THE CHILDREN'S SAFETY

We are thankful for the many means provided to keep us safe when we journey by land, sea or air. When, as a youngster, I travelled fourth class on a foreign train it was very uncomfortable - but quite as safe as first class! At sea the well-known danger signal S. O.S. is said to stand for 'save our souls' and this shows how urgent the need is. But no mere human means can save a soul, whereas trust in the blood of Jesus, shed at Calvary, is an eternal shelter from judgment. The Hebrew children on the Passover night probably did not see the blood on the outside of the house-door and may well have been in great alarm. So the believer does not see the actual blood of the Lord, but has peace in knowing the value of it in the sight of God.

Safety is not salvation but should lead to it. A shipwrecked voyager would be safe in a lifeboat but not really saved until happily on land again amongst those loved and loving. The vivid story of Paul's last shipwreck tells us that all the two hundred and seventy six persons on board came safely to land. Scripture calls them "souls" showing that heaven yearned for their eternal salvation - more important than the need of the moment. It must have been wonderful to those seafarers, cast away on an unknown island on a cold, wet day, to find themselves cared for with unusual kindness for three whole months. Paul and his company were given presents of necessary things for their further journey, proving how God is able to care for us in the pathway of His will.

Hundreds of years before, and on an anxious day of a very different kind, a little child named Joash was saved by being hidden with his nurse in the temple buildings. For six years he was protected in the house of God and at the age of seven was proclaimed king. Having had a good start - as so many children have in Christian households - he did what was right all the time that he paid attention to those who served God. Believers, however young, are always in God 's house which being a "spiritual house" is more real than one of brick or stone. As long as we attend to what is due to Him whose house it is, we shall be in salvation. David longed to dwell there for ever. Have you learned by heart his shepherd Psalm - number twenty-three?

J.C.Evershed