When you entered into solemn covenant with the Lord, you consecrated
your whole life to his service. Your _time_, then, is not your own, but
the Lord's. If you waste it, or spend it unprofitably, you _rob_ God.
You are not at liberty even to employ it exclusively to yourself. You
are bound to glorify God with your time. And how can this be done? By so
employing it that it will be most beneficial both to yourself and
others. The Christian, who properly considers the great work he has to
perform in his own soul, as well as the wide field of benevolent
exertion which opens everywhere around him, and reflects how exceedingly
short his time is, will not be disposed to trifle away any of the
precious moments God has given him. Hence we are exhorted to _redeem_ or
_rescue_ the time, as it flies. A very common fault lies in not
estimating the value of a moment. This leads to the waste of immense
portions of precious time. It is with time as with an estate. The old
adage is, "Take care of the _pennies_, and the _pounds_ will take care
of themselves." So, if we take care of the _moments_, the _hours_ will
take care of themselves. Indeed, our whole lives are made up of moments.
A little calculation may startle those who carelessly and foolishly
trifle away small portions of time. Suppose you waste _only ten
minutes_ at a time, six times in a day; this will make an hour. This
hour is subtracted from that portion of your time which might have been
devoted to active employments. Sleeping, refreshment, and personal
duties, generally occupy at least one half of the twenty-four hours. You
have then lost one twelfth part of the available portion of the day.
Suppose, then, you live to the age of seventy years. Take from this the
first ten years of your life. From the sixty remaining, you will have
thrown away _five years_! These five years are taken from that portion
of your time which should have been employed in the cultivation of your
mind, and in the practical duties of religion. For, the common excuse
for neglecting the improvement of the mind, and the cultivation of
personal piety, is _want of time_. Now, if you employ one half of this
time in reading, at the rate of twenty pages an hour, you will be able
to read more than _eighteen thousand pages_; or _sixty volumes_ of
three hundred pages each. If you employ the other half in devotional
exercises in your closet, in addition to the time you would spend in
this manner, upon the supposition that these five years are lost, what
an influence will it have upon the health of your soul? Or, if you spend
the whole of it in the active duties of Christian benevolence, how much
good can you accomplish? Think what you might do by employing five years
in the undivided service of your Master.
But, the grand secret of _redeeming_ time is, the systematic arrangement
of all of our affairs. The wise man says,--"To everything there is a
_season_, and a time for every purpose under heaven." Now, if we so
divide our time as to assign a particular season for every employment,
we shall be at no loss, when one thing is finished, what to do next, and
one duty will not crowd upon another. For want of this system, many
people suffer much needless perplexity. They find a multitude of duties
crowding upon them at the same time, and they know not where to begin
to discharge them. They spend perhaps half of their time in considering
what they shall do. They are always in a hurry and bustle, yet, when the
day is gone, they have not half finished its duties. All this would have
been avoided, had they parcelled out the day, and assigned particular
duties to particular seasons. They might have gone quietly to their
work; pursued their employments with calmness and serenity; and at the
close of the day laid themselves down to rest, with the satisfaction of
having discharged every duty. Form, then, a systematic plan to regulate
your daily employments. Give to each particular duty its appropriate
place; and when you have finished one, pass rapidly to another, without
losing any precious intervals between. Bear continually in mind that
every moment you waste will be deducted from the period of your earthly
existence; but do not try to crowd too much into the compass of a single
day. This will defeat your object. You will always be liable to numerous
and unavoidable interruptions. You have friends who claim a portion of
your time. It is better to interrupt your own affairs than to treat them
rudely. You have also many accidental duties, which you cannot bring
into the regular routine of your employments. Give, then, sufficient
latitude to your system to anticipate these, so that your affairs may
not be thrown into confusion by their unexpected occurrence.
The duty of being systematic in all our arrangements is enforced by
several considerations. 1. _By the example of our Creator._ By a careful
perusal of the first chapter of Genesis, you will see that God assigned
a particular portion of the creation to each day of the week, and that
he rested on the seventh day. Now the Lord has some design in everything
he does. He never did anything in vain. But he could as easily have made
all things at once, by a single word of his power, as to have been
occupied six days in the creation. As for resting the seventh day, the
Almighty could not be weary, and therefore needed no rest. What, then,
could have been his design in this, but to set before us an example for
the regulation of our conduct?
2. _This duty is also enforced by the analogy of the visible creation._
The most complete and perfect system, order, and harmony, may be read in
every page of the book of nature. From the minutest insect, up through
all the animal creation, to the structure of our own bodies, there is a
systematic arrangement of every particle of matter. So, from the little
pebble that is washed upon the sea-shore, up to the loftiest worlds, and
the whole planetary system, the same truth is manifest.
3. _This duty is enforced by our obligation to employ all our time for
the glory of God._ If we neglect the systematic arrangement of all our
affairs, we lose much precious time, which might have been employed in
the service of the Lord.
I shall close this letter with a few remarks upon the nature of
obligation. The very idea of obligation supposes the possibility of the
thing being done that is required. There can be no such thing as our
being under obligation to do what is in its own nature impossible. The
idea itself is absurd. This principle is recognized by our Lord in the
parable of the talents. The man only required of his servants _according
to their ability_. Nothing, then, is duty except what can be done at the
present moment. There are other things which may be duty hereafter; but
they are not _present duty_. Now, the great principle which I would here
establish is, as I have elsewhere remarked, that the _obligation of duty
rests upon the present moment_. No principle can be of greater
importance in practical life than this. It lies at the foundation of all
Christian effort. It is the neglect of it which has ruined thousands of
immortal souls, who have sat under the sound of the gospel. It is the
neglect of it which keeps the church so low. If it is the duty of a
sinner to repent, it is his duty to do it _now_; and every moment's
delay is a new act of rebellion against God. If it is the duty of a
backslider to return and humble himself before God, it is his duty to do
it _now_; and every moment he delays, he is going farther from God, and
rendering his return more difficult. If it is the duty of a Christian to
live near to God; to feel his presence; to hold communion with him; to
be affected with the infinite beauty and excellence of his holy
character; the obligation of that duty rests upon the present moment.
Every moment's delay is _sin_. And so of every other duty. Our first
object, then, is to _know_ present duty; our second, to _do_ it. We
cannot put off anything which we ought to do _now_, without bringing
guilt upon our Souls.
Your affectionate Brother.