When you entered into solemn covenant with the Lord, you consecrated your whole life to his service. Your _time_, then, is not your own, but the Lord's. If you waste it, or spend it unprofitably, you _rob_ God. You are not at liberty even to employ it exclusively to yourself. You are bound to glorify God with your time. And how can this be done? By so employing it that it will be most beneficial both to yourself and others. The Christian, who properly considers the great work he has to perform in his own soul, as well as the wide field of benevolent exertion which opens everywhere around him, and reflects how exceedingly short his time is, will not be disposed to trifle away any of the precious moments God has given him. Hence we are exhorted to _redeem_ or _rescue_ the time, as it flies. A very common fault lies in not estimating the value of a moment. This leads to the waste of immense portions of precious time. It is with time as with an estate. The old adage is, "Take care of the _pennies_, and the _pounds_ will take care of themselves." So, if we take care of the _moments_, the _hours_ will take care of themselves. Indeed, our whole lives are made up of moments. A little calculation may startle those who carelessly and foolishly trifle away small portions of time. Suppose you waste _only ten minutes_ at a time, six times in a day; this will make an hour. This hour is subtracted from that portion of your time which might have been devoted to active employments. Sleeping, refreshment, and personal duties, generally occupy at least one half of the twenty-four hours. You have then lost one twelfth part of the available portion of the day. Suppose, then, you live to the age of seventy years. Take from this the first ten years of your life. From the sixty remaining, you will have thrown away _five years_! These five years are taken from that portion of your time which should have been employed in the cultivation of your mind, and in the practical duties of religion. For, the common excuse for neglecting the improvement of the mind, and the cultivation of personal piety, is _want of time_. Now, if you employ one half of this time in reading, at the rate of twenty pages an hour, you will be able to read more than _eighteen thousand pages_; or _sixty volumes_ of three hundred pages each. If you employ the other half in devotional exercises in your closet, in addition to the time you would spend in this manner, upon the supposition that these five years are lost, what an influence will it have upon the health of your soul? Or, if you spend the whole of it in the active duties of Christian benevolence, how much good can you accomplish? Think what you might do by employing five years in the undivided service of your Master.