Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1873-01-16
(OrIginal.]
PROVIDENCE.

PROVIDENCE.
We may contemplate God in the three-fold
aspect of creator, preserver and redeemer.
As creator He appears great and wise and
good and holy; as redeemer He appears in
6nitely great and glorious. Angels gaze in
utter astonishment at the work of God the
redeemer. The salvation Of one sinner is a
work of such stupendous magnitude that it
appears to those spiritual beings wonderful
undertaking, even for Him who spake and
all things sprang into existence. The work
of providence lies midway between the work
of creation and the work of redemption. 1t
is not so great as the latter, and it is greater
than the former. Some modern Christians
affect to deny that God exercises any provi'
dental control over this world. Their God
is like Baal, always pursuing, or in journey,
or asleep. The God of such Christians is in
distant land and has no concern for their
welfare. However encouraging such doc
trine may be to the sinner, it is surely not en-
couraging to the believer.
About the providence of God there is much
that is mysterious. In our benighted condi-
ton we cannot understand but very small
number of the events which transpire in this
world. From what few we can comprehend,
we may safely conclude that God has some
important design in view in bringing about
every event, however insignificant and small,
which takes places in this world. The little
events which take place in the history of
every human being, are like the little drops
of rain which fall upon the earth. Taken
separately, they are of little Importance; but
taken together they form creeks, rivers, and
even the mighty ocean with its swelling waves.
The small stream, whose scanty waters are
scarcely sufficient to quench the thirst of the
famishing OK, may appear insignificant as it
noiselcssly rolls along over the pebbles and
rocks but it increases in volume as it wends
its way through hill and dale, until it becomes
mighty river upon whose bosom floats the
commerce ofhalfa continent. So it is with the
providences of God-small at first but great
in the end. A little cloud not larger than a
mans hand rises out Of the sea- No eye is
attracted by its appearance. Little by little
it increases until it covers the whole heavens
with backness. The hills are made to trem-
BILE on their granite bases, and the lurid light
ming rends the giant oaks of the forest. The
valleys float with water all distilled from q
cloud which but little while ago appeared
no larger than mans hand Just so it is in
every mans life. A little providential event
is the precursor of greater one, and that of
another still greater, and so on, until the pur-
poses of God with the individual are accom-
plished. Agamemnon and Achilles quarreled
about a captured virgin, daughter of the.
priest of the far-darting Apollo. Confusion
was brought into the Grecian camp, and
plague seized upon men and beasts. "Du-
ring all this time,'' says Homer, "the will of
Jupiter was accomplishing" The events
which are daily transpiring in each of our
lives, indicate what is to be the final result.
Rarely ever do any of us discover what God
in his providence is aiming at until the work
is accomplished. Sometimes the most trivial
circumstances are attended with she most i'm
portant results. 1t is said that as John Bun
yan was once, when boy, passing the house
of neighbor, he incidentally heard the words
which brought coviction to his SOUL The
woman of the house by which he passed, was,
at the time, correcting her son for some mis-
demeanor. She warned him that unless he
changed his course he would soon be another
John Bunyan. The bow was shot at ven
ture, so far as the woman was concerned, but
the arrow found an entrance to the heart and
conscience of John Bunyan. Even things
less than this are often attended with tremen-
dous results. Men are accused, tried, con-
demned and executed, and the only evidence
against them is merely circumstantial. Once
shoe.maker's apprentice accidentally, as we
say, struck his thumb whilst hammering
piece of leather. In rage from pain, he
threw down the hammer and vowed he would
never make another shoe. To-day he is pro-
fessor of belles-lettres in an American college.
Often the providences of God are for us in
our unsanctifed and sinful state hard to be
borne. 1t was hard for Joseph to be dragged
from home as common slave and sold into
Egypt by his own brothers. No doubt JOS
eph thought it was hard. God sent Joseph
into Egypt for the purpose of saving many
people alive. We might say God could have
done all that he did do in this case and at the
same time prevented the barbarous acts of the
sons of Jacob. God can do no other way
than the way he does do, and although we
cannot understand why he acts as he does
sometimes, his way is always right, both for
time and eternity With each and all Of us,
God in his providence is so dealing as to pre-
pare us for something We may, as is often
the case, run counter to the providences Of
God. If we do, woe be to us. Our destruc-
ton may slumber for a long time, but it will,
in moment when, and at place where, We
least expect it, come upon US like all armed
mon Vban 1ua oonouda uau like that