Lord’s Prayer
89
and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers
places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
Matthew 24:6-8
. Yet
Christ’s followers were not to fear that their hope was lost or that
God had forsaken the earth. The power and the glory belong unto
Him whose great purposes would still move on unthwarted toward
their consummation. In the prayer that breathes their daily wants,
the disciples of Christ were directed to look above all the power and
dominion of evil, unto the Lord their God, whose kingdom ruleth over
all and who is their Father and everlasting Friend.
The ruin of Jerusalem was a symbol of the final ruin that shall
overwhelm the world. The prophecies that received a partial fulfillment
in the overthrow of Jerusalem have a more direct application to the
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last days. We are now standing on the threshold of great and solemn
events. A crisis is before us, such as the world has never witnessed.
And sweetly to us, as to the first disciples, comes the assurance that
God’s kingdom ruleth over all. The program of coming events is in the
hands of our Maker. The Majesty of heaven has the destiny of nations,
as well as the concerns of His church, in His own charge. The divine
Instructor is saying to every agent in the accomplishment of His plans,
as He said to Cyrus, “I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me.”
Isaiah 45:5
.
In the vision of the prophet Ezekiel there was the appearance
of a hand beneath the wings of the cherubim. This is to teach His
servants that it is divine power which gives them success. Those
whom God employs as His messengers are not to feel that His work is
dependent upon them. Finite beings are not left to carry this burden of
responsibility. He who slumbers not, who is continually at work for
the accomplishment of His designs, will carry forward His own work.
He will thwart the purposes of wicked men, and will bring to confusion
the counsels of those who plot mischief against His people. He who is
the King, the Lord of hosts, sitteth between the cherubim, and amid the
strife and tumult of nations He guards His children still. He who ruleth
in the heavens is our Saviour. He measures every trial, He watches the
furnace fire that must test every soul. When the strongholds of kings
shall be overthrown, when the arrows of wrath shall strike through the
hearts of His enemies, His people will be safe in His hands.
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“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and
the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the