The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-07-01


| blest tasks Of life, if we would but seek
| grace to use them Alright. "Redeeming the
time. says the apostle. How many of us
ask Gods grace each day we rise, to use
the twelve hours Alright. for His glory and
for the benefit of our fellow men?
DO we. realize this privilege Of twelve
hours day sufficiently? / am quite sure
if we did we should not say so often as we
do that we have no time. We should not
waste so much time in talking platitudes
about the shortness of time. We should be
up and doing. living life in earnest. ana
not in spasms Vet think how many
squauder these precious twelve hours day
by day. Think, for example. OF the hours
Of idle reyerles useless, aimless dreaming,
respectable loaiing, that many OF lis give
ourselves up to throughout the day 1T is
not perhaps that our thoughts are vicious
or impure. but simply that our minds get
into state of suspended animation, dur
ing which an uncurbed fancy makes havoc
of our will power, paralyzes our energy,
and robs lis of the days mcst precious OPP
portuhticg. Meditation, indeed, is not
d,eness--quiet, restful thought, in which
the soul dreams its visions for service, is
not wasted time But the mistake SO
many of us make is that our moments of
meditation are lost in hours of idle dream
ing which leads us nowhere save only into
the mazes of selfish indulgence and senti-
mental fancy Twelve hours in the day,
and how many lost in foolish dreaming?
Think, too, what waste IN gossip, In
needless, thoughtless talk. 1t is not that
we are deliberate scandal-mongers, but
simply that to pass The time we indulge in
kind of talk about our neighbors and
friends, the results of which for evil arc
greater than we may ever know. Who can
estimate the regulations that have been
wrecked, the lives of promise that have
been crippled, the usefulness for good in
the world that has been checked by the
retailing of evil SANDER throughout the
twelve hours of the days.
Once more, think of the hours consumed
in the pursuit of merely selfish pleasure.
Indifferent to the bitter cry OF outcast hui
manity, callous to the great moral needs of
the hour that come knocking at our doors,
how many of lis use up the twelve hours
in the pursuit of schemes whose one pur-
pose is for self and sell alone. Busy we
may 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 sclf-not
one given up to God, to wing its way up
ward like incense before the eternal throne!
Look back upon the week nat is gone,
with its treasury of hours, and what record
have they left upon the tablets of the souly
low many hours Of last week wi messed
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 tc thinking thoughts of love
and translating them into deeds of kind
ness? How man. TO crucltying self and
enthroning Christ? How many? Perhaps
not even one. And yet on these hours we
are building character for eternity; out OF
these hours is growing that immortal self
~, To- - - stu, hpt
the judgments 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 perdition:
How, then. are we gong to redeem our
Gays make the lAost OF those twelve hours,
so that at last no upbraidng memory shall
recall them with sorrow End shame:
! would not be so foolish as to say that
this power to use time aright means that
we are to fill un each separate hour with
some determined conscious effort. That
would be impossible, and. even if 1T were
possible, it would turn us into self-con-
sciou3 prigs anG moral pedaats. You can
not detach every hour and say, as Franklin
said in his diary, that this hour will be de-
voted to such an such 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 grind
ing macl inc. No, the hours crc 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 use 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 tonic to the rest
of the day rhich will make impossible that 4
fippant 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 spirit OF hurry.
1t intensiies the thought that time is short
and yet enough for each one OF us to do
something for God 1t ls that feeling of |
urgency in regard to each day as it comes
that it should leave the record of some
thing attempted. something given for God
and our fellow men, that gives richness to |
life 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 ur- |
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 ur-
gency Time is short, and yet long enough |
with prayer to do something that will |
abide when we have passed ;way, That is |
the first thing that prayer brings to the
twelve hours of the day.
The second thing is a sense of caimness,
spirit of serenity How often we fret |
aud 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 hallucination that
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 front us is to live and work by the