SERIOUS THOUGHTS.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 375, 3 December 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

SERIOUS THOUGHTS.

THE VALUE OF TIME. “ EACH DAT IS A LITTLE LFIE.” All other gifts depend upon time for their value. What are friends, books, or health, the interest of travel or the delight of home, if we have not time for their enjoyment ? Time is often said to be money, but it is more - it is life ; and yet many who would cling desperately to life, think nothing of wasting time. Schiller says: “The moments wo forego, eternity itself cannot retrieve.”

“ Idleness” says Jeremy Taylor “ is the greatest prodigality in the world ; it throws away that which is invaluable in respect to its present use, and irreparable when it is past, being to be recovered by no power of art or nature.” Life must be measured rather bj’’ depth than by length, by thought and action rather than by time. “We live in deeds not years, in thoughts not breaths ” (Bailey)

Lord Chesterfield says. “ Every moment you now lose is so much character and advantage lost; as, on the other hand, every moment you now employ usefully is so much time wisely laid out at prodigious interest. “ Are you in earnest! seize this very minute, What you can do, or think you can, begin it.” “ The human heart is like a millstone in a mill ; when you put wheat under it, it turns and grinds and bruises the wheat to flour, if you put no wheat, it still grinds on—and grinds itself away.” It is not work but care, that kills, and it is in this sense that we are told to take no thought for the morrow. To “ consider the lilies of the field, they toil not, neither do they spin. 1 ' But it would be indeed a mistake to suppose that lilies are idle or imprudent. On the contary, plants are most industrious and li|jes store np in their complex bulbs a great part of the nourishment of one year to quicken the growth of the next. Care, on the other hand, they certainly know not.

“ Hours have wings, fly up the author of time, and carry newsjjof our usage. All our prayers cannot entreat one of them either to return or slacken his pace. The misspents of every minute are a new record against us in heaven. Mure if we thought thus, we should dismiss them with better reports and not suffer them to fly away empty or laden with dangerous influence.”

Time indeed, is a sacred gift; and each day is a little life. St. Paul enjoins the Ephesians to “be wise; redeeming the time ” which in the Greek signifies “ buyingl up the opportunity.” Again he tells the Romans that “ it is now high time to awake out of sleep. . . The night is far spent, and the'day is at hand. ,: From Sir J. Lubbock (F).