Wisdom Vault — onlinknow.co.za

TIME AND ITS USES. THE commodity of which every man has the least, and, generally speaking, wastes the most, is Time. When we consider how small is the portion allotted to each of us, we cannot but wonder at the carelessness with which men expend it.

Of all the trite themes touched by moralists and poets, the tritest is the shortness of life. Life, we are told, is a bubble, a shifting dream, a thing of nought, evanescent as a morning mist, uncertain as a young maid's promise, brittle as a reed ; and yet men proceed to deal with it as if it were inex- haustible as the widow's cruse of oil, as if it were as sure and stable as the foundations of the everlasting hills.

There is something very curious and very pitiable in this. When we see the waste of time which goes on around us, we cannot but marvel whether the teaching of sages and, divines, and the les- sons of centuries of experience, have been of any avail ; whether men have even yet learned to realize how precious a thing it is, how solemn a responsibility it brings with it, how great a trust it puts into their hands.

Does this waste arise from want of thought, or from want of a sense of duty ? The two causes are closely connected, and may very well exert a " TIME AND ITS USES. combined influence. It is difficult to believe that the great majority of time wasters are inspired by feelings of reckless- ness and desperation ; are in a feverish hurry to consume as rapidly and as waywardly as possible the precious treasure committed to their charge.

Their folly is doubtless due to an unwillingness or an inability to reflect, and to the absence of high purposes and lofty motives. In most cases they have not been taught how to value time or how to use it. What they should do with that which is their real wealth, our children never learn.

We provide them with instruction in the "vari- ous branches of a polite education ; " we open up to them the regions of art and science ; we guide them sedulously in the flowery paths of literature ; but we do not teach them how to employ and economize their time.

We don't impress upon them the value of the minutes : " Take care of the minutes, and the days will take care of themselves." It is astonishing how much " raw material " is allowed to run to waste in every school. Precious quarters of an hour are thrown aside which might be turned to excellent account ; and thus the young grow accustomed to a thoughtless and unprofitable expendi- ture.

They find, too frequently, the same waste at home. Time is squandered before and after meals, in the morning, in the evening, up-stairs and down-stairs, in the bedroom, and the dining-room, and the drawing-room ; and at the end of each day the burden is, "

This should have been done, and has been left undone ; that should have been remembered and has been forgotten ; but never mind, we'll make up for lost time to-morrow ! Yes, to-morrow ! We venture to say that no other word in our language has to answer for so much sin and folly, for so many broken vows, so many blighted hopes, TIME AND ITS USES. » SO many neglected duties, so many wrecked lives.

For the •worst of it is, "to-morrow" never comes. It is always "to- day ■• and " yesterday." The yesterday we can never recall ; can never take up and absorb into to-day. When once it is dead, let it lie. There is nothing more to be done but to shed a tear on its grave, and turn to the to-day.