spare time
1 have not looked in the century
dictionary to see if the word "leisure" is
still part of the English language. Per-
haps they have marked it "obsolete. I"
Certain tits that the fact of leisure has we'll
| nigh ceased out Of modern lite. We live
in perpetual hurry. We must be all the
time doing something. We are ashamed to
be caught enjoying ourselves. We feel as
if We were stealing stealing time. Or,
rather, as if we were spendthrifts-
ing time. You young men have more time
than you will probably ever have again.
Accordingly, the word which I want to
speak to you is about time.
The Real valEe of an Hour.
You have learned, no doubt, long since
that an hour is 60 minutes long, and that
yard is 36 inches long. 1t is evident, how
ever that these words, ''an hour" and
"yard," are terms not of value but only Of
measurement. The value Of yard depends
upon the material which is measured by it.
1t may be yard OF cotton cloth; it may be
yard of ground along the chief street of a
great city. So the value of an hour de-
pends upon what is put into 1t. And that
depends partly upon the place and time in
which the hour is spent, and partly upon
the person who spends it.
Think of this present hour as the sun
measures it out across the globe There are
60 minutes in it everywhere, 60 minutes on
this beautiful hill, in the midst of these
scholastic surroundings, in the heart of the
trees; 60 minutes in the hot tenements of
the great city, where men and women with
unclean hands and faces, and hearts not
much better, are this moment drinking and
cursing and fighting; 60 minutes in that
devastated country through which I rode
the other night, where that awful river,
half of seething water, half of kissing fire,
came tearing down the pleasant valley,
drowning and burning as it came: 60 min
utes where men are becalmed on the great
ocean, or beset by dangerous storms; go
minutes in the horrible dungeons of st.
Petersburg, and on that weary road where
men are trudging through dust and ice
across Siberia; 60 minutes where people are
watching in anxious sick rooms, where the
seconds are measured by the labored breath
ing of the patient 1t makes deal of diff
ference when and where an hour is
measured.
Precious by Reason of lts Possibilities
God has made all time valuable and in
teresting by the gradualness of his revela-
tion of truth. He might have told all the
secrets of the universe at once. He might
have gathered the race into his class, and
taken Mt Sinai for teachers desk, and
the sky for blackboard, and given lessons
in all knowledge. He might have sent
Noah to discover America. He might have
set up printing press in Ur of the
Chaldees He might have fitted out the old
armies Of the living God with repeating
rifles He might have conveyed the |
children Of Israel across the wilderness in |
the successive sections of limited express |
But how much interest that would have |
taken out of lifel Alas for man if ever.even
in Heaven, he comes to know all that can be !
known. For life is made interesting by the |
presence in it OF the element of progress |
And time is valuable because it is full of |
This hour is dignifed, en-
riched, made significant, made sacred, by
the fact that it has behind it the illlmitable
Of the future. 1t is precious
by reason Of its possibilities
God has made all time precious by His
gradual revelation of truth Every year
since the beginning men have looked out
into the unknown tomorrow and wondered
what would happen. And they have been
taught that tomorrow depends upon to-day,
and that God has put the shaping of to-day
into the hands of the men of to-day.
Every Year Something Has Happened.
One year all the biographies had to be
written over and made big enough to take
in this great new continent. Another year
printing was invented, and then powder.
And printing and powder turned the whole
world upside down, took away power from
The possession of the few and put it into the
hands of the many. Then came the Refor-
nation and set men to thinking new
thoughts about theology. And then those
Two great revolutions, the French and the
American, and set men thinking new
thoughts about politics. Every year some-
hing has happened. Every year has been
worth living in. Time has always been of
value.
But to-day, time is of pre-eminent value
This is the best year to live in that the
world has ever known. This Is the best
and to live in of all the countries of the
,arth. The world was never so interesting
opportunity never so great, time never so
precious In the Church and in the State
What great problems clamor for solutionl
What great changes begin to loom up in the
Alike in theology and in in
L. 4