p. 4 | OUR SAFETY by T. E. Bowen

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 15, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 42.

OUR SAFETY.

By T. E. Bowen

This is a time of calamity. Every day storms, accidents, disasters by land and by sea, are sweeping men and women from among the living, to meet the realities of eternity. Men's hearts are failing them for fear of the things which are coming upon the earth. People do not feel safe anywhere. Companies multiply which offer protection to life and property; but is it protection after all?—No; it is no real, lasting help. It is simply what the human arm can afford.

God's Word directs us away from all this. The psalmist exclaims, “My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.” This scripture points out the great God who made the universe as the only real help. His protection is valuable. “He will not suffer thy foot to be moved; He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” Constant guardianship! While you are unconscious in slumber, no cyclone, no disaster, can pass by His guard to you without permission. And whatever passes will be only for the good of His child.

“The Lord is thy keeper; the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.” Some day power will be given the sun to scorch men with fire. Such a time, a shade on one side would be as a life preserver. That shade the Lord has promised to be.

“The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil.” What a glorious promise! No qualification—all evil. These are those who are truly praying, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” and God hears the prayer. Then the remaining part of the promise reads, “He shall preserve thy soul.” This passes exceedingly the power and skill of any earthly help. No one can be found who will insure your soul unto eternal life. That greatest of all values, compared with which the wealth of a world sinks into insignificance—the human soul—may be preserved to him who yields its interests into the loving care of Him who made it. Wondrous power! Wonderful God!

“The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in.” This promise becomes more significant in days like these. Should the psalmist come to life, and take his seat in a modern railway train, and read the news of the previous day of the disasters befalling people here and there who, like himself, had entered with confidence the coach only to perish in a wreck, he would feel the need of the protection of his God to preserve his going forth, as never before. But that sure word takes in the humble, trusting child of God to-day, with all the dangers with which he is beset; for the promise was “from this time forth and even forevermore.” Ps. 121: 1–8.

Dear reader, are you insured? Is your very life, your soul, thus guarded by your God? Have you learned to trust Him in days of prosperity? or, must He permit some calamity to overtake you before you shall awake to the fact that He now is preserving you?

The only reason more calamities do not visit the earth is due to the protecting care of God. And that which is befalling others is permitted that those remaining shall take warning, and

seek shelter in Christ, the only sure refuge provided sinners. It is not that those upon whom these calamities fall are more wicked than others. Accidents occurred in the time of our Saviour. A tower in Jerusalem fell one day, killing eighteen persons. Jesus commenting upon it, asks: “Think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay; but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

Let us look up to the God on high “from whence cometh our help.”

“The men who love and fear Thy name Shall see their hopes fulfilled; The mighty God will compass them With favor as a shield.”

T. E. BOWEN.