The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-06-15

the mazes Of selfish indulgence and sentl'
mental fancy. Twelve hour. in the lay,
and how many lost in foolish dreaming!
Think, too, what weSs IN gossip: IN
needless, thoughtlcss tain 1t Is not that
we are deliberate scandai-mongers, but
simply that to pass he time we indulge IN
a kind of talk about orr EeIShbors ana
friends, the results of which for evil are
greater than we may ever know. VINO can
estimate the regulations that have been
wrecked, the lives OF promise that nave
been crippled, the usefulness for good IN
the world that has been checked by Inc
retailing of evil SANDER throughout the
twelve hours of the day?
Once more, think of the hours consumed
in the pursuit of merely selfish pleasure.
Indifferent to the bitter cry OF outcast III.
mainly, c%allous to the great moral needs OF
the hour that come knocking at our doors,
how many of US use up the twelve hours
in the pursuit of schemes whose one pur-
pose is for self and sell alone. Busy we
NAV be, but so busy with the affairs OF self
that we have no time to spend for the COM
mon good, for the needs of man.. or the
glory of God. Twelve hours! and all OF
them strangled upon the altar of self-not
one given up to God, to wing its way up,
ward like incense Before the eternal throne!
Look back upor the week Lat Is gone:
with it's treasury Of hours, and what record
have they left upon the tablets of the soul!
Eow many hours of last week witnessed
YOU on your knees before God? How many
hours did you give to prayer? How many
hours did you give to studying the Bible!
How many to thinking thoughts Of love
and translating them into deeds OF kind;
ness? How many to crucitying self and
enthroning Christ? How many? Perhaps
not even one. And yet on these hours we
--z l,.l1,-~ nho roatar fNr ntprnlfy. 0nt or
these hours is growing that immortal self
with which at last we must stand before
the Judgment seat Of God. Twelve hours
in the day to work out your salvation, and
how many men are using these twelve
hours in working out their perdltion!
How, then, are we going to redeem our
Gays, make the most OF those twelve hours,
so that at last no upbraiding memory shall
recall them with sorrow end shame!
I would not be so foolish as to say that
| this power to use time Alright means that
we are to fill up each separate hour with
some determined, conscious effort. mat
would be impossible, and, even If 1t were
possible, it would turn us into self.con'
scious prigs and moral pedants. You cam
not detach every hour and say, as franklin
said in his diary, that this hour will be de-
voted to such an. such a duty, that nc ;
to some other duty, and so on. That would
destroy a great deal of the inspiration OF
life and would turn existence into a grind
ing macline. No, the hours :1e to be re-
deemed, not so much by what we DO IN
| them as by the spirit we bring to them, by
the temper in which we ne them. Let
every day be begun with its season OF spe.
| cial prayer. Let it have its moments shut
| off for communion with God. And then
these moments, however brief, Of conse-
Grated prayer, will give a tonic to the rest
| of the day -hich will make impossible tnat
| hippant dissipation OF time which IS so
%ruinous to character. .
There are two things that this spirit OF
prayer will produce in our use OF the
| twelve hours in the day. First, prayer
produces a sense of urgency, a spirit OF
haste, if you like, but not a spirit OF hurry.
1t intensifes the thought that time IS short
and yet enough for each one OF US to 40
something for God. 1t is that feeling OF
urgency in regard to each day as it comes
that it should leave the record OF some:
thing ATTEMPTED, something given Tor GOD
| and our fellow men, that gives richness to
life, q beauty to character, a sunny ra'
dance to the soul, that makes earth the
threshold Of heaven. Nothing is more dis
! gushing than to meet people who SIMPLY
loaf through life, without any sense OF III.
gency. AS the saying goes, they DO NOT
care whether school keeps or not. They
| are not worried about the --orld's necessi.
ties. What we want is this sense OF VI.
cency. Time is short, and yet long enough
with prayer to do something that will
abide when we have passed away. Thai 10
the first thing that prayer brings to the
twelve hours o. the day.
The second thing is a sense of calmness,
a spirit of serenity. How often we iret
and worry beneath the pressure OF life!
The friction of care reduces the effective.
ness Of our energy. Many men are wearing
themselves out before their time, simply
because they have this hallucinatlon tnat
there is not time enough. They get into a
fever of worry because the days are too
short. But prayer brings to US the thought
that God has given us time enough, and all
! He asks from us is to live and work by the
| day. In His service we are onl- day labor
| ers, With tomorrow we have nothing t6
do. The command is, go, work to-day"
and the promise is, II will pay you a penny
a day." Gods wages are paid, not by the
month nor the week, but by the day. Each
day brings its duty, but each day brings
it's grace and strength and blessing as we'll:
Build a little fence Of trust
Around to-day.
Fill the pace with loving Work,
And therein stay.
LOOh HUI LulSuBu Ia
Upon tomorrow;
God will help thee beac what comes
OF JOY or sorrow"
With some of us here this evening the
day Of life is young. The morning light
still lends freshness to your youthful ar.
| dor. But with Others Of rs it is already
the eleventh hou-, the eleventh hour IN
life's busy day. Although we know it not,
the dusk of time IS falling fa:;. The twi.
light of our years s deepening and high up
in the belfly of the soul :,
"The curfew tolls the knell of passing day"
And yet through the silence OF this eiev.
enth hour, throug. the Swallowed market
| place of your life's activities, you may hear
| tonight the voice of infinite love and ten.
derness calling, and calling yet again:
"Why stand ye here all he day idle" 1t
is the eleventh hour, and Christ claims that
eleventh hour. Redeem the time in His
service. Consecrate it to His glory, and
You will in nowise lose your reward. To-
day if We will hear His voice-and remem'
| Der, There are twelve hours in the day."