Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1901-05-02

In my text the ant is not impaled, IL
not dead, but alive. and In the warm
fields providing her meat In the sum-
mer and gathering her food In the har-
vest.
Furthermore, go to the ant anu
learn the lesson of God appointed Or
der The being who taught the insect
how to build was geometer as well as
architect The paths inside that lit
tie home radiate from the door with
as complete arrangement as ever the
bouevards of city radiated from a
triumphal arch or a lowered circle.
And when they march they keep per-
! feet order, moving in straight lines,
turnIng out for nothing. II timber
lie in the way, they climb over 1t. IL
there be a house or barn in the way,
| they march through it. Order in ar
chitectural structure, order in gov
| eminent, order of movement, order or
! expo alton. So let us all observe this
God appointed rule and take salts
faction in the fact that things are
not at loose ends in this world. III
there is divine regulation in colony
or republic of insects, is there not a
divine regulation in the lives or I'M
mortal men and women? IL God cares
| for the least of his creatures and shows
| them how to provide their meat In the
summer and gather their food in the
! harvest, will he not be interested In
matters of human livelihood and in
! the guidance of human affairs? l
preach the doctrine of a particular
providence. Are not two sparrows
sold for a farthing, and yet not one
Of them is forgotten before God? Are
We not Of more value than many spar
rows?" Let there be order in our in
dividual lives, order in the family, or
der in the church, order in the state.
Gods Care OF Small Things.
After what Linnaeus and Pierre
Huber have told us concerning these
living mites of the natural world are
we not ready 10 believe that the God
who turns the wheel of the solar sys-
tenn and the vaster wheel OF
the universe regulates the beehive and
the ant hill and that all the affairs OF
our mortal lives are under divine man
agement? When some one asked a
hermit on the top of a mountain in
Italy if he did not feel it dangerous
to live SO many miles from human
habitation, he replied: No. Provi-
dence is my very next door neighbor."
He who became Sir Thomas Ores.
ham and built the Royal Exchange in
London when an infant was abandoned
by his mother in the fields. Did it
just happen so that the cEirping of a
grasshopper brought boy to the spot
where the babe lay and his life was
saved? Not so, thought Sir Thomas
Gresham, who, having arrived at great
wealth and power, chose grasshop-
per for his crest and had
the figure of a grasshopper i'm
pressed on the wall of the Royal
Exchange and had at the top weather
vane in the figure of a grasshopper.
The Waldensian Christians in the sew
enteenth century were expelled from
the valleys and on their way 500 of
them were starving to death. Did it
just happen so that one night the deep
snow suddenly thawed and showed a
large amount of wheat which had been
covered by the untimely snow and was
suddenly uncovered so that the hun
ger was satisfied and the 800 lives were
saved? Did it just happen so? Near
Port Royal, Jamaica, is tomb with
this inscription: Here lieth the body
of Louis Caldy, Esq, native OF Mont
pellier, in France, which country he
left on account of the revocations. He
was swallowed up by the earthquake,
which occurred at this place in 1892.
but, by the great providence of God.
was by a second shock hung into the
sea, where he continued swimming till
rescued by boat and lived forty years
afterward." Was the release of that
man from the Jaws of the earthquake
"just happen sou When during the
plague in London, at the risk OF his
life and under the protest of his
friends, Rev. Thomas Vincent spent his
time preaching the gospel to the suf-
ferers and 6S, $50 people persisted, seven
fatalities in the house where he lived.
did it just happen so that he came
through unhurt?
All Under Gods Care.
We live in times when there are so
many clashings. There seems almost
universal unrest. Large fortunes swal-
low up small lOTluueS. OlNlllLeu I'd
tons trying to gobble up barbaric ma
tions. Upheaval of creeds and people
who once believed everything now be-
lieving nothing The old book that
Moses began and st. John ended bonn
barded from scientific observatories
and college classrooms. Amid all this
disturbance and uncertainty that
, which many good people need is not
stimulus, but a sedative, and in my text
/ find it--divine observation and guild
ance OF minutest affairs. And nothing
is to God large or small-planet or ant
hill-the God who easily made the
worlds employing his infinity in the
wondrous construction of a spiders
foot.
, Before we leave this subject let us
thank God for those who were willing
, to endure the fatigues and self-sacri-
fees necessary to make revelation of
the natural world, so reinforcing the
Scriptures. If the microscope could