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 TIE lives and property OF
those who have intrusted themselves TO the
railway companies for safe TRANSFORMATION
Ana when man either through careless
ness or wiilfulness disregards a signal he
null:fies the Noper working out of a care
fuily planned schedule and often brings
terrible consequences upon himself and 9th
ers.
We are all quick to condemn the rccreant
engineer or switchman, but when il comes
TO 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-
sembles railroad track. We start at a
given point and are headed toward the ter
minus at the other end of the line but as
we rush along how numerous are the
chances for derailment and disaster, YeC
as we speed forward there are placed along
the track at certain intervals warning and
admonishing signals We are told when 10
SLOW up and when to quicken our no 90 ana
when TO halt altogether There is one cIass
OF signals for children and another for
young men and young women and another
Iof persons in middle life and stilI another
Tor the aged. But no period of life is with
out its signals.
The warnings that relate TO our physi-
cal Well-being are many and constant The
papy toddles up 20 the stove, puts its an-
ger on the hot cover and cries ON u,,
pain. But that experience serves as !.
signal 10 remind the child perhaps for All
time that stoves with fires in them are al
ways not and are always to be let alone
through the limbs and bodies of older peo-
pie dart now and then significant pains or
they find themselves seepless at night or
craving strong stimulants or irritable and
fretrul: Signals they are which nature
oVerdriyen or neglected hangs out to tell
us that we are 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 ii 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 mingle with our fellowmen We
get a 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 are too socially am
bilious. Somebody jokes you about your
fondness for somebody elses wife. It's
only a joke made in good temper and Vet
it sets you thinking and you become more
circumspect.
What signals does a man get from time
to time touching the state and prospects
of his soul? Some Sunday morning your
why don't you ever go TO church with us?
The blunt question rather startles YOU and
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.
1t Is possible that the minister is becoming
dull, but II is more likely that your MIND
is so crusted over with schemes for getting
rich that the arrow from the preachers
CULVER cannot pierce TO the spot where you
really live. Nothing is more pathetic IN
human life than the increasing iusensibh-
ity of many men absorbed In business and
pleasure TO the appeal of higher interests.
their unsusceptibility 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 communi-
cate with US who has more knowledge than
we and who wants to help US avoid pitfalls
and snares. He knows the track ahead OF
us as cannot know 1t and he would save
us from plunging headlong to wreck and
ruin. THE PARSON.