October 9

“Able to keep you from falling.” — Jude 24

IN some sense the path to heaven is verj safe, but in v other respects there is no road so darigerohs. It is beset with difficulties. One fal.se step (and how easy it is to take that, if grace be absent!) and down we go. What a slippery path is tha,t which some of us have to tread! How many times have we to exclaim with the Psalmiit, “My feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.” If we were strong, sure-footed mountaineers, this would not matter so much; but in ourselves, how ivealc we are! In the best roads we soon falter, in the smoothest paths we quickly stumble. These feeble knees of ours can scarcely support our tottering weight. A straw may throw us, and a pebble can wound us; we arc mere children tremblingly taking our first steps in the walk of faith; our heavenly Father holds us by the arms, or we should soon be down. Oh, if we are kept from falling, how must we bless the patient power which watches over us day by day! Think how prone we are to sin, how apt to choose danger, how strong our tendency to cast ourselves down, and these reflections will make us sing more sweetly than we have ever done, “Glory be to Him who is able to keep us from falling.” We have many foes who try to push us down. The road is rough, and we arc weak; but in addition to this, enemies lurk in ambush, who rush out when we least expect them, and labor to trip us up, or hurl us down the nearest precipice. Only an Almighty arm c?n preserve us from these unseen foes, who are seeking to destroy us. Such an arm is engaged for our defence. He is faithful that hath promised, and He is able to keep us from falling; so that, with a deep sense of our utter weakness, we miy cherish a firm belief in our perfect safety, and say, with joyful confidence, —

“Against mc earth and hell combine,
But on my side is po.vcr divine;
Jesus is “W and He is mine!”