Milford chronicle., 1906-11-23

man in such situat'sa who. looking ~
the partner Of his Ire. feels no twinge
of an accusing conscience, has no recol-
lection of hours wasted away from
her and from his home ! wonder u
when we come to die some Of us viii
spend most of our time regretting the
evenings which we have spent away
from our children and from our dear
wives who have done SO much for MS:
Indeed. my BROTHER. do you not regret
even now the evenings You have spent
away from home?
''Where were you last night:" I ask.
ooh" you say. Just as I was finish
ing up my work at the store an old
college friend called me up ana said:
Jones. what are you going to Do to-
night? Come and take dinner with me-
at the hotel. Then we will go ont to
the theater.' As l had not seen him
for a long time, went" We'll. what
did you do the night before?" "Oh,
you ans Il always spend that
night each week at the lodge" well
what did you do the night before:
''Well." you say, Il had a business en-
gagement that night, l wanted one of
my customers to buy some goods 81
1 thought the best way to sell the.a
was to ask him down to the club
introduced him to some Of my friends
there and gave him a fine dinner /
got him feeling good. then ] clinched
the bargain that night and netted a
good sup by the deal Not bad
nights work for me, was it, Thus
you 20 on telling me how you spent
this night away from home and that
night and the other night. But"
ask. did you not spend any night at
home last week? Did you not give
your wife and children at least one
EVENING"" yes" you answer; Il was
home last Monday evening. I came
home SILK. l had caught a bad cold
at the store. / came home feeling
wretched. I intended to 90 out that
night. but a fearful rainstorm came
up. and my wife emphatically put her
foot down and forbade my going. But
1 did not see the children much that
night. / was too sick and felt too
miserable. Immediately after supper
my wife put me to bed and gave me
a lot Of hot drinks. and l got up a
good sweat and so I was able TO be
back at the store next morning.
What. out Of all last week have you
only spent one night at home, and that
was because YOU were too sick to go
out? You ought to be ashamed of
yourself. With such a wife and such
children can it be that you never re-
serve any evenings which you can
spend in their company?
True Development.
But | take a step farther and declare
that large per cent of your evenings
should be consecrated to direct service
to Jesus Christ. These should be the
sacred hours when you say, Lord. |
what wilt thou have me to doY" not
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do
for my own self or for my own fam
iIy?" You should say, Lord. what wilt
thou have me to do directly for thee"'
You know that the Lord commands us
to give tenth of our income to him.
But that is not enough. We must also |
give to him our time and our service. !
Most of us cannot give this time and |
service during the day. Those hours |
belong to our employer. Man goeth |
forth unto his work and to his labor |
until the evening" But we can give |
to Gods service part of our evenings. |
And we must give to him these hours |
if we are to do the work he wants us
to do.
But" you say, Il cannot understand
you Is not this inconsistent with your
advice to stay home with our families?
Now, how can visit hospitals and go
to sickrooms and look after the poor
unless I turn my back upon my familyf
Can man be in two places at the
same time? Can a farmer help neigh
Dor build his barn and pillow his own
fields on the same day? How can one
look after his own children and yet
associate with those who need help and |
who are not members Of his own fami- |
Iy?" I am glad you mentioned that.
want to talk. You say you are fami-
" man. You say you would be willing
10 give up certain evenings of your life
10 serve Christ if thereby you would
not have to neglect your home duties.
Go forth and invite to your own home
the young men and the young women
who are living in boarding houses. Ask
them sometimes to supper. Surround
them with the influences of your Chris
tian home. You cannot serve God bet
ter than by working for him in just
this way. I want to tell you the his
tory Of a noble Christian woman and
what she did in a city of the east.
This lady was not wealthy. She had
out little money and family of grow
ng children. She had to do her own
housework. Man may go forth into
work and to his labor until the even
ng, but this woman had to work in the
evenings as well. So she said to her
lie at 90, do IftfTo b11f fhat IiffIn I !