THE PRECIOUSNESS OF TIME, AND THE
IMPORTANCE OF REDEEMING IT. 228228
Dated, December, 1734.
“Redeeming the time” - Ephesians
5:16.
Christians should not only study to improve the
opportunities they enjoy, for their own advantage, as those who would make a good bargain; but also
labour to reclaim others from their evil courses; so that God might
defer his anger, and time might be redeemed from that terrible destruction,
which, when it should come, would put an end to the time of divine patience.
And it may be upon this account, that this reason is added, Because the days are evil. As if the apostle had said, the corruption
of the times tends to hasten threatened judgments; but your holy and
circumspect walk will tend to redeem time from the devouring jaws of those
calamities.—However, thus much is certainly held forth to us in the words; viz. That upon time we should set a high value,
and be exceeding careful that it be not lost; and we are therefore exhorted to
exercise wisdom and circumspection, in order that we may redeem it. And hence
it appears, that time is exceedingly precious.
Section I:
WHY
TIME IS PRECIOUS! Time is precious for the following reasons:
A.
Because a happy
or miserable eternity depends on the good or ill improvement of it. Things are precious in proportion to their
importance, or to the degree wherein they concern our
welfare. Men are wont to set the highest value on those things upon which they
are sensible their interest chiefly depends. And this renders time so
exceedingly precious, because our eternal welfare depends on the improvement of
it. Indeed our welfare in this world depends upon its improvement. If we
improve it not, we shall be in danger of coming to poverty and disgrace; but by
a good improvement of it, we may obtain those things which will be useful and
comfortable. But it is above all things precious, as our state through eternity
depends upon it. The importance of the improvement of time upon other accounts, is in subordination to this.
Gold and silver are esteemed precious by
men; but they are of no worth to any man, only as thereby he has an opportunity
of avoiding or removing some evil, or of possessing himself of some good. And
the greater the evil is which any man hath advantage to escape, or the good
which he hath advantage to obtain, by any thing that he possesses, by so much
the greater is the value of that thing to him, whatever it be. Thus if a man,
by any thing which he hath, may save his life, which he must lose without it,
he will look upon that by which he hath the opportunity of escaping so great an
evil as death, to be very precious. Hence
it is that time is so exceedingly precious, because by it we have opportunity
of escaping everlasting misery, and of obtaining everlasting blessedness and
glory. On this depends our escape from an infinite evil, and our attainment of
an infinite good.
B. Time is very short, which is
another thing that renders it very precious. The scarcity of any commodity occasions men to set a
higher value upon it, especially if it be necessary
and they cannot do without it. Thus when
C. Time ought to be esteemed by
us very precious, because we are uncertain of its continuance. We know that it is very short, but we know
not how short. We know not how little of it remains, whether a year, or several
years, or only a month, a week, or a day. We are every day uncertain whether
that day will not be the last, or whether we are to have the whole day. There
is nothing that experience doth more verify than this.—If a man had but little
provision laid up for a journey or a voyage, and at the same time knew that if
his provision should fail, he must perish by the way, he would be the more
choice of it.—How much more would many men prize their time, if they knew that
they had but a few months, or a few days, more to live! And certainly a wise
man will prize his time the more, as he knows not but that it will be so as to
himself. This is the case with multitudes now in the world, who at present
enjoy health, and see no signs of approaching death: many such, no doubt, are
to die the next month, many the next week, yea, many probably to-morrow, and
some this night; yet these same persons know nothing of it, and perhaps think
nothing of it, and neither they nor their neighbours
can say that they are more likely soon to be taken out of the world than
others. This teaches us how we ought to prize our time, and how careful we
ought to be, that we lose none of it.
D. Time is very precious, because when it is
past, it cannot be recovered. There are many things which men possess,
which if they part with, they can obtain them again. If a man have parted with
something which he had, not knowing the worth of it, or the need he should have
of it; he often can regain it, at least with pains and cost. If a man have been
overseen in a bargain, and have bartered away or sold something, and afterwards
repent of it, he may often obtain a release, and recover what he had parted
with.—But it is not so with respect to time; when once that is gone, it is gone
for ever; no pains, no cost will recover it. Though we repent ever so much that
we let it pass, and did not improve it while we had it, it will be to no
purpose. Every part of it is successively offered to us, that we may choose
whether we will make it our own, or not. But there is no delay; it will not
wait upon us to see whether or no we will comply with the offer. But if we
refuse, it is immediately taken away, and never offered more. As to that part
of time which is gone, however we have neglected to improve it,
it is out of our possession and out of our reach.
If we have lived fifty, or sixty, or
seventy years, and have not improved our time, now it cannot be helped; it is
eternally gone from us: all that we can do, is to improve the little that
remains. Yea, if a man have spent all his life but a few moments unimproved,
all that is gone is lost, and only those few remaining moments can possibly be
made his own; and if the whole of a man’s time be gone, and it be all lost, it
is irrecoverable.—Eternity depends on the improvement of time; but when once
the time of life is gone, when once death is come, we have no more to do with
time; there is no possibility of obtaining the restoration of it, or another
space in which to prepare for eternity. If a man should lose the whole of his
worldly substance, and become a bankrupt, it is possible that his loss may be
made up. He may have another estate as good. But when the time of life is gone,
it is impossible that we should ever obtain another such time. All opportunity
of obtaining eternal welfare is utterly and everlastingly gone.
Section II:
REFLECTIONS ON TIME PAST
You have now heard of the preciousness of
time; and you are the persons concerned, to whom God hath committed that
precious talent. You have an eternity before you. When God created you, and gave
you reasonable souls, he made you for an endless duration. He gave you time
here in order to a preparation for eternity, and your future eternity depends
on the improvement of time.—Consider, therefore, what you have done with your past time. You are not now beginning your time,
but a great deal is past and gone; and all the wit, and power, and treasure of
the universe, cannot recover it. Many of you may well conclude, that more than
half of your time is gone; though you should live to the ordinary age of man,
your glass is more than half run; and it may be there are but few sands
remaining. Your sun is past the meridian, and perhaps just setting, or going
into an everlasting eclipse. Consider, therefore, what account you can give of
your improvement of past time. How have you let the precious golden sands of
your glass run?
Every day that you have enjoyed has been precious; yea, your moments have been precious. But have you not
wasted your precious moments, your precious days, yea your precious years? If
you should reckon up how many days you have lived, what a sum would there be! and how precious hath every one of those days been!
Consider, therefore, what have you done with them? what
is become of them all? What can you show of any improvement made, or good done,
or benefit obtained, answerable to all this time which you have lived? When you
look back, and search, do you not find this past time of your lives in a great
measure empty, having not been filled up with any good improvement? And if God,
that hath given you your time, should now call you to an account, what account
could you give to him?
How much may be done in a year! how much good is there opportunity to do in such a space of
time! How much service may persons do for God, and how much for their own
souls, if to their utmost they improve it! How much may be done in a day! But
what have you done in so many days and years that you have lived? What have you
done with the whole time of your youth, you that are past your youth? What is
become of all that precious season of life? Hath it not all been in vain to
you? Would it not have been as well or better for you, if all that time you had
been asleep, or in a state of non-existence?
You have had much time of leisure and
freedom from worldly business; consider to what purpose you have spent it. You
have not only had ordinary time, but you have had a great deal of holy time.
What have you done with all the sabbath-days which
you have enjoyed? Consider those things seriously, and let your own consciences
make answer.
Section
III: WHO ARE CHIEFLY DESERVING OF
REPROOF?
How little is the preciousness of time
considered, and how little sense of it do the greater part
of mankind seem to have! and to how little good
purpose do many spend their time! There is nothing more precious, and yet
nothing of which men are more prodigal. Time is with many, as silver was in the
days of Solomon, as the stones of the street, and nothing accounted of. They
act as if time were as plenty as silver was then, and as if they had a great
deal more than they needed, and knew not what to do with it. If men were as
lavish of their money as they are of their time, if it were as common a thing
for them to throw away their money, as it is for them to throw away their time,
we should think them beside themselves, and not in the possession of their
right minds. Yet time is a thousand times more precious than money; and when it
is gone, cannot be purchased for money, cannot be redeemed by silver or gold. There
are several sorts of persons who are reproved by this doctrine, whom I shall
particularly mention.
A. Those who spend a great part
of their time in idleness, or in doing
nothing that turns to any account, either for the good of their souls or
bodies; nothing either for their own benefit, or for the benefit of their
neighbor, either of the family or of the body-politic to which they belong.
There are some persons upon whose hands time seems to lie heavy, who, instead
of being concerned to improve it as it passes, and taking care that it pass not
235without making it their own, act as if it
were rather their concern to contrive ways how to waste and consume it; as
though time, instead of being precious, were rather a mere encumbrance to them.
Their hands refuse to labor, and rather than put themselves to it, they will
let their families suffer, and will suffer themselves: . “An idle soul shall suffer hunger.” (Proverbs
19:15) “Drowsiness shall
clothe a man with rags.” (Ibid - ch. 23:21)
Some spend much of their time at the
tavern, over their cups, and in wandering about from house to house, wasting
away their hours in idle and unprofitable talk which will turn to no good
account: “In all labour there is profit; but the talk of the lips tendeth only to poverty.” (Ibid. ch. 14:23) The direction
of the apostle, is, that we should “labor, working with
our hands the thing that is good, that we may have to give to him that needeth.” (Ephesians 4:28) - But indolent men, instead of gaining any thing to
give to him that needeth, do but waste what they have
already: “He that is slothful in his work, is
brother to him that is a great waster.” (Proverbs 18:9)
B. They are reproved by this doctrine who spend
their time in wickedness,
who do not merely spend
their time in doing nothing to any good purpose, but spend it to ill purposes.
Such do not only lose their time, but they do worse; with it they hurt both
themselves and others.—Time is precious, as we have heard, because eternity
depends upon it. By the improvement of time, we have opportunity of escaping
eternal misery, and obtaining eternal blessedness. But those who spend their
time in wicked works, not only neglect to improve their time to obtain eternal
happiness, or to escape damnation, but they spend it to a quite contrary
purpose, viz. to increase
their eternal misery, or to render their damnation the more heavy and
intolerable.
Some spend much time in reveling, and in
unclean talk and practices, in vicious company-keeping, in corrupting and insnaring the minds of others, setting bad examples, and
leading others into sin, undoing not only their own souls, but the souls of
others. Some spend much of their precious time in detraction and backbiting; in
talking against others; in contention, not only quarrelling themselves, but
fomenting and stirring up strife and contention. It would have been well for
some men, and well for their neighbors, if they had never done any thing at
all; for then they would have done neither good nor hurt. But now they have
done a great deal more hurt than they have done or ever will do good. There are some persons whom it would have been better
for the towns where they live, to have been at the charge of maintaining them
in doing nothing, if that would have kept them in a state of inactivity.
Those who have spent much of their time in
wickedness, if ever they shall reform, and enter upon a different mode of
living, will find, not only that they have wasted the past, but that they have
made work for their remaining time, to undo what they have done. How will many
men, when they shall have done with time, and shall look back upon their past
lives, wish that they had had no time! The time which they spend on earth will
be worse to them than if they had spent so much time in hell; for an eternity
of more dreadful misery in hell will be the fruit of their time on earth, as
they employ it.
C. Those are reproved by this
doctrine, who spend their time only in worldly pursuits, neglecting their souls. Such men lose their time, let them be ever
so diligent in their worldly business; and though they may be careful not to
let any of it pass so, but that it shall some way or other turn to their
worldly profit. They that improve time only for their benefit in time, lose it;
because time was not given for itself, but for that everlasting duration which
succeeds it.—They, therefore, whose time is taken up in caring and laboring for
the world only, in inquiring what they shall eat, and what they shall drink,
and wherewithal they shall be clothed; in contriving to lay up for themselves
treasures upon earth, how to enrich themselves, how to make themselves great in
the world, or how to live in comfortable and pleasant circumstances, while
here; who busy their minds and employ their strength in these things only, and
the stream of whose affections is directed towards these things; they lose
their precious time.
Let such, therefore, as have been guilty of
thus spending their time, consider it. You have spent a great part of your
time, and a great part of your strength, in getting a. little of the world; and
how little good doth it afford you, now you have gotten it! What happiness or
satisfaction can you reap from it? will it give you
peace of conscience, or any rational quietness or comfort? What is your poor,
needy, perishing soul the better for it? and what
better prospects doth it afford you of your approaching eternity? and what will all that you have acquired avail you when time
shall be no longer?
Section IV – AN EXHORTATION TO IMPROVE TIME
Consider what hath been said of the preciousness of
time, how much depends upon it, how short and uncertain it is,
how irrecoverable it will be when gone. If you have a right conception of these
things, you will be more choice of your time than of the most
fine gold. Every hour and moment will seem precious to you.—But besides
those considerations which have been already set before you, consider also the
following.
A. That you are accountable to
God for your time. Time is
a talent given us by God; He hath set us our day; and it is not for nothing,
our day was appointed for some work; therefore He will, at the day’s end, call us
to an account. We must
give account to him of the improvement of all our time. We are God’s servants;
as a servant is accountable to his master, how he spends his time when he is
sent forth to work, so are we accountable to God. If men would aright consider
this, and keep it in mind, would they not improve their time otherwise than
they do? Would you not behave otherwise than you do, if you considered with
yourselves every morning, that you must give an account to God, how you shall
have spent that day? and if you considered with
yourselves, at the beginning of every evening, that you must give an account to
God, how you shall have spent that evening? Christ hath told us, that “for every idle word which men speak, they shall give account in the day
of judgment,” (Matthew
12:36) - How
well, therefore, may we conclude, that we must give an account of all our idle
misspent time!
B. Consider how much time you
have lost already. For
your having lost so much, you have the greater need of diligently improving
what yet remains. You ought to mourn and lament over your lost time; but that
is not all, you must apply yourselves the more diligently to improve the
remaining part, that you may redeem lost time?
You who are considerably advanced in life, and have hitherto spent your
time in vanities and worldly cares, and have lived in a great measure negligent
of the interests of your souls, may well be terrified and amazed, when you
think how much time you have lost and wasted away.—In that you have lost so
much time, you have the more need of diligence, on three accounts.
(1.) As your opportunity is so much the
shorter.—Your time at its whole length is short. But set aside all that you have already lost, and then how much shorter is
it! As to that part of your time which you have already lost, it is not to be reckoned into your opportunity; for that will
never be any more; and it is no better, but worse to you, than if it never had been.
(2 )
You have the same work to do that you had at first, and that under greater
difficulties.
Hitherto you have done nothing
at all of your work, all remains to be done, and that with vastly greater
difficulties and opposition in
your way than would have been if you had set about it seasonably, so that the time in which to do your work is not only grown shorter,
but your work is grown greater. You not only have the same work to do, but you have more work; for while you have lost your time, you have not only
shortened it, but you have been making
work for yourselves. How well may this consideration awaken you to a thorough
care, not to let things run on in this
manner any longer, and rouse you up immediately to apply yourselves to your
work with all your might!
(3.) That
is the best of your time which you have lost. The first of a man’s time, after he comes to the exercise of his reason, and to be capable of
performing his work, is the best. You who have lived in sin
till past your youth, have lost
the best part. So that here are all these things to be considered together, viz. that your time in the whole is but short, there is none to spare; a great
part of that is gone, so that it is become much shorter; that which is gone is the best; yet
all your work remains, and not only so, but with greater difficulties than ever
before attended it; and the
shorter your time is, the more work you have to do.
What will make you sensible of the necessity
of a diligent improvement of remaining time, if these things will not?
Sometimes such considerations as these have another effect, viz. to discourage persons, and to make them
think, that seeing they have lost so much time, it is not worth their while to
attempt to do any thing now. The devil makes fools of them; for when they are
young, he tells them, there is time enough hereafter, there is no need of being
in haste, it will be better seeking salvation hereafter; and then they believe
him. Afterwards, when their youth is past, he tells them, that now they have
lost so much, and the best of their time, that it is not worth their while to
attempt to do any thing; and now they believe him too. So that with them no
time is good. The season of youth is not a good time; for that is most fit for
pleasure and mirth, and there will be enough afterwards; and what comes
afterwards is not a good time, because the best of it is gone. Thus are men
infatuated and ruined.
But what madness is it for persons to give
way to discouragement, so as to neglect their work, because their time is
short! What need have they rather to awake out of sleep, thoroughly to rouse up
themselves, and to be in good earnest, that if
possible they may yet obtain eternal life! Peradventure God may yet give them
repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth, that they may be saved. Though
it be late in the day, yet God calls upon you to
rouse, and to apply yourselves to your work; and will you not hearken to his
counsel in this great affair, rather than to the counsel of your mortal enemy?
C. Consider how time is sometimes valued by
those who are come near to the end of it. What a sense of its preciousness have poor sinners
sometimes, when they are on their death-beds! Such have cried out, O, a thousand
worlds for an inch of time! Then time appears to them indeed precious. An inch of time could do
them no more good than before, when they were in health, supposing a like
disposition to improve it, nor indeed so much; for a man’s time upon a death-bed
is attended with far greater disadvantage for such an improvement as will be
for the good of his soul, than when he is in health.—But the near approach of
death makes men sensible of the inestimable worth of time. Perhaps, when they
were in health, they were as insensible of its value as you are, and were as
negligent of it. But how are their thoughts altered now! It is not because they
are deceived, that they think time to be of such value, but because their eyes
are opened; and it is because you are deceived and blind that you do not think
as they do.
D. Consider what a value we may
conclude is set upon time by those who are past the end of it. What thoughts do you think they have of
its preciousness, who have lost all their opportunity
for obtaining eternal life, and are gone to hell? Though they were very lavish
of their time while they lived, and set no great value upon it; yet how have
they changed their judgments! How would they value the opportunity which you have, if they might but have it granted to
them! What would they not give for one of your days,
under the means of grace! So will you,
first or last, be convinced. But if you be not convinced except in the manner
in which they are, it will be too late
There are two ways of making men sensible of
the preciousness of time. One is, by showing them the reason why it must be
precious, by telling them how much depends on it, how short it is, how
uncertain, &c. The other is experience, wherein men are convinced how much
depends on the improvement of time. The latter is the most effectual way; for
that always convinces, if nothing else doth.—But if persons be not convinced by
the former means, the latter will do them no good. If the former be
ineffectual, the latter, though it be certain, yet is
always too late. Experience never fails to open the eyes of men, though they
were never opened before. But if they be first opened by that, it is no way to
their benefit. Let all therefore be persuaded to improve their time to their
utmost.
Section
V: - ADVICE RESPECTING THE
IMPROVEMENT OF TIME
I shall conclude with advising to three things in
particular:
A. Improve the present
time without any delay. If you delay and put off its improvement, still more
time will be lost; and it will be an evidence that you are not sensible of its
preciousness. Talk not of more convenient seasons hereafter; but improve
your time while you have it, after the example of the psalmist, “I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:60)
B. Be especially careful to
improve those parts of time which are most precious. Though all time is very precious, yet some parts are more
precious than others; as, particularly, holy time is more precious than common
time. Such time is of great advantage for our everlasting welfare; therefore,
above all, improve your sabbaths,
and especially the time of public worship, which is the most precious part.
Lose it not either in sleep, or in carelessness, inattention, and wandering
imaginations. How sottish are they who waste away,
not only their common, but holy time, yea the very season of attendance on the
holy ordinances of God! The time of
youth is precious, on many accounts. Therefore, if you be in the enjoyment of
this time, take heed that you improve it. Let not the precious days and years
of youth slip away without improvement. A time of the strivings of God’s Spirit
is more precious than other time. Then God is near; and we are directed, in Isaiah 55:6 - “To seek the Lord while He may be found, and to call upon Him while He
is near.” Such
especially is an accepted time, and a day of salvation as stated in II Corinthians 6:2 - “I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in a
day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now
is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
C. Improve well your time of leisure from worldly business. Many persons have a great deal of such
time, and all have some. If men be but disposed to it, such time may be
improved to great advantage. When we are most free from cares for the body, and
business of an outward nature, a happy opportunity for the soul is afforded.
Therefore spend not such opportunities unprofitably, nor in such a manner that
you will not be able to give a good account thereof to God. Waste them not away
wholly in unprofitable visits, or useless diversions or amusements. Diversion
should be used only in subserviency to business. So
much, and no more, should be used, as doth most fit the mind and body for the
work of our general and particular callings.
You have need to improve every talent,
advantage, and opportunity, to your utmost, while time lasts; for it will soon
be said concerning you, according to the oath of the angel, in Revelation
10:5-6,
“And the
angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to
heaven, and sware by Him that liveth
for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the
earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are
therein, that there should be time no longer.”