So for us, the condition and preparation on and by which we are
sheltered by that great Hand, is the faith that asks, and the asking
of faith. We must forsake the earthly props, but we must also
believingly desire to be upheld by the heavenly arms. We make God
responsible for our safety when we abandon other defence, and commit
ourselves to Him. With eyes open to our dangers, and full
consciousness of our own unarmed and unwarlike weakness, let us
solemnly commend ourselves to Him, rolling all our burden on His
strong arms, knowing that He is able to keep that which we have
committed to Him. He will accept the trust, and set His guards about
us. As the song of the returning exiles, which may have been sung by
the river Ahava, has it: 'My help cometh from the Lord. The Lord is
thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.'

So our story ends with the triumphant vindication of this Quixotic
faith. A flash of joyful feeling breaks through the simple narrative,
as it tells how the words spoken before the king came true in the
experience of the weaponless pilgrims: 'The hand of our God _was_
upon us, and He delivered us from the hand of the enemy, and of such
as lay in wait by the way; and we came to Jerusalem.' It was no rash
venture that we made. He was all that we hoped and asked. Through all
the weary march He led us. From the wild, desert-born robbers, that
watched us from afar, ready to come down on us, from ambushes and
hidden perils, He kept us, because we had none other help, and all our
hope was in Him. The ventures of faith are ever rewarded. We cannot
set our expectations from God too high. What we dare scarcely hope now
we shall one day remember. When we come to tell the completed story of
our lives, we shall have to record the fulfilment of all God's
promises, and the accomplishment of all our prayers that were built on
these. Here let us cry, 'Be Thy hand upon us.' Here let us trust, Thy