PROCRASTINATION
How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
—Hebrews 2:3
4768 The Procrastinators Club Of America
“We’re a little embarrassed,” Les Waas, the president of the Procrastinators Club of America, announced recently in Philadelphia. “This is the first time we’ve observed National Procrastinators Week on time.”
The Procrastinators Club, formed in 1957, is devoted to putting off just about everything until tomorrow—or even later. “We feel that anything worth doing is worth putting off,” says Waas. None of the 80 or so members pay dues on time. “If they did, we’d throw them out.
“We feel that the ultimate thing to procrastinate against is war,” he says. “Just think, if you keep putting off wars, eventually you might forget what you wanted to fight about.”
—Selected
4769 Cost Of “Wait A Minute”
Have you ever stopped to figure the cost of the phrase, “Wait a minute”? If you’re making $5,000 a year, every minute you have to wait costs nearly 5 cents; at $10,000 a year this figure doubles to nearly 10 cents a minute. And, if you should reach the $100,000-a-year category, your minute will be worth $1.
4770 Starting From Dead Stop
It requires six times as much power to start a flywheel from a dead stop, as it does to keep it going once it is in motion.
A locomotive must exert a pull of as much as thirty pounds for every ton of weight in a railroad car to start it from a standstill, and even more in very cold weather. Once the car is in motion, only about three pounds per ton may be needed to keep it moving on a straight and level track.
4771 Bottomley’s Wasted Life
One night, Canon Hay Aitken preached to a large audience in Bristol, England, from the text, “Ye must be born again.” Horatio Bottomley, a fine, brilliant young fellow, listened with rapt attention. He was deeply moved. At the close of the message an invitation was given to the unsaved publicly to confess Christ and seek His mercy. Bottomley thought: “Not I. This is not for me, I’ll run my own life.”
He did run his own life. He made a fortune. He became the people’s hero. He was a champion of the rights of the common man. He exposed swindlers and vigorously prosecuted them.
When sixty-three years old, Bottomley, who had exposed the crimes of others, was himself found guilty of crime and sentenced to seven years in prison. Captain Prayer of the Church Army visited him in prison. He told Bottomley the story of his conversion. Said he: “Years ago I was in Colston Hall in Bristol, Canon Hay Aitken preached on the text, “Ye must be born again.” I was convicted of sin and of my need of the Saviour. I accepted Christ and since that memorable time, Christ has been all and in all to me!”
Bottomley thought deeply. Then he said, “I, too, heard that searching message. I felt my great need of the Saviour, but I rejected Him.” Then he said remorsefully, “A life without God is a wasted life!”
—Walter B. Knight
4772 Neglecting Volcanos Warnings
At exactly 8:02 p. m. on May 8, 1902, almost 30,000 people died instantly in one of history’s worst natural disasters.
The immediate cause of their deaths was the violent volcanic eruption of Mount Pelee on the French colonial island of Martinique. It hurled millions of tons of rock and boiling lava and a terrible blast of super-heated air at the town of St. Pierre.
The indirect cause of the catastrophe was a sordid record of human stupidity, greed, and political opportunism.
The volcano first began misbehaving a full week before the final disaster with warnings of what was to come in various degrees including a gigantic rock- and-mud slide which killed several hundred people at a factory outside the town.
But, with few exceptions, none of the persons in authority made any effort to evacuate the town which lay at the foot of the rumbling volcano.
—Prairie Overcomer
4773 “Shall I Sound Alarm?”
On the night of the great Holmfirth (Yorkshire) flood, which caused such disaster some years ago, a man on the reservoir saw the water rise to a dangerous height. He paced up and down for twenty minutes watching, hesitating, and asking himself the question, “Shall I give the alarm?” The fatal moment came; the warning had not been given. The waters rushed over the banks and spread destruction on every hand. A decision twenty minutes before would have saved many lives and thousands of dollars’ worth of property.
4774 Ship Captain’s Fault
The steamship Central America, on a voyage from New York to San Francisco, sprang a leak in mid-ocean. A vessel, seeing her signal of distress, bore down toward her. Perceiving her danger to be imminent, the captain of the rescue ship spoke to the Central America, asking, “What is amiss?” “We are in bad repair, and going down. Lie by till morning!” “Let me take your passengers on board NOW,” said the would-be rescuer. It was night, and the captain of the Central America did not like to transfer his passengers then, lest some might be lost in the confusion, and, thinking that they would keep afloat some hours longer, replied, “Lie by till morning!”
Once again the captain of the rescue ship called: “You had better let me take them now.” “Lie by till morning” was sounded back through the night. About an hour-and-a-half later, her lights were missed! The Central America had gone down, and all on board perished, because it was thought they could be saved at another time. While salvation is offered you, now, do not delay to receive Christ!
—Leslie Greening
4775 Dream Of Caesar’s Wife
In the middle of the night of the fourteenth of March, Caesar awoke in his bed, and looking down upon Calpurnia, who lay sleeping in the moonlight by his side, he heard her utter in a dream indistinct words and inarticulate groans. When the day dawned, Calpurnia told Caesar how in her dream she had held him bleeding and dying in her arms. She besought him not to stir out of the house, but to adjourn the meeting of the senate fixed for the fifteenth, the Ides of March, to another day.
Caesar was impressed by this dream of his wife, and resolved not to go to the senate on that day. But the conspirators employed one of Caesar’s closest friends, Decius Brutus—but not the famous Brutus—to persuade him to go to the meeting. This Brutus asked Caesar what his enemies would say if he sent a messenger to the senate telling them to adjourn for the present and meet again when Calpurnia should have a better dream. Caesar then changed his mind and set out for the senate. On his way through the street a friend who knew of the conspiracy thrust a paper into his hand saying, “Read this, Caesar, alone and quickly, for it contains matter of great importance which concerns you.” Caesar thought it a petition and, without reading it, placed it among his other papers. Thus “the fate of the empire hung upon a thread, but the thread was broken.”
—C. E. Macartney
4776 “Business Tomorrow”
Archis, the magistrate of Thebes, was sitting with many mighty men drinking wine. A messenger came in bringing him a letter, informing him of a conspiracy against his life and warning him to flee. Archias took the letter, but, instead of opening it, put it into his pocket and said to the messenger who brought it, “Business tomorrow.” The next day he died. Before he opened the letter the government was captured. When he read the letter it was too late.
—Pulpit Treasury
4777 Put Out Fire First
In Brussels, Belgium, a house burned to the ground while two fire brigades lost time arguing about who was to put out the blaze. “The volunteer fire company in suburban Denderleeuw was first on the scene. The full-time fire brigade from nearby Aalst soon joined them. When the Denderleeuw fire chief said his company had priority on the job, the Aalst firemen rolled up their hoses. But the fire proved tougher than expected, and the Denderleeuw firemen called back the Aalst brigade and eventually had to summon a third company from Liedekerke. The house was destroyed, and two neighboring houses were damaged.”
4778 The Divide In Denver
Outside the city of Denver, in the Rocky Mountains, there is a spot at the top of the mountains which is called the Continental Divide. Many times I have stood on the spot, which is marked by a plaque. The plaque states that the rivulets and streams made by melting snow flow on the eastern side to the East coast and those on the western side flow to the West coast. All rivers must flow either east or west, depending on which side of the Divide they are found.
—Ministers’ Research Service
4779 Canada’s Divide Creek
In the Canadian Rockies is a stream called Divide Creek. At a point in its course the creek divides around a large boulder. Waters which flow to the left of the boulder rush on into Kicking Horse River and finally into the Pacific Ocean. Waters which travel to the right go into the Bow River which courses into the Saskatchewan River, on into Lake Winnipeg, the Nelson River, Hudson Bay, and to the Atlantic Ocean.
Once the waters divide at the rock there is no turning back.
4780 Jerusalem’s Terrace Of Indecision
A little west of Mt. Zion, near the Jaffa Gate of Jerusalem, is a small terrace, on the top of a watershed, so level that the rain as it falls upon it seems at a loss which way to go. But part of it is carried by a faint breath of wind over on the west side and descends into the Valley of Roses, and down to the beautiful plain of Sharon. Fertility and beauty and fruits spring up, and finally it is exhaled to heaven from the fragrant cups of the lilies and roses of Sharon.
But a large part of it finds its way to the other side of the terrace and descends through the dark valley of Tophet to the Dead Sea, where it brings forth the apples of Sodom and is lost forever in the bitter waters of the Sea of Death. This terrace is the Terrace of Indecision.
—Current Anecdotes
4781 Ohio’s Deciding Raindrops
In the State of Ohio there is a courthouse that stands in such a way that the raindrops that fall on the north side go into Lake Ontario and the Gulf of St. Lawrence into the Atlantic, while those that fall on the south side go into Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico.
Just a little puff of wind determines the destiny of a raindrop for two thousand miles.
—Talmage
4782 Epigram On Procrastination
• Saying “It is too early,” makes it too late.
—Japanese Proverb
• Announcement by the Procrastination Club of America: “Last week was National Procrastination Week.”
• One of the greatest labor-saving devices of today is tomorrow.
• Alexander the Great, being asked how he had conquered the world, replied, “By not delaying.”
—Foster
• We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.
—Calvin Coolidge
• It is never the wrong time to do the right thing.
—Lutheran Digest
• A rolling stone gathers no moss.
—English Proverb
• The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
• Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.
—Everywoman’s Family Circle
• Every time a man puts a new idea across, he finds ten men who thought of it before he did—but they only thought of it.
—Advertiser’s Digest
• Young people tell what they are doing, old people what they have done and fools what they wish to do.
—French Proverb
• —Better try to do something
And fail in the deed
Than try to do nothing
And always succeed.
—The Bible Friend
• Tomorrow’s sale begins with today’s service.
See also: Time ; Salvation, Neglect of.