Never are the ungodly further from the mark--never
committed to a mistake more suicidal and fatal than when they lay the hand
of injustice and oppression upon the saints of the Most High!
God is for the saints. He is the Avenger of all those who put their trust in Him-the widow
and the fatherless-and those who touch them touch the apple of His eye.
If God is for us, who can be against us?
A simple missionary incident
may illustrate this truth. A little band of missionaries in the Fiji Islands
found their home, on one occasion, surrounded by a troop of armed savages,
bent upon their destruction.
Unable, as unwilling, to fight, they closed the
door, and betook themselves to prayer. Presently, the war-whoop suddenly
ceased.
On opening the door they found only one savage there. "Where are
your chiefs?" he was asked. "They are gone," was the reply; they heard you
praying to your God, and they knew that your God was a strong God,
and they left.
How true this testimony of the savages! The God of the
Christians is a strong Lord. All that strength is on the side of His
people.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole
earth, to show Himself STRONG in the behalf of those whose heart is perfect
toward Him.
Consider, O my soul, this truth, that the Lord is the
strength of His people and the Avenger of all who are oppressed, and will
set them in a safe place from those who malign them.
The Lord's people are an OPPRESSED people.
The
ungodly oppress them-sins oppress them-afflictions oppress
them-temptations oppress them-needs oppress them-infirmities oppress
them-the body of sickness and suffering oppresses them-and, alas! that it
should be said, even the saints often oppress them-for some of their
keenest shafts have been forged and flung by a brother's hand.
But, the Lord stands up for His oppressed ones. He is the
Avenger of all such. "It is God who avenges me," says David.
Leave
Him, O my soul, to vindicate your character, to redress your wrong, to rid
you of your adversary, and He will bring forth your righteousness as the
light, and your judgment as the noon-day.
O Lord, You have pleaded the
causes of my soul."The sighing of the needy." Jesus was a sighing
Savior! He often "sighed deeply in His spirit." And still He is in
sympathy with His members, who sigh by reason of sin and suffering and need.
For these He will arise.
Sigh on, O my soul! the sigh that breathes from a
broken heart, or is wrung from an anguished spirit, or is awakened by the
unkindness of the oppressor, or the wounding of a Christian brother, ascends
to heaven as music in the ear of the Great High Priest within the veil, and
awakens the echoes of His loving and compassionate heart.
Weeping has a
voice-sighs have a language-and Jesus hears the one and understands the
other.
To nothing belonging to a saint can the Lord be indifferent. "O
Lord! I am oppressed--undertake for me."
Thus, let the burden of
oppression, and sigh of need, prompt you to prayer; then shall you thank and
praise Him for both.
Give to the winds your fears; Hope, and be undismayed;
God hears your sighs, and counts your tears, God shall lift up your head."
God hears your sighs, and counts your tears, God shall lift up your head."
~Octavius Winslow~
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