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diff --git a/25459-h/25459-h.htm b/25459-h/25459-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d4d4c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/25459-h/25459-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3006 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Cities Of Refuge, or The Name of Jesus. + by Rev. John R. Macduff, D.D.. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; margin-bottom: .75em; } + + .noindent {text-indent: 0em;} + +/* all headings centered */ + h1 {text-align: center; clear: both; } + h2 {text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; clear: both; } + h3 {text-align: center; clear: both; } + h4 {text-align: center; clear: both; } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + .td {text-align:left; vertical-align:top;} + + body{margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + + .pagenum { position: absolute; left: 1%; font-size: 75%; + text-align: right; } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 12%;} + + .block {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; font-weight: bold;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .smcap2 {font-size: 82%} + + .caption {font-weight: bold; font-size: 85%} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + +/* FOOTNOTES */ + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px; margin-top:1em; clear: both;} + .footnote {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 10%;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 78%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left; } + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 2em 0em 2em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 12em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cities of Refuge: or, The Name of Jesus, by +John Ross Macduff + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cities of Refuge: or, The Name of Jesus + A Sunday book for the young + +Author: John Ross Macduff + +Release Date: May 13, 2008 [EBook #25459] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CITIES OF REFUGE *** + + + + +Produced by Heiko Evermann, Marcia Brooks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from scans of public domain works at the +University of Michigan's Making of America collection.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></span></p> +<h1>THE CITIES OF REFUGE.</h1> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 315px;"> +<img src="images/img_after_002.jpg" width="315" height="500" alt="002" title="" /> +<span class="caption">The Man-Slayer</span> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>THE CITIES OF REFUGE:</h1> + +<h3>OR,</h3> + +<h2>The Name of Jesus.</h2> + +<h4>A SUNDAY BOOK FOR THE YOUNG.</h4> + +<h3>BY<br /> +REV. JOHN R. MACDUFF, D.D.,</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Author Of “Morning And Night Watches,” “Memories of<br /> +Bethany,” “Mind And Words Of Jesus,” etc., etc.</span></h4> +<br /><br /> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“How sweet the <span class="smcap2">NAME</span> of Jesus sounds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">in a believer's ear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">and drives away his fear.”<br /></span> +</div></div> +<br /><br /> + + +<div class="center"> +NEW YORK:<br /> +ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,<br /> +No. 530 BROADWAY.<br /> +<br /> +1865.</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">Pg 4</a></span></p> +<br /><br /> + +<div class="center"> +<a href="#I"><b>Chapter I.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#II"><b>Chapter II.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#III"><b>Chapter III.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#THE_ROCK_OF_CASTELLO"><b>THE ROCK OF CASTELLO.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#JESUS_MY_ROCK"><b>JESUS, MY ROCK.</b></a><br /> +</div> +<br /> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">Pg 5</a></span></p> +<div class="blockquot"> +<h2><span class="smcap">My Dear Young Friends</span>,</h2> + +<p>This little book contains, with a few additions, +the substance of what was spoken one Sabbath to a +number of hearers of your own age. It may serve to +recall to those that listened to it, and to unfold to +those who did not, some simple and well-known, but +precious gospel truths.</p> + +<p>May He whose <span class="smcap2">NAME</span> it is designed to exalt, bless +you in reading it, and enable you from the heart to +repeat as your own happy experience, the well-known +verse of the beautiful hymn I have put on the title-page.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a></span></p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="block"><p>“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto +the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye be +come over Jordan into the land of Canaan; then ye shall +appoint you cities to be cities of refuge for you.”—<span class="smcap">Num.</span> +xxxv. 9-11.</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">Pg 7</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h2> + + +<p>When travelling lately through the +Simplon—one of the great Alpine passes +leading from Switzerland into Italy—I +observed, close by the roadside, at regular +distances, a number of plain, square +buildings. On these (sometimes over +the doorway, sometimes on the side) +were inscribed the words—“<span class="smcap">Refuge</span> +No. 1,” “<span class="smcap">Refuge</span> No. 2,” “<span class="smcap">Refuge</span> +No. 3,” &c. I think there were twenty +altogether. I was told, on inquiry, they +were intended as shelters for any hapless +travellers who might be overtaken by +the sudden storms which so often sweep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">Pg 8</a></span> +down from the snow-white mountains +bounding the prospect. These “<i>Refuges</i>,” +at the time I saw them, were +empty, for it was in the beginning of +summer, when everything, even in that +elevated region, was looking bright and +green. The Alpine rhododendron was +flushing, with its pink blossom, the +mountain sides; or growing up, along +with the lovely blue gentian, close by +stray patches of winter's snow which +were still filling the ridges and hollows +in the higher parts of the pass. Seldom +at this season are travellers exposed +to any peril from an Alpine storm. It +is different, however, in winter or spring, +when the avalanches come tumbling from +the heights, or the snow is drifting in huge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">Pg 9</a></span> +masses over that wonderful Road. Many +shivering wayfarers have fled with thankful +hearts into these shelters. Some have +been carried thither, in a state of insensibility, +by unknown benefactors, and on +gradually awaking to consciousness, have +blessed the kind hearts and hands which +have saved them from certain death, and +are now ministering to their necessities. +By others, alas! they have been reached +too late. Rescued from the snows of the +mountain, they have been conveyed to +them only to die.</p> + +<p>As I passed those Alpine “Retreats,” +I could not help being reminded of the +wonderful <i>Cities of Refuge</i> which God +graciously provided of old in Palestine +for the unfortunate manslayer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">Pg 10</a></span></p> + +<p>It sometimes happened, in the land of +Canaan, as in our own country, that a +Hebrew, without any evil purpose, would +cause the death of a brother Hebrew. +He did not intend to inflict any injury; +it was the result only of unhappy accident. +But, nevertheless, to show God's +detestation of the shedding of blood, he +was liable, by the Levitical law, to be +killed by the Avenger, or “Goel,”—the +person nearest related to the murdered +man. If he wished to escape with his +life, his only chance of safety was to flee +to one of these Refuge-cities. It mattered +not what his age, or name, or station +in life was. He might be young or +old, prince or noble, priest or prophet, +he was exposed every moment to death,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">Pg 11</a></span> +unless he availed himself of the offered +shelter. There was no time for delay, +he must betake himself to instant flight. +To linger might be to perish.</p> + +<p>Do you not think with pity of the unhappy +fugitive, obliged thus suddenly +to leave his home and all he most loved +on earth? If at the time he caused the +death, he was working in his vineyard, +the pruning-hook must be left to rust on +the branch. If he was ploughing with +his yoke of oxen, they must be left lowing +in the furrow. If he was busied in +his harvest-field, the sheaves must be left +unbound, and the reapers receive their +wages from another's hands. If he was +returning home fatigued at evening after +the toils of the day, and longing for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">Pg 12</a></span> +grateful repose, he dare give no “sleep +to his eyes, nor slumber to his eye-lids.” +His child may be lying pining +in sickness at his cottage, but it +may endanger him to return to clasp +that and his other little ones in his +embrace, and bid them a fond farewell. +He may have no time to alter +his raiment or take even his scrip or +pilgrim-staff. The Avenger of blood +may be in the adjoining street, or in +the dwelling hard by. Another hour +may be fatal;—“Skin for skin, all that +a man hath will he give for his life.”<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +Off he speeds in breathless haste—now +along the level road—now up the steep +ascent—with his breast heaving, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">Pg 13</a></span> +drops of perspiration standing on his +brow. Friends may meet him, but +with a wave of the hand, and shouting +“Goel! Goel!” he rushes on with fleet +footstep. Parched with thirst in the +hot noonday, he turns a longing eye +on the ripe grapes that are hanging +in purple clusters on the wayside, or on +the water trickling down the narrow +ravine. But he dare not pause. Knowing +full well that the Avenger is in +close pursuit, he hurries on with unabated +ardor. Happy sight, when he +sees at last, on some mountain slope, +the longed-for shelter! Happy, when, +weary and footsore, covered with dust, +the portals of the city close him in. +A few moments before, had he been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">Pg 14</a></span> +overtaken on the mountain-top by his +pursuer, he might have been heard to cry +out, in the bitterness of despair, “Hast +thou found me, O mine enemy?” Now, +safe within the secure shelter, he can rejoicingly +exclaim, even with the Avenger +standing close by, “O thou enemy, destructions +are come to a perpetual end.”<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>These <i>Cities of Refuge</i> form one of +the Old Testament <span class="smcap2">PICTURES</span> of the sinner, +and of the coming gospel salvation. +This was the way God took to teach the +Jewish people great gospel truths. Just +as we know that youthful readers like +a story-book all the better when it has +got pictures in it; so God taught the +early church, when it was in a state of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">Pg 15</a></span> +“<i>childhood</i>,” by means of similar <i>pictures</i> +or <i>types</i>; and the present was one of them. +It represented, and still represents, the +sinner who has broken the Divine law +as pursued by an avenger: <span class="smcap">Justice</span> following +with drawn sword, exclaiming, +“<i>The soul that sinneth it must die.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> +“<i>Though hand join in hand, the wicked +shall not escape unpunished.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>This is a picture, too, which applies +to every one without exception, rich +and poor, parent and child, master and +servant; “for all have sinned, and come +short of the glory of God.”<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> But a +glorious <span class="smcap2">CITY</span>, “<i>salvation</i> its walls and +bulwarks,” opens its gates. The sinner +is exhorted to “escape thither;” to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">Pg 16</a></span> +“linger not in all the plain;” to “flee +for his life, lest he be consumed.”<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +That city is <i>Jesus</i>, the sinner's Refuge +and the sinner's Friend. Once within +its walls, no enemy can touch him,—no +sword can terrify him. He can +triumphantly exclaim, “Who shall separate +me from the love of Christ?”<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>Dear young friends, it is because I +know this City of Refuge is open for +the youngest of <i>you</i>, that I now write +these pages. I love to read about a +group of little ones who, eighteen hundred +years ago, were gathered round +its gates, asking admission; and when +others, with unkind words, were sending +them away, He who held the gates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">Pg 17</a></span> +in His hand, “<i>who openeth and no man +shutteth</i>,”<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> said, “<i>Suffer the little children +to come unto me, and forbid them +not; for of such is the kingdom of +heaven.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It is because I believe and +know that many as young as <i>you</i> have +obeyed the Saviour's invitation, and +have already entered this happy City, +that I ask you to come and hear while +I speak to you about it. I believe and +know that many such have learned to +feel that they are sinners, and that they +need a Saviour. They have been taught +by God's own Word and Spirit that they +have broken His holy law, and have +thereby exposed themselves to eternal +death. But they are now safe within<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">Pg 18</a></span> +the Gospel Shelter. The “enemy” is +“stilled.” The “avenger” has sheathed +his sword. I think I can hear their +youthful voices, as they march through +the streets of the City, singing, “<i>Out +of the mouth of babes and sucklings +hast thou ordained strength because +of thine enemies, that thou mightest</i> +<span class="smcap2">STILL</span> <i>the enemy and the</i> <span class="smcap2">AVENGER</span>.”<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> +“<i>Blessed be the Lord; for He hath +showed me His marvellous kindness in</i> +<span class="smcap2">A STRONG CITY</span>.”<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">Pg 19</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.<br /> +THE SIX CITIES.</h2> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">Pg 20</a></span></p> +<div class="block"><p>“And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, +and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, +which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah. And on the +other side Jordan, by Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer +in the wilderness upon the plain out of the tribe of Reuben, +and Ramoth in Gilead out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan +in Bashan out of the Tribe of Manasseh. These were the +cities appointed for all the Children of Israel, and for the +stranger that sojourneth among them, that whosoever Killeth +any person at unawares might flee thither, and not die +by the hand of the Avenger of Blood, until he stood before +the Congregation.”-<span class="smcap">Josh.</span> xx. 7-9.</p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">Pg 21</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>II.</h2> + + +<p>It is of these <i>six cities</i> here mentioned, +I am now going to speak. The name +of each of the six has something significantly +to tell about <span class="smcap2">THE NAME OF JESUS</span>. +They are six pictures of the Saviour, +hung up in the Old Testament picture-gallery. +I am going to ask you to take +a journey with me to these towns of old +Palestine. Before we enter their gates, +I should like again to repeat the verse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">Pg 22</a></span> +of the precious hymn placed at the +beginning of this book:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“How sweet the NAME of <i>Jesus</i> sounds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In a believer's ear!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And drives away his fear.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img_after_022.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Kedesh" title="Kedesh" /> +<span class="caption">Kedesh</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">Pg 23</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/p023.jpg" width="300" height="56" alt="p023" title="First City" /></div> +<h3>First City—Kedesh.</h3> + +<p>If you look far north in the map of +Palestine above the lake of Merom, near +the snowy peaks of mount Hermon and +Lebanon, you will see where this Refuge-city +lies. Recent travellers describe its +ruins as still standing on a rocky ridge +in the midst of green hills, surrounded +with the remains of forts and castles +built by the Crusaders in the middle +ages. It was situated within the tribe +of Naphtali, and must have been it great +town at the time when the old warrior +Barak, who was born within its walls, +marched from its gates to meet Sisera in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">Pg 24</a></span> +the plain below with his nine hundred +chariots of iron.</p> + +<p>What does its name tell of Christ?</p> + +<p>The Hebrew word <span class="smcap">Kedesh</span> signifies +“<i>Holy</i>.” Jesus was “<i>The Holy One</i>.” +Not one stain of sin polluted His holy +human nature. Angels in heaven, as +they cast their crowns at His feet, cry, +“<i>Holy! holy! holy!</i>”<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Devils on +earth were compelled to exclaim, “<i>We +know thee who thou art, the</i> <span class="smcap">Holy One</span> +<i>of God.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Jewish priests, as they +spake of Him of old by types, took “<i>a +lamb without blemish</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Jewish prophets, +as they spake of Him in their +predictions, called Him “<i>The Righteous</i> +(<i>or</i> <span class="smcap">Holy</span>) <i>Branch</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Apostles, as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">Pg 25</a></span> +wrote about Him, said “<i>He was</i> <span class="smcap2">HOLY</span>, +<i>harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> +When He was Himself on earth, +He could challenge His bitterest foes, +“<i>Which of you convinceth me of sin?</i>”<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> +And when He came down, soon after +His ascension, from His throne in the +skies, we find Him proclaiming as His +name, “<i>He that is</i> <span class="smcap2">HOLY</span>, <i>He that is +True!</i>”<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p>Reader, remember this. Jesus never +could have saved you unless He had +been “glorious in holiness.” If He had +had one sin in Him, you and I must have +been lost for ever. Just as one leak in +Noah's ark of old would have sunk it, +so one leak of sin in Jesus, the true Ark,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">Pg 26</a></span> +would have plunged us all in the depths +of eternal despair. Let us, then, love +often to walk round the walls of <span class="smcap">Kedesh</span>, +and think of <i>our</i> “City of Refuge” as +“<i>The</i> <span class="smcap">Holy</span> <i>Child Jesus</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>And when you ponder <i>His</i> holiness, +seek to be holy, as <i>He</i> was. How He +hated sin! How He loved to do His +heavenly Father's will! How gentle, +and good, and kind He was to all! He +never was angry, or passionate, or revengeful. +When a youth, at His early +home in Nazareth, “He increased in +favour with God and man.”<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> Be <i>like</i> +Jesus in His <i>holiness</i>! Let <i>KEDESH</i> +be a word written on your young hearts! +Whenever you are in trouble or difficulty,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">Pg 27</a></span> +or temptation, always ask, “How +would the <span class="smcap">Holy Jesus</span> have acted here?” +Turn the words of your well-known +hymn into a prayer. While you say—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I love the <span class="smcap2">NAME</span> of Jesus,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Immanuel, Christ the Lord;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like fragrance on the breezes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His <i>name</i> abroad is pour'd;”—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="noindent">seek also to add—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“I long to be <i>like</i> Jesus,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Meek, lowly, loving, mild;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I long to be <i>like</i> Jesus,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The Father's <span class="smcap">Holy</span> Child!”<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">Pg 28</a></span></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img_after_028.jpg" width="500" height="332" alt="Shechem" title="Shechem" /> +<span class="caption">Shechem</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">Pg 29</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/p029.jpg" width="300" height="49" alt="p029" title="" /></div> + +<h3>Second City—Shechem.</h3> + +<p>Shechem was situated at the extremity +of a valley among the hills of Ephraim. +The famous mountains of Ebal and Gerizim +rose on either side, from the slopes +of which the blessings and the curses +of the law were proclaimed in the ears +of assembled Israel. If Jerusalem was +the greatest and the grandest of the +cities of Palestine, Shechem was perhaps +the most beautiful. It is still spoken of +by travellers as one of the loveliest spots +in the Holy Land, with its orchards of +olive, fig, and pomegranate, and its flocks +of singing-birds, which have made the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">Pg 30</a></span> +inhabitants give to the graceful slope on +which it looks down, the name of the +“Musical Valley.” I don't know if the +streets in the olden time resembled what +they are now. The following is the +recent description of a traveller familiar +with them:—“The streets are narrow +and vaulted over, and in the winter time +it is difficult to pass along many of them +on account of brooks, which rush over +the pavement with deafening roar.... +It has mulberry, orange, pomegranate, +and other trees mingled in with the +houses, whose odoriferous flowers load +the air with delicious perfume during +the months of April and May.”<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> You +do not require to be told that <i>Shechem</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">Pg 31</a></span> +is a very ancient city, and that many +interesting events in sacred story took +place in connexion with it. The earliest +mention made of it is when the patriarch +Abraham slept under its oaks, (the +Terebinths of Moreh,) when he came to +Canaan from distant Chaldea, and erected +his first altar under their shade;<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> and +one of the last Bible notices regarding +it, is in connexion with the woman of +Samaria, when Jesus sat with her at “the +well of Sychar,” and spoke to her of the +better fountain, “springing up to everlasting +life.”<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<p>What does the name <span class="smcap">Shechem</span> tell of +Christ?</p> + +<p>It is a word which means “<span class="smcap2">SHOULDER</span>.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">Pg 32</a></span>Jesus, our Refuge, bore a guilty world +upon His shoulder. The ancients had a +fabled Atlas, who was supposed to carry +the earth on his shoulders. Jesus Christ +is the true <span class="smcap">Atlas</span>. “<i>Surely He hath +borne our griefs and carried our sorrows!</i>”<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> +All the sins of all His people +Jesus bore for ever away. Think of +that heavy load which bowed Him down +to the ground in the garden of Gethsemane, +and caused drops of blood to +fall from His brow! No other one <i>but</i> +Jesus could have carried such an awful +load and burden as this. No angel or +archangel could have done so. Jesus, +being God, was alone “able to save unto +the uttermost.”<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> He is the only “sure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">Pg 33</a></span> +foundation” that could sustain all the +building.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> With any other, it would +have fallen into a mass of ruins.</p> + +<p>But I love not only to visit the old +city of <i>Shechem</i>, and to think of Jesus +bearing the guilt of His people on His +<i>shoulders</i>, but I like to think of Him +as the true <span class="smcap">Shechem</span> <i>now</i>. He is our +<i>Shechem</i> at God's right hand. “The +government is upon His <span class="smcap2">SHOULDER</span>.”<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> +The Church and the world are upheld +by Him. Believers—the poorest, the +weakest, the humblest—are on the +<i>shoulders</i> of Jesus. He is bearing the +weight of them all; loving them all, +attending to them all, interceding for +them all. All that befalls me, Jesus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">Pg 34</a></span> +orders. Food and raiment, health and +strength, friends and home, are gifts +from Him. Every tear I shed, He +knows it, He appoints it. If he sends +me sorrow and trial, I will go and enter +the gates of this city <span class="smcap">Shechem</span>, and +remember, “<i>Jesus</i> (Jesus, who died for +me) bears me on his <i>shoulder</i>!”</p> + +<p>Moses speaks of God conducting the +children of Israel through the wilderness +of old as a kind father carries on +his shoulder his weak and weary child. +“<i>Thou hast seen how that the Lord thy +God bare thee, as a man doth bear his +son.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> And David says in an hour of +trouble, “<i>I am poor and needy, yet the +Lord</i> (lit) <i>carries</i> me on his heart.”<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">Pg 35</a></span>I like to look at that New Testament +picture—Jesus, the good Shepherd, carrying +a bleating sheep or lamb back +on His shoulder to the fold. That poor +wanderer had gone astray on the dark +mountains; but the great and gracious +Shepherd had gone after it “until He +found it; and when He <i>had</i> found it, +<i>He laid it on His SHOULDERS, +rejoicing</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p>Young reader, what <i>perfect</i> security +and safety you have in Jesus, and in His +Gospel City! Far, far more so than the +manslayer had of old in his. I daresay, +even although he was delivered from +the Avenger, the Hebrew refugee could +not help at times dreading lest the other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">Pg 36</a></span> +might come upon him secretly. I daresay, +at night, on his lonely couch, he +would sometimes dream of the Goel +stealing beside his pillow, and he would +start from his unquiet sleep at the scaring +vision. Not so in the case of those +who have fled to the “Gospel Refuge.” +They can say in sweet confidence, “I +will both lay me down in peace, and +sleep; because thou, Lord, only makest +me to dwell in safety.”<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> He who is +their “<i>Keeper</i>” says of them, “<i>They +shall never perish; neither shall any +pluck them out of my hand.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img_after_036.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Hebron" title="Hebron" /> +<span class="caption">Hebron</span> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">Pg 37</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/p037.jpg" width="300" height="51" alt="p037" title="" /></div> + +<h3>Third City—Hebron.</h3> + +<p>Hebron is the most ancient of all the +cities of Canaan. It was as old, if not +older, than Damascus, and was built +seven years before Zoar in Egypt. After +wandering about from place to place in +the land of promise, pitching their tents +and altars, it was here the patriarchs +had, for the first time, a settled home. +We need not wonder at their selection +of the old Canaanite city, on the peaceful +slope of the southern hills, nestling +amid olive-groves and terebinths, and +looking down on one of the most fertile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">Pg 38</a></span> +valleys in Palestine, with its orchards +and corn-fields. On its eastern height +is the spot which gives it to this day +perhaps its most sacred interest—the +cave of Machpelah, where the dust of +the patriarchs has reposed for four thousand +years. It must have been outside +its walls that the angels appeared to +Abraham, when he was seated at his tent +door. The adjoining height is pointed +out as the place from which the patriarch +saw the smoke of burning Sodom +rising from its own deep valley. It was +in Hebron David was anointed king over +Israel. It was amid its vineyards and +mountain-slopes that John the Baptist +grew up as a little boy, before he appeared +in the wilderness of Judea, to tell of One<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">Pg 39</a></span> +mightier than he, “whose shoe-latchet” +he was “not worthy to unloose.”<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>What does the name <span class="smcap">Hebron</span> tell of +Christ?</p> + +<p>In Hebrew it means “<i>fellowship</i>,” +“<i>society</i>,” “<i>friendship</i>.” <span class="smcap">Jesus</span> has +brought guilty man into fellowship with +God. On account of sin we had forfeited +this fellowship. We had made +God not our friend, but our enemy. +We were cut off from communion with +all that is holy and happy. Angels, in +their errands of mercy through the universe, +passed by our world; they could +hold no intercourse with those who had +rebelled against their Creator. Can none +bridge this wide gulf which separates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">Pg 40</a></span> +between earth and heaven? Can no ladder +be let down by which happy angels +can descend once more on their visits of +love, and fallen man once more be raised +up to hold “fellowship” with God and +holy creatures?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jesus</span> is the true <span class="smcap">Hebron</span>—the true +ladder of Jacob let down from heaven +and reaching to earth. Jesus has “reconciled +things on earth and things in +heaven,”<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> He hath “raised us up together, +and made us sit together in heavenly +places.”<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> We who were once +“afar off” have been “brought nigh +by the blood of Christ.”<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>I trust many who read this will love +often to visit in thought the old city of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">Pg 41</a></span> +the patriarchs, and to dwell on its name +and meaning, “<i>fellowship</i>.” Think of +what <i>you</i> would have been without Jesus, +your Hebron-City of Refuge,—a poor +outcast in creation, an alien from all that +is holy and happy. But by Jesus all is +changed. God is your Father—Christ +is your elder Brother. In Him, God +loves you,—angels visit you,—the Holy +Spirit teaches you,—heaven is open for +you. You are enrolled as a citizen of +the great <i>Hebron</i> above—“the city which +hath foundations, whose builder and +maker is God.” Christ has made you to +be members of the great heavenly family; +so that the little child who loves +Jesus, is brother or sister to the archangel +before the throne! You may be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">Pg 42</a></span> +deprived of human friendship and fellowship. +The brother or sister, the father +or mother, or friend you once dearly +loved, may be laid in some earthly Machpelah—some +silent grave. But rejoice! +nothing can separate you from a better +friend and more lasting fellowship. +Though all earthly joys were to perish, +you can always rush within the gates of +that mighty Hebron of refuge, and say, +“<i>Truly our</i> '<span class="smcap2">FELLOWSHIP</span>' <i>is with the Father, +and with his Son Jesus Christ.</i>”</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Earthly friends may pain and grieve me,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One day kind, the next they leave me;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But this Friend can ne'er deceive me—<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Oh, how He loves!”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img_after_042.jpg" width="500" height="321" alt="Bezer" title="Bezer" /> +<span class="caption">Bezer</span></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">Pg 43</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/p043.jpg" width="300" height="53" alt="p043" title="" /></div> + +<h3>Fourth City—Bezer.</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Bezer</span> was situated beyond the Jordan, +in the tribe of Reuben. Although its +precise site has not been discovered, we +may infer that it was perched on one of +the many rocky heights among the mountains +of <i>Abarim</i>,—perhaps a spur of the +great mount Nebo, from whose summit +Moses was permitted, before death, to +get a view of the Land of Promise. +The northern portion of the waters of +the Dead Sea would be seen from it, and +the pastoral mountains of Judah in the +distance. From its name, as well as +from its being a border town, and subject +to attack from the warlike tribe of Moab,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">Pg 44</a></span> +Bezer would probably be strongly fortified,—similar, +perhaps, in this respect to +the towns in the neighbourhood, with +which the Israelites were so struck on +their first approach to Canaan, with “their +walls great and high, reaching to heaven.”</p> + +<p>What does the name <span class="smcap">Bezer</span> tell of +Christ?</p> + +<p>It literally means “<i>stronghold</i>,” or +Rock. Jesus is the believer's <span class="smcap">Bezer</span>. +The sinner is in danger everywhere else, +but in Jesus he is safe. He is invited to +“turn to the <span class="smcap2">STRONGHOLD</span>” as a “prisoner +of hope,” and once within its gates, +“though an host encamp against him,” +he need “fear no evil.”</p> + +<p>What a mighty force <i>does</i> encamp +against him! There is <i>God's Holy Law</i>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">Pg 45</a></span> +with all its terrible threatenings and +curses. But sheltered in the true <span class="smcap">Bezer</span> +he can triumphantly say, “It is God that +justifieth: who is he that condemneth?”<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p> + +<p>There is <i>Satan</i>, with his artful wiles +and countless temptations. He was once +a bright angel himself. He knows what +holiness and happiness are. But being +now a wicked spirit, he would make +others as wicked and unhappy as himself. +He is spoken of in the Bible as “a strong +man armed.”<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> But Jesus is “stronger” +than this strong man. If you have fled +for refuge to this great gospel <i>Bezer</i>, +seated within its secure bulwarks you +can joyfully exclaim, “<i>I will say of the +Lord, He is my rock, and my fortress,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">Pg 46</a></span> and my deliverer; my God, my strength, +in whose I will put my trust; my buckler, +and the horn of my salvation, and my +high tower.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>There is your own <i>Wicked Heart</i>, with +its sinful thoughts, and vain imaginations, +and deep corruptions—for a man's +worst foes are often those of his own +household. One of these heart-foes will +tempt you to tell a lie; another to swear; +another to be dishonest; another to be +selfish; another to be passionate; another +to be unkind. But He that is <i>for</i> you, +is greater than they that are <i>against</i> you. +Safer than in any earthly castle, you can +take up your warrior-song, “<i>The name +of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous +runneth into it, and is safe.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">Pg 47</a></span>There are the <i>Trials and Sorrows and +Distresses of this world</i>,—those things +that cause sad hearts and tearful eyes. +But that blessed Saviour—your Rock and +Stronghold—“knows your sorrows,” for +He felt them. He marks your tears, for +He shed the same himself. Fleeing to +this true <span class="smcap">Bezer</span> in the time of affliction, +you can dry your tears and sing, “<i>God +also will be a refuge for the distressed, a +refuge in the time of trouble; and they +that know thy name shall put their trust +in thee.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>And there is <i>Death</i>, the last enemy of +all. But even over this King of terrors +and Terror of kings, you can shout in +triumph from your Divine shelter, “<i>O +death, where is thy sting?... Thanks</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">Pg 48</a></span><i> be to God, who giveth me the victory +through the Lord Jesus Christ.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> + +<p>And Jesus is a Stronghold for <i>all</i>. I +have already spoken of the little children +of old rushing to its gates,—infants smiling +fearless in the Saviour's arms. He +combines the majesty of Deity with the +tenderness of man. If He had been the +great God alone, you might have been +awed at the thought of going to Him. +But what says the prophet Isaiah of this +true <span class="smcap">Bezer</span>?—“<i>A MAN shall be as a +hiding-place from the wind, and a covert +from the tempest.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> He Himself says in +another scripture, “<i>I will turn mine +hand upon the little ones.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + +<p>In one of the great strongholds that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">Pg 49</a></span> +were besieged in our last Indian rebellion, +the Christian mothers were wont to +hush their infants asleep by singing, “<i>God +is our refuge and strength, a very present +help in trouble.</i>” My young friends, “<i>as +one whom his mother comforteth</i>,” so is +God willing to “<i>comfort you</i>;” and here +is His word of comfort: “<i>The Lord is +good, a STRONGHOLD in the day of +trouble; and he knoweth them that trust +in him.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> In the old Cities of Refuge +no weapons of any kind were allowed to +be made. Those who possessed them +had to surrender them. This is true in a +nobler and better sense regarding the +Gospel Stronghold. There can be no +deadly weapons forged there. Their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">Pg 50</a></span> +edge is blunted: “<i>There is now no condemnation +to them that are in Christ +Jesus.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> Satan's armoury has been +plundered; the “Stronger than he” has +“<i>taken from him all his armour wherein +he trusted, and divided the spoil</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>I have said that the word <span class="smcap">Bezer</span> means +“<i>Rock</i>” as well as “stronghold.” +“<i>Trust in the Lord for ever; for in the +Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength</i>,” +or, (marginal reading,) “<span class="smcap">the Rock of +Ages</span>.”<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> May you not well say, with +your eye on this glorious “Refuge”—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Dear <span class="smcap">Name</span>, the <span class="smcap">Rock</span> on which I build,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">My shield and <i>hiding-place</i>;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My never-failing treasury, fill'd<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With boundless stores of grace!”<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“<span class="smcap">Rock</span> of Ages, cleft for me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let me hide myself in Thee!”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img_after_050.jpg" width="500" height="313" alt="Ramoth" title="Ramoth" /> +<span class="caption">Ramoth</span></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">Pg 51</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/p051.jpg" width="300" height="56" alt="p051" title="" /></div> + +<h3>Fifth City—Ramoth.</h3> + +<p>Ramoth was situated in Gilead, within +the tribe of Gad, and somewhere near +the banks of the brook Jabbok, where, +you know, Jacob wrestled in prayer +with the angel. It must have occupied a +commanding position among the beautifully-wooded +glens of Gilead, and, like +Bezer, been strongly fortified. We infer +this latter from the many sieges it had +undergone. Being not only, like the +other, a border town of Palestine, but +situated in the direct route taken by the +invading Syrian armies, it must have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">Pg 52</a></span> +been constantly exposed to hostile attacks.</p> + +<p>You can think of Ramoth, then, among +the hills and slopes on the other side of +the Jordan, with their forests of native +oak, which the famous “<i>bulls</i> of Bashan” +(herds of wild cattle) roamed at large; +while more peaceful flocks browsed on +the meadows which fringed the mountain-streams.</p> + +<p>What does the name <span class="smcap">Ramoth</span> tell us +regarding Christ?</p> + +<p><i>Ramoth</i> literally means <span class="smcap">Exaltation</span>. +Jesus is the true <i>Ramoth</i>; He is “<i>exalted</i> +to be a Prince and a Saviour!” He +was once lowly, despised, rejected, crucified, +slain. He compares Himself to a +poor outcast and exile amid these forests<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">Pg 53</a></span> +of Gilead: “<i>Many bulls have compassed +me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me +round. They gaped upon me with their +mouths, as a ravening and a roaring +lion.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> But having been exalted on the +cross as a <i>suffering</i> Saviour, He is now +exalted on the throne as a <i>glorious</i> King. +“<i>God hath highly</i> <span class="smcap2">EXALTED</span> <i>Him</i>;”<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>—angels +exalt Him—seraphs adore Him—saints +praise Him—the Church on earth +magnifies Him—the Church redeemed in +heaven will magnify and exalt Him for +ever and ever!</p> + +<p>Young reader, delight often to walk +around the walls of <i>Ramoth</i>, and think +of Jesus “exalted at God's right hand.” +He is there pleading your cause. Though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">Pg 54</a></span> +exalted, He has not forgotten the lowliest +or humblest of His people. He is +the Greatest of all Beings, but He is the +Kindest of all too. The first time after +His exaltation when He came down to +earth to speak to the aged apostle John, +John wondered if the glories of heaven +had altered His love and tenderness. He +remembered how often before he used to +lean on His bosom. When he looked, +however, <i>now</i>, upon the glorious Being +that stood before him in His lustrous +garment, with “His eyes like a flame of +fire,” “he fell down at His feet like one +dead.” But the same gentle hand +touched him, the same gentle voice he +was wont to hear so often in past years, +said to him, “Fear not!” How sweet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">Pg 55</a></span> +for us to think that we have <i>exalted</i> on +the highest throne of the universe an unchanged +and unchanging Saviour, an +ever-living, never-dying Friend.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Though now ascended up on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He bends on earth a brother's eye.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jesus</span> is exalted in heaven, and exalted +by all the glorious family of heaven. +But, alas! there is one place where +He is often <i>not</i> exalted, but rather cast +down, and that is the human heart. +That heart has been too truly compared +to the inn of Bethlehem, where +there was room for every guest but +the Lord of glory! Ye of tender +years, whom Christ loved so much +on earth—whom He fondled in His +arms of mercy; see that it is not +so with you. “My son,” He says,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">Pg 56</a></span> +“give me thine heart.” See that He +is enthroned there as Lord of all. Exalt +Him in everything: in your thoughts, +in your words, in your deeds. Welcome +Him, as the children of the temple welcomed +Him to Jerusalem of old. Take up +their song, and sing, “<i>Hosannah to the +Son of David! hosannah in the highest!</i>”</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“When, His salvation bringing,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To Zion Jesus came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The children follow'd singing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hosanna to His name.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor was the Lord offended<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That children joined the throng;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But smiled that they attended,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And loved to hear their song.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“And since the Lord retaineth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His love for children still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though now as King He reigneth<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On Zion's heavenly hill;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We'll humbly come before Him<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To celebrate His praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And while His saints adore Him,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our youthful voices raise.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/img_after_056.jpg" width="500" height="334" alt="Golan" title="Golan" /> +<span class="caption">Golan</span></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">Pg 57</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/p057.jpg" width="300" height="53" alt="p057" title="" /></div> + +<h3>Sixth City—Golan.</h3> + +<p>Golan was situated in Bashan, in the +tribe of Manasseh, among the pastoral +hills north of the lake of Gennesaret. +It formed the most northerly Refuge-Sanctuary +on the east side of Jordan, +as Kedesh did on the west; but there +are no particular events connected with +it in Bible story.</p> + +<p>What does the name of this last City +of Refuge tell us regarding <i>Jesus</i>?</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Golan</span> literally signifies <i>Joy</i>. Jesus +is truly the <i>Golan</i> of His people; they +may have many others, but He is their +“chief joy!” Well may they call Him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">Pg 58</a></span> +<span class="smcap">Golan</span>; for not one joy could have +ever visited them had it not been for +<i>Him</i>. The world would have been to +them, from first to last, a “valley of +Baca,” (weeping,) had not Jesus died for +their sins, and saved their souls. Well +might the angel say, when he came to +the plains of Bethlehem to announce +the Saviour's birth, “<i>Behold, I bring +you good tidings of</i> <span class="smcap2">GREAT JOY</span>!”</p> + +<p>There is not one step the Christian +takes but Jesus is <span class="smcap">Golan</span> to him—“joy.” +He is straying, a lost sheep on +the dark mountains, in search of peace: +Jesus meets him, and says, “<i>Your sins +are all forgiven you</i>;”—he is joyful at +<i>that</i>. He is wandering a prodigal +from his Father's house: Jesus brings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">Pg 59</a></span> +him to his lost home, and calls him +His own child; and he is joyful at +<i>that</i>. He has to travel a long and +dreary journey ere he reaches his true +home in heaven: Jesus gives him His +arm to lean upon; and he “goes on his +way <i>rejoicing</i>.” He has many fiery trials +to try him: Jesus tells him not to think +these “strange,” but rather to “<i>rejoice</i>,” +inasmuch as He is “partaker with him +in his sufferings.”<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> He has, at last, +to walk through the dark Valley: Jesus +meets him there, and supports him there. +He sees “the King in His beauty,” and +the land that is yet “afar off;” and, +believing, “<i>he rejoices with joy unspeakable +and full of glory</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> When<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">Pg 60</a></span> +Jesus beholds him from His throne in +judgment, what are to be His blessed +words of welcome? “<i>Enter ye into +the</i> <span class="smcap2">JOY</span> <i>of your Lord.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> And when, +as a ransomed one, he enters the streets +of the New Jerusalem, at whose feet is +it that he is to cast, through all eternity, +his crown? “In thy presence,” +O Saviour God, is “fullness of <span class="smcap2">JOY</span>!”</p> + +<p>Young reader, love often to gaze on +the walls of this City of Refuge. The +sacred writer, in giving the list of these +six cities, seems to have kept it to the +last because it is a happy word, and +speaks of the happy prospects of all +those that love the Lord Jesus. Believe +me, there is no true <i>joy</i> but in God.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">Pg 61</a></span> +The joy of the wicked is like that of a +noisy stream—noisy because it is shallow. +The joy, on the other hand, which +Jesus gives, is like a great river,—deep, +calm, ever-flowing, overflowing;—not +full in winter and dry in summer, but +full, and clear, and refreshing all the +year long. It may be always truly said +of Jesus, the great Gospel Refuge, and +of those who have fled to Him, what was +said of old about Samaria, “There was +great <span class="smcap2">JOY</span> in that <span class="smcap2">CITY</span>.”<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> It was the +object of all that Christ did and said +on earth to give you this joy. “<i>These +things have I spoken unto you</i>,” says +He, “<i>that my</i> <span class="smcap2">JOY</span> <i>might remain in +you, and that your</i> <span class="smcap2">JOY</span> <i>might be full.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">Pg 62</a></span>Love Him now, and serve Him now +and follow Him now, that you may +come at last to the true Golan, in His +glorious presence above, and “<span class="smcap2">REJOICE</span> +<i>evermore</i>!”</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Then in a nobler, sweeter song,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I'll sing Thy power to save,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When this poor lisping, stammering tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lies silent in the grave.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Unworthy though I be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For me a blood-bought, free reward,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A golden harp for me!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“'Tis strung, and tuned, for endless years,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And form'd, by power divine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To sound in God the Father's ears<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No other <span class="smcap2">NAME</span> but Thine!”<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">Pg 63</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2> + +<h3>THE GOSPEL REFUGE.</h3> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">Pg 64</a></span></p> +<br /> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="block"> +<p>“We have a strong consolation who have fled for +Refuge.”—<span class="smcap">Heb.</span> vi. 18.</p> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">Pg 65</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>III.</h2> + + +<p>And now, my young friends, we have +finished the survey of our picture-gallery. +We have wandered among these six +cities in the old land of promise. I shall +repeat their names once more, that you +may remember them.</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Cities" width="50%"> +<tr> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Kedesh</span>,</td> + <td align='left'><i>Holiness.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Shechem</span>,</td> + <td align='left'><i>Shoulder.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Hebron</span>,</td> + <td align='left'><i>Fellowship.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bezer</span>,</td> + <td align='left'><i>Stronghold.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Ramoth</span>,</td> + <td align='left'><i>Exaltation.</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Golan</span>,</td> + <td align='left'><i>Joy.</i></td> +</tr> +</table></div> + +<p>What a complete Saviour! In Him +“all fullness dwells.” In the case of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">Pg 66</a></span> +some of these Hebrew cities, “not one +stone has been left upon another that +has not been thrown down.” Owls are +screaming amid their ruins, and jackals +prowling for their prey. But not so with +<span class="smcap">Him</span> of whom they were types. <i>Jesus</i> +ever lives! He never changes. Time +and decay cannot crumble the walls of +the Gospel Refuge. He is “the same +yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a></p> + +<p>I want, in this last chapter, to say one +or two additional things to you about the +Cities of Refuge. Let me ask you to +give me your earnest attention.</p> + +<p>The <i>first</i> thing I wish you to remember +is, <i>that all the preciousness of that</i> +<span class="smcap2">NAME</span> <i>of Jesus, and all the security +of the</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">Pg 67</a></span><i> Gospel</i> <span class="smcap">Refuge</span>, <i>is derived +from the merits of His death for you upon the cross.</i></p> + +<p>This is the truth of all truths, and one, +too, strikingly taught in these olden +types. If you read the Bible account, +you will find that the manslayer had his +liberty restored to him <i>upon the death of +the High Priest</i>.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> When the tidings of +the decease of this great Head of the +Jewish nation reached these refuge towns, +I daresay many of their citizens would be +heard, with wailing cry, mourning the +loss of God's faithful servant. But the +intelligence was very different to the +captive Hebrew. It brought him joyful +news! For that event enabled him to +go forth from his banishment, and to terminate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">Pg 68</a></span> +years of painful separation from +all he loved on earth. The avenger +could no longer injure him. He could +return, happy and secure, to the comforts +of his long-lost home.</p> + +<p>So, dear reader, it is the <i>death</i> of <i>your</i> +great High Priest that has purchased +your release from spiritual captivity. +The law can no longer hold you. Justice +can no longer threaten you. You can +go forth with the glorious liberty of a +child of God, saying, “<i>Who</i> is he that +condemneth?—<i>It is Christ that died.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p> + +<p>You can picture to yourselves, on the +death of the Jewish High Priest, the +Hebrew captive going forth from the +city, within whose gloomy walls he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">Pg 69</a></span> +long been enclosed. You can picture +him, with merry heart, making the valleys +through which he hurried to his +native dwelling, echo with songs of joy! +And shall not <i>you</i>, with happier heart +and voice, sing this song as you journey +on to your heavenly home, and see it +gleaming in the distance, on the other +side of Jordan—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“When from the dust of death I rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To take my mansion in the skies,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This all my hope—this all my plea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That <i>Jesus lived and died for me!</i>”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The <i>second</i> thing I want to say to you +is, that <i>God has made the gospel City of +Refuge easy of access, and has filled it +with rich provision</i>.</p> + +<p>He made the way as plain as possible<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">Pg 70</a></span> +to the manslayer of old. The cities +themselves were generally on a height, +so as to be seen at a far distance. The +roads leading to them were carefully +kept. They were broader than others +in Palestine, (sixteen yards wide.) The +Jewish magistrates and judges went +once every year to inspect them, and to +order repairs. Where streams occurred, +there were bridges thrown across. +Where there were angles or by-roads, +posts with “<i>Refuge</i>” on them were set +up; and as there were no bridges across +Jordan, three of the cities were placed, +as I have already mentioned, on one side +of the river, and three on the other; +so that all might easily get at them, +and none might have any excuse for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">Pg 71</a></span> +not fleeing. The nearest city could always +be reached by the manslayer in +half a day. Moreover, we are informed +there were ample stores of provisions +laid up in them. They were supplied +with wells of water, and Levites were +placed in turn as porters or gatekeepers, +to be ready to welcome every fugitive +into these homes of safety.</p> + +<p>So God has done everything for <i>you</i>, +to make the Gospel Refuge accessible. +Your parents and ministers—your Bibles +and churches and good books—are all, +just like these refuge signals, pointing +away from the cross-roads and by-roads +of human reason, and human error, and +self-righteousness, to the Lord Jesus +Christ, and saying, “Flee! flee! flee for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">Pg 72</a></span> +refuge to lay <i>hold</i> on the hope set before +you!” <i>Jesus</i>, too, the true Gospel +Refuge, is full of rich provision. “Ye +are complete in Him.” He, as the true +Joseph, gives forth out of the storehouses +in His “treasure-cities,” to all His needy +people. What are some of these provisions? +There is pardon — peace — justification — adoption — sanctification, — strength +for the hour of weakness, — grace +for the hour of temptation, — and +the good hope of everlasting life for the +hour of death. No wonder that he says +to every poor sinner seeking admission +within these gates, “<i>I am the bread of +life: he that cometh unto me shall never +hunger.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">Pg 73</a></span>As in the cities of Canaan, so in this +glorious Gospel-City of which they were +types, there is a Well of living water. +What is this? It is the Holy Spirit. +He is often in Scripture compared to +water. “<i>If any man thirst</i>,” said Jesus, +“<i>let him come unto me, and drink. This +spake he of the Spirit.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> This all-glorious +well-spring, moreover, is not +like those of the Palestine cities, which +were sometimes dried up in seasons of +drought, but “springing up unto everlasting +life.” Angels, too, are the porters,—the +blessed warders that keep the +gates of this Gospel-City. “<i>Are they not +all ministering spirits sent forth to minister +to them who are heirs of salvation?</i>”<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">Pg 74</a></span> +They love to watch by these gates, and +to welcome every wanderer. How +gladly they give the word, “<i>Open ye the +gates, that the righteous</i> (those made +righteous through the righteousness of +Jesus) <i>may enter in!</i>”<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> + +<p>It is delightful, moreover, to think, +that just as the Jewish cities were easily +got at from all parts of Palestine, so from +all parts of the world, may people go to +the Greater and more Glorious Gospel +Refuge. Poor Pagan of the far East! +cast away your idols; the gates of the +Gospel-City stand ready to welcome <i>you</i>. +Indian of the far West! cast aside your +warrior spear and your offerings of blood, +and flee to the portals of mercy and to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">Pg 75</a></span> +the blood which cleanseth from all sin. +Laplander of the far North, amid your +polar snows! Negro of Africa, amid +your burning sands! rush to the provided +shelter. There is salvation there +for <i>you</i>. “The same Lord is rich to +<span class="smcap2">ALL</span> that call upon Him.” Happy prospect!—the +time will come when the +whole world will be found singing together +the same song and uttering the +same prayer, “<i>Open unto us the gates of +righteousness, that we may enter into them, +and praise the Lord!</i>”<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p> + +<p>Will none of my young friends rejoice +if they are able, by aiding the cause of +missions abroad, to help putting this +“new song” into the lips of those who +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">Pg 76</a></span>are still “wandering in the wilderness in +a solitary way, and have <span class="smcap2">NO CITY</span> to +dwell in?”<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a></p> + +<br /> + +<p>The <i>third</i> thing I want to say to you +is, that <i>no</i> <span class="smcap2">OTHER</span> <i>Refuge will do but</i> <span class="smcap">Jesus</span>.</p> + +<p>I would like you to take as your motto +the simple and beautiful words which a +Sabbath scholar, I knew well about, +lately gone to glory, wrote to his minister. +“I am sure I may be very thankful +to God for His great mercy toward +me.... <i>I must just keep in mind that +there is one Refuge to flee to, and that is +Jesus.</i>”</p> + +<p>There are many other refuges people +try to take shelter in. They think they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">Pg 77</a></span> +will be as safe in them as in the <span class="smcap2">ONE</span> of +God's providing; but these will never +stand in that day which will try every +refuge of what sort it is.</p> + +<p>I have seen some making their <i>own +goodness</i> their refuge-city. They imagined +they were not so bad as others. +They trusted in the falling Siloam-tower +of their own righteousness!</p> + +<p>I have seen some making <i>God's goodness</i> +their refuge-city. They said to +themselves, “God is kind. He surely +will not deal hardly with sinners at last. +Justice, the avenger, will not surely +always pursue with her flaming sword. +The love of God will surely get the better +of his justice.”</p> + +<p>Don't let Satan deceive you. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">Pg 78</a></span> +are many of <i>his</i> refuges which <i>appear</i> to +be safe enough, but on which God has +written “<i>Refuges of lies</i>.”</p> + +<p>There were many other towns in Canaan +of old which <i>appeared</i> to be as +good and as safe as those I have been +speaking of. But no city could afford +shelter to the manslayer, excepting one +of the six God had specially appointed.</p> + +<p>What would have happened if the +fugitive of old, in fleeing from the +avenger, had said to himself, “What is +the use of my going so far away as to +Hebron or Golan? I would rather flee +to a nearer place. I will go to Jericho, +the old city of palm-trees; or to Bethlehem, +in the hills of Judah; or, better +still, I will go to Jerusalem, the capital<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">Pg 79</a></span> +of the nation, where the temple of Zion +is, and the palace of the King. Surely +I shall be safer far within its lofty walls +and bulwarks than in one of these little +cities of the Levites. Is it not said that +'<i>God is known in all her Palaces for a +Refuge</i>?'”</p> + +<p>If he had done so, he would undoubtedly +have perished. Neither King nor +Priest, nor Golden gate nor Beautiful +gate, nor wall nor bulwark, could have +saved him from the avenger's sword. +The refuge-towns appointed in the olden +time may have been “the least amid the +cities of Judah.” But they were God's +selection, God's ordering, and that was +enough. In them, and in them only,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">Pg 80</a></span> +was the manslayer safe from the avenger +of blood.</p> + +<p>And so it is with our Gospel Refuge. +“<i>Neither is there salvation in any other.</i>” +Rejecting Jesus, we are lost for ever. +All other refuges, however good or great +or strong they may <i>appear</i> to be, will +prove only Babel-towers, that will fall on +the poor builders, and crush them in +their ruins.</p> + +<p>When God told the children of Israel +to sprinkle their lintels and door-posts +with blood, they might have been foolish +enough to say, “No; we shall do +better. We shall not be content with +doing so trifling a thing; we shall rather +build up great walls around our houses, +so that the destroying angel may not get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">Pg 81</a></span> +in.” Do you think, if they had done +so, their first-born would have been +saved? No; there would have been +death in every such household; these +high walls would have proved useless. +Nothing but the red mark on the doorway +of the dwelling would be of any +avail in warding off the fell stroke.</p> + +<p>So it is with the sinner. All the walls +which pride, and self-righteousness, and +good works can rear, will do nothing to +keep out the sword of avenging Justice. +But <i>the sprinkled blood of covenant mercy +will</i>; for “<i>the blood of Jesus Christ, +God's Son, cleanseth</i> (and alone cleanseth) +<i>from</i> <span class="smcap2">ALL SIN</span>!”<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p> + +<p>I remember, many years ago, attending<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">Pg 82</a></span> +the deathbed of a young man in +E——. He told me, one day, he had +dreamt of being in a shop in —— Street, +which seemed to be hung round with +armour and coats of mail. A number +of people in the shop were girding these +on; while a man was standing with a +drawn sword in his hand outside the +door, ready to slay them as they passed +into the open street. One after another +he cut down;—the armour was no protection +to them—their bodies were lying +dead and wounded on the pavement. +In great fear and terror, the young man +said, his turn seemed at last to come, +when he, too, must try to cover himself +with the same armour, and rush out by +the fatal door. He knew not what to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">Pg 83</a></span> +do. In looking around him, he observed, +in the uppermost shelf, something resembling +a web of coarse linen, lying apparently +neglected. He resolved to take +it down, and wrap himself in a portion +of it, instead of the unavailing sheaths +of iron and steal. Covering his head +and body, he darted out, following the +footsteps of the others. The sword +descended; but it bounded back again. +It was unable to pierce the linen covering. +He alone was safe in that crowd +of dead and dying.</p> + +<p>Beautifully did this youthful dreamer +apply his own “vision of the night.” +It was:—How vain are all the boasted +sheathings of the armour of self-righteousness; +and how safe and glorious is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">Pg 84</a></span> +that “white linen” covering of the righteousness +of Jesus! To the eye of reason, +the panoply of iron and steel seems the +best, and strongest, and securest. Many +will not “submit themselves to the righteousness +of God,” and persist in using +the others. But they will be a poor +protection against the sword of God's +avenging justice. Happy are those who +have been led to look <i>above</i> for another +righteousness, and who have listened to +the Divine injunction, “<i>Put ye on the +Lord Jesus Christ!</i>”<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<p>Reader, let me ask, is this your case? +Don't think, because you are young, and +have committed few sins, that you are +safer than those who have committed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">Pg 85</a></span> +many, and that you have not the same +urgent need to flee to Jesus for refuge. +In Canaan of old, the manslayer was in +danger of his life, whether he had killed +one or several. One single life, like one +single sin, exposed him to the fury of +the avenger.</p> + +<p>Nay, more. The Hebrew fugitive +<i>might elude</i> his avenger! He might +manage, for days, or weeks, or years, +to screen himself from his wrath. He +might go, as David did to avoid Saul, +to some cave of Adullam; he might +hide in the gloomy recesses of some +forest;—amid the oaks of Bashan, or +the rocky gorges of the Jordan, or +amid the cedar-heights of Lebanon;—in +the words of Ezekiel, “dwelling safely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">Pg 86</a></span> +in the wilderness, and sleeping in the +woods.”<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> But it is different with the +sinner and <i>his</i> Avenger:—“<i>Vengeance +is mine; and I</i> <span class="smcap2">WILL</span> <i>repay, saith the +Lord.</i>”<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> Who can escape <i>His</i> glance? +Who can hide from <i>His</i> all-seeing eye?</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“If I should find some cave unknown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where human foot had never trod,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even there I could not be alone—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On every side there would be <span class="smcap">God</span>.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“He smiles in heaven, He frowns in hell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He fills the air, the earth, the sea;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I <i>must</i> within His presence dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I cannot from His anger flee.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The <i>fourth</i> thing I want to say to +you is:—That <i>many young and old</i> +<span class="smcap2">HAVE</span> <i>fled to Jesus, the Gospel City of +Refuge, and have found themselves safe +and happy there</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">Pg 87</a></span></p> + +<p>How delightful it is, year by year, to +trace the footsteps of those, whether +young or old, rich or poor, who have +repaired to that blessed shelter! I +shall close this little volume by telling +you of <i>two</i> such, now inhabitants of the +better <i>celestial City</i>. Very different they +were in years, in country, in outward +position. But they were alike in this,—that +they fled in life to the gates of the +Gospel Refuge; and to both <i>the</i> <span class="smcap2">NAME</span> <i>of</i> +<span class="smcap">Jesus</span> was specially precious.</p> + +<p>The one was C—— T——, a little +girl thirteen years old—the age, I daresay, +of some whose eyes are falling on +these pages. I saw her when she was +bright and happy in her adopted home +in England—a sweet spot in the county<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">Pg 88</a></span> +of Kent, on one of those wooded heights +or uplands which command an extensive +prospect of the Thames, as he winds +along, hearing on his lordly bosom the +commerce of the world. Little did any +then dream, that that little life, so full of +promise, was to be early taken—her sun +going down before it was “yet day!” +So, however, the will of God was; her +summons came suddenly, unexpectedly. +Her disconsolate parents saw “the desire +of their eyes taken away by a stroke.” +The dear child herself was naturally of +a timid, reserved disposition; she felt +more than she said. Her kind, unselfish +heart delighted in devising plans of usefulness +and carrying them out. The +entire of her pocket-money was latterly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">Pg 89</a></span> +spent in the purchase of little books for +the infant-school children—all of whom +loved her much—or in publications for +loan among the elder Sunday class. She +won the affections of old as well as young. +“The little lady who used to speak so +prettily to us,” was the description given, +with full eyes, by more than one of the +villagers who had known her loving +ways, and heard her loving voice. In +another neighbourhood still more familiar +to her, she used to go to the cottages +with her Bible, and offer to read to the +inmates who most needed it; always +putting her little hands together first, to +ask for God's blessing, and then making +some simple remarks she thought might +be of use. Those whose hearts most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">Pg 90</a></span> +sorely mourned her, had the fullest assurance +that the grace of God had been +early poured into their dear child's heart. +But on thinking, too, on the past, they +began at times to wonder whether these +pleasing traits of character and efforts +to do good, were really prompted by +love to Jesus, or whether they might be +rather the effect of habit and the imitation +of others. They anxiously searched +among her little books and desk-treasures +to see if they could find anything to confirm +their fondest thoughts regarding this. +I believe it was even made the subject +of earnest prayer to God, that some such +precious testimony might be found. +After all her other books had been examined +in vain, imagine what were the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">Pg 91</a></span> +feelings of delight and thankfulness, +when, as one day she who loved her best +was taking the cover off her Bible, the +two following letters dropped from it on +the ground:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p style="text-align: right;">“<span class="smcap">B. Parsonage</span>, <i>August.</i><br /> +</p> + +<p>“<span class="smcap">My dearest Papa and Mamma</span>,—I +am going to write this in case I should +go to that <i>happy</i> land where sorrow +is not known, suddenly; and that +you may have <i>no</i> fears about my soul. +I know my state, and that my <i>precious</i> +Saviour has called me, and I humbly +accept this <i>glorious</i> invitation as a poor +<span class="smcap2">WRETCHED</span> sinner. I <i>strive</i> not to expect +redemption by my own poor merits. +I have no comparative fear of death, but +as a passage from a wicked world to a +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">Pg 92</a></span>happy, happy home. Though I am by +nature very wicked, it is all washed away +by my Saviour's blood. The Holy Spirit +has taught me what to pray for, and how +to pray. I hope all my dear friends will +forgive me if I have been angry when +they have spoken to me about my faults. +I should like, dearest parents, whatever +little money and things I have, to be +given to the Church Missionary Society +and the Bible Society. My dear Saviour +has forgiven me all my <span class="smcap2">INNUMERABLE</span> sins, +and so, dear parents, you need not fear +about my soul. I believe my Saviour +will <i>not</i> forsake me if I trust in Him, +and I know that all my righteousness +is as filthy rags.—I remain, dearest parents,” +&c., &c., &c.,</p> + +<p style="text-align: right;">“C. M. T.”</p></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">Pg 93</a></span>The other paper that was found, was +probably intended for her brothers and +sisters. It is as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>“When you are in trouble, go to God +and tell Him all about it. The Saviour +who called little children to come to Him +will listen to you, no matter what the +subjects be, if you be but in earnest and +need His help. If you have a difficult +lesson to learn, a hasty spirit to subdue, +an unkind word to bear, a proud spirit +to humble—whatever your difficulty, take +it to God in the name of Jesus, and He +<i>will</i> help you. If even we, who see so +little beneath the surface, are not pleased +with outward appearances without good +qualities within, how much less is the +great God who searches the inmost re<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">Pg 94</a></span>cesses +of the heart? 'The Lord seeth +not as man seeth; for man looketh on +the outward appearance, but the Lord +looketh on the heart.' What we require +is a new heart cleansed by the Holy +Spirit, full of all the graces mentioned in +St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, (chap. +v. 22.) Oh! go then to <span class="smcap">Jesus</span> and ask +of Him in earnest prayer to pardon your +sins, and to confer upon you the blessed +gift of a new heart.”</p></div> + +<p>My young friends, have <i>you</i> fled like +C—— T—— to an all-gracious Saviour? +Is the “<i>name</i> of Jesus,” so sweet to <i>her</i>, +equally precious to you? Does it “soothe +your sorrows,” “heal your wounds,” and +drive your tears and fears all away? +Can you say, in the spirit of her beautiful +and comforting letter,—<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">Pg 95</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Till then I shall His love proclaim<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With every fleeting breath;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And may the music of His <i>NAME</i><br /></span> +<span class="i2">Refresh my soul in death.”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Having told you of one recently “fallen +asleep in Jesus,” who had early repaired +to the shelter of the Gospel Refuge, +I shall now tell you of an aged +servant of Jesus who has, more recently +still, entered on her glorious rest.</p> + +<p>She was a former parishioner of mine. +Her home was a lowly cottage in one of +the loveliest villages of Scotland. Poor +in this world, and an almost constant +sufferer, she was rich in faith,—one of +“Christ's jewels;”—her life was “hid +with Christ in God.” If I could venture +to name two peculiarities in her spiritual +being which distinguished her more than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">Pg 96</a></span> +others, it would be these: Love for <i>the</i> +<span class="smcap2">NAME</span> <i>of</i> <span class="smcap">Jesus</span>, and a <i>Life of</i> <span class="smcap2">PRAYER</span>. +“His <i>name</i>,” to her, was “like ointment +poured forth.”<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> Often have I delighted +to sit with her in her cottage, with her +Bible on her knee, and hear her speak +of “the <i>name</i> which is above every +name;” walking about these six Refuge-Cities, +“telling all the towers, marking +the bulwarks, and considering the palaces.” +She had herself long before, in +early life, fled to the Gospel stronghold. +I think her favourite city would have +been <span class="smcap">Golan</span>, “Joy.” Her heart seemed +ever to be filled with “peace and <i>joy</i> +in believing.”</p> + +<p>Doubtless much of this calm serenity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">Pg 97</a></span> +and joy she derived from her life of +<i>prayer</i>. It is no small matter for the +writer of these pages to know, that there +was not a day for upwards of sixteen +years in which he was not personally +and specially remembered by this lowly +saint at a throne of grace.</p> + +<p>One forenoon during this past year, +she had entered her cottage, carrying a +pitcher of water down from the well in +her garden. It was the last time she +crossed her threshold. When her door +was opened, she was <i>found alone on her +knees;</i> <span class="smcap2">BUT</span> <i>her spirit had fled!</i> <span class="smcap">Prayer</span>, +as it had been her ever fond delight in +life, had been her solace and comfort in +death. Her last act was drawing water +out of the better “<i>wells of salvation</i>.”<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">Pg 98</a></span> +She began with <i>prayer</i>, but ended in +<i>praise</i>! She began her prayer on earth, +and “finished it with the angels!”</p> + +<p>Reader! when you come to die, could +<i>you</i> be equally happy, equally safe? +Would you be able thus to rejoice and +triumph in the <i>name of Jesus</i>? Could +you declare, with either of these two +glorified spirits, before God “took” +them, “<i>We</i> <span class="smcap2">HAVE</span> <i>a strong city; salvation +hath God appointed for walls and for +bulwarks</i>?”<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> Has the Holy Spirit taught +you, as it taught them, that you are +sinners by nature, and in a state of condemnation? +Have you heard God's +voice behind you, declaring that “He +can by no means clear the guilty?”<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">Pg 99</a></span> +And are you able now joyfully to say, +“I heard Thy voice, and I was afraid, because +I was naked, and <i>I hid myself</i>?”</p> + +<p>Are you, like them, really “hid” +<i>within</i> the gates? The manslayer of +old required to be <i>within</i> the refuge-city. +Even if he were but one footstep without, +the avenger of blood could cut him +down. It did not matter <i>how</i> near he +was, if he was not <i>inside</i> the portals!</p> + +<p>And so it will avail you nothing to +know about Christ, and hear about +Christ;—to survey the strength of the +city's walls, the glory of its battlements, +and the beauty of its palaces. It is +“<i>the righteous who</i> <span class="smcap2">RUNNETH</span> <i>into it</i>,” who +alone is “<i>safe</i>.”</p> + +<p>What more, in closing, have I to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">Pg 100</a></span> +say, but to repeat the solemn word, +“<i>Haste thee, flee for thy life!</i>” Every +hour you put off, the time is shorter; +the avenger is nearer; the chances of +escape are fewer. There is no time for +delay. I say this to the very youngest. +I say more. As young feet can run +fastest, so it is with young souls. You +will never go to Jesus so easily as now. +Let nothing keep you back. It is said +that on digging up the ruins of Herculaneum, +(the city that was buried under +the lava of Mount Vesuvius,) the body +of a man was found in an upright posture, +in the act of running out of the +door of his house to escape destruction. +He had a bag of gold in his hand. +Others had escaped in safety. But this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">Pg 101</a></span> +miser loved his gold more than his life. +He had returned to fetch it, thinking he +would have time enough to escape the +terrible doom; but the burning stream +overtook him. He was encased in a +living sepulchre.</p> + +<p>It was one, too, of the saddest incidents +connected with these Cities of +Refuge of old, when some poor, breathless, +panting fugitive—just when he +was in sight of the city—when he had +almost reached the gate, sank exhausted. +Or perhaps the case of some other who +had lain down weary to sleep, but who +had been startled by the avenger at his +side, and the drawn sword gleaming +before his eyes;—years after, the pile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">Pg 102</a></span> +of stones marking the spot where his +blood had been shed.</p> + +<p>But, oh, sadder, sadder far, for any, +young or old, to perish within sight of +Christ! To suffer the love of sin, or +the love of pleasure, or the love of the +world, to make them “too late!” To +be <i>almost</i>, but not <i>altogether</i> saved! +To be cut down by the sword of wrath, +or overtaken by the fiery stream, with +heaven in view!</p> + +<p>God grant that this may not be the +case with any one of <i>you</i>!</p> + +<p>I shall conclude with a happier picture:—The +citizens in these Refuge-cities +of old, were sometimes seen clustered on +the top of the walls, watching the approach +of the manslayer, and cheering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">Pg 103</a></span> +him on when faint and exhausted. So, +think of the happy citizens of the New +Jerusalem: Patriarchs, prophets, saints, +departed friends, who are now safe +within its gates, watching you from +these glorious heights, beckoning to +you not to tarry, but to be “followers +of them who, through faith and patience, +are inheriting the promises.” +“Verily I say unto you, There is joy +in heaven among the angels of God +over every sinner that repenteth.”</p> + +<p>We have been speaking of the “<i>name</i> +of <span class="smcap">Jesus</span>.”</p> + +<p>Read the motto over the gateway of +all these six cities. Read the motto +over the door of the Gospel Refuge:—“<i>Neither +is there salvation in any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">Pg 104</a></span> other: for there is none other</i> <span class="smcap">name</span> +given under heaven among men by +which the sinner can be saved, but <i>the</i> +<span class="smcap2">NAME</span> of <span class="smcap">Jesus</span>.”</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Jesus, my Refuge!</i> look on me:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When weak and weary, worn, opprest:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I cast my every care on Thee—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Thou art my <i>Rest</i>.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Jesus my Refuge!</i> guide my way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dispel the gloomy shades of night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, shine Thou forth with cheering ray!—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Thou art my <i>Light</i>.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Jesus, my Refuge!</i> storms may rise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Affliction sweep with tempest-shock,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My spirit to Thy shelter flies,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Thou art my <i>Rock</i>.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Jesus my Refuge!</i> legion-foes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May seek to drive me from the field,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But in Thy strength I shell repose—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Thou art my <i>Shield</i>.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Jesus, my Refuge!</i> Thou in store<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hast happiness without alloy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pleasures unmingled, evermore—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Thou art my <i>Joy</i>.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">Pg 105</a></span></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Jesus, my Refuge!</i> on the brink<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Jordan, in my latest strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou wilt not suffer me to sink—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Thou art my <i>Life</i>.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Jesus, my Refuge!</i> oh, supply<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My every want, whate'er befall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through life, in death, eternally,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Thou art my <i>ALL</i>!<br /></span> +<span class="i12"><span class="smcap">Anon.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">Pg 107</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a></span></p> +<h2><a name="THE_ROCK_OF_CASTELLO" id="THE_ROCK_OF_CASTELLO"></a>THE ROCK OF CASTELLO.</h2> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">Pg 109</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/p109.jpg" width="300" height="40" alt="p109" title="" /></div> +<h2>The Rock of Castello.</h2> + + +<p>As I was walking on a bright summer +evening, among the Italian Alps, I came +to one of the lovely valleys of the Waldenses. +These, perhaps I should tell +my young readers, are a pious race of +Christians, who have, age after age, +boldly “contended for the faith once +delivered to the saints,” and kept the +lamp of truth brightly burning, when all +around was darkness.</p> + +<p>This beautiful spot is surrounded by +very lofty mountains, whose tops are +almost lost in the clouds, while the little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">Pg 110</a></span> +stream that murmurs below has its banks +covered with vines and mulberry trees, +rich corn fields, and happy villages. +When I first entered it by the Alpine +pass of La Croix, the whole valley was +shrouded in a dense fog, with the exception +of one bold and very remarkable +Rock, which towered in solitary grandeur +above the sea of mist, and seemed from +its height like an island suspended in +mid-air!</p> + +<p>Upon inquiring what this Rock was, +I was informed it is a place famous in +the history of the Valley. When the +poor peasants were persecuted by their +foes, their cottages and hamlets plundered, +their loved sanctuaries burnt with +fire, and “all their pleasant things laid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">Pg 111</a></span> +waste,” they would retire with their +wives and little ones up to this rocky +citadel, which the God of nature seemed +to have reared as a shelter for His defenceless +people.</p> + +<p>Within this Rock that same God had +wonderfully provided for their safety +and comfort. It contains a large cavern, +capable of holding many at a time; and +in the very centre of this cave is a fountain +of water, which yields a never-failing +supply. When driven thither by +the storms of persecution, the exiles provided +themselves with food, from the +plentiful wild fruits of the adjoining +mountain, so that the Bible promise was +made good to them, “Their bread shall +be given them, and their water shall be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">Pg 112</a></span> +sure!” Swords and cannon and other +means of defense they had none, but a +single man, stationed at the mouth of the +cave, was enough to defy hundreds of +armed soldiers. He had only to hurl +fragments of loose stones (which were +supplied from the sides of the cavern) +down upon the foe, and they were instantly +beaten back, thus fulfilling God's +words to Israel, “Five of you shall chase +an hundred, and an hundred of you shall +put ten thousand to flight.”</p> + +<p>Often, often, then, when the wintry +tempests and Alpine storms, and drifting +snows, were raging fiercely around, +adding to the terrors of the enemy, did +these peasant warriors find in the Rock +of Castello a secure shelter and retreat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">Pg 113</a></span> +With their fountain and blazing fire, +their Bibles and their God, they would +make the rocky cavern ring with praise. +They “feared the Lord,” and had no +other fear. He had “given his angels +charge over them;” and they could +boldly make the challenge, “God is for +us, who can be against us?”</p> + +<br /> + +<p>When I heard about this Rock, which +the “God of <i>Nature</i>” had upreared as a +citadel for his oppressed people, it reminded +me of a better <span class="smcap">Rock</span>, which +“the God of <i>Grace</i>” has provided for +perishing sinners!</p> + +<p>Dear Children!—You are all, by nature, +like these poor Christians of the +Alps, the inhabitants of a Valley. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">Pg 114</a></span> +called “<i>The Valley of Tears</i>!” Like +theirs, too, it is a lovely valley, far too +lovely for sinful man; but though lovely, +its name tells you it is a <i>Valley of Weeping</i>. +Sin has made it so. And more +than this, it is a <i>Valley of Danger</i>, a +<i>Valley of Death</i>!</p> + +<p>It is full of <i>Enemies</i>. I can not tell +you them all, “their name is Legion, +for they are many.” There are:</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Legion" width="55%"> +<colgroup> + <col width="50%" /> + <col width="50%" /> +</colgroup> +<tr> +<td class='td'><span class="smcap2">THE WORLD.</span></td> +<td align='left'>Ungodly men, bad companions, tempting you to sin, and trying to keep you back from fleeing to Jesus!</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class='td'><span class="smcap2">YOUR OWN HEARTS.</span></td> +<td align='left'>The enemy within, the worst of all, because the most deceitful of all!</td> +</tr> +</table></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">Pg 115</a></span></p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Legion" width="55%"> +<colgroup> + <col width="50%" /> + <col width="50%" /> +</colgroup> +<tr> +<td class='td'><span class="smcap2">SATAN.</span></td> +<td align='left'>The great enemy, who goeth about seeking whom he +may devour.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class='td'><span class="smcap2">DEATH.</span></td> +<td align='left'>The last enemy, a sudden enemy, but oh! remember, +a <i>sure</i> enemy; other enemies <i>may</i> come, He <i>must</i> +come, and the time of his coming is generally “at +<i>midnight</i>,” when you least look for him!</td> +</tr> +</table></div> + +<p>Methinks I hear my young readers exclaiming, +If my enemies are so many, if +my danger is so great, is there no place +I can flee to? “What must I do to be +saved” from those enemies in this <i>Valley<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">Pg 116</a></span> of Tears</i>? Oh! whither shall I flee from +the “wrath to come?”</p> + +<p>Hear the voice of God:—He is pointing +to a Rock rising from the midst of +the Valley, and is calling aloud to you, +“Flee to this Stronghold, ye prisoners of +Hope!”</p> + +<p>Do you ask—When shall I flee? He +answers, “<i>Now</i> is the day of salvation!”</p> + +<p>Do you ask—May I not <i>wait</i> a few +years? I am yet a young inhabitant of +the Valley. Death, if he be the <i>surest</i> +enemy, is the <i>last</i> enemy; have I not yet +time enough? God answers—<span class="smcap">To-day</span>! +while it is called to-day! “Verily, there +may be but a step between thee and +Death!” “Haste thee; flee for thy +life.”<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">Pg 117</a></span></p> + +<p>Do you ask—But must I leave all the +pleasures of sin, and so much that I love +in this valley of tears? God answers, +“What is a man profited, if he should +gain the whole world, and lose his own +soul?”</p> + +<p>Do you ask—But is there no <i>other</i> +refuge than this, no other means of safety +but, amid storm and tempest, to climb to +this Rock? God answers, “Neither is +there salvation in any other! For there +is none other name given under heaven, +by which a sinner can be saved, but the +name of Jesus.”</p> + +<p>Dear children, let this be <i>your</i> prayer: +“Lord, lead me unto this <span class="smcap">Rock</span>, that is +higher than I!”</p> + +<p>Oh! with what delight does that Great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">Pg 118</a></span> +God look upon children, such as you, +when they “flee for refuge to lay hold +on this hope set before them;” and +when they join their hearts and their +voices together, saying, “Oh! come, let +us sing unto the Lord; let us make a +joyful noise unto the <span class="smcap">Rock of our salvation</span>!”</p> + +<p>But I would like to tell my Young +Readers something more about this +Great “Refuge from the storm”—this +Great “Covert from the tempest.” Let +us seat ourselves for a little in the Alpine +valley, under the brow of the Rock of +Castello; it may help us to some thoughts +of the better “Rock of Ages!” I dare +say many a poor Waldensian, when taking +shelter in this earthly refuge, would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">Pg 119</a></span> +be often reminded by it of the <span class="smcap">Rock</span> +that can never be shaken!</p> + +<p><i>First</i>, The Rock of Castello <i>is very +High</i>. So is <i>Jesus</i>; so High, that He +is called <i>the Son of the Highest</i>—“The +Ancient of Days!”—“God over all.” +“The heaven of heavens can not contain +Him!”</p> + +<p><i>Second</i>, The Rock of Castello <i>rises +from the Valley</i>: so Jesus rose from +poor parents in this valley of tears. He +“humbled Himself,” to take upon Him +our nature; so that “although he be +<span class="smcap2">HIGH</span>, He might have respect unto the +<i>lowly</i>!”</p> + +<p><i>Third</i>, The Rock of Castello <i>was quite +close at hand</i>; though lofty, it was +always near for fleeing to: so is Jesus,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">Pg 120</a></span> +the “Rock of Ages.” We have not to +say, “Who shall ascend into Heaven to +bring Christ down?” “He is not far +from any one of us.” Indeed, He is so +very near, and so very accessible, that +the only wonder is that there should be +any found who do not “flee to Him for +refuge!”</p> + +<p><i>Fourth</i>, The Rock of Castello <i>was +wont to shelter many children and helpless +infants</i>; many poor mothers, driven +from their homes, carried their babes +thither in their arms. Jesus, the living +Rock, does the same. He delighted, +when on earth, to fold children to his +bosom, and say, “Suffer little children +to come unto me, and forbid them not!” +It was neither His nor His “Father's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">Pg 121</a></span> +will” that so much as “one of these +little ones should perish.” He was so +<span class="smcap2">HIGH</span> that angels adored Him; so meek +and lowly, that infants smiled in his +arms!</p> + +<p><i>Fifth</i>, The Rock of Castello <i>has a +large cleft or opening in it, which admits +into the cavern</i>. Jesus is a <i>rent</i> and +<i>smitten</i> Rock! You can enter by faith +<i>into</i> Him only through His opened side. +Oh! what a smiting that was, by the +rod of God's justice! and yet, had there +been no such smiting, you and I, Dear +Children, must have <i>perished</i>!</p> + +<p><i>Sixth</i>, The Rock of Castello <i>was a +Secure Hiding Place</i>. No other spot in +all the valley could have afforded shelter +but this. On any of the surrounding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">Pg 122</a></span> +mountains there would have been +certain destruction to the exiles, from +the Alpine snows, and fierce hurricanes +and storms. But here, in their cavern, +nothing could touch them, and if the +storm raged, it spent its fury on the +Rock!</p> + +<p>Jesus is, indeed, a <i>safe Shelter</i>, while +every other refuge will prove “a refuge +of lies!” The tempest of God's wrath, +and the curses of God's law, are still +raging fiercely all around. But what +matters it? They can not touch <i>You</i>, +my Young Friends, <i>if sheltered in the +Rock!</i> Upon that <span class="smcap">Rock</span>, eighteen hundred +years ago, they exhausted all their +fury. Jesus shelters and delivers you +from that fearful storm of Law-curses,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">Pg 123</a></span> by +himself being “made a curse for +you!” The tempest may smite <i>Jesus +the Rock</i>, but it can not touch those who +have “won Him, and are <span class="smcap2">FOUND IN</span><span class="smcap">Him</span>.”</p> + +<p><i>Seventh</i>, The Rock of Castello <i>has a +Fountain in it</i>. Jesus, the Living Rock, +has opened a Fountain not only “for +Sin,” but “for Uncleanness.” He does +not wish only to <i>justify</i> you, by sheltering +you from the Storms of the Law,—but +He wishes also to <i>sanctify</i> you, and +fit you for glory. He does not only +wish to make you <i>Safe</i>, but to make you +<i>Holy</i>. The <span class="smcap">Holy Spirit</span> is this <i>Fountain</i> +in the Rock. Oh! Dear Children, +bless God for this “Well of Water, +springing up unto everlasting life.” It +washes, and cleanses, and refreshes you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">Pg 124</a></span> +Without it, your naturally <i>unholy</i> hearts +could never be fitted for the holy, happy +heaven, of a Holy, Happy God.</p> + +<p><i>Eighth</i>, The Rock of Castello <i>remains +as it was to this hour</i>, while all its brave +inmates of past generations are no more. +Jesus is an <i>Everlasting</i> Rock, unchanged +and unchangeable. This is still “His +name, and still His memorial,” “Jesus +Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and +for ever!” For six thousand years, sinners +have been crowding in, and “still +there is room!”</p> + +<p><i>Ninth</i>, The Rock of Castello <i>was only +a safe retreat so long as those who fled +for refuge remained within its cave</i>. +The enemy were continually on the +watch, and to venture out, would be to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">Pg 125</a></span> +<i>perish</i>! Jesus, the “Rock of Ages,” +thus speaks to you, “Abide in me!” +“Out of me, ye can do nothing.” It is +only “the Righteous who runneth <i>into</i> +Him that is <i>safe</i>! To <i>abide</i> in Jesus is +to be secure from every danger, to <i>leave</i> +Him is <i>destruction</i>!”</p> + +<p><i>Tenth</i>, The Rock of Castello <i>had to +be fled to in the first moment of danger</i>. +The only safety of the persecuted +was in <i>instant flight</i>. On the first tidings +of the enemy, houses, and lands, +and vineyards, and all they possessed, +had to be left, and, “forgetting the +the things that were behind, they pressed +forward” to their Rock! Jesus tells +<i>you</i>, dear children, your only safety +consists in <i>immediate</i> flight to Himself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">Pg 126</a></span> +the Rock of Ages! Delay may be fatal! +The storm-blast is gathering, the sky +is darkening, there is the distant muttering +of the thunder. The enemy is +on the march—Satan is watching—Death +is approaching. Already he may +have strung his arrow. “Flee to the +stronghold, ye prisoners of Hope,—</p> + +<center> +TO-DAY.”<br /> +</center> + +<p>Oh! forbid that this should be <i>your</i> +history now, and your history through +eternity (How awful are the words!)—</p> + +<p>“They lightly esteemed the <i>Rock of +their Salvation</i>!”</p> + +<br /> + +<p>Reader!—Have <i>you</i> fled to this Living +“Rock of Ages?”—Have you made +it your prayer,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">Pg 127</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">“Jesus! Refuge of my Soul!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let me to Thy bosom fly?”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And in <i>that</i> bosom, and <i>that</i> refuge, +are you hiding yourself until all Earth's +“calamities be overpast?” The deeper +you hide yourself in the clefts of the +smitten Rock, the safer you are. Oh! +do you ever pause and think that there +is a day coming, when this Valley of +Tears “and all the works that are +therein, shall be burned up?” When +“God shall arise in the glory of His +Majesty, to shake terribly the Earth.” +When every mountain peak shall be +black with tempest—and the whole valley +shall be a sheet of living fire! Then +(as I saw on the evening I entered +this Alpine valley), there shall be but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">Pg 128</a></span> +<span class="smcap">One Rock</span> seen rising far above the +mist, and thunderings, and lightnings, +and tempest! JESUS CHRIST, the +Rock of Ages! the Sinner's Refuge! +and the Sinner's Friend! Many voices +shall be heard beneath in the valley, +calling upon <i>other Rocks</i>, but it will be +to hide them from the “<i>wrath of the +Lamb</i>!” The loose fragments of stone +thrown down from the Rock of Castello +crushed hundreds: “On whomsoever +<span class="smcap">This Stone</span> shall fall, it will <i>grind +them to powder</i>!”</p> + +<p>Oh, when the voice of the Great +Judge shall resound through the dens +and caves of the Earth with the Question,—“<i>Sinner, +where are thou?</i>”—How +blessed if you shall be able, from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">Pg 129</a></span> +your safe shelter, to reply, “Here am +I, Lord! I heard Thy voice, and I +was afraid, because I was naked, and +I hid myself!” Hid yourself! where? +Hid myself in</p> + +<h3>“THE ROCK OF AGES.”</h3> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">Pg 130</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="JESUS_MY_ROCK" id="JESUS_MY_ROCK"></a>JESUS, MY ROCK.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When the storm and the tempest are raging around me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Oh! where shall I flee to be safe from their shock?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There are walls which no mortal hands built to surround me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A Refuge Eternal,—'Tis JESUS MY ROCK!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When my heart is all sorrow, and trials aggrieve me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To whom can I safely my secrets unlock?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No bosom (save one) has the power to relieve me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The bosom which bled for me, JESUS MY ROCK!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When Life's gloomy curtain, at last, shall close o'er me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the chill hand of death unexpectedly knock,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I will look up to HIM who hath felt it before me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And cleave all the closer to JESUS MY ROCK!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Companions may smile, and the world may deride me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And with the cold finger of ridicule mock;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But no trial, nor coldness, nor death shall divide me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From the Shelter of Ages!—from JESUS MY ROCK!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Thou! who on earth, in the days of thy sorrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Didst fold to thy bosom the Lambs of thy Flock,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prevent me (though young) putting off till to-morrow,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In fleeing for refuge to—JESUS MY ROCK!<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Job. ii. 4.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Psalm ix. 6.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Ezek. xviii. 4.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Prov. xi. 21.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Rom. iii. 23.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Gen xix. 17.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Rom. viii. 35.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Rev. iii. 7.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Matt. xix. 14.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Psalm viii. 2.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Psalm xxxi. 21.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Isa. vi. 3.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Mark i. 24.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Ex. xii. 5.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Jer. xxiii. 5.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Heb. vii. 26.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> John viii. 46.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Rev. iii. 7.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Acts iv. 27.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Luke ii. 52.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> “The Land and the Book.”</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Gen. xii. 8.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> John iv. 14.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Isa. liii. 4.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Heb. vii. 25.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Isa. xxviii. 16.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Isa. ix. 6.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Deut. i. 31.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Psalm xl. 17.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Luke xv. 5.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> Psalm iv. 8.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> John x. 28.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Mark i. 7.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Col. i. 20.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Eph. ii. 6.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Eph. ii. 13.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Rom. viii. 83.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Luke xi. 21.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Psalm xviii. 2.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Prov. xviii. 10.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Psalm ix. 9, 10.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> 1 Cor. xv. 55.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Isa. xxxii. 2.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Zech. xiii. 7.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> Nahum i. 7.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Rom. viii. 1.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Luke xi. 22.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Isa. xxvi. 4.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Psalm xxii. 12, 13.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Phil. ii. 9.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> 1 Pet. iv. 12, 13.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> 1 Pet. i. 8.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Matt. xxv. 21.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Acts viii. 8.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> John xv. 11.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Heb. xiii. 8.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Num. xxxv. 25.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Rom. viii. 34.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> John vi. 35.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> John vii. 37.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Heb. i. 14.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Isaiah xxvi. 2.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Psalm cxviii. 19.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Psalm cvii. 4.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> 1 John i. 7.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Rom. xiii. 14.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Ezek. xxxiv. 25.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> Rom. xii. 19.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Sol. Song i. 3.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Isaiah xxvi. 1.</p></div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Exod. xxxiv. 7.</p></div> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cities of Refuge: or, The Name of +Jesus, by John Ross Macduff + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CITIES OF REFUGE *** + +***** This file should be named 25459-h.htm or 25459-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/4/5/25459/ + +Produced by Heiko Evermann, Marcia Brooks and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from scans of public domain works at the +University of Michigan's Making of America collection.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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