REDEEM THE TIME by Estella Housher

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 27, 1900

REDEEM THE TIME.

By Estella Housher

ESTELLA HOUSHER.

The Reading Circle will be fruitful in interest and results very largely in proportion to the amount of time spent upon it. Some benefit may be derived by simply reading the lessons; but to profit, to any extent, by the study, sufficient time should be devoted to each lesson to master it. We have been told that the Lord desires us to obtain all the education possible, with the object in view of imparting our knowledge to others, as none can know where or how they may be called to labor or to speak for God. The Lord will give us opportunity to work for him just as rapidly as we are fitted for it. The Reading Circle work is educatory. The information gained will not only fit one for labor, but will broaden the vision of the field in which labor should be expended, until it will become world-wide, and the heart will be drawn out to dedicate all to carry the last message of mercy to every creature for whom Christ died.

Realizing the special need of faithfulness in such a study, and the opportunity and privilege it affords, every Seventh-day Adventist should determine to devote sufficient time to the Reading Circle to become perfectly familiar with every lesson. But how are we to find leisure for such study in the busy cares of the home, the shop, the office, the farm, or the school-room? True, we can not create time, but we can save it,—redeem it from other less important uses, by studying to systematize our work and husband our minutes. Is it not true, after all, that it is not so much a question of time, as of system and of choice of the most important things? There are certainly very few who can not find at least a quarter of an hour each day available for these lessons, and even that will aggregate more than a week of solid study during the year, allowing ten hours to the day. Many more could, no doubt, easily devote an hour each day to the study, which means more than a month in the course of a year.

“Let the moments be treasured, a few moments here and a few there that might be fritted away in aimless talk,—the morning hours so often wasted in bed; the time spent in traveling on trains or railway cars, or waiting at the station; the moments of waiting for meals, or waiting for those who are tardy in keeping an appointment. . . . If this time were improved in study, reading, or careful thought, what might be accomplished!”

The Christian should use his time as a steward of God. Our time belongs to him. “Every moment is his, and we are under the most solemn obligation to improve it to his glory. Of no talent he has given us will God require a more strict account than of our time.”