"WHAT O'CLOCK?"
WHEN I was a boy, my father one day called me to him, that he might teach me to know what o'clock it was. He told me the use of the hands, and described to me the figures on the dial plate, until I could tell the time quite readily.
No sooner had I gained this additional knowledge than I scampered off to rejoin my companions, but my father called me back again. "Stop,
Humphrey," said he, "I have something else to say to you."
Back again I went, wondering what else I had yet to learn, for it seemed to me that I knew all about the clock, quite as well as my father did.
"Humphrey," said he, " I have taught you to know the time of day; I will now teach you to find out the time of your life."
Here was a mystery; so I waited rather impatiently to hear how he would explain it, for I wished sadly to go to my marbles.
"The Bible," says he, "describes the years of man to be threescore and ten or fourscore years.
If we divide the fourscore years of an old man's life into twelve parts, like the dial of the clock, it will allow almost seven years for every figure.
When a boy is seven years old, then it is one o'clock of his life, and this is the case with you; when you are fourteen years old, it will be two o'clock with you; and then at twenty-one years it will be three o'clock, should it please God thus to spare your life. In this manner you may know the time of your life; and your looking at the clock may perhaps remind you of it. My great-grandfather, according to this calculation, died at twelve o'clock; my grandfather at eleven, and my father at ten. At what hour you or I shall die, Humphrey, is only known to Him to whom all things are known."
Never since then have I heard the inquiry, "What o'clock is it?" without being reminded of the words of my father.
I know not what o'clock it may be with you, but I know very well what time it is with myself; and that if I mean to do anything in this world, which hitherto I have neglected, it is high time to set about it. The words of my father gave a solemnity to the dial-plate of a clock, which perhaps it never would have possessed to me, if these words had not been spoken. "What o'clock is it with you?"
Gospel Banner.
A CARELESS watch invites the vigilant foe.