The value of time.
I. ALL TIME IS OF HIGH VALUE. They who kill time destroy one of the best talents God has given them and rob him of a sacred trust he has lent to them.
1. Time is not our own property. We are servants and have to account to our Master for our use of his hours.
2. Great concerns have to be attended to. Not only is art long while life is short, but duty is great, the claims of service are many, and the wants of our fellow-men are numerous. In this world of toil and strife and sorrow every moment is of value for some good deed of mercy or some solid work of truth.
3. Lost time is irrecoverable. We cannot redeem the time that has been wasted. A repentant diligence may bring back the inheritance that was squandered away in extravagant folly; careful attention may bring back the wasted health; but time once gone is gone forever.
4. Time may be made of increasing value. An hour is worth more in the use of one man than a day with another man.
II. SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES ARE OF SPECIAL VALUE. St. Paul urges us to buy up "the seasons." All time is not of equal value. There are moments of peculiar preciousness. Woe to him who, through heedlessness or willful negligence, lets them slip! The moment when the rope floats by the drowning man it must be seized or he dies. Strike the iron while it is hot. Sow the seed in the spring if you would reap the harvest in the autumn.
1. Youth has its golden opportunities that belong go no other age. Young men especially should make the most of their own season.
2. Manhood has its time of vigor for work that will be beyond the strength of old age. The wise man will watch for occasions of usefulness that his word may be "in season."
III. THE TRUE VALUE OF TIME CAN ONLY BE OBTAINED AT A COST. We have to buy it up before we can make use of it.
1. We must spend thought in considering how we can best use our time and in watching for right opportunities. For want of due consideration there is a frightful lack of economy of energy and time.
2. We must sacrifice our own pleasure in giving up time that we are tempted to expend on ourselves, our amusement or our rest, to the service of God. He who only gives to God his leisure moments, when he is worn and jaded with his own selfish work, makes but a poor offering.
3. We must put out greater energy in order to make our time of more value. Few of us work on the highest subjects at full pressure. The busiest might do more good if, when they cannot as yet find time for serving Christ, they would make time.—W.F.A.