Redeeming the Time

This is St John's Church in Knaresborough, where a place of worship has been on this site for over a thousand years. The bells were installed in 1774 and the present clock in 1884. The clock and the sundial both show the right time. I've checked, it's true.

The face of the clock has the words "Redeeming the Time". I found a reference to this published in 1978 -

We all have an equal measure of time in every day. Where we differ from one another is in how we redeem the time allotted. When something is redeemed it is rescued or purchased from some negative condition. The basic negative condition we are concerned with is the condition of waste. To waste time is to spend it on that which has little or no value.

Not sure I totally agree with this... ...