Jehovah's Swift Wings by T. De Witt Talmage

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 4, 1872

Jehovah's Swift Wings.

By T. De Witt Talmage

THE Arabian gazelle is swift as the wind. If it get but one glimpse of the hunter, it puts many crags between. Solomon, four or five times, compares Christ to an Arabian gazelle (calling it by another name) when he says: “My beloved is like a roe.” The difference is, that the roe speeds the other way; Jesus speeds this. Who but Christ could have been quick enough to help Peter, when the water-pavement broke? Who but Christ could have been quick enough to help the Duke of Argyle, when, in his dying moment, he cried: “Good cheer! I could die like a Roman, but I mean to die like a Christian. Come away, gentleman. He who goes first goes cleanest”! I had a friend who stood by the rail-track at Carlisle, Penn., when the ammunition had given out at Antietam; and he saw the train from Harrisburg, freighted with shot and shell, as it went thundering down toward the battle-field. He said that it stopped not for any crossing. They put down the brakes for no grade. They held up for no peril. The wheels were on fire with the speed as they dashed past. If the train did not come up in time with the ammunition, it might as well not come at all. So, my friends, there are times in our lives when we must have help immediately or perish. The grace that comes too late is no grace at all. What you and I want is a God—now. Oh! is it not blessed to think that God is always in such quick pursuit of his dear children? When a sinner seeks pardon, or a baffled soul needs help, swifter than thrush’s wing, swifter than swallow’s wing, swifter than ptarmigan’s wing, swifter than flamingo’s wing, swifter than eagle’s wing, are the wings of the Almighty.—Rev. T. De Witt Talmage.