TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21102, 12 August 1930, Page 6

TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW.

ADDRESS BY THE REV. A. MEAD. In concluding the special senes of talks to young people, the Rev. Albert Mead, M.A., lost evening chose as hia subject “ To-day is the Door of To-morrow.” “You are all," he said, “going to do big things to-morrow. Of course; everybody is. But how are you going to reach tomorrow? Only through to-day, and that is why we are choosing to call it the door of to-morrow. God has made ua capable of seeing the lights upon the eastern sky which lure us on with hopeful anticipations. Every young person should visualise some goal. But to-day is only a door, and we cannot live in a doorway. We can only pass through it. Most of us think that we live in to-day, but in point of fact we only pass through it. As we look through it what do we see? Success? I suppose so. Youth builds castles in the air, but when you have transformed the airy fabrication into a solid structure, what will be the result? Perhaps onlr a barn; perhaps it will be a temple. We need to, understand what constitutes real success. Napoleon reached what some would call success, but it did not satisfy him; it rather proved to be his prison. The Epicureans said ‘Get from each moment as it passes the pleasure that you can squeeze from it. Nothing else matters.* But Lucretius, one of the greatest devotees of that doctrine, committed suicide at a comparatively early age. Tennyson has made that story familiar. Power, pleasure, material prosperity—these things in themselves do not make success. Paul the old soldier,” continued Mr Mead, “knew what success truly meant, so he Save the young recruit, Timothy, a good int: ‘Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God.’ That suggests the test match of life in which we are all players. Happy is the man who, like Paul, could reach the cud of the fight aud say, ‘ I have fought the good fight; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of life.’ Happy is the one who can say, * I have run .the race; henceforth there awaits me the crown of glory.’ To be approved unto God is to win real success. Such success is not an impromptu performance. It depends more on pluck than luck. The task c.f youth is to lay the foundation, and for that one to-day is worth two to-morrow. The man of to-mor-row is the procrastinator. He talks beneath the moon, He sleeps beneath the sun. He lives in. the land of going-to-do. And dies with nothing done. “ In religious life oune often meets Mr Tomorrow as well as Mr Yesterday. There are those who are always talking of what they used to do. If they examined their pass book they would find that they have an overdraft, and in religious matters it is a fool’s paradise to try to live on an overdraft. The Bible has much to say about ‘To-day.’ Keep your eye on today’s course as a wise mariner, or you may never pass over to-morrow’s track.” The preacher appealed strongly for all to take the hint and act to-day, to secure the present opportunity and present themselves to the Ring of Kings who gives the award at the end of life. “You can leave to:morrow.” he said, “to take care of itself, but you cannot afford to neglect today, for that is the door of to-morrow.” “If any man will open the door, I will come in.” During the service the choir rendered the antliem “O For a Closer Walk With God,” in which Master D. Alderton sang the solo part very impressively.