ON THE VALUE OF TIME. For the Christian Observer. NE EVER was there a more seasonable question than that proposed by Solomon, in his inestimable and inspired Proverbs, "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ?" (i. 22), that is, folly. These words of the wise" may be most seasonably and usefully considered at the beginning of a year; for the rapid flight of time urges us to "incline our ear to wisdom, and apply our hearts to understanding," (Prov. ii. 2); yea, "Seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;" and to remember Him that "giveth wisdom," and out of whose mouth" cometh wisdom and understanding." For though many forget, none can deny, that man "fleeth as a shadow," and that the number of those who have vanished from this earthly scene, is known but to "the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity." And, if the present season should lead us to meditate on the worth of "wisdom," "the value of time," as a main object of her contemplation, may claim the attention of the reader. Time is allowed to be incalculably precious; yet alas! how is it wasted, misapplied, and even shamefully abused by thousands and tens of thousands of mankind. With a view, I trust a charitable one, and with a prayer, I am sure an earnest one, I would endeavour to withdraw that veil which unhappily conceals from such careless ones the real value of time, and thus rescue them from those delusions which not only impair their present, but threaten their everlasting happiness. Time is connected with eternity. This of itself demonstrates its transcendent value. For not one work do we perform, not one affection do we cherish, not one thought do we entertain, which has not a direct bearing on the interests of a never-ending state. If our lives be Christian lives, in the scriptural sense of the expression, and our hearts Christian hearts, being renewed daily by the Spirit, then, as it regards ourselves, the connection of which I speak is an immeasurably happy one. What then awaits us before the throne of God and of the Lamb, what rest, what happiness, what glory; how bright the crown, how sublime the scene, how inspiring the Halleluiahs, it is not for beings of limited capacity to conceive. Yet till the above "connection" can be shewn to be a mere figment of the imagination; every day, every hour, CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 97. B every minute of our temporal existence is far too precious to be lost. Well, therefore, was it remarked by Addison, in one of his Spectators, that, as goldsmiths, when filing gold, save even its smallest particles, on account of the preciousness of the metal, so ought we to improve every portion of our time, as far more valuable than gold. Nor is it too much to add that, till we pass into eternity, we shall never sufficiently perceive the weight and worth of time. Here alas! our estimates of it are very defective and erroneous. Yet the more we regard eternity as the region of "perfect love," and consequently of untiring obedience to our God and Saviour, the more shall we study, in all the depth of intensity of "the prayer of faith," how to prepare for that world by our holy diligence in the present. Again, time is precious since it is given to us for the express purpose of glorifying Him that made us. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Cor. x. 31.) Passages of a similar, and even a direct, kind abound in Holy Scripture; such, for instance, as "None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord." (Rom. xiv. 7, 8.) It is said to the same effect, (2 Cor. v. 15), "that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." And they "first gave their own selves to the Lord." (2 Cor. viii. 5.) Once more, "Ye are not your own." (1 Cor. vi. 19.) To reconcile such words as the foregoing with either the neglect, the abuse, or the selfish disposal, of our time, were obviously and utterly impossible. It follows that it is incumbent upon all men to employ this inestimable talent with a constant and scrupulous regard to the revealed will of God. So that, whatever be our birth, our station, our condition, our calling, or our circumstances, we should never lose sight of the enquiry once made by the awakened Saul, at the feet of his Redeemer, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts ix. 6.) And is it not in the page of Scripture that we distinctly learn "what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God," (Rom. xii. 2), which, considered in its substance, is binding on the highest archangel as well as on the humblest saint? To search the Scriptures" is, consequently, to "redeem the time." Time to the true penitent is of value untold and inconceivable. While looking unto Jesus" for reconciliation to that Being whom we have offended, and for the recovery of that image which we have lost, he ponders, hour by hour, on the true signification of the fall, or the terrific import of iniquity. In the agonies of his awakened soul he asks, day and night, "Have I not done foolishly in transgressing the laws of the Most Holy, in slighting the authority of the Most Just, in resisting the Lord God Omnipotent? Have I not made myself vile by preferring the creature to the Creator, by withholding my heart from my Redeemer, and setting it on uncertain riches, on delusive pleasures, on dazzling rank, on lying vanities?" His tears, his sighs, his sorrow practically answer this enquiry. Well can he now realize the thrilling thought, "Sweet the moments, rich in blessing, Every fresh view of the holy and uncomplaining sufferer, of the Lamb slain, of the Son of God crucified for the sons of men, strengthens those convictions, and enlivens those feelings of the penitent which testify his faith in Christ, and thus enlarge his conceptions of the value of each passing moment. To this improvement of his time he will yet more powerfully be impelled as a believer, as a child of God (Galatians iii. 26). In this new, this high relationship, he finds the most expanded field of profitable and delightful occupation. For he recollects the Divine saying (1 John iv. 10), "herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins ;" and he feels the reflex influence of that invaluable record in all that he purposes, all that he undertakes for God: while on such a Father he could rest with the most unbounded confidence, he would also return his loving kindness with the largest measure of affection, with the most conscientious and devoted service that can consist with the manifold infirmities of a fallen creature. Still, relying on the Saviour, and beholding in his face "the light of the glory of God," his adopted child will" serve the Lord with gladness," and will daily find his ways to be ways of such pleasantness and peace, as this earth, with all its resources, is wholly unable to supply. He will habitually regard his days, his hours, his moments, as the real property of God; and therefore with a filial zeal will aim to use them to his glory, whether in wealth or poverty, in health or sickness, in life or death. At home or abroad, in the closet, in the family, in the sanctuary, such a man will identify his own highest enjoyment with the largest amount of service to his Heavenly Father; not indeed in the presumptuous spirit of the blinded Pharisee, but rather in that real faith, which impels us to acknowledge and obey "the Lord that bought us." Here I might refer to certain bright examples of the grace which we are now considering to the Psalmist, to apostles, to martyrs, till at length I traced down the series to those followers of the Lamb who have shed an imperishable lustre on our own times. Amidst the many Christian luminaries which have sunk below the horizon, it might be invidious to select a few as illustrations; but among those whom I have myself known and loved, two at this moment press strongly upon my recollections and feelings;-dear Hannah More and Mr. Wilberforce. Whether I contemplate their writings, their conversation, or their labours, and particularly the pious and patriotic eloquence of Mr. Wilberforce in the British senate, I cannot but admire in each that operation of Divine grace which alone can impress upon our heart, and enable us to realize in our life, the subject of the present essay :-a remark which will at once approve itself to those who have read their respective biographies with impartial minds. Such examples will be lost upon us, unless we consider in detail how we ought, as believers, to walk and please God. No occasional burst of religious zeal, no fitful benevolence, no desultory effort to imitate our Lord and Saviour, will prove our settled conviction of the value of each particle of time. It is by seeking, and by seizing too, all such opportunities of doing good as are supplied by unbefriended poverty, by protracted illness, by agonizing pain, and still more by the misery of unenlightened and unconverted souls, and by listening to appeals continually made on their behalf by charitable and religious institutions, that we demonstrate our practical acquaintance with the duty which Í would here inculcate. As our Heavenly Master daily and hourly performed it, and even wrought miracles of mercy for the relief of human suffering, so it is for his true followers to walk, in godly sincerity as he 4 On the Value of Time. also walked, and thus testify their full conviction that the present moment is far too precious to be thrown away. : That method is the very hinge of the right improvement of our time, is a fact too obvious to need demonstration. Yet there is one part of method on which I would be allowed to dwell, and that is the well established habit of early rising. Without this, our time is grievously wasted minutes are thus gone, till at length they amount to hours; and the body is enervated and the mind unstrung, and both body and mind are so disordered, that the temper is generally affected by sluggardly indulgence, and the very countenance is covered with a cloud that darkens the domestic circle, and renders the first meal in the day any thing rather than a scene of true concord, or of cheerful gratitude to God. What delays, and hindrances, and inconvenience result to the entire family from that indolent habit of which I speak, what painful maladies are increased, if not engendered by it, I have no time particularly to show. But such evils are much too notorious to require a proof, and would fill not a few pages of the history of human woes. Nor are those of an inferior order which proceed from the prevailing habit of retiring late to rest; a habit which is generally incompatible with early rising-as many a determined student has long since discovered to his cost. On the other hand, what solid advantages are inseparable from early rising, thousands from their own experience can unquestionably prove. To the true Christian the best portion of the day is the most effectually employed for the best purposes. That animal and mental vigour, which are attendant on his waking hours, are instruments of divine grace to aid his holy meditations, to stimulate and to sustain his prayers, to enliven his filial gratitude to his great Preserver and Benefactor, and to impart energy to those affections which he sets on God his Saviour. Thus, as on the breath of the morning our sacrifices ascend to God, so they descend in joy and peace and consolation to our own spirit. And if, in the hour of prime, when invited by all the smiles and perfumes and melodies of nature, we tread our fields and gardens, we may realize such pure pleasures as are inconceivable to the slaves of luxury, of fashion, and of mere worldly avocation. The latter may undoubtedly prosper, in secular respects, by devoting their early hours to the transac tion of business, to correspondence, to the inspection of their affairs, and to the calculation of loss and gain. Yet their advantages as early risers, are at best but temporal; those of the true Christian are eternal. For, by moderating his hours of sleep, he not only escapes interruption in attending to his temporal concerns, and promotes order in his family, upon the Lord," and is the better but he "waits" more profitably prepared for the duties and temptations of the day. Whatever work may be performed for God or our fellow creatures, without the assistance of that habit to which I am referring, still by the conscientious use of it such work will be materially improved. Nor would I forget the stress particularly laid by an Apostle on the redemption (or, figuratively speaking, the buying back) of the time intrusted to us (Ephes. v. 16). And is it not under a penitential sense of our past neglect, or misapplication of it, that we undertake this Christian "What! (he may say to duty? Here the believer will look back and wonder at his former insensibility to the value of so great a treasure. himself under the scourge of an awakened conscience) have I hitherto lived as if this life, with all its transitory interests, were far more important than the next; the body more precious than the soul; and the world, with its false pleasures, and perishing possessions, to be preferred to Jesus Christ, and his unsearchable, eternal riches? Madman that I was, thus to prostitute my time, and even to be at pains to get rid of it as an incumbrance, by worldly plans, by fashionable dissipation. At such a moment and in such a retrospect, he may truly rend his heart at his Redeemer's feet, and resolve, in dependence on his grace, so to employ the brief remainder of his days, that no portion of them shall run to waste, but each add something to the revenue of that glory which belongs to Christ. Such a man will scrutinize with jealousy that proportion of his leisure which may be spent in necessary recreation, lest on the one hand the quality of it be hurtful, and on the other the quantity be extravagant. "The value of time" will be apparent in another view-namely, that it is shortly to be accounted for at the judgment-seat of Christ. Great and everlasting as is His mercy, to those who are led by the Spirit to build on it their exclusive hopes; confessed as is the ability of Jesus to pluck the brand from the burning; and contrary as it is to his very nature to break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax; still he has declared, by his apostle, that He will take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thess. i. 8). And can we doubt whether He will institute a strict inquiry respecting our use of the talent that we are now considering? This is clear from the sentence passed on the unprofitable servant (Matt. XXV. 30). As we learn from the parable in question, that a glorious and eternal recompense will then be bestowed upon his servants, and that their works of charity in particular shall, in his own mercy, be rewarded, as done even unto Him; so we perceive, on the same paramount authority, that those who did not such works, even unto one of the least of his brethren, in reality did it not to Him. What their account will be who shall stand convicted at the last of idleness, of dissipation, of self-love; whose days may have been prostituted in the fields, and whose nights in the assembly or the ball-room;whose minds, however temperate, have been so absorbed in worldly business as to overlook the business of salvation; whose ingenuity and energies have, alas! been continually employed in schemes of mere voluptuousness, of avarice, or of ambition; who have studied their apparel while they have overlooked "the robe of righteousness," and have been delighted with their diamonds while they habitually despised "the pearl of great price," I tremble even to contemplate. Such consumers of time will then have their eyes opened to see how it should have been improved, and how, unhappily, it has been lost. I judge them not. Yet He who alone "knoweth the secrets of the heart," will then convince his enemies that he cannot be deceived, and will not be mocked; and every one who, either from carelessness or obstinacy, shall have shut his heart against a Saviour, shall find the "everlasting doors" absolutely shut against himself. Then will he wish too late that he had welcomed the "glad tidings" that he rejected, and sought "the refuge" that he despised; and had thus overcome the world, instead of submitting to its sway. In a sad eternity he will learn the preciousness of time. For, finally I would remark, time can never be regained-no, not a single moment of it. Lament as bitterly as they may their deep infatuation as triflers in the sight of God; confess as penitently as they may their daring and desperate rejection of the grace of Jesus; and cry as piteously as they may for one drop of his "tender mercy," still what saith the Scripture, Prov. i. 24, &c.? "Because I have called, and |