'On these certainties,' he exclaimed, 'I stake everything! On these certainties I rest my soul!' And, summing up the three in one, he added, '_For I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day_.' It is wonderful how the universal heart aches for assurance, for confidence, for finality, for certainty. Mr. Dan Crawford tells of a cannibal chief beside whose deathbed an African boy was reading selections from the Gospel of John. He was impressed by the frequent recurrence of the words '_verily, verily_.' 'What do they mean?' he asked. 'They mean "_certainly, certainly!_"' 'Then,' exclaimed the dying man, with a sigh of infinite relief, 'they shall be my pillow. I rest on them.' Sage or savage, it is all the same. Bunyan's great night was the night on which he found that same pillow. 'It was with joy that I told my wife, "O, now I know, _I know_!" That night was a good night to me! I never had a better. I longed for the company of some of God's people, that I might have imparted unto them what God had showed me. Christ was a precious Christ to my soul that night; I could scarcely lie in my bed for joy and peace and triumph through Christ!' '_Those words shall be my pillow!_' said the African chief. '_Those words shall be my pillow!_' said the English scientist. '_Those words shall be my pillow!_' cried John Bunyan. '_For I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day!_' III '_He is able to keep!_' That was the sublime confidence that won the heart of John Newton. It came to him in the form of a dream on his voyage home from Venice. I have told the story in full in _A Bunch of Everlastings_. 'It made,' he says, 'a very great impression upon me!' The same thought made an indelible impression upon the mind of Faraday, and he clung tenaciously to it at the last. '_He is able to keep_'--as a shepherd keeps his sheep. '_He is able to keep_'--as a sentry keeps the gate. '_He is able to keep_'--as the pilgrims kept the golden vessels on their journey to Jerusalem, both counting and weighing them before they set out from Babylon and again on their arrival at the Holy City. '_He is able to keep_'--as a banker keeps the treasure confided to his custody. '_I know whom I have believed_,' says the margin of the Revised Version, '_and I am persuaded that He is able to guard my deposit against that day_.' '_I know in whom my trust reposes_,' says Dr. Weymouth's translation, '_and I am confident that He has it in His power to keep what I have entrusted to Him safe until that day._' '_I know whom I have trusted_,' says Dr. Moffatt's version, '_and I am certain that He is able to keep what I have put into His hands till the Great Day._' _He will guard my treasure!_ _He will honor my confidence!_ _He will hold my deposit!_ _I know! I know! I know!_ IV