Editorial July 29, 1905 Issue

"Redeeming the time"

Annie M. Knott

St. Paul's counsel to the Ephesians, that they redeem the time because the days were evil, should be pondered by all. To redeem our time, is to make the best use of it, and it may well be asked how many there are who fulfil this seemingly simple obligation, and obligation which assuredly rests upon all alike. It is not necessary to do more than point to the unnumbered instances in which men with no other capital than their time have acquired great learning and wealth; in a few short years they have gained all the earthly possessions which others have inherited from generations of toiling and hoarding ancestors. Although this is well known, we yet hear it said, so frequently as to occasion no surprise, "I have not the means to do this or that," and perhaps even more frequently it is remarked, "I have no time."

It is manifest that those who have acquired for themselves wealth or learning must have appreciated the incalculable value of time. It is also clear that they must have been animated by a definite purpose which they kept steadily in view. Whether or not the acquisition of wealth and fame is deemed a satisfying guerdon for a life's labor, is not the present question. The point is this; viz., any earthly good may be gained by those who devote their time and energies to its pursuit, a proposition no longer problematical.

In Christian Science we learn that there is, in reality, but one good; namely, spiritual being. This is no mere theory to those who grasp its profound meaning, it is a demonstrable truth which is sustained by the proof of a changed consciousness, a consciousness that soon works out a corresponding change in conditions. It replaces disease and discord with health and harmony, and is the secret of success, expressed in the Master's words, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." His rule has no place for the divisions of covetousness nor for the subtractions of dishonesty. In its unqualified declaration that all good things will be "added unto" those who seek "first" the things of Spirit, God, this rule is final authority. In spite, however, of its lavish provision for man's need, we find those who continually defraud themselves with the delusion that they have little or no time for spiritual things. Procrastination has very properly been called the thief of time, and a subtle thief it is, for under its evil influence mortals come to believe that it is not necessary to seek the kingdom of God first, and they soon find themselves confused and impoverished even with relation to their earthly affairs. If spiritual reality be first in importance,—and Christian Scientists know that it is,—it must also be first in point of time. Time is but wasted when any duty is undertaken without a clear sense of the demands of divine intelligence, the source alike of strength and of swiftness, of energy and of endurance, the endurance that sustains thought to the end of every problem.

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