, 1900-01-08
TO YOUNG PEOPLE
REV. ROMINGER breaches ON
THE NOW AND THE
TOMORROW"
Value of Doing Now What is to Be
Done-Dangers of Waiting for Flu
ture Things to Happen-The Pres
ent is the Day-General Grant as
a Man of Duty.

At the Presbyterian church Sunday
evening Rev. II. V. Rominger preached
in the course of m to young peo-
pie on the subject of THE Now and the
Tomorrow"
Now is the day of salvation; now
everywhere, now always is the imoprt-
ant moment. All that is interesting
and vital is concentrated in the pres
ent moment. Not by dwelling on the
past, not by living in the future, but by
bringing the past and the future into
the present do we accomplish anything
real. gain any true satisfaction.
A great many people are expecting
to do good things by and by. but that
future never comes. There are colleges
and institutions all over the land wait
ing for the good intentions of rich men
to ripen; but hopes deferred make the
heart sick. 1t would be a great gain to
education. religion, morality and phil
anthropy if we could once learn that
the future does not give us a new heart,
or anything We have not now. It only
receives what we bring into it. 1t Is
the ]stOrehouse into which the present
empties itself. If good resolves and
purposes do not take on immediate ac-
ton and zeal fruit now, the future will
be utterly barren and fruitless also.
The present is the eventful day. The
future is only the summing up of that
which has gone by. Tomorrow is load
ed down with the things we intend to
do and have. If all shall come out of
the future that we are pouring into 1t,
it will be a marvellous world We will
have before long, and will require a
hundred men to do what we are going
to do. Many Il young man is slain by
his future, when he loads down tomor-
row with good intentions.
If there is one phrase in the bible
that should be craven upon the heart
it is, now is the day of salvation"
All the great things of life are depend
ing upon one realization of the mean
ing of the word now" Man has al
ways been a hero when he acted in
stantly on the duty of the hour. 1t was
General Grant who put down the rebel
| lion because he was a man of immediate
action, and not McCleland, who was
always going to do something by and
by. The Spanish writer, Cervantes,
says: by the street called by and by,
you reach the house called never" and
there are a great many crowding in
that street today.
There are so many people like un-
developed Wyoming gold mines, of
great expectations We are all in
tended to develop into something great
and noble. All the good of earth, from
kindness to our neighbor, to a pro-
found worship Of the Almighty, is lying
in our intention.
Now" is an idea that should be more
deeply studied by all who are capable
of an education or any usefulness.
The heart that intends to do good deeds
is in great peril. If anything comes
between it and its deeds, it becomes at
once a zero. 1t is like the Persian
prince, who divided his life up in de-
cades-the second for government, the
third for friendship, the fourth for
God. A magnificent appointment, but
all overthrown by an incident-he died
in the first ten years.
Perhaps there is some one here who
last year, or two years ago, or ten
years ago, promised to do certain things
in the following years. All was decked
in the hues of the rainbow. The pro-
fession of religion would be easy and
all the details of a noble life would
come easily then. What an outlook it
was! But today, the months or years
you waited for have ended and this is
the very future once seen as being near
heaven. Oh! how its flowers have fad
ed, 1t was a mirage, and here is the
same dreary, ~lifeless sand.
Be wise today; tbs madness to defer;
Next day the fatal precedent will plead;
Thus on, till wisdom is pushed out of
life.
OF mans miraculous mistakes this
bears
The palm, THAT men are about to
live"