“The Time Is Short”

"The Time Is Short"

(No. 2861)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1903.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"The time is short." 1 Corinthians 7:29.

THE text does not say that time is short. That would have been a true
statement, but compared with eternity, time, at the very longest, is
but as a pin's point. But note what the text does say–" The time is
short." It is the time of our life, the space of our opportunity, the
little while we shall be upon the present stage of action that is
short. It is narrow and contracted, as the original implies. "Behold,"
said the Psalmist, "You have made my days as a handbreadth and my age
is as nothing before You." Brief is the season we have allotted to us,
Brothers and Sisters, in which we can serve the Lord our God.

This is a Truth of God which everybody believes, knows and confesses.
It is trite as a proverb on every tongue, yet how few of us act as if
we believed it! We are conscious of the precariousness of other
people's lives, but, somehow or other, we persuade ourselves that our
own time is not quite as limited as theirs. We think we have "ample
time and verge enough," but we wonder that our neighbors can be so
careless and prodigal of days and years, for we observe the wrinkles on
their brows, we detect the gray hairs on their heads and perceive the
signs of death in their bearing and we doubt not they will soon have to
render in their account. "All men think all men mortal but themselves,"
is a "night thought" that may well startle us as we rest from the
business and the bustle, or the waste and wantonness of each succeeding
day. Why do you hide from yourselves the waning of your own life-work,
the weakening of your own strength, the weaving of your own shrouds? As
a creature, you are frail–as an inhabitant of the world, you are
exposed to casualties. As a man, there is an appointed time for you on
earth. You must be swept away by the receding tide–you must go with
the rest of your generation.

Ask an angel what he thinks of the life of a mortal and he will tell
you that he remembers when the first man was made–and since then the
earth has been always changing its tenants. Perhaps he is baffled to
recall the races that have come and gone in countless succession. For a
little while they floated on the surface, then they sank beneath the
stream. At first they struggled on through centuries, but, after that,
they failed, any one of them, to attain a tenth of that pristine age.
"Short-lived!" says the angel, "they seem to me as leaves upon a tree,
as insects on the earth, as flies in the air. Like the grass that
flourishes in the meadows, scarcely have I gazed upon them before they
are cut down, withered and gone." Oh, if you never meet with an angel
to interrogate him, talk familiarly with one of the trees of an ancient
forest! Ask what it has seen and, though it cannot speak in articulate
tones, you can lend it a tongue and it will tell you that hundreds of
years have passed and history has accumulated, from the time when it
was an acorn, till now. It covers a wide space with its far-spreading
foliage. Yes, the oak and elm can tell us that man is but an infant of
today!

Would you rather take counsel of your fellow creatures? Then ask the
old man what he thinks of life. He will tell you that when he was a
boy, he thought he had a vast length of time before him. So heavily did
the days hang on his hands that he played the hours away and was glad
when birthdays told of the years that were gone. It was his strong
desire and his panting ambition to break loose from the moorings of
childhood and launch out into the great wide sea of turmoil and
enterprise! But now he looks back on these 70 years that have been
gradually accumulating, as a dream. Through all the fitful stages of
life's journey, present time is always perplexing–it must be past
before it is understood! It seems to him only as yesterday when he left
his father's roof to be an apprentice. He remembers it distinctly and
fondly tells you of

some quaint things that happened in those olden times. How short a
while since the bells rang out his marriage peal and now his children
have reached their manhood–and his children's children climb upon his
knee and call him "Grandfather." Yet he remembers when, as it were but
yesterday, he was himself a little child and his grandfather clasped
him to his bosom! My venerable Friends, you will bear witness that I do
not exaggerate when I speak thus–my language is only the feeble
expression of a forcible experience. You can realize more vividly than
I can paint the sensation of looking back over the entire span of
threescore years and ten! To the stripling, this appears a very long
period, while to you it merely seems as a watch in the night.

And yet, perhaps there are among you, some hoary veterans, some elderly
matrons who need to be reminded that "the time is short." Present
health and activity may tempt you to forget that nature, in your case,
stands upon the verge of her confines. What if your frame is strong?
What if the bloom still lingers on your checks? You have nearly reached
the goal, the allotted term that mortals cannot pass. I have seen fine
days, in autumn, when the air was soft as in balmy spring, but they
gave no promise of another summer. I knew the season was too far
advanced for winter to delay its approach much longer. So, you, my aged
Friend, can be sure that the hour of your departure is drawing near.
Should five, or even 10 more years be granted to you, how quickly they
must pass when 70 by-gone years have so rapidly fled! The remnant of
your days will surely cover little space when the whole compass of your
life has stretched over so small an area. Be frugal of minutes, now,
though you may have been, at one time, prodigal of years! At the end of
life you have no time to parley and postpone–to resolve and yet to
trifle with resolutions–to waste and squander golden opportunities.
"The time is short"!

But to estimate this Truth aright, we may well turn from the cycles
that angels have witnessed, the centuries that trees have flourished
and the seasons that have come and gone in the memory of our
grandparents to consider "the years of the right hand of the Most
High." Enquire at the mouth of the Lord. Take counsel of the eternal
God. Remember how it is written, "A thousand years in Tour sight are
but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." "One
day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day." "He sits upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof
are as grasshoppers"–insects of an hour compared with Him. Like the
grass, we spring up, and like the grass we are mowed down! Compared
with the lifetime of the Eternal, what is our life? No, there is no
comparison! It is almost too insignificant for contrast. "My days are
like a shadow that declines, and I am withered like grass. But You, O
Lord, shall endure forever; and Your remembrance unto all generations."
I wish I had the power to impress this Truth on every heart. As I have
not, I shall try to point the moral it suggests and pray that the
Spirit of God may seal the instruction upon every heart.

"The time is short," so, first, it warns. Next, it suggests. Then, it
inspiresand, lastly, it alarms.

I. First, IT WARNS. If you knew the sterling worth of time, you would
shrink from the smallest waste of so precious a thing. Fools say that
time is long, but only fools talk like that. They say that "time is
made for slaves." He alone is a free man who knows how to use his time
properly–and he is a slave, indeed, who finds it slavery to pursue his
calling with a good conscience and serve his God with diligence,
fidelity and zeal. Knowing that "the time is short," you and I have not
an hour to squander upon unprofitable amusements. There are some
diversions which afford a respite from the incessant strain of labor
and anxiety and are profitable to strengthen the mind and brace up the
nerves. These are not only allowable, they are fit and proper. But
while recreation is both necessary and expedient to keep the mental and
physical powers in working order, we can give no countenance to such
dissipation as tends rather to enervate than to invigorate the
constitution. Popular taste displays its own perverseness in seeking to
extract pleasure from folly and vice. Fashion lends its sanction to
many a pastime that ill becomes any wise, rational, intelligent person.
But the Christian, in his relaxations, must seek healthy impulse and
avoid baneful stimulant. "The time is short." We cannot afford to lose
it in senseless talk, idle gossip, or domestic scandals.

Nor can we afford to plan a round of empty frivolities to while away an
afternoon or an evening, as the manner of some is. Our time is too
precious to be frittered away in formal calls and punctilious visits.
Well might Cotton Mather complain of the intrusion of a certain person
who had called to see him, as people will call on ministers, as though
their time was of no importance. "I would sooner have given that man a
handful of money," he said, "than that he should have thus wasted my
time." You count it a little thing to trespass on our minutes, but in
so doing you may spoil our hours! Whether you think so, or not, it is
often distracting to us to be troubled with trivial things in the midst
of our sacred

engagements. We may be called from an absorbing study. We may be rudely
interrupted when our knees are bent and our heart is being lifted up to
God in intercession. We may have our minds drawn from the weightiest
matters to listen to the most frivolous observations. It is said of
Henry Martyn that he never wasted an hour. I wish it could be said of
us that we wasted neither an hour of our own time, nor an hour of other
people's time! Brothers and Sisters, the time is too short to make a
desire for a friendly visit an excuse for frothy conversation. It
requires no stretch of imagination to picture to ourselves two men who
are both Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, "called to be saints," and
accounted faithful, meeting in a room and greeting each other as
friends. They will surely have something choice to talk about. All
Heaven is full of God's Glory and the earth is full of His riches.
There is range enough for thought, for speech, for profitable converse!

But listen awhile. One observes that the weather is very cold. "Yes,"
says the other, "the frost is still very sharp." There they stick–they
have nothing further to say till, presently, one of them remarks, "It
will be rather slippery travelling tonight," to which comes the reply,
"I daresay many horses will fall down." And are these the men of whom
Peter testifies that they are redeemed with the precious blood of
Christ from their vain conversation received by tradition from their
fathers? Are these the men who have been made partakers of the Holy
Spirit? Is this frivolity becoming to the heirs of Heaven? Yet thus,
often is precious time squandered and the faculty of speech abused!
There is an ancient prophecy which I would love to see fulfilled in
modern history. In "David's Psalm of Praise," (only one Psalm, the
145th, is so entitled), he says, "All Your works shall praise You, O
Lord; and Your saints shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of
Your Kingdom, and talk of Your power; to make known to the sons of men
His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His Kingdom." By such
converse as that, Beloved, you might "redeem the time" in these evil
days!

But you are afraid of being charged with cant, or with pushing your
religion a little too far. Brothers and Sisters, it is high time we had
a little more of such cant and that we did push religion a little
farther than has been our habit! Golden opportunities are lost and
profitable interchange of holy thought is lamentably neglected in these
days! In days of yore, "they that feared the Lord spoke often, one to
another, and the Lord listened and heard it." Not much of this now
prevails among professing Christians. Little enough is said that is
worth men's hearing, much less worth God's hearing–and if He did hear
it, instead of putting it down in "a Book of Remembrance" and saying,
"They shall be Mine," surely, in His Infinite Mercy, He would forbear
to record the vain thoughts and empty words which could only be a
stigma upon their characters! By the brevity of time, then, and by the
rapidity of its flight, I admonish you to refrain from all abuses of
the tongue. Invest each hour in some profitable manner that, when past,
it may not be lost. Let your lips be a fountain from which all streams
that flow shall savor of Grace and goodness.

The time, moreover, is much too short for indecision and vacillation.
Your resolving and retracting, your planning and scheming, your
sleeping and dreaming, your starting up from slumber only to sink down
into a drowsier state than before are a mockery of life and a willful
murder of time! Of how many of you is it true that if you ever did
entertain a noble purpose, you never found a convenient season to carry
it out? On the verge of conversion, sometimes, you have halted till
your convictions have grown cold. Ten or 20 years ago, you listened to
the appeal, "My son, give Me your heart," and you answered, "I will."
But, to this day you have never fulfilled your word! "Go work in My
vineyard," said the Master. "I go, Lord," was your prompt reply–yet
you have never gone! Today, as before, you stand idling. Some of you,
indeed, were in a more hopeful condition 30 or 40 years ago than you
are at present! What account can you give of yourselves? What has
become of those intervening years? The Infinite Mercy of God has kept
you out of Hell, but there is no guarantee that His long-suffering will
shield you from destruction another instant. O Sirs, "the time is
short," the business urgent, the crisis imminent! 'Tis madness to be
halting between two opinions! If God is God, serve Him–and if not,
take the alternative and serve Baal! Let your mind be made up, one way
or the other, without another moment's delay. How long do you waver
between two opinions?

And you Christian people with your grand illusive projects, how they
melt away! Some of you would have done a great deal that is useful by
now if you had not dreamed of doing so much that is imposing. Oh, what
wonderful plans for evangelizing London, for converting the whole
Continent of Europe to Christ float in the brain, or evaporate in a
speech–and nothing is done! We are like a certain Czar of Russia, of
olden times, who always wanted to take a second step before he took the
first. We are always projecting some wonderful scheme that proves too
wonderful to ever be carried out! So we dream of what ought to be and
should be–of what might be and as we hope may be! Such "dreams are the
children of an idle brain." The dreamers grow listless and nothing is
done. In the name of the eternal God, I beseech

you, if you love Him, get to work for Him! Better slay a single enemy
than dream of slaughtering an army! Better that you sow a single grain
of corn or plant a single blade of grass, than dream about fertilizing
the Sahara, or reclaiming from the mighty sea untold acres of fertile
land! Do something, Brothers and Sisters, do something! It is high time
to awake out of sleep, for "the time is short."

This thought may serve to warn us against another folly–that of
speculating upon the points of controversial theology. You know how the
schoolmen used to debate and wrangle about how many angels could stand
on the point of a needle–and with many other propositions, no less
absurd, did they weary themselves. Strange, indeed, was the ingenuity
of men taxed to find subjects for discussion in the dark days of those
dull doctors of learning. There is something of that spirit abroad even
now. Ministers will devote whole sermons to the discussion of some
crotchet or quibble that does not signify the turn of a hair to anybody
in the universe! I have generally noticed that the less important the
point is, the more savagely will some persons defend it–as if the
world might go to rack and ruin–and all the sinners in it go blindfold
to Hell and the work of salvation must stand still to have this point
discussed! One Brother who occasionally meets me, can never be five
minutes in my company, but what he attacks me upon the question of free
agency and predestination. I told him the last time I saw him that I
would have it out with him one of these days, but I must defer it till
after the Day of Judgment, for I was too busy to talk about it just
now. And I feel like that about a great many questions!

There are Brothers who can fully explain the Book of Revelation, though
I generally find that they exclaim one against the other, till they
declaim each other off the face of the earth! I would sooner be able to
proclaim the Cross of Christ and explain the Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John, than to decipher the imagery of Ezekiel, or the symbols
of the Apocalypse. Blessed is he who can expound the mysteries. I have
no doubt about his blessedness, but I am perfectly satisfied with
another blessedness, namely, if I can bring sinners to Jesus and teach
the saints some practical Truths which may guide them in daily life. It
seems to me that the time is much too short to go up in a balloon with
speculations, or to go down into the mines of profound thought to bring
up some odds and ends and scraps of singular knowledge. We want to save
souls and to conduct them to that Heaven where God's Presence makes
eternal day! This seems to me to be the pressing demand upon us now
that "the time is short" and, "the night comes when no man can work."

Let this also admonish us, Brothers and Sisters, to singleness of
purpose. We must have only one aim. Had we plenty of time, we might try
two or three schemes at once, though even then we should most probably
fail for lack of concentrating our energies. But as we have very little
time, we had better economize it by attending to one thing. The man who
devotes all his thought and strength to the accomplishment of one
reasonable objective is generally successful. My Soul, bend yourself
down and lay yourself out for the Glory of God! Be this the one aim of
your entire being! Form your friendships and order your occupations so
as to fulfill this first and highest duty of life. Be it your one sole
motive to live for His honor and, if necessary, even to die to promote
His renown among the sons of men! "Present your bodies a living
sacrifice." Attune your souls to the great Hallelujah–"While I live
will I bless the Lord. I will sing praises unto my God while I have my
being. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise you the
Lord."

O Brothers and Sisters, this sublime enthusiasm will work wonders! You
dissipate your strength and fritter away your opportunities by dividing
your attention. You say that you want to be a Christian–meanwhile,
your heart is set upon getting riches, you seek to store your mind with
the learning and wisdom of the world, you wish to gain repute as a good
talker in company and a convivial guest at the social board. Ambition
prompts you to seek fame among your fellows. Very well, I shall not
denounce any one of these things, but I would use every persuasive to
induce you who are Believers in Christ to renounce the world! If Christ
has bought you with His blood and redeemed you from this present evil
world, He has a claim on you as His servant and it is at your peril
that you take up with any pursuits that are inconsistent with a full
surrender of yourself to Him. You belong to Him, so live wholly to Him!
The reason why the majority of Christians never attain to any eminence
in the Divine life is because they let the floods of their life run
away in a dozen little, trickling rivulets, whereas, if they cooped
them up into one channel and sent that one stream rolling on to the
Glory of God, there would be such a force and power about their
character, their thoughts, their efforts and their actions that they
would really "live while they lived."

II. "The time is short. THIS SUGGESTS.

Do you know what reflection this fact suggested to me? "Surely, then,"
I thought, "I have some opportunity to follow out the work of faith,
the patience of hope and the labor of love, though not the opportunity
I once had." Then, pic-

turing to myself an ideal of a short life all used, nothing wasted, all
consecrated, nothing profaned, I seemed to see a boy giving his young
heart to Christ. I saw the lad believing in Jesus while yet beneath his
father's roof and under his mother's care. No sooner saved than he
began at once to serve God after a boy's way. And still increasing in
intelligence and energy as a stripling and afterwards as a young man,
from the first he devoted himself, with all the intensity of his being,
to his Lord's service. So diligent and persevering was he that he lost
no time. So jealously did he watch his own heart and so far was he from
falling into sin, that there were no dreary intervals spent in
wandering and backsliding, and retracing his steps in repenting of the
evil, in getting lukewarm and then rekindling former ardor. With my
mind's eye, I followed that young man living a holy life through a
succession of years, getting up to the highest possible platform of
spirituality and staying there, and all the while blessed with such
abundance of the Graces and gifts of the Spirit of God as should make
him bring forth much fruit to the Glory of the Father, do much for the
honor of Jesus, prove a great blessing to the Church, bear a rich
testimony to the world and spread saving benefits to the souls of men.

This was my ideal of a vessel "meet for the Master's use." I lingered
lovingly upon it. The child became a man. His life was brief. It was
soon over. Our days on earth are as a shadow but happily they may be
radiant and leave a trail of light behind them. Might not even God,
Himself, look down, with a measure of admiration, from His eternal
dwelling place on the career I have sketched? The slender threads of
fleeting moments are worked up to the goodly fabric of a complete
biography. Endowed with one talent, this and that endowment sparse–the
gift so prized as to be economized, so looked after that it is never
squandered, so usefully employed that its judicious expenditure can
never be vainly regret-ted–so profitably invested that the faithful
steward welcomes the advent of his Lord, ready and anxious to give in
his account! This is as I would wish to be!

Some of you, who are unconverted can never hope to receive the greeting
that awaits such a faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. You have
lost your golden opportunity. You have wasted your substance in riotous
living. But are there not children here to whom this is possible? And
youths who might convert my daydream into a narrative? Oh for men and
women with the ambition and one enterprise to glorify the Lord!
Ardently do I desire that God should be glorified in me and that not in
a small measure. I have prayed and I do pray Him to make the most He
can make of me, to do it anyway He wills. What, if to this end, I must
be cast into the furnace of action and suffer for His sake? What if my
honor should be trampled in the dust and my name become a hissing and a
by-word, and a reproach among the sons of men while the witness of my
integrity is on high? Here am I, O Lord, to do anything, to bear
anything that You shall bid! Only get as much Glory to Your own name as
can be got out of such a poor creature as I am! Who will join me in
this petition? Vows made in our own strength are vain, but I solemnly
charge each Christian young man to foster this aspiration. In the name
of Him who has redeemed you with His blood, gird up the loins of your
mind and survey the course you have to run. Prepare for the good fight
of faith in which you are to engage. Live to the utmost possible
consecration of your entire manhood in its triple nature–spirit, soul,
and body. Yield yourself up unreservedly to the Lord Jesus Christ! Do
not stop to parley. "The time is short," therefore, "whatever your hand
finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no work, nor
device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave where you go."

III. "The time is short." THIS INSPIRES US.

It ought to fire us with zeal for immediate action. The sun hastens on,
the sands run down. "Now is the accepted time." Let those who love the
Lord be prompt. The time to do the deeds that you must do, or leave
them undone, flies swiftly past. Say not, "I will do this, by-and-by."
Do it at once! Other duties await you. Brief is the space allotted you
for all. Are your children converted? Pray with them tonight. Let not
tomorrow come without putting your arms about their necks and kneeling
down with them devoutly–and praying fervently that God would save
their souls. It is the King's business and it demands haste! "The time
is short" for others as well as for yourself. A dear Brother told me, a
week or two ago, that a man who frequently worked for him, brought in
goods when they were finished. And he thought that the next time the
man came in, he would speak to him about his soul. When he came,
however, business absorbed the employer's attention and the man went
his away. He felt, he did not know exactly why, pricked in his
conscience, and resolved that on the next occasion, he would enquire as
to his eternal interests. But he was too late.

Instead of coming again, a messenger brought tidings that he was dead.
Startled by the news, our Brother could find no comfort in regrets,
though he bewailed as one who could not forgive himself a hundred
wasted opportunities in the presence of one keen self-reproach. Oh,
that an inspiration would constrain you to serve the Lord now! Every
time the

clock ticks, it seems to say, "now." The time is so short that the
matter is urgent. Do not wait, young man, to preach Jesus till you have
had more instruction–begin at once! You who mean to do something for
the poor of London when you have hoarded up more money, spend your
money now–do it at once! You who mean to leave a large sum to
charities when you die, defer it not–be your own executors. Lay out
the capital at once! Get some joy and comfort out of it yourselves. Now
is the time to carry a good purpose into good effect. Before you were
saved, the message to you was, "Today, if you will hear His voice,
harden not your heart." After you are saved, the message to you is,
"Today, obey His voice and serve the Lord your God with all your heart,
and mind, and soul, and strength." "The time is short," so make the
most of it!

"The time is short." I want to ring this sentence louder and louder in
your ears, that it may inspire you to pray for immediate conversions. I
have met with many who are hoping to get converted some day, but not
now. Is not such procrastination perilous? Dare any of you run the risk
of willfully abiding in unbelief another hour? Can you brook the
thought of remaining, month after month in jeopardy of your soul? Is it
safe to tempt the Lord and provoke the anger of the Most High? O Sirs,
while you flatter yourselves with pleasing prospects, you are beguiling
your hearts with a reckless presumption! We want you to be converted
and no time can be more suitable than this present time. Forsake your
sin immediately! Do not turn back to dally with it a little longer.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and lay hold on the promise of eternal
life without any further delay! You may never see another morrow, or
the desire that whets your appetite now may fail you then. This is our
prayer, that you may, this very hour, be brought into the fold of
Christ!

Then seeing that "the time is short," let us bear with patience the
ills that vex us. Are we very poor? "The time is short." Does the
bitter cold pierce through our scanty garments? "The time is short." Is
consumption beginning to prey on our trembling frame? "The time is
short." Are we unkindly treated by our kinsfolk? Do our comrades revile
and our neighbors mock us? "The time is short." Have we to bear evil
treatment from an ungenerous world? "The time is short." Do cruel
taunts try our tempers? "The time is short." We are travelling at
express speed and shall soon be beyond the reach of all the incidents
and happenings that disturb and distract us. As we travel home to our
Father's House, the distance diminishes and we begin to see the city of
the blessed, "the home over there." It is needless to murmur or repine!
Why trouble yourselves about what you will do a month or two from now?
You may not be here! You may be in Heaven. Your eyes will have beheld
"the King in His beauty," you will have seen "the land that is very far
off."–

"The way may be rough, but it cannot be long, So smooth it with hope,
and cheer it with song."

Worldly-mindedness ill becomes us who have confessed that we are
"strangers and pilgrims on the earth." "The time is short" in which we
can hold any possessions in this terrestrial sphere. Then let us not
love anything here below too fondly. We brought nothing into the world
and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Survey your broad acres,
but remember that you will not long be able to walk across them. Look
on your plenteous crops, but before long another shall reap the profit
of those fields. Count your gold and silver, but know that wealth,
greedily as it is sought, will not give you present immunity from
sickness and sorrow–neither will it secure your welfare when called to
quit your frail tenement. Trust in the living God! Love the Lord and
let eternal things absorb your thoughts and engage your affections.
"The time is short"–it remains that both they that have wives be as
though they had none. And they that weep, as though they wept not. And
they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not. And they that use this
world, as not abusing it, for the fashion of this world passes away."

Are these gloomy reflections? No, dear Brothers and Sisters, the fact
that "the time is short" should inspire us, who are of the household of
faith, with the most joyous expectations!Do you really believe in the
everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Do you really
believe that your head is to wear a crown of life that fades not away?
Do you really believe that these feet of yours, all shod with silver
sandals, will stand upon that street of pure gold? Do you really
believe that these hands shall pluck celestial fruit from trees whose
leaves can never wither and that you shall lie down in the spice-beds
in the gardens of the blessed? Do you believe that these eyes shall see
the King in that day when He comes in His Glory and that these bones
shall rise again from the grave and your bodies shall be endowed with
an incorruptible existence? "Yes," you say, "we do believe it and
believe it intensely, too." Well, then, I would that you realized it as
so very near that you were expectant of its fulfillment! Who would cry
and fret about the passing troubles of a day when he saw the heavens
open, beheld the beckoning hand and heard the voice that called him
hence? Oh, that the glory might

come streaming into your soul till you forget the darkness of the way!
Oh, that the breeze from these goodly mountains would fan you! Oh, that
the spray from that mighty ocean would refresh you! Oh, that the music
of those bells of Heaven in yonder turrets would enliven you! Then
would you speed your way towards the rest that remains for the people
of God, inspired with sacred ardor and dauntless courage! But the
ungodly are not so. It is to them I must address the last word, "The
time is short."

IV. THIS ALARMS US. And well it may on their account. Let me toll a
knell. It is a dismal knell I have to toll for the unconverted man to
whom life has been a joy, for he has prospered in the world. You have
succeeded in the enterprise on which you set your heart. You have
bought the estate that you longed to secure. It is certainly a fine
place, but you have only got it for two or three years! Would I have
taken it for that term? No, I would not have taken it on a 999 years'
lease. Freeholds for me! Did I say two or three years? No, there is not
a man beneath the sun who can guarantee that you will hold it for three
weeks! "The time is short." Drive down the broad avenue, walk round the
park–look into the old feudal mansion, but, "the time is short," very
short, and your tenure very limited. You have gained your objective,
you are possessed of real property–what next? Why, make your will! The
thing is urgent. "The time is short." But what have you not done?

You have not believed in Christ! You have not embraced the Gospel. You
have not found salvation, you have not laid hold on eternal life–you
have not a hope to solace you when your strength fails and you pant for
breath! How few the opportunities that remain! Some of you have
attended my ministry all the while I have been in London. I wonder how
much longer you will hear me and yet remain unsaved? Your turn to die
will come at length. You ail a little, but your trifling indisposition
does not yield to treatment. The symptoms grow serious, the disease is
dangerous, your death is imminent. Pain unnerves you. Terror distracts
you. Your family and your friends look at you with helpless pity. The
doctor has just left you in dismay. Send for the priest, or fetch the
parson–but what can they do for you unless you believe in Jesus? 'Tis
over, the last struggle!

Then picture yourself to yourself–a lost spirit asking for a drop of
water to cool your tongue! That will be your portion, Sinner, unless
you repent! Think, Sirs–there is but a step between you and death–a
short step between you and Hell unless you believe in Jesus! Do you
still imagine that there is time enough and to spare? I beseech you, do
not cherish so vain a thought! It may be that you suspect me of
exaggerating, but that I cannot do in such a case as this. Time is
rushing on, swiftly but silently. While I speak, the minutes pass, the
hour is soon gone, the day is almost spent. I charge you, then, by the
ever-blessed Spirit, listen now to the warning–escape from sin! Get
out of that broad road which leads to destruction! Believe in Jesus!
Lay hold on eternal life! May the Spirit of God awaken you! May these
words be blessed to you! They would be put more forcibly if I knew how.
With all the fervor of my soul, I entreat you, for I know your
everlasting interests are in imminent jeopardy! God grant that you may
not linger longer, lest haply you linger too long and perish in your
lingering! "The time is short."

In a little while there will be a great concourse of people in the
streets. I think I hear someone enquiring, "What are all these people
waiting for?" "Do you not know? He is to be buried today." "And who is
that?" "It is Spurgeon." "What? The man that preached at the
Tabernacle?" "Yes. He is to be buried today." That will happen very
soon and when you see my coffin carried to the silent grave, I would
like every one of you, whether converted or not, to be constrained to
say, "He did earnestly urge us, in plain and simple language, not to
put off the consideration of eternal things. He did entreat us to look
to Christ. Now he is gone, our blood is not at his door if we perish."

God grant that you may not have to bear the bitter reproach of your own
conscience! But, as I feel that "the time is short," I will stir you up
as long as I am in this Tabernacle! And I do pray the Lord to bless the
word every time I preach it from this platform. Oh, that some souls may
be saved, that Jesus Christ may be glorified, Satan defeated and Heaven
filled with saved ones!–

"'Tis not for man to trifle! Life is brief And sin is here!

Our age is but the falling of a leaf, A dropping tear.

We have no time to sport away the hours All must be earnest in a world
like ours. Not many lives, but only one, have we–

Frail, fleeting man!

How saved 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."