Hold me up!

(Alexander MacLaren, "Open Sins")

"Hold me up, and I shall be safe!" Ps. 119:117

The first lesson we have to learn is that
without Divine help we cannot stand;
and that with it we cannot fall. We must
cultivate a spirit of lowly dependence, of
self conscious weakness.

We need a mightier strength than our own,
which shall curb all this evil nature of ours,
and restrain us from sin.

When God's Spirit comes into a man's heart,
He will deaden his desires after earth and
forbidden ways. He will bring blessed higher
objects for all our affections. He who has
been fed on "the hidden manna" will not be
likely to hanker after the leeks and onions
that grew in the Nile mud in Egypt, however
strong their smell and pungent their taste.

He who has tasted the higher sweetnesses of
God will have his heart's desires after lower
delights, strangely deadened and cooled.

My heart, touched by the Spirit of God dwelling
in me, will turn to Him, and I shall find little
sweetness in the otherwise tempting delicacies
that earth can supply.

God desires to cleanse us from the filth of the
swine trough and the rags of our exile, and
clothe us in fine linen, clean and white. If you
will put yourselves into His hands, He will give
you new powers to detect the serpents in the
flowers, and new resolution to shake off the
vipers into the fire.

"Hold me up, and I shall be safe!" Ps. 119:117