The Nevada County picayune., 1911-03-10
THE HAND
 OF GOD.
By REV. STEPHEN PAULSON

was sent back to Jerusalem with great stores of gold and silver for the tenn pie. The king offered him a military guard for the journey. but Ezra de clares + unnecessary, for, he says, The hand of God is upon all them for good, that seek him."
 Ezra here announces a fact which often passes out of our reckoning. There was time when fatalism was the general creed and it still fingers in many minds It is a dreary faith to live by and not true to facts There Is a more beautiful creed and more com- forting, and that Is the personal provi dence of loving father-the hand of God upon all them for good that seek him.
 First let us recognize that divine government in our lives is fact. No one can live and defy Gods laws with impunity. Many men seem to think that no notice is taken of their &C., tions, and they go on in their evil ways and apparently prosper. Occa- sionally one may escape from the jus tice of human law, but there is no es- cape from divine law.
 The hand of God is disturbing ele- ment. You may be perfectly satisfied with yourself, but God Is not satisfied with you Only to one did he say, This Is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased" There are so many things in our lives that God is not pleased with If his hand Is upon us for good So God never allows us to re- main in peace. You would not expect Gods government in our lives to be one of indifference and tranquility.
 Do you think, for instance. that God is satisfied with social and moral and political conditions as they are? No. he is not And therefore God is con- tinually stirring up good men and in fluences to battle against evil and op- ipression and to spread the principles of his kingdom, and there are thoo1 who resent this divine interference and make his servants bear the brunt of their displeasure.
 The gospel of Jesus Christ is a dis turbing element wherever 1t comes. for it cannot exist side by side with evil and oppression. without striving to oppose and overcome them. That was what Jesus had reference to when he said, "I am not come to send peace upon the earth. but a sword"
 China lived in self-satisfled fgno- rance and darkness. Progress was an unknown word and not desired. The same customs and practices and the same primitive methods had obtained for 2,000 years. Then came the man with the gospel and it proved a dis turbing element. Missionaries have sometimes been accused by short sighted persons of causing disturbance and dissension. The charge is true in so far as they are true to the gos- pei they preach. It is the eternal and inevitable conflict between light and darkness. between truth and falsehood, between good and evil. be- tween Christ and Satan.
 The hand of God in human lives is a progressive element. God disturbs. our lives to move them on to some thing better. With him there is never retrogression. If God asks me tO strike my tent today to move wonder. 1t Is because wonder there Is higher possibility, a more glorious outlook.
 Progress is not necessarily pleas ant Notice how Moses speaks of tho departure from Horeb, where many Of Israelites were most willing to re- main: And when we departed from Horeb we went through all the great and terrible wilderness which ye saw by the way of the mountain of the Ammorites" It was progress, but if was not pleasant It was through the great and terrible wilderness. It was difficult progress. but the goal was Canaan, the land of promise.
 There Is beautiful illustration of the hand of God in human lives. in tn lthirty-second chapter of Deuter- onoIny: As an eagle stirreth up her nest, futtereth over her young, taketh them, beareth them on her pinions; so the Lord did lead him."
 The picture Is full of poetry. full of life and truth and beauty. Think over it. The nest is upon rocky height The mother eagle comes and takes the eaglets and filings them out of the nest. They scream with fright and begin to fall to the ground. But having stirred up her nest, the eagle "spreadeth abroad her wings" She swoops beneath them. "beareth them on her pinions." She drops them again and again they struggle, but this time not so helplessly. They be- gin to understand what she means. She Is teaching them to fly.
 Perhaps circumstances have flung you out until you felt lost in an efe- ment that was new and strange to you Look unto God, who is the help of all who seek him. He spreads out the wings of his omnipotence to pro- tect you He is teaching you to use