Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/177

 condescends to be our shield. He constitutes Himself our protector—He contends against our spiritual adversaries. By the wonder-working power of His Divine providence, He thwarts the machinations of our secret foes, and delivers us from their snares: He protects us against the weapons of evil—against the arrows of falsehood—so that we can truly say, "The Lord is our refuge and fortress, our God in whom we will trust. He shall cover us with His feathers, and under His wings shall we trust; His truth shall be our shield and buckler: we will not fear for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day: for the Lord our God is a sun and shield. He will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly."

O restore the soul, implies the raising of it from a state of earthly-mindedness and death, to a state of heavenly-mindedness and life.

We see that mankind are prone to evil; to whatever is contrary to true peace. Pride, lust, intemperance, covetousness, and many other impure affections, all concur to prove how deeply man has fallen from God; and the soul can only be recovered from this state by a new birth, a new crcation, a new life: as it is written,