There are still people to be found foolish enough to believe that events occur at hap-hazard, without divine predestination, and different calamities transpire without the overruling hand, or the direct agency of God. Alas! for us, if chance had aught to do with events of our life. We should be like poor mariners, put out to sea in an unsafe vessel, without a chart and without a helm; we should know nothing of the port to which we might ultimately come; we should only feel that we were now the sport of the winds, the captives of the tempest, and might soon be the victims of the all-devouring deep. Alas! poor orphans were we all, if we were indebted for food and clothing, for present comfort and future prospects, to nothing but chance. No father's care to watch over us, but left to the fickleness and fallibility of mortal things! What were all that we see about us, but a great sand-storm in the midst of a desert, blinding our eyes, preventing us from ever hoping to see the end through the darkness of the beginning? We should be pilgrims in a pathless waste, where there were no roads to direct us—travellers who might be overturned and overwhelmed at any moment, and our bleached bones left the victims of the tempest, unknown, or forgotten of all. Thank God, it is not so with us. We believe that everything which happens to us is ordered by the wise and tender will of Him who is our Father and our Friend; we see order in the midst of confusion; we see purposes accomplished where others discern nothing but void and vacancy. We believe that "He hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet."
The Secret of Strength.
Art thou proud, believer, because thou hast been profitable to the Church, and done some little service to thy times? Who maketh thee to differ, and what hast thou which thou hast not received? Hast thou shed a little light upon the darkness? Ah! who lit thy candle—and who is it who keeps thee still shining, and prevents thee from being extinguished? Hast thou overcome temptation? Hang not up thy banner; do not decorate thine own bosom with the glory; for who made thee strong in the battle? Who made thy sword sharp, and nerved thine arm to strike the foe? Remember, thou hast done nothing whatever of thyself. If thou be this day a vessel unto honor, decorated and gilded—if now thou art a precious vase, filled with the sweetest perfume, yet thou didst not make thyself so. Thou art the clay, but who is the potter? If thou be a vessel unto honor, yet not a vessel unto thine own honor, but a vessel unto the honor of Him who made thee. If thou standest among thy fellow-men as the angels stand above the fallen spirits—a chosen one, distinguished from them—yet remember, it was not any goodness in thyself which made thee to be chosen; nor has it been any of thine own efforts, or thine own power, which lifted thee out of the miry clay, set thy feet on the rock, and established thy goings. Off with the crown from thy proud head, and lay down thine honors at the feet of Him who gave them to thee. With cherubim and seraphim veil thy face, and cry, "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto His name be all the glory forever and ever."
And when thou art thus bowed down with humility, be thou prepared to learn this other lesson—never depend on thyself again. If thou hast aught to do, go not forth to do it leaning on an arm of flesh. First bow thy knee, and ask power of Him who makes thee strong, and then thou shalt come back from thy labor rejoicing. But if thou goest in thine own strength, thou shalt break thy ploughshare on the rock; thou shalt sow thy seed by the side of the salt sea upon the barren sand, and thou shalt look upon the naked acres in years to come, and they shall not yield thee so much as a single blade to make glad thine heart. "Trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." That strength is not available to you so long as you repose in any strength of your own. He will help you if you confess your weakness; but if you are strong in yourself, He will take way his own power from you, and you will stumble and fall. Learn, then, the grace of depending daily upon God, so shalt thou be clothed with becoming humility.
Nature and Grace.
You will never perceive God in nature, until you have learned to see God in grace. We have heard a great deal about going up from nature to nature's God. Impossible! A man might as well attempt to go from the top of the Alps to heaven. There is still a great gulf between nature and God to the natural mind. You must first of all perceive God incarnate in the person of Christ, before you will perceive God omnipotent in the creation which He has made. You have heard a great deal about men delighting to worship in the forest glades, who disdain to frequent the sanctuary of the saints. Ay; but there was little truth in it. There is often great sound where there is much emptiness; and you will frequently find that those men who talk most of this natural worship, are those who do not worship God at all. God's works are too gross a medium to allow the light. Rugged is the path and dark the atmosphere, if we go by way of the creatures to find out the Creator to perfection. But when I see Christ, I see God's new and living way between my soul and my God, most clear and pleasant. I come to my God at once, and finding Him in Christ, I find Him everywhere else besides.
Look to Christ.
