Quote from Forum Archives on May 9, 2002, 8:08 pm

Posted by: grosey2 <grosey2@...>

G'day Mike and Linda,

I have oftened been asked to do something for veterans here in Australia. Several of my friends are Military chaplains.

One of our great evangelists (long dead now) was a Military Cross holder during WW1 and WW2.  He hsa some messages that are related to war, that are gospel oriented. 

These are listed below.

 

Every Blessing in this great gospel opportunity,

 

Steve

 

MY MOVING TENT

 

                 (Heb.ll:8-10)
IT was a big task to obtain permission to attend my first  camp.   My  father  did  not  favour  boys  going off on their own for holiday tours and scouting camps. He belonged to an old school that considered young members of afamily should be at home after dusk.
  My mother loved the family to be complete; a vacant chair was ever an aching void to her.  So for a long time my pleading to attend Scout camps met with a firm refusal.  I resented that refusal then, but, looking back over the years, I cannot but commend its caution today.
  Yes, I was a long time getting to my first camp, but I got there at last.
  General Sir Robert Baden-Powell was visiting the Commonwealth, and after my parents had heard the grand old soldier speak at his welcome in the Sydney Town Hall, they consented to allow me one night at the great Cook's River camp, where the Chief Scout was to inspect the boys at field work.
  Well I remember that first night in a tent.  It was a very wakeful night, which no doubt explains why it was so clearly stamped on that page of memory's Journal.   I turned from side to side, my body tired and aching and the ground so hard and unyielding. In the chill of the early morning I thought of the comfort and warmth of that soft bed at home, and was inwardly thankful that I only had one night to endure at  Cook's  River.   Next  evening  loving  hearts  welcomed a dirty, dusty camper back to the cheer of home, and after tea a tired-out Scout fell asleep at the table.
  Not a very encouraging introduction to tent life, and for some it might have been the beginning and the end of it, but for me it was the vestibule to a life of tenting.   Camped at Cook's River; camped at Warwick Farm; camped at Liverpool; camped on the sands

 

of  Egypt;  camped  on  Flanders'  fields;  camped  on English meadows; and then years of camping in the Gospel Van on the hills and highways of the Eastern States of Australia.
  But why all this personal perusal?  Let us get down to the truth that can betraced from a tenting life, First of all,  a tenting  life speaks of a travelling experience,,  The people who settle down as citizens in any centre do not generally abide in tents; they are inconvenient and uncomfortable, and too frail for permanent homes; but how useful they are when travelling, when we have (( abiding city/* when we are "on the track" and moving continuously from place to place!   A tent can be pitched and a camp-home erected .and established in an hour or so, and when the word comes to move on, in equal speed the tent

 

can be struck and the camp reduced to a few bundles of baggage easily transportable to the next site,
  The Children of Israel lived as travellers for forty

 

years in the wilderness, never associating with any other nation nor claiming citizenship in their cities. They moved by the cloud and pillar of fire, continually pitching and striking their tents, until they crossed the River Jordan into the Land of Promise.
  The text with which I opened this talk tells us that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were dwellers in tents, and apparently that is accounted to them by God as a credential of faith.   Abraham went out from settled habitation  and  refused  to  build  anywhere  until  he reached God's own country.  Lot may go to Sodom and secure a solid dwelling, but not so Abraham: "he looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God."
  Every believer in Jesus Christ should be a fellowtraveller  with  Abraham,  ever  looking  onward  to  a settled dwelling in God's City, and caring not for the cities of this earth EFor here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come" (Heb. 13: 14).  Forget not, Christian, that you are a traveller, marching, like
                               Bunyan's hero, from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City!  Press on!   Do not forsake your pilgrim character; tarry not in the glare and glitter of this world's ~vanity fair"; but hasten on to your rest and riches and royal palace in ImmanueVs Land*  Ah, what a home awaits thee in that "house of many mansions/' "Thy portals they are golden, And those who enter in Shall knowno more of sorrow, Of weariness and sin,"

 

  Let the vision revive you, and, gripping your staff with a firmer grasp, turn from every whisper of worldliness,  and  "nightly pitch  your  moving  tent a  day's march nearer home,"  So shall thou confess thyself "a stranger, and pilgrim on the earth," and be credited with like precious faith to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Again, in the second place, a tenting life is a testing experience,  Physical and spiritual strength is tested in camp.   Endurance, temper and patience are all put through "the third degree,"
 A wild wind will often loosen the guy ropes and buffet the canvas cottage until one anticipates a total collapse.  Well I recall an incident in Egypt, when at midnight we-—eleven or twelve men.—awoke with a start as our centre-pole snapped in half, smothering us infolds of canvas,
 Then, what camper does not know the discomfort of a wet day, when mud and slush are tramped all over his temporary home?  Yes, a tenting life is a testing  life;  and  God's servants  are  called to  pass through that mill.  To hang back in the safe seclusion of a city for self-satisfaction and ease is to fall into the snare of Satan,  Do we not see this clearly ,portrayed in David's dark debacle in II, Sam, II?  At the time when kings went forth to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants, and all Israel, to face Ammon and besiege Rabbah, but he tarried at Jerusalem. There        he fell into sin, and when later he urged Uriah to go down to his own house, that faithful warrior replied: "The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and

 

my lord Joab, and the sejrvants of my lord, are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife?

 

as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do thisthing"(ILSam,ll:ll),
 What a rebuke from the man he had wronged! Truly "there is atime for war and a time for peace/' Christian friend, seek not the city when God's call is to the camp«  When our beloved Bridegroom appears, then we will feast, and sing, and rest; but now let us buckle on the sword, and go forth to the camp and the conflict—the testing of tenting,
  "V/e must run,*' cried William Burns, that devoted missionary, who, all his life, moved from place to place in Great Britain, Canada and China preaching Christ, He declared that his great desire was to preach Christ

 

once to every creature before he departed to be with Him.  The test of tenting revealed this man triumphant to the end, for he died "on servicett away in darkest China,  Speaking to the mate of a trading vessel just before his death, he said: "We must not study comfort, they that go to the front of the battle get the blessing; the skulkers get no blessing," Finally,  a  tenting  life  is  a  tempiorary  experience Tents are but temporary dwellings which will not last for ever.  They are but to meet certain conditions and circumstances of life ere the permanent palace is in position.   Montgomery's  well-known  hymn  explains this so clearly:'— "For ever with the Lord!
       Amen, so 'let it be!

 

.    Life from the dead is in that word,
  'Tis immortality. Here in the body pent, Absent from Him I roam, Yet nightly pitch my moving tent A day's march nearer home.
  Yes, the tents will not be needed when the home of God is reached; they will have served their purpose then.   So may we remind ourselves that this pilgrim experience is not permanent,
  Paul was a pilgrim, a preacher and a tent-maker; perhaps one could call him a twofold tent-maker.  He made tents of canvas, and he also made tents of character.   He took hold of the stuff of human life and so impressed it with the reality of "the things not seen," that he made men turn from their solid dwellings to become campers on the highway to Heaven. Oh, what an example of a tent-dweller Paul was himself!   One poet hears these romantic words  fall  from his lips:—-
"Yes, without cheer of sister or of daughter, Yes, without stay of father or of son, Lone on the land and homeless on the water Pass I in patience till the work be done,"

 

  North, South, East and Vest, he travelled and tented with the great Evangel.  The world had no appeal to him: "I am crucified to the world, and the world unto me," was his constant testimony, and so he never built a ,, in all its death-doomed shore." Nero may have gloated over his great triumph when the head of the Christian hero fell by the axe at Rome; but for Paul it was only the end of the Journey —the striking of his temporary tent ere the Gates of Pearl swung wide to welcome him into the palace beautiful—-he had reached home at last.
  In the American  Civil  War,  General  ~Stonewall'* Jackson—'that great soldier and Christian—was mortally  wounded.   In  a  semi-conscious  state  he  cried: "Strike my tent.  Tell Hill he must come up."  The camp was about to move heavenward and the General wanted his comrade Hill to move upward with him. A  little  later  he  passed  away,  saying,  "Let  us  cross over the river and rest beneath the shade of the trees."

"There is a Home, where all the soul's deep yearnings And silent prayers shall beat last fulfilled; Where strife and sorrow, murmuring s and heartburnings,  At last are stilled, at last are stilled,

 

  Dear friend, if you are a citizen of that Holy City: ''seek  those  things  which  are  above,  where  Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.   Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God, Vhen Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory"(CoL3: 1-4).  If you have not yet enrolled as a heavenly citizen, the procedure is very plain: as many as received Him (Jesus),  to  them  gave  He  power  to  become  the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name" ( lohn 1:12).
  Believe God, receive Jesus as your Saviour and Lord today, and begin the pilgrim march to glory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              NIGHT

 

"For there shall be no night there,"(Rev 21 :25)

  The day had departed.  The great mountains, with their mighty trees, were. wrapt in the shroud of darkness.   The silence was intense—-a stillness that one could almost feel.
  We sat on the look-out seat and gazed away over the hills to the Western horizon, where the after-glow of the sunset could beseen.  It was a peculiar light over the starlit sky, which seemed to say as it slowly petered out, ~1 shall return again."
  "Yes,"  I  thought;  "return  for  ever  one  day."     "For there shall be no night there!"
  Then we turned round and, plunging into the complete darkness of the East, made our way home.
 A few fleeting thoughts laid hold of me in that summer twilight, and I pass them on to cheer and encourage my fellow "pilgrims of the night." You and I cannot escape the night. Every twentyfour hours we must face the darkness, and no power in us can bring God*s light until its appointed time in the morning.   Then in like manner after we have endured the night,  the  day must break  and  the shadows flee away.

  There is a night of Sin from which none of us can escape.  Try and side-step it as we will; argue on any basis we like; God's Word is true, and we are in darkness until we accept the "Light of the Vorld."  We are in the night of Egypt until a Greater than Moses leads us out in the early morning.
 The Lamb was slain while the night covered us, "~hilewewere dead m sin Christ died for us"; but it is a living Lord Who leads us forth in the morning. "He ever liveth to make intercession torus." It was dark when on the  Cross  He  cried,  "It  is finished!"  It was light when He said to the weeping woman in the garden, 1IMary!tt  Oh, how my heart yearns for those who dwell in the night of sin!  Vhat can I say to them as they sit and look across the hills of time clothed in the robe of darkness?  Lift up your eyes above the gloom of earth to the gleam across yonder sky.  Look! Listen!
"There's a whisper in the West God is love, Come and He will give you rest God is love, And the evening clouds unroll Tin the sky is like ascroll With the message to the Soul God is love,"

  Then there is a night of Separation  Most of us have to march through it sometime on the Heavenward highway.
  A life is taken from us, and though it is only like a candle removed to shine in another room, yet we feel

 

as though the sun had set, and the shadows of evening had enveloped us.  So, with a sigh of anguish, we settle down to gaze upon the mystery of night.
  If only we could sink back into the daylight of the dear one's presence.  If only we could see the sunshine of his smile.  If only we  could  live  in  the  land  of yesterday; but, alas, as we scan the gloom of that gulf, our hearts well-nigh break.
  Why do we not then look upward to that twilight in the sky?   "Why will we nurse our grief instead of looking for that silver lining which our blessed Master has given to every cloud?—-"That rainbow in the rain*' —'that forecast of a tearless morn, when there shall be no more parting, for ~there 99 no night there~ Vhen Mark Lovell fell in South Africa, an old family friend called to sympathize with his mother. "Hillary," he said, "Do you remember the day he rode his  pony  round  the  paddock?"   "Yes," replied  the
  mother, "it was summertime then; some day it will be summer again/* She had the vision that comforts. She looked past the night and saw the light that already foretold the reunion on the eternal morning-No death is ever known
   In Surnmer~nd,
For life is on the throne In Suinmer-land, No mourning for the dead, No heavy hearts like lead. But endless joy instead In Summer~land,

Then. there is a night of Sorrow
  The brightest day. must have itS sundown.  So on the gayest life there falls the g~oom of trouble and sorrow.  All the saints must haVe their share of darkness before the endless day; and in that darkness they are proved,
  It is well to sing hymns when the sun is high in the heavens,
  It is easy to be gracious and kind "when peacelike ariver attendeth our way," Most of us will be nice to live with at noon-time, But, Friend, what of the night?
V/hen the sun has dipped beyond the ranges, ~Mrhen the sea billows of trouble roll,  "When it's midnight in our experience?
 How many of us can speak then of (( joy" as lesus did, on the dark betrayal night, when sorrow filled His heart?  (lohn 15: II),
  How many of us can sing praises like Paul and Silas inprison at midnight?
 Do we envy such heroes of the night? Do we say such courage is too high, we cannot attain unto it? Ah, it is possible to us all when  "ur citizenship is in heaven"; when we walk and live as children of light; when Jesus is in reality our Sun of Righteousness, ever shining,  Ve may not see His full blaze of glory, but we can always trace His pathway of kindly light.
 Some years ago I was in shattered health and in great trouble,  It was midnight, and I could not trace a sign of daybreak*  Darkness enveloped me on every side,  I was working on a big sheep and cattle station at the time, and was aroused one morning about 3,30 to go and meet some incoming sheep.  I arose, saddled my horse, and rode away in the gloom. As I climbed the hill by the township, the dawn broke in matchless beauty, and from the radiant sky God spoke to me; and I, flooded with new hope, answered back these lines

"When the darkness melts away At the breaking of Thy day Bid us hail the cheering ray     Light for evermore."

 

  However dark the night, the day must dawn, so hope

on, for ~we're saved by hope,"
  Yes, let us endure as good soldiers.  Even though we sink down in seeming darkness and disgrace. He knoweth our hearts e knoweth our frames.  '"Weeping may endure for the night," but at the dawn of His perfect day, "joy cometh"; and we shall see Him in the morning'—"the cloudless morning".—and all wrongs will berighted then, ~for there shall b'e no night there~
"The child will meet its mother,
 And the mother meet the child,       . And the friends that death divided, Shall be gathered from the wild) And all the saved shall meet and rest, Among the holy and the blest,"

 

  "Therefore, comfort one another with these words' and, reader, remember, this heavenly comfort hinges on the condition, "if we believe that Jesus died and rose again. ".
  May I earnestly ask, "Do you believe?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 "WAR"

I came not to send peace, but a sword,"
                  -· Matt. 10:34)

  "The Germans have broken through down South, The Allies are falling back before them. All leave is stopped, and our rest is cancelled.  Ve move at once. I am sorry, but it's war, gentlemen, grim war." Such was the statement I listened to one evening in a 30 ft.dugoutin Belgium in March, 1918.  For many weeks we had been waiting for this long-promised rest, and now, just as we were about to embrace it, the mighty offensive of the German Armies called us into action again.  Our rest did not come until the war was almost over, and then only a remnant was spared to enjoy that rest.
  Vell, our Colonel said it was war—grim war-—and war is a pitiless affair.  It puts a man to the test, denies him comforts, deals outhardships and endeavours to destroy him; but it also brings out his best, displays his courage and often distinguishes him as a hero.
  ~Varputs asoul to the test; and so Christians are all tested in the battle of life, the fight of faith.
  Doubtless it has been -a stern shock to some children of God to find that the Christian calling has meant constant warfare.   Vith their acceptance of Christ into the heart they expected peace, and instead found a sword.  W"ar was declared in their social life, their church life, their home life, and, deeper and more disturbing than all, in their own soul life.  Instead of a great calm there was the strife of tongues, the struggle for victory and often the shame of defeat.
  So it is, brethren, and so it must be, because we march through the enemy's country: "the whole wotid lieth in wickedness' (1. John 5: 19).  We are on alien soil, ~Heaven is our fatherland. Heaven is our home.' In the hour that a soul turns to God through Christ,

the angel shout of peace in heaven finds its echo in a trumpet call to war on earth,
  With Christ the Crucified comes a cross, and with Christ the King comes a sword,
  Crown Him the King of your life, and at once the triple  alliance  of  evil---the  world,  the  flesh  and  the devil—-declare war against you.

  (1) First there; is an Outward War--The world leads the assault.  Its tactics are subtle.  Like Pharaoh of old, it suggests a compromise.
  "Don't go too far," is its age-long artillery.  "Serve your God in the land, give me a small territory in the corner of your heart.  Its a more peaceful pilgrimage, and you will weary of the long war involved in a clear-cut separation,tt Vhatdoes your Captain say to this?
 "I have chosen you out of the world, for you are not of the world even as I am not of the world."  'But, Lord, it's going to mean war.  I shall have to stand with the few in the Church, and, what is harder still, stand alone in my own home."
  True, it does mean war "T. came not to send peace, but a sword."  Your foes may well be those of your own household, but will you shrink from the conflict and seek ease at the expense of honour?
 You are chosen as a soldier, and "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him Who has chosen him to be asoldier" (II. Tim. 2: 4).     Then take up the sword and ~war a good warfare." Come out from the world, have no concord with Belial. Resist every suggestion of peace or armistice, for the world is a prince of traitors, dishonouring Demas at last, and all but destroying Lot in Sodom.   Wage war with the world until the end.

  (2) Then there is an Inward War«--The artillery of the world is followed by the machine guns of the flesh.
 How incessantly they rattle day and night! Acceptance of Christ brings asword against my flesh*  The opening of my blinded eyes reveals to me "another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind" (Rom«7: 23), and so "~he flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other" (Gal, 5: 17), There is no escape from this conflict.  It is well to realize it from the beginning.  Unless I heard this incessant rattle, and felt this continuous wrestle within, I might well doubt my standing in Christ.
  The soul is a battlefield, more famous than Waterloo, more deadly than Gettysburg, more vital than VillersBretonneux.  For "they that are in the flesh cannot please God," and the crucifixion of the flesh is a daily duty, fraught with all the danger and din of battle.
  But do not shrink from this inward action.  "He which hath begun the good work in you will perform it  unto  the  day  of  Jesus  Christ."    Only  you  and  I must do our part, sow to the Spirit, be fed by the Spirit, yield to every impulse of the Spirit.   Be hard on the flesh.  Begin at the beginning of each day and when the foe within opens fire with, "Turn over for another doze," reply with, "Turn out for prayer." Get on your knees early, bring your body into subjection.  Sow to the Spirit.  Remember your Captain's order for His soldiers, regarding this war within, "Let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me."
  That is the order, of battle for victory.  Denial of self,  daily death  sentence within,  and  entire  devotion to the Lord.
  (3) Then there is an Upward War—The world and the flesh, with artillery and machine-guns, prepare the way for the shock-troops to charge.  "Principalities and powers, the rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this world" led on by the Devil.
This army of evil is not likely to assault you before a certain amount of victory has been gained over the world and the flesh.  "Ae an hour when ye think not/' In a season of satisfaction at the apparent success over the former foes the grand attack will be launched* The enemy will come in like a flood* God help you in that assault*  Those of us who have faced it tremble, when we think back on the carnage and clamour of that spiritual conflict
  Strongholds of self were shattered*  Forts erected by much labour were flung to the ground like paper* Old doctrines and truths trembled in the balance*  The dust and smoke intensified the darkness that hid our Father's face*
 Wounded and bleeding, weak and weary, we cried to our Captain, and by His grace and that alone we were saved
  In that deadly attack there is little advance for the Christian, every yard is marked by blood and sweat, and more often it is a case of simply standingz"haying done all, to stand" (Eph* 6:13)*
  Ah, when the third great foe attacks, there is no doubt about the fact that ~Christ came not to send peace, but a sword."  Well can we understand it then! It is war, grim .war, and it must be fought out to the finish*
  "Fight the good fight of faith*"  "Put on the whole armour of God," "Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ*"  These are  not  idle  words  to  the Christian soldier in his conflict with the allies of evil* "If  you  want  to  know  what  a  sinner  is,"  said Douglas Brown, "try by God's grace to be a saint*" Yes, because the Devil never gave one saint an easy march to glory*  He is our great adversary on earth, and our fierce accuser above, and only in Christ can we regist and repulse him.
  In the light of all we have said, let us accept the sword and the war until He comes "who in righteousness will judge and make war," and triumph over all His foes and ours* Then in the glorious celebrations of peace and eternal victory I think we shall be glad tha ·we fought in the greatest war of all time; ani, as ou. Captain bears His blood wounds of Calvary, so well some far smaller, far lowlier way, may look with lot upon the scars that were won for the. sake of His Name

 

"Fight on, Christian soldier, Though weary in the war: Fight on, for over yonder, Is peace for evermore"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHADOWS

THE welcome shade of a big tree! Ah, what a boon for those who travel the hot, dusty roads of the Australian bush in the summer season!  From early morning we had been travelling; climbing up a long, steep road over a mountain range, often shut in by thickly wooded country on both sides, and sometimes enveloped in clouds of dust.   By noon we had cleared the range and were running along the table­lands, with wide, open spaces of grazing country about us, and few trees to offer their welcome shade from the burning November sunshine.

At last we came to an isolated family of forest giants which had escaped the sharp edge of the woodsman's axe, and under one of these we gratefully drove our van and camped for the midday meal. There we had a refreshing rest in the shadow of the stal­wart tree; a rest which fitted us to face the afternoon's journey with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Some people have a great dislike for shade and shadows; they chop down the trees and clear away the saplings to let the sun smile on every inch of their property. No doubt they have good reasons for such clearing, and we heartily agree that there is little hope of life without sunshine; but how often we have had cause to praise God for shadows, and to rejoice in the shade of those stately trees that still adorn the stock routes and roads of our vast countryside.

The remembrance brings me to the Word of God with its many references to shadows. There is—'

(1) The Shadow of the Man.—The thought comes from Isaiah 32: 2, where we read a prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in these words: "A man shall be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." With that rich fact in front of us, may I suggest to you that this world is a weary land of sin?

Maybe you have found it so and murmur "Amen," or maybe you have yet to find out its barrenness and blight.  However it is the Word of God does not leave us in much doubt as to the weariness of a world which lie.th in wickedness. (I. John 5: 19). The first sin brought a curse on the earth (Gen. 3: 17-19) which will remain until that time when "the wilderness shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose/' (Isaiah 35: 1).

David knew the weariness of the world and ever sought the shadow of the Man Who was like a mighty rock: "0 God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is." (Psalm 63:1).

There is nothing under heaven that can satisfy the soul but the man Christ Jesus.  He is the Rock of Ages that casts a cooling shadow across the weary sand-wastes of life, and in that shadow the sinner can find shade from the scorching effect of his sin, and sweet satisfaction for his thirsty soul in salvation.

When the 14th Infantry Brigade, A.I.F., made their famous march across the desert from Tel-el-Kebir to the Suez Canal, in March, 1916, a halt was made on the second day at the foot of some sand-hills. Two of us erected a shelter by means of our rifles and ground sheets; but, alas, how poor a thing it was in the face of that pitiless sun, which seemed to burn right through it on to our weary heads and bodies. We needed a rock to resist that Eastern sun. So it is in life. All man-made shelters from sin are as help­less as our ground sheets; but "Jesus is a Rock in a weary land," and His shadow is sufficient for every soul who would find shade from the blaze of sin's scorching sun. Then, again, there is—

(2) The Shadow of the Almighty.—In the 91st Psalm we read of this blessed shadow which is pro­vided for all who dwell in the secret place of the Most High. I fancy it may mean that a sinner who seeks the shade of the Man will also receive the shade of the Almighty.  "He that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also"; so that a sinner who hides in the shadow of the Man is then covered by the wing ot God, and can declare with the Psalmist: "Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice" (Psalm 63: 7)*

What a secure refuge is here provided for the souls of the saved!

An old negro once gave a simple but sound explanation of this security to some of his friends. He said: "Suppose we have here three barrels of different sizes, Sambo take the little one and place it inside the middle one, then he take the two and put them both inside the big fellow and nail down all the lids. Not much chance of little fellow in centre being hurt. No; and that one like Sambo. God, the big barrel; Jesus Christ, the middle one; and Sambo, little fellow in centre." Ah, that is a safe and happy shelter indeed—to be "hid with Christ in God"! In this shadow it is the joyful experience of the saint to abide. In the pentecostal days of the early Church, people carried their sick ones into the streets so that the shadow of Peter might fall on them. The shadow of the Apostle was precious because it might impart a blessing to the sufferers; but how much more precious the Shadow of the Almighty to be upon one, not for a passing moment of healing, but for a permanent haven of security! Before we close, let us glance at—

(3) The Shadow of the Mystery^—Surely death is the darkest mystery a human being is called to meet, Men dread it, and disregard it, and yet must inevitably deal with it.  Death is not a delusion, even though the actions of many in regard to it would suggest such a thing. No; death is a fact which forces -itself to the front at last, and has to be faced as the dark, dismal sequel to sin: "The wages of sin is" death" (Rom. 6: 23).

Now, Jesus Christ was manifested in the flesh and "He tasted death for every man; and through death He wrested the keys of death from him, who had the power of death, which is the Devil."  Now, Jesus Christ has the keys of death and hades. What a good thing it is, then, to be a friend of the Saviour! In view of His great victory over death, all who know Him as their Redeemer can rejoice in David's confidence: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me" (Psalm 23: 4). With Christ, death is not a substance but only a shadow^ The substance was shattered for the saved by the Prince of Life at Calvary; and walking with Him, even in the last valley, death must stand aside, casting a shadow only on the pathway, but helpless to cast one stumbling-stone between the Christian and his homeland of heaven. Oh, my reading friends, let me plead with you to learn the lessons of these shadows, to leave the world's side, to pin your faith on God's Word, to accept Jesus Christ and so escape the darkness of eternal death, and to dwell forever beneath the shadow of the Almighty.                                         "Far on the desert sands, -  Thirst I for Thee;

Jesus, Thou mighty Rock,   Smitten for me,

^Shield from the burning sun,  Shade for the weary one,

Where living waters run   Abundantly V