July 18

The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. - Psalms 103:19.

HERE we have the doctrine of the all-disposing agency of God again asserted. But let us consider how it is to be improved? We observe that there are two uses to which it may be applied. First, In a way of conviction. It is desirable to have it settled firmly in our minds that we are not in a world ungoverned by Jehovah. There is a notion prevailing among some men, half philosophical, and more than half infidel, that God is attentive to the world as a grand and complete system, but that he disregards mankind individually. If this arises from a concern to relieve the Almighty from a good deal of perplexity and care, it is all needless, for “He fainteth not, neither is he weary: there is no searching of his understanding;” and “Nothing is too hard for the Lord.”

Then reason tells us that a universal providence necessarily implies a particular one, as the whole is made up of parts. Among men an attention to little things prevents an attention to great things; and an attention to great things prevents an attention to little things. But this is not the case with God: while he wings an angel, he hears the chirping of a grasshopper. He teaches the spider to weave his web: and what says the Great Teacher on this subject?-“A sparrow falleth not to the ground without your Father;” and “The very hairs of your head are all numbered.” If there were no controlling agency of God in the concerns of the world, things would always operate immediately, if they operated at all, according to their own nature and tendency; but we see how often this is checked, so that “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither yet bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding; nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” That is, what men call chance; for there is no such god or goddess as chance in the Christian’s creed. But the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. “Of him, and through him, and to him, are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever.”

The second use is in a way of adoration. “There is none like unto thee,” says David, “among the gods, neither are there any works like unto thy works.” Then how finely he breaks forth!-“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and power, the glory and majesty; for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.” We may think much of managing a single family, of providing for it, of placing the members of it in order, and of doing every thing decently and becoming. A man may think much of managing an extensive and perplexed business, where he employs perhaps a thousand hands, and has the superintendence of machinery of wondrous power. We think highly of a man who governs well the concerns of a province, or a country. But here we are told of One whose kingdom ruleth over the whole world.

How many creatures are visible to us!-and how many more are invisible on earth and in the sea! He sustains them all, and feeds them all. What multitudinous, what differing and conflicting, interests are there among men! They act differently and feel differently, yet each subserves his own interest, and all subserve the interests of all. Thus we see “the heart of a king is in the hand of the Lord, and he turneth him whithersoever he will.” Events are made by him to run into channels along which, as they flow, they show forth his praise.

“Marvellous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee and glorify thy name? for thou art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee.”