Gone so soon without a trace!

(Thomas Watson, "The Godly Man's Picture Drawn with a Scripture Pencil")

"We were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow!" Job 8:9

"My days are like the evening shadow; I wither away like grass!" Psalm 102:11

"Be very careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time." Ephesians 5:16

How you spend your time is a matter of great importance. Many people fool away their time-some in idle visits, others in recreations and pleasures which secretly bewitch the heart, and take it away from holy things. What are our golden hours for-but to attend to our souls?

Time misspent is not time lived-but time lost!

Time is a precious commodity. As salvation is to be worked out in time, and a place in Heaven depends on using it well-time is of infinite concern!

Think of your short stay in the world. "We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a shadow-gone so soon without a trace!" 1 Chronicles 29:15

There is but a span between the cradle and the grave! Solomon says there is "a time to be born and a time to die"-but mentions no time of living, as if that were so short, it was not worth naming!

Time, when it has once gone, can never be recalled. "My life passes more swiftly than a runner. It flees away, filled with tragedy. It disappears like a swift boat, like an eagle that swoops down on its prey." Job 9:25-26

This Scripture compares time to a flying eagle. Yet time differs from the eagle in this: the eagle flies forward and then back again-but time has wings only to fly forward-it never returns! Time flies away irrevocably!

The serious thoughts of our short stay here in this world, would be a great means of promoting godliness. Whoever considers how flitting and winged his life is-will hasten his repentance.

"What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes!" James 4:14

"Show me, O LORD, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life!" Psalm 39:4

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