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VIII.

THE RECOGNITION OF PROVIDENCE.

“Look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door; is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?"2 KINGS vi. 32.

I

SUPPOSE, my friends, that, on hearing this text read, your first thought about it is that it is a somewhat strange and out-of-the-way one. And perhaps there is some truth in that. But the subject I am going to submit to your attention is, I hope, neither strange nor out of the way; and I employ this text only as a sort of pictorial illustration of it. The subject I have been meditating upon the most of last week, and which I should like you to meditate upon now, is, how much of God and of God's training we are daily in contact with, if we had only the spiritual discernment to see it, and to profit by it. God is teaching and training us by His providence as well as by His Word. Every event in our lives, and especially the events which produce any marked change in our earthly condition, are all messengers from God, and the sound of the Master's feet is behind them; and we should learn to hold fast these messengers, and to interrogate them about the Divine will regarding

us.

And I know nothing more appropriate to say to every household among you, and especially in respect to any afflictive dispensation which may be upon you-disappointment, sickness, or bereavement-than this, "Look,

when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door; is not the sound of the Master's feet behind him?”

I feel all the more at liberty to employ this text in the manner now indicated, inasmuch as Elisha, whose words they are, used them, in part at least, in a metaphorical sense, and looked away from the outward event to the Sovereign Ruler of all. The messenger was that of the wicked king Jehoram, sent to behead the prophet, and by saying that the sound of his master's feet was behind him, the prophet did not mean that the king was personally at the heels of his messenger, but simply that the proposed act plainly testified of its author. It was Jehoram all over, in every way like the man. There was no mistaking whose messenger this was-"Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him ?" And, more than that, Elisha heard other and louder and more solemn feet behind them all; for what do we read in the verse following? "And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him; and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord." He heard the sound of his own Master's feet behind all other feet. "Behold, this evil is of the Lord."

And such is the state of sentiment and feeling that I should like to see established in myself and you; viz., the habit of referring everything to God, of seeing God in everything, and of regarding all the events of Providence as so many divinely commissioned teachers-messengers of God, whom we are to hold fast, and shut the door, and prayerfully and attentively listen for the sound of the Master's feet behind them.

Having thus, I hope, plainly enough indicated the subject to be discussed, I proceed—

In the first place, to show the Scriptural foundation for the doctrine which I wish to inculcate.

Secondly, to adduce a few practical illustrations of it in the world, the church, and the individual. And,

Thirdly, to urge upon you a few motives to practise the duty contained in this doctrine.

I. The Scriptural foundation for the doctrine which I wish

to inculcate.

We have it set forth to us very concisely in the Shorter Catechism, in answer to the question, "What are God's works of providence?" And they are stated to be "His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures, and all their actions." But it is only His reasoning and moral and responsible creature, man, that we have to do with at present; and the doctrine as regards him is, that God is continually about him, influencing him in ways innumerable, and governing all his actions.

And, in support of this doctrine, we can adduce more Scripture testimony than we can possibly quote. For instance, in the case of sinners. When Shimei cursed David, the king recognized the hand of God in it: "So let him curse," exclaimed David, "because the Lord hath said to him, Curse David." Like Elisha here, he saw that the evil was from the Lord, and heard the sound of the Master's feet behind the messenger. And how remarkably the same truth is taught us in connection with all that the wicked did to our Lord. The disciples in prayer addressed God, saying, "Of a truth against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done" (Acts iv. 27, 28). And in regard to the wicked generally, the Psalmist, praising God, says, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee; the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain" (Ps. lxxvi. 10).

But the fullest Scripture evidence relates to the righteous. Our Lord tells them that the very hairs of their head are numbered, and that nothing can befall them without the knowledge and permission of their heavenly Father. All things are made to work together for their good. The Lord's eyes are continually upon them, and He keeps them as the apple of His eye; and it is their greatest delight to know this, and to acknowledge it: "In Him we live, and move, and have our being;" "I will cry unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all things for me." But this doctrine is so much the basis on which all Scripture is projected, that the task of adducing evidence is really endless. All Scripture either expressly declares it or takes it for granted.

And the highest reason, as far as it can penetrate into the matter, takes the same view as Scripture. On a very pigmy scale man himself exercises a providence. He acquires so intimate an acquaintance with many of the laws of nature, that he can employ them in working out his wishes. He acquires such influence over large masses of his fellow-men, as to get them to do almost anything at his bidding. And when we expand this same thing upwards to the infinite height of God, we have all that the Scripture doctrine contends for. We have God ruling over all, and directing all things, by the word of His power.

We must be careful, however, in the uses which we make of this doctrine, not to make God the author of sin by it. The author of sin is the devil, and God's office, in regard to it, is in curbing and restraining and directing it, so as to make it subservient to the working out of His own ends. The incendiary raises a conflagration, and the endeavour of the firemen is to direct the flames, so as to do least mischief, and so as ultimately to put them out. And that is God's relation to evil. The devil has raised the con

flagration. But God has taken the charge of it, and is directing all its course, for the highest well-being of His universe, and for finally restricting the conflagration to the one pit, "where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched."

But this doctrine of Providence, which Scripture teaches, and reason corroborates, and is so precious to God's people, is, you know, extensively denied in the present day. The secularists, as they call themselves, and who are just the same people as used to be called Deists, deny that there is any providence. God's connection with the world and its affairs, they say, is merely that of a first cause. He contrived the machine at the outset, and wound it up, and has left it to run itself down, according to its own laws, and without any further interference from Him; and that it is all useless, therefore, to pray, or to look for any tender mercies beyond what are supplied by living agreeably to the laws of nature. And I am afraid that the spirit of secularism is even more widely extended than its creed. Our age is not lacking in faith. But then, what are the objects of it? We have faith in the capabilities of the human intellect; faith in the power of money; faith in machinery, in commerce, in education, in science, in political expedients, and so forth; but very little faith in the unseen, in the directing power and wisdom of a present God, or in that inheritance laid up for them that love Him.

We willingly concede that God ordinarily carries on His providential government through means of second causes; but we deny that that necessarily removes God Himself from the scene. The ladder that Jacob saw, connecting heaven and earth, was composed of many steps, and many were the messengers ascending and descending upon it. But God Himself was at the top of