The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1909-01-14

eFA A German is never in a hurry, but he does IS much as
an American, and does it better and more thoroughly and with less "Tencn
10 himself and to other people. We call him phegmatic, which means II
properly understood, that he is to sue g. degree master OF himself lat ne
can cover a grea deal OF ground without going all to pieces in the process
. say mt Germany is still to a considerable extent the worlds
IN all matters of profound thought that Germany is rapidly oVerakng Eng
land and America in the field of industrial competition, and when it comes to
a question of military genius and preparation Germany would quite likely be
able to whip all the rest of Europe.
But the most serious feature of fenzed American activity is not that W 70
are not doing as good and solid work as would be accomplished we're our &C.
ne people N that tumutuous condition that tends to render them insensbe
to m influence except such as emanate from the field OF material interest
and ambition. f t
This is not a season when men ire deeply medtatng, it is not a season
when men are praying And that is OF simply because they arr in too much
of a hurry to think or pray, but because their strain and distraction destroy
then capacity for reflection and devotion; and material results all u country
through, are being purchased att e expense If physical exhaustion, lnteuee-
taI confusion, moral debility and spiritual steriitE
Everybody deprecates this condition of things, but everybody Dr. almost
everybody gives way to it. We have acquired the habit of being n a hurry.
II las become a k1nd of second natur with us to d. as much a W car DO
naturally and then to add another stint to it and to hold or watch in our
hands while we are doing it. The shortening of the time by n hour for
running a. steamer from New York ito Queenstown sends a thrill through the
entire body of what W re call modern civilization.
Civilization is ne of the severest diseases from which the rae is suffer.
1ng.@And the Nationality of the situation is evidenced by the TACT that the
the severer the tension the less there is to show for it in the way of comfort
and satisfaction. In point of hustle and nervous perturbation, Heaven
were to be like New York Dr. almost any American cty-except perhaps, Phil
adelphia-we should pray to be et somewhere else.
1t is lot work, even hard work, that puts people out of sympathy with the
things that are finest and best. Work nationally INDUCED in is a means of
grace. but frenzy is a kind of interior cataclysm that knocks everything out
of place and involves men in uninteignIe d unproductive confusion. Chris
tans, in particular, ought to set the example of reservfng to themselves suf
hcient leisure and maintaining in their souls and atmosphere of quiet to ma
BILE them to come often into fellowship with God.
The spirit of the times is in these respects bad. You know it. The en-
forced and nervous pressure isd disastrous so far as relates to what is best in
life and finest in the individual soul. Christianity r@ in successful revolt
against Pagansm. Now the temper of todays spirit in all this matter of
nervous hustle and constituencies rush is pagan, as truly 81 as though it
were being practsed in old Borneo n Madagascar. And it is for the church,
and for Christians and or o to lead off in n odfashioned apostolic revolt
mode IF life whose very qutetnegs shall carry in it something of the spirit of
Jesus. a t.-