Think Well On't/Day 23
THE TWENTY-THIRD DAY.
On time and eternity.
CONSIDER how precious a thing time is, which we are apt to squander away, as if it were of no value. Time is the measure of our lives, and as much as we lose of our time so much of our life is absolutely lost. All our time is given us in order to gain eternity; and there is not one moment of our time in which we may not work for eternity; and in which we may not store up immense treasures for a happy eternity: as many therefore as we lose of these precious moments, so many are there lost eternities. This present time is the only time of working: it is the only time we can call our own; and God only knows how long it will be so. It is short, it flies away in an instant, and when once it is gone, it cannot be recalled: the very moment in which we are reading this line is just passing, never, never more to return. Every hour is posting away, without stopping one moment, till it be swallowed up in the immense gulf of eternity: and as many of these hours or moments as are lost, are lost for ever; the loss is irreparable. Learn hence, O my soul, to set a just value upon thy present time; learn to husband it well, by employing it in good works.
2. Consider, Christian soul, what thy thoughts will be, at the approach of death, of the value of this time, which thou makest so little of at present. What wouldst thou not then give for some of those hours, which thou losest now in vanity and sin? Ah! the dreadful anguish that will rack the soul of the dying sinner, when, seeing himself at the brink of a miserable eternity, he shall wish a thousand times, but all in vain, that he could but call back one day, or even one hour of this time past, and had but the same health and strength as he formerly had, to employ it in the love of God and sincere repentance for his sins. Ah! worldlings, why will you then be so blind as not to see, that any one of these hours which you daily squander away, is indeed more valuable than ten thousand worlds!
3. Consider what will be the sentiments of the damned in hell of the value of time, when time shall be no more: how bitterly will they regret for all eternity all those hours, days, months and years, which were allowed them by the bounty of their Creator, during the space of their mortal life; by the due employment of which, they might have prevented that misery, to which they are now irrevocably condemned; and might have made themselves eternally and infinitely happy; but, alas! they would not work whilst the time was, whilst they had the daylight before them: the night, the dismal and eternal night is now come, in which it is too late to work; and during which they shall eternally condemn their past folly and madness, in neglecting and abusing their precious time. Ah! Christians, let us be wise at their expense. But what do you think will be the sentiments of the blessed in heaven of this precious time? Truly, if it were possible, and if their happy state could admit of such a thing as grief, there is nothing those blessed souls would regret more than the loss of any of those moments, which in their lifetime had not been well husbanded: when they shall clearly see, in the light of God, what an immense increase of glory and happiness they might have acquired, by the due employment of those precious moments.
4. Consider, that as all time is short, and passes quickly away, so all temporal enjoyments, honours, riches and pleasures of this world, are all transitory, uncertain and inconstant. Only eternity, and the goods or evils which it comprises, are truly great, as being without end, without change, without comparison; admitting of no mixture of evil in its goods, nor any alloy of comfort in its evils. Oh! the vanity of all temporal grandeur, which must so soon be buried in the coffin. Oh! how quickly does the glory of this world pass away! A few short years are more than any one can promise himself: and after that, poor sinner, what will become of thee? Alas! the worms will prey upon thy body, and merciless devils on thy unrepenting soul. Thy worldly friends will forget thee. The very stones, on which thou hast got thy name engraved, will not long outlive thee. Oh! how true is that sentence: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity, but to love God and serve him alone? (Thomas A. Kempis.) It is thus only we shall be wise for eternity: all other wisdom is but folly.