The way that God keeps His people in security is not by shutting out
their enemies from attacking them, but by sustaining them while engaged
in the conflict. It is not much to preserve ones’ self behind a wall
which cannot be scaled, but to stand where arrows are flying thick as
hail, where lances are being pushed with fury, where the sword-cuts are
falling on every part, and in the midst of all to prove invulnerable,
invincible, immortal, this is to wear a divine life which cannot be
conquered by human power. Such is the calling of the Christian. God will
put us where we must be tried and tempted. If we are not tried, there is
no honor to Him who preserves us; and if we are not tempted, there is no
gratitude to His grace who delivers us out of temptations. The Lord does
not put his plants into a hot-house, as some gardeners do; no, He sets
them out in the open air, and if the frost is coming, He says, “Ah! but
no frost can kill them, and they will be all the sturdier in the summer
for the cold in the winter.” He does not shelter them either from the
heat of the sun, or from the chills of the night. In this world we must
have tribulation, and we must have much of it too, for it is through
much tribulation we inherit the kingdom. What God does for His people is
this: He keeps them in tribulation, preserves them in temptation, and
brings them joyfully out of all their trials. So, Christian, you may
rejoice in your security; but you must not think that you are not to be
attacked; you are like a stream from Lebanon, to be dashed down many a
cascade, to be broken over many a rough rock, to be stopped up with many a huge stone, to be impeded by many a fallen tree; but you are to dash
forward with the irresistible force of God, sweeping everything away,
till you find at last the place of your perfect rest.