The troubles with which the plants of God's right-hand planting are assailed when they are saplings are very inconsiderable compared with those which blow about them when they become, like cedars, strongly rooted. When we grow strong, so sure as our strength increases, our sufferings, our trials, our labors, or our temptations, will be multiplied. God's power is never communicated to any man to be laid up in store. The food which is given to strengthen us, like the manna which was gathered by the Israelites in the wilderness, is intended for immediate use. When the Lord puts upon our feet the shoes of iron which He has promised us in the covenant, it is that we may walk in them--not that we may put them into our museum, and gaze upon them as curiosities. If He gives us a strong hand, it is because we have a strong foe to fight with. If He shall give us a great meal, as He did Elijah of old, it is that we may go for a forty-day's journey in the strength of that meal. _The Triumphant Deliverance._ When the Israelites went forth out of the land of Egypt, they took with them the whole of their possessions, according to the word of the Lord--"Not a hoof shall be left behind." What does this teach us? Why, not only that all God's _people_ shall be saved, but that all which God's people _ever had_ shall be restored. All which Jacob ever took down to Egypt shall be brought out again. Have I lost a perfect righteousness in Adam? I shall have a perfect righteousness in Christ. Have I lost happiness on earth in Adam? God will give me much happiness here below in Christ. Have I lost heaven in Adam? I shall have heaven in Christ; for Christ came not only to seek and to save the people who were lost, but _that which_ was lost; that is, all the inheritance, as well as the people; all their property. Not the sheep merely, but the good pasture which the sheep had lost; not only the prodigal son, but all the prodigal son's estates. Everything was brought out of Egypt; not even Joseph's bones were left behind. The Egyptians could not say that they had a scrap of the Israelites' property--not even one of their kneading troughs, nor one of their old garments. And when Christ shall have conquered all things to Himself, the Christian shall not have lost one atom by the toils of Egypt, but shall be able to say, "O _death_, where is thy sting? O _grave_, where is thy victory?" O _hell_, where is thy triumph? Thou hast not a flag nor a pennon to show of thy victory; there is not a casque or a helmet left upon the battle-field; there is not a single trophy which thou mayst raise up in hell in scorn of Christ. He hath not only delivered His people, but they have gone out with flying colors. Stand and admire and love the Lord, who thus delivers all His people. "Great are Thy works, O Lord, and marvellous are Thy doings; and that my soul knoweth right well." _A Complete Saviour._