"He is Faithful that Promised."
"Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as
wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail
not."--LUKE xxii. 31, 32.
Restraining Grace.
What a scene does this unfold! Satan tempting--Jesus praying! Satan
sifting--Jesus pleading! "The strong man assailing"--"the stronger than
the strong" beating him back! Believer? here is the past history and
present secret of thy safety in the midst of temptation. An interceding
Saviour was at thy side, saying to every threatening wave, "Thus far
shalt thou go, and no farther?" God often permits His people to be on
the very verge of the precipice, to remind them of their own weakness;
_but never farther than the verge!_ The restraining hand and grace of
Omnipotence is ready to rescue them. "Although he fall, yet shall he not
be cast down utterly; and why? for the Lord upholdeth him with His right
hand!" The wolf may be prowling for his prey; but what can he do when
the Shepherd is always there, tending with the watchful eye that
"neither slumbers nor sleeps?" Who cannot subscribe to the testimony,
"When my foot slipped, Thy mercy, O Lord! held me up?" Who can look back
on his past pilgrimage, and fail to see it crowded with Ebenezers, with
this inscription: "Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes
from tears, and my feet from falling?" My soul, where wouldst thou have
been this day, hadst thou not been "_kept_" by the power of God?
"REMEMBER _THIS_ WORD UNTO THY SERVANT, UPON
WHICH THOU HAST CAUSED ME TO HOPE!"