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I. What is time?

(1) Measured duration. Hours, days, etc., are measured by periodical revolutions.

(2) Successive duration — past, present, to come.

(3) Limited duration. Time was not, began, will cease.

2. Time is distinguished from eternity — which is absolute duration, without measure, etc.

3. But time in the text is rather special seasons and opportunities.

4. To redeem(1) in the common notion is to recover by some valuable consideration what has been forfeited — property, liberty, yea, our souls, by the precious blood of Christ. This cannot apply to time, because no consideration can recover the smallest portion of it when once gone.

(2) In a moral sense we may redeem it by a careful, prayerful, religious improvement of what remains. Time ought to be improved because —

I. ITS VALUE IS INEXPRESSIBLE. We argue the worth of it —

1. From the great business of it.

(1) As regards self. Were man a mere animated piece of flesh and blood he would have some plausibility for saying "Let us eat and drink," etc. But he is a rational, immortal, and accountable being, and the great business of time is to get ready for eternity. It is not necessary that we should be rich, great, honourable; but it is necessary that we should be saved. "What shall it profit," etc.

(2) But we are not alone, and therefore our great business is not only to get but to do good; not only to work out our own salvation, but to promote that of others.

2. From the price of time. When man sinned all was lost, time included, but the forfeited blessing comes back through the death of Christ.

3. From the manner in which providence allots us time. Common things may be obtained in large quantities. Not so things that are precious — a grain of gold, e.g. So time is not dealt out in large portions. No man receives a year at once, only a moment. How should that moment, then, be improved.

4. Shall we consult the wise, great, and good on this subject. Moses (Psalm 90.): Solomon, "Remember now thy Creator; Christ, "I must work," etc.; that Pagan prince who, when a day had passed without a good deed, exclaimed, "I have lost a day."

5. Ask death-beds. "Doctor," said a dying man, "the whole of my estate for half-an-hour," but no, the whole of his estate could not purchase half a moment.

6. Travel to the regions of sorrow and despair. How would they hail a second probation I They had time, they abused it; their time is gone.

7. Travel to the mansions of light. The spirits of just men made perfect are there, because they redeemed the time for the purpose of preparing for eternity.

II. THE DURATION OF TIME IS SHORT.

1. How frequently we express ourselves incorrectly on this subject. A man who has been unwell for a few weeks says he has been ill a long time. But no portion of time is long in reference to eternity. There is some comparison between an atom and the globe, because the globe only contains so many atoms, but there can be no comparison between the little atom of time and unmeasurable eternity.

2. If time be short comparatively, what is the time of our life. "The time is short." How short. Before the flood some lived nearly one thousand years. After the flood there was a reduction. By the time of Moses the period was seventy or eighty. How few reach even that now. A friend of mine once ascertained the average age of persons buried in a country churchyard; it was fourteen years. Our life is but "a step between us and death"; "a hand-breadth"; "a weaver's shuttle"; "grass"; "a vapour." Then we have not a moment to waste.

III. MUCH OF OUR SHORT TIME HAS ELAPSED.

1. The morning of life has gone with many of us. Prize the morning of life, young people! It is the best part of the day. If it be wasted we have but little hope of subsequent periods. "In the morning sow thy seed." When it was morning with many of us how impatient we were to have it noon and be men.

2. Noon has come and gone, and it seems only yesterday that we were young.

3. Some are in the evening, the last mile-stone is in view, the taper must soon expire, and the hour-glass run out. A man may regain lost health, wealth, friends, but never time. Then how we ought to redeem what remains.

IV. WHAT REMAINS IS UNCERTAIN. We can ascertain how much has been expended, not what is left. The rich fool talked of years. God did not talk of a single day. "This night." How numerous are sudden deaths. "Lord, teach us to number our days."

V. NOTHING CAN COMPENSATE FOR THE LOSS OF TIME. A wise man will part with nothing except for its value, yet many part with time for nothing.

1. For folly, vanity, vice — time-consumers, time-killers.

2. For any kind of amusement-seeking customers to take it off their hands.

3. For business, at the expense of the true riches.

4. For honour, at the expense of heaven's patent of nobility. But none of us are absolutely bankrupt. Time remains — redeem it.

VI. ODD HAS MADE ETERNITY TO DEPEND ON TIME. What an awful thing, then, to live. "Infinite joy or endless woe attends on every breath."

(Robert Newton, D. D.)

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KJV: Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.

WEB: Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.