I am chained to the chariot of rolling time!
"My days are swifter than a
weaver's shuttle!" Job 7:6
weaver's shuttle!" Job 7:6
"My days are but a breath!"
Job 7:16
"My days are swifter than a runner--
they flee away!" Job 9:25
like an eagle swooping on its prey!"
Job 9:26
Job 10:20
the grave awaits me!"
Job 17:1
what will happen tomorrow.
What is your life? You are a mist
that appears for a little while and
then vanishes!" James 4:14
Let me speak to you of . . .
the frailty of human life,
the fleeting nature of time,
how swiftly time passes away,
how soon we shall all fade as the leaf, and
how speedily the place which knows us now,
shall know us no more forever.
It is a great fact that life to
the young man appears to be long.
Yet to the old man, life is ever short.
And to all men, life is really
but a brief period!
Children sometimes blow bubbles,
and amuse themselves thereby.
Life is even as that bubble.
You see it rising into the air;
the child delights itself by
seeing it fly about, but it
is all gone in one moment!
So uncertain is life!
and amuse themselves thereby.
Life is even as that bubble.
You see it rising into the air;
the child delights itself by
seeing it fly about, but it
is all gone in one moment!
So uncertain is life!
Human life is not long.
Compare it with the ages of
the universe, and it becomes
a span; and especially
measure it by eternity--
and how imperceptible
does life appear!
It sinks like one small
drop into the ocean--
and becomes as insignificant
as one tiny grain of sand
upon the sea-shore!
Life is swift!
Your pulses each moment beat
the funeral marches to the tomb!
I am chained to the chariot
of rolling time--
there is no bridling the steeds,
or leaping from the chariot.
The wind of time bears me along--
I cannot stop its motion.
I am moving through time
at an incalculable rate. Oh!
what an idea it is, could I grasp it!
The wise man says,
"For who knows what is good
for man in life, all the days of his
vain life which he passes like a shadow?"
Ecclesiastes 6:12.
Now what can there be less
substantial than a shadow?
What substance is there in a
shadow? Who can lay hold thereof?
You may see it, but the moment
the person passes by, it is gone.
Yes, and who can grasp his life?
Many men reckon upon a long
existence, and think they are going
to live forever; but who can calculate
upon a shadow?
Go, O man, who say to your soul,
"Eat, drink, and be merry; I have
much goods laid up for many years!"
Go, and store your barn with shadows;
go and pile shadows up, and say,
"These are mine, and they shall
never depart." But, say you,
"I cannot catch a shadow!"
No and you can not reckon on a
year, for it is as a shadow, which
soon melts away and is gone!
"My days pass by like swift ships!"
Like a swift ship, my life must speed
on its way until it reaches its haven.
But where is that haven to be?
Shall it be found in the land of
eternal bitterness and punishment--
that dreary region of the lost?
Or shall it be that sweet haven
of eternal peace, where not
a troubling wave can ruffle
the quiescent glory of my spirit?
Wherever the haven is to be,
that truth is the same, we are
like "the swift ships.""So teach us to number our days
aright, that we may gain a heart
of wisdom!" Psalm 90:12
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