So, then, there are these three pictures--the Nest and the Mother-bird,
the Battlefield and the Shield, Egypt and the Destroying Angel.

II. We note the reality meant by these pictures.

They mean the absolute promise from God of protection for His people
from _every_ evil. We are not to cut it down, not to say that it applies
absolutely in regard to the spiritual world, but that it does not apply
in regard to temporal things. Yes, it does entirely, only you have to
rise to the height of God's conception of what is good and what is evil
in regard to outward things, before you understand how completely, and
without qualification or deduction, this promise is fulfilled to every
man that puts his trust in Him. Of course, I do not need to remind you,
for your own lives will do so sufficiently, that this hovering
protector, this strong Shield, this Destroying Angel that passes by our
houses if the blood is on the threshold, does not guarantee us any
exemption from the common 'ills that flesh is heir to.' We all know that
well enough. But what does it guarantee? That all the poison shall be
wiped off the arrow, that all the evil shall be taken out of the evil,
that it will change its character, that if we observe the conditions,
the sharpest sorrow will come to us with this written on it by the
Father's hand, 'With My love to My child'; that pain will be discipline,
and discipline will be blessed. Ah! dear friends! I am sure there are
many of us that can set to our seals that God is true in this matter,
and that we have found that His rod does blossom, and that our sorest
sorrows have been our greatest mercies, drawing us nearer to Him;
'Defending He will deliver, and passing over He will preserve.'

III. And now let me remind you of the way by which we can make the
reality of these pictures ours.