The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-01-07


and their terror-stricken passengers
there are few who believe In a God at all
who do not recognize His hand and saw
Surely God is here But that the God
who kindled the blaze of the sun sup
plies also the glow-worm's lamp; that
He who rides upon the stormy wind"
fans also the cheek of the invalid with
the gentle zephyr's breath that He who
upholds the stars in their courses. guides
also the sparrow in it's flight; these are
the things reckoned incapable of belief
And yet the Scriptures do not more
clearly teach the one than the other. Its
language. on this point cannot be mis-
taken. Turn to whatever part you will
and you find this truth everywhere ex-
pressed, believed, acted upon, that the
hand of God is as truly in the least
things as In the greatest-nothing so OBJ
scure as to escape His notice, nothing so
trivial as to lie outside the schemes of
HIS Providence, and the purposes of His
will
Let us hear the testimony of Elihu Job
xxxvi: 27, &c. He maketh small the
drops of water which the clouds do drop
upon the earth " With clouds He COW
ereth the light and commandeth it not to
shine. He thundereth marvellously
with His voice" "He saith to the snow,
Be thou on the earth, and likewise to the
small rain and great rain of his strength. &"
I" By the breath of God frost is given and
the breadth of the waters is straitened. :"
" He scattereth His bright cloud and it is
turned round about by His counsels that
they may do whatsoever He command
eth. He causes it to rain on the earth
where no man is to satisfy the desolate
and waste ground and to cause the bud
of the tender earth to spring forth. He
" sends forth His ightnings that they
may 60 and say unto Him, Here we are
He stays the battles of heaven when the
dust groweth into hardness and the elods
cleave fast together" He hunteth the
prey for the lion and provideth for the
ravens their food"
Let us hear the Psalmist psalm 65:
8, &C., "Thou visitest the earth and wa
terest it. Thou greatly enrichest it, &c.
psalm lO4: IA, &c. "He causeth the
grass to grow for the cattle and herb for
the service of man. Thou makest dark
ness and it is night wherein all the beasts
of the forest may creep forth The young
hons do roar after their prey and seek
their meat from God" "These wait all
upon thee" "That thou givest them they
gather. Thou openest thine hand and
they are filed with good &c. But why
multiply passages. The Old Testament
is filled with these statements of the uni
versatility and miputeness of the provi-
dence of God. Let us turn for moment
to the declarations Of our Lord. Behold
Matt. vi: %, &C. the fowls of the air,
for they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly
Father feedeth them "Consider the
lilies of the field how they grow, they
toll not neither do they spin, and yet
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 which to-day is and tomorrow
IS cast into the oven, shall He not much
more clothe you, o we of little faith -
And so In the passage before us, "Are not
five sparrows sold for two farthings and
not one of them is forgotten before God,
Cor as Matthew hath IT'D zone of them
shall not fall on the ground without your
Father, for even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered"
1t is evident then that if the plain
meaning Of these passages be taken we
must believe that the providence of God
is in the little things as we'll as the great.
And when we consider how precious and
comforting such a,doctrine is, does it not
seem strange that men should set them
selves to work to teach themselves to
believe, that when our Saviour says mot
one Of them is forgotten before God" he
really does not mean it and when he
says +" the hairs of your head are all num-
bered" he is speaking in hyperbolel
g. But this skepticism in reference to
the minuteness of Gods providence rests
upon two assumptions, each of which is
altogether untenable. The first is that
objects and events sustain to each other
in the mind of God the same relative dig
nifty and Importance that they do in ours,
so that what are great and important in
our eyes are 50 in His, and what are puny
and insignificant in our view are so in the
view Of God. We are prone to forget
that nothing finite can in itself appear
great or important in the sight of God.
There is such an infinite disproportion be-
tween the scale on which His being is
projected and that which appertains to
l. NJ