(2) But if the national reference of these words is their primary reference, yet we are justified in giving them a further and more personal reference in the light of the Christian revelation.
Sooner or later every son of man is taught the lesson of his own insufficiency, of his need of a strength he does not find in himself, and of a shelter and support which his fellows cannot give, and no earthly interest or object can yield. The larger and more varied his experience of the world and life, and the more deeply he feels and thinks, the more does he realize the assurance of the Divine protection and care to be the most pressing and imperious of all his practical needs. Of all substitutes for God — wealth, comfort, amusement, music, beauty, learning, friendship, love, philanthropy — he must say, at least in all his most searching and critical experiences, " Miserable comforters are ye all ! " To state the fundamental facts of human life is, indeed, to affirm religion. In the generalized experience of mankind lies the real basis of religion. And all religion must somehow have its beginning and its end in God. Keligion is God ; God is religion.
^ The ancient words interpret and give immortal expression to a universal and indestructible need of humanity. They were true before they were written, and they would be true if they had not been written in the sacred book of religion. Centuries have passed away and generations have come and gone, but they still lay upon us their solemn spell, and we continue to use them, as we do all the great words of the Bible, because they find us, divine
' 0. H. Spurgeon.
DEUTERONOMY xxxiii. 27 69
our hearts for us, and utter what in us is but faintly felt and dimly thought with the clear and certain sound of complete conviction, and with the energy of a faith that quickens and strengthens our wavering trusts and hopes.^
^ The infinities of space and time are like boundless deserts, silent, void, till filled with a personal God and Father ; but once He lives in and through them, they become warm, vital, throbbing, like hearts pulsing with tides of infinite emotion rushing towards us and breaking into the music of multitudinous laughter and tears. The sky above is no longer space gleaming with stars ; but filling it, round the stars, round and through the world, in and about each individual man, is God, daily touching us, daily loving us, giving us life and being in Himself. The Eternities behind and before us are no longer dark, empty, or, at best, a grim procession of births and deaths; they are a living, loving God, from whom man came, to whom he returns. And that Eternal God makes all things secure, restful, blessed. No moment, either here or hereafter, can ever be without God ; therefore in none can the good man be otherwise than happy. What is beyond death is not beyond God. He is there as here ; and so, whether we live or die, the eternal God is our refuge, and underneath us are the everlasting arms.^
O Name, all other names above,
What art Thou not to me. Now I have learned to trust Thy love And cast my care on Thee!
What is our being but a cry,
A restless longing still. Which Thou alone canst satisfy,
Alone Thy fulness fill!
Thrice blessed be the holy souls
That lead the way to Thee, That burn upon the martyr-rolls
And lists of prophecy.
And sweet it is to tread the ground O'er which their faith hath trod ;
But sweeter far, when Thou art found, The soul's own sense of God!
* J. Hunter, * A. M. FaiibiHrn,
70 GOD WHO IS OUR HOME
The thought of Thee all sorrow calms;
Our anxious burdens fall ; His crosses turn to triumph -palms,
Who finds in God his all.^
11.
Underneath are the Everlasting Arms.
God surrounds His children on all sides : they dwell in Him. The passage before us shows that the Lord is above them, for we read, " There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky." Assuredly He is around them, for "the eternal God is thy refuge "; and He is hcfore them, for " He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them." Here, according to the text, the Lord is also under His saints, for " underneath are the everlasting arms." " Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations," and by Thee we are everywhere surrounded as the earth by the atmosphere.
Within thy circling power I stand; On every side I find thy hand; Awake, asleep, at home, abroad, I am surrounded still with God.
1. The meaning is that God is our support, and our support just when we begin to sink. We want support when we are sinking, and the arms being "underneath" implies that fchis support is given just when we are going down. At certain seasons the Christian sinks very low in humiliation. He has a deep sense of his own sin ; he is humbled before God, till he scarce knows how to lift up his face and pray, because he appears, in his own sight, so abject, so mean, so base, so worthless. Well, let him remember that when he is at his worst "underneath are the everlasting arms." Sin may sink him ever so low, but the great atonement is still under alL Here is a text which proves it: "He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him." You may have gone very low, but you can never have gone so low as "the