The Penn's Grove record., 1903-03-13

of God. 1t is not enough that We aapuld
close the shop; W must open the windows
of our souls toward God. The Sabbath is
a "hallowed" or holy day. The Lord knew
how busy We would be on the secular days
so busy that we are likely to give little
or no thought to spiritual things-where-
fore He said. II will give them a day for
their souls; when they may come up into
the mountains and breathe the clear air
with Me"
So He has giy en- US time divided and adj
jusced to our needs, and it behooves us to
make an economical use of it. Some people
are always in haste; others are always be-
hind time. 1t was a wise saying of Fla
velJ, ITO come before the opportunity is
to come before the bird is Matched; to
come after the opportunity is to come af-
tel tie bird is flown" Every day. every
hour. every moment strikes its W bal
anoe. Postponement is prohigacy. Pro-
erastir alton is a s~pendthrift as well as a
thief. 1t was Lord Chesterfield, one Of
the woridliest of men, who wrote to his
son. Never put of until tomorrow what
you can do to-day"
But the worst of all capital crimes is
killing time" The phrase is significant
significant of murder most foul. The
youth who seeks to quiet memory and an
uneasy conscience by ~plunging into dissipa-
ton; the old social campaigner who wan
ders about with a WORKOUT stomach and q
wizeDed heart in search of pastures new;
the devotee of fashion, whose idle days
are spent in recovering from worse than
Idle n'ghts-these all are ~chronocides, and
thew are moral suicides as well.
Oh, the waste, the frightful, irrevocsble
waste. Dreaming empty dreams, building
castles in the air. fighting specters and
wlndmills, entertaining vain regrets AMI
foolish hopes, brooding on old grudges,
tearing characters to tatters over the tea
cups, borrowing trouble. writing hook.
that never will be published nor ought to
be: groaning over imaginary aches and
pains, crossing bridges before we come to
them-what a large part of life these FIJI?
And every moment lost this way is lost to
self culture, lost to humanity, flched from
the service Of God.
The world is full of commonplace people
who have squandered their birthright and
fallen short of all tbs large possibilities of
their being through the misuse of time.
They sit tilted back in their chairs and
twiddling their thumbs while Waterloo is
being fought, and they wake up and begin
to fret when nothing Is going on. They
never catch up with themselves. The
more convenient season" leads them a
stern chase year in and year out.
One of the valuable secrets OF success Is
knowing how to economic the fragments
of time. An hour seems a little matter,
D0t " NOAA S9o bbS4kf AaI4L III
an hour, n an hour a day for four years
would carry you through the Encyclopedias
Britannica. Ten minutes are hardly worth
considering, vet Longfellow in his youth
translated Dante's Inferno" in the ten
minutes day after day. while he waited
for his coffee to boil. Gather up the frag-
me ITS that nothing be lost" While Pro
lessor Mitchell was in charge of a division
during the Civil War he said to a young
officer: you excuse yourself on the ground
that You are only a few minutes late. Sir,
] have been in the habit of calculating the
value of a millionth part of a second" It
IS the loss of time, a little here and a little
there, that makes life a failure and eternity
an lrremediable disappointment.
Will there be an end of time? Aye,
when eternity begins. The life beyond Is
unconditional by the falling sands of the
hour glass. At the sounding of the sew
enth trumpet John saw an angel arrayed
in majesty, with one foot planted on the
| sea and the other on the land, who pro-
claimed the end of the present cycle,
''There shall be time no longeri" But to
| all intents and purposes death marks the
end of time for every man. Probation is
over, once for all. The present probation
would, indeed, be a farce, if there were
another after it. The fabric is lifted from
the loom and there is no gathering up its
loose ends. School is out and life begins.
wherefore, whatsoever thy hand hndeth
to do, do it with thy might, and do it here
and now; for there is no work, nor device.
nor knowledge, nor wisdom on the grave
whittier thou goest. 1t is astrue saving of
Emerson's, mo man has learned any
thing rightly until he knows that every
day is doomsday," for every day and every
hour has the issues of eternity wrapped up
in it. In hoe momento pendit eternitas.
The time to will, to choose, to act is now.
f sin is to be repented of, repent now. If
Christ is to be accepted, accept Him now.
Now is the accepted time and to-day is the
day of salvation. .The golden opportunity
is never offered twice; seize thou the hour
when fortune smiles and duty points the
way."