messengers, and the lightnings are his ministering spirits. Even apparently fortuitous events, such as are determined by causes so rapid or so inappreciable as to elude our notice, the falling of the lot ; the flight of an arrow ; the number of the hairs of our heads, are all controlled by the omnipresent God. " Are not two spar- rows sold for a farthing ? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." (Matt. x. 29.)
Providence extends over the Animal World.
The Scriptures teach that irrational animals are the objects of God's providential care. He fashions their bodies, He calls them into the world, sustains them in being, and supplies their wants. In his hand is the life of every living thing. (Job xii. 10.) The Psalmist says (civ. 21), " The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God." Verses 27, 28, " These wait all iipon thee ; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them, they gather : thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good." Matt. vi. 26, " Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." Acts xvii. 25, " He giveth to all hfe and breath, and all things." Such representations are not to be explained away as poetical modes of expressing the idea that the laws of nature, as ordained of God, are so arranged as to meet the necessities of the animal creation, without any special intervention of his providence. It is not the fact, merely, that the world, as created by God, is adapted to meet the wants of his creatures, that is asserted in the Scriptures, but that his creatures depend on the constant exercise of his care. He gives or withholds what they need according to his good pleasure. When our Lord put in the hps of his disciples the petition, " Give us this day our daily bread," He recognized the fact that all living creatures de- pend on the constant intervention of God for the supply of their daily wants.
Over Nations.
The Bible teaches that the providential government of God ex- tends over nations and communities of rhen. Ps. Ixvi. 7, " He ruleth by his power forever ; his eyes behold the nations : let not the rebelhous exalt themselves." Dan. iv. 35, " He doeth accord- ing to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth." Dan. ii. 21, " He changeth the times and the seasons ; He removeth kings and setteth up kings." Dan. iv. 25, " The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it
688 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. XI. —Providence.
to whomsoever He will." Is. x. 5, 6, " 0 Assyrian, tlie rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation, I will send him against an hypocritical nation." Verse 7, " Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so." Verse 15, "Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith ? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it ? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself as though it were not wood." The Scriptures are full of this doctrine. God uses the nations with the absolute control that a man uses a rod or a staff. They are in his hands, and He employs them to accomplish his purposes. He breaks them in pieces as a potter's vessel, or He exalts them to greatness, ac- cording to his good pleasure.
Over Individuals. The providence of God extends not only over nations, but also over individuals. The circumstances of every man's birth, life, and death, are ordered by God. Whether we are born in a heathen or in a Christian land, in the Church or out of it ; whether weak or strong ; with many, or with few talents ; whether we are prosperous or afflicted ; whether we live a longer or a shorter time, are not matters determined by chance, or by the unintelligent sequence of events, but by the will of God. 1 Sam. ii. 6, 7, " The Lord killeth and maketh alive : He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up." Is. xlv. 5, " I am the Lord (the absolute ruler), and there is none else ; there is no God besides me : I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." Prov. xvi. 9, " A man's heart deviseth his way : but the Lord directeth his steps." Ps. Ixxv. 6, 7, " Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge (ruler) : he putteth down one, and setteth up another." Ps. xxxi. 15, " My times (the vicissitudes of life) are in thy hands." Acts xvii. 26, God " hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed (i. e., the turning points in history) and the bounds of their habitation."
Grod^s Providence in relation to Free Acts. The Bible no less clearly teaches that God exercises a control- ling power over the free acts of men, as well as over their external circumstances. This is true of all their acts, good and evil. It is