* A. Tholuck, Hours of Christian Devotion, 144.
* A. C. Benson, Along the Rood, 165.
PROVERBS XVI. 33 289
and each other lie at Heaven's door, or were fore-ordered by the Most High. " He hath shewed thee, 0 man, what is good," but He contents Himself with the showing : He asks for a free, not a forced, obedience, and holds us responsible for our choice. True, this gift of liberty involves much sorrow and suffering ; but only by the exercise of free-will can character be formed, and we know that sorrow and suffering — while we would not choose them for their own sakes — have often and often been the means of bring- ing out the finer qualities of men and women.
^ There are three great principles in life which weave its warp and woof, apparently incompatible with each other, yet they harmonize, and, in their blending, create this strange life of ours. The first is, our fate is in our own hands, and our blessedness or misery is the exact result of our own acts. The second is, " There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will." The third is, " The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong " ; but time and chance happen(eth) to them all. Accident, human will, the shaping will of Deity : these things make up life. Or rather, perhaps, we see a threefold causality from some defect in our spiritual eyesight. Could we see as He sees, all would be referable to one principle which would contain them all ; as the simple, single law of gravitation embraces the complex phenomena of the universe ; and as, on the other hand, by pressing the eye- balls so as to destroy their united impression, you may see all things double.^
(2) And yet God does not let us go oui- own way ; He stands aside, but only a little way aside, watching all the while, and holding the issue in His mighty hands. We cannot read history or individual experience without coming to the conclusion that here and there, unperceived at the time, but none the less real, was God's guiding, God's restraining influence. Some deep grief, which at the time almost crushes us, proves an inspiration ; some pitiful tragedy which wrings our heart is the starting-point of triumph ; our light affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, Mrs. Josephine Butler's loss of a beloved daughter makes her devote herself to the rescue of other mothers' daughters from a fate worse than death ; John Brown is shot at Harper's Ferry for his anti-slavery principles, but his soul goes marching on, and his memory serves to win liberty for the slaves
^ Life and Letters of the Rev. F. W. Robertson, 243. PS. CXIX.-SONG OF SOL. — IQ
290 THE SOVEREIGNTY OF PROVIDENCE
of America ; Jesus is nailed to a shameful cross, and that cross becomes the power of God unto salvation.
^ "Unless the hairs of your head are all numbered there is no God." The words are George MacDonald's, and they put the challenge to faith in its clearest and boldest form. We all want to believe that our hairs are numbered ; that we are the objects of a special loving care. We feel with Michelet : " Let the senti- ment of the loving cause disappear, and it is over with me. If I have no longer the happiness of feeling this world to be loved, of feeling myself to be loved, I can no longer live. Hide me in the tomb." Yes, the hairs of our head are all numbered. Whenever we pray we affirm that. And we can match this affirmation, in our being's highest act, against all the materialisms and all the devil's advocacies, from whatever quarter they come. For the soul here is sure of itself. It moves here in a sphere the world cannot enter, still less conquer. Quis Separahit ? In face of life's sternest tragedies, of its utmost extremities, it joins in the Apostle's triumphant hymn of faith, knowing with him that neither life nor death, things present nor things to come, can shut it off from the Infinite Love.^
3. There is less luck in human affairs than is popularly sup- posed, and he is foolish who fears or trusts it. The truth is that chance is nothing but a vocable which we employ when there is a gap in our wisdom, and our insight into the connexion of cause and effect is at fault. It is more a name for something in our- selves than for anything in nature without. We designate as ''chance those effects which do not seem to have proceeded from pur- pose and design. Thus we call it chance when any event occurs which was not intended by man; just as our Lord says, "By chance there came down a certain priest that way." And in that case the word has no objectionable meaning. We also speak of chance, however, when a thing happens which seems to us con- trary to the plan and intention of God, and then the word is a mere word. We speak of necessity when the weary veteran, after the eyes — the windows of sense — have been closed, and the door of the mouth seldom opens, and the grey head has long worn the livery of death, dies by the decay of nature. For we perceive that there is a plan and design in the mowing down of the grain when it has reached maturity, and in the discharge of the labourer *J. Brierley, Tli£ Secret of Living, 167.