The very petition you have brought to the throne of grace is itself an arrow of the Lord's deliverance, for the Spirit of the Lord could do it in a moment, He might breathe upon the mind and turn it, yet He is pleased to use the cries of a mother as the bow from which His mercy flies. Deliverance from a cruel captivity, like that of Israel in Egypt, must be worked by the hand and outstretched arm of Jehovah alone! It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. And you have done well to plead the blood of Jesus and the power of His name, for if we are ever set free from sin and Satan, it will be eternally and infinitely true that the Lord brought us forth out of the house of bondage.
That hedge of protection you have asked is no vain thing, though the cruel archers worry and the cares of the battle would break through. Good friend engaged in this warfare, you know well it is not always easy to put a hedge between the soul and the assaults of the enemy, yet the Lord is that hedge, and the shadow of His hand has hid His own. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. It is because of his supreme darkness of mind and spirit that Satan is the boldest of all spirits in contending with the God of heaven and earth; beware of the brow of brass, but fear not, for Light springs out of that darkness, the eternal Light of the undying Son of God, who, having risen from the dead, lives forever to scatter the darkness of evil! This darkness teaches us what Jesus suffered, and in that suffering the battle was joined. He was fighting, then, with darkness, with the powers of darkness of which Satan is the head, with the darkness of human ignorance, depravity, and falsehood. The battle thus apparent at Golgotha has been raging ever since, but the victory is sure.
Some of us also sat in darkness, gloomy, thick, Egyptian night, but when Jesus came to us, that darkness fled away. He feels that if he ever rises from his despondency, he can never dare to take an atom of the honor of deliverance to himself, it must be of Free Grace only. And so shall it be with your son. Wonders of Grace belong to Christ! The prisoner is ready to be executed, but there comes to him undeserved deliverance from all punishment, for the King's own Son has borne the penalty of all his iniquities. God has not only invented a way of deliverance, but He has found a ransom. The great weapon of God against sin is His Son, Jesus Christ! God has no such means of smiting evil, or effecting His purposes of love as His own dear Son. Therefore, let your soul wait in the darkness with patient endurance as long as God appoints it. Whatever of shadow is yet to come, whatever of cold damp air and dews of the night is yet to fall, we will bear it. Soldiers of the Cross, you must not wish to avoid these shadows, for it is still the hour of shadows, but the Lord will come, until the day breaks and the shadows flee away.
He who was brought out of prison by a miracle of Grace, by a revelation of the Holy Spirit, by the blood of Jesus shed for many, shall show himself in the light. You who were in darkness, if Christ has brought you into light, show yourselves! The mouth of the righteous becomes a well of life, and the places of drawing water are the ordinances of His house. There, at the well of baptism into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and at the table of communion, we draw strength. And this is your confidence: the Lord looks upon His Son, Jesus, bearing our sin. The genuine love of God is manifested in His desire that it should be proclaimed, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." Continue, then, to shoot the arrows of supplication, with your hands laid over by the hands of the Great High Priest, for deliverance is of the Lord but it must be accomplished through such instrumentality. He who has begun this work will complete it, for knowledge of God is a divine armor by which we are able to ward off all the blows of the enemy.