Time is Short

Round and round goes the old windlass, creaking and groaning. Coil after coil of rope is gradually made, and thus the fishing boat is drawn up the beach beyond the breakers. In this, as in most matters, the work is accomplished little by little; but by slow degrees, that which seemed in itself a considerable work is at length accomplished.

How important are little things!

Of what value is one ear of corn, and yet the harvest, worth millions of money, is made up of single ears.

Of what value is one blade of grass, and yet single blades form the pastures of the land. Drops of water form the ocean, sand grains form the desert, and moments make up our lifetime.

Round and round spin the hands of the clock and soon the day is gone. The moon revolves around the earth, and a month is spent. The earth travels in her orbit around the sun, and a year is gone. The wheel of our life turns tardily, but the infant grows into the youth, the youth into the full-grown man, and the man passes slowly but surely into old age and infirmity, and the days of life are spent, the years have all rolled by, and death closes the earthly history.

Thus generation after generation comes and departs. The centuries roll on, and so at last, little by little, time will have worn itself away into eternity.

Soon both writer and reader of this short article will be gone. We are but sojourners on earth. Only a brief spell of time is ours. Let us seek to husband our remaining moments and minutes, days and years, if such be allotted to us, that we squander them not. We are only tenants of these frail bodies which Scripture calls tabernacles or tents, and the time of our stewardship here is but as a hand-breadth.

Well might the psalmist say, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” He speaks of days, not of weeks or of months or of years. And we know not what shall be on the morrow, and so can only really count on the present day for our use.

Let me ask then, Have you applied your heart unto wisdom? Have you received Christ Jesus the Lord? He is the true wisdom, the wisdom of God, and of God He “is made unto us,” who believe upon Him, “wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”

Do not postpone coming to Him. Do not put off until later. “Procrastination,” that is, putting off, has been called “the thief of time,” and for many it is the thief of blessing and of joy for not only time but for eternity.

A story is told of a youth who asked an aged man how long he thought any one ought to be ready for death before it really came.

The answer was, “One day.”

“Oh! then,” thought the young man, “I can have my fling in this world’s pleasures; there is plenty of time for me.”

He was however stopped by the old man asking how long the young man had to live. He of course answered that he did not know, upon which the aged one responded, “Get ready, then, at once.”

If you have Christ as your own Saviour you are ready. If you have not Christ you are not ready.

Every throb of our pulse is shortening our stay on earth. Have you a home for eternity?

“Passing onward, quickly passing,

Nought the wheels of time can stay,

Sweet the thought that some are going

To the realms of perfect day.

Passing onward, passing onward,

Christ their leader, Christ their way.”

May you be found among this blessed company. Then, while the days speed on, and the tale of our life is still being told, we may rejoice in view of the approaching return of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the day of His coming again.

I.Fleming

Scattered Seed 1892, p. 134