p. 86 | Spent, but Charged

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 13, 1879

Spent, but Charged

“SPENT, BUT CHARGED.”—Upon a sun-dial, two hundred years old, in All Souls’ College, Oxford, England, is the Latin motto, Pereunt et Imputantur of which the English is, Spent, but charged. The shadow glides over the face of the dial silently; there is no pendulum beat or whir of wheels; the hours have been spent, but they are recorded, charged, in the books of everlasting remembrance. That record which God keeps must one day be faced. Young man, you spend your hours carelessly, as the spendthrift flings away his money. You make no account of them. But God does. He charges every one of them, down to their last golden moment. What will you have to say when you face that record on the last day? Young woman, life to you seems a life of gayety, of wild enjoyment. The hours go by you on winged feet. Day follows day, and your thought is of nothing but the pleasure that can be got from a passing hour. Ah! these hours are all charged to your account. You will meet them one day.—Christian Herald.

WISDOM does not show itself so much in precept as in life.