018. CHAPTER 7 - DIVINE PROVIDENCE.
CHAPTER 7 - DIVINE PROVIDENCE. IN theology, divine providence means the care and superintendence God exercises over his creation. There is, perhaps, no doctrine connected with theology more abundantly and explicitly taught in Scripture than the one here proposed. Yet few subjects of revelation are more intricate to common minds, or less understood by the generality of Christians. That there is a divine providence over the affairs of this world, we all believe; and from it the Christian heart derives much of its richest consolations. But how few have clear, distinct, and adequate conceptions of that providence, and of the manner in which it is exercised! Hence we should be admonished of the importance of care and deliberation, that on this difficult and important question we may arrive at scriptural and correct views. But after our utmost research, we must not expect to be able thoroughly to comprehend all the mysteries connected with the subject; for, in our present fallen and imperfect state, it is a theme too profound for our comprehension. What we may know hereafter, we must wait for the developments of the future to unfold. But it is certainly both our duty and our privilege, even in this world, to learn all in our power concerning the ways of God, as exhibited in his works and in his word.
It is interesting to know that among the sages and philosophers of pagan antiquity, some very correct notions were entertained concerning the divine providence. With them it was a favorite saying: “The highest link in nature’s chain is fastened to Jupiter’s chair.” Such language can only be understood as implying that the providential control of the vast fabric of nature is grasped by the hand of the Supreme Divinity.
Several different theories have been advocated in reference to divine providence. Some have so construed the subject as to deny to second causes, as operating through the “laws of nature,” as they are termed, any influence whatever; so that God is the only efficient agent in the universe; and the whole system of nature exhibits but a collection of puppets, or lifeless, immobile, and insensate substances, moving only as directly and constantly controlled by the hand of the Creator. This is fatalism. Others represent the system of nature as one vast and perfect machine which the Deity let fall from his creative hand, with all its parts so well adjusted and so harmoniously connected, that it needs no farther attention from its Maker; but while he, after having been an active sovereign in creation, retires forever, a quiescent spectator, the system he has made continues to go on, working out its own results, like a clock wound up at the first, but then left to itself to tell off its hours, minutes, and seconds, and all its fated periods, upon the principles of absolute independency. This, too, is nothing but fatalism, though arrived at by a different route.
Another system teaches that ordinarily nature is left to self-government by her own laws; but that the Creator sometimes interferes, yet only in the case of miracles. But what we consider the scriptural view differs from all these theories. It allows to all created entities, whether animate or inanimate the possession of all those qualities or powers with which the Creator has endued them. It admits that in those properties and faculties possessed by creatures, and derived from the hand of the Creator, and preserved in being from moment to moment by his providence, there exists a real efficiency, or causative power; but all is superintended by an all-pervading and controlling providence.
Thus inanimate, vegetable, irrational, and rational creation, each has a nature peculiar to itself, and in the divine providence is governed by laws in accordance with that nature. God, who is over nature in his superintending providence, works through the regular channel of second causes, or independent of them, as he may see proper. He can command the winds and the clouds, the fire and the water, the snow and the hail, and cause them to obey him, either by directing the agency of second causes, or independently of that agency. Or he can send his angels as “ministering spirits;” or he can control the minds and hearts of kings and subjects by the agency of his Holy Spirit, and thus manage the machinery of his providence, either through nature’s laws or independently of them, so as to secure the results of his will, whether for the detection and punishment of the criminal, or for the deliverance and comfort of the saint. The entire creation of God, so far as our information extends, is comprised in four classes of substances, or entities. First, inanimate material substances; secondly, living vegetable substances; thirdly, irrational animals; fourthly, rational accountable moral agents. As the line distinguishing between these four classes of created things is clearly marked, each class being essentially different from the others, it necessarily follows that the principles of the divine government pertaining to each of these several classes of creatures must be accordingly different, so as to be adapted to the nature of the things to be governed. To suppose that God would adopt the same principles of government in reference to things so essentially varied in their nature, as are a clod, a tree, a bird, and a man, would be a palpable impeachment of the divine wisdom. Hence we shall find that while the divine providence in its broad sweep grasps under its control all substances and natures, all entities and beings, yet there is clearly to be seen a wise adaptation of the principles of the divine administration to the nature of the things to be governed. The providence of God is exercised over lifeless matter, living vegetation, irrational animals, and accountable agents, according to the respective nature of each class. That the divine providence is exercised over every particle of the created universe, may be clearly inferred even from the fact of creation. It has been well said by the great American lexicographer: “He that acknowledges a creation and denies a providence, involves himself in a palpable contradiction; for the same power which caused a thing to exist is necessary to continue its existence.”
I. The doctrine of a divine providence over inanimate creation is taught in such scriptures as the following:-”Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger. Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars. Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.” Job 9:5-8. “The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.” Psalms 74:16-17. “He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth: he toucheth the hills, and they smoke.” Psalms 104:32. “He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:45. “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.” Isaiah 40:12. From these, and numerous other scriptures of similar import, it is clearly taught that God extends his ruling providence over all material things- over the heavens and the earth, the mountains and the seas, the day and the night, the summer and the winter, the sun and the stars, the hills and the dust, the sunshine and the rain. But we inquire, Upon what principle, according to what system of laws, does God exercise this providential control? Upon this question there can be no controversy. All will agree that inanimate creation is not governed by laws adapted to moral agents, irrational animals, or living vegetables; but by such laws as properly belong to lifeless, matter. Physical substances are governed by physical laws. It is a principle in natural science, long since too firmly established to be shaken by the wild speculations of modern empirics, that inertia is a property of matter. Hence all merely material substances are under the absolute control of resistless force. Matter-lifeless matter-can only move as it is moved.
It can only act as it is acted upon. And when acted upon, it must of necessity move in exact conformity to the extent and direction of the force applied. Thus it appears that, in the nature of things, lifeless material substances can be governed by no law but that of physical force. And this influence is of the most absolute and resistless character conceivable. By this force, and upon this principle, the planets revolve, the seasons rotate, the vapor ascends, the rain and the snow fall from above, and the rivers rush to the ocean.
All substances of this material class are said to be governed by the laws of nature; and these laws are considered unchangeable. Hence it is contended by some that there can be no divine providence over the material universe farther than what is the necessary result of the laws of nature. We reserve for another place in this chapter an examination of the position just mentioned, but a few remarks on the subject seem to be appropriate in this connection. When it is said that the laws of nature govern the physical universe, a sense is by many persons attached to the phrase- “laws of nature”-which is not in accordance with the reality of things. It is supposed that the “laws of nature” mean something having an abstract, substantive existence, capable of exerting, independently of any immediate aid from God, a direct, positive, and causative influence. This illusive view of the subject has led many a superficial thinker into the vortex of an insidious skepticism. The first step is to deny any immediate divine agency in the government of material things, and thus put God out of the natural world. The next step is to deny any immediate divine influence upon the minds of intelligent agents, and thus put God out of the moral world. But surely such as reason thus have not stopped to examine their premises! What, we ask, are the “laws of nature?” This phrase cannot mean any thing but God’s method of agency in the control of nature. A law in itself can exert no independent causative influence on any substance whatever. The “laws of nature,” so called, owe their existence to the will and appointment of God; and if their existence, also the continuance of that existence. The same agency of God which gave these laws their being and influence must still be perpetuated at every step in the processes of nature and throughout every instant of duration, or those laws at once become extinct, and their influence is lost. Hence, to assert that material things are governed by the laws of nature, independently of any immediate influence from God, is the same as to say that they are not governed at all; but that all material things are left adrift upon the wild sea of chaos, without order, system, or control of any kind, or from any source. From what has been said, the conclusion is inevitable, first, that God’s providence controls the material universe; secondly, that this control is by the immediate power and wisdom of God, through the medium of physical agencies, and according to those principles which he has appointed for the exertion of his own power. Hence God governs nature, in all the complicated parts of her vast machinery, even from the mighty globes that roll amid the immensity of space, to the mote that floats in the sunbeam, by his own immediate agency, as really as if no such thing as the “laws of nature” had ever been heard of, or conceived to exist. By his command, (which must be understood as a continuous active influence, rolling on from moment to moment, like an ever-flowing stream,) the sun still shineth in the heavens and “knoweth his going down”-at his bidding “all nature stands, and stars their courses move.” What though it be admitted that God, as a general rule, governs nature through the medium of second causes, is his government any the less real on that account? He whose hand holds the topmost link in the vast chain on which universal creation is suspended, supports the immense fabric in all its parts, as really as if the whole were hung upon a single link. As the electric fluid, flying from the battery along the track of ten thousand conductors, derives all its power from its point of departure, so the providential power of God, though it may be exerted through innumerable secondary agencies, is as really the divine power, as if we heard a voice proclaim, from every link in the extended chain, “It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth to him good.”
II. That the divine providence extends also over vegetable creation, appears from the following scriptures:-”He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man; that he may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart. The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted.”
Psalms 104:14-16. “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field,” etc. Matthew 6:28-30. “And I will cause the shower to come down in his season: there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase.” Ezekiel 34:26-27.
These scriptures, to which many more might be added, clearly set forth the superintending providence of God in reference to the vegetable productions of the earth. Although, as a general rule, the earth yields her fruit as a reward to the hand of industry, yet it is not without the divine blessing being superadded. Neither the grass, nor the lily, nor the corn, can grow or prosper, unless God sends the refreshing rain and the warming sunshine, as well as imparts to the earth her fructifying properties. But in what manner does the divine providence operate in this department? Here we find a new element introduced in the government of God. Vegetable nature is managed on principles in accordance with vegetable life. And he who made all things, and gave to all substances their peculiar properties, knows how to adjust the principles of his providential control to the nature of the things to which it is applied. While in reference to lifeless matter all things are controlled by mere physical force, in the vegetable kingdom, the peculiar aptitudes and properties of seeds, grasses, and grains, as well as the character of soils and the nature of climates, are all taken into the account; and God exercises his providence through these diversified agencies, and according to the laws he has ordained in reference to each. Yet, amid the operation of all these secondary causes pertaining to vegetable nature, the fruitfulness of the earth is as really dependent upon the gracious providence of God, as was the multiplication of the loaves and fishes upon the power of the Redeemer. The only difference is this: in the one case, the blessing flowed through a miraculous channel; in the other, through the regular channel of nature. But in both cases, all is the result of the divine power exerted according to God’s own plan.
III. The next point to be considered is the providence of God in reference to irrational animals. This doctrine is recognized in such scriptures as the following:-”The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thy hand they are filled with good.” Psalms 104:21; Psalms 104:27-28. “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” Psalms 145:15-16. “Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.”
Matthew 6:26. “Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.” Job 38:41. “He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.” Psalms 147:9.
Nothing can be plainer than these passages render the fact, that the beasts of the forest, the fowls of the air, and “every living thing,” are dependent upon God’s providence for life, and food, and all that they enjoy. They are under the divine watch-care continually, and are preserved and fed by the beneficent hand of their Creator. But in this department of God’s dominions is recognized a law, according to which the divine providence operates, which is quite distinct from that observed either in reference to inanimate matter, or to the vegetable creation. As the plant, or the tree, in the scale of created things, rises one step above the clod or the pebble, so does the beast or the bird rise one step above all inanimate and insentient existences. Here we find a class of beings capable of sensation and emotion. Though irrational, they can feel, and are susceptible of enjoyment and of misery. God has endued them with wonderful instincts, leading them to self-preservation and the propagation of their kind; and according to the principles of this great law of their nature, he exercises over them his providential superintendency. He governs them, not as stocks and stones, nor yet as plants and trees, but according to the peculiar nature he has given them. But still they are as dependent upon God’s ever-present providence for their preservation, and for their daily food, as if he had given them no instinct, impelling them to fly from danger, and directing them how to seek their appropriate sustenance in those channels which he has prescribed. Instead of sending his angels with food in their hands to place literally in the open mouths of all living animals, as the parent birds feed their young, God having provided a supply in nature’s storehouse, directs and aids all the beasts, and birds, and all living animals, by impressing upon them the law of instinct, in the procurement of the food prepared for them by his bounteous providence. The channel through which the benefit is conveyed, being also a merciful arrangement of the Creator, cannot diminish the degree of their dependence upon divine providence. They “all receive their meat from God.”
IV. We now call attention to the providence of God, in reference to mankind as moral accountable agents.
1.This doctrine is taught in Scripture.
“The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”
Proverbs 15:3. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” Proverbs 21:1. “The way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Jeremiah 10:23. “A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.” Proverbs 16:9. “He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” Daniel 4:35. “His kingdom ruleth over all.” Psalms 103:19.”For in him we live, and move, and have our being.” Acts 17:28. That the doctrine of a divine providence over the affairs of men in this life is taught in the foregoing scriptures, no candid person can dispute; but the important matter to be considered is the sense in which this doctrine should be understood. Hence we proceed more particularly to examine- 2.The nature of divine providence.
(1) It is universal in extent. It pertains to all things, everywhere, great and small-for, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place.” Nothing can escape the surveillance of his all-pervading providence. It embraces the angels in heaven, as well as men upon earth. It extends to our very being; for in him we “have our being.” It embraces our lives; for “in him we live.” It embraces our actions; for “in him we move.” We may devise and plan, but the Lord “directeth our steps.” It pertains alike to great and small things. It rules over empires and kingdoms: “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” Psalms 75:6-7. It regards things the most minute, and apparently insignificant; for our Saviour says, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Matthew 10:29-30.
(2) It is special in its application. This is not only clearly inferable from the scriptures already adduced, but numerous exemplifications of the principle are recorded in the Bible.
We see it in the case of Joseph. His brethren had wickedly sold him into Egypt; but God, in his good providence, while he permitted this sinful act, accompanied the young man in all his fortunes in the land of strangers. Hence Joseph says to his brethren: “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” Genesis 50:20.
We see a special interposition of providence clearly manifest in the case of Elijah. When hungry in the wilderness, by a direct providence of God, he was fed by the ravens. And again, when fleeing from the face of his persecutors, and resting under the shade of a juniper-tree, his refreshments were furnished him by the hand of an angel. Thus we might speak of Samuel and David, of Daniel and Jeremiah, of Peter and John, of Paul and Silas, and hosts of others; for the Bible is replete with the record of the divine interposition in behalf of God’s people. But the attempt is made to set all these Bible instances aside, on the ground that they were miraculous. It is argued that God may exert a special providence in the case of miracles, but that we have no right to expect it in ordinary affairs. Our first reply to this objection is, that although some of the instances referred to were properly miraculous, yet they were not all of that character. We see in the history of Joseph nothing but the regular workings of providence through the channels of nature. Our second reply is, that numerous instances of the manifest care of a special providence are given in Scripture, in which there, is no evidence of any thing miraculous. Our third reply is, that we have already shown, from numerous explicit declarations of Scripture, that divine providence regards all things and all events, whether great or small, whether ordinary or miraculous.
3. We next examine the principles according to which divine providence is exercised over intelligent human agents.
First, we inquire, Is this providence particular, or only general? Under this question is presented the great difficulty in regard to this subject. Dr. Webster has sensibly remarked that “some persons admit a general providence, but deny a particular providence, not considering that a general providence consists of particulars.” In accordance with the position here so clearly stated by our renowned lexicographer, we will now proceed to prove that the providence of God is not only general, but particular.
(1) To admit a general, but to deny a particular, providence, is a palpable adoption of infidel principles. The Bible, as already clearly shown, most explicitly teaches a particular providence. Hence we can only deny that doctrine by a wholesale rejection of the Scriptures. That avowed infidels should scoff at a particular providence, is what we might reasonably expect. It is in perfect consistency with their “creed of unbelief.” But that professed Christians, with the open Bible in their hands, should thus shamelessly espouse a principle so flatly contradictory to the express teachings of the inspired word, is truly marvelous.
(2) This denial of a particular providence, while admitting a general providence, is unphilosophical. Ask the abettors of this theory what they mean by a general providence without particulars, and they can give you no definite or consistent answer. They may expatiate about the “laws of nature,” or the necessary connection between “cause and effect;” but urge them to define their terms, and they are driven into “confusion worse confounded.” To talk of a general providence without particulars, is as senseless and unmeaning as to speak of an extended chain without separate links. Just as the links make the chain, and as there can be no chain without the separate links, so do particulars make the general providence; and there can be no general providence without the distinct particulars. In any concatenated connection of causes and effects, where the first cause produces the first effect, and that first effect becomes the second cause producing the second effect, and so on to the end of the concatenation-in any such case as this, the first cause acts efficiently all along the concatenated line, and is as really causative of the last effect as of the first.
Hence, if God governs the world by a general providence reaching through the connected chain of causes and effects, or, in other words, through all that harmonious system styled the “laws of nature,” it necessarily follows that his government extends alike to all parts of the system; and if general, it must be particular, and can be no more the one than the other. But perhaps an objector may say that, according to this principle of reasoning, Then God, the first great cause, is the only real agent in the universe, and must be the responsible author of all things, even of the sinful actions of men. We reply, that a superficial and hasty reasoner may so conclude; and thus has originated the infidel scheme of philosophic necessity, and the unscriptural dogma of Calvinistic predestination. But no one who will be at the pains to consider with care the method of the divine government and providence, in reference to the different classes of things the Creator has made, and over which he exercises dominion, need allow himself to drift into this vortex of error and delusion. But this leads us to show that-
(3) The denial of a particular providence, or the assumption that it involves the doctrine of necessity, is repugnant to the principles of the divine administration in reference to intelligent moral agents, as set forth in the Scriptures. To infer that the doctrine of necessity, making God the author of sin, results from the view of a particular providence which we have taken, is to assume that God governs moral agents just as he governs inanimate matter. But this assumption is both unphilosophical and unscriptural.
First, it is unphilosophical. The wisdom, goodness, and all the attributes of the divine Being, must lead him to superintend all the substances and beings he has created, according to the properties with which he has endued them. He must control matter as matter, and spirit as spirit. He must govern a block, a plant, an insect, and a man, each according to its respective nature. How he governs inanimate matter, vegetable nature, and irrational animals, has already been considered. But shall we conclude that a God of infinite perfections will govern man, with all his exalted powers- made only “a little lower than the angels”-by the same system of laws by which he governs the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the hyssop upon the wall, or the pebbles of the brook? Such a conclusion would be most unphilosophical. But it would be also unscriptural. The Bible sets forth that man, being a moral agent, is governed by a system of moral laws. To suppose that God cannot govern man as really by moral laws as he controls the material universe by physical laws, would be an impeachment of his attributes. His government is as real in the one case as in the other, though conducted on different principles. Blocks and pebbles being inert matter, capable of moving only as they are moved, are governed absolutely and irresistibly by physical force. But man, being an intelligent moral agent, capable of reasoning, of understanding the distinction between right and wrong, of feeling the power of conscience and the influence of motives, and of appreciating reward and punishment, is governed by moral laws, commanding what is right, and prohibiting what is wrong. In the one case, there being no moral agent involved, all is necessary and absolute. In the other case, moral agents being concerned, the government is modified in its administration, according to the contingency of human actions. Yet, in the government of man by moral laws, the divine administration is as firm and as unswerving from its principles as are the laws of nature. It is no more certain that water will seek its level, or that fire will burn, than it is that “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” In the one case, material substances are governed by a changeless physical law; in the other, moral agents by a moral gospel statute; but in both cases, the administration is fixed with equal firmness upon its own unswerving basis.
It may be admitted that God’s method of extending his providential superintendency to every act of moral agents, so as to “leave free the human will,” and not affect human responsibility, is profoundly mysterious. But is not the government of God over the material world-managing the seas, wheeling the clouds, directing the tornado, feeding the young ravens when they cry, and not allowing a sparrow to fall without his leave, (and all this without obstructing the laws of nature,)-is not this, we demand, a mystery equally beyond our grasp? But these truths being plainly taught in the Bible, we are bound to admit them, or be overwhelmed by the muddy waters of skepticism. But while the providence of God extends its sway wide as creation over all the works of his hands, yet we should ever remember that this superintendency is so exercised, that while God is the author of all good- “the Father of lights,” from whom “cometh down every good gift, and every perfect gift”-yet he is not the author of sin, but only by his providence permits it-that is, he does not coercively prevent it, and thus destroy man’s moral agency. But even in reference to the sinful acts of men, this providence is so exercised as to bring good out of evil. Thus the Psalmist says: “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.” Psalms 76:10.
V. But let us, in conclusion, glance at the difficulties in which we shall be involved, if we deny the doctrine of a particular providence.
1. Discard this doctrine, and on what principle can we see any ground for prayer? We are commanded to ask God for all the blessings we need whether temporal or spiritual, with the promise that our petitions, when offered aright in the name of Jesus, shall be heard and answered. But if God exercises no particular providence over the things of this world, to pray to him for these blessings would be solemn mockery. Upon that supposition, how could we consistently pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”? Again, deny a particular providence, and what meaning can we attach to such scriptures as these:-”The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry”? James 5:16; Psalms 34:15. The Bible is replete with commands to pray, accompanied by the promise that our prayers shall be heard and answered. It also records numerous instances of direct answers to prayer. Deny a particular providence, and these scriptures are all perfectly inexplicable.
Assume that God, after having created the world, impressed upon it what philosophers term “the laws of nature,” and then retired within himself, leaving nature and her laws to control all things as best they could, not concerning himself by the exercise of any particular providence over the world, and who that believes the position could ever ask God for a single blessing? But, what is far worse, were God for a single moment to withdraw his providential hand from creation, universal nature would instantly rush into chaotic ruin, or sink back into nonentity. For he who created all things, “upholdeth all things by the word of his power.” “By him all things consist.” In a word, to pray to a God without a providence would be as absurd as to invoke the senseless rocks or mountains. But, on the other hand, admit that God, though unseen by mortal eye, is everywhere present, swaying the scepter of his providence over every portion of his vast dominions, and what abundant reason have we to look to him in prayer for every thing we need!
2. If the doctrine of a particular providence be discarded, what ground can there be for thanksgiving to God, or for trust in him? How can we thank him for the food we receive, the raiment we put on, or the rest we enjoy? Or how can we put our trust in him, as our preserver or protector? Job exclaims: “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Did he believe in a God without a special providence? David says: “In God have I put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.” How could he look for help from God, except by his special providence?
3. Again, how rich are the consolations which the pious in all ages have derived from their reliance on God’s providential care! David says: “The children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.” Psalms 36:7. And again: “The Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Psalms 84:11. God, by the mouth of Isaiah, promises: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” Isaiah 43:2. And St. Paul affirms: “All things work together for good to them that love God.” Romans 8:28.
Tear away from the Christian his confidence in the ever-abiding presence of God, and in the watchful care of his providence, and you rob him of his firmest support amid the trials and conflicts of life. It was this which inspired the ancient prophets, apostles, and martyrs, with courage to defy the menaces and persecutions of all their foes; which nerved the heart of Luther to stand so firm amid the raging storm that surrounded him; and which enabled Wesley, with his expiring breath, to exclaim: “The best of all is, God is with us!”