REFUGE. MY SAVIOUR is the REFUGE of my soul. What fear is there to alarm me? From what danger have I to flee? As a sinner, I am guilty of the blood of my own soul, and of the blood of others. I have violated the law; and its avenger, justice, exclaims in my startled ear, "Thou shalt surely die."* My danger is eternal death, to which one stroke of God's righteous judgment may in a moment consign me. But, behold! the very hand that barred up lost paradise with the flaming sword, opens a refuge for my soul, a place of unassailable security, whither I may flee and be safe. Of this, the six separated cities, in the land of Canaan, were beautifully figurative. The eye of faith saw written over their gates, "The eternal God is thy refuge!" The way that leadeth to my city of refuge is so plain, that " the * Gen. ii. 17. + Deut. xxxiii. 27. wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein." The gate is open day and night, and none that flee to it are excluded.† Yea, "the Eternal God" is both my “refuge,” and “the way," and "the door," and "the life," which I am to find there. He is my soul's refuge, in his righteousness and blood, from all the terrors of the law. No weapon can touch me no sentence of condemnation can overtake me there. Have I, then, fled to Christ "for refuge, to lay hold of the hope set before us in the gospel? "§ I have strong consolation," even the strongest. For all the present and all the promised blessings of salvation are assured to me by the oath and the power of Him "who cannot lie," and who cannot be eluded, or overcome, by the most crafty and the most powerful of my foes. The fugitive left the city of refuge when the high-priest died. But my High-Priest is "the Eternal God," and in him I am to spend a secure and blissful forever. When my Saviour has opened his bleeding side to receive me, and I by faith have entered, the world can present no aspect of temporal danger that need alarm me. This "refuge from the * Isa. xxxv. 8. ↑ John vi. 37. John x. 9; xiv. 6. § Heb. vi. 18. storm, and covert from the tempest "* of divine wrath, becomes my glad and ever sure resource in the day of this world's perils. In that dark day, Luther's song may be mine and theirs, who have to suffer with me.t When "the hail" of judgment" shall sweep away the refuge of lies," ‡ and leave its deluded victims to inevitable destruction, I shall be lodged in " God, the Rock of my refuge." Others may dream of safetyI AM Safe. GOD is my REFUGE and my strength, In trouble's fearful hour; His ready help displays at length His mercy and his power. What though the earth be moved and flee, With all its mountain train, And tremble 'midst the angry sea, Or sink beneath the main? What form of fear shall daunt my soul, Or shrink before the wind? * Isa. xxv. 4. + Ps. xlvi. Isa. xxviii. 17. Ps. xciv. 22. My Refuge on the eternal hills, The tempest's rage defies; My God his word of love fulfils,My soul in safety lies. 16* My Saviour is “ the RESURRECTION," * for he is - the life” of his redeemed. Now “ the Son quickeneth whom he will,” † from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. Has he thus quickened me? Am I conscious of a spiritual change, as great and decided in its kind, as would be the restoration of life to a corpse? Is there dwelling in me a new life? Do I enjoy a new existence, compared with which my former resembled death itself? It is because Christ has visited me as the resurrection of my soul. Over this “ the second death shall have no power.” United unto him, I nay rejoicingly take up his own declaration, applying it to the happy resuscitation of my spirit, — “ I am he that liveth ;" for Christ is my resurrection and my life ; 66 and * John xi. 25. † John v. 21. |