The future is somewhere everyone arrives at the universal rate of sixty minutes an hour, twenty-four hours per day and it does not depend on what we do or where we live, or whether we are sincere, nor does it have anything to do with our education, status, or money. Time is always uniform, universal, and utilitarian. It sometimes seems to fly like a bird and at other times seems to crawl like an exhausted worm.

We begin life with a cry and end it with a groan and the cry and the groan are not far apart. Life is like a story that is told—a good story, a bad story— of success or failure. Each year is a chapter in that story. You are the author. You determine whether it is a success or failure. As you look back on each chapter of your life, it is folly to blame anyone but yourself.

With the birth of every person, he or she is given an unknown number of life’s coins—time to use as he wills. It’s all you have and only you decide how it will be spent. And it will be spent since it is impossible to hoard time. Since you don’t know the amount of the coins, you must spend them wisely and for sure, don’t let others spend your time!

When I was elected a member of the Indiana House of Representatives, I also continued as Administrator of the Indianapolis Baptist Academy, a Christian school of 620 students, Pre-K through 12^th grade. I was also a consultant to many Christian schools in the Midwest and Canada. Obviously, I had to use my time wisely. Frequently, a good friend would “drop by” my school office for a chat, and it got to where it was a very delicate problem. He was a good friend whom I greatly respected and would never consider hurting. However, I had to let him know that I would have to limit our chats at least until school was out for the summer. There was too much involved to let him control my limited time.

You would not permit another person to control your bank account so why would you permit another person to control your time which is far more valuable than money?

The bad news is time flies but that’s no problem if you are at the controls; however, most people are flying through life blindly not knowing where they are going with no destination in mind. They waste time and don’t realize that time equals life; therefore, if you waste your time, you waste your life, but if you control your time, you control your life.

Charles Dickens opened his classic 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities with, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” however, it was the only time they had. Same with you and me.

We must face each day unafraid with confidence and determination. Time must be used, not misused or abused. If you don’t use time wisely, you will stand on a cold December morning amid the sharp stubble of a reaped wheat field crying, “The harvest is past, the harvest is past” and your life will have slipped away.

Harvey Mackay declared, “Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.”

Napoleon appreciated the value of time when the sun was sinking upon Waterloo. He thought if he had a little more time his military fortunes would be retrieved. His advisors saw him point to the sinking sun and heard him say, “What would I not give to be this day possessed of the power of Joshua….” Joshua performed a miracle and caused the sun to stand still giving Israel the military victory. Napoleon thought a little more time would give him victory.

Napoleon was frustrated because time continues and what we want, pray for, or do cannot change that fact barring a biblical miracle. Time and tide wait for no man, but time always seems to stand still for some women once they celebrate their 30^th birthday. Well, it stands still in their minds, but mirrors don’t lie. Humans should be nearly as honest as mirrors.  

Voltaire, the blatant French infidel, appreciated the value of time at least when dying. While living, he wrote some miserable chapters of his life. On his death bed, he said to his doctor: ‘I am abandoned by God and man! I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months’ life.” When told that he could not live six weeks, he burst into tears and said, “Then I shall go to hell, and you will go with me. O Christ! O Jesus Christ!”

He discovered too late that time is what he wanted most, but what he used unwisely during his debauched, excessive, and careless life.

John Wesley appreciated the value of time when he stood on his steps waiting for a carriage that was ten minutes late. As it approached, he said, “I have lost ten minutes forever.” He realized that time once lost is gone forever. It is better late than never, but it is better to never be late since you are taking precious time from another person.

Time should be used for things that will outlast time. Now is the only time we have, so live, love, and laugh, and don’t place faith in tomorrow for the clock may then be still. You can’t have a better tomorrow if you are always thinking about yesterday.

The years flip by like the chapters of a book until we each come to the final chapter. We should live each week as if it is our last for it may well be.

One day, the final century will arrive, and then will come the last decade, and then the final years, and the final months, and the final day.

Like small drops of water and little grains of sand,

Make the mighty ocean and the pleasant land.

So, the little moments, humble though they be,

Make the mighty ages of eternity. (Julia A.F. Carney)

The Angel of God, descending from the throne will put one foot in the surf of the sea and the other on the sand and cry to the nations of the world: “that there should be time no longer.” The last Spring will swing its censer of apple blossoms, and the last Winter will bank its snows. The last sunset will burn like a California forest fire and the last morning radiate the hills. The clocks will strike their last hour, and the watches will tick their last second. Time has stopped and eternity has begun.

You will never have this day with your children again. Tomorrow, they will be a little older than they were today. This day is a gift. Breathe and notice. Smell and touch them. Study their faces and little feet and pay attention. No matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion; we can never rub precious memories away nor should we desire to do so.

Your spouse that you took as a young person may be stooped, tired, sickly, and wrinkled and the romance may be subdued but love, respect, and appreciation are expressed with a touch of the hand. Young love is usually explosive but mature love is far more expressive and far exceeds the much-touted young love.

I found in my notes the rhyme I have used for decades that makes the point of time’s importance:

The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power

 to tell just when the hands will stop at late or early hour.

 To lose one’s wealth is sad indeed, to lose one’s health is more,

 to lose one’s soul is such a loss that no man can restore.

We only have the present as our own; so live, love, laugh, and toil with a will—place no faith in tomorrow.

We peruse the past only to learn from it; we cannot make any changes. We can look and anticipate tomorrow and determine to live that day as if it will be our last. And it well may be.

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog.  Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

French protestors were rioting in the streets; rebellion was in the air. Thousands of Frenchmen of all classes had been executed, many by beheading, including women and children. Royalists (supporters of King Louis XVI) felt the monarchy permanently slipping away. Roman Catholic Church leaders had lost their privileged positions, including much of their lands. The commoners were heady with new laws that gave them power after their powerlessness.

Fear, anger, hatred, and resentment reigned in Paris as mobs roamed and often controlled the streets. The common people wanted to keep what concessions they had gained, and the aristocrats and the church leaders wanted to gain back control.

The French Revolution (planned for decades by Freemasons, Jacobins, and assorted atheistic God-haters) was out of control. Even the revolutionary leaders lost power and were themselves marched to the guillotine that was always ripe with blood from recent victims.

The protesters (revolutionaries) had three goals: destroy the government, the church, and the traditional home. Their battle cry was liberty, equality, fraternity, which was admirable, but extremists turned it into rivers of blood.

France was about to make a decision that would decide their destiny: would they follow America’s “revolution” of a decade earlier, or would they heed the rantings of radicals of past years and choose to be ruled by a strongman?

Americans wanted independence, while the French wanted insurrection. Americans had an intense love for freedom; Frenchmen had an intense hatred for the Roman Catholic Church.

An obscure soldier saw an opportunity in the chaos and took it. Like many world leaders, Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power via revolution. Napoleon’s battles were at first against his fellow Frenchmen, as he sought to defend the republican government that had replaced the monarchy with the beheading of King Louis XVI on January 21, 1793. He would later destroy and take over the government.

Napoleon was in command of soldiers in Paris and realized that the city had exploded, and anarchy was about to take control. He ordered his soldiers to use cannon against the rebels. At the first blast, the crowd scattered as about 300 royalists died in the street. Historian Thomas Carlyle, in his classic history of the revolution, declared that Napoleon won with a “whiff of grapeshot,” and in doing so, effectively ended the French Revolution.

It did not end there. This was Napoleon’s stepping stone to absolute power. He went on to bleed Europe for more than ten years before he was stopped by the Duke of Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The British exiled Napoleon to the island of Saint Helena where he died six years later.
The Scourge of Europe was dead at 51.

While I don’t have a law enforcement background, I believe it is time for a whiff, just a whiff of grapeshot, to restore order to city streets. Not to kill people, although that could happen; people are already dying during the “peaceful” protests. Mayors and Governors are mainly responsible for the disruption, disorder, and destruction, and they have proved ineffective in Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, and about 30 other cities.

American cities have been invaded. Many concerned demonstrators who want better black/white relationships are being used by low-class violent hooligans organized by Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa, sworn enemies of liberty, equality, fraternity—the motto of the French Revolution. Moreover, burning cities, broken windows, and barricaded streets do not reflect the motto. Not in Paris or Philadelphia. Not in Marseilles or Minneapolis.

More than thirty cities have been invaded by barbarians: Atlanta, Albuquerque, Austin, Bakersfield, Boston, Chicago, Chattanooga, Columbus, Dallas, Fort Worth, Des Moines, Denver, Detroit, District of Columbia, Houston, Los Angeles, Louisville, Memphis, Minneapolis, New York City, Oakland, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, San Antonio, and others. Most of the protests are not peaceful, but disorderly, destructive, dangerous, even deadly.

Two things are common with those invaded cities: Democratic control and strict gun laws. Another is official duplicity (a kind word for lying). When politicians and the media speak about the death of Floyd, they usually repeat that he was “unarmed,” but they never reveal that he was a lifetime felon and was resisting arrest. Most of the other Blacks killed by police officers were criminals like Floyd. If those officials were responsible leaders and were honestly concerned with all lives, they would remind Blacks and Whites to obey, respect, and cooperate with police officials.

Montesquieu was a French legislator whose Spirit of the Laws helped create a desire for freedom, wrote, “When the laws have ceased to be executed, as this can only come from the corruption of the republic, the state is already lost.” America could now be where the French were: standing on the edge of a cliff. Will it be law and order or mob rule? It is time for local officials to take control. I hope others don’t die in the attempt, but people are dying anyway. Any deaths, however unfortunate, should have a payoff—peace and order and jail for all unruly, violent, participants.

It is shocking that city and state officials have been so lenient, even cooperative with violent protesters. It is unprecedented, unnecessary, and unfortunate, and it is time for disruptive protesters to get a “whiff of grapeshot.”

Difficult times usually produce or reveal great leaders. Napoleon was at the right place at the right time and ended the French Revolution with a “whiff of grapeshot.” However, he rode from that encounter of grapeshot to put fear in the hearts of millions of Europeans instead of making France a free nation no longer under the heel of an authoritative king. Grapeshot followed Napoleon all over Europe, Russia, and Egypt.

Tragically, those in control (that changed quickly) followed the ruminations of Georges-Jacques Danton, Jean-Paul Marat, and Maximilien Robespierre instead of believers in personal freedom that American leaders followed: Montesquieu, John Locke, and Sir William Blackstone.

As American cities have been invaded by modern vandals and law and order have been suspended, it is time for President Trump to exercise his authority and protect us against enemies, foreign and domestic by a “whiff of grapeshot.” Napoleon ended the beheading spree of the revolution, and Trump can end this anarchist rebellion and should do so even if someone is killed.

Whatever it takes, Trump must restore order and prosecute those responsible for the violence resulting in destruction and death. I believe he can then be assured of reelection in November. If order is not restored soon, America will be condemned to dragging the corpse of Joe Biden on our backs for at least four years.

Or, until his family moves him to the Old Folks Home.

If violent protesters refuse to obey the law, Trump should give them a “whiff of grapeshot” that will save us from the destruction like that of the French. Peaceful protesters are welcome; violent protesters will be jailed if they don’t scatter. All those arrested will be prosecuted.

I prefer four more years of kept promises, a strong economy, full employment, abortion limited if not stopped, a truly conservative Supreme Court, and immigration under control.

If that requires a “whiff of grapeshot,” let’s have it now before it breaks out in the suburbs because it would need much more than a “whiff.”

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 18 books, the most recent Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! eBook is available here with the printed edition (and other titles) at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D.; and visit his blog. Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles, and click here to support his work with a donation.)