I have read of a devout man who, when he heard a clock strike, he would say, Here is one hour more past that I have to answer for. Ah ! young men, as time is very precious, so it is very short. Time is very swift ; it is suddenly gone. In the 9th of Job, and the 25th verse, * My days are swifter than a post, they flee away, they see no good.' The Hebrew word (Icalal) translated ' swifter than a post,' signifies any- thing that is light, because light things are quick in motion.
The ancients emblemed time with wings, as it were, not running, but flying.3 Time is like the sun, that never stands still, but is still a-run- ning his race. The sun did once stand still, yea, went back, but so did never time. Time is still running and flying. It is a bubble, a shadow, a dream. Can you seriously consider of this, young men, and not begin to be good betimes? Surely you cannot. Sirs! if the whole earth whereupon we tread were turned into a lump of gold, it were not able to purchase one minute of time. Oh ! the regrettings of the damned for misspending precious time !4 Oh ! what would they not give to be free, and to enjoy the means of grace one hour ! Ah! with what attention, with what intention,5 with what trembling and melting of heart, with what hungering and thirsting, would they hear the word ! Time, saith Bernard, were a good commodity in hell, and the traffic of it most gainful, where for one day a man would give ten thousand worlds, if he had them. Young men, can you in good earnest believe this, and not begin to be good betimes ?
Ah ! young men and women, as you love your precious immortal
1 Ps. xxv. 7, Job xiii. 26.
2 There is nothing puts a more serious frame into a man's spirit, than to know the worth of his time.
8 Sophocles, Phocilides. [Query, ' Philoctetes' ? — G.]
4 Who is there among us that knows how to value time, and prize a day at a due rate? [Senec., Epist. i. — G.]
5 Intentness, earnestness.- G.
182 APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNGS XIV. 13.
■souls, as you would escape hell, and come to heaven, as you would be happy in life, and blessed in death, and glorious after death, don't spend any more of your precious time in drinking and drabbing,1 in carding, dicing, and dancing ; don't trifle away your time, don't swear away your time, don't whore away your time, do not lie away your time, but begin to be good betimes, because time is a talent that God will reckon with you for.2 Ah ! young men and women, you may reckon upon years, many years yet to come, when possibly you have not so many hours to make ready your accounts. It may be this night you may have a summons, and then, if your time be done, and your work to be begun, in what a sad case will you be. Will you not wish that you had never been born ?
Seneca was wont to jeer the Jews for their ill husbandry, in that they lost one day in seven, meaning their Sabbath.3 Oh that it were not too true of the most of professors, both young and old, that they lose not only one day in seven, but several days in seven.
Sirs ! Time let slip cannot be recalled. The foolish virgins found it so, and Saul found it so, and Herod found it so, and Nero found it so. The Israelites found it so ; yea, and Jacob, and Josiah, and David, though good men, yet they found it so to their cost.4
The Egyptians draw the picture of time with three heads : the first of a greedy wolf, gaping, for time past, because it hath ravenously de- voured the memory of so many things past recalling ; the second of a crowned lion, roaring, for time present, because it hath the principality of all actions, for which it calls loud ; the third of a deceitful dog, fawning, for time to come, because it feeds some men with many flat- tering hopes to their eternal undoing. Ah ! young men and women, as you would give up your accounts at last with joy, concerning this talent of time, with which God hath trusted you, begin to be good be- times, &c.
Reason (5). Because they ivill have the greater comfort and joy when they come to be old.5
The 7lst psalm, 5, 17, 18, compared, ' Thou art my hope, O Lord God : thou art my trust from my youth. O God, thou hast taught me from my youth : and hitherto I have declared thy wondrous works. Now also, when I am old and grey-headed, 0 God, forsake me not, un- til I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power unto every one that is to come.'
Polycarpus could say, when old, ' Thus many years have I served my Master Christ, and hitherto hath he dealt well with me.'6 If early con- verts live to be old, no joy to their joy. Their joy will be the greatest joy, a joy like to the joy of harvest, a joy like to their joy that divide the spoil. Their joy will be soundest joy, the weightiest joy, the holiest joy, the purest joy, the strongest joy, and the most lasting joy,' Isa. ix. 3. The carnal joy of the wicked, the glistering golden joy of the
1 ' Licentiousness.' See Halliwell, sub voce. — G.
* A heathen said he lived no day without a line ; that is, ho did something remarkable every day. — [Zcuxis, tho Paintor. — G.]
3 Query, ' Tacitus,' not Seneca? Cf. Annals, ii. 85 ; xii. 3 ; xv. 44 ; Hist. i. ]0 ; ii. 4 ; ii. 79 ; v. 1, 2, et alibi.— Q . * Mat. xxv. 5; Heb. iii. 17-19.
6 Seneca, though a heathen, could say, Believe me, true joy is no light thing. [Epist. xxiii. — G.] 6 Martyrium S. Polycarpi, Hefele, as before. — G.
1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 183
worldling, and the flashing joy of the hypocrite, is but as the crackling of thorns under a pot, to the joy and comfort of such, who, when old, can say with good Obadiah, that they ' feared the Lord from their youth.' If, when you are young, your eyes shall be full of tears for sin, when you are old, your heart shall be full of joys. Such shall have the best wine at last.
Oh ! that young men would begin to be good betimes, that so they may have the greater harvest of joy when they come to be old, &c. It is sad to be sowing your seed when you should be reaping your har- vest ; it is best to gather in the summer of youth against the winter of old age.
Reason 6. Because an eternity of felicity and glory hangs upon those few moments that are allotted to them.
It was a good question the young man proposed, ' What shall I do to inherit eternal life V Luke x. 25. I know I shall be eternally happy or eternally miserable, eternally blessed or eternally cursed, eter- nally saved or eternally damned, &c.
' Oh! what shall I do to inherit eternal life !' My cares, my fears, my troubles are all about eternity ! No time can reach eternity, no age can extend to eternity, no tongue can express eternity. Eternity is that unum perpetuum hodie, one perpetual day which shall never have end ; what shall I do, what shall I not do, that I may be happy to all eternity \ l