THE CHILDREN'S SAFETY

A Christian convert in India found a unique way of showing to a scoffer how Jesus had saved him. He picked up a quantity of dried leaves close at hand and made a thick ring of them on the ground. Then, having found a worm, he placed it inside the ring and set fire to the leaves. Because of the heat the poor worm began to writhe but could not escape from the smouldering circle. Then the man darted his hand through the smoke and fire, picked up the worm out of its dangerous situation and placed it on the grass beside him. The happy native had a God-given sense of the way in which the Lord Jesus had come into his very circumstances to rescue him from judgment and give him a place by His side.

No incident can do more than illustrate one or two of the many facets of the perfect work of Christ. The story does however help us to share the triumphant cry echoing in heaven for each saved sinner, "Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?". A great preacher of two centuries ago was able to say that he had twice been a brand plucked from the burning. When a boy of only six years old he had been rescued from a house on fire by being lowered from an upstairs window into loving hands ready to receive him. The memory of God's mercy must have remained vividly with him. He grew up to be a religious young man, but it was a good many years before he had the faith to know that his sins were all forgiven and that he was free from judgment by the finished work of Christ and safe in the hands of One who loved him.

There is safety in being hidden when danger is about. Just as the infant Moses was hid and nourished in the house of his father and mother, so our parents seek to protect us as baptised children from moral and outward evil. Joash, one of the kings of Judah, had been hid from danger in the house of God - surely a safe place - for six years before he came to the throne at the age of seven! One precious promise as to the Lord Jesus was that "A man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the storm". This refers to the continuing work of Jesus and we have the benefit of His protection as we confess His name. Long ago a lover of the Lord wrote the well-known hymn 'Rock of Ages! cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee'. During a great storm he was sheltering in a hollow in the rock-face and this reminded him of the protection provided for his soul by a living Saviour. Do you prove it too?

J.C.Evershed