Spare Moments by Kansas Farmer

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · Jul 29, 1875

Spare Moments.

By Kansas Farmer

"Spare moments are the gold dust of time." When Queen Elizabeth lay upon her dying bed, she cried, in the deepest sorrow and anguish, "Millions of money would I give for an inch of time." At that moment he who would have offered her gold, diamonds, or power, more than she ever before possessed, who would have borne to her news of a splendid victory, or pay the most delicate compliment, would have been thrust aside to make room for any one who could have prolonged, even for an hour, the life of the dying queen. Time is a priceless gift of God to weak humanity. We are placed in this world for a purpose, and time is given us to fulfill our allotted task. If we act in unison with the Almighty, we find that not one moment need be unemployed. The service of God, the improvement of our talents, and the bestowal of charity upon those less favored than ourselves, will fill up every inch of time. As the minute particles of which gold dust is composed glitter in the light of the sun, so shall the apparently insignificant actions, which occupy but a moment, brighten the page of our lives, when the powerful light of the dissolving elements shall expose it to the scrutiny of the all-seeing Judge. In view of such a time should we not gather up the fragments, the minutes—aye, the seconds? As short a time will suffice to say that which may save another from committing sin, as would be occupied in momentarily gratifying ourselves. We cannot calculate the ultimate value of hours and minutes, but we know that, as gold-dust carefully gathered becomes valuable, so we may expect to become happy reapers of an invaluable treasure harvest, if we faithfully garner and cluster time's golden fragments.—Kansas Farmer.