LECTURE XXXVI. OUR REFUGE IN THE GREAT TRIBULATION. "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."-PSALM xlvi. 1. THIS psalm has been sung in scenes of great tribulation for two thousand years passed away. It is a psalm for the day. It was the favorite psalm of Luther amidst the scenes and storms of the great Reformation, and its words were the expression of his trust and confidence when the assaults of men were heaviest, their threats sorest, and their power greatest. Whenever circumstances seemed all but overwhelming about him, he used to say to his companions in this great cause, "Come, let us sing the 46th psalm; 'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.' We too are entering on scenes in which the psalm will have an appropriateness we could have wished not to have occasion for. War is no sooner ended on one field than we are embarked in other conflicts, the issues of which no human being can foresee. The loss of treasure, the loss of means, the loss of life, and the calamities entailed in 1859 upon the European nations none can estimate; but we can retain in the midst of all, in spite of all, triumphant above all, our confidence in God, and feel as believers that our refuge is there, and that he is still here, (257) a very present help in time of trouble. It is therefore, inspiring to find the Psalmist lifting up his heart above the waves, and finding in every attribute of God a bay of consolation. So has it been with others in the worst of times; when no hand on earth can help, and no eye on earth will pity, it is a blessed resource that remains for the believer, I have One in heaven under whose overshadowing wings I can find protection, in whose paternal presence I can find peace, under whose all encompassing attributes. I have a shelter from the storm, a shadow from the heat, a refuge from fear, a present help in the very sorest timę of trouble. Every attribute in God is a believer's refuge; every cleft in the Rock of Ages is a shadow and a shelter. for a Christian. If God loved us, but were not omnipotent, we might never be able to enjoy Him as our refuge; if He were powerful, but did not love us, his power might be arrayed against us; and if He had all power and all love, but not omniscience, He might not know our trials; or if he were omnipresent, He might not see our trials; but having all power, all love, omnipresence, and omniscience, we can find in him a refuge always adequate, and always open; his great mercy bidding us welcome, his power when we reach it able to protect and to preserve us. How glorious then is the fact, that all the attributes of Deity arrayed against the least of sins out of Christ, are combined for the protection of the greatest sinner that flees to Him by Christ, the way, the truth, and the life! How interesting the thought that this refuge is not in the past, nor in the future, but always in the present! "God is our refuge," is as true to-day, and in the great tribulation, as it was two thousand years ago. He is not only our refuge, but "very present help;" always at hand, always waiting, always willing to help, defend, and deliver us. He is our refuge in all places; in the secrecy of our retirement at home, in all the recesses of the soul when it meditates within itself, in the sanctuary, and in the great congregation, in all the intricacies and associations of public and of private life, on the quarter-deck, on the field of battle, on the ocean's bosom and in the distant desert, in India and China, and on inhospitable shores; God is there and then, in all these places, always and everywhere, our refuge, our strength, our present help in time of trouble. There is no place so secluded from the light of heaven that his eye does not pierce it; there is no distance so great that his arm cannot reach it; there is no sorrow or tribulation so minute as to be unworthy of his sympathy, and no suffering so great as to be beyond the reach of his consolation, mitigation, or removal of it. Wherever a believer can go-if he take the wings of the morning and flee to the uttermost parts of the earth; if he say, "Peradventure the darkness will cover me;" if he ascend into heaven; wherever he is, he finds in his own heart a presence that cheers him in sorrow, strengthens him in trouble, refreshes him in trial, and makes him more than conqueror through him that loved him and gave himself for him. Not only is God our refuge in all places, but in all seasons. In the season of youth, to guide us, to save us in its slippery paths from falling, and to conduct us safely up to man; in the season of old age, when the strong men bow themselves, and the golden bowl gives notice that soon it will be broken at the fountain, and the grass hopper is a burden, and desire fails-even then, to gray hairs and old age. God is a refuge and a present help. In seasons of suffering, of losses, and crosses, and painful trials—in all the ripples of solitary sorrow, in the overwhelming torrent of national distress, God is to them that seek Him, and lift their hearts to Him, a refuge to which they may have recourse, a present help on which they may lean, a strength made perfect in weakness, that fails not in the least, and falters not in the worst of trials. Thus present is God our refuge and our strength, in all the attributes of his nature,-his mercy forgives us, and is a refuge from the guilt of sin; his justice acquits us, his grace saves us; all that He is in Christ is a refuge, a shelter, a trust, and a support to the humblest believer. And when we flee to Him, all things instantly assume an altered aspect, a different relationship to us who have fled for refuge, and laid hold upon the hope set before us. To the prisoner for Christ's sake, the prison glows with all the beauty and the glory of a royal palace. Suffering has lost its sting when it touches a believer. In his case, bereavement, and poverty, and loss, and trial are painful, but they are not penal. This refuge does not shelter us in this world from the ordinary incidents of a fallen world; but it lets no incident touch us until the penal element has been extracted from it, and it has received a commission from the Throne not to hurt, but to work for good to him that loves God, and is called according to his purpose. The fiery furnace became as a garden to the Hebrew youths ; and its heated floor as a bed of roses. Wherever we have God our refuge, our present help, there we can say, with no feigned lips, "It is good for me to be afflicted; and though no tribulation for the present seemeth joyous, yet I am sure it is working out the peaceable fruits of righteousness, to them that are exercised thereby." When God is our refuge, and our strength, and our present help in time of trouble, He sanctifies all we have remaining that is good, and He becomes more than a substitute compensating for the absence of all that has left us. If all the trees of our garden are cut down, but the tree of life still remains, we have shadow from the heat, and its pleasant fruits still to partake of. God's presence adapts itself to every taste, and every Christian derives from his presence that which suits his case, supplies his wants, pleases his taste, and fills his longing soul, in the language of the Psalmist, as with marrow and with fatness. When all else is gone, and we have nothing left, God is more than a compensation for all. One sun is better than a thousand stars; the riches of Christ are realities, the riches of the world are phantoms. The things unseen are real, the things seen are shadowy and ephemeral. No man who is a Christian can be overwhelmed by the greatest losses; no man who is not a Christian can fail to suffer, and suffer severely, even from the least of the daily losses that befall us in this present world. It is when a man can find a constant refuge in the bosom of his Father, a present help in the strength of Omnipotence, that his severest losses part with three-fourths of their severity, and his ordinary losses are altogether unfelt. And when all take. wings and leaves him desolate and alone, he feels he is not alone; for He in whom he has all, and from whom he |