Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-04
Sunday Morning Talk.
Running by the Signals.

| No railroad accidents are more lament
able or inexcusable than those arising from
| neglect of signals. For as our systems are
| organized today each trainman IS supposed
TO Know what each green light and each
red light and every other warning device
mean, and upon his prompt and thorough
obedience depend the lives and property or
| those who hive intrusted themselves to the
| railway companies for safe transportation
And when a man either through careless
| ness or Wlllfulness disregards a signal he
| nullhes the tEoper working out OF care
| FULLY planned schedule and often brings
| terrible. consequences upon himself and 9th
| ers.
We are all quick to condemn the recresnt
| engineer or switchman. but when IL comes
10 the sphere of our own lives we daily run
| by the signals with hardly a Thought OF
| what we are doing. The course of life re-
| sembes railroad track We start at a
gwen point and are headed toward the ter
| minus at the other end of the line hut a
We rush along how numerous are the
| chances for derailment and disaster, Ye-
as we speed forward there are placed along
/ the track at certain intervals warning and
| admenishing signals. We are told when 70
! $40" up and when to quicken our pace and
when TO halt altogether. There is one class
| OF signals for children and another for
| young men and young women and another
for persons in midd g life and stjll arotbs~
Tor the aged. Blu; no period OF life Is with
out its signals
Inc warnings t11t relate to orr
cdi Weil-belng are many and constant The
pabS toddles up 10 the stove, puts its fin
ger on the hot cover and cries our wttn
pam But that experience serves as a
signal TO remind the child PERHAPS for All
time that stoves with fires in them are al
ways hot and always to be let alone
Through the limbs and bodies of older neo-
pie dart now and then significant pains or
they find themselves sleepless at night or
craving strong stimulants or irritable and
lretful Signals they are which nature
oVerdrlven or neglected hangs out to tell
us that We doing violence TO our bodies
which are something more than so much
muscle. bone and tissue, but verltable tenn
pies of the Holy Spirit. The signals mean
that it Is time to slow up, to reconstruct
our methods, to consider whether we are
doing the fair thing by ourselves I'm point
OF diet, exercise and rest
AS We minge with our fellowmen we
get variety of helpful signals that Il
needed may lead Us to strlcter watch upon
habits and actions. An Unexpectedly large
bill comes in. Your feeling of irritation is
perhaps the token that you are living
beyond your means or are too socially am
bilious. Somebody jokes you about your
fondness for somebody else's wife. It's
only joke made in good temper and Vet
it sets you thinking and you become more
eircumspect.
What signals does a man get from time
to time touching the state and prospects
of his soul? Some Sunday morning your
little child comes to you and says. Papa,
why don't you ever go 10 church with us %
The blunt question rather startles you AMI,
instead of answering her directly, you re-
peat the question silently to yourself. Or
maybe you are a churchgoer but the ser
mons and the hallowed associations fail to
touch and inspire you they used to DO.
IT is possible that the minister is becoming
dull, but IT is more likely that your mind
is so crusted over with schemes for getting
rich that the arrow from the preacher
culver cannot pierce TO the spot where You
really live. Nothing is more pathetic IN
human life than the increasing iusensibk-
ity OF many men absorbed In business AMI
pleasure TO the appeal of higher interests.
their unsusceptibiltty to the higher forms
Of literature, music and art, their indiffer-
ence to Jesus Christ.
But in the gracious ordering OF life there
are signals all along the way And they
mean that some one is trying TO commune
cate with us who has more knowledge than
and who wants to help us avoid pitfalls
and snares. He knows the track ahead or
US as we cannot know IL and he would save
us from plunging headlong to wreck and
ruin. THE PARSON.