Prince Napoleon, son of Napoleon III, served with the English army in Africa. One day he left camp with a troop of soldiers on a reconnoitering mission. Far out from camp, they stopped and took out the rations they carried.
It was a dangerous area, and one of the men said uneasily, “We had better turn back, and if we don’t hurry, we may be overtaken.”
“Well,” said the Prince, “let’s stay here just ten more minutes and finish our drinks.”
But—before ten minutes were up, they were overtaken and overpowered and the Prince lost his life.
Upon receiving the news of his death, his grief-stricken mother exclaimed, “It was his great weakness from childhood. He never wanted to go to bed at night or rise in the morning. He always wanted ten more minutes.”
Prince Napoleon died because he believed he had “ten more minutes.”
You do not know if you have still ten minutes for your soul to be saved from eternal death. You have no promise of any more minutes, but only this present one—this fleeting NOW.
“Behold, NOW is the accepted time. . . . NOW is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).