of God.
He need not have been afraid. The oxen might stumble, and the cart roll
about, but the Ark was safe and stable. A great deal may go, but the
wall of fire will be around the Church. In regard to its existence, as
in regard to the immortal being of each of its members, the great word
remains for ever true: 'Because I live ye shall live also.'

But do not let us forget that this great promise does not belong only to
the Church as a whole, but that we have each to bring it down to our
own individual lives, and to be quite sure of this, that in spite of all
that sense says, in spite of all that quivering hearts and weeping eyes
may seem to prove, there is a wall of fire round each of us, if we are
keeping near Jesus Christ, through which it is as impossible that any
real evil should pass and get at us, as it would be impossible that any
living thing should pass through the flaming battlements that the
Prophet saw round his ideal city. Only we have to interpret that promise
by faith and not by sense, and we have to make it possible that it shall
be fulfilled by keeping inside the wall, and trusting to it. As faith
dwindles, the fiery wall burns dim, and evil can get across its embers,
and can get at us. Keep within the battlements, and they will flame up
bright and impassable, with a fire that on the outer side consumes, but
to those within is a fire that cherishes and warms.

II. The next point of the promise passes into a more intimate region. It
is well to have a defence from that which is without us; but it is more
needful to have, if a comparison can be made between the two, a glory
'in the midst' of us.

The one is external defence; the other inward illumination, with all
which light symbolises--knowledge, joy, purity.

There is even more than that meant by this great promise. For notice
that emphatic little word _the--the_ glory, not _a_ glory--in the midst
of her. Now you all know what 'the glory' was. It was that symbolic
Light that spoke of the special presence of God, and went with the
Children of Israel in their wanderings, and sat between the Cherubim.
There was no 'Shechinah,' as it is technically called, in that second
Temple. But yet the Prophet says, 'The glory'--the actual presence of
God--'shall be in the midst of her,' and the meaning of that great
promise is taught us by the very last vision in the New Testament, in
which the Seer of the Apocalypse says, 'The glory of the Lord did
lighten it'