"Redeeming the time." Ephesians 5:16

OUTLINE SECTION 1. Why time is precious.

1. Because a happy or miserable eternity depends on the good or ill improvement of it.

2. Time is very short, which is another thing that renders it very precious.

3. Time ought to be esteemed by us very precious, because we are uncertain of its continuance.

4. Time is very precious, because when it is past, it cannot be recovered. SECTION 2. Reflections on time past. SECTION 3. Who are chiefly deserving of reproof from the subject of the preciousness of time.

1. Those who spend a great part of their time in idleness, or in doing nothing that turns to any virtuous account.

2. They are reproved by this doctrine who spend their time in wickedness.

3. Those are reproved by his doctrine, who spend their time only in worldly pursuits, neglecting their souls. SECTION 4. An exhortation to improve time.

1. That you are accountable to God for your time.

2. Consider how much time you have lost already.

(1.) As your opportunity is so much the shorter.

(2.) You have the same work to do that you had at first, and that under greater difficulties.

(3.) That is the best of your time which you have lost.

3. Consider how time is sometimes valued by those who are come near to the end of it.

4. Consider what a value we may conclude is set upon time by those who are past the end of it. SECTION 5. Advice respecting the improvement of time.

1. Improve the present time without any delay.

2. Be especially careful to improve those parts of time which are most precious.

3.

Improve well your time of leisure from worldly business. 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: 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 you is exceedingly precious.



SECTION 1. WHY time is precious.

Time is precious for the following reasons:

1. 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 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 has advantage to escape, or the good which he has advantage to obtain, by any thing that he possesses, by so much the greater is the value of that thing to him, whatever it be. Thus if a man, by any thing which he has, may save his life, which he must lose without it, he will look upon that by which he has 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.

2. 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, "a donkey'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 Kings 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 runner. They are passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that hastens to the prey." Job 9:25, 26. "Our life, what is it? it is but a vapor which appears for a little time, and then vanishes away." James 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.

3. 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 does 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 treasure it all the more. 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 how much he has 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, yes, many probably tomorrow, and some this night; yet these same people 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.

4. 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 has 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 has been taken in a bargain, and has 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. Yes, 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 2. Reflections on time past.

You have now heard of the preciousness of time; and you are the people concerned, to whom God has committed that precious talent. You have an eternity before you. When God created you, and gave you reasonable soul--he made you for an endless duration. He gave you time here in order to prepare 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 out; 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 improvement of past time. How have you let the precious golden sands of your glass run? Every day that you have enjoyed has been precious; yes, your moments have been precious. But have you not wasted your precious moments, your precious days, yes your precious years? If you should reckon up how many days you have lived, what a sum would there be! and how precious has 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 which is 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 has 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 people 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? Has it not all been in barren 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 non-existence? 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 3. 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 wasteful. 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 with 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 people who are reproved by this doctrine, whom I shall particularly mention.

1. Those who spend a great part of their time in idleness

, or in doing nothing that turns to any virtuous 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 neighborhood to which they belong. There are some people 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, 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: "An idle soul shall suffer hunger." (Proverbs 19:15.) "Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags." (Proverbs 22:21.) Some spend much of their time at the tavern, over their cups, and in wandering about from house to house, wasting away their hours in idle and unprofitable talk which will turn to no good account. Proverbs 14:23. "In all labor there is profit; but the talk of the lips tends only to poverty." The direction of the apostle, in Ephesians 4:28 is, that we should "labor, working with our hands the thing that is good, that we may have to give to him that needs." But indolent men, instead of gaining any thing to give to him that needs, do but waste what they have already- "He that is slothful in his work, is brother to him that is a great waster." (Proverbs 18:9.)

2. 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 — 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 any thing 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 people whom it would have been better for the towns where they live, to have been 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 be with time, and shall look back upon their past lives, wish that they had 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.

3. Those are reproved by his doctrine, who spend their time only in worldly pursuits, neglecting their souls.