Clifts in the rock. God has many places of safety—"clifts in the rock"—where he puts us when trials approach. "As our day is, so is our strength." Bereavemeat comes upon us, and he elevates us on a pinnacle of faith to which we had never before mounted. Poverty and disgrace fall on us, and he gives us insensibility to them. Pain comes, and he enables us to see that pain is exactly the chastening we want, and to thank him for it. We do not cry out, with the Stoic, "How sweet!" for "no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous" (Hebrews 12:11); yet we have the spiritual strength to cry out to him—"How kind! How gracious!" The best "clift in the rock," is that cleft in the "Rock of Ages," which the soldier's spear made, wherein, if we please, we may lie hidden from every danger that can assail us.
"Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee!"