1. Nature hides while it reveals.
Nature's revelation is unobtrusive.
God is concealed behind second causes.
God is concealed behind regular modes of working (laws).
Nature's revelation is partial, disclosing only a fragment of the name.
Nature's revelation is ambiguous. Dark shadows of death and pain in the sensitive world, of ruin and convulsions, of shivered stars, seem to contradict the faith that all is very good; so that it has been possible for men to drop their plummet in the deep and say, 'I find no God,' and for others to fall into Manichaeism or some form or other of dualism.
2. Providence hides while it reveals.
That is the sphere in which men are most familiar with the idea of mystery.
There is much of which we do not see the issue. The process is not completed, and so the end is not visible.
Even when we believe that 'to Him' and 'for good' are 'all things,' we cannot tell how all will come circling round. We are like men looking only at one small segment of an ellipse which is very eccentric.