REDEMPTION OF TIME by I. M. PENNOCK

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 18, 1868

REDEMPTION OF TIME.

By I. M. PENNOCK

“REDEEMING the time because the days are evil.”—Paul.

Our life is represented in the Scriptures under various figures, beautifully expressive of its importance and its shortness. It is compared to a cloud which attracts our gaze for a little while by its fantastic beauty, and then vanishes forever from our sight. It is compared to a leaf in its autumnal beauty, all glorious with crimson and gold, but fallen to the ground in its withered worthlessness, a fit emblem of the destiny of him who treads it thoughtlessly under his feet.

It is compared to a flying shuttle, a shooting star, a ray of light. “Man is like to vanity; his days are as a shadow that passeth away.”

We are admonished, by all this, of the brief and uncertain character of our earthly existence. We are exhorted to seize time as it flies, and improve it while it lasts. On every moment of time, as it rushes on to merge itself into the ocean of the past, is written, “Eternity.” No royal edict can bring it back; no mighty hand roll it back again upon the shores of the present.

One or two motives for the redemption of our time will constitute the burden of this article.

1. The shortness of time. The whole measure of earthly history, from its creation to its regeneration, will be short. Generation after generation is passing away like the morning dew. The word of God compared with the history of passing events, fully indicates that earth’s great drama is fast hastening to a crisis. Time is growing old. Six thousand years encircle its weary brow. With inconceivable velocity it is rushing on to its eternal sepulcher; and soon the mighty edict will go forth, It is finished! Soon the end will come, the purposes for which time was given will be accomplished, and its ages, years, and hours will be narrowed down to the minutes of its close.

The great events connected with the winding up of all earthly affairs, cannot be far distant. The sound of the trumpet calling the dead to life, the heavens fleeing away in terror, the opening of the book of remembrance, the earth wrapped in flames, but finally to be purified and made new for the reception of God’s saints—all this is but a step before us. And if time is so short when all its ages are combined, what fearful brevity pertains to that little portion of it allotted to us as individuals. No word or figure can express its brevity. The weaver’s shuttle, the flying cloud, the lightning flash, the thoughts of man, are all too tardy to illustrate the flight of time. The fading flower, the falling leaf, the flying cloud, the disappearing comet, transitory as they are, are all too enduring to illustrate the time we are to live.

What a motive this to snatch from the hand of waste the little portion of our lives that remains! What an argument to incite us to improve the few remaining days of life to the best advantage! No wonder Paul so earnestly exhorts us to redeem whatever might remain of a wasted, misspent life, and give it to the holy work for which it was intended.

2. The present days are evil. This is another reason urged by the apostle why time should be redeemed; and, though eighteen hundred years have rolled away since this prophetic declaration, the fact is daily becoming more clear and certain. The same prophetic mind, guided by the all-seeing eye of Jehovah, has told us, that as the world approaches its final consummation, “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse; deceiving and being deceived.” This prediction painfully corresponds with our observation and experience. The greater the increase of light, the more desperate become the powers of darkness. Intrenched as Satan is in the strongholds of society, exerting such an influence as he does over the human heart, it is not to be supposed he would lay down his scepter without a fearful struggle. His contest with Christ is now going on more fearfully than at any other time. He has summoned all the powers of hell, the depravity of earth, his own infernal malignity, and almost resistless energies, and sent them abroad among men, endeavoring to overturn the kingdom and power of Christ.

While on one hand light never shone with such brilliancy, and truth never gained such conquests, on the other hand vice and error never appeared in such seductive attractions, and secured such dominion over the heart of man. The contest between truth and error, light and darkness, rages with increased violence. Emperors never looked upon the field of battle, which was to decide the fate of their empires, with more interest than do the angels in Heaven upon the struggle now going on between the seed of the woman and the serpent who first beguiled her into paths of sin and shame.

It was this great contest which Paul saw going on in the world, and which induced him to raise the rallying cry to the friends of Jesus to redeem the time which had already run to waste, and improve the rest to God and his holy cause. We are admonished every day of the brevity of time, and the importance of having our work well done. We can pause and remember a dear and honored father and mother, and loving brothers and sisters, who were with us but a few days ago, but who, to-day, sleep in the cold ground. Removed from life, love, and labor, here, they sleep in the “blessed hope;” they await the trump of the Archangel which will soon call them to awake and give an account of their time. In a few days, it may be, I shall rest beside them. Lord, help us so to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. Let us remember that swifter than a weaver’s shuttle our lives are passing away, and to-day may be our last opportunity of making our peace with God, or of benefiting our fellow-men.

Soon the “day of the Lord” will be upon us. Shall it overtake us as a thief? Let us, who rejoice in the light of present truth, be admonished that time is short. God, in his holy word, has given us unmistakable signs by which we may know that the end of all things is at hand. Let us then, “by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, honor, and immortality.” Day by day, hour by hour, let us execute our appointed task, to which the requisite measure of time and strength is proportioned, and then having worked while it is called to-day, we may claim the blessed promise to the Laodiceans who obeyed this counsel, to “buy gold tried in the fire, that they might be rich, and white raiment that they might be clothed.” Even the promise, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father on his throne.”

I. M. PENNOCK.

Allegan Co., Mich.