John 9: 4

The Romans had a pagan god named Janus.
Janus was the god of gates and doors and new beginnings.
He was two-faced -- he looked both ways.
Our word, January, is named after him.

January is where we are once again.
It doesn't seem  possible!

What happened to Easter? Summer? Thanksgiving?  Christmas?
Gone!

The ancient worshipers of the pagan God, Janus, would  have put it,
"Tempus Fugit!"

Time flies!

Jesus reminded us that time flies as He said to His disciples:
"The night cometh, when no man can  work." (John 9: 4)

The Scottish writer, Thomas Carlyle, wrote on the  flyleaf of his first book, "Cometh night."

Robert Murray McCheyne, the powerful Scottish preacher,
reminded himself and his friends that time flies
by ending his letters to his friends with Jesus' words, "Cometh night."
But  McCheyne never dreamed, as he wrote those sobering words in his letters,
that his days were so limited that he would die in his 30th year.

English author,  Samuel Johnson, remembered how quickly time flies,
and so he had inscribed on  his watch the Lord's warning, "Cometh night."

Scotland's greatest  novelist, Sir Walter Scott, had the words, "Cometh night"
sculpted on the sundial  of his cottage home.
There, where Scott spent so many pleasant years,
one can  read the noted novelist's last words entered in his diary:
"Tomorrow we  shall..."
But, for him, tomorrow never came.

Life's final curtain often falls suddenly and unexpectedly,
reminding us that time flies.

Catherine the Great, the 18th century ruler of Russia,
came to the end of her sixty-seven years sighing,
"I am an accumulation of broken ends."
She learned -- too late -- that time flies.

When Raphael was carried into the studio to take a last look at his majestic painting,
"The  Transfiguration," he sighed, "Alas, it will never be completed!"
He died in his 37th year.

Australian composer, Franz Schubert, at the age of 31,
was working on his, "Unfinished Symphony," when death  came suddenly.

Frank Grasso, conductor of the Tampa, Florida, Symphonette  Orchestra,
died suddenly as he was directing the last number of a  concert.
Ironically, the number was Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony."

English novelist, Charles Dickens, whose imagination has thrilled generations,
was touched by the angel of death and quietly laid down his pen in the middle of a sentence.

When England's Queen Elizabeth I lay  on her deathbed,
her last words, so it is said, were:
"Time! Time! Give me  one more moment of time.
I would give my kingdom and all I possess for one  more moment of time.”

But, not one minute could she buy.

Tempus Fugit!

Because time flies, we ought to prize it, highly.
We should  guard it, carefully.
We should enjoy it, fully.
We must use it, wisely.
We must pray over it, faithfully.
We should give thanks for it, continually.

Henry Edward Russell once presented a chart showing
how the  average person spends his or her seventy years:

Eight years in amusements.
Three years in education.
Six years in eating.
Eleven years  in working.
Twenty-four years in sleeping.
Five and one-half years in washing and dressing.
Six years in walking.
Three years in conversation.
Three years in reading.

And, six months in worshiping God.

Most of us must confess we do not use our time very wisely.
We are foolish to waste it or misuse it because it is the stuff of which life is  made
and it is a scarce commodity.

5000 years ago, a wise man wrote in  Sanskrit about the value of time:

"Yesterday is only a dream, and  tomorrow is but a vision.
Yet, each day, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this one day, for it and it alone is life."

In his book, Time for God, Leslie Weatherhead,
who was pastor of the City Temple in London  for 25 years,
mathematically calculated a 24-hour lifetime that compares
to the "three score and ten" years of the Bible.

Weatherhead said, that if one  lives to be 70 years of age,
life would be broken down like this:

"If you  are 15 years old, it is 10:25 AM.
If you are 20 years old, it is 11:34 AM.
If you are 25 years old, it is 12:42 PM.

If you are 30 years old, it is 1:51 PM.
If you are 35 years old, it is 3 PM.
If you are 40 years  old, it is 4 PM.
If you are 45 years old, it is 5:16 PM.

But if you have passed the half-century mark --
If you are 50 years old, it is 6:25  PM.
If you are 55 years old, it is 7:34 PM.
If you are 60 years old, it is 8:42 PM.
If you are 65 years old, it is 9:41 PM.
If you are 70 years old, it is 11 PM.

We could add that if you are 80 years old -- time is running  out!

We should take a serious look at this chart and be sobered by it!

"Tempus Fugit," we exclaim!

An anonymous poet expressed the  swiftness with which time flies
and our poor use of it, when he  wrote:

"Hadn't time to greet the day,
Hadn't time to laugh or  play;
Hadn't time to wait a while,
Hadn't time to give a  smile.

Hadn't time to glean the news,
Hadn't time to dream or  muse;
Hadn't time to train his mind,
Hadn't time to just be kind.

Hadn't time to take a rest,
Hadn't time to act his best;
Hadn't time to pen a note,
Hadn't time to cast a vote.

Hadn't time to sing a song,
Hadn't time to right a wrong;
Hadn't time to lend or give,
Hadn't time to really live.

Hadn't time to heed a cry,
Hadn't time to say goodbye;
Hadn't time to read this verse;
Hadn't time -- he is in a hearse."

Because time flies, we ought to heed the admonition of Benjamin Franklin:
"Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do  today."

Is there someone who you need to say, "I love you"? Then, do it  today!
Is there one to whom you ought to whisper, "I forgive you"? Then, do it today!
Is there one to whom you should say, "I'm sorry"? Then, do it  today!
Is there a struggling friend, who needs to hear you say, "I believe in you"? Then, say it today!

Say it today because time flies!

Is there a call you need to make?
A good deed you have planned to do?
A visit  waiting to be made?
A hurting friend you have meant to  telephone?

Then, by all means, do it today -- because time flies and night is coming.

Have you ever received Jesus as your Saviour?

Time is  passing!

It is urgent that you take advantage of this opportunity
to have  your name written in the Book of Life. (Revelation 20: 15)

You can have your sins forgiven,
and you can have a home in heaven for all eternity
by calling upon the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive your sins
and come into your heart as your Lord and Saviour!

Sermon by Dr. Harold L. White
Email Dr.  White at hleewhite@aol.com