KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD THROUGH FAITH.
By Rev. D. Steele
The keeping power of Jesus is fitly illustrated by the superintending Providence which guided and protected Noah in the ark. Did you ever notice, in the minute description of that ship which was built to make a voyage from the old world to the new, bearing the seeds of all precious things with which the new world was to be sown, there is no mention of the rudder? Our modern ship carpenters would laugh at the idea of launching a rudderless ship, just as unbelief sneers at committing one's ways unto the Lord instead of a so-called manly, self-reliant self-guidance. A good type of the fully trusting Christian is good old Noah, sitting serene and unconcerned in his ark, as it floats over the drowned world, confiding in the skill of his invisible Pilot to keep his craft from the rocks, and to land it in safety on some appropriate spot. How could a man, who had been “moved with fear” to build his ark, sail in it, month after month, with no chart nor compass, no rudder; and be kept from distressing fears on that long and perilous voyage? There is but one answer—his perfect trust in Him who had commanded the building of the ark. It requires a higher style of faith to be passively borne along under the guidance of our Heavenly Father than it does to be active in fulfilling the Divine command. Obedience is the soil out of which such faith grows. If Noah had not obeyed Jehovah in building the ark and embarking in it, he could not have trusted Him so unwaveringly. The Christian's ark is already prepared. All he is required to do is to put all on board, and to keep himself there. If he should be so unwise as to extemporize a rudder, he has no chart by which to lay his course, for each individual life is mapped out only in the mind of the great Pilot. We are as ignorant of our individual future as was Noah ignorant of his course and destination when he climbed up the side of the ark and the Lord shut him in. If Noah had unwisely taken the direction of the ark into his own hands, he would probably have wrecked it and lost its inestimable cargo. Thus thousands, in their distrust of God, lay their own hand upon the helm, and ship a crew of fears to torment their whole voyage, and run their vessel upon some reef and lose all at last, or save themselves with great difficulty, when, through “the rest of faith,” they might have had a joyful voyage, and an abundant entrance into the haven of eternal life. How many, through unbelief, miss the keeping power of Christ, and the ineffable peace which it brings. “If our love were but more simple,
We should take Him at His word;
And our lives would be all sunshine,
In the sweetness of our Lord.” The very simplicity of the keeping which Christ exerts over all who “know the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,” renders it impossible to describe it. Blessed indeed are they whose grasp upon the divine promises makes their lives a perpetual twenty-third psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd.” Other ancient worthies as well as Noah were led into the secret of the Lord which made their lives cheerful and victorious. How calm and unmoved was good old Elisha when the Syrian horses and chariots and a great host of soldiers came thundering and tramping about the little city of Dothan, where the prophet was. They had come expressly to capture him, because God enabled him to tell the king of Israel the words which the Syrian monarch whispered in his bed-chamber. Why was he calm and unterrified? He did not look at this noisy Syrian army investing the walls of Dothan. He had an eye which saw a mightier army filling all the mountain above them, under the command of the celestial Captain who appeared to Joshua before the gates of Jericho. This host and its General absorbed all his thoughts. He could look at nothing else. Not so Elisha's servant. Arising early in the morning and going forth, he sees the beleaguering army of foemen. With breathless haste and pallid cheek he rushes back into the house exclaiming, “Alas, my master, how shall we do?” In my mind's eye I see Elisha sitting on the side of his bed tying on his sandals. The alarming news produces no tremor in his limbs, no change in his countenance. He coolly replies, as he completes his toilet, “Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” But the fears of the trembling servant were not allayed. He saw no such friendly army as his master was gazing intently upon. Then Elisha, in pity toward his frightened servant, kindly prayed, “Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.” And the Lord opened the young man's eyes and he saw, and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire, round about Elisha as his body-guard. The servant trembled no more. He who keepeth Israel, who doth not slumber nor sleep, is at hand to protect all who trust in him. Reader, you see no such celestial army forming a hollow square about you. But you may believe that more than twelve legions of angels are bivouacked about you, and God will honor your faith more than he would if you had seen these guardians with your natural eyes. “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”—Rev. D. Steele.