3. Consider, it is uncertain how long thou shalt enjoy the .season. The present time is always best, and shall we waste it vainly ? We have not a lease of our lives. Ludovicus Capellus tells of a rabbin that, being asked when was the fittest time for a man to repent, he answered him, One day before he dies, meaning presently, for this may be your last day. We know not how soon God may call us to himself. In an orchard some fruits are plucked green, few are left to rot upon the tree. Mariners, that have not the wind in a bottle, are ready to tackle the first gale. We shall never have a better opportunity to con- sider our ways. In youth we want wisdom and zeal, and in age strength ; in the midst of business we want leisure, and in the midst of leisure we want a heart. There is not more eflicacy in the latter season than in the former. Do not think that siclmess and old age will help you more in the work of repentance than youth. Moral arguments work not without evangelical grace. The bad thief had one foot in hell, and yet he blasphemed. There will be more difficulty in old age, but no help. Sickness and age needs a cordial, and not work ', and there- fore no season like the present.
128 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. VII.
4. They that have lost time know the worth of it. Oh ! if they might have the happiness to live again that are now in hell, would they waste their precious hours so wantonly and lavishly as you do ? Dying men that are aftYighted in conscience, discover to us the passions of the damned : they Avould give all the world for one year or one month to repent. He that so passionately begged for a drop to cool his tongue, how would he have indented with God for a year's respite from tor- ment ? In the day of death, all the wealth of the world will not pur- chase one day longer. We never know what we lose in losing time, till it be too late. It is better to be sensible of the worth of time in earth than in hell. Knowledge of things that are evil and bitter is more easily gained by teaching than by experience and feeling ; but we do not lay these things to heart. Christ mourned over Jerusalem because she lost her day : Luke xix. 42, ' If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace ; but now they are hid from thine eyes.'
5. We must give an account for time, and therefore let not pleasure engross and take up too much of it. Whenever God comes to reckon with his people, the great thing for which he calls them to an account is their time. He keeps an exact reckoning of the years of his patience : Ps. xcv. 10, ' Forty years long was I grieved with this generation.' I have given them thirty, forty, fifty years respite to think of their sins, and apply theu hearts to be wise for eternity. So of the times and seasons of grace, and methods and dispensations of mercy : Luke xiii. 7, ' Behold, these three years came I seeking fruit of this fig-tree, and find none ; ' by which is meant the three years of Christ's ministry with the Jews, for he was then entering on his last half-year. When the scripture speaks in a round number, there is no mystery in it ; but when the numbers are uneven and odd, there is something to be noted ; these three years Christ had been labouring with them. And Jer, xxv. 3, ' From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah (that is the three-and-twentieth year), the word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early, and speaking,' &c. Such passages are but pledges of the great process of the day of judg- ment. God will call to account then for the time of his patience, and the means and mercies you have had. Oh ! then, reflect this truth upon your hearts, and say, I must die and give an account for time, and alas ! I cannot give an account of one day among a thousand. My time hath been spent in foolish mirth, in troublesome cares, in idle company, in vain sports and revellings : and how shall I be able to look God in the face, and answer him ? Do but pass the account with yourselves, and if you cannot answer conscience, you will never be able to answer God. So much time spent in meals and banquets, so much in visits, so much in sports,, so much in sleep, so much in worldly employments, and then think how little a remainder there is for God ! Oh ! if we did but now and then cast up our accounts, it would extremely shame us. If you hire a labourer for the day, and he should come at night and demand pay, and the ma.ster should say, What hast thou done for me ? would he not be ashamed to say, Thus much time have I spent in meals, thus much in loitering and sporting with my companions, thus much in mending my own apparel, and an hour or half an hour in your work and service. Can this man expect a day's wages ? Christians,