looking for of judgment and of righteous indignation." We shall have to appear before him another day, and to answer for our rejection of his grace and mercy; and, oh! how will we be able to stand there? "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy, under two or three witnesses;" "but of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?" Mercy rejected -love slighted-a Saviour whose ransom has been flung back with scorn-these are fearful exactors. Then will be heard that bitter, frantic cry-sin's last apostrophe, "Ye mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

Let us be thankful, my readers, that this "great day of his wrath" has not yet come; and while the announcements of the Gospel message are still sounding in our ears-"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled unto God." "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Let us welcome that message with joyfulness: by faith let us embrace the Saviour as "all our salvation and all our desire." Then, when the challenge, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" rings through the wide universe, we shall be enabled triumphantly to exclaim, "Lo, this is our God: we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."

DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

BY THE REV. JOSEPH BATE.

PROVIDENCE is the foresight and care which God exercises for us and all creatures that exist. The ancient heathen, in general, either partially or wholly discarded this doctrine; and no wonder, when we consider that their ideas of the Supreme Being were extremely dark and confused. Aristotle, the prince of heathen philosophers, could not, by the utmost stretch of reason, find out the original of the world, and therefore concluded it had existed from eternity. If the Epicureans, after a fashion, acknowledged God, they denied his providence, on the ground that he was too contented and happy to concern himself in the cares and labours of governing the world. If not Atheists in theory, they were in practice. Since the introduction of Christianity into our world, there has been no lack of men of sceptical views concerning providence. Justin Martyr tells us that the philosophers of his time taught that it was "useless to pray to God, since all things recur according to the unchangeable laws of an endless progression." Lord Herbert, the founder of the school denominated Freethinkers, in his articles of religion, included the doctrine of Divine Providence; but his disciples virtually extruded the Deity from the world, by reducing it to a machine sustained by secondary causes. The bold infidel views of the past have, in a

measure, disappeared, and yet the spirit of avowed scepticism manifests itself in the enlightened age in which we live. The author of "The Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" endeavours to build up a theory based on palpable facts, which are said to have occurred in a chain of necessary development, and need no dogma of Divine providence to account for them. The world, with all its varied phenomena, moves on in its stern, necessary course, guided only by physical laws, to the exclusion of the Divine agency. His theory admits, indeed, that the matter of the universe proceeded from God; but left to itself, by the mere operation of mechanical and chemical laws, it has evolved those forms of beauty and grandeur which are everywhere apparent around us. The theory of progressive development-a theory which would have us believe that order grows out of confusion, that life originates in death, and that man was once an ape -is essentially Atheistic, and accords neither with the facts of science nor the teachings of Scripture. Revelation plainly affirms of Him who was God manifest in the flesh, that "by him were all things created, and that he upholdeth all things by the word of his power.

The earth, in its peculiar features, indicates the superintending power of Deity. As each member of the human frame is necessary to the completeness and well-being of the whole system, even so the various parts of the globe are essential to the stability and good of the whole. Deserts have their uses, as well as lands brought under a high state of cultivation. The various creatures that exist are adapted to the countries and localities where they are found. Whether they make their homes in the barren desert, or the fruitful field-in the valley where the rich corn crops grow, or in the adjacent mountain cliffs in the flowing river, or the mighty seas-they live in places best suited to the exercise of their instincts, their habits, and tastes. We see not the Hand that controls the physical laws of the earth; that conducts the blazing comet in its course, and wheels the planets in their orbits; or spreads the fleecy clouds, and sprinkles the morning dew; that adorns the woods with foliage, and covers the fields with golden corn yet the Deity conducts Nature in her manifold operations to the accomplishment of his all-wise purposes, and the good of his creatures. There is true theology, as well as profound philosophy and poetic beauty, in the language of Thomson :

"But wandering oft with brute unconscious gaze,
Man marks not Thee, marks not the mighty hand
That, ever busy, wheels the silent spheres ;
Works in the secret deep; shoots streaming thence
The fair profusion that o'erspreads the spring;
Flings from the sun direct the flaming day;
Feeds every creature; hurls the tempest forth;
And, as on earth this grateful change revolves,
With transport touches all the springs of life."

A greater poet than Thomson, addressing the Almighty Spirit that presides over material creation, remarks-"Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: Thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it: Thou makest it soft with showers: Thou blessest the springing thereof. Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness."

In the Bible the doctrine of providence is clearly revealed; and whoever rejects it cannot regard the Scriptures as Divinely inspired. In the general history of mankind, we see providence displayed in nations; in biography, we see providence exercised in the history of individuals. Providence is a theme with which Bible-truth is pregnant. It runs throughout its pages as the sap which, rising from the root to the trunk, finds its way through every branch, and feeds every green leaf of the tree.

Divine providence is not only general but special in its character. There is nought in this doctrine opposed to sound reason and true philosophy. The Author of creation cannot be separated from his works. "By him all things consist." Reason assures us that, apart from his presiding mind, creation would at once fall into a disjointed state, and become a scene of chaotic confusion. The chief evidence of this doctrine, however, is Scriptural. "I am with thee," said the Lord to Jacob, "in all places whither thou goest." While he was with the universe and men in general, he was with the patriarch in particular. "Other things," says Charnock, "are the objects of God's providence, but his people are the end of it." They are the objects of his love and special regard. His eye is on them and their foes. He bottles their tears, preserves their prayers, and numbers the hairs of their heads. He remarks, "Behold, I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." "He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye."

storm.

The speciality of providence is a subject fraught with encouragement to the good man. However his barque may be tossed on life's rough seas, his heavenly Father is at the helm, and he can smile at the No pilot at sea directs his ship so exactly by the compass as Providence governs the concerns of the righteous, which maketh "all things work together for good to them that love God." With a view to enlarge on this noble theme, let us consider the supremacy, the mysteriousness, and the harmonious operations of Divine Providence.

Divine Providence is supreme.-The universe is the production of his creative power and wisdom. His omnipotent hand perpetuates its existence. He holds the earth in her orbit, and directs the stars in their spheres. Looking at the vastness of their number, their magnitude, their distances from each other and from us, the rapidity of their revolutions, and their wondrous variety, we are filled with astonishment, and stand overawed at the glorious spectacle. But he who created them, and called them by their names, preserves them in their position, and keeps them in motion by his power. The earth, when compared to many worlds which revolve in the immensity of space, is small; it is, however, the object of Jehovah's constant regard. He created all its inhabitants, and gives them suitable support. The Psalmist says-"The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." The brute creation, guided by instinct, pursue the course of being adapted to the welfare of the species The swallow tribes visit us in spring, build their nests

under the eaves of our dwellings, and rear their young; but on the approach of winter, influenced by instinct, they fly through the pathless heavens, taking the directest route to a warmer clime. The bee forms its hive with mathematical exactness, and its cells are admirably contrived to hold its stores, and for the purpose of rearing its young. Animals never depart from their instincts. What reason is to us, instinct is to the brute. In the intelligent world, God does what he pleases in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the victory, and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all."

Providence is exercised over men.-God is above us. "In him we live, and move, and have our being." He orders the time when we are to be ushered into being, and unlocks the gate of the eternal world through which the human spirit passes on the dissolution of the body. He appoints our position in life, and determines the bounds of our habitation. In his hands we are as clay in the hands of the potter, and he moulds and fashions our hearts according to his pleasure. His authority is absolute and unlimited. He is Lord of all. "By him kings reign, and princes decree justice. He is King of kings and Lord of lords." Seeing, then, that God is above us, while we walk uprightly, his providence will protect us. And boldly we may ask, "Who is he that shall harm us, while we are followers of that which is good?"

The pillar of Providence is everywhere-in the midst of the desert, where no blade of grass grows, and no animal bounds in the happiness of its being-above the blue seas-amid the howling tempest, when the big waves rise like mountains towards heaven, and the weather-beaten mariner is at his wits' end to know how to escape the danger that surrounds him-on the summits of the loftiest mountains, covered with eternal snows, and in the central regions of the earth, whose liquid fires feed the volcano, and give birth to earthquakes. It was this thought, that the universe is full of God, that cheered the great traveller, Mungo Park, in the Sahara. Robbed and stripped of everything, he was left in a state of nudity. All at once, he saw a little piece of moss, and taking it up, he saw how beautiful it was. He said, "Then, the hand of God is here-here is one of his works; though I call loudly, none can hear me; for there is nothing but the prowling lion and the howling jackal, yet God is here. He hath said, 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.' Jacob saw the providence of God in the ladder of the mystic vision with which he was favoured; Moses saw it in the burning bush unconsumed with fire; and Israel saw it in the mysterious pillar of mingled fire and cloud, their unerring guide and sure protector in the wilderness. Not a doubt lodges in our bosom, not an anxiety weighs down our spirits, and not a tear trickles down our cheeks, unseen by the God of providence.

"Like the circumambient air,
Creation's lucid robe,
Providence, with tender care,
Encircles all the globe;

Every mystic link of love
In the golden chain I see,

Reaching from the throne above,

And touching even me."

Providence is over human actions.-Man is not a mere machine acting out the purposes of his Maker. He is a free agent; and Providence does not destroy the freedom of human actions. All the physical agencies in the universe are the servants of God, and they unconsciously act in fulfilling his will. The hearts of men are as much in his hands as are the material forces of Nature; and he controls them at his pleasure. He does not compel them to any course of action, whether good or evil, yet he renders their actions subservient to the carrying out the plans of his government. Little did the brethren of Joseph, when from feelings of envy they sold him to the Midianites, who re-sold him a slave in Egypt, suppose they were carrying out the designs of Heaven. When Joseph made himself known to his brethren, he said, "As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." "It was not you that sent me hither, but God." Little did Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, Alexander, and Cæsar, when hurried on by the lust of conquest, suppose they were fulfilling the Divine will, and preparing the way for the coming Messiah. Little did the Jews, when in the vileness of their act they put the Lord of life to death, think that they were accomplishing the counsel of Heaven; but it was so. "Him," said Peter, "being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." It was ambition that led Vespasian and Titus to reduce Judea to a Roman province after its revolt; but by their ambition the predictions of Holy Scripture were fulfilled relative to the overthrow of Jerusalem. The vices to which Henry VIII. was unhappily addicted were controlled to work out our deliverance from the yoke of Popery, under which our forefathers had groaned. Men often mean one thing and God another. One once said in the hearing of the first Napoleon, "Man proposes, but God disposes." The haughty monarch, in response said, "But I propose and I dispose." That was the beginning of his downfall. "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” On the field of Waterloo, that bloody battle which decided the fate of nations, Napoleon was worsted. Thus, while he proposed to subject the whole of Europe to his sway, God disposed of him to the island of St. Helena, where he lived and died in exile. How different the spirit of the Duke of Wellington, who, in one of the brief notes he dispatched from the field of Waterloo, at the close of the battle, remarked, "The finger of Providence was on me." Undoubtedly, that Providence which rules over all, directs the politician in his schemes, the philosopher in his researches, the warrior in his exploits, the artist in his designs, and the minister in his studies. The power of action is from God. In him we move. Yet evil action is not from God; it is from the sinfulness of human nature. He said of the Israelites, "I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust; and they walked in their own counsels." He controls the actions of the good. "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord!" He does not compel, but

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