This is the age of zip. The word "zip" is not to be found in the dictionary but it is prominent in the spirit of the day. When the supply of dazzling superlatives is exhausted, new words are coined to keep speeding things up faster and faster.

Horse races, automobile races, motorcycle climbs, speed boats and track meets are vying for the attention of human interest.

The taxi hurries the harried to the airport. The jet flies them to the launching pad. The space craft speeds them around the world in approximately ninety minutes. Outer space is being probed. The planets are being invaded. The moon is being investigated.

Special delivery air mail letters are hurried to people so that hurried decisions can be made.

Telephone calls are radioed across country and across oceans to speed up communications. Magazines are designed to tell their stories by pictures so that they can be hurriedly scanned from cover to cover. The poor and the rich rush to their jobs so that they can rush home and make plans for a rushed trip to somewhere. Poor rush fever victims !

Rush to retirement is the keynote of this age.

This generation has been innoculated with a speed virus. The victim takes pep pills to hurry him awake and tranquilizers to hurry him to sleep.

This super speed spirit has invaded the ranks of God's saints. We are being taught to be rapid worshipers; a few short prayers, a few snappy testimonies pave the way for a sermonette.

Satan is the relentless driver. His "hot line" from hell reaches out to the nerve centers of the world with its feverish, restless wave lengths. He was the motivating force behind Zacchaeus who "ran and climbed up into a sycomore tree." He was the motivating force behind Jonah who "rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord." Sinner and saint fall prey to his geared-up tactics.

The quiet tones of TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY need to be recovered. Go to the Lord Jesus for His insulating work against the "rushing to and fro" spirit of the world. "He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven" (Psalm 107:29 30 ).

God is not glorified in jostling, competitive, rushing saints. It is the "... meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (I Peter 3 :4). The spirit of the world and the quiet spirit are not compatible. It is the will of God for His people to " . . . dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places ..." (Isaiah 32 :18). This place of quietness and rest is invulnerable. "When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble" (Job 34 :29)?

The burden of prayer upon the heart of the Apostle Paul was, "... that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" (I Timothy 2:2). The effectual, fervent prayers of righteous people are needed to quell the epidemic of hectic haste. God's people need to "study to be quiet" (I Thessalonians 4:11).

The accelerated "push and pull" of modern living is a liability. "Better is a dry morsel, and quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices with strife" (Proverbs 17:1). "Better is an handful with quietness, than both hands full with travail and vexation of spirit" (Ecclesiastes 4 :6) .

The grace of God provides rest in a restless age. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9).