p. 114 | TIME by A. R. Ogden

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 25, 1902

TIME

By A. R. Ogden

A. R. OGDEN.

“Our time belongs to God. Every moment is His, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to His glory. Of no talent He has given will He require a more strict account than of our time.”—“Christ’s Object Lessons,” page 342. The foregoing, with what follows in the same chapter, under the heading “Time,” will help us to see a little of the importance of improving the time which the Lord in His mercy gives to us. “The value of time is beyond computation.”—Id.

It is Satan’s purpose to get us to put off to-morrow that which we should do to-day. To-morrow you can perform no more than to-morrow’s duties; so if you have failed to perform to-day’s duties to-day, they are unperformed, even though you should do faithfully those of to-morrow; that is only what you should have done, so a day is lost. A day lost! Can it be found?—Ah, no; lost! lost! eternally lost.

How many persons you have heard say, “If I only had life to live again, how differently I would do!” Be that as it may, it is simply impossible to have this earthly life to live again. We are continually confronted with the present. The present alone is ours. How are we using it? The way in which we spend the present is the only evidence of the way in which we would spend eternity if we had it.

The class motto, “Do thy best to-day,” will never be forgotten. Yes, “do thy best to-day.” We can do no more than that to-morrow. Yesterday is gone, so we can make no use of it. Our only opportunity is “to-day.” The word is, “To-day if ye will hear His voice.” The laborers who were hired to go into the vineyard and work, went the same day. The disciples left their nets to follow the Master. So the Master is now calling for those who will leave all and follow Him.

There are many saying, “After a while, when I get my temporal affairs arranged, I will then go into the vineyard.” Yes, many will still be expecting to go into the vineyard, when the words, “It is done,” are spoken. Why not go now, when times are favorable for work? We have been told that what we have failed to do in times of peace, we shall have to do under the most difficult circumstances. Why should we lose the blessings of to-day by a failure to perform its duties?

The King’s business demands haste. Time is short. There is a mighty work to be done before the Lord comes. Some one will have a part in completing this work. If I fail in doing my part, some other one will do it. If another does my work, he will enjoy that which I might have enjoyed. If another bears my cross, he will also wear my crown.

“We are admonished to redeem the time. But time squandered can never be recovered. We cannot call back even one moment. The only way in which we can redeem the time is by making the most of that which remains, by being co-workers with God in His great plan of redemption.”—“Christ’s Object Lessons,” page 342.

The Saviour said, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” We should gather up the fragments of time, that it be not lost. How much might be accomplished by this denomination if every member would set to work to gather the remnants of time, that nothing be wasted. An hour here, an hour there, spent in some work of mercy to others,—what it might accomplish eternity alone will reveal. Suppose that seventy-five or eighty thousand people should each, during the year 1902, sell ten dollars’ worth of books. How long would it take every one to do this much? A few hours spent by each one would accomplish this, yes, and much more, too.

While working in the Kansas Conference, I always made a practice of carrying books and papers to sell. And when waiting for a change of trains, would spend the time selling our literature. Many dollars’ worth of books and papers have been sold in this way, during time which would otherwise have been lost. If I had nothing more than a sample copy of the Signs, I would use this in soliciting subscriptions; and always had fair success. On a certain Sunday I was going home from a church where I had been holding meetings; it was necessary for me to change trains, and in the change, I had to stop from 11 A. M. to 6 P. M. There were no seventh-day Adventists in the place, so I hardly knew just how or where to spend the time. On arriving at the place, I heard the church bells ringing, so decided to go to some church. I entered the first one that I saw, and as I sat down, I noticed a man with a familiar-looking face. It was some time before I remembered who he was. A few weeks before, when I had passed through the same city, I had sold a copy of the Signs to this shoemaker. At the close of the service I spoke to him, making myself known to him. I succeeded this time in getting his subscription to the Signs. He had liked the previous copy, and the first work opened the way for the second. I do not relate this for self-glory, but simply to show what may be done by using the fragments of time. How many hours might be thus gathered up as we travel from place to place! Let us “redeem the time.”