The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-05

are yin TO save?
A second reading of my text reminds
me that life is not only a story told,
but that it is a brief story. A long mar
rative stretched out indefinitely loses
it's interest. 1t is generally the story
that takes only a minute or half a min
ute to rehearse that arrests the atten-
ton. And that gives additional interest
to the story of our life. Il is a short
story. Subtract from our life ali the
hours OF necessary sleep, all the hours
Of incapacity through fatigue or Illness.
all the. hours of childhood and youth
before we get fairly to work, and you
have abbreviated the story Of life so
much that you can appreciate the
psalmist's remark when he says, Thou
hast made my days as a hands
BREADTH" and can appreciate the apos-
tie James expression when he COM
pares life to "a vapcr that appeareth
for a little season and then vanishes
away"
1t does not take long TO tell all the
yicissitudes OF life-the ~gladness and
the griefs, the arrivals and the depart
ures, the successes and the failures,
the victories and the defeats, the ups
and the downs. The longer WI live the
shorter the years. We hardly get over
the .bewildering fatigue Of selecting
gifts for children and trends and see
that the presents get OF In time to ar
rive on the appropriate day than we see
another advancing group Of holidays.
Autumnal fruit DO sharply chases the
summer harvest, n the snow of the
white blossoms of springtime come so
soon after the SHOWS Of winter. 1t is a
remark so often made that it fails to
make any impression GcG t.e r-2.-tGde
that calls forth no reply, How rap
idly time goes"
Every century is a big wheel of years
which makes a hundred revolutions and
breaks down. Every year is a big wheel
Of months and makes twelve revolu-
tons and then ceases. Biologists and
theologians go into Celebrations of
guesses as to how long the world will
probably last; how long before the vol
canic forces will explode it, or meteoric
stroke demolish it, or the cold of a long
winter freeze u its population, or the
fires of a last conf1a gration burn it.
That is all very well, but so far as the
present population of the earth is con-
cerned the world will last but a little
longer. We begin life with a cry and
end it with a groan, and the cry and
the groan are not far apart. Life, Job
says, is like the flight of a weaver's
shuttle, or, as David intimates in my
text, a story quickly told and laughed
at and gone and displaced by another
story, as a tale that is told"
nv l1hL ~ W<AS L.
1 nave to say tina if life is so shor
we have not much of it to waste. In
all our engagements 10 o'clock ought
to be 10 o'clock and 3 o'clock 8 o'clock
and s O'Clock s o'clock. 1 will not waste
your time, and you must not waste
my time. Just reproof was that which
Mrs. Washington, the wife of the first
president, gave James Peale, the great
painter. His daughter says: MY faith
or nod m on oo ont 70 pnipt n Nv
iature of Mrs. Washington in Philadel-
phia, the general being then out of
town. He was obliged to go to her
house, and the appointment for a sit
ting was arranged at 7 o'clock in the
morning. My father arrived at the
house, and, taking out his watch, he
found he was exactly on time. A
thought then struck him that possibly
it might be early to disturb a lady, and
he decided to give ten minutes grace
before knocking at the door,. He &C
cordingly walked the pavement and at
the end of ten minutes pulled out his
watch and rang the bell. He was ush-
cred into the parlor, and Mrs. Wash
ington accoSting him, drew out her
watch said she had given her or
ders for the day, had heard her daugh-
ter take her lesson on the harpsichord
and had read all the morning papers
and after all this had been waiting
for him ten minutes"
My friends, as our life is short, pune
tuality is one of the important virtues
and lack of ~punctuality one of the
worst of crimes. How many who know
nothing of pu%nctuality! They arrive at
the depot five minutes after the train
is gone. They got to the wharf in time
to see that the steamer has swung 500
yards from the dock They are late at
church n annoy all who have
promptly taken their places, the late
corners not being as good as a Chris
tian woman who when asked how she
could always be so early at church re-
piled, 1T is part of my religion not to
disturb the religion of Others" The
tardy ones mentioned are apt to speak
the word Of couns when it is too late.
They are esolved to repent at some
time in the future, but when they come
up 1.-The door is shut" They resolve to
save a soul when it is already ruined.
But short as time ut is is long enough
if we rightly employ it. The trouble is
we waste so much time we cannot
catch UP. Some of US have been chasing
time we lost at 20 years of age, or 80
years Of age, or 40 years of age, AND if
we lived $50 years We could never
overtake it. Joseph, a poor apprentice,
every morning passed a certain store
as the church clock struck 6 at the mo-
ment when the merchant took down his
shutters, each of them saying Good
morning, SIR INT nothing else. What
was Joseph's surprise to find tina the
merchant had suddenly died and left
him his store n business. That is not
the only instance where a man has
made a fortune by ~punctuality. The
poets verse reads:
Time flies away fast,
The while we never remember,
How soon our life here
Grows old with the year
That dies with the next December.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE.
a third reading of my text reminds
me that life is not only a story told,
but a story listened TO. There is moth
ing more veXatious to any one than TO
tell a story when people are not at
tending. They may be whispering on
some other subject. or they are pre-
occupied. One cannCt tell a story ef-
f~ectually unless there are good listen
ers. Well, that which in my text is
called the tale that is told' has plen-