Oh, you killers of time!

(Octavius Winslow) Ephesians 5:16

Time is the preface to eternity. And as the preface indicates the character of the volume, so our present use of time is the foreshadowing of our future eternal history.

We may rob God by a misuse of time. Time is a solemn and priceless gift, and involves a responsibility and an account of a most tremendous character.

What sin, what madness, then, to abuse a privilege so solemn-to misuse a blessing so precious. To employ time in vain pleasures and frivolous pursuits; to use it in senseless levities and sinful engagements; to devote it too absorbingly even to literary and noble pursuits: the studies of the antiquarian, the researches of the historian, the fascinations of art, the discoveries of science; may verge upon the crime of robbing God of one of His most costly loans! All these absorbing engagements are limited to the present, and have no essential relation to the soul's certain and solemn future.

Oh, you killers of time! How will the ghost of your murdered hours haunt and upbraid you through the interminable centuries of eternity! Oh, what would you not then give for one hour of that precious period of your existence which now you waste and fritter and destroy-in vain, useless, and sinful trifles, dreams, and shadows.

Remember, you rob God when your time is not consecrated to His glory. Ponder well the inspired precept, "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Ephesians 5:16. Consider the apostolic exhortation, "Brethren, the time is short!" 1 Corinthians 7:29

"So teach us to number our days-that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12