A writer, speaking of the wasteful use of coal in England, and the
consequent diminishing of the national store, says:
Our stock of coal is a definite and limited quantity that was
placed in the present storehouse long before human beings
came upon the earth. Every ton of coal that is wasted is lost
forever, and can not be replaced by any human effort, while
bread is a product of human industry, and its waste may be
replaced by additional human labor. The sin of bread-wasting
does admit of agricultural atonement, while there is no form of
practical repentance that can positively and directly replace a
hundredweight of wasted coal.
Here is an instance of a sin without atonement. Man can not reproduce
the coal that he has once wasted. Grace has a kindlier word for our
moral waters. The “years that the locust eaten” may be restored. (Text.)
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