Genesis 1:1,5; Revelation 10:5,6
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… So the evening and the morning were the first day.
And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer.
THOMAS ADAMS (1583-1656): The world began with time, and time with it.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Everyone knows that after this world, and all things in it are at an end, time will be no more.
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): Time shall be swallowed up in eternity.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Before the Eternal, all the age of frail man is less than one ticking of a clock.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): In the beginning―that is, in the beginning of time, when that clock was first set a going: time began with the production of those beings that are measured by time. Before the beginning of time there was none but that Infinite Being that inhabits eternity.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): There is a time appointed by the Father when the whole machinery of creation shall stop.
MATTHEW HENRY: It is a season of grace that will soon be over.
C. H. SPURGEON: There is one thought which should not leave us when talking about times and seasons, namely, that now―just now―this present flying moment, that second which is being recorded by the ticking of yonder clock, is the only time which we have to work with. I can do nothing with the days that are past, I can do nothing with the days future—yet I reach out towards them—but I cannot improve them…For practical purposes, the only time I have is that which is just now passing. Did I say I had it? While I said I had it, it is gone, like the meteor which dashes down the sky, or the eagle which flies afar.
THOMAS MANTON (1620-1677): All space of time should be small to them that know the greatness of eternity.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Time is given us to use in view of eternity.
THOMAS BROOKS (1608-1680): Time is not yours to dispose of as you please; it is a glorious talent that men must be accountable for as well as any other talent.
THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): A man has not a time for which he is not accountable to God. If his very diversions are not governed by reason and religion he will one day suffer for the time he has spent in them.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): The common complaint is, We lack time; but the truth is, we do not so much lack it as waste it.
JOHN OWEN (1616-1683): Have you time enough to eat, to drink, to sleep, to talk unprofitably, it may be corruptly, in all sorts of unnecessary societies, but have not time to live unto God?
THOMAS FULLER (1608-1661): As good as to have no time, as to make no good use of it―time misspent is not lived, but lost.
JOHN TRAPP: They that lose time are the greatest losers and wastefullest prodigals.
JOSEPH ALLEINE (1634-1668): Give me a Christian that counts his time more precious than gold.
DAVID BRAINERD (1718-1747): Oh, how precious is time, and how it pains me to see it slide away, while I do so little to any good purpose.
RICHARD BAXTER (1615-1691): I have these forty years been sensible of the sin of losing time; I could not spare an hour…What have we time and strength for, but to lay out both for God?
MATTHEW HENRY: Christians must be good husbands of their time, and take care to improve it to the best of purposes, by watching against temptations, by doing good while it is in the power of their hands, and by filling it up with proper employment―one special preservative from sin. They should make the best use they can of the present seasons of grace. Our time is a talent given us by God for some good end, and it is misspent and lost when it is not employed according to His design. If we have lost our time heretofore, we must endeavour to redeem it by doubling our diligence in doing our duty for the future.
C. H. SPURGEON: No man ever served God by doing things tomorrow―the ticking of the clock saith, today! to-day! to-day! We have no other time in which to live. The past is gone; the future hath not come; we have, we never shall have, anything but the present. This is our all―I say again, I do not care what you do with your to-morrow. If you will but give God your now, your to-morrows will be all right. For duty, then, let the Christian prize the “now.”
JOHN TRAPP: It is reported of Ignatius, that when he heard a clock strike, he would say, Here is one hour more now past that I have to answer for.
ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748): Do I observe the declining day, and the setting sun sinking into darkness? So declines the day of life, the hours of labour, and the seasons of grace.
A. W. TOZER (1897-1963): We have much to do and little time in which to get it done!
C. H. SPURGEON: Listen for one moment to the ticking of that clock!
WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): Think of your pulse, where the question is asked sixty times every minute, whether you shall live or die.
C. H. SPURGEON: You hear the ticking of that clock—it is the footstep of death pursuing you. Each time the clock ticks, death’s footsteps are falling on the ground close behind you. You will soon enter another year. This year will have gone in a few seconds.
ISAAC WATTS: Does a new year commence, and the first morning of it dawn upon me? Let me remember that the last year was finished, and gone over my head, in order to make way for the entrance of the present: I have one year the less to travel through the world, and to fulfill the various services of a travelling state.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): Hence it follows, that there is no time for idleness.
CHARLES BRIDGES (1794-1869): Is it a time to stand idle, when we stand at the door of eternity?
THOMAS MANTON: Eternity depends upon this moment.
MAXINE COLLINS (1920-1984): I have but today, may I make it tell
Not in history books, but that I used it well
For Jesus.
Just today, yesterday is gone
Tomorrow yet to come,
And between them hung
Is that space of time and place
That is this day, this hour, this minute
This one breath is all that I can claim
May its aim, be to proclaim:
Jesus.
