Page:Sermons preached in the African Protestant Episcopal Church of St. Thomas', Philadelphia.djvu/187

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ser. ix.]
redeem the time.
183

time in worse than idle talk, circulating tales of slander, whispering, backbiting, and speaking evil of their fellow-men, this is killing time. And how many even among the professed followers of Christ, too often squander away their precious moments in this way When they are found together, instead of adhering to the Apostolic injunction, aiming by their conversation, "to edify, to minister grace" to those present, there is too often a disposition manifested to inflict an injury upon the absent, forgetting that for "every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."[1]

As candidates for eternity, we should also redeem the time.

4. From Worldly business. Diligent attention to the lawful business of life, is unquestionably a duty indispensable. "If

  1. Matt, xii., 36.