October 5

“This is the day which the Lord hath made” (Psa. 118:24).

“This day have I payed my vows” (Prov. 7:14).

Every day is a little life, and our whole life is but a day repeated. Those, therefore, that dare lose a day are dangerously prodigal; those that dare misspend it, desperate.
—Joseph Hall.

Oh, waste them not! the minutes God has given—
Use them to soothe poor hearts by sorrow riven,
Use them to teach whom ignorance has ’slaved,
Use them to warn the wayward and depraved,
To lift the crushed, and bravely right the wronged—
Use them to learn thy God, and how to blend
Thy will with His—grow like Him. Life’s end
Draws daily near—’tis short, man’s earthly lot:
Fragments of time! O mortal, waste them not.

Oh, waste them not! the powers that God has given
To work on earth, to press on up to Heaven—
It may be that thou dost in trembling stand,
With failing health, and fears on either hand:
Yet hast thou something left of life and power,
Oh, fail not to employ it, ’tis God’s dower:
Use it until He takes it all away.
Let nought be lost of gifts so costly—stay
Not in regrets, back-glancing o’er thy lot:
Fragments of health and power! Oh, waste them not

Let us then, each morning, resolve to send the day into eternity in such a garb as we shall wish it to wear for ever. And at night let us reflect that one more day is irrevocably gone, indelibly marked.
—Adoniram Judson.

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