Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-01-13
Caln,ase
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talnaee, ID.

voyage around the world furnishes the
preacher in this sermon with AN illus.
tration by which. as he shows. days
are continually being lost in the voy-
age OF life; text, Ecclesiastes TX, 10,
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do,
do II with thy might"
What tragic significance there may
be In that little word ''Lostr' We hear
1t in the despairing cry of the miners
starving In the Death valley of the
Mojaye desert. We hear it 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. II is a 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 loStr' we
cry as one of our number slides over
the edge of the Alpine glacier. 'He is
lostp' we said in sorrow when our
friend. the Rev. DIR. Robert II. Taylor
of San Diego, made q false step from
the deck OF the sailboat and sank to
rise no more. LOST cries the mother
frantically pacing the streets looking
for her wandering child. "Lostr' cries
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.
ornfbo- L 90 rc..,, 80 ,,-,,;or,
10 speak to you today. At the
Of 4 new year il is impressed
with solemn import. Looking
I'd over the year that is gone,
uow sad is the thought of our lost
daysl Days there have been I'm 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. ''1f 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 n mans hour
md stealing his $52 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
sacred trust committed to us, for the
right use Of which we shall have to
give account. Little enough is the por-
don we can devote to our Masters serv-
Ice. If we waste it we defraud God.
Losing the Minutes
We waste these days simply by vast
Ing here minute and there minute
This thought was brought home to me
In my tour around the world. In 1893
my father and left our homes in the
cast 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
Francisco we set sail for the Sandwich
Islands. Then we went on TO Samoa.
Sometimes we would stop two or three
days I'm town. sometimes n full week.
1t took us seven long months to encir-
Gle the globe. Each day. as rule. was
Tor as not twenty-four hours. but twen-
ty-four hours and ten or fifteen or even
thirty minutes long. or 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 it. One night we went TO bed on
Wednesday. The next morning when
we awoke II was Friday. There. in the
middle OF the Pacific ocean, we lost a
full day. How did that day disappear?
AS l sat that Friday morning, after
Thursday was dropped out OF my cal
endar, said to myself: Eyes. yes. This
Is the way many days are lost for
Christ In our great journey OF life.
Here il Is few minutes wasted for
Christ In the morning. There 1t Is a
few minutes wasted Mt noon or at
eventide or at night These few min
utes do not seem 10 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
~ and enerSetically as we ought to do,
by oversleeping IN the morning or by
dawdling through our dressing, by lin
100 long at the breakfast table,
hing and stretching and idly
air castles in bed after the
DELL has rung, by ignoring the
mp" call. which King Solomon in
the sixth chapter OF Proverbs pounds
upon every bedroom door when he
calls: 'Hos long wilt thou sleep, o
sluggard? When wilt thou arise out
OF thy sleep? Yet little sleep, lit
tie slumber, little folding of the
hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty
come as one that traveleth and thy
want as an armed man." Lord Will
mington once declared that the cause
% the faiiu' OF the famous English
statesman, the Duke OF Newcastle,
was that he never started the days
work on time. HE loses half an hour
every morning and runs after 1t during
the whole day without being able to
oyertake it." Many men and women
are wasting precious days that might
be used for Christ by not getting up ON
time and starting the work of the day
on time and systematically and prompt
~ meeting all demands as they come
up for settlement
Wasting Time.
This warning against the wasted min
utes or the early morning is far more
necessary than some of us have here
tofore supposed. When we waste the
early minutes of the morning we waste
the very best minutes of the whole
day. The old proverb says: Beauty
sleep is always taken before IL 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 1 say, Every
hour or work done before o or 10
@o'cloclx I'm the u,orrins, a. ,,.o..l :.