Providence
A Sermon
(No. 187)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning, April 11, 1858, by the
REV. C.H. SPURGEON
At the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.
"But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."–Matthew 10:30.
DURING THIS WEEK my mind has been much directed to the subject of
Providence, and you will not wonder when I relate a portion of one
day's story. I was engaged to preach last Wednesday at Halifax, where
there was a heavy snow storm. Preparations had been made for a
congregation of 8000 persons, and a huge wooden structure had been
erected. I considered that owing to the severe weather, few persons
could possibly assemble, and I looked forward to the dreary task of
addressing an insignificant handful of people in a vast place. However,
when I arrived, I found from 5000 to 6000 people gathered together to
hear the Word; and a more substantial looking place it has not been my
lot to see. It certainly was a huge uncomely building, but,
nevertheless, it seemed well adapted to answer the purpose. We met
together in the afternoon and worshipped God, and again in the evening,
and we separated to our homes, or rather, we were about to separate,
and all this while the kind providence of God was watching over us.
Immediately in front of me there was a huge gallery, which looked an
exceedingly massive structure, capable of holding 2000 persons. This,
in the afternoon, was crowded, and it seemed to stand as firm as a
rock. Again in the evening there it stood, and neither moved nor shook.
But mark the provident hand of God: in the evening, when the people
were about to retire, and when there was scarcely more than a hundred
persons there, a huge beam gave way, and down came a portion of the
flooring of the gallery with a fearful crash. Several persons were
precipitated with the planks, but still the good hand of God watched
over us, and only two persons were severely injured with broken legs,
which it is trusted will be re-set without the necessity of amputation.
Now, had this happened any earlier, not only must many more have been
injured, but there are a thousand chances to one, as we say, that a
panic must necessarily have ensued similar to that which we still
remember, and deplore as having occurred in this place. Had such a
thing occurred, and had I been the unhappy preacher on the occasion, I
feel certain that I should never have been able to occupy the pulpit
again. Such was the effect of the first calamity, that I marvel that I
ever survived. No human tongue can possibly tell what I experienced.
The Lord, however, graciously preserved us; the fewness of the people
in the gallery prevented any such catastrophe, and thus a most fearful
accident was averted. But we have a more marvellous providence still to
record. Overloaded by the immense weight of snow which fell upon it,
and beaten by a heavy wind, the entire building fell with an enormous
crash three hours after we had left it, splitting the huge timbers into
shivers, and rendering very much of the material utterly useless for
any future building. Now mark this–had the snow begun three hours
earlier, the building must have fallen upon us, and how few of us would
have escaped we cannot guess. But mark another thing. All day long it
thawed so fast, that the snow as it fell seemed to leave a mass, not of
white snow, but of snow and water together. This ran through the roof
upon us, to our considerable annoyance, and I was almost ready to
complain that we had hard dealing from God's providence. But if it had
been a frost instead of a thaw, you can easily perceive that the place
must have fallen several hours beforehand, and then your minister, and
the greater part of his congregation, would probably have been in the
other world. Some there may be who deny providence altogether. I cannot
conceive that there were any partakers of the scene who could have done
so. This I know, if I had been an unbeliever to this day in the
doctrine of the supervision and wise care of God, I must have been a
believer in it at this hour. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us
exalt his name together; he hath been very gracious unto us, and
remembered us for good.
Now, when we look abroad into the world we see, as we think, such
abundant proofs that there is a God, that we are apt to treat a man who
denies the existence of a God with very little respect or patience. We
believe him to be wilfully blind, for we see God's name so legible upon
the very surface of creation, that we cannot have patience with him if
he dares to deny the existence of a Creator. And in the matter of
salvation: we have each of us seen in our own salvation such positive
marks of the Lord's dealings with us, that we are apt to be somewhat
censorious and harsh towards any who propound a doctrine which would
teach salvation apart from God. And I think we shall be very apt this
morning to think hardly of the man, who, having seen and heard of such
a providence as that which I have just related, could fail to see God's
hand. It seems to me that the hand of God in providence is as clear as
in creation; and whilst I am sure that if saved at all I must be saved
by God, I feel equally certain that every matter which concerns all of
us in daily life, bears upon itself the evident trace of being the
handiwork of Jehovah, our God. We must, if we would be true believers
in God, and would avoid all atheism, give unto him the kingship in the
three kingdoms of creation, grace, and providence. It is in the last,
however, that I think we are the most apt to forget him; we may easily
see God in creation if we be at all enlightened, and if saved, we
cannot avoid confessing that salvation is of the Lord alone. The very
way in which we are saved, and the effect of grace in our hearts,
always compels us to feel that God is just. But providence is such a
chequered thing, and you and I are so prone to misjudge God and to come
to rash conclusions concerning his dealings with us, that perhaps this
is the greatest stronghold of our natural Atheism–a doubt of God's
dealings with us in the arrangements of outward affairs. This morning I
shall not be able to go deeply into the subject, but very heartily can
I enter into it, after being so great a partaker of his wonder-working
power.
From the text I shall draw one or two points. First of all, the text
says, "the very hairs of our head are all numbered." From this I shall
infer the minuteness of providence. Again, inasmuch as it is said of
believers that the hairs of their head are all numbered, I shall infer
the kind consideration, the generous care, which God exercises over
Christians. And then, from the text, and from our Saviour's reason for
uttering these words, I shall draw a practical conclusion of what
should be the spirit and temper of the men who believe this truth–that
the very hairs of their head are all numbered.
I. First, then, our text very clearly teaches us THE MINUTENESS OF
PROVIDENCE. Every man can see providence in great things; it is very
seldom that you find any person denying that when an avalanche falls
from the summit of the Alps, the hand, the terrible hand of God is
there. There are very few men who do not feel that God is present in
the whirlwind, and in the storm. Most men will acknowledge that the
earthquake, the hurricane, the devastation of war, and the ravages of
pestilence, come from the hand of God. We find most men very willing to
confess that God is God of the hills, but they forget that he is also
Lord of the valleys. They will grant that he deals with great masses,
but not with individuals; with seas in the bulk, but not with drops.
Most men forget, however, that the fact which they believe of
providence being in great things involves a providence in the little,
for it were an inconsistent belief that the mass were in God's hand,
whilst the atom was left to chance; it is indeed a belief that
contradicts itself; we must believe all chance or else all God. We must
have all ordained and arranged, or else we must have everything left to
the wild whirlwind of chance and accident. But I believe that it is in
little things that we fail to see God; therefore, it is to the little
things that I call your attention this morning.
I believe my text means literally what it says. "The very hairs of your
head are all numbered." God's wisdom and knowledge are so great, that
he even knows the number of the hairs upon our head. His providence
descends to the minute particles of dust in the summer gale; he numbers
the gnats in the sunshine, and the fishes in the sea. While it
certainly doth control the massive orbs that shine in heaven, it doth
not blush to deal with the drop that trickleth from the eye.
Now, I shall want you to notice, how little circumstances of daily
life, when we come to put them all together, evidently betray their
origin. I will take a Scripture history, and show how the little events
must have been of God, as well as the great results. When Joseph was
sent into Egypt by his brethren, in order to provide for them against a
day of famine, we all agree with Joseph's declaration, "It was God that
sent me hither." But now, if we notice each of the little ways through
which this great result was brought to pass, we shall see God in each
of them. One day, Joseph's brethren are gone out with the sheep; Jacob
wants to send to them. Why does he send Joseph? He was his darling son;
he loved him better than all his brethren. Why does he send him away?
He sends him, however. Then why should it have happened at that
particular time, that Jacob should want to send at all? However, he did
want to send, and he did send Joseph. A mere accident you will say, but
quite necessary as the basement of the structure. Joseph goes; his
brethren are in want of pasture, and therefore leave Shechem, where
Joseph expected to find them, and journey on to Dothan. Why go to
Dothan? Was not the whole land before them? However Joseph goes there;
he arrives at Dothan just when they are thinking of him and his dreams,
and they put him into a pit. As they are about to eat bread, some
Ishmaelites came by. Why did they come there at all? Why did they come
at that particular time? Why were they going to Egypt? Why might they
not have been going any other way? Why was it that the Ishmaelites
wanted to buy slaves? Why might they not have been trading in some
other commodity? However, Joseph is sold; but he is not disposed of on
the road to Egypt, he is taken to the land. Why is it that Potiphar is
to buy him? Why is it that Potiphar has a wife, at all? Why is it again
that Potiphar's wife should be so full of lust? Why should Joseph get
into prison? How is it that the baker and the butler should offend
their master? All chance, as the world has it, but every link necessary
to make the chain. They do both offend their master; they are both put
into prison. How is it that they both dream? How is it that Joseph
interprets the dreams? How is it that the butler forgets him? Why, just
because if he had recollected him, it would have spoiled it all. Why is
it Pharaoh dreams? How can dreams be under the arrangement of God's
providence? However, Pharaoh does dream; the butler then thinks of
Joseph; Joseph is brought out of prison and taken before Pharaoh. But
take away any of those simple circumstances, break any one of the links
of the chain, and the whole of the design is scattered to the winds.
You cannot get the machine to work; if any of the minute cogs of the
wheels are taken away, everything is disarranged. I think it seems very
clear to any man who will dissect not only that, but any other history
he likes to fix upon, that there must be a God in the little accidents
and dealings of daily life, as well as in the great results that tell
upon the page of history, and are recounted in our songs. God is to be
seen in little things.
We will now notice, in the minutiae of providence, how punctual
providence always is. You will never wonder more at providence, than
when you consider how well God keeps time with himself. To return to
our history–how is it that the Ishmaelites should come by just at that
time? How many thousand chances there were that their journey might
have been taken just before! There certainly was no special train to
call at that station at that particular time, so that Joseph's brethren
might arrange to go and call him. No such thing. And yet if there had
been all this arrangement, it could not have happened better. You know
Reuben intended to fetch Joseph out of the pit half an hour later, and
"the child was not." God had these Ishmaelites ready: you do not know
how he may have sped them on their journey, or delayed them, so as to
bring them on the spot punctually at the identical moment.
To give another instance, there was a poor woman whose son had been
raised from the dead by Elisha; she, however, had left her country at
the time of famine, and had lost her estate. She wanted to get it back;
God determined that she should have it. How was it to be done? The king
sends for Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, and he talks to him: he tells
him one instance about a woman who had had a child raised from the
dead. How strange! in comes the woman herself. My lord, this is the
woman; she comes to obtain her suit. Her desire is granted, just
because at the very moment the king's mind is interested concerning
her. All chance, was it not? Nothing but chance? So fools say; but
those who read Bibles, and those who have judgment, say there is
something more than chance in such a coalition of circumstances. It
could not be a mere coincidence, as men sometimes say; there must be
God here, for it is harder to think that there is not God than that
there is. And whilst a belief in God may be said by some to involve a
great stretch of faith, the putting him out of such things as this,
would involve an infinitely greater amount of credulity. No, there was
God there.
There is another instance that I remember in the New Testament history.
Paul goes into the temple, and the Jews rush upon him in a moment to
kill him. They drag him out of the temple, and the doors are shut
against him. They are just in the very act of killing him, and what is
to become of poor Paul's life? Five minutes longer and Paul will be
dead, when up comes the chief captain and delivers him. How was it that
the chief captain knew of it? Very probably some young man of the crowd
who knew Paul and loved him, ran to tell him. But why was it that the
chief captain was at home? How was it that the ruler was able to come
on a moment's emergency? How was it that he did come at all? It was
only just a Hebrew, a man that was good for nothing, being killed. How
was it that he came, and when he came the streets were full; there was
a mob about Jerusalem? How did he come to the right street? How did he
come at the exact nick of time? Say, "It is all chance!" I laugh at
you; it is providence. If there be anything in the world that is plain
to any man that thinks, it is plain that God
"Overrules all mortal things,
And manages our mean affairs."
But mark, that the running of the youth, and his arrival at the precise
time, and the coming of the chief governor at the precise time, just
proved the punctuality of Divine providence; and if God has a design
that a thing shall happen at twelve, if you have appointed it for
eleven, it shall not happen till twelve; and if he means it to be
delayed till one, it is in vain that you propose any earlier or any
later. God's punctuality in providence is always sure, and very often
apparent.
Nor is it only in the minutes of time that we get an idea of the
minuteness of providence, but it is in the use of little things. A
sparrow has turned the fate of an empire. You remember the old story of
Mohammed flying from his pursuers. He enters a cave, and a sparrow
chirps at the entrance, and flies away as the pursuers pass. "Oh," say
they, "there is no fear that Mohammed is there, otherwise the bird
would have gone a long while ago;" and the imposter's life is saved by
a sparrow. We think, perhaps, that God directs the motions of the
leviathan, and guides him in the sea, when he makes the deep to be
hoary. Will we please to recollect, that the guidance of a minnow in
its tiny pool, is as much in the hand of providence as the motion of
the great serpent in the depths. You see the birds congregate in the
autumn, ready for their flight across the purple sea. They fly hither
and thither in strange confusion. The believer in providence holds that
the wing of every bird has stamped upon it the place where it shall
fly, and fly with never such vagaries of its own wild will, it cannot
diverge so much as the millionth part of an inch from its predestinated
track. It may whirl about, above, beneath,–east, west, north,
south–wherever it pleases; still, it is all according to the
providential hand of God. And although we see it not, it may be, that
if that swallow did not take the precise track which it does take,
something a little greater might be affected thereby; and again,
something a little greater still might be affected, until at last a
great thing would be involved in a little. Blessed is that man who
seeth God in trifles! It is there that it is the hardest to see him;
but he who believes that God is there, may go from the little
providence up to the God of providence. Rest assured, when the fish in
the sea take their migration, they have a captain and a leader, as well
as the stars; for he who marshals the stars in their courses, and
guides the planets in their march, is the master of the fly, and wings
the bat, and guides the minnow, and doth not despise the tiniest of his
creatures. You say there is predestination in the path of the earth;
you believe that in the shining of the sun there is the ordinance of
God; there is as much his ordinance in the creeping of an insect or in
the glimmering of a glow-worm in the darkness. In nothing is there
chance, but in everything there is a God. All things live and move in
him, and have their being; nor could they live or move otherwise; for
God hath so ordained them.
I hear one say, "Well, sir, you seem to be a fatalist!" No, far from
it. There is just this difference between fate and providence. Fate is
blind; providence has eyes. Fate is blind, a thing that must be; it is
just an arrow shot from a bow, that must fly onward, but hath no
target. Not so, providence; providence is full of eyes. There is a
design in everything, and an end to be answered; all things are working
together, and working together for good. They are not done because they
must be done, but they are done because there is some reason for it. It
is not only that the thing is, because it must be; but the thing is,
because it is right it should be. God hath not arbitrarily marked out
the world's history; he had an eye to the great architecture of
perfection, when he marked all the aisles of history, and placed all
the pillars of events in the building of time.
There is another thing that we have to recollect also, which will
strike us perhaps more than the smallness of things. The minuteness of
providence may be seen in the fact, that even the thoughts of men are
under God's hand. Now, thoughts are things which generally escape our
attention, when we speak of providence. But how much may depend upon a
thought! Oftentimes a monarch has had a thought which has cost a nation
many a bloody battle. Sometimes a good man has had a thought, which has
been the means of rescuing multitudes from hell, and bearing thousands
safely to heaven. Beyond a doubt, every imagination, every passing
thought, every conception, that is only born to die, is under the hand
of God. And in turning over the page of history, you will often be
struck, when you see how great a thing has been brought about by an
idle word. Depend upon it, then, that the will of man, the thought of
man, the desire of man, that every purpose of man, is immediately under
the hand of God. Take an instance–Jesus Christ is to be born at
Bethlehem; his mother is living at Nazareth: he will be born there to a
dead certainty. No, not so. Caesar takes a whim into his head. All the
world shall be taxed, and he will have all of them go to their own
city. What necessity for that? Stupid idea of Caesar's! If he had had a
parliament, they would have voted against him. They would have said,
"Why make all the people go to their own peculiar city to the census?
Take the census where they live; that will be abundantly sufficient."
"No," says he, "it is my will, and Caesar cannot be opposed." Some
think Caesar mad. God knows what he means to do with Caesar. Mary,
great with child, must take a laborious journey to Bethlehem; and there
is her child born in a manger. We should not have had the prophecy
fulfilled, that Christ should be born at Bethlehem, and our very faith
in the Messiah might have been shaken, if it had not been for that whim
of Caesar's. So that even the will of man; the tyranny, the despotism
of the tyrant, is in the hand of God, and he turneth it whithersoever
he pleaseth, to work his own will.
Gathering up all our heads into one short statement, it is our firm
belief that he who wings an angel guides a sparrow. We believe that he
who supports the dignity of his throne amidst the splendors of heaven
maintains it also in the depths of the dark sea. We believe that there
is nothing above, beneath, around, which is not according to the
determination of his own counsel and will; and while we are not
fatalists, we do most truly and sternly hold the doctrine, that God
hath decreed all things whatsoever that come to pass, and that he
overruleth all things for his own glory and good; so that with Martin
Luther, we can say,
"He everywhere hath sway,
And all things serve his might;
His every act pure blessing is,
His path unsullied light."
II. The second point is, THE KIND CONSIDERATION OF GOD, IN TAKING CARE
OF HIS PEOPLE. In reading the text, I thought, "There is better care
taken of me than I can take care of myself." You all take care of
yourselves to some extent, but which of you ever took so much care of
himself as to count the hairs of his head? But God will not only
protect our limbs, but even the excrescence of hair is to be seen
after. And how much this excels all the care of our tenderest friends!
Look at the mother, how careful she is. If her child has a little
cough, she notices it: the slightest weakness is sure to be observed.
She has watched all its motions anxiously, to see whether it walked
right, whether all its limbs were sound, and whether it had the use of
all its powers in perfection; but she has never thought of numbering
the hairs of her child's head, and the absence of one or two of them
would give her no great concern. But our God is more careful of us,
even than a mother with her child–so careful that he numbers the hairs
of our head. How safe are we, then, beneath the hand of God!
However, leaving the figure, let us again notice the kind, guardian
care, which God exerts over his people in the way of providence. I have
often been struck with the providence of God, in keeping his people
alive before they were converted. How many are there here who would
have been in hell at this hour, if some special providence had not kept
them alive till the time of their conversion! I remember mentioning
this in company, and almost every person in the room had some
half-miracle to tell, concerning his own deliverance before conversion.
One gentleman, I remember, was a sporting man, who afterwards became an
eminent Christian. He told me, that a little time before his conversion
he was shooting, and his gun burst in four pieces, which stood upright
in the earth as near as possible in the exact form of a square, having
been driven nearly a foot into the ground, while he stood there
unharmed and quite safe, having scarcely felt the shock. I was noticing
in Hervey's works, one day, a very pretty thought on this subject. He
says, "Two persons who had been hunting together in the day, slept
together the following night. One of them was renewing the pursuit in
his dream, and, having run the whole circle of the chase, came at last
to the fall of the stag; upon this he cries out with a determined
ardor, I'll kill him, I'll kill him; and immediately feels for the
knife which he carried in his pocket. His companion happening to awake,
and observing what passed, leaped from the bed. Being secure from
danger, and the moon shining in the room, he stood to view the event,
when, to his inexpressible surprise, the infatuated sportsman gave
several deadly stabs in the very place where a moment before the throat
and the life of his friend lay.–This I mention, as a proof, that
nothing hinders us, even from being assassins of others, or murderers
of ourselves, amidst the mad sallies of sleep, only the preventing care
of our Heavenly Father."
How wonderful the providence of God with regard to Christian people, in
keeping them out of temptation. I have often noticed this fact, and I
believe you are able to confirm it, that there are times when if a
temptation should come you would be overtaken by it; but the temptation
does not come. And at other times, when the temptation comes, you have
supernatural strength to resist it. Yes! the best Christian in the
world will tell you, that such is still the strength of his lust, that
there are moments when if the object were presented to him, he would
certainly fall into the commission of a foul sin; but then the object
is not there, or there is no opportunity of committing the sin. At
another time, when we are called to go through a burning fiery furnace
of temptation, we have no desire towards the peculiar sin, in fact we
feel an aversion to it, or are even incapable of it. Strange it is, but
many a man's character has been saved by providence. The best man that
ever lived, little knows how much he owes for preservation to the
providence as well as to the grace of God.
How marvellously too has providence arranged all our places. I cannot
but recur to my own personal history, for, after all, we are obliged to
speak more of what we know of ourselves as matters of fact than of
others. I shall always regard the fact of my being here to-day as a
remarkable instance of providence. I should not have occupied this hall
probably, and been blessed of God in preaching to multitudes if it had
not been for what I considered an untoward accident. I should have been
at this time studying in College, instead of preaching here, but for a
singular circumstance which happened. I had agreed to go to College:
the tutor had come to see me, and I went to see him at the house of a
mutual friend; I was shown by the servant into one drawing-room in the
house, he was shown into another. He sat and waited for me for two
hours; I sat and waited for him two hours. He could wait no longer, and
went away thinking I had not treated him well; I went away and thought
that he had not treated me well. As I went away this text came into my
mind, "Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not." So I
wrote to say that I must positively decline, I was happy enough amongst
my own country people, and got on very well in preaching, and I did not
care to go to College. I have now had four years of labor. But,
speaking after the manner of men, those who have been saved during that
time would not have been saved, by my instrumentality at any rate, if
it had not been for the remarkable providence turning the whole tenour
of my thoughts, and putting things into a new track. You have often had
strange accidents like that. When you have resolved to do a thing, you
could not do it any how; it was quite impossible. God turned you
another way, and proved that providence is indeed the master of all
human events.
And how good, too, has God been in providence to some of you, in
providing your daily bread. It is remarkable how a little poverty makes
a person believe in providence, especially if he is helped through it.
If a person has to live from hand to mouth, when day by day the manna
falls, he begins to think there is a providence then. The gentleman who
sows his broad acres, reaps his wheat and puts it into his barn, or
takes his regular income, gets on so nicely that he can do without
providence; he does not care a bit about it. The rents of his houses
all come in, and his money in the Three per Cents is quite safe–what
does he want with providence? But the poor man who has to work at day
labor, and sometimes runs very short, and just then happens to meet
with somebody who gives him precisely what he wants, he exclaims,
"Well, I know there is a providence–I cannot help believing it; these
things could not have come by chance."
III. And now, in conclusion, brethren and sisters, if these things be
so, if the hairs of our head are all numbered, and if providence
provides for his people all things necessary for this life, and
godliness, and arranges everything with infinite and unerring wisdom,
what manner of persons ought we to be?
In the first place, we ought to be a bold race of people. What have we
to fear? Another man looks up, and if he sees a lightning-flash, he
trembles at its mysterious power. We believe it has its predestined
path. We may stand and contemplate it; although we would not
presumptuously expose ourselves to it, yet can we confide in our God in
the midst of the storm. We are out at sea, the waves are dashing
against the ship, she reels to and fro; other men shake, because they
think this is all chance; we, however, see an order in the waves, and
hear a music in the winds. It is for us to be peaceful and calm. To
other men the tempest is a fearful thing; we believe that the tempest
is in the hand of God. Why should we shake? Why should we quiver? In
all convulsions of the world, in all temporal distress and danger, it
is for us to stand calm and collected, looking boldly on. Our
confidence should be very much the same, in comparison with the man who
is not a believer in providence, as the confidence of some learned
surgeon, who, when he is going through an operation, sees something
very marvellous, but yet never shudders at it, while the ignorant
peasant, who has never seen any thing so wonderful, is alarmed and
fearful, and even thinks that evil spirits are at work. We are to
say–let others say what they please–"I know God is here, and I am his
child, and this is all working for my good; therefore will not I fear,
though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea."
Especially may I address this remark to timid people. There are some of
you who are frightened at every little thing. Oh! if you could but
believe that God manages all, why, you would not be screaming because
your husband is not home when there is a little thunder and lightning,
or because there is a mouse in the parlour, or because there is a great
tree blown down in the garden. There is no necessity you should believe
that your brother-in-law, who has gone to Australia was wrecked,
because there was a storm when he was at sea. There is no need for you
to imagine, that your son in the army was necessarily killed, because
he happened to be before Lucknow; or, if you think the thing necessary,
still, as a believer in God's providence, you should just stand and say
that God has done it, and it is yours to resign all things into his
hands.
I may say to those of you also who have been bereaved–if you believe
in providence you may grieve; but your grief must not be excessive. I
remember at a funeral of a friend hearing a pretty parable which I have
told before, and will tell again. There was much weeping on account of
the loss of a loved one, and the minister put it thus. He said,
"Suppose you are a gardener employed by another; it is not your garden,
but you are called upon to tend it, and you have your wages paid you.
You have taken great care with a certain number of roses; you have
trained them up, and there they are, blooming in their beauty. You
pride yourself upon them. You come one morning into the garden, and you
find that the best rose has been taken away. You are angry: you go to
your fellow-servants, and charge them with having taken the rose. They
will declare that they had nothing at all to do with it; and one says,
"I saw the master walking here this morning; I think he took it." Is
the gardener angry then? No, at once he says, "I am happy that my rose
should have been so fair as to attract the attention of the master. It
is his own: he hath taken it; let him do what seemeth him good."
It is even so with your friends. They wither not by chance; the grave
is not filled by accident; men die according to God's will. Your child
is gone, but the Master took it; your husband is gone, your wife is
buried,–the Master took them; thank him that he let you have the
pleasure of caring for them and tending them while they were here, and
thank him that as he gave, he himself has taken away. If others had
done it, you would have had cause to be angry; but the Lord has done
it. Can you, then, murmur? Will you not say–
"Thee at all times will I bless;
Having thee I all possess;
How can I bereaved be,
Since I cannot part with thee."
And pardon me when I say, finally, that I think this doctrine, if fully
believed, ought to keep us always in an equable frame of mind. One of
the things we most want is, to have our equilibrium always kept up.
Sometimes we are elated. If I ever find myself elated I know what is
coming. I know that I shall be depressed in a very few hours. If the
balance goes too much up, it is sure to come down again. The happiest
state of mind is to be always on the equilibrium. If good things come,
thank God for them; but do not set your heart upon them. If good things
go, thank God that he has taken them himself, and still bless his name.
Bear all. He who feels that everything cometh to pass according to
God's will, hath a great main-stay to his soul. He need not be shaken
to and fro by every wind that bloweth; for he is fast bound, so that he
need not move. This is an anchor cast into the sea. While the other
ships are drifting far away, he can ride calmly through.
Strive, dear friends, to believe this, and maintain as the consequence
of it, that continual calm and peace which renders life so happy. Do
not get fearing ills that may come to-morrow; either they will not
come, or else they will bring good with them. If you have evils to-day,
do not multiply them by fearing those of to-morrow. "Sufficient unto
the day is the evil thereof." Oh, I would to God, that some of you who
are full of carking care and anxiety, could be delivered from it by a
belief in providence; and when you once get into that quiet frame,
which this doctrine engenders, you will be prepared for those higher
exercises of communion and fellowship with Christ, to which distracting
care is ever a fearful detriment, if not an entire preventive.
But as for you who fear not God, remember, the stones of the field are
in league against you; the heavens cry to the earth and the earth
answereth to the heavens, for vengeance upon you on account of your
sins. For you there is nothing good, everything is in rebellion against
you. Oh that God might bring you into peace with him, and then you
would be at rest with all beside. "Seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." The
Lord bless you in this, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
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