Article May 16, 1953 Issue

THE ETERNAL REFUGE

EVELYN JOY FRENCH

"The eternal God is thy refuge," we read in Deuteronomy (33:27); and it is the realization of this truth which brings health and harmony to mankind.

Since time began men of perception have recognized the need for a refuge from material existence. In the Bible we read of many such men. The Psalmist sang of "the secret place of the most High" (Ps. 91:1) and spoke of dwelling in the house of the Lord. In Proverbs we read (18:10), "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." Jesus knew this refuge as the kingdom of heaven; Paul recognized it when he saw that nothing could separate him from the love of God; and the Apostle John beheld it as the heavenly Jerusalem, the city which has foundations and lies foursquare.

Such a one, too, was Noah, who, lifting his thought above the sensuality of the age, gained a glimpse of God's power and ever-presence and, consequently, something of man's indestructibility, for in Genesis we are told (6:9), "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." The recognition of God's protecting power resulted in the building of an ark in which Noah saved himself and his family from the cataclysm into which his immediate neighborhood was soon to be plunged.

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