The Penn's Grove record., 1910-02-25
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
REV. JOHN WESLEY HILL, DID,.
Theme: The Workings of Providence.
Text--Rom. 8.28.

We have here Paul's epitome of
Providence, his summing up of hui
man life and experience under the
experimenting hand of God. Had he
been a materialist, he would have left
God out of the question, and said,
"You are a part of a great, merciless
machine, wound up by chance and
controlled by circumstances, and your
sufferings are due to the ineSorable
movements of fate, against which you
struggle in vain." Had he been a
Stole philosopher, he would not have
said, "AIl things work together for
good" but, you are in the hands OF
an awful system, of which evil is an
inevitable part" and his exhortation
would have been, RESIST the evil
with the bold front of an unfinching
spirit" Had he been an Epicurean,
he would have said, "Chance has pro-
jected evil into the world. Fight
chance the only way in which you
can, by drowning all you cares in a
sea of sensual pleasure" But Paul
was neither a ma~terialist, nor a Stole.
nor an Epicurean, but a Christian
philosopher. He believed that Gods
plans are eternal, that human suffer
ing is a part of the necessary disci-
pline of life, that eternity alone is
the final Interpretation of time, and
that ttall things work together for
good to them that love God"
Under Divine Protection.
Note the boldness of this Pauline
declaration: "All things work to-
gether for good" Had Paul known
nothing of the shocks and storms OF
life, had his career been one OF un-
interrupted inspiration and undated
triumph, then it might be urged that
the audacity of the proposition is evil
dence of ignorance Of the facts in
yoIyed. But Paul's life was inter-
woven of sunshine and shadows; in
fact, he knew much more of the
storms of life than of its Gains. The
vision of the past was ever before
him; the prisons through which he
had passed, the uproar at Ephesus,
the earthquake at Philippi, violence
at Jerusalem, trials with the churches,
chains at Caesarea, shipwrecks and
stripes, while before him passed
scenes of anguish which were far be-
yond his power to describe; and yet
towering above these dark and pain
full memories, we hear him excla1m.
"All things work together for good
to them that love Cod" He thus
congresses the universe into this one
little word of three letters, ALL
Glorious truth! We are not alone
in life's vicissitudes! Gods y is
upon us, and His arms encircle US
We are not helpless, for the infinite
Deliverer is ever present, even when
we are unconscious of His presence
inspiring with wisdom, impartins
strength and enabling us to come OF
more than conquerors owe all the
trials and difficulties of life, the tolls
and sufferings, defeats and crosses
gains and losses; all things seen and
unseen, neal and remote, dark and
bright, good and evil, are harnessed
as swift steeds to the chariot OF the
divine purpose, and nothing can per,
manently obstruct its progress.
Harmony and Corporations
Again, let us notice the law of this
P%rovidential process: Cali things
work together" And what is this
but the law of cooperation? Moth
ing in the universe below the being OF
God is complete within itself. Every
thing leans upon and helps to bear
up everything beyond, below, above.
and around itself. The dewdroI
works with the sunbeam, the seed
with the clay, the bee with the flow
err: the valley with the mountain, the
rivulet with the river, and the river
with the ocean; the heavens lean up
on the earth, and the earth reflects
the splendor of the heavens from its
laughing valleys, its snow-crownec
mountains and its ever-changing sea
There is no isolation anywhere. The
faintest trace of matter, the most del
icate, microscopic cell has Its place II
the universal creation, and performs
it's function, not. only for itself, Du'
in behalf of all. The gases thai com
pose the air we breathe work togeth'
er with l~ife-giving and health-sus-
tanning power; eliminate the oxygen
and this old world would be shroud'
ed in death; the seasons work togeth'
er, spring and summer; fall and win
ter, in a grand procession OF beauty
order and f~ruitfulness.
Light is beautiful, but light canno'
form the exquisite picture. Shadows
must lie there, a dark background
upon which the light can pencil its
beauty. The sunshine and shadow
must work together. Why, God can
not paint a rainbow until He has I'M
braided a beam of light into its sever
prismatic hues, to borrow from ano
lend to each other enhancing lowell
ness. So also the Lord knows how to
blend bright and dark things in hu-
man life, so as to produce the mos'
happy, holy and heavenly character.
Oh, my friend, you can afford to DC
patient and trustful, for God is mold
ing you to a pattern brighter than
angelic being, even according to the
image of His Son. The blow of the
hammer and the incision of the chisel
NAV be painful, but these are neces'
sary to the removal of imperfections
and to the revelation of the angel
that is lurking in the hiding places
of your being. God is the great, in,
finite Sculptor, and you can depend
upon it He will not overlook the
roughness, nor fail to smooth down
the rebellious grain!
All things work together. The
lightning in it's 1ivid rage only puri-
fes the atmosphere; the ~thunderbolt
that prostrates the giant oak, beneath
which many found shelter, lets the
sun shine upon a spot of earth that
had hitherto been full of darkness;
the cloud that overspreads the sky is
frequently but the shadow of an ap-
preaching blessing. Some flowers
must be trampled upon before thei
fragrance is detected, and it is like
wise true that human hearts must be
broken before their wealth of SYM
pathy and owe becomes productive.
Strength and Love Through Suffering
Then, again, we should remember
that things are not always as they APP
pear. The sun appears to rise and
set, but science places it in the centre
of a family of worlds; the stars APP
pear to rove about without restraint,
but they, too, r fixed centres, fast
ened to their points in space. The
rainbow appears to be a dense and
permanent arch of beauty, reared
against the solid sky, but philosophy
e~therealizes both the bow and the