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Amzi Armstrong (1771-1827), father of George Dodd Armstrong (1813-1899), published two sermons in The New Jersey Preacher (1813). One of these sermons was based on the text from Psalm 90:12: “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Titled “Wisdom Resulting From Numbering Days,” the elder Armstrong speaks to the importance of time well-spent, and warns about the folly of acting as though our time on this earth will last forever. There is a timelessness about such a message that makes it valuable to 21st century Christians as it was to his hearers in the early 19th century. We all have need of such reminders.
NONE of us expect to continue here forever. By unquestionable evidences we have been convinced, even from our early childhood, that the time will come when we must leave these earthly scenes, and, the number of our days being run out, we must lie down in death. Nor do any of us ever indulge the expectation that the period of our earthly cares and enjoyments will be lengthened out to an hundred years to come. Yet how little influence does this sure conviction usually have upon our thoughts and purposes.
It is an observation of an ancient sage, daily verified, that "though all men expect to die, and are looking for a state of existence beyond the grave; yet they are busy in providing for this life as though it were never to have an end, and for the life to come as though it were never to have its beginning."
How we ought to consider the importance of eternal concerns in priority over temporal concerns!
Whatever satisfaction and support the mind may derive from philosophical knowledge, in the present state of things; yet in the comparison of the present and the future, God has put such an immense difference between them, that all the best attainments of mere philosophy are but as the small dust of the balance against the weighty and all-important concerns of that which is to come. Would they bend the energies of their minds to knowledge with a view of applying it to the great concerns of that change, which must take place at death, and make it serve the purpose of preparing themselves, and helping to prepare others, for these vast and eternal concerns, their study and labor would then be turned to some good account. And if they were daily growing in the knowledge of God and of Christ, this would make life worth possessing. Let them once begin to number their days, and consider seriously the shortness and uncertainty of life, and the certainty and the solemnity of that great change that will take place at death, and they will soon perceive the vanity and unprofitableness of all that [knowledge], that helps not to prepare for these great events, and the necessity of applying their hearts to a truer wisdom, and more enduring knowledge.
Armstrong closes with an exhortation to those who do seek the Lord, and yet need such a reminder as this.
Let me now address an exhortation to such, as have obeyed the voice of wisdom, and have given themselves to seek and to serve the Lord. If you have done this in truth and sincerity, it is thus far well. But remember, you too have your appointed time, and God hath set bounds also to your days. If it behoves you to shew your love to God in the world, and to labor for the prosperity of religion, and for the salvation of your fellow men; if you would be well prepared for death, and fitted to enter on the joys on high; you have no time to lose — no days or hours to waste in trifling or unimportant purposes. The day is spending, and with some of you is already far spent. The night approaches. And your Saviour himself said, concerning his work on earth, "I must work the work of him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh, wherein no man can work." If you have any thing yet to accomplish, set about it without delay; and do that which thy hand findeth to do, with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.
"So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." — AMEN.
Time is a precious gift. Read the full sermon here.
