Promise Versus Practice
By George D. Gelwick
THE church is full of people who are willing to do something for the Master to-morrow. Only give them an opportunity and they will promise to do almost anything that we may suggest, if we allow them to wait until to-morrow. Procrastination is one of the devil’s most effective devices. As long as people limit their service to promise of aid at some future time, he does not fear the result. What the world needs, what the church must have if she would carry out her great commission, is men and women who are ready for work to-day. It is an old maxim that there is no time like the present. Do all you can to-day, and you will have more time for rest to-morrow. Have you been promising to attend to some duty, to call upon some suffering one, or aid some worthy cause with your money? Then do it to-day. Shame upon any intelligent man or woman who can rest content by simply promising to do their duty at some time in the future, while to-day, with all its grand possibilities and all its weight of responsibility, is allowed to pass away unimproved. In the face of the fact that the present hour is the only time that we can call our own, is it not folly, yes, is it not a crime against our Lord, when we put off the duties that are pressing us on every hand to-day, with mere promises to do our duty in the future? Friend, think over the absurdity of your position if you have been paying the debt that you owe your Lord with promises—George D. Gelwick, in New York Observer.