[b]Gone so soon without a trace!
(Thomas Watson, "The Godly Man's
Picture Drawn with a Scripture Pencil")
"Redeeming the time." Ephesians 5:16
How you spend your time, is a matter of great
importance. Many people fool away their time--
some in idle visits, others in recreations and
pleasures which secretly bewitch the heart, and
take it away from holy things. What are our
golden hours for--but to attend to our souls?
Time misspent is not time lived--but time lost!
Time is a precious commodity. As salvation is to
be worked out in it, and a conveyance of heaven
depends on using it well--it is of infinite concern!
Think of your short stay in the world. "We are here
for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land
as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth
are like a shadow--gone so soon without a trace!"
1 Chronicles 29:15
There is only a span between the cradle and the grave!
Solomon says there is "a time to be born and a time to
die"--but mentions no time of living--as if that were so
short, it was not worth naming!
Time, when it has once gone, can never be recalled.
"My life passes more swiftly than a runner. It flees away,
filled with tragedy. It disappears like a swift boat, like an
eagle that swoops down on its prey." Job 9:25-26
This Scripture compares time to a flying eagle. Yet time
differs from the eagle in this: the eagle flies forward and
then back again--but time has wings only to fly forward
--it never returns! "Time flies away irrevocably."
The serious thoughts of our short stay here in this world,
would be a great means of promoting godliness. Whoever
considers how flitting and winged his life is--will hasten
his repentance.