IS IT TRUE?

"Is it true?" -Daniel 3:14 [KJV]

A question this from a potent monarch, backed with a dreadful threatening: enough to have put Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to the stand. Their answer must provoke their God, or their king. But did they hesitate a moment? were they at all in doubtful suspense? No: they had faith in their Lord; and they boldly replied, “O king, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.” Our cause lies before our God. We are not left to ourselves. Our present life, our immortal soul, is in His hands. 

If you command us into the fiery furnace, our God will be with us. We shall be safe: He will deliver us. Either our bodies that we have shall not be burnt; or, if they are, the burning furnace shall be only a fiery chariot, to convey our souls to heaven and glory. See the power of faith. According as they believed, so it was. The Son of God was with them: the fire could not hurt them. Hence, consider, 

(1st.) that God may, and sometimes does, suffer His dearest children to be brought into great straits, and threatened with the greatest dangers, so that an answer to a single question may perplex them. It is true? Are you one who follows this new way? Do you pretend to be justified by the Son of God only; to be saved by the grace of God entirely; and to have received the Spirit of God freely? On an answer to this, perhaps, depends a parent’s regard, or a friend’s kindness: the one threatens to disinherit; the other, to withdraw his favours. Do worldly interest, honour, or advantage depend upon the answer of the tongue and the conduct of the life? Do poverty and want seem to threaten, if we declare ourselves for the Lord? Here is the trial of faith. 

But, (2d.) remember our Lord’s declaration: “Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and My words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father” (Mark 8:38.) Therefore, put this question to your heart.—Is it true, that God is my Father? is Christ my Saviour? Doth the Spirit bear witness to this in the word and to my heart? shall I then so fear a worm of the earth, as to decry the truth, and forsake that Lord Who hath promised He will never leave nor forsake me: and that those who trust in Him shall not want any good thing? (Psalm 34:10.) My soul starts, my heart recoils at the thought. Rather say, I will not fear what man can do unto me. Give up and forgo all for Christ. Soon we shall see these children: then they will tell us, they never were so happy in their lives, as in the fiery furnace. God is most with His children, when they suffer most for Him. 

O give me courage, dearest Lord, 

Against my greatest foes, 

To tell Thy sacred truth abroad, 

Nor fear their threat’ning woes.

 

-preacher William Mason (1724-1797 A.D.)

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