LETTER X. EMPLOYMENT OF TIME. MY DEAR TIME is the most valuable talent committed to your trust. To the use or abuse of it may be attributed the good or evil of this probationary scene, and the consequent happiness or misery of the individual, each to all eternity, in the world to come. The prosperity of every situation in life, the success of every undertaking in which man may embark, depend on the judicious exercise of this great talent. But to the responsible minister of Jesus Christ time is indeed an awful trust. On the employment or neglect of his time may be suspended the final safety or destruction of numbers. A letter, therefore, may be well occupied in considering this important subject. There is a two-fold division of time, susceptible of various sub-divisions, according to the variation of circumstances, namely, duty and recreation. It may not unfrequently happen that, as, to the well-disposed, the indulgence of the one is centred in the fulfilment of the other, so, by the children of the world, the obligations of the first are forgotten in the abuses of the second. As man, when employed in the business of religion, in the services of his particular profession or station in life, in making provisions for his family, may still be said to be about his duty; so, when supplying exhausted nature with food or sleep, when indulging in healthful exercise, in useful and entertaining reading, or mingling with cheer |