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Days, weeks, months, and years
constitute those divisions of duration by which we measure the
length of natural life. Time indeed is valuable, because
during the span of human existence is sealed the destiny of
all mankind. Recently a large moving-van backed up to our
neighbor's house, and I asked our neighbor what he intended to
do. He informed me that he was moving to a certain city, where
he expected to make his future home. He further stated that
opporunities were greater in that place, and that in a few
years he would be indpendently rich. That very night a swiftly
running passenger-train struck the moving-van, and the poor
man who a few hours before was bubbling over with enthusiasm
was hurled to his death. Then I remembered the words of James
4:13-15, which seemed to me at that hour as the greatest
warning in the Word of God. James says: "Go to now, ye that
say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and
continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas
ys know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your
life? It's even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and
then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord
will, we shall live, and do this, or that."
Men Appear
to Have Plenty of Time...
When the springtime
rains have covered the lowlands with water, until one can
hardly get about, water is but little appreciated; but along
in August, when, for lack of rain, the landscape is brown and
vegetation is dying, oh, how we long for and appreciate a few
hours of refreshing rain. Thus it is in life. When young and
happy and nature's reservoir of vital forces is overflowing,
when life seems to be one endless song of delight, time seems
to be but little appreciated; but later on, upon that sad day
when the attending doctor walks away from your bed and says,
"I can do no more for you," when the patient nurse informs the
family that it's a matter of only a few moments, when earthly
scenes and faces are slowly---and forever---fading from view,
then, if not before, a proper value will be placed upon time.
A man who had allowed time to pass by unheeded, when told that
he must die, exclaimed, "The world would I give if I only had
yesterday back again." But yesterday was forever gone.
The World a
Stage...
There was a time in
my younger days when I thought that this great world was a
platform upon which life acted out its part alone. Everyone
about me was busy and seemed to be full of activity. On the
way to school with my brother and sister I could see the wild
flowers growing, and the fields of waving grain appeared like
animated beings, as the wild winds swayed the tender stalks;
the old tree in front of the schoolhouse appeared to me like a
mighty giant that had defied a thousand storms. About that
time some event occurred that changed the course of my
reasoning, for a dark shadow suddenly crossed the pathway of
my life. First, a little boy with whom I had played for years
died suddenly, which, to me was a terrible shock. Next I
witnessed the death of an uncle, and soon my grandfather
passed away. I remember hearing the minister say at one of the
funerals that everything which lives must die; so the next
day, on my way to school, I said to the wild flowers, "You,
too, must die," and instinctively I knew that soon the reapers
would cut down the fields of waving grain. I said to the big
tree, among whose branches the birds were singing, "You, too,
will feel the sting of death." I also marked the sparrow's
fall.
As I grew older, I
became more and more familiar with the laws of life and death.
Stars die, mayhap. It's said that conflagrations have been
seen far away in the distant ether, so that astronomers have
marked the funerals of worlds---the confuming of those mighty
orbs---which we'd imagined as set forever in sockets of silver
to glisten as the lamps of eternity---they pass away, and are
no more. "The sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but
it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and
the grace of the fashion of it perisheth," and the inspired
writer, James, continues, that the same laws of dissolution
are applicable to the human race. Broken columns stud the
ages, telling the sad story of the unfinished work of man. He
began, but was overtaken by death, and the work was never
completed. Man is running a race with death. He may seek a
higher altitude, a balanced ration, and perfect sanitation,
but he can escape death only temporarily. The old must die,
but death may be as near the young as he is the old; so all
should be fully prepared---prepared to meet their God.
Time a Gift
from God...
Time is valuable
because it's lengthened out to us one hour at a time by a
loving Creator. Time's not on the market, and can't be bought
or sold. The great issue before us, however, isn't how long
we'll live, but how well. It's not the quantity of time,
reckoned by months and years, but the quality of our acts,
determined by the motives that prompted us to do and say. The
story of that queen who, it is alleged, offered the wealth of
her kingdom for a moment of time is worthy of earnest
consideration, because those sixty seconds for which she
offered millions, but could not buy, were the same
measurements of duration which she allowed to pass idly by, in
her former days. I visited the studio of a sculptor who had
just completed a figure of a woman, whose hair was hanging
over her face, and who had wings under her arms. Astonished at
her strange appearance, I inquired the meaning, and was told
that the statue represented Opportunity, which is seldom
recognized, and when passed has gone forever.
A Forced
Journey...
We had no choice in
the selection of our parents nor of the beginning of our
existence. We find ourselves today created intelligences,
beings possessed with reasoning faculties, traveling upon a
pathway over which we can't return. We must go on. We pass
this way but once; we can't retrace our steps. Immutable laws,
of both a physical and moral nature, are behind us, forever
pushing us out in the future, were all must go, but from
whence none return.
If one had ten
miles to go to catch a train and had only sufficient time at
his disposal, and if by missing the train he would be left
behind forever, he certainly would improve every moment, and
allow no time to be misspent. Suppose he should be misdirected
and lost ten minutes upon a wrong road, what then? He'd only
time enough to make the journey before he lost those valuable
ten minutes. If he succeeds now, he must also make up lost
time, and so he quickens his pace and hurries on. It's the
same upon the journey of life. Beginning upon the day that we
cross over that invisible line from childish innocency to
moral accountability to God, we have only time enought to gain
the celestial city, if we improve every hour, day, and year of
our lives. Many (all of us adults), sad to say, have been
misdirected by the enemy of our sous, and have lost much
valuable time upon the wrong road. If the reader is yet
unsaved, he must hasten to God while the doors of mercy are
still open; the backslider must arise and quickly return unto
his Father's house; and the neglectful Christian must hurry
and complete the task given him to do, before the night comes
when no man can work.
Time
Fleeting...
In youthful days we
look forward with bright anticipation to the time when we'll
be full grown and can take our place in the business affairs
of life. To the ambitious child, time drags wearily on.
Chafing under home govenment and "peeved" by little quarrels
with brothers and sisters, he looks out in the great wide
world with a longing heart and mind. To him time moves as
slowly as though drawn by primitive oxen, when, alas! he
awakens, like one who has overslept in the morning, and finds
himself a middle-age man. Noiselessly and silently as the snow
fell in the night, so age had come upon him, and now he rubs
his eyes, looks backward, and wonders where the days and years
have gone. Memory carries him backward to the scenes of his
youth, where, with father, mother, brothers and sisters, he
passed the golden springtime of life. He longs to return to
the old home; but who can turn backward the wheels of time? He
would be glad to meet with those loved ones of long ago, but
time has wrought great changes, and of most of those whom he
loved so well---yet so little appreciate---it could be
written, "They're Gone." Mute are the lips he ofttimes kissed,
and stilled are the hearts that one time beat so rapidly at
his approach, for today they sleep in thier narrow beds on
yonder hillside.
"Of all sad
words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are, 'It might have
been.'"
A friend met me at
the depot in a certain city and invited me to spend the night
at his home. I gladly accepted the invitation and spent a
pleasant evening with the family. A few weeks later I was met
at the same depot by the same person, and upon this occasion
he said, "Will you come up to the house?" I noticed the
peculiar phraseology of his invitation, and when we arrived at
the house, with salty tears running down over his cheeks he
told me the details of the sudden death of his companion, who
had so kindly entertatined me a few weeks before. What stirred
the deeper feelings of my heart were his words of bitter
regret. "Oh, if I only had her back," he cried, "I would treat
her with more consideration. The girl whom I took from her
parental home, who gave her best to me, now lies cold in her
dusty bed." He took me out to the cemetery, and I saw the
new-made mound all covered with beautiful flowers. Nothing in
particular was said; but I thought of that oft-quoted phrase,
"A rose to the living is more than garland of flowers to the
dead."
The Brevity
of Life...
It's appointed unto
man to die, and upon that day of physical dissolution, the
period of duration we call time comes to an end. With the
passing of time, the door of opportunity also closes forever.
Who would dare dispute the words of the Master, who declared,
"Ye...shall die in your sins: wither I go, ye cannot come"
(John 8:21)?
Death's not an
accident of nature, but comes by intelligent appointment, as a
penalty for sin, and for the inner man is only a change of
location, and not of condition. At physical death, the dust
returns to dust, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
The natural body is dissolved and returns to its former
conditions, and may assume other forms in vegetable, animal,
or minieral; but the spirit, or soul, of man, being immortal
(see 2 Cor. 4:16, 18), will live on and on while ceaseless
ages roll. The Bible speaks clearly upon the subject, that
there's no power in death or the grave to absolve from guilt,
for it states emphatically, "He that is unjust [in life], let
him be unjust still [beyond death]...he that is holy [in
life], let him be holy still [beyond death]" (Rev. 22:11).
Time, then, is man's probationary period, and to neglect its
opportunities of mercy will result in eternal loss.
Our
future destiny depends upon the use we make of time, so let's
improve it well.
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