VI. Time and eternity.
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Formerly it was customary at public executions to bring an hour-glass to the scaffold with the sand all at one end, and when the prisoner had taken his position, to set the glass before him inverted, and the sands of the last hour of his life began to run.
Sometimes the executioner would say to the unhappy man, "Your sands are almost run out!" From this the phrase was transferred to the pulpit, and men were exhorted to speedy repentance because their sands were almost run out. Oh that men would candidly look at the nearness of death and lay hold on eternal life while it is called today.
An old writer says, "I stopped in Clerkenwell churchyard to see a grave-digger at work. He had dug pretty deep, and was come to an old coffin which was quite rotten. In clearing away the moldering wood, the grave-digger found an hour-glass close to the left side of the skull, with the sand in it." This was telling the dead that to them time was no longer.
How much more fit to put the hour-glass before the living, and remind them that their hours will soon all be gone. Why will not men be warned?
Why will not the living lay to heart the things which belong to their peace? Between the longest human life and eternity, there is no proportion whatever. "I have lost a day" is a dreadful sound in the ears of one who has a tender conscience. Nothing but a slighted Savior seems to press so heavily on dying sinners as 'murdered time'.
God of mercy, give us grace to improve each hour, so to number our days as to apply our hearts unto wisdom, and to be always doing some good. Let madness no longer reign within us. The night comes—when no man can work.
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