The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-07-22
RELIGIOUS READING.
THE HAND OF PROVIDENCE,

The hand Of Providence III our successes,
our accomplishments. our deliverances is
easily recognized by our quickened or CRATE
full perceptions, but less easily and readily
as a rule, do we acknowledge the same kind
and wise hand in our mistakes. Yet in most
lives the latter equal. if not exceed, the
former in the experiences of the passing
wears. Our motives are SO curously mixed,
our foresight is so short. and our limitations
are necessarily so many that we are
constantly laundering. now turning in this
or that direction when another would be the
better one to take, now remaining in place
when we ought to leave it and changing a
place when we ought to remain ia it, Until,
as we draw near the sunset. we are fain to
bewail our lack Of judgment and wish in vain
that we had our lives to live over again.
After the event it is often quite plain to us
that we should have acted in another way,
and we see clearly where we were wrong and
what would have been the wiser course of
action. But at the time our eyes were hold
en-. and we did not perceive the indications
plainly. Especially when our mistakes affect
the lives ofothers as when parents 10y u certain
decision modify or entirely change the cir
cumstances and future position of children,
or as when, at turn in the road. our step
ping to this side.or that arrests our fortunes
and gives US the downward push instead OF
the upward, we are apt to cast the plane
wholly on our faulty and to leave Prov1-
dence quite outside the reckoning. And,
taking this view, it is not strange If we grow
cynical and morbid and eat our bread In
bitterness and look with envious wonder on
the comrade who has outstripped us In the
march.
If. however, we accept the sweet and COM
forting doctrine that our whole lives, from
the beginning the ending, are under COD
sovereign control. that while we are Tree TO
choose still, for reasons infinitely kind and
far-reaching as eternity, the love that out
lasts time and sense permits our errors, we
shall escape the danger of compliant or
weak chagrin. True. we did on some occa-
sions act on impulse and with childish pre-
cipitancy, and again, on another, we suf-
fered meretriciouS reasoning to mlslesd US,
but all the while we were Gods dear chill
dren and he had not let US go, and there
was some need in our nature which
even he could not have supplied unless the
discipline of life had made us aware OF It.
There are characters which cannot be deveI-
oped except by contact with pain and disap-
pointment. There are strong and noble
souls which arrive at their full estate only by
wrestling against wind and tide. There
are exceptional temperaments which would
never find God unless driven to his arms
bv stress Of sorrow and desolation of defect.
Again it often happens that the last re-
suit of an apparent mistake Is happiness Tor
the every persons who seemed most dlsas-
trously influenced by it at first. Wealth
flies and luxuries are abridged, but the sons
and daughters, bravely facing poverty, are
better equipped for the struggles before
them than they would have been had the
path been altogether smooth. By certain
decision, regretted and lamented In solitude
and silence, we have closed, at Cne or an
other period, door of our lives which we
can never open again. When We locked that
door we lost the combination, and never IN
all our Immortality can we discover the for
feited secret.
And yet, where for US there would have
been, perhaps. Joy and ease, there has been
instead blessing and the ability to bless. q
wider field of influence, surer sense OF
power and the going on to frmer and
higher vantage ground. In our mistakes,
and, being finite and sinful, we are always
making then. let US not be utterly dis.
heartened. since back of them and back OF
US is the guiding hand of One whose love
and wisdom never err.
Beyone the smiling and the weeping.
Beyond the sowing and the reaping,
as Bonar's lovely hy:na puts it, we shall be
soon. But even more consolatory IS the re-
Election that beyond these varied expert
ences. while we stay here, are Gods tender
care over US. Gods purpose for our bene-
nr, Gods clear sight for our blurred vision
and Gods never-slumbering proyidentlal
love.