These things being matters of daily occurrence, we shall proceed to mark,
II. The benefit arising from an attentive considera- tion of them — From these we shall be led to notice, not merely the agency of God in all the concerns of man, but especially, and above all, his " loving-kindness" also. This will be seen,
1 . In the darkest dispensations of his providence —
[God's dearest children are not more exempt from trials than others : on the contrary, thev are often most subjected to them. But in this the loving-kiudness of God is especially ma- nifest: for by their trials he leads them to more fervent prayer ; that prayer brings to them more signal interpositions ; and those interpositions fill them with joy, far overbalancing all the trou- bles they have endured. Let any Child of God look back to his former life, and say, whether the events which once he regarded as the heaviest calamities, have not been overruled for his greatest good ? Yes : it is not David only, but every Child of God, that must say, " It is good for me that I have been aflSicted." We may indeed, like Jacob, say for a time, " All these things are against me :" but when we have seen '' the end" and issue of the dispensation, we shall confess that " the Lord has been pitiful to
us.
410.] god's love seen in all his dispensations. 359
us, and of tender mercy''." If we view an insulated and indi- vidual occurrence, we may be perplexed respecting it; but if we view it in connexion with all that has preceded and followed it, we shall be able to set our seal to the truth of that promise, " All things shall work together for good to them that love God." Whatever then be the affliction under which we are suffer- ing, let us never for a moment lose sight of that truth, " Whom the Lord luveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.]
2. In the most painful operations of his grace —
[The different circumstances adduced for the illustration of God's providence may not unfitly be regarded as images to sha- dow forth also the operations of his grace. Truly in them we may see the wants and miseries, the helplessness and terrors, of an awakened soul. Who that knows any thing of his own state has not seen himself a wanderer from the ways of God, and pe- rishing for lack of knowledge ? Who has not groaned, and bit- terly too, under the chains of sin by which he has been tied and bound ? Who has not felt his inability to help himself, as much as if he had been dying of an incurable disorder ? And who has not seen himself sinking, as it were, into the bottomless abyss, and been almost " at his wit's end," because he saw not how his soul could be saved ? We do not mean to intimate, that all converted persons have felt these things in an equal degree : but all have felt them sufficiently to see the suitableness of these images to their own experience. What then shall we say ? Does God, in suffering them to be so exercised, mark his displeasure against them? No: it is love, and love alone, that he manifests. Multitudes of others he leaves to follow their own evil ways with- out fear, and without remorse : but those whom he loves he awakens from their security: he sends his Holy Spirit to convince them of sin; he stirs them up to fervent prayer; and then, in answer to their prayers, he speaks peace to their souls. " Those troubles were not at the time joyous, but grievous; nevertheless, afterwards they yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby."]
Advice —
1 . View the hand of God in every thing — [Things may be called great or small by comparison ; but, in fact, there is nothing small, when considered in relation to the possible events which may spring from it. The opening of the book precisely in the place where the services of Mordecai to Ahasuerus were recorded, was as much a work of God as any other that is contained in the Sacred Volume"^: and the circum- stances connected with it were of incalculable importance to the