“Thou hast granted me life” (Job 10:12).
“For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life” (Deut. 32:47).
A preacher of a mathematical turn of mind once addressed his congregation in these words: “My friends, you make very free with your days; pray, how many do you expect to have? Let us consider: Seventy years of life yield 25,550 days. Remember that a period of twenty years is gone, almost before you begin to live. Deduction Number 1 —7,300 days. Remainder—18,250 days. Then the one item sleep deducts 6,080 days, leaving 12,170 days. For recreation and occupations, we will deduct another third. Deduction Number 3—4,060 days. Remainder—8,110 days. Then deducting the time used in eating, drinking, dressing, bathing, etc., at a single blow will leave you not over 4,000 days in a long life in which to develop good things in your nature. Approximately eleven years. Think of it. That is to say, if we live out our allotted time; many do not. Does it look small and short? Indeed, brethren, it is. And it is priceless; nothing on earth can represent its true value. And yet what a glorious inheritance, for the Master commits this into your hands today with the great charge, ‘Occupy till I come.’”
We prove the value which we attach to things by the time we devote to them. The kingdom of God asks our time. God has broken up our lifetime into day and night that we may learn to live a day at a time. Begin the day with God, and God will maintain His kingdom in your heart.—Andrew Murray.
The great use of a life is to spend it for something that outlasts it.—William James.
Not many lives, but only one have we—
One, only one;
How sacred should that one life ever be—
That narrow span!
Day after day filled up with blessed toil,
Hour after hour still bringing in new spoil.
—Horatius Bonar.