The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-30

Those who use 1t wrongly.
 will speak to you another day on the question of reward that is contain ed in this Gospel, and of the great prob- lem that appertains to it. Today we will take up only these words: "The eleventh hour"
 The eleventh hour! Oh! How wish that the Master of Time would infuse into this assembly at this moment a breath of life, so that we should un- derstand what 1t is to hold in our hand only one drop of that time that falls from eternity and returns to eternity, but which we can utilize as 1t passes by!
 The eleventh hour, There are men who discount 1t. They look forward to 1t as though all the others did not exist. Thus, there are bad scholars who do all their work and learn all their lessons at the last moment there are bad workmen who waste their time, and then hurriedly and hastily begin their task and mix 1t all up at the last minute. So there are men who, all through their lifetime, dis count the last hour. They adorn 1t with a halo of its own. The other hours are lustreless; this one alone charms them. When 1t comes they will do this or that-in the evening of their days it will be like a golden ray reach ing up to the morning of their life, and they can already see themselves with their eyes fixed on the soft light of the end: All Is well that ends well.''
 My brethren, this mistake that con- sists in discounting the last hour Is not an isolated one that is peculiar to a few men. It Is a collective error-it has been put up as a dogma and has been taught The importance of the end has been so immensely exaggerated that there has often resulted a depreciation of the whole life to the profit of that eleventh hour.
 How many men have lived in the con- viction that 1t suffices that the last breath should be surrounded by a last formula, to make a fine life out of what has been very ugly one! That is dangerous state of mind. All the hours of our life are precious. To lose or neglect one is a want of respect toward the One who gave them all with the same love. The safest way is to use the hour that is passing at this mo- ment. To disdain it and to rely on the last hour is to leave hold of the sub stance for the shadow, to lose sure treasures for the sake of delightful im- ages.
 The eleventh hour, as much for our existence as for the idle schooboy or TOT the workman WnO IS careless or his time, the eleventh hour is full of uncertainty, of surprise and of dis turbance. Many events may prevent us from profiting by it. Things may happen that are quite different to what we expected, and may come up at that eleventh hour and thus prevent us from deriving from 1t what we expec- ted to derive. That hour may come as a thief in the night, so quickly, so unexpected, that we may know of its coming. Do not rely upon the eleventh hour.
 If there are men who rely upon the eleventh hour, there are others who hisdain 1t. Through a peculiar state of mind certain people only attach value to what they possess in quan- tity. They only like days in the series of days. they only care for a glass of water if 1t has been drawn from an overflowing spring. they only like money if there remains an enormous amount of it when they have used a little of 1t. They do not care to see who considers it a dishonor to take the last piece on a dish For such peo- pie, when there are only remnants re- men, when an hour comes that is only an hour or even the fragment of an hour, do nothing with it. If there were other hours to come after 1t they would take the trouble to utilize it. But 1t is only a remnant of time, and it passes by vain and fruitless. Thus in some schools when the holi- days draw near the pupils no longer