Romans 13:11-14 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.… We should know time in its — I. WORTH. Estimated at the value of — 1. Life. Time the measure of life of a being capable of thought, endowed with conscience, gifted with immortality. 2. What able to be done during its progress. Speaking of W. Wilberforce, Sir James Mackintosh said, "I am full of admiration that the short period of the life of one man, well and wisely directed, can do so much and exert such influence. How precious is time! How valuable and dignified human life, which in general appears so base and miserable!" Illustrate with Howard, Raikes, etc. II. RESPONSIBILITIES. Our relation to God. Knowledge of salvation. Duties in our sphere of life. Influence we exert. Ignatius when he heard the clock strike said, "Now I have one hour more to account for." III. UNCERTAINTY. Commercial institutions and projects abundantly prove this, but he who counts on time presumes on probability that has even more impressively proved its questionableness (James 4:13, 14). IV. BREVITY., The years of Jacob wore an hundred and thirty, yet he says, "Few and evil," etc. Moses again, "Like the grass," etc. When we look over the first chapters of Chronicles, to read which is like entering a great world-cemetery, how we are struck with the shortness of life at the best! V. POWERLESSNESS. It cannot destroy sin, or take away its guilt. It cannot act for us. It cannot destroy the soul, though it ends the life. VI. IRREVOCABLENESS. The wave that washes at your feet may return. The waters of the river as they roll to the sea, caught up in mist, may again flow down the mountains into its channel, but an hour once gone in the roll of millenniums shall never return. We can recall a messenger, but not the last moment. One life here, only one, is given, how precious should it be! (G. McMichael, B.A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. |
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