THE ONLY SAFE PLACE.

Hoa Maori, Issue 21, 1 July 1891, Page 5

THE ONLY SAFE PLACE.

»HBN I was crossing the prairies which stretch for hundreds of miles west of the Missisippi, I saw far away upon the horizon a long black wall of smoke ; as night came on, this became a line of fire for many miles, stretching over the undulating country. It was the unmistakable prairie fire When the travellers in their waggon or the Indians see the prairie fire in the distance rapidly approaching, they at once make a fire themselves, setting fire to the tall, waving grass around them, which burnsaway till nothing is left but a bare, blackened , space covered with the charred remains of the roots. Upon this cleared ground they take their stand, and boldly defy the fiery i storm. i The prairie fire now closes on them, rushi ing madly on sweeping down all in its course. The prairie dogs, who have been barking, i turn tail and run into their - holes; whilst - owls and rattlesnakes vainly screech and i hiss. All is wild confusion around, as the 3 tempest drives the leaping flames on in their i devastating work; but the Indians, or .the i travellers are safe. The place where d they stand being already i cleared by fire, there is nothing i left to burn, so that when the

flames come, finding no fuel, they merely encircle it and pass on. Any other place outside is in imminent danger, near or far it matters little, for to he witnout the circle is certain destruction, whilst witlrin is perfect security. I 'ear reader, a worse than prairie lire is hurrying on at a fearful, overwhelming pace it looms already in the distance; many a traveller for eternity sees it not, for his eyes are blinded, or he flatters himself that it is not coming his way, it will not overtake hint. Yet on sweeps the devouring flame, in spite of all his \ ain delusions. It is the awful fire ! of God’s fierce wrath against that which is i most hateful to His holiness-God’s anger against sin. All man’s science and art will nut turn away this raging, fiery storm; he | may add device to device, and cover himself up with his own righteousness as with i a cloak, but his accumulated mass of good i works and human performances will only add to the great burning of that terrible day when all things shall be tried by the fire of the holy, consuming wrath of the living God. But here is the glad tidings of a refuge from the coining wrath— a refuge secure and divinely safe ; a shelter of God’s own providing: what is it? It is God’s own Sun who has borne the wrath for the sinners —Christ who died, and rose again, and is now ascended and in heavenly glory. When the thick judgment cloud that had gathered for the poor doomed sinner burst in all its relentless fury upon the sinner’s Substitute, then, then the thunderbolts of God’s wrath fell upon Christ. Oh ! the greatness of the judgment,— 1 the greatness of the love 1 The one can only be measured by the other! And now, There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus— 8, 1. Oh! flee to Him; audknox with peace-giving confidence that upon the cross He bor e the condemnation for . thee. Was not the intense burning He enj dared enough when He cried, •< I thirst I *• My God. my God. why hast thou forsaken j me?” Malt.-27, 48. God has proved He is I satisfied by the resurection of His Son, and I there, pi, sinner, thou mayest rest, where i th judgment has already fallen; this is “ the

only safe place ’’—sheltering in a wounded and smitten Christ, when all around is given up to the flames. Linger not, but “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved ! ” —Acts 16 81.