The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-03-10
ARP DISCUSSES TIME.
They shsw Time h FIying-And soon
WIZ Come EterntG-The Cen-
tnEy Queatton-ThinIzs 1t
FL About Settled.

tW@At4SbA century, QuGSUiQu III is q mt
ting time for him to consider the
shrinkage of time since he was a bow.
and to ponder upon the reason why
the years grow shorter and shorter
as he grows older and wiser, and how
the period is surely coming when
there viii be no years OF months ana.
time Will be no more. According to
Scripture this thing called time Is d
perishable elastic compressible crea-
ton adapted to man in his state Of
probation and not at all necessary to.
the Creator who said before the
world was made / ann God always
speaks Of Himself in the present
tense ~ am" He is one eternal now
without beginning Of years or end Of
days. We cannot comprehend this,
but as we near the goal we can almost
catch a glimpse of its possibility. That
time is compressibIe and elastic all OF
us have experienced, for sometimes. the
hours seem very long and sometimes
very short. In our dreams we some
times condense hours and days Of
events in a few delirious moments. I
shall forget the anxiety and
agony of a long eEort to keep my
brother from fighting a duel and how
/ helped to wrISe all the correspon-
dence between him and his adversary
and how at the hast the duel could
not be avoided, and how 1 carefully
selected and loaded his pistol and
measured off the distance and then
made another effort to pacify and adj
just and prevent the duel, but all in
vain, and he stood to the mark and
fred and fell. The report of a gun
that was fred back Of our house at n
squirrel awakened me and it was this
report that condensed all the long train
of thought and events into a moments
space. My wife was sitting by my
bedside with her hand upon my fever
ish brow and declared 1 had not been
asleep more than a minute-and vet I
remembered every line and word Of
that correspondence, and when I re-
covered from my fever could repeat
it. The time of hours was condensed
into moments. just so those who
yer thought to be drowned and were
resuscitated tell us that a panorama
NA#AAAQAA MAUlO uA0 CdLAC UEluLG NuGLL
as they lost consciousness. Every
word and thought and deed and every
scene they had witnessed from their
childhood was AS vivid and real as IL
il were just transpiring, There can
be no doubt about this experience Of
many persons. II is well confirmed.
We r just on the verge of know
ing wonderful things, and my faith is
that we will know when we put off
this mortal coil and u souls are re-
leased and free. We have implanted
within us a spark Of divinity, but only
a spark,
But alas, how little we do know and
how utterly helpless we are. We
know not whence we come, nOr with
er we r going. We cannot make
one hair white or black. We cannot
tell by what mysterious power we
raise our hands or move our feet or
wink our ~eyelashes. We cannot add a
day or an hour to our lives, nor fore
see the accidents that may befall us
as we move to and fro on the land or
sea. We cannot escape the pestilence
that walketh at MONDAY nor make
ourselves secure against fire and flood
and famine. What pitiful creatures
We are, and yet we see everywhere
around us young men who are CON
ceited and proud of their manhood or
their money and we see young girls
who are vain of their beauty or their
dress when they played no part in the
formation of the one or the earning
Of the other. A beautiful woman is
close kin to the angels, and she should
be thankful that God made her so, but
She has no excuse in the world for be-
ing vain. Humility is her loveliest
ornament. AS for these conceited and
naughty young men who strut around
in fine clothes that they never earned
or that they got by short cuts and
dishonorable means, they excite only
pity or contempt. When we look upon
them we can but exclaim with David:
FLord, what is man that Thou art
mindful Of him." Young men, why
don't you humble yourselves under
the mighty hand Of God who made
you, you have not the femotest idea
who you are to-day and you don't
care il you haven't. You have travelled
3~00,O00,0OO Of miles since the last year
and got back to the same place you
started from. You travel 10000 miles
an hour and every day turn a summer
Ault $4,000 miles round and don't
know it and don't care If you
don't. The Creator is your en-
gipeeE and runs your train without
a run-of or a collision and you never
think of Elm or thank Him. You
seem 70 think that You r doing it.
reckon the twentieth century
problem is about settled. 1t is an old
problem and perplexed mankind away
back in the ages. The question used
70 be whether the year prior to the
birth Of Christ was / b, c., or O b. O., |
and the mathematician and astron-
omers settled it down at 0 3. G., and
began the new era with 1 A. d. and
II remained 4 A. D. for 365 days. But
aside from this the problem is purely
2 mathematical one, for if it takes 100
years to make a century it win take
1909 years to make 10 centuries, and