. Christ's sleepless vigilance over His people. Octavius Winslow.

Surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Matthew 28 20.

What an exalted and endearing truth is Christ's sleepless vigilance over His people! Imagine yourself threading your way along a most difficult and perilous path, every step of which is attended with pain and hazard, and is taken with hesitancy and doubt. Unknown to you and unseen, there is One hovering around you each moment, checking each false step, guiding each doubtful one, soothing each sorrow, and supplying each need. All is calm and silent, not a sound is heard, not a movement is seen, and yet, to your amazement, just at the critical moment, the needed support comes, You know not from where, you know not from whom. This is no picture of imagination, but a divine reality.

Are you a child of God, on your pilgrimage to paradise, by an intricate and a perilous way? Jesus is near to you at each moment, unseen and often unknown. You have at times stood speechless with awe at the strange interposition on your behalf of providence and of grace, when no visible sign indicated the source of your help. There was no echo of footfall at your side, No flitting of shadow athwart your path, No law of nature was altered nor suspended, The sun did not stand still, nor did the heavens open, And yet deliverance, strange and effectual deliverance, Came at a moment most unexpected, yet most needed. It was Jesus, your Redeemer, your brother, your shepherd, and your guide. He it was who, hovering around you, unknown and unobserved, kept you as the apple of his eye, and sheltered you in the hollow of his hand. It was he who armed you with bravery for the fight, who poured strength into your spirit, and grace into your heart, when the full weight of calamity pressed upon them,

Thus has he always been to his children. The eye, which neither slumbers nor sleeps, was upon you. He knew in what furnace you were placed, and was there to temper the flame when it seemed the severest. He saw your frail vessels struggling through the tempest, and he came to your rescue at the height of the storm. How has he proved this in seasons of difficulty and doubt? How often, at a crisis the most critical of your history, the Lord has appeared for you. Your lack has been supplied, your doubt has been solved, and your perplexity has been guided. He has delivered your soul from death, your eyes from tears, and your feet from falling. You are never for an instant out of His heart, out of His thoughts, out of His hands, or out of His eye.

Go, then, and lay your weariness on Christ. Take your bereaved, stricken, and bleeding heart to Him. What, is your sorrow? Has the hand of death smitten? Is the beloved one removed? Has the desire of your eyes been taken away with a stroke? Who has done it? Jesus has done it. Death was only his messenger. Your Jesus has done it. The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away. And what has he removed? Your wife? Ah, Jesus, has all the tenderness that your wife ever had! Her love was only a drop from the ocean of love which is in his heart. Is it your husband? Jesus is better to you than ten husbands. Is it your parent? Your child? Your friend? Your all of earthly bliss? Is the cistern broken? Is the earthen vessel dashed to pieces? Are all your streams dry? Jesus is still enough. He has not taken himself from you, and never, never will. Take your bereaved, stricken, and bleeding heart to him, and rest it upon his heart, which was once bereaved, stricken, and bleeding too. He knows how to bind up the broken heart, heal the wounded spirit, and comfort those who mourn.

What is your sorrow? Has health failed you? Has property forsaken you? Have friends turned against you? Are you tried in your circumstances? Are you perplexed in your path? Are providences thickening and darkening around you? Are you anticipating seasons of approaching trial? Are you walking in darkness, having no light? Simply go to Jesus. He is an ever-open door. He is a tender, loving, faithful friend ever near. He is a brother born for your adversity. His grace and sympathy are sufficient for you. Go to Him in every trial. Cast yourself upon Him every burden. Take the infirmity, the corruption, the cross as it arises, simply and immediately to Jesus. Go to Him at all times and under all circumstances.