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Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing
Could our spiritual vision be quickened, we should see souls bowed
under oppression and burdened with grief, pressed as a cart beneath
sheaves and ready to die in discouragement. We should see angels
flying swiftly to aid these tempted ones, who are standing as on the
brink of a precipice. The angels from heaven force back the hosts of
evil that encompass these souls, and guide them to plant their feet on
the sure foundation. The battles waging between the two armies are as
real as those fought by the armies of this world, and on the issue of
the spiritual conflict eternal destinies depend.
To us, as to Peter, the word is spoken, “Satan hath desired to have
you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not.”
Luke 22:31, 32
. Thank God, we are not left alone.
He who “so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life” (
John 3:16
), will not desert us in the battle with the adversary
of God and man. “Behold,” He says, “I give unto you power to tread
on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and
nothing shall by any means hurt you.”
Luke 10:19
.
Live in contact with the living Christ, and He will hold you firmly
by a hand that will never let go. Know and believe the love that God
has to us, and you are secure; that love is a fortress impregnable to all
the delusions and assaults of Satan. “The name of the Lord is a strong
tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.”
Proverbs 18:10
.
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“Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.”—Matthew
6:13.
The last like the first sentence of the Lord’s Prayer, points to our
Father as above all power and authority and every name that is named.
The Saviour beheld the years that stretched out before His disciples,
not, as they had dreamed, lying in the sunshine of worldly prosperity
and honor, but dark with the tempests of human hatred and satanic
wrath. Amid national strife and ruin, the steps of the disciples would
be beset with perils, and often their hearts would be oppressed by fear.
They were to see Jerusalem a desolation, the temple swept away, its
worship forever ended, and Israel scattered to all lands, like wrecks
on a desert shore. Jesus said, “Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of
wars.” “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: