The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1921-01-20
OPPORTUNITIES

Tie Sdu COIlISSSlOu 10, ain UuSy-
Some. are busy in politics, or pleasure
or business or may be leading others
into the church rather than to CHRIST.
Some neglect this great work through
pressure of business. Busy they are,
yet do not remember their special
charge. There may be nothing wrong
wrong when it leads US to neglect
duty, and if the life is sacrificed be-
cause of neglect, the advantage gained
by other activities will be of no value
whatever.
Difficulties in the way of meditation
and prayer may be created by many
claims on our activities.
The effect of frivolity leads us to
neglect this duty. You never know
where to find some people. Their
character is indeterminate. They are
not well informed. They have no per-
sistence. Life is frittered away; you
scarcely know how. Each day brings
SOIuSlIlllS 1OI IIlClIl W uO lOI
something to think of for their spirit
ual good, but it falls back into dark
ness. So it comes daily until at last
the days merge into eternity and they
must say: "The harvest is past, the
summer is ended and we are not
saved"
Christians, many of them, are not
working for the Master. o, careless
ones, neglect not duty, but let there
be decision at once.
The result of neglect is and ever will
be lamentable-yes, awful. 1t is be-
yond our influence to recall; it is be-
yond hope, and if lost it is beyond all
possibility of recovery-beyond Chris
tian exort. This should cause sorrow
and self-condemnation. We might ar
que that in a sense at least, the plea
, was justifiable, for life is busy. Look
at humanity rushing down the thor
oughfares of our cities and you will
see that men are busy. The existence
of modern life seems to necessitate
this. The man who would accomplish
anything worth while must be busy.
Nature is busy. The wheels of her
workshop are never idle. The sun, the
tides, the winds, life and death, the
changing seasons, the planets in their
ceaseless rounds; yea, in the heavenly
city itself, there is sceaseless activity.
"The angels rest not day or night"
filling heaven with the harmonies of
their song or winging their way throu
space to bring comfort or protection
to the children of men.
In our illustration of l Kings 2O:4O,
it was not the fact that he was busy
that counted; it was "here and there"
intimating the desultory and unsatis-
factory kind Of BUSINESS in which so
many waste their days and miss their
chance for good.
1t is busy idleness, not busy indus
try of the thoughtful and high pur-
posed man. This serious trihing, this
spending of our energies on lesser and
lower objects and so withdrawing
them from higher, truer and more
lasting occupations accounts for half
the failures of life. They lack a con-
tinuous purpose, true and worthy OBJ
ject, purpose that will unity our
actions and give our energies and life
real strength that insures success.
The man in life who attempts to sail
his ship without strong and consis-
tent purpose, without the compass of
high and worthy object, will be tossed
hither and thither on the waves of
every chance pleasure or fancy or ca
price that he meets; will ever reach
a haven of success, but will add his
life to the dreamy wrecks of wrecked
lives with which the shores of time are
streWn.
Busy here and there is spending our
energies and wasteing our time on I'M
worthy objects, and this is the sad ex-
cuse men are giving for missing their
chance of eternal life.
Of those who fail to accept the
offer of salvation, there are probably
not many who do so by deliberate and
set purposes They put off this free
offer of grace, the pressing invitation,
the gentle pleading of their Divine
Savior; they do not determinedly
choose the sentence of eternal loss
they postpone them, and yet their act
is deliberate one, at least it is will
full. Their life compared with the in
finite relations of heaven and the is
sues of eternity is full of solemn
trifies.
The world is full of passing pleas
ures; ambitions mock the soul; hopes
fade in the presence of DEATH Even
nobler occupations are unblessed of
God, because not glorifed by any
thought of His will. 1t is this, the be-
ing so busted with the affairs of time
and sense as to neglect the graver
issues of eternity--it is this form of