Direction 1

Direction I.

Let us discern our time and not mis-spend our time. Avoid those time-wasting things, which would serve us about our time, as the highway men did the poor traveller in Luke 10:30, in his way to Jericho. We are all travelling in the way to Eternity; there are these and those robbers in the way that would plunder us of our time: shun them, fly them. Count mis-spending of time one of the most wicked and woeful follies in the world.

Let us discern three things in all time, and permit no time to be devoured by two things which we may be under temptation to.

The things which we are to discern in all time are these,

First, let us discern the worth of all time. Let not an hour pass without this opinion of it, This hour is too good to be lost. If we prize the jewel we shall not lose it. It is for our shame that even a heathen made that complaint, Quem mihi dabis qui diem estimet? Where will you find a man that esteems his time as he ought to do?

Ponder well what a vast price our Lord paid for our time. We had forfeited all our time into the hands of infinite revenging justice; the just wrath of God would have taken away time and life from us long ago, if our Lord Jesus had not laid down such a price as that in (1 Peter 1:18): "You were redeemed, not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ." O don't throw away any of that which cost so dear.

And ponder well what a vast price the dying and the damned set on their time. We may say of it as Job of another thing, in (Job 28:22), Destruction and death say, we have heard the fame thereof with our ears. Even so, destruction and death set an high rate upon it. Ask men when destruction and death is near to seizing upon them, How much would you give now for a little of the time that is gone? They will reply, O, whole mountains of gold for one hour of it! Judge now as you will judge then.

Secondly, let us discern the irrevocableness of our time. When our time is once gone, it remains irrevocable, and irrecoverable for evermore. We may say of every time that is past, as in (Psalm 49:8), It is precious and it ceases forever. The wish of Hezekiah could once bring back the shadow of the sun, but never could any man procure a return of his time. Sometimes the doleful cries of distressed ones have been, Call time again! call time again! But alas, time won't come back for calling. Oh how should this make us to take heed that we don't abuse any part of our time, I shall never have this time again! When once our time has taken wing, what is said of love in (Canticles 8:7), that may be said of time, If a man would give all the substance of his house for it, it would utterly be contemned. When once time is gone, 'tis gone.

Thirdly, let us discern our accountableness for all our time. God maintains us and supplies us with time continually. He keeps a sun to measure it. The time will come when He will reckon with us about all our time. It is said in (Ecclesiastes 11:9), O young man walk in the ways of your heart; but know you that for all these things, God will bring you into judgement. In like sort, let me say, Come, squander away your time, even contrive to get the dead commodity off your hands; but know you that in the day, when God shall judge the world, all this time of yours must be accounted for. It was the law of old, in (Exodus 21:18), If one man smite another, so that he keep his bed, and yet walk abroad again, he shall pay for his healing and the loss of his time: truly so, if we impenitently lose any of the time which God has given us, He will make us pay for it, in the day of his pleading with us. It is said in (Matthew 12:36), Men shall give an account of every idle word. Much more in that day shall men give an account of every idle hour. The God that has numbered our hairs, has also numbered our hours. It will be a fearful thing, if at last He say to us, You wicked and slothful servant, your life has been made up of idle hours.

These things are we to discern in all time. For the sake hereof, let us now permit no time to be misplaced in such things as these.

First, let us misspend no time in vanity, of them that live in vain pleasures 'tis said in (1 Timothy 5:6), they are dead while they live. They discern no time, and enjoy none. Too much time is not to be laid out in eating and drinking. To affect long meals, or to tarry long at the wine, does not become a Christian. Your soul is a little too noble a thing sure to be made the cook of your body. Moreover, too much time is not to be laid out in attiring and adorning. It made a holy man among the ancients to weep, when in a morning he saw a person longer in dressing, than himself had been in praying. Your carcase that is to feed the worms ere long should not put by your cares about your spirit, which must be in weal or woe for ever. Once more, too much time is not to be laid out in sporting and gaming. There are some lawful recreations, of which we should be shy, lest they steal away our heart and our time. That blessed martyr, John Hus, just before he died, in a letter thus bewailed himself, I beg of God to pardon me for the time I have lost at such a play, that yet in itself was very innocent. But there are some unlawful recreations also, in which multitudes play away their time. The plays which depend upon a pure lot are such. The moral heathen zealously reproached them. And severe statutes were made against them when the Roman Empire became a Christian. Men always lose at them, those things which are better than any that they win, their time, if not their soul.

Secondly, let us misspend no time in idleness. It was an ill world where the Apostle could say, as in (2 Thessalonians 3:11), There are some that walk disorderly, working not at all. Every man should be able to make a good answer to the question which Pharaoh put to Joseph's brethren, I pray, What is your occupation? A big part of our time should be laid out on our particular callings. A calling is an ordinance of God; Adam in Paradise had a labor imposed on him. Be diligent in some one or other. No man so fully and foully falls into the possession of the Devil, as the idle man. The ants, the bees, and all the creatures exclaim against him. Idleness, it is thundered against in (Ezekiel 16:49), as one of the sins that brought Hell out of Heaven upon Sodom long ago; it will carry from earth to Hell the souls of them that in it snore away their lives.

When men don't misspend their time, then do they discern it.