Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1905-01-14
Calnnase
Sermon
BY Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, d. d.

Los Angeles, Cal., Jan. Sine uay
lost by solar reckoning in westerly
Toyace around the world furnishes the
preacher in this sermon with an illus
iration by which. as he shows. days
are continually being lost in the voy-
age of life; text. Ecclesiastes ix. 10,
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do.
do it with thy might"
What tragic significance there may
be in that little word LOST We hear
it in the despairing cry of the miners
starving in the Death valley of the
Mojave desert. We hear il in the bit
ter cry of the travellers bewildered in
midwinter on the Montana prairies. 1t
is shrek of horror on the lips of the
poor children on the General Slocum
burning on the sound of New York.
1t is cry of dismay from the crew OF
the Royal Charter wrecked on the
Irish coast. 1t is cry of agony from
the man In the upper story of the
Windsor hotel in New York. whose
body with suppliant arms stretched in
entreaty to the firemen falls into the
seething furnace. HE is lost"' we
cry as one of our number slides over
the edge of the Alpine glacier. HE is
LOST we said in sorrow when our
friend. the Rev. Dr. Robert b. Taylor
of San Diego. made a false step from
the deck of the sailboat and sank to
rise no more. Lost" cries the mother
frantically pacing the streets looking
g.. a. rs.te
the gambler who has ventured his last
coin on the turn of the wheel. Horror
and dismay and agony and despair are
heard in that thrilling word.
There is another kind of loss of which
! want to speak to you today. At the
beginning of Il new year ii is impressed
upon us with solemn import. Looking
backw over the year that is gone,
how sad is the thought of our lost
days. Days there have been in which
we might have done work for God
which we have suffered TO pass away
in idleness. days which can never be
recalled which we have frittered away
uselessly.
We all know the old adage that time
is money" We are all ready to grant
that this axiom Is true. IF a man has
no regard for the time of other men,"
wrote Horace Greeley. why should he
have for their money? What is the diff
ference between stealing mans hour
and stealing his So? There are many
men To whom each hour of the business
day is worth more than So" But. though
time means money to most of us. time
should mean more than that 1t is a
sacred trust committed to us. for the
right use of which we shall have to
give account. Little enough is the por-
ton we can devote TO our Masters serv-
ice. If we waste 1t we defraud God.
Losing the Minutes.
We waste these days simply by vast
ing here minute and there a minute.
This thought was brought home to me
In my tour around the world In 1893
my father and ! left our homes in the
east and started ON our journey. We
followed the course of the setting sun.
We Travelled from New York to Pitts
burg. from Pittsburg to Chicago, from
Chicago to St. Louis, from st. Louis to
Denver. and then to San Francisco. We
ZigZagged up and down. but always
kept pushing toward the west At San
Islands. Then we went on TO Samoa.
Sometimes we would stop two or three
days In town, sometimes full week.
1t took us seven long months TO encir-
Gle the globe. Each day, as a rule. was
for us not twenty-four hours. but twen-
ty-four hours and ten or fifteen or even
thirty minutes long. OF course you
grasp my meaning. We were lengthen-
ing our days. because we were travel
Ing westward. How were we TO straight
en- out our calendar? This was the way
we did ii. One night we went to bed on
Wednesday. The next morning when
we awoke it was Friday. There. In the
middle of the Pacific ocean, we lost a
full day. How did that day disappear?
As | sat that Friday morning. after
Thursday was dropped out of my cal
endar. said TO myself: Yes. yes. This
Is the way many days are lost for
Christ In our great journey of life.
Here it is n few minutes wasted for
Christ in the morning. There it is a
few minutes wasted at noon or at
eventide or at night These few min
utes do not seem to amount to much at
the time, but in the aggregate they
make up whole days, weeks, months
and perhaps whole years of wasted
time that might have been spent in
service for the Master"
How many days that might have
been given to Christ have we lost?
How do we lose them? First, by not
starting the work of each day prompt
ly and theoretically as we ought to do.
by oversleeping in the morning or by
dawdling through our dressing. by lin
gering too long at the breakfast table.
by yawning and stretching and idly
building air castles in bed after the
rising bell has rung, by ignoring the
get up" call, which King Solomon in
the sixth chapter of Proverbs pounds
upon every bedroom door when he
calls: How long wilt thou sleep, o
sluggard! When wilt thou arise out