A question this from a potent monarch backed with a wrathful threatening: enough to have put Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to the stand. Their answer must provoke their God, or their King. But did they hesitate a moment? Were they at all in suspense? No; they had faith in their Lord, and they boldly replied, "O King, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. Our cause lies before our God: we are not left to ourselves; our present life, our immortal soul is in his hands. If you command us into the fiery furnace, our God will be with us: we shall be safe: he will deliver us: either our bodies that we shall not be burnt; or if they are, the burning furnace shall be only as a fiery chariot to convey our souls to heaven and glory." See the power of faith: according as they believed so it was: the Son of God was with them: the fire could not hurt them. Hence consider:
God may, and sometimes does suffer his dearest children to be brought into great straits, and threatened with the greatest dangers, so that an answer to a single question may perplex them. Is it true? Are you one who follow this new way? Do you pretend to be justified by the Son of God only, to be saved by the grace of God entirely, and to have received the Spirit of God freely? On an answer to this, perhaps, depends a parent's regard or a friend's kindness: the one threatens to disinherit, the other to withdraw his favors. Do worldly interest, honor or advantage depend upon the answer of the tongue and the conduct of the life? Do poverty and want seem to threaten, if we declare ourselves for the Lord? Here is the trial of faith. But remember our Lord's declaration; "Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father.' Mark 8:38.
Put then this question to your heart: Is it true that God is my Father in Christ my Saviour? Doth the Spirit bear witness to this in the word, and to my heart? Shall I then so fear a worm of the earth as to deny the truth and forsake the Lord, who has promised he will never leave nor forsake me, and that they that seek him shall not want any good thing? Psalm 34:10. My soul starts, my heart recoils at the thought; rather say, "I will not fear what man can do unto mc." Give up and forego all for Christ: soon we shall see these dear children: then they will tell us they never were so happy in their lives as in the fiery furnace; God is most with his children when they suffer most for him.