CHARACTER SHOWN IN THE USE OF TIME.
Character begins with a choosing between higher and lower things, but as it grows, and we have made certain of our choice of the higher, there is a new and more refined test in our choosing between richer and poorer. One of the signs of growth in character is the discovery that we now treat as essentials things that once seemed to be entirely optional, and things that formerly never occurred to us as a matter of conscience now touch us with the sense of shame that only downright sins used to bring. The number of possible sins increases as character increases, and, one after another, things that once we felt undisturbed about are slowly shading off into the things that we must let alone. The soul begins by obeying laws, but, if it is to be a rich soul, intimations and hints and suggestions from God’s Spirit come to take on all the authority that statutes used to have for us. So it is that an ordinary spirit, with no greater ambition than to balance the good and evil of the soul, will have no sense of the struggles of a richer soul about things that seem more like refinements than positive duties. But duties do become more delicate and refined, and one never makes a coarser mistake than, when God has graciously led him into the sight of some richer feature of character, he looks about, and, finding that some other soul does not feel any such call, takes refuge in their commoner habit. Every soul that has received a higher intimation, and falls back contentedly into the habit of one less advanced, makes it so much more impossible for that soul to advance. One of these things which begins by appearing optional and ends by being imperative, is our use of time. This becomes a matter of conscience and character as surely as one realizes that God has a work for a man to do in the world; and we can not doubt for a moment that many a character has been as thoroughly laid waste by the failure to use time aright as by coarser and more flagrant sins. There are men who have been willing to do the will of God, who have failed to find the largeness of that will for them, because it has never been discovered by them that the use of time had much to do with it. One of the causes of this is undoubtedly the fact that we seldom get a long, clear stretch of time in which we may work uninterruptedly, and so we think that it is not worth while to attempt any large undertaking until we shall be freed from the pressure and bustle of common affairs. If in the midst of such there comes a small release, we think that it is too small to make it worth our while to enter upon any ambitious task, and we postpone the endeavor until we shall happen upon some freer and more favored hour. When that comes, we are quite likely to feel that we are not in the mood for it, and dare not attempt the hoped-for work until we shall feel just right for it. Men naturally wish their work to be led up to gracefully, and to go on to the next by equally graceful gradations, but instead we are presented with a great mixture of raw material in the shape of all kinds of moods and days and leisure moments; and it is out of such that all great human fabrics have been woven. So a man comes to realize that he is fast getting to be a mere gazer, and to see with some chagrin that men who have even less time than himself are accomplishing more of the very sort that he would do. The greatness of Jesus appeared quite as much in the odd moments, and what came forth out of them, as in the stately official acts of his life; and he was never waiting for a favored hour, but made every hour draw favor. With many a man who has in him the power of some high accomplishment, the habitual doubt of the usefulness of such time as is given him has become so deeply seated in him that he is palsied for the carrying out of his ambitions, and for such the help of God is as essential as in overcoming any other sin. We have to pray for faith in the present hour. Our conversions and salvations are endless, and God becomes necessary on every side of our life. He who does not know what to do with the odd openings of time will stand quite helpless in the presence of leisure. There is an advantage in these moments that we are let into in the midst of the rush of life, for we have upon us the glow of exercise as we go into them, which will make us capable of absorbing more and accomplishing more than in those hours that are led up to by no such vital approaches. There is a glamour about retirement and isolation which facts hardly warrant. One of our greatest historians was heard to say: “I think there is a good deal of fraud about work done in the evening; there is a kind of romance about it, and we are apt to think it is better than work done in the busy hours and the sunlight and the interruptions. I used to think so, but I have found that the best work that I do is in the morning, when other men are doing theirs. It does not seem so romantic, but the work turns out better, I find.” . . . It is an old discovery that those who have the most to do are those who do the most. Emmerson often regretted that he did not have “a stated task;” and those who are in positions where they have to map out their own work, are in positions of greater temptation, as well as greater liberty, than are those who have their tasks set and defined for them. If we are in positions where we control our own time, we are in positions where our character may become larger, but we need God’s help continually to make us large enough for them. . . . When at last a man is won upon by the greatness of God’s purpose for him, and his purpose is great for every man, he feels as sensitive to this imputation that he is not moral in his use of time, as to any lesser imputation. God draws him apart from his looking at the accomplishment of other men, and makes him see that their task or their ease may have nothing to do with him, and that every man’s discipline is somewhat different from that of other men. And when one feels the force of this criticism, and what it means for character, he will find that in this, as in all things that make character, he needs the help of God, and will add one more to the experiences by which we realize that God is in every part of our life, and that his salvation is salvation “to the uttermost part of us,” and that we need his help in saving and possessing our days.—Sunday School Times.