cast into the lap." We seem to depend largely on chance. 1. We are ignorant of important facts. We are obliged to grope onr way through many dark places. Life comes to us veiled in mystery. H may be that certain material considerations would greatly modify our action if only we knew them, yet we must act without regard to them, from sheer ignorance. 2. We cannot predict the future. Even when we do grasp the essential points of our situation in the present, we cannot tell what new possibilities may emerge. A sudden turn of the kaleidoscope may give an entirely novel complexion to life. 3. We are unable to master our circumstances. We find ourselves surrounded by innumerable influences which we may understand, more or less, but which we cannot alter. Sometimes it appears as though we were no more free agents than the driftwood that is cast up on the beach by the angry surf. Circumstances are too strong for us, and we must let circumstances take their course. 4. We cannot control the course of events. Many things happen quite outside the range of our lives, yet their results will strike across the path of our own actions. Other people are busy planning and working, and we do not all consult together and work in harmony. When many hands throw the shuttle it is impossib!.e to bring out any sure design. II. GoD DISPOSES OF THE LOTTERY OF LIFE. Voltaire says, "Chance is a word void of sense; nothing can exist without a cause." It is but a name for our ignorance of the couTse of events. Nevertheless, if there were no mind behind the apparent con- fusion of life, universal causation would but give us a blind and purposeless fate-no better, surely, than a wild and chaotic chance. But to one who believes in God the terrible uncertainty of the lottery of life is a great reason for prayer and trust. 1. God knows all. He knows every fact, and he foresees the whole future, Herein we have a grand reason for faith. One who knows so much more than we do must needs often act in a way that we do not understand. But his infinite knowledge is a reason for our unlimited trust in him. 2. God controls all. Events seem to be tossed about in the lap of chance. Yet just as surely as laws of motion govern the slightest movement of all the leaves that are blown by an autumn wind, Divine purposes control all human events, in the midst of their seeming confusion. This must be so if God is God. "He maketh kings to sit in sovereignty ; He maketh subjeets to their power obey; He pulleth down, be setteth up on high; He gives to this, from that he takes e.we.y; For all we have is his; what he will do, he may." (Spenser.)
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-3.-Tlie rule and guidance of Jehovah. I. GoD THE OBJECT AND FULFIL• MENT OF HUMAN DESmE. We are wishful, craving creatures," with no lauguage but a. sigh." 'l.'he answer of the praying tongue and heart is God himself-in the fulness of his wisdom and love, the generosity of his gift.s, the accessibility of his presence. A philosopher of this century actually taught that God was the Creator of human wishes and imagination. Let us rather say, it is God who creates and calls forth the longings of the finite heart, which (as Augustine says) is restless till it rests in him. II. GOD THE CORRECTOR OF OUR FALSE JUDGMENTS. (Ver. 2.) We a.re prone to judge of actions and choices by their resthetic value, i.e. by reference to our feeling of pleasure and pain; God pronounces on their ethical value, their relation to his Law and to the ideul of our own being. III. Goo THE SUPPORT OF OUR WEAKNESS. (Ver. 3.) What is the source of all care and over-anxiety, but that we are unequal to the conflict with laws mightier than our frail energies and endeavours? Without God, we stand trembling in the presence of a. giant fate which can crush us. But there is no such fate to the believer in God, only a holy power and immovable will. "We are a care to the gods," said Socrates. Much more can the Christian say this, and learn to get rid of his troubles by making them in childlike faith God's troubles, his cares God's cares. Our plans become fixed, our PBOVERBS. Y THE PROVERDS, [on, XVI, 1-33,
purposes firm, when we a.re conscious that they are God's plans and purposes being wrought out through us.--J.
Vfll·s. 4-9.-The administration of ·rewards and punishments. I. THE M0RAI 1' DESWNs OF GoD. (Ver. 4.) The creation is teleological; it has a beainning 0 a process ' and an end in view, all determined by the will and wisdom of God. If thi~ is true or' every plant, of every mollusc, it is true of every man. We are formed to illustrate his praise. Disobedience, with its consequences, ratifies his just and holy laws. II. THE MORAL FEELINGS OF Gon. (Ver. 5.) Only that which stands in a true relation t.o him can be true. Haughtiness an~ arrogance are, so to speak, in the worst taste. In the eyes of God they are not beautiful, and cannot escape his criticism and correction. III. Hrs PROVISION FOR THE OBLIVION OF GUILT AND THE CURE OF MORAL EVIL. (Ver. 6.) In social relations he has opened a fountain, sweet and healina for mutual faults and sins. Love hides a multitude of sins. "I say unto thee, He;' sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much" (comp. Isa. lviiL 7; Dan. iv. 27). But prcrention is better than healing, and in religion is the prophylactic against evil. IV. GoD's REOONCILING LOVE. (Ver. 7.) What sweeter pleasure does life yield than reconciliation? 'Tisa deeper blessing than peace which has never been broken. Life is full of the principle of opposition; and God is manifested, first in the drawing of us to himself, and then in the union of estranged human hearts to one another. V. THE LAW OF COMPENSATION. (Ver. 8.) He bath set the one over against the other, that we should seek nothing after him. Poverty has great advantages, if we will see it so-is more favourable, on the whole, to moral health than the reverse condition. .And the hard crust of honest poverty, how sweet I the luxurious living of the dishonest rich, how insipid! or how bitter! VL DIVTh"E RECTIFICATIONS. (Ver. 9.) We must take heed to our own way; yet with all our care, we cannot ensure right direction or security. We need God's rectifica-: tion and criticism at every point, and hence should ever say to ourselves, "If the Lord will, we will do this or that" (Jas. iv. 15). The blending of human. with Divine counsel, human endeavour with God's guidance, may defy analysiH 1 but is known in experience tJ be real.-J.