The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-01-15

at neon er at eventide ef at night TheHe few minutes does nat sepm to amount te
 much at the time, but in the aggregate
 they make Up whole days, weeks, months
 and perhaps whole years of wasted tims
 that might have been saeat in service for the Master
 How many days that might have been given to tho Christ have we lest9 How
 do We lose them7 First by net starting
 the work Of eaeh day promptly and ener- | Eetipaly Us we ought to do, by over
 sleeping in the morning or by dawdllns
 through our dressing, by lingering too | long ht the breakfast tahle, by yawnng
 and stretching and Idly building mir cas-
 ties in bed after the rising bell has runR,
 by Ignoring the ''gnt up call which King
 solomon in tho sixth chapter of proverbs
 pounds upon every bedroom door when
 he calls; How long wilt thou sleep, Q
 sluggard9 When wilt thou arise out of l thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, little
 slumbar, | littla folding of tho hands to
 sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one
 that traveleth and thy want ss an armed
 man." Lord Wilmington once declared
 that the cause of the failure of the fam | ous English statesman, the Duke of ] Newcastle, that he never started the days work on time "He loses half an hour
 every morning and runs after 1t during l the whole day without being able to
 overtake it." Many men and women are
 wasting precious days that might be
 used for Christ by not getting up on
 time and systematically and promptly
 meeting all demands as they come up
 for settlement
 Wasting Time.
 I This warning against the wasted min l utes of the early morning Is far more
 necessary than some of us have hereto l fore fha ao,.Ixx
 minutes of the morning we waste the very best minutes of the whole day. The l old proverb says; Beauty sleep is al- ways taken before 12 o'clock at night
 Every hour of sleep before midnight is
 worth two taken in bed after that time"
 Along exactly the same line of thought
 say, Every hour of work done before
 or 10 o'clock in the morning is worth l at least two hours of work ofter 12 | o'clock noon." There is something about
 the ozone of the early atmosphere, some
 thing about the exhilaratio of the early morning that arouses us and fires us | and drives us on and clarifies our brains l so that we can accomplish at least double the work in one half hour then
 than in any half hour of the afternoon l or evening. Early to bed and early
 to rise makes man healthy, wealthy
 and wise" has just as much truth tackled
 on the last injunction as on to the first | 1 workers of the world have been early i risers. While other men were in bed 1 they were at their desks or in their lab- 1 oratories or down at their offices or out making their investigations. Harry Lee l once said to his great leader, the father l of his country, Sir, we soldiers are ] amazed at the vast amount Of work you l can accomplish Sir" answered Gen.
 George Washington, T do what do be-
 cause I rise every morning at o'clock 1 and a great deal of my work Is done
 while others are asleep" How did Wal 1 ter Scott write his many books? He rose
 every morning at 5. He then cleared
 away his correspondence. He laid out 1 his plans of work, and "by breakfast
 time" he said, T have broken the neck l of the days work" Frederick the Great
 did not need any one to describe for him 1 the rising sun. During all the long seven years war, which has been the marvel 1 of European strategists for a century
 and a half he saw with his own eyes the sun rise every morning. But, though the | great work of nearly all our great work
 CTS was due to the fact that they were
 early risers. many of us finger in our
 beds in the morning just as long as pos i sible. Instead of living up to the old proverb we say. Late to bed and late
 to rise, and we fritter away the late
 hours of the night on doing nothing, just l | in bed.
 A Family History.
 What time does your rising bell l ring?" I ask oh" you answer, we
 do not have any rising bell; we get up when we are slept out" What time
 does your breakfast bell ring?' We do
 not have any breakfast bell" you an-
 swer. When we are slpet out we get | up and dress and go to breakfast. That ic ha ct of 1a n
 That is part of the history; it is not all I I will tell you the rest of it. When you | awake, you can get up and dress, but | you do not all dress at the same time. | First the father has his breakfast Then one or two or the children struggle down. | Then the mother comes last, the l elder sister. Then the breakfast, which ought to take just twenty-five minutes. drags out over an hour. The children run off to school. The father hurries away to business. The servant girls l dishes are not washed for an hour and a half later. There has been no time for prayers. Everything in the home goes topsy turvy merely because the family did not rise together, eat to- l gether, pray together and go to work | at the same time. The wasted minutes l of the early morning are directly re- | sponsible for whole days and weeks and months of life wasted for the service l or the Master. 'Ine AuStf1anS lOSt the
 battles of Lodi and Arcola," said Ma ! roleon "because they did not appreciate | the value of five minutes" The reason | many men waste whole days of lfe's service that might have been consecrat- | ed for Christ is because they do not ap- | preciate the value of the sacred min l utes in the early hours of the morning. Utilize the Minutes.
 l How do we diminish our service for ] Christ by lost days? By not improving | the fragments of time that lie scattered
 about Us during the days work, but not utilizing those extra few minutes here
 and there to fit ourselves intelligently by
 reading and studying for the work God 1 has given us to do, by supposing that l God will let Us interpret the passage, | Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and | ye shall find; knock, and it shall be | opened to you" when our lips are dumb, | when our feet are palsied and know nothing about the right paths to tread, | when our hands are helpless in their | stupidities Can the blind lead the | blind? Can something come from | nothing? Can the little child run
 and leap like a fawn unless she has
 been first taught to creep and to walk? We must have intelligence in the di-
 rection of our life or else all our work | will go for naught. What would you think if one summer day 1 should walk | up on the captains bridge of a steamer | and say: Captain, l would like to take
 charge of this steamer Would the