THE ASSURANCE OF THE WORD.
By S.
JOB declared, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and at last He will stand up upon the earth.” Job 19:25. And Paul declares, “Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His.” 2 Tim. 2:19. It is worth all that we are or hope to be to have that undying confidence in the blessed Word of God. Friends fail us; our fondest hopes wither like thirsty leaves in the searing winds of summer; our powers decay; the great men of earth go wrong; while all the handiwork of man is crumbling before our eyes. Nevertheless, God is; and as He is, His Word is true, His power supreme, and His purpose concerning us as sure as that He Himself is. The lives of the great men of old have gone out like a whisper in the night; but the word of our God abideth forever. We have before us constant reminders of the weakness of men; but, if we will but see them, there are all about us just as constant reminders of the greatness and power and endurance of our Father in heaven. We have looked upon the most glorious and most substantial works of men, and have seen their dust scattered by the desert winds. We have seen sickly childhood, tottering age, and the feeble frame of the wasting invalid, and we have seen the plumed hearse and black-robed mourners leading a perpetual procession to the tomb. Men have looked upon this, and have asked if there is nothing truly substantial, nothing imperishable, nothing perpetual but death and decay in all the twinkling, star-sprinkled universe of God. Let such questioners go out in the stillness of night, when the prattle of humanity has been hushed upon the bosom of the crooning old earth, and look up into God’s great torch-light procession marching to the orders of heaven, and then fall down upon their knees and ask God about it. Question the Maker. He is not bound by time nor distance; His ear is always within hearing of the faintest whisper of His weakest children. Ask Him if there is nothing stable, tangible, perpetual, in all His realm. He will tell such in answer that “from everlasting to everlasting” He is God. He will tell them that tho “all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field” that perisheth, yet the word that has gone out of His lips “shall stand forever.” He will declare also, “I am the Lord, I change not.” “The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Notwithstanding the fact that every earthly building is undergoing a process of decay and disintegration, He will tell you that there is “a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;” that the kingdom which He promises to the ransomed of earth is “an everlasting kingdom.” Earthly love may fade and die out, but God assures us that He has loved us “with an everlasting love,” and while assuring us of that, He is seeking to bind us to Himself with His everlasting cable of loving-kindness. If we are discouraged and cast down, then may we know that “underneath are the everlasting arms.” When trouble comes in like a flood till the very earth seems to tremble beneath our feet, then it is for us to know that “the foundation of God standeth sure.” As He knoweth the stars and “calleth them all by name,” so He knows His children, calls them by name, knows their frames, and remembers that they are but dust. At the same time “the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which can not be uttered.” There is indeed an eternal Rock to which the most storm-tossed can anchor; there is an eternal habitation for the most footsore pilgrim; in the midst of change and destruction, there is One who is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;” tho the words and works of men are fading and crumbling into decay, the word and works of God “stand fast forever;” the pyramid may become the plaything of the summer breeze, but “the foundation of God standeth sure;” the record of human selfishness will fade from the memory of the redeemed, but the story of Calvary and the triumphs of the cross will be sung by the redeemed as long as God shall live. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”