The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-01-27
Rest And Relaxation
 For All Men Favored
Rev. Dr.. John C. Walker Claims Concentration on
 Essentials one of Life's Greatest Lessons

one of the greatest lessons in life is the matter of concentration on the essentials, stated Rev. Dr. John c. Walker, Second Congrega- tional Church pastor, yesterday morning in his sermon, This One Thing I Do.'
 pr. Walker said in part:
 Show me the men who are out standing in the various walks of life and nine times out of ten you have men who have given their best efforts, their keenest interest, their utter concentration to the tasks they have had in mind. I think that very often young men are deceived by the leisure that some successful men seem to have at their disposal. happen to know more or less well man who is the head of one of the largest corpora tions in the United States. He used to be neighbor of ours. was sur- prised that he seemed to have so much tmie to go and come. Well he has leisure now but the story is he burned the midnight oil in the days when he was working his way to the top. He did day and a half's worth of work every day at the of- flee and then slaved over com mercial law at night. You can read his story in Fortune Magazine now and he goes and comes as he pleas eS. He does not have to concentrate now to the same degree or over long hours. Some young man in that great firm may succeed my friend in his responsibilities some day in the future but I think we can fore- cast that it will not be a playboy but rather man who, like the present incumbent, has toiled hard and even fiercely at his task.
 Relaxation Needed
 We are not saying that a man shouldn't have hobbies, that the only road to achievement is found along one single track. There ought to be change and contrast, rest and relaxation, in every normal mans life. Some very successful men have had very interesting hobbies and have been all the more success ful on account of their hobbies. It is all a matter of proportion and balance. That great brain surgeon would need something to relieve the tension after morning in the op- erating room. Those valiant Brit ons who are under almost daily bombardment need to read Agatha Christie and P. G. Wodehouse and the like between bombings if they are going to stand up to their or deal and quit themselves like men. Paul himself was a tentmaker as well as a preacher of the Gospel His craft was not only means of livelihood when he needed it as such, it must also have been a mea,ns of relief and release when he was overburdened with the weight of his heavy responsibilities. If the whole truth were known about the ministry of Jesus I sus- pect that we should learn that He turned aside on many occasions, ofttimes to pray, but sometimes to pick up carpenters tools that He loved. A man who has followed a trade or craft will always go back instinctively to his old work when the burdens of his new task become too heavy. With the tragedy and the mystery of the crucifixion heavy upon them the disciples went back to their old trade with the fishing and it was while they were fishing that the resurrected Christ came and manifested Himself to them.
 AS Christians we need not pride ourselves on too much breadth and tolerance. There are lots of things we do not know, do not need to know about life. There are great areas of life we can quite properly leave unexplored and unexamined. There is a narrwoneSS which befits the man who follows Christ. The closer we can come to the word and example of the apostle, 'one thing l do," the better Christians we shall be. You have all had the ex- perience at one time or another of looking out over a broad plain and marking the meanderings of some broad river. Such river makes a pleasant picture on a summer day. But some such rivers create sad havoc in time of flood. What do the engineers do with such a river? They cut a straight channel and they build up high dikes on either side. They bring the river under discipline and control. With that