Once a number of rough men were looking at a caged lion, when one of them in cruel sport picked up his little dog and forced it through the bars. The poor creature was terrified, and ran whimpering to the farthest corner of the cage, coiled itself up there, quivering, while the brutal men looked on in amusement to see what the lion would do. It did not rise, but gazed quietly at the intruder. The minutes passed, and the little doggie seemed to gain hope, for it crawled with its ears down and tail between its legs towards the huge beast. To the surprise of all, the lion, instead of snapping, reached out its tongue, and began affectionately to lick the frightened creature. When the men’s wonder was satisfied, the owner of the dog approached the lion-tamer, and asked to get it back again.
“As you put it into the cage yourself, you had better just go and get it out,” was the retort.
The man whistled, but the dog only snuggled closer to its new master. Then thinking that he might reach its foot and draw it back, he stretched in his hand. In a moment the lion was on his feet, and his roar resounded through the building, and the men, terrified, fled from the place, and as long as the lion lived, he never allowed the dog to be taken from him. The lion, you know, is “the king of beasts”—the strongest of them all, so the poor dog was perfectly safe while he stayed with his strange protector.
Boys and girls who know Jesus as their Saviour, have the most powerful Friend of all, Jesus. He says,
“I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My hand.” Then he adds, “My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and none is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.” John 10:28, 29.
O, how safe is even the weakest child who trusts such a Saviour! Just as no one dare go near the lion to harm the little dog, so no one, not even Satan, dare, or can, harm the child of God.
“If God be for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31.
ML 01/20/1946