not forget thee. Behold,
I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands."(1069) The Lord of hosts
has said, "He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye."(1070)

Though enemies may thrust them into prison, yet dungeon walls cannot cut
off the communication between their souls and Christ. One who sees their
every weakness, who is acquainted with every trial, is above all earthly
powers; and angels will come to them in lonely cells, bringing light and
peace from heaven. The prison will be as a palace; for the rich in faith
dwell there, and the gloomy walls will be lighted up with heavenly light,
as when Paul and Silas prayed and sung praises at midnight in the
Philippian dungeon.

God's judgments will be visited upon those who are seeking to oppress and
destroy His people. His long forbearance with the wicked emboldens men in
transgression, but their punishment is none the less certain and terrible
because it is long delayed. "The Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim,
He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His
strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act."(1071) To our
merciful God the act of punishment is a strange act. "As I live, saith the
Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked."(1072) The Lord
is "merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and
truth, ... forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin." Yet He will "by
no means clear the guilty." "The Lord is slow to anger, and great in
power, and will not at all acquit the wicked."(1073) By terrible things in
righteousness He will vindicate the authority of His downtrodden law. The
severity of the retribution awaiting the transgressor may be judged by the
Lord's reluctance to execute justice. The nation with which He bears long,
and which He will not smite until it has filled up the measure of its
iniquity in God's account, will finally drink the cup of wrath unmixed
with mercy.

When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the unmingled wrath
threatened against those who worship the beast and his image and receive
his mark,(1074) will be poured out. The plagues upon Egypt when God was
about to deliver Israel, were similar in character to those more terrible
and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world just before the
final deliverance of God's people. Says the revelator, in describing those
terrific scourges: "There fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the