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GOD OUR REFUGE

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 8, 1877

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 50, No. 19.

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GOD OUR REFUGE.

By A. S. Nason

“The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.” Ps. 9: 9.
Precious promise to those who sit under the shadow of grief, feeling that every earthly source has failed. “God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.” He will faithfully test every one of his professed followers. Only those who are willing to endure the discipline he imposes upon them will finally be overcomers, and gain admittance to the heavenly mansions.
Christ, who is our example, has plainly shown by his life of suffering and self-denial that the way to Heaven is not a broad way, strewn with flowers, but, on the contrary, a narrow path, rough and thorny. The tempter will often appear to the lonely, struggling Christian with artful smiles and alluring flattery, bidding him be gay and happy, insinuatingly declaring to him that he need not be so anxious for his soul, that he has a very tender, loving Father in Heaven, who pities his frail human children, and is not pleased with their sorrow, but would far rather they should all forget that the world is one vast burial ground, and that death is on the track of every one and at any moment may cut them down. Oh, cruel enemy! What mockery thus to cheat poor mortals of eternal life!
It is right to rejoice in the Lord and to praise him for all his love and goodness; but this is not the kind of rejoicing that the children of this world desire to take part in. They love foolishness. The carnal heart cannot understand the mystery of godliness. It is only as the heart becomes softened by the Spirit of God that it will yield loving obedience to his will. Lovers of pleasure tell us they prefer a short life and a merry one; that they feel no desire to toil and suffer for the sake of bliss hereafter; they will make sure of happiness in this world and let the future take care of itself. Poor misguided mortals! Try to be as happy as you will in this life, the clouds will gather over your sky of brightness; your friends, perhaps, that you have most dearly cherished, will be rudely torn from your loving embrace and committed to the silent tomb.
“Oh! far too daring seem the joys of earth, So darkly pressed and girdled in by death.”
The Christian has joy such as the sinner can never know. If peace and love fill the heart, there is abiding happiness. It is as possible to have the heart overflowing with the love of God. Such an one will rejoice and sing, even though prison walls enclose him. Satan will never be able to destroy one soul who leans upon God for strength. “But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them, he shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.” Ps. 37: 39, 40.
“Wait on the Lord. In his right hand be hidden, And go not forth in haste to strive alone; Shun, like a sin, the tempting work ‘forbidden;’ God’s love for souls, be sure, exceeds thine own.
“The Master cares. Why feel or seem so lonely? Nothing can interrupt true work for God; Work may be changed; it cannot cease, if only We are resolved to cleave unto the Lord.”
A. S. Nason.
Ipswich, Mass.