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The Preciousness Of Time And The Importance Of Redeeming It
by Jonathan Edwards
Dated December, 1734
Ephesians 5:16, "Redeeming
the time."
Christians should not only study to improve the opportunities they
enjoy, for their own advantage, as those who would make a good bargain;
but also labor to reclaim others from their evil courses; that so God
might defer his anger, and time might be redeemed from that terrible
destruction, which, when it should come, would put an end to the time of
divine patience. And it may be upon this account, that this reason is
added, Because the days are evil. As if the apostle had said, the
corruption of the times tends to hasten threatened judgments; but your
holy and circumspect walk will tend to redeem time from the devouring
jaws of those calamities. — However, thus much is certainly held forth
to us in the words; viz. that upon time we should set a high value, and
be exceeding careful that it be not lost; and we are therefore exhorted
to exercise wisdom and circumspection, in order that we may redeem it.
And hence it appears, that time is exceedingly precious.
SECTION I
Why time is precious.
Time is precious for the following reasons:
First, because a happy or miserable eternity depends on the good or ill
improvement of it. Things are precious in proportion to their
importance, or to the degree wherein they concern our welfare. Men are
wont to set the highest value on those things upon which they are
sensible their interest chiefly depends. And this renders time so
exceedingly precious, because our eternal welfare depends on the
improvement of it. — Indeed our welfare in this world depends upon its
improvement. If we improve it not, we shall be in danger of coming to
poverty and disgrace; but by a good improvement of it, we may obtain
those things which will be useful and comfortable. But it is above all
things precious, as our state through eternity depends upon it. The
importance of the improvement of time upon other accounts, is in
subordination to this.
Gold and silver are esteemed precious by men; but they are of no worth
to any man, only as thereby he has an opportunity of avoiding or
removing some evil, or of possessing himself of some good. And the
greater the evil is which any man hath advantage to escape, or the good
which he hath advantage to obtain, by anything that he possesses, by so
much the greater is the value of that thing to him, whatever it be. Thus
if a man, by anything which he hath, may save his life, which he must
lose without it, he will look upon that by which he hath the opportunity
of escaping so great an evil as death, to be very precious. — Hence it
is that time is so exceedingly precious, because by it we have
opportunity of escaping everlasting misery, and of obtaining everlasting
blessedness and glory. On this depends our escape from an infinite evil,
and our attainment of an infinite good.
Second, time is very short, which is another thing that renders it very
precious. The scarcity of any commodity occasions men to set a higher
value upon it, especially if it be necessary and they cannot do without
it. Thus when Samaria was besieged by the Syrians, and provisions were
exceedingly scarce, “an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of
silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of
silver.” 2 Kin. 6:25. — So time is the more to be prized by men, because
a whole eternity depends upon it; and yet we have but a little of time.
“When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not
return.” Job 16:22. “My days are swifter than a post. They are passed
away as the swift ships; as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.” Job
9:25, 26. “Our life; what is it? It is but a vapour which appeareth for
a little time, and then vanisheth away.” Jam. 4:14. It is but as a
moment to eternity. Time is so short, and the work which we have to do
in it is so great, that we have none of it to spare. The work which we
have to do to prepare for eternity, must be done in time, or it never
can be done; and it is found to be a work of great difficulty and labor,
and therefore that for which time is the more requisite.
Third, time ought to be esteemed by us very precious, because we are
uncertain of its continuance. We know that it is very short, but we know
not how short. We know not how little of it remains, whether a year, or
several years, or only a month, a week, or a day. We are every day
uncertain whether that day will not be the last, or whether we are to
have the whole day. There is nothing that experience doth more verify
than this. — If a man had but little provision laid up for a journey or
a voyage, and at the same time knew that if his provision should fail,
he must perish by the way, he would be the more choice of it. — How much
more would many men prize their time, if they knew that they had but a
few months, or a few days, more to live! And certainly a wise man will
prize his time the more, as he knows not but that it will be so as to
himself. This is the case with multitudes now in the world, who at
present enjoy health, and see no signs of approaching death. Many such,
no doubt, are to die the next month, many the next week, yea, many
probably tomorrow, and some this night. Yet these same persons know
nothing of it, and perhaps think nothing of it, and neither they nor
their neighbors can say that they are more likely soon to be taken out
of the world than others. This teaches us how we ought to prize our
time, and how careful we ought to be, that we lose none of it.
Fourth, time is very precious, because when it is past, it cannot be
recovered. There are many things which men possess, which if they part
with, they can obtain them again. If a man have parted with something
which he had, not knowing the worth of it, or the need he should have of
it; he often can regain it, at least with pains and cost. If a man have
been overseen in a bargain, and have bartered away or sold something,
and afterwards repents of it, he may often obtain a release, and recover
what he had parted with. — But it is not so with respect to time. When
once that is gone, it is gone forever; no pains, no cost will recover
it. Though we repent ever so much that we let it pass, and did not
improve it while we had it, it will be to no purpose. Every part of it
is successively offered to us, that we may choose whether we will make
it our own, or not. But there is no delay. It will not wait upon us to
see whether or no we will comply with the offer. But if we refuse, it is
immediately taken away, and never offered more. As to that part of time
which is gone, however we have neglected to improve it, it is out of our
possession and out of our reach.
If we have lived fifty, or sixty, or seventy years, and have not
improved our time, now it cannot be helped. It is eternally gone from
us. All that we can do, is to improve the little that remains. Yea, if a
man have spent all his life but a few moments unimproved, all that is
gone is lost, and only those few remaining moments can possibly be made
his own. And if the whole of a man’s time be gone, and it be all lost,
it is irrecoverable. — Eternity depends on the improvement of time. But
when once the time of life is gone, when once death is come, we have no
more to do with time; there is no possibility of obtaining the
restoration of it, or another space in which to prepare for eternity. If
a man should lose the whole of his worldly substance, and become a
bankrupt, it is possible that his loss may be made up. He may have
another estate as good. But when the time of life is gone, it is
impossible that we should ever obtain another such time. All opportunity
of obtaining eternal welfare is utterly and everlastingly gone.
SECTION II
Reflections on time past.
You have now heard of the preciousness of time; and you are the persons
concerned, to whom God hath committed that precious talent. You have an
eternity before you. When God created you, and gave you reasonable
souls, he made you for an endless duration. He gave you time here in
order to a preparation for eternity, and your future eternity depends on
the improvement of time. — Consider, therefore, what you have done with
your past time. You are not now beginning your time, but a great deal is
past and gone; and all the wit, and power, and treasure of the universe,
cannot recover it. Many of you may well conclude, that more than half of
your time is gone. Though you should live to the ordinary age of man,
your glass is more than half run; and it may be there are but few sands
remaining. Your sun is past the meridian, and perhaps just setting, or
going into an everlasting eclipse. Consider, therefore, what account you
can give of your improvements of past time. How have you let the
precious golden sands of your glass run?
Every day that you have enjoyed has been precious; yea, your moments
have been precious. But have you not wasted your precious moments, your
precious days, yea, your precious years? If you should reckon up how
many days you have lived, what a sum would there be! And how precious
hath every one of those days been! Consider, therefore, what have you
done with them? What is become of them all? What can you show of any
improvement made, or good done, or benefit obtained, answerable to all
this time which you have lived? When you look back, and search, do you
not find this past time of your lives in a great measure empty, having
not been filled up with any good improvement? And if God, that hath
given you your time, should now call you to an account, what account
could you give to him?
How much may be done in a year? How much good is there opportunity to do
in such a space of time! How much service may persons do for God, and
how much for their own souls, if to their utmost they improve it! How
much may be done in a day! But what have you done in so many days and
years that you have lived? What have you done with the whole time of
your youth, you that are past your youth? What is become of all that
precious season of life? Hath it not all been in vain to you? Would it
not have been as well or better for you, if all that time you had been
asleep, or in a state of nonexistence?
You have had much time of leisure and freedom from worldly business.
Consider to what purpose you have spent it. You have not only had
ordinary time, but you have had a great deal of holy time. What have you
done with all the Sabbath-days which you have enjoyed? Consider those
things seriously, and let your own consciences make answer.
SECTION III
Who are chiefly deserving of reproof from the subject of the
preciousness of time.
How little is the preciousness of time considered, and how little sense
of it do the greater part of mankind seem to have! And to how little
good purpose do many spend their time! There is nothing more precious,
and yet nothing of which men are more prodigal. Time is with many, as
silver was in the days of Solomon, as the stones of the street, and
nothing accounted of. They act as if time were as plenty as silver was
then, and as if they had a great deal more than they needed, and knew
not what to do with it. If men were as lavish of their money as they are
of their time, if it were as common a thing for them to throw away their
money, as it is for them to throw away their time, we should think them
beside themselves, and not in the possession of their right minds. Yet
time is a thousand times more precious than money; and when it is gone,
cannot be purchased for money, cannot be redeemed by silver or gold. —
There are several sorts of persons who are reproved by this doctrine,
whom I shall particularly mention.
First, those who spend a great part of their time in idleness, or in
doing nothing that turns to any account, either for the good of their
souls or bodies; nothing either for their own benefit, or for the
benefit of their neighbor, either of the family or of the body-politic
to which they belong. There are some persons upon whose hands time seems
to lie heavy, who, instead of being concerned to improve it as it
passes, and taking care that it pass not without making it their own,
act as if it were rather their concern to contrive ways how to waste and
consume it; as though time, instead of being precious, were rather a
mere encumbrance to them. Their hands refuse to labor, and rather than
put themselves to it, they will let their families suffer, and will
suffer themselves. Pro. 19:15, “An idle soul shall suffer hunger.” Pro.
23:21, “Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.”
Some spend much of their time at the tavern, over their cups, and in
wandering from house to house, wasting away their hours in idle and
unprofitable talk which will turn to no good account. Pro. 14:23, “In
all labour there is profit; but the talk of the lips tendeth only to
poverty.” The direction of the apostle, in Eph. 4:28 is, that we should
“labour, working with our hands the thing that is good, that we may have
to give to him that needeth.” But indolent men, instead of gaining
anything to give to him that needeth, do but waste what they have
already. Pro. 18:9, “He that is slothful in his work, is brother to him
that is a great waster.”
Second, they are reproved by this doctrine who spend their time in
wickedness, who do not merely spend their time in doing nothing to any
good purpose, but spend it to ill purposes. Such do not only lose their
time, but they do worse; with it they hurt both themselves and others. —
Time is precious, as we have heard, because eternity depends upon it. By
the improvement of time, we have opportunity of escaping eternal misery,
and obtaining eternal blessedness. But those who spend their time in
wicked works, not only neglect to improve their time to obtain eternal
happiness, or to escape damnation, but they spend it to a quite contrary
purpose, viz. to increase their eternal misery, or to render their
damnation the more heavy and intolerable.
Some spend much time in reveling, and in unclean talk and practices, in
vicious company-keeping, in corrupting and ensnaring the minds of
others, setting bad examples, and leading others into sin, undoing not
only their own souls, but the souls of others. Some spend much of their
precious time in detraction and backbiting; in talking against others;
in contention, not only quarreling themselves, but fomenting and
stirring up strife and contention. It would have been well for some men,
and well for their neighbors, if they had never done anything at all.
For then they would have done neither good nor hurt. But now they have
done a great deal more hurt than they have done or ever will do good.
There are some persons whom it would have been better for the towns
where they live, to have at the charge of maintaining them in doing
nothing, if that would have kept them in a state of inactivity.
Those who have spent much of their time in wickedness, if ever they
shall reform, and enter upon a different mode of living, will find, not
only that they have wasted the past, but that they have made work for
their remaining time, to undo what they have done. How will many men,
when they shall have done with time, and shall look back upon their past
lives, wish that they had no time! The time which they spend on earth
will be worse to them than if they had spent so much time in hell. For
an eternity of more dreadful misery in hell will be the fruit of their
time on earth, as they employ it.
Third, those are reproved by this doctrine, who spend their time only in
worldly pursuits, neglecting their souls. Such men lose their time, let
them be ever so diligent in their worldly business. And though they may
be careful not to let any of it pass so, but that it shall some way or
other turn to their worldly profit. They that improve time only for
their benefit in time, lose it; because time was not given for itself,
but for that everlasting duration which succeeds it. — They, therefore,
whose time is taken up in caring and laboring for the world only, in
inquiring what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and
wherewithal they shall be clothed; in contriving to lay up for
themselves treasure upon earth, how to enrich themselves, how to make
themselves great in the world, or how to live in comfortable and
pleasant circumstances, while here; who busy their minds and employ
their strength in these things only, and the stream of whose affections
is directed towards these things; they lose their precious time.
Let such, therefore, as have been guilty of thus spending their time,
consider it. You have spent a great part of your time, and a great part
of your strength, in getting a little of the world; and how little good
doth it afford you, now you have gotten it! What happiness or
satisfaction can you reap from it? Will it give you peace of conscience,
or any rational quietness or comfort? What is your poor, needy,
perishing soul the better for it? And what better prospects doth it
afford you of your approaching eternity? And what will all that you have
acquired avail you when time shall be no longer?
SECTION IV
An exhortation to improve time.
Consider what hath been said of the preciousness of time, how much
depends upon it, how short and uncertain it is, how irrecoverable it
will be when gone. If you have a right conception of these things, you
will be more choice of your time than of the most fine gold. Every hour
and moment will seem precious to you. — But besides those considerations
which have been already set before you, consider also the following:
First, that you are accountable to God for your time. Time is a talent
given us by God; he hath set us our day; and it is not for nothing. Our
day was appointed for some work; therefore he will, at the day’s end,
call us to an account. We must give account to him of the improvement of
all our time. We are God’s servants; as a servant is accountable to his
master, how he spends his time when he is sent forth to work, so are we
accountable to God. If men would aright consider this, and keep it in
mind, would they not improve their time otherwise than they do? Would
you not behave otherwise than you do, if you considered with yourselves
every morning, that you must give an account to God, how you shall have
spent that day? And if you considered with yourselves, at the beginning
of every evening, that you must give an account to God, how you shall
have spent that evening? Christ hath told us, that “for every idle word
which men speak they shall give account in the day of judgment,” Mat.
12:36. How well, therefore, may we conclude, that we must give an
account of all our idle misspent time!
Second, consider how much time you have lost already. For your having
lost so much, you have the greater need of diligently improving what yet
remains. You ought to mourn and lament over your lost time. But that is
not all, you must apply yourselves the more diligently to improve the
remaining part, that you may redeem lost time. — You who are
considerably advanced in life, and have hitherto spent your time in
vanities and worldly cares, and have lived in a great measure negligent
of the interests of your souls, may well be terrified and amazed, when
you think how much time you have lost and wasted away. — In that you
have lost so much time, you have the more need of diligence, on three
accounts.
1. As your opportunity is so much the shorter. — Your time at its whole
length is short. But set aside all that you have already lost, and then
how much shorter is it! As to that part of your time which you have
already lost, it is not to be reckoned into your opportunity; for that
will never be any more; and it is no better, but worse to you, than if
it never had been.
2. You have the same work to do that you had at first, and that under
great difficulties. Hitherto you have done nothing at all of your work,
all remains to be done, and that with vastly greater difficulties and
opposition in your way than would have been if you had set about it
seasonably. So that the time in which to do your work is not only grown
shorter, but your work is grown greater. You not only have the same work
to do, but you have more work. For while you have lost your time, you
have not only shortened it, but you have been making work for
yourselves. How well may this consideration awaken you to a thorough
care, not to let things run on in this manner any longer, and rouse you
up immediately to apply yourselves to your work with all your might!
3. That is the best of your time which you have lost. The first of a
man’s time, after he comes to the exercise of his reason, and to be
capable of performing his work, is the best. You who have lived in sin
till past your youth, have lost the best part. So that here all these
things to be considered together, viz. that your time in the whole is
but short, there is none to spare. A great part of that is gone, so that
it is become much shorter. That which is gone is the best; yet all your
work remains, and not only so, but with greater difficulties than ever
before attended it. And the shorter your time is, the more work you have
to do.
What will make you sensible of the necessity of a diligent improvement
of remaining time, if these things will not? Sometimes such
considerations as these have another effect, viz. to discourage persons,
and to make them think, that seeing they have lost so much time, it is
not worth their while to attempt to do anything now. The devil makes
fools of them; for when they are young, he tells them, there is time
enough hereafter, there is no need of being in haste, it will be better
seeking salvation hereafter; and then they believe him. Afterwards, when
their youth is past, he tells them, that now they have lost so much, and
the best of their time, that it is not worth their while to attempt to
do anything; and now they believe him too. So that with them no time is
good. The season of youth is not a good time; for that is most fit for
pleasure and mirth, and there will be enough afterwards. And what comes
afterwards is not a good time, because the best of it is gone. Thus are
men infatuated and ruined.
But what madness is it for persons to give way to discouragement, so as
to neglect their work, because their time is short! What need have they
rather to awake out of sleep, thoroughly to rouse up themselves, and to
be in good earnest, that if possible they may yet obtain eternal life!
Peradventure God may yet give them repentance to the acknowledgment of
the truth, that they may be saved. Though it be late in the day, yet God
calls upon you to rouse, and to apply yourselves to your work. And will
you not hearken to his counsel in this great affair, rather than to the
counsel of your mortal enemy?
Third, consider how time is sometimes valued by those who are come near
to the end of it. What a sense of its preciousness have poor sinners
sometimes, when they are on their deathbeds! Such have cried out, O, a
thousand worlds for an inch of time! Then time appears to them indeed
precious. An inch of time could do them no more good than before, when
they were in health, supposing a like disposition to improve it, nor
indeed so much. For a man’s time upon a deathbed is attended with far
greater disadvantage for such an improvement as will be for the good of
his soul, than when he is in health. — But the near approach of death
makes men sensible of the inestimable worth of time. Perhaps, when they
were in health, they were as insensible of its value as your are, and
were as negligent of it. But how are their thoughts altered now! It is
not because they are deceived, that they think time to be of such value,
but because their eyes are opened. And it is because you are deceived
and blind that you do not think as they do.
Fourth, consider what a value we may conclude is set upon time by those
who are past the end of it. What thoughts do you think they have of its
preciousness, who have lost all their opportunity for obtaining eternal
life, and are gone to hell? Though they were very lavish of their time
while they lived, and set no great value upon it; yet how have they
changed their judgments! How would they value the opportunity which you
have, if they might but have it granted to them! What would they not
give for one of your days, under the means of grace! — So will you,
first or last, be convinced. But if you be not convinced except in the
manner in which they are, it will be too late.
There are two ways of making men sensible of the preciousness of time.
One is, by showing them the reason why it must be precious, by telling
them how much depends on it, how short it is, how uncertain, etc. The
other is experience, wherein men are convinced how much depends on the
improvement of time. The latter is the most effectual way; for that
always convinces, if nothing else doth. — But if persons be not
convinced by the former means, the latter will do them no good. If the
former be ineffectual, the latter, though it be certain, yet is always
too late. Experience never fails to open the eyes of men, though they
were never opened before. But if they be first opened by that, it is no
way to their benefit. Let all therefore be persuaded to improve their
time to their utmost.
SECTION V
Advice respecting the improvement of time.
I shall conclude with advising to three things in particular.
First, improve the present time without any delay. If you delay and put
off its improvement, still more time will be lost; and it will be an
evidence that you are not sensible of its preciousness. Talk not of more
convenient seasons hereafter; but improve your time while you have it,
after the example of the psalmist. Psa. 119:60, “I made haste, and
delayed not to keep thy commandments.”
Second, be especially careful to improve those parts of time which are
most precious. Though all time is very precious, yet some parts are more
precious than others; as, particularly, holy time is more precious than
common time. Such time is of great advantage for our everlasting
welfare. Therefore, above all, improve your Sabbaths, and especially the
time of public worship, which is the most precious part. Lose it not
either in sleep, or in carelessness, inattention, and wandering
imaginations. How sottish are they who waste away, not only their
common, but holy time, yea the very season of attendance on the holy
ordinances of God! — The time of youth is precious, on many accounts.
Therefore, if you be in the enjoyment of this time, take heed that you
improve it. Let not the precious days and years of youth slip away
without improvement. A time of the strivings of God’s Spirit is more
precious than other time. Then God is near; and we are directed, in Isa.
55:6, “To seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call upon him
while he is near.” Such especially is an accepted time, and a day of
salvation: 2 Cor. 6:2, “I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in a
day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted
time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Third, improve well your time of leisure from worldly business. Many
persons have a great deal of such time, and all have some. If men be but
disposed to it, such time may be improved to great advantage. When we
are most free from cares for the body, and business of an outward
nature, a happy opportunity for the soul is afforded. Therefore spend
not such opportunities unprofitably, nor in such a manner that you will
not be able to give a good account thereof to God. Waste them not away
wholly in unprofitable visits, or useless diversions or amusements.
Diversion should be used only in subserviency to business. So much, and
no more, should be used, as doth most fit the mind and body for the work
of our general and particular callings.
You have need to improve every talent, advantage, and opportunity, to
your utmost, while time lasts; for it will soon be said concerning you,
according to the oath of the angel, in Rev. 10:5, 6, “And the angel
which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to
heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created
heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things
that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that
there should be time no longer.”
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