the same yesterday, to-day, and
for ever!" For six thousand years, sinners have been crowding in, and
"still there is room!"

_Ninth_, The Rock of Castello _was only a safe retreat so long as those
who fled for refuge remained within its cave_. The enemy were
continually on the watch, and to venture out, would be to _perish_!
Jesus, the "Rock of Ages," thus speaks to you, "Abide in me!" "Out of
me, ye can do nothing." It is only "the Righteous who runneth _into_ Him
that is _safe_! To _abide_ in Jesus is to be secure from every danger,
to _leave_ Him is _destruction_!"

_Tenth_, The Rock of Castello _had to be fled to in the first moment of
danger_. The only safety of the persecuted was in _instant flight_. On
the first tidings of the enemy, houses, and lands, and vineyards, and
all they possessed, had to be left, and, "forgetting the things that
were behind, they pressed forward" to their Rock! Jesus tells _you_,
dear children, your only safety consists in _immediate_ flight to
Himself, the Rock of Ages! Delay may be fatal! The storm-blast is
gathering, the sky is darkening, there is the distant muttering of the
thunder. The enemy is on the march--Satan is watching--Death is
approaching. Already he may have strung his arrow. "Flee to the
stronghold, ye prisoners of Hope,--

TO-DAY."

Oh! forbid that this should be _your_ history now, and your history
through eternity (How awful are the words!)--

"They lightly esteemed the _Rock of their Salvation_!"

* * * * *

Reader!--Have _you_ fled to this Living "Rock of Ages?"--Have you made
it your prayer,

"Jesus! Refuge of my Soul!
Let me to Thy bosom fly?"

And in _that_ bosom, and _that_ refuge, are you hiding yourself until
all Earth's "calamities be overpast?" The deeper you hide yourself in
the clefts of the smitten Rock, the safer you are. Oh! do you ever pause
and think that there is a day coming, when this Valley of Tears "and all
the works that are therein, shall be burned up?" When "God shall arise
in the glory of His Majesty, to shake terribly the Earth." When every
mountain peak shall be black with tempest--and the whole valley shall be
a sheet of living fire! Then (as I saw on the evening I entered this
Alpine valley), there shall be but ONE ROCK seen rising far above the
mist, and thunderings, and lightnings, and tempest! JESUS CHRIST, the
Rock of Ages! the Sinner's Refuge! and the Sinner's Friend! Many voices