"HE HOLDS THE ROPE"


'LL go down if father will hold the rope," was the offer of a Highland lad, when a traveller wanted him to reach the eggs of a wild bird which had built on a rocky ledge. The boy felt that there would be no danger if the rope was in his father's hand, for he had a powerful arm, and a loving heart, and would not leave his own child to perish.
Timid believers are afraid to begin to work for Jesus. To teach in the Sunday-school, to commence a Tract District, to visit the cottagers, to preach on the green, any of these seem to them to be too arduous and difficult. Suppose they were to look up to their Heavenly Father, and rely upon his promised aid, might they not venture? It cannot need much courage to rely upon Almighty strength. Go, dear friend, to thy work, and thy Father will hold the rope.
Unbelief is apt to foresee terrible trials as awaiting us upon our road to heaven. Your position will be, so fear tells you, like that of one hanging over the raging sea, by the side of a precipitous cliff; but there remember the eternal love which will be your unfailing support. You may hang there without the slightest fear, for Father will hold the rope.
The awakened sinner dreads the wrath of Heaven, and fears that his eternal ruin is inevitable; but if he has learned to depend alone upon the Lord Jesus, there is no room for further alarm. The Lord Jehovah has become the salvation of every soul that has laid hold upon the hope set before him in the Lord Jesus. The great matter no longer rests with the sinner after he has believed, the weight of his soul's eternal interests hangs upon Jesus the Saviour. The eternal arm which never wearies, will put forth all its power to uphold the trusting ones; and every believing sinner may sing in joyful security, though Satan should set all hell boiling beneath him, for the great Father holds the rope.