Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1904-12-24


In vain to sorrowl
Only the key OF yesterday
Unlocks tomorrow"
n Cd alone, Who sees the end from
VI the beginning, Who knows our
down sittings and our uprisings, Whose
searching eye penetrates the human
heart deeper than mans eye can ever
go, is able in infinite wisdom and love
to aid man In the highest and best use
of time. AS we begin the day, God
knows how many hours are TO pass
into our hands, and He alone can
teach us how to use those hours to
the best good of man, and to the hon
oring OF God. A day thoughtfully,
prayerfully begun Is more than half
conquered. A day feverishly and has
thy plunged into is filled with the pit
falls OF failure and disappointment
into which are dumped many pre-
cious moment and hour. IL the Spirit
of God SO ruled in the life as to make
1t sensitive to the Divine wifi, and the
moments were used as He would have
them, life would take on new meaning;
business, social and domestic affairs
would be dignified with higher ideals
and holier methods, and the hours Of
recreation, the play time which is es-
sential to healthy, vigorous life, would
be wholesome and ennobling. The
prayer of our text is justified by the
innumerable promises Of God that He
Will give wisdom, that He will guide
and direct. James sums IL all up by
saying: IF any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God, that giveth to all
men literally, and upbraideth not; and
II shall be given him. 1t is the priv
ilege of Gods children to draw on the
banking house of God for unlimited
supplies of wisdom. No check proper
ly drawn and presented Is ever dis
honored. Man may have all the help
he needs in wisely and faithfully US
ing the time as it passes. And in the
purpose and will of God each moment
may become studded with priceless
gems of enduring brilliancy and beau
ty. Using the time as God would
have us is building for eternity.
w ARE all familiar with the story
w OF the lady, who, floating over
the sea in boat, was suddenly walk
ened to discover that her magnificent
necklace of pearls had become unfas-
tened by some accident and the loose
end hanging down in the water was
dropping the precious pearls one by
one into the unrecoverable depths. So
with us. We let the pearly moments
slip into the unredeemable past. May
we awaken to a sense of our loss. The
lines of Susan Coolidges THE Lost
Days." come to me:
"As. each in turn. the Old Years rise and
grid item ny TO go.
me days. which were kerr servitors, press
round them sad and slow,
The happy DAYS. the EarG days. the bitter
4and the Gear.
And they freEt Us with Teproachful eyes
as they wend forth with the year
1.-THE lost days which except for us so
blessed might have been,
Blighted by our perversity, or Swallowed
by our sin
The vexing days, the moody days, the days
Of stress and pain,
The shrill, perverse. unhappy days, we face
them all again.
"'Come back. dear days we cry; we will
atone for all the wrong;
Your emptiness shall be made full, your
discords turned to song
Only the echo answers; all vain the griev-
ing sore.
The past is past. the dead Is dead. the
chance returns no more.
but, as the sweetest hopes are born of
sharpest suffering,
And midnight is the womb OF day. and WIN
ter OF the spring,
So, winning blessing from despair, lost op-
portunity
May serve to make the fruitful soil Of har-
vests yet to be.
For each day heavy made by US. some
day may gather wings,
Be every failure that we mourn the germ
of happier things,
And all the sadness OF the past the seed OF
hope newborn,
Till out Of the defeated night bursts the tri-
umphant morn.
1.-THE Old Years, stern, memorable. may go
their ways in vain:
The days we marred and mourn shall smile
II from their persisted pain
Distills perfume, shines a CLEAN to make
the future way
The brighter and the easier because OF
yesterday"
A MOTHER thought which we would
"A emphasize in connection with this
natter Of the use of time is the inn
portance of gathering the odd mo-
ments as they pass. In large endeav-
ors and purposes We may be splendid
ly working out the will and purpose
of God. We may be using the time in
the wisest and best way possible, and
yet, while our eyes are on the larger
interests, we may be letting the frag-
mentary moments slip unused away,
He Who told His disciples to gather
up the fragments after the 5000 had
been fed, so values the precious mo-
ments that He would have us gath
er up the fragments that lie about I'M
used. In the palace Of industry OF
one of the worlds great expositions