SAFETY—SAVING.
I am the Lord your God.
Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety.—Leviticus, xxv. 17, 18.
The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord.—Proverbs, xxi. 31.
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.—Isaiah, xiv. 22.
The Son of man is come to save that which was lost.—Matthew, xviii. 11.
But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.—Hebrews, x. 39.
Should any to himself for safety fly?
The way to save himself (if any were)
Is to fly from himself. Should he rely
Upon the promise of his wife? What there,
What can he see, but that he most may fear,
A syren sweet to death? Upon his friends?
Who what he needs, or what he hath not, lends?
Or wanting aid himself, and to another sends?
His strength? ’Tis dust:—His pleasure? cause of pain:
His hope? False courtier:—Youth or beauty? Brittle:
Intreaty? Fond:—Repentance? Late and vain:
Just recompense? The world were all too little:
Thy love? He hath no title to a tittle:
Hell’s force? In vain her furies hell shall gather:
His servants, kinsmen, or his children rather?
His child (if good) shall judge; (if bad) shall curse his father.
His life? That brings him to his end, and leaves him:
His end? That leaves him to begin his woe:
His goods? What good is this which so deceives him?
His gods of wood? Their feet, alas! are slow
To go to help, which must be helped to go:
Honours, great worth? Ah! little worth they be
Unto their owners:—Wit? That makes him see
He wanted wit, who thought he had it, wanting Thee.
Giles Fletcher.
O save me, Power
Of powers supreme, in that tremendous hour!
Thou, who beneath the frowns of fate hath stood,
And in Thy dreadful agony sweat blood;
Thou who for me, through ev’ry throbbing vein,
Hast felt the keenest edge of mortal pain;
Whom death led captive through the realms below,
And taught those horrid mysteries of woe:
Defend me, O my God! O save me, Power
Of powers supreme, in that tremendous hour!
Young.
Encompass’d with ten thousand ills,
Press’d by pursuing foes,
I lift mine eyes unto the hills,
From whence salvation flows.
My help is from the Lord, who made
And governs earth and sky;
I look to his almighty aid,
And ever-watching eye.
He who thy soul in safety keeps,
Shall drive destruction hence;
The Lord thy keeper never sleeps;
The Lord is thy defence.
J. Montgomery.
Place me on some desert shore
Foot of man ne’er wandered o’er;
Lock me in a lonely cell
Beneath some prison citadel;
Still, here or there, within I find
My quiet kingdom of the mind;
Nay, ’mid the tempest fierce and dark,
Float me in peril’s frailest barque,
My quenchless soul could sit and think,
And smile at danger’s dizziest brink;
And wherefore? God, my God is still
King of kings in good and ill;
And where He dwelleth—every where—
Safety supreme and peace are there;
And where He reigneth—all around—
Wisdom, and love, and power are found,
And, reconciled to Him and bliss,
“My mind to me a kingdom is.”
Tupper.