When I have time, so many things I'll do, To make life happier and more fair For those whose lives are crowded now with care, I'll help to lift them from their low despair When I have time.
When I have time, the friend I love so well Shall know no more the weary, toiling days; I'll lead his feet in pleasant paths always, And cheer his heart with words of sweetest praise, When I have time.
When you have time! The friend you hold so dear May be beyond the reach of all your sweet intent, May never know that you so kindly meant To fill his life with bright content, When you had time.
1 N. D. Hillis, llie Investment of Influence, 220.
i CORINTHIANS vn. 29-31 215
Now is the time! Speed, friend, no longer wait To scatter loving smiles and words of cheer To those around, whose lives are now so drear; They may not need you in that far-off year: Now is the time.
4. What effect ought the shortness of the time to have on a man?
(1) It should make him discriminate. — Out of the mass of things which we have touched, we must choose those which are ours — the books which we shall read, the men whom we shall know, the power that we shall wield, the pleasure which we shall enjoy, the special point where we shall drop our bit of usefulness into the world's life before we go. We come to be like a party of travellers left at a great city railway station for a couple of hours. All cannot see everything in town. Each has to choose according to his tastes what he will see. They separate into their individualities instead of going wandering about promiscuously, as they would if there were no limit to their time. So conscien- tiousness, self-knowledge, independence, and the toleration of other men's freedom which always goes with the most serious and deep assertion of our own freedom, are closely connected with the sense that life is very short.
If When Dr. Chalmers was a young man, he was for a time more devoted to the study of mathematics than to the subjects which more properly should have concerned him as a parish minister. In a pamphlet which he wrote at the time in support of his application to be appointed to a mathematical chair in the University of Edinburgh, he affirmed that a minister could do all he needed to do in his parish, and do it well, and yet have five clear days every week for literary or other pursuits. Twenty years afterwards some one, who had found a copy of the old forgotten pamphlet, publicly taunted him with what he had said. Yes, he said, it was too true. " I was at that time unduly devoted to the study of mathematics. What, sir, is the object of mathematical science ? Magnitude and the proportions of magni- tude. But then, strangely blinded that I was, I had forgotten two magnitudes. I thought nothing of the littleness of time and the greatness of eternity." x
K In a letter to his old schoolmaster Euskin wrote as follows . "Nero's choice of time and opportunity for the pursuit of his
1 The Morning Watch, Dec. 1902, p. 134.
216 SPIRITUAL DETACHMENT
musical studies has been much execrated, but is guiltless in comparison to the conduct of the man who occupies himself for a single hour with any earthly pursuit of whatever importance, believing, as he must, if he believe the Bible, that souls, which human exertion might save, are meanwhile dropping minute by minute into hell. This being fully granted, the questions come, * What means are there by which the salvation of souls can be attained ? ' and ' How are we to choose among them ? ' For instance, does the pursuit of any art or science, for the mere sake of the resultant beauty or knowledge, tend to forward this end? That such pursuits are beneficial and ennobling to our nature is self-evident, but have we leisure for them in our perilous circumstances ? Is it a time to be spelling of letters, or touching of strings, counting stars or crystallizing dewdrops, while the earth is failing under our feet, and our fellows are departing every instant into eternal pain ? Or, on the other hand, is not the character and kind of intellect which is likely to be drawn into these occupations employed in the fullest measure and to the best advantage in them ? Would not great part of it be useless and inactive if otherwise directed? Do not the results of its labour remain, exercising an influence, if not directly spiritual, yet ennobling and purifying, on all humanity, to all time ? Was not the energy of Galileo, Newton, Davy, Michael Angelo, Eaphael, Handel, employed more effect- ively to the glory of God in the results and lessons it has left than if it had been occupied all their lifetime in direct priestly exertion, for which, in all probability, it was less adapted, and in which it would have been comparatively less effectual ? Is an individual, then, who has the power of choice, in any degree to yield to his predilections in so important a matter ? I myself have little pleasure in the idea of entering the Church, and have been attached to the pursuits of art and science, not by a flying fancy, but as long as I can remember, with settled and steady desire. How far am. I justified in following them up ? " What answer was sent by Canon Dale to assist his pupil in resolving the doubt between these conflicting calls, I do not know; but Ruskin's own answer to it is written large in his life and work. He made the critic's chair a pulpit.1