continue under His protection. Such continuance of safety because of
continuous faith is possible only by continued communion. Remember our
Lord's expansion of the metaphor in His lament: 'How often would I have
gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not.' We can resist the drawing. We can get away
from the shelter of the wing. We can lift up our wills against Him. And
what becomes of the chicken that does _not_ run to the mother's pinions
when the hawk is hovering? That is what becomes of the man that stops
outside the refuge in Christ, or that by failure of his faith departs
from that refuge. 'Ye would not; therefore your house is left unto you
desolate.' That house, in the Jerusalem which God 'defends,' is _not_
defended.

Another condition of divine protection is obedience. We need not expect
that God will take care of us, and preserve us, when we did not ask His
leave to get into the dangerous place that we find ourselves in. Many of
us do the converse of what the Apostle condemns, we begin 'in the
flesh,' and think we shall end 'in the Spirit'; which being translated
is, we do not ask God's leave to do certain things, to enter into
certain engagements or arrangements with other people, and the like, and
then we expect God to come and help us in or out of them. That is by no
means an uncommon form of delusion. You remember what Jesus Christ said
when the Devil tried to entice Him to do a thing of that sort, by
quoting Scripture to Him--'He shall give His angels charge concerning
Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways. Cast Thyself down. Trust to the
promise as a kind of parachute to keep Thee from falling bruised on the
stones of the Temple-court.' Christ's answer was: 'Thou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God.' You will not get God's protection in ways of your own
choosing.