The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-04-03

sued every morning, full of good news and
grace Tor weil-timed help" Christ divides
life into time periods of twenty-four hours
e2ch. he locks the Goor that leads back
into yesterday, and He locks the door that
leads out INTO tomorrow. and He commands
us to live busy and happy within the limits
OF to-day.
learn the blessed philosophy from
PauIs observation that we should forget
the things behind" coupled with the Mas
tef's teaching, BE not anxious for to-mor-
row. and His added exhortation to take
up the cross daily" Happy the man who
lives a daily life! Happy the man who lives
on the installment plan, and pays his debts
of duty and expects his gifts of grace day
by day according to the Masters twenty
four-hour time divisions!
l. This truth is the secret of success. 1t
Is as valuable in secular affairs as in spirit
ual If third of me is at work trying to
repair the irreparable yesterday and anoth-
er third of me is busy with tomorrow nor
yet arrived, there is only one-third of me
left for the real life and actual duties of
to-day; and failure is the inevitable result
To be won away from fidelity to present
duty, by attention to things far distant, is
the most frequent cause of failure in sacred
and in secular life.
Jesus does not teach that we should
forget the wisdom of yesterday, or de-
Spise the demands of tomorrow but that
we should not let these anxieties occu-
by and preoccupy us so as to destroy to-
days efficiency. When the whole man is
given to daily duty day by day we gather
the best fruits of yesterday and make the
best possible provision for tomorrow. The
only way to repair yesterday is to do your
duty to-day, and that is the only. way to
provide for tomorrow. The only real life
there is is that of to-day; all the rest is in
large measure fictitious and false.
This daily plan of living gives us good
cheer in our work. 1t is immensely dis
couraging 10 look at life as a whole, to
consider it in the totals of it's work and
its woes. The idea of taking up my cross
and walking under it's weight for ten, or
twenty, or thirty years-why, the thought is
paralyzing 1t would get so heavy in that
time that 1 would stagger and fall under
the load | look at the task in utter despair.
But when | adopt the daily plan of liv-
ing, and practice the masters twenty-four-
hour time divisions, it all becomes easy and
inviting. l know can carry my cross from
now until tonight. 1 know l can live con-
sistent Christian life, or an effective any
other kind of life from now until tonight
Then | will go to sleep for eight or nine
hours, and sleep abolshes duty and work
When ] arise tomorrow morning / have
ut the outside limit only fifteen or sixteen
hours more of cross-bearing and consistent
living ahead of me, and / know / can
manage that. Because. this .twenty-four-
hour living is easily possible / go at it with
excellent good cheer and with the vigor of
assured success. Thus there comes to us
the courage and the zeal that achieves sue
cess and secures happiness.
believe that this day-by-day living is the
peculiar accomplishment of Christian faith
i do not see how a man who assumes en-
tire responsibility for all he is and all he
does can free himself from the past and the
future so as to be easy and efficient in to-
day, without heartless and criminal indif-
ference to his failures and his fears But
the man who trusts God to remedy the err
rors of yesterday and to solve the prob
lens of tomorrow this man can be content
and happy with the duties of to-day.
We should be short-highted as to time.
Those who wear long distance spectacles
are always in trouble There is such a thing
as having too much sense. People who go
calculating away down the years get too
weary to cat their dinners, and to sleep of
nights. and to be pleasant to their families
and their friends. We laud "long-headed''
men; L ask, who are more miserable than
these? If we should be ''short-headed''
enough to live in to-day. and 'long-heart-
ed" enough to look to God for whatever
the morrow may bring, trusting in the
promise. as thy days so shall thy strength
be-
,. This daily idea of Jesus is also the
sweet secret of contentment Do you know
why children are happy? 1t is because they
are Supplemented enough to live just with
in the limits of to-day. They do not worry
with and fret over yesterdays and to-mor-
rows; they get all there is out of to-day
and leave the past and future to take care
of themselves.
Children have blissful ability for forget
ting trouble and delightful incapaeity for
anticipating it. The child not only knows
how to get into the kingdom of heaven,
but also how to get along in the king
dom. OF course, they have their little
vexations, but they also have amazing tall
ont for finging these things aside and dig
ging away industriously in the sunshine of
to-day for their golden nuggets of JOY. 1t is
when we get older and begin to worry about
yesterdays ard to-morrows that we get mis-
cradle How foolish it is to be forever mis-
cradle because we can't be happy; just go
on and he content and more ana more OF
happiness will come.
Only in Him who said, Except We be-
come as little children can we have
chiid's sweet content. I can manage to-
days tells and cares and sorrows, but when
] pile up Yesterdays on to-day's and put
to-morrow's burdens top of that, and
go about bearing three-story load CT trou-
hles. Il is then that the heart is crushed.
must turn over my past, which l cannot
amend, to the pardoning mercy of God;
must commit my future, which cannot
avengc. to the providing love of God, and
then as child L can make to-day the
bright and coy home of my content.
Like voyagers on river, we can no more
command the past or the future than we
change the course OF the stream be-
hind US and before us; we must make
friends with the kindly currents and float
on IN trust l know that to-days trouble
will not break my heart; know can live
till tonight in reasonable comfort. To-mor-
row ] have only ten fifteen hours more
and that IS not SO bad. and because II IS not
50 bad il is tolerably good, and | get DIT
comfortable before l know 1t, ana little
practice gives me permanent content. All
this is possible only as we practice the