PROVERBS XVI. 33 291
from the field when his blunted tools are of no further use. When, however, the youth is unexpectedly snatched away, by such a casualty as the fall, perhaps, of a tile from the roof ; when the goodly framework is shattered before the spirit it contained has unfolded its wings, — we then speak of chance, because we do not here see the Divine purpose.
^ " Chance " is a relation. The word does mean something ; and it is, therefore, foolish to tell children, that " there is no such thing as chance." It is a relation in which the connexion between cause and effect is too subtle for our dilcovery or too complex for us to calculate. The planet's motion, for instance, we can reckon and predict ; the fall of dice we cannot, not because the case is too subtle, but because the calculation is too complex. So, too, with a projectile like a cannon ball, — given the direction and quantity of force, we can tell where it will light. It is different with the fall of a leaf, owing to its irregular shape and the uncertain impact of the gusts of wind that may carry it we know not whither. Yet, in the strict sense, there is as little " chance " in the fall of the dice as in the course of the planet, or in the fall of the leaf as in the destination of the cannon ball. Chance is not a thing, but a relation. With God there is no chance — because He knows all forces and their direction.^
^ A man was speaking to me not long ago about one of the leading commercial men in this city. " What is there in him or about him to explain his success ? " asked the man, and he answered his own question with the round assertion that " it was all luck." It happened that I had some reliable information about the man under discussion, and I want you to have it. Thirty years ago he was working from ten to twelve hours in the day as just an ordinary workman. At the close of each day's toil he had his programme of studies, which, in the range and character of the subjects attacked, would not have disgraced a good student at any university. Eventually his attention to business and his marked attainments won for him the recognition of his employers, which meant in after years a place which was ultimately a leading place, as one of them. Yet this was the man who was said to have won his success by a lucky turn of the wheel.^
% Sir Frederick Treves once said to the students at the Aberdeen University : " The man who is content to wait for a stroke of good fortune will probably wait until he has a stroke of paralysis."
^ A. A. Hodge, in Princetoniana, by C. A. Salmond, 172. ^ A. Shepherd, Men in the Making, 73.
The Lamp of the Lord.
fl93
Literature.
Banks (L. A.), The Problems of Youth, 298.
Brooks (P.), The Candle of the Lord, 1.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, vi. 211.
Jerdan (C), Messages to the Children, 36.
Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Hours, 144.
Parkhurst (C. H.), Three Gates on a Side, 35.
Koberts (R.), My Jewels, 245.
Robinson (W. V.), Sunbeams for Sundays, 160.
Warschauer (J.), The Way of Understanding, 166.
Waj^len (H.), Mountain Pathways, 95.
Christian World Pulpit, Ixxv. 311 (W. King).
Eomiletic Review, xx. 137 (J. T. Whitley).
The Lamp of the Lord.
The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord.— Prov. xx. 27.
1. The picture which these words suggest is very simple. An unlighted candle is standing in the darkness, and some one comes to light it. A blazing bit of paper holds the fire at first, but it is vague and fitful. It flares and wavers, and at any moment may go out. But the vague, uncertain, flaring blaze touches the candle, and the candle catches fire, and at once you have a steady flame. It burns straight and clear and constant. The candle gives the fire a manifestation-point for all the room which is illuminated by it. The candle is glorified by the fire, and the fire is manifested by the candle. The two bear witness that they were made for one another by the way in which they fulfil each other's life. That fulfilment comes by the way in which the inferior substance renders obedience to its superior. The candle obeys the fire. The docile wax acknowledges that the subtle flame is its master and it yields to his power ; and so, like every faithful servant of a noble master, it at once gives its master's nobility the chance to utter itself, and its own substance is clothed with a glory which is not its own. The disobedient granite, if you try to burn it, neither gives the fire a chance to show its brightness nor gathers any splendour to itself. It only glows with sullen resistance, and, as the heat increases, splits and breaks, but will not yield. But the candle obeys, and so in it the scattered fire finds a point of permanent and clear expression.
2. Now the text asserts that the spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah. The phrase is strong and emphatic. It is not that the Lord has put a lamp in the spirit of man ; it is much more than that ; the spirit itself is the lamp. The spirit of man is a torch, a lighthouse, planted in the centre of the temple of his nature, shedding its sacred light upon the inmost abysses of his bein^