The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-17
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
DON'T HURRY; a PROTEST AGAINST
AN AMERICAN TENDENCY.
BY the Rev. George l. Perrin, ID. ID,
~UniversaIist, Boston, Mass.

modern American life, than the unceaslnS
haste Of men. The discarding of the stage
coach in favor Of the railroad train, of the
horse in favor of electrics, of the sailing
vessel in favor OF the steamboat, are but
types of the marvellous change which has
been going on I'm this direction. Everywhere
men are hurrying. Everything must BE-
sacrificed to speed.
All business must be transacted in the
quickest possible way. Men 10 not read
books nowadays; they read the table Of
contents, or barely skim the pages: they
do not digest and assimilate a book. No
more do they take time for the ordinary
food for the body. They hurry through
breakfast for the sake OF getting to bust
ness. They hurry through dinner for the
cake of social or other engagements in the
evening. In the days of old. there was
what might well be digniGed by the tenn
conversation. But nowadays there is no
time TO sit down and seriously discuss
great questions of art, sociology, politics or
religion. Let our friends begin to launch
into these things, and we soon begin to
twitch nervously at our watch chain. If he
does not take the hint, we take out our
watch and look at It. If he still continues,
we bluntly say, beg pardon, very sorry,
but 1 have an engagement" What can we
do? We are entirely helpless. We have the
engagement, and after that we shall have
another one. and then still another and an
other to the end of the day. the week, the
year. and to the end OF our lives
Serious correspondence by letter writ
ing has long since gone out of vogue.
Who to-day has time to write more than
a page, and especially on any other sub
Ject than business? In the interest OF
haste, we have invented stenography, but
even this is slow, and so we call into
requisition the Monograph. the steam
press, and other duplicating devices.
Forty years ago we gave the newspaper
a whole week TO write up the current
history of a county or a State. Now we
give it a single half day to write up the
history OF the world.
Now I am not saying that this whole
modern tendency is wrong, nor denying
that il has some incidental advantages.
But it seems to me there are in it some
very distinct disadvantages and even
dangers. Not only does it color our
whole modern life: it also seems to
have become well-nigh a standard of judg-
ment in every field. Not that there are
no great artists. great builders and great
musicians, but there is a tendency to throw
things together cheaply and quickly. The
world is full Of chromOs and photo-process
cuts. Art is measured not by quality
but by quantity. I fear the same thing
is true in literature. Aside from its ten
dency to cheaper everything. which IS
bad enough in itself, notice some of its
moral bearings.
HASTE AND MORALS.
NIL a. =
rich 1t is not. as a rule. simply the honest
desire to make money or even a fortune
which is dangerous. but to make the for
tune to-day or tomorrow. 1t is not the
desire to be rich. but the intense, consum-
ing hunger to be rich now. TO gee rich
quickly. that is the dangerous thing in our
modern life Here is the rock upon which
thousands and tens of thousands of men
break every year. If you suggest the old,
slow way of steady earnings and small
savings. they will laugh you TO scorn. They
have seen some man get rich in a day;
shall they travel the old long. laborious
road 10 fortune when it may be reached
by a single bound? What is integrity, what
is reputation, THAT is the honor of a fam
lily, what is a good name? The struggle
for trade is fierce. The air vibrates with
the din and roar OF effort. TIL whole at
mosphere of life is electric with action.
What is done, men urge, must be done
speedily: and so everything goes down in
the mad, feyerish haste to get on in the
world, To property.
If these apostles OF hurry are right, then
the world is morally mad and drifting rap
idly to the bad. / for one do not believe it.
! believe there is still room in the world for
integrity. room for the honest man: and /
am absolutely certain. If honesty counts for
anything, If manhood is still worth while,
the dangers of haste are well-nigh infinite
and far greater than any man can afford to
face.
Another danger of this tendency to hurry
IS that men grow impatient with Gods
moral methods. The great ndamen
changes which have profoundly affected
mems lives and seriously influenced the
world have been wrought out by slow de-
grees in long reaches of time consuming
many years and many lives and protracted
EFFORT. The great refOrmerS of the world
have been men of marvellous patience. men
who understood the law of Gods working.
who knew at the outset that Gods mills
grind slowly.
But in these DAYS men grow inpatient
very easily What a common spectacle il is
to see men enthusiastic champions for a lit
tie while of some pet scheme of reform and
or complaining and perhaps embittered.
ready to believe that because the thing they
were interested in could not be achieved in
an hour IL cannot be achieved at all.
God moves slowly. They would move
In haste. God works through the cen
tufies. God works for a single hour. These
are people for the high tides of life: loyal.
brave. enthusiastic when things seem to
succeed, but their enthusiasm and their
loyalty GIBBS as quickly as the tides of
the sea
Another danger IS that this tendency ia
undue haste shah lead men into a false
world There are men who would practi-
cally say. because they cannot see the
tides Of the ocean rise in every second of
time. that therefore they do not believe
II rises al all. They would estimate every
church and political and social effort by its
numerical strength. They do not know
how 10 weigh; they have learned but one
art-that of counting.
If a thing is big. if fl grows rapidIy.
they believe liz it. If it Is little, if IL seems
20 grow slowly. they do not believe
III IT. They must be able 10 clearly see
strong. rushing currents i'm the stream OF
progress, or they are ready to doubt al
progress For years they have been has
teaing, painting, breathlessly rushing hith.
er and thither. and they have no faith
IN any method of the Almighty not in har-
mony wit this breathless haste.
H REAL DEFECT.
Now in all this. what Is the Fundamental
defect? II IS the want OF any genuine faitf
IN God. He that believeth shall not max,
haste. In the really great things of thi.
life. the man who hurries is like the child
who plants his grains OF corn to-day am
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