A few years ago my wife stenciled in bronze on the door of our clock, just below the dial, the first line of that sublime old hymn, "Time is Winging Us Away." Then, on a card, she printed part of a solemn verse in Eccl. 3:1515That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. (Ecclesiastes 3:15), "God requireth that which is past," and appended it to the clock shelf.
In vivid clearness those two pointed fragments of truth, one human, the other divine, appealed to the gaze of all who entered the room.
A young woman who lived in the vicinity used to visit my wife quite frequently. During her calls her eyes often fell on those striking epigrams. She would look with rapt attention for moments at a time, and on returning home often wept bitterly.
What caused her to weep, do you ask? It was because she knew that ruthless time was wafting her on toward the judgment where she would have to answer for the un-forgiven sins of the past. Reader, have you ever wept over your sins? It is better to weep and be saved now, than to laugh now and to wail and be lost forever.
Although this young woman was a professing Christian, amiable and moral, yet there was between her soul and God the unsettled question of her sins. This distressing condition of soul continued for a number of weeks, until one day she went to the city to have some dental work done. While the dentist was operating, quite abruptly but kindly he asked her the vital question, "Are you saved?"
This proved to be the Lord's way of leading her into liberty and blessing; for, though the Spirit of God had been striving with her so long, creating in her a desire to be saved, yet she had not found peace. On the afternoon of this day, however, while driving home, she said within herself, "I do want to be saved. God wants to save me. Christ has died to save me. The work is all done. Why, then, am I not saved?"
Blessed be His name, immediately the light of the glorious gospel of Christ flooded her soul. She believed; she was saved; she became a child of God, a joint heir with Christ. Then she could add the second line of the hymn to the first:
"Time is winging me away
To my eternal home."
A hale while ago it was, "Time is winging me away to judgment"; now, "To my eternal home." What a change!
At her earliest opportunity she came to tell us the joyful news. The clock, the texts, the conviction of sin preceding conversion—all was told. The past was all cared for, and with great joy she could now look on to an eternal future of bliss in the Father's house.