Christ Delivers His People
"And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on My name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God." -Zechariah 13:9 [KJV] It is a mercy to be in the furnace, and it is a mercy to be brought through it. The Lord's promise to the third part is, that H e will bring them through the fire. They must therefore, according to H is own word, be put into it, and yet not left in it. It is "through the fire"—right through it from beginning to end, whether it be a long and slow one or short and fierce one. The Lord knows exactly what we can bear, and it is not always the hottest fire which produces the most softening effects. Some metals indeed are so stubborn, and the dross is so deeply engrained into them, that they seem to require a hotter fire than others. But after the law has done its work, and the dros