Preserved in Christ JESUS and Called
"Thou art my hiding place” - Psalm 32:7 [KJV] Yes, dearest Jesus, Thou art indeed my hiding place. In every point of view, I desire grace so to behold Thee. Surely, from everlasting, in Thee, and Thy person and righteousness, were all Thy redeemed hid in the councils of peace and salvation. And is not every individual hid in Thee also, Oh Thou glorious Head of Thy church; while in a state of unrenewed nature, to be secured from death and the grave, and from the unpardonable sin; and as one of the apostles terms it, "preserved in Christ Jesus, and called." And when called, and quickened by grace, what, but from having our lives hid with Christ in God, could keep alive the incorruptible seed, or preserve unextinguished the immortal spark? Whence is it, my soul, that the smoking flax, which Satan and thine own remaining indwelling lusts strive to blow out, is not quenched; or the bruised reed, which appears so continually falling, is not broken—but because Je