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This text immediately follows upon the full declaration of the truth in Jesus, the free offers of Divine mercy, and the earnest pleadings of ch. 5. St. Paul understood well that there was this sad and strange tendency in men - they are ever disposed to shift into the future the most serious duties of life. In the time of disease they will not send for the doctor until they absolutely must. They put off making their wills until the very power to make them is gone. How is the tendency to be explained? It is one of the forms in which man's hopefulness expresses itself, The future always seems to be richer and better than the present; though, when that future is reached, it very seldom realizes our hope. It is, however, a mischievous form of hopefulness if it lifts us off from the performance of present duty. Then it becomes procrastination, "the thief of time."

I. THE INCOMPARABLE ADVANTAGES OF TIME PRESENT. The "now By this term is properly meant that moment in which any duty stands right before us. Observe:

1. Its security. We have it; it is here; it is ours. The only thing in all the world that is or ever can be ours. The only sphere for the activity of our will. We act in the living present." Nothing really belongs to us except that which we have at this moment. The past is gone. The future may never come. When we put off duty to the future, we deal with something that is not our own. We have no future until God gives it to us and makes it present. We have only the now, and on it may hang eternity.

2. Its peculiar suitability for action. Because the whole nature is aroused, awakened, interested, prepared, and action can be taken so easily and so heartily, now. You can never again be sure of the same interest, and, if neglected duties do ever get done, they must push into the place of some other duty, and push it aside. Now we have the assistance of all aiding impulses. We are helped by an awakened conscience, by deep emotions, and by the urgings of the Divine Spirit. Now is the time of our opportunity. Illustrate by the boats waiting for a wave to help them ashore. How the men watch, and at last say, "Now, now!" as they bend to the ear! The times when the claims of Christ come home to us are just such times; then why not now be flooded over all hindrances and difficulties unto the harbour of salvation?

II. THE SERIOUS PERIL INVOLVED IN THE NEGLECT OF TIME PRESENT. Notice:

1. The insecurity of the return of such another opportunity. Others we may have, but this precise one will never come again. There is only one round of seasons in each life. Spring time never comes but once, with its encouraging assurance, "They that seek me early shall find me. Summer time and autumn time come but once, and by and by we may have to wail and to say, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."

2. The burdening of life with the sense of unfulfilled duty. That may indeed be made an impulse to higher activity, but usually it presses as a hopeless hindrance.

3. The injury done to our moral nature by resisted spiritual influences. There is a disease whose special feature is the ossification of the heart, the turning of its flexible walls into hardness and bone. It is the disease which they suffer from - in its spiritual form - who neglect the golden opportunities offered them in the time present. Illustrate by the man on the Royal Charter, who was on the stern half when the vessel broke in two, and had but a moment in which to leap for dear life. Yet how men resist the claims of God to their immediate attention! Some wilfully put off the matter, deliberately finding excuses for delay. Surely no other proof of human depravity is needed than this. Men will hang their immortality on the thread of life, and even dally with the offered mercy of their God. But some honest hearts may be in real difficulty as to the claims of Christ upon them now. They think they are too young, or that they have not been anxious long enough; or they are waiting for a deeper sense of sin, or, it may be, for more faith. But all these are subtle ways in which we show our desire to manage our own salvation. If we were really willing that Christ should save us, we would be quite willing that he should save us now. - R.T.

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KJV: (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

WEB: for he says, "At an acceptable time I listened to you, in a day of salvation I helped you." Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.