My days are swifter than a runner; they flee without seeing good.“Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away. They see no good.Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.Now my days are swifter than a post: They flee away, they see no good.
3 sermons cite this verse
Yeah, it does seem so often that those wicked judges and wicked rulers get the upper hand, and people suffer consequently. That's a whole sermon. I move on. Now my days are swifter than runner, that is a royal runner who would bring news across the empire by jogging every day to bring that message. They flee away. They see no good. They pass by like swift ships. Life is short. Like an eagle swooping on its prey. Now, did you know that an eagle, once it spots its prey and makes the nosedive, can get up to a speed of 200 miles an hour? Swift, just like an eagle swooping on its prey. If I say I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile. I am afraid of all my sufferings. I know that you will not hold me innocent if I am condemned. Why then do I labor in vain? I wash myself with snow water. If I wash myself with snow water, that was an ancient ritual. Snow water was the purest kind. It was believed so. …
Life is swift. If you would picture life, you must turn to the Bible—and this evening we will walk through the Bible-gallery of old paintings. You will find its swiftness spoken of in the Book of Job where we are furnished with three illustrations. In the ninth Chapter and at the 25th verse, we read, "Now my days are swifter than a post." We are, most of us, acquainted with the swiftness of post-conveyance. I have sometimes, on an emergency, taken post horses where there has been no railway, and have been amazed and pleased with the swiftness of my journey. But since, in this ancient Book, there can be no allusion to modern posts, we must turn to the manners and customs of the East. And in so doing, we find that the ancient monarchs astonished their subjects by the amazing swiftness with which they received intelligence. By well-ordered arrangements, swift horses and constant relays, they were able to attain a speed which, although trifling in these days, was in those slower ages a marvel of marvels, so that, to an Eastern, one of the clearest ideas of swiftness was that of "a post." Well does Job say that our life is swifter than a post. We ride one year until it is worn out, but there comes another just as swift and we are borne by it—and soon it is gone and another year serves us for a steed! Post-house after post-house we pass as birthdays successively arrive! We loiter not, but vaulting at a leap from one year to another, still we hurry onward, onward, ever onward! My life is like a post—not like the slow wagon that drags along the road with tiresome wheels, but like a post, it attains the greatest speed! …
Gold and silver are esteemed precious by men; but they are of no worth to any man, only as thereby he has an opportunity of avoiding or removing some evil, or of possessing himself of some good. And the greater the evil is which any man hath advantage to escape, or the good which he hath advantage to obtain, by any thing that he possesses, by so much the greater is the value of that thing to him, whatever it be. Thus if a man, by any thing which he hath, may save his life, which he must lose without it, he will look upon that by which he hath the opportunity of escaping so great an evil as death, to be very precious.—Hence it is that time is so exceedingly precious, because by it we have opportunity of escaping everlasting misery, and of obtaining everlasting blessedness and glory. On this depends our escape from an infinite evil, and our attainment of an infinite good. 2. Time is very short, which is another thing that renders it very precious. The scarcity of any commodity occasions men to set a higher value upon it, especially if it be necessary and they cannot do without it. Thus when Samaria was besieged by the Syrians, and provisions were exceedingly scarce, 2 Kings vi. 25. “an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.”—So time is the more to be prized by men, because a whole eternity depends upon it; and yet we have but a little of time. Job xvi. 22. “When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.” Job ix. 25, 26. “My days are swifter than a post. They are passed away as the swift ships; as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.” Jam. iv 14. “Our life; what is it? it is but a vapour which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”. It is but as a moment to eternity. Time is so short, and the work which we have to do in it is so great, that we have none of it to spare. The work which we have to do to prepare for eternity, must be done in time, or it never can be done; and it is found to be a work of great difficulty and labour, and therefore that for which time is the more requisite. …