Truly are spare moments the "gold-dust of time"! How precious they should
be regarded! What account can you give for your spare moments? What can you
show for them? Look and see. This boy can tell you how very much can be
laid up by improving them; and there are many, very many other boys, I am
afraid, in jail and in the house of correction, in the forecastle of a
whaleship, in the gambling-house, in the tippling-shop, who, if you should
ask them when they began their sinful course, might answer, "In my spare
moments." "In my spare moments I gambled for marbles." "In my spare moments
I began to swear and drink." "It was in my spare moments that I began to
steal chestnuts from the old woman's stand." "It was in my spare moments
that I gathered with wicked associates."
Then be very careful how you spend your spare moments. The tempter always
hunts you out in small seasons like these; when you are not busy, he gets
into your hearts, if he possibly can, in just such gaps. There he hides
himself, planning all sorts of mischief Take care of your spare
moments.--_Selected_.
A GOLD MEDAL
[Right and generous deeds are not always rewarded nor always recognized;
but the doing of them is our duty, even diough they pass unnoticed.
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