What does the Bible say about punctuality?

But there is a more serious consideration even than this. The Lord is present on such occasions, and He is always present at the appointed time. The remembrance of such a solemn fact will surely hasten your steps, if anything will, to be present at the opening of the meeting, and, moreover, cause you to be more comely in the manner of your entrance, particularly when prevented from punctuality.

Do you ever try to remedy your bad habit of coming late? A good plan is to aim always to be early. The Jews were forbidden to give a person more, than forty stripes (Deut. 25:31). Their practice was to give "forty, save one" (2 Cor. 11:24), lest they should make an error in counting, and administer one stripe beyond the limit. If you were to strive to be five or ten minutes before the time, you would be almost sure that you would never be late.

No, I do not think you would ensure punctuality by living next door to the meeting room. Certainly everyone could not live so near as that, so that such a suggestion could not be carried out by all. And it has been stated to me by persons of wider experience than myself, and who ought to know what they are saying on such a subject, that those who live farthest habitually come in first, and those who live nearest habitually come last. But I am not myself in possession of a sufficient range of reliable statistics to lay down any rule in the matter.

Every remembrance of our Lord Jesus brings responsibility of this nature. The object of Satan is to take from our Lord, for as great a period as possible, the engagement of my heart and my affections with Himself. He may accomplish this purpose in this way. He may introduce obstacles which in my lethargy I fail to surmount, so that I am ten minutes, a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes late; instead of being present before or at the appointed time, I arrive ten minutes after it. The Lord has lost ten minutes of my heart's service, and I have lost what I can never regain. Should we be late if the king of this country had promised to be here at a definite hour? Who would slight His gracious Majesty by being absent when he came? And the Lord Jesus Christ is faithful to what He promised, "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst." Let us always be present when the appointed hour comes.

Every remembrance of our Lord Jesus brings responsibility of this nature. The object of Satan is to take from our Lord, for as great a period as possible, the engagement of my heart and my affections with Himself. He may accomplish this purpose in this way. He may introduce obstacles which in my lethargy I fail to surmount, so that I am ten minutes, a quarter of an hour, or twenty minutes late; instead of being present before or at the appointed time, I arrive ten minutes after it. The Lord has lost ten minutes of my heart's service, and I have lost what I can never regain. Should we be late if the king of this country had promised to be here at a definite hour? Who would slight His gracious Majesty by being absent when he came? And the Lord Jesus Christ is faithful to what He promised, "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst." Let us always be present when the appointed hour comes.

You may take it for granted that you will not require to put forth a great deal of exertion in order to acquire the habit of being late. Let the stated times of attendance, say at a meeting, become a matter of indifference to you for a while, and you will insensibly, but rapidly, become proficient in that unlovely art of being always behind the time. When you can be five minutes late without regret, it will be but a short and easy step to be ten minutes, and then fifteen minutes late. And so you will continue to decline from punctuality until you will not be disturbed in your self complacency even when you find you have arrived only in just sufficient time to hear the closing benediction pronounced.

To prevent misapprehension I had better say at the outset that there are some persons who are quite unable to avoid being late in their attendance. Such persons are to be pitied rather than blamed. Only it is to be hoped that they do not become so accustomed to their misfortune that it is never a matter of great concern to them.

"Oh," we hear some one say, "you forget that we have our meetings to attend; and I have a Sunday-school class and must prepare the lesson;" and perhaps another devotes an hour each week to tract distribution and visiting; and another holds a little gospel-meeting 'each week in some cottage which has been opened to him. Another has open-air preaching during the summer, etc. Are we to neglect these in order to carry out your schedule? Most certainly not. Forsake not "the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is." We should never allow ourselves to become neglectful as to attending the regular meetings. Promptness, regularity and attention to these things are certainly as little as we can render. How many have been stumbled by the absence of older Christians from meeting or their coming in late when unnecessary. We must surely make provision for these duties.

A few further remarks may not be out of place in connection with these different schedules. First, we would mention the importance of moments. The whole material universe is made up of atoms, and our life , of moments. All vital processes take place on a microscopic scale. We should see to it that the moments are rightly used. The student may be well content if at the end of the first month's trial of any of these schedules he has formed the habit of regularity and promptness. Let a watch or clock be before the eye, and no matter how interesting the subject, when its appointed time is finished, let it be dropped for the next on the schedule. Of course, if one has extra time, he can return to that; but, for instance, in the fifteen minute schedule, let the five or ten minutes be rigidly devoted to the subject in hand. This very habit of system and regularity is an excellent mental tonic, and will assist to gird up the loins of the mind.

The timing

The Promptness in Service

Ten Minutes too Late:

How many keen business men, who know that time is money, who are minute-minders, yet commit the folly of being