THE present season of the year, as often as it recurs, is a reminder that the period of our earthly existence is at longest a limited one. We do not abide here for ever. Our final destination is beyond the veil of sense, in a sphere of never-ending existence—the world of eternity. There are two dwelling-places in that unseen world—one of happiness and another of misery; and, as our future abode in either is unchangeably settled in the present state, it may be useful to dwell for a little upon some of the characteristics of time.
Time is short. Viewed from the human stand-point and within its own boundaries, time in some of its periods appears to be very long. A century is vastly longer than a year, and a millenium than a century. But time in its utmost stretch is as nothing in comparison with eternity. Eternity has no end; when millions of ages have passed away, it is only beginning. If time as a whole is so little beside eternity, how unspeakably short appears the span of human life! Most of the race, we believe, die in early youth, and it is only a few who live to seventy, eighty, and a hundred years. Time then is very short, and seeing it is given us to prepare for eternity, how valuable its moments should appear in our eyes. Let us make haste to flee from the City of Destruction to the City of Salvation, which is Christ the Lord.
Time is fleeting. It flows on very swiftly. It may be that in the days of childhood we think it very slow in its progress. The months seem to pass very tardily, and the return of a new year is an event that appears indefinitely postponed. But as we grow older and are more deeply engrossed in the affairs of life, the days and weeks and months fly away with unexpected rapidity, and the years that once appeared so long and never-ending, now glide hastily, one after another, into the past. Our time will be at an end almost before we are aware of it. Certain it is that death will come to many before they awake to the importance of time. They spend its precious moments in the petty concerns and empty vanities of the world, and have no thought about the great eternity which lies before them. Should this sentence meet the eye of such persons, whether they be young or old, may we not affectionately warn them of their folly. Time is fleeting. The present is the only portion of it they possess. “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.” To-morrow the messenger of death may arrive at their door and carry them away to a lost eternity.
Time is uncertain. We know not what a day or an hour may bring forth. Often the young and the vigorous are cut down at an unexpected moment. They were promising themselves long life and many days, and delighting themselves in the prospect of a serene old age, full of comforts and honours. But suddenly, by some unlooked for movement in providence, the cord of life is snapped, and they pass into eternity. How uncertain, indeed, is time in relation to all! Our times are in the Lord’s hands, and He does not tell us what the immediate future has in store for us, or at what moment we may have to put off this mortality. The uncertainty of time ought to be a goad in our side urging us to the diligent consideration of eternal things. The apostle says, “Let us labour, whether present or absent, to be accepted of him.” Our chief concern should be to be “found in Christ,” “accepted in the beloved.” Apart from a saving interest in Christ, we are poor, miserable creatures, grasping at shadows and feeding upon ashes, not knowing our highest good. Eternity is sure with all its solemn issues; and if our souls are now united to Christ, we may rejoice in the prospect of it, but if we are without God and without a good hope through grace, we may well tremble for fear.
Time is precious. The truth of this remark has already been made very apparent. Time is short, fleeting, and uncertain, but these features do not point it out as worthless, but as exceeding precious. The days and months and years are golden. Fools may throw them away, as if they were only fit to be trampled on like chaff. But the wise will prize them as their most valued treasures. Though time is but little beside eternity, yet a great deal has been accomplished and will still be accomplished in it. It was within the bounds of this limited existence that the Son of God wrought out the eternal redemption of His people. He who was the eternal Jehovah came into time as a babe born in Bethlehem’s manger, and during the thirty-three years and a half of His earthly pilgrimage, obeyed, suffered, and died, that poor sinners might be saved from everlasting misery, fashioned into God’s glorious image, and made heirs of eternal glory. Each moment of the time of His humiliation was a gem of infinite value; each moment was radiant with the glory of a Triune God and with the hope of eternal life for a company which no man can number. Time is precious also because it is within its bounds that every elect soul is called effectually out of the realm of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. The Holy Spirit now performs His marvellous operations upon the hearts of men; He raises up a new creation; He establishes a living union to Christ; He moulds and fashions the soul into conformity with the blessed image of Christ, and at last makes it holy even as God is holy. Time is precious, further, inasmuch as now the gospel of salvation is declared in our ears, and precious warnings and invitations are pressed upon our attention. God speaks from heaven in His word, and calls upon us to turn and live. Soon this voice of mercy will cease to speak, soon we shall hear the voice of judgment. Surely, if we have the least spark of wisdom, we will say, now in the day of our merciful visitation, “I will hear what God the Lord will speak; I will welcome the glad tidings of salvation through a crucified but risen Saviour; I will cast myself as a poor, hell-deserving sinner at the feet of free and sovereign grace; I will wait upon the God of salvation; my hope is in His word.” Time is exceeding precious, seeing that a boundless eternity of happiness or misery depends upon the use we make of it. If we spend it wholly in the business and vanities of the world, we as much as say that we are quite satisfied to make our bed in hell in eternity. What a fearful state of mind this displays! And yet this is the state of mind that characterises unregenerate men. Good it were for many persons had they never been born. On the other hand, there are those who have reason to praise the Lord for the day of their birth. In time they have been born again, and have obtained an interest in an eternal inheritance. The short while they are here ought to be spent in living for the glory of God and the good of His kingdom.
At the beginning of a new year, let the prayer of Moses, the man of God, be ours—”So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. . . . O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (Ps. xc. 12, 14).
“WHEN you see a dog following two men,” says Mr. Ralph Erskine, in one of his sermons, “you know not to which of them he belongs while they walk together; but let them come to a parting road, and one go one way, and the other another way, then you will know which is the dog’s master. So at times, religion and the world go hand in hand. While a man may have the world and a religious profession too, we cannot tell which is the man’s master, God or the world; but stay till the man come to a parting road: God calls him this way, and the world calls him that way. Well, if God be his master, he follows religion, and lets the world go; but if the world be his master, then he follows the world and the lust thereof, and lets God, and conscience, and religion go.”—Whitecross.