Assured Against Destruction
By T.
IN days like these, when death and destruction are evident in so many parts of the world, it is well to be assured that there is One who has power above all these things. This One commissioned His exile to Patmos to write us: "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell [hades, or the grave] and of death." Rev. 1:18. This is the One who died to show His unbounded love for mankind; but He "liveth" and is "alive forevermore." We can safely trust such a one as this, because of His love and because He liveth ever. It is not enough merely to know that an individual has life and power, but we need to know that he is our friend, that he loves us. But how comforting to know that we have One who is our Friend, and who loves us with an undying love, and further that He is "alive forevermore." There can never be a time when He is not alive to give attention to our needs. The power of living forever, the power of immortality and an endless life, are under His hand. We do not fear anything when we have such a Friend as this, for He tells us in this same text that He has the keys of the grave and of death. So we do not fear either death or destruction if we are His, for He holds even them in His power. He is filled with love toward us, and even tho we should be called to go down in death, in our service for Him, we can not be held by the grim monster; for our Lord, in the majesty of His ever-living power, holds the keys. We have approached the time when the Master said "men's hearts" would be "failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth." But if we bear in mind that He ever liveth, and that He also loves us, we will know9nothing of this fear. Having placed our cases in His hands, we trust Him with a confidence that is a total stranger to any of the tortures of being afraid. What a citadel of hope, and how it sweetens the joys of living to be acquainted with such a Friend! T.