| Garden of the Heart |
Chapter 12 |
Page 5 |
A New Testament assurance of divine keeping runs thus: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.” Christ does not think of us in flocks, but as individuals, one by one, as our mothers do. In a collection of relics picked up on the field of Waterloo is a ring, set with a large pearl, and on the pearl the miniature of a beautiful girl’s face. The ring was worn by some soldier in the battle, and we can think who his eyes lingered on the portrait and how it inspired him with courage as he entered the battle. Thus the Master carries our faces on a pearl of love. In all our perils, struggles, and sorrows He has us in His heart. “I know them…They shall never perish… No one shall snatch them out of My hand.”
Another word tells us that our life is “hid with Christ in God.” Love always makes a holy shelter for those it keeps in its heart. Think how the mother by her love weaves a wall of safety about her child. Think how a friend throws about his friend an invisible protection. So does the love of Christ surround the trusting life with an invisible protection which nothing can tear away. A Christian woman, having to cross the river late at night, was approached by a stranger. As the boat was landing he said: “I see you are alone.” “No, sir, I am not alone; I have a friend.” “I do not see any one,” he said, looking round. The woman quietly answered, “Jesus Christ is with me,” and the man turned and fled into the darkness.
“Like moss around the budding rose,
Like snow around the lily’s gold,
So would my love enclose,
With tenderness untold,
My thought of thee
All silently.
“Like breezes through the old oak grove,
Like sunshine o’er the landscape fair,
So would my true life rove,
In active love and prayer,
At God’s sweet will,
Singing or still.”
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