April 2

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.— Ps. lxxv, 6, 7.

Happy the man who sees a God employ'd In all the good and ill that checker life! Resolving all events, with their effects And manifold results, into the will And arbitration wise of the Supreme. Did not His eye rule all things, and intend The least of our concerns (since from the least The greatest oft originate): could chance Find place in his dominion, or dispose One lawless particle to thwart his plan: Then God might be surprised, and unforeseen Contingence might alarm him, and disturb The smooth and equal course of his affairs.

WILLIAM COWPER.

Nothing with God can be accidental.

LONGFELLOW.

How mysterious are the ways of Providence! Why did I receive grace and mercy? Why was I preserved, afflicted for my good, received, as I trust, into favor, and blessed with the greatest happiness I can ever know or hope for in this life, while others were overtaken by the great arrest, unawakened, unrepenting, and every way unprepared for it? His infinite wisdom, to whose infinite mercy I owe it all, can solve these questions, and none beside Him. If I am convinced that no affliction can befall me without the permission of God, I am convinced, likewise, that He sees and knows that I am afflicted. Believing this, I must in the same degree believe that, if I pray to Him for deliverance, He hears me: I must needs know likewise with equal assurance that, if He hears, He will also deliver me, if that will, upon the whole, be most conducive to my happiness; and if He does not deliver me, I may be well assured that He has none but the most benevolent intention in declining it.

WILLIAM COWPER.