Morning, August 2
Go To Evening Reading
“Who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.”
Ephesians 1:11
Our belief in God’s wisdom supposes and necessitates that he has a settled purpose and
plan in the work of salvation. What would creation have been without his design? Is there a fish in the sea, or a fowl
in the air, which was left to chance for its formation? Nay, in every
bone, joint, and muscle, sinew, gland, and blood-vessel, you mark
the presence of a God working everything according to the design of
infinite wisdom. And shall God be present in creation, ruling over
all, and not in grace ? Shall the new creation have the fickle genius of free will to preside
over it when divine counsel rules the old creation? Look at Providence ! Who knoweth not that not a sparrow falleth to the ground without
your Father? Even the hairs of your head are all numbered. God weighs
the mountains of our grief in scales, and the hills of our tribulation
in balances. And shall there be a God in providence and not in grace?
Shall the shell be ordained by wisdom and the kernel be left to blind
chance? No; he knows the end from the beginning. He sees in its appointed
place, not merely the corner-stone which he has laid in fair colours,
in the blood of his dear Son, but he beholds in their ordained position
each of the chosen stones taken out of the quarry of nature, and polished
by his grace; he sees the whole from corner to cornice, from base
to roof, from foundation to pinnacle. He hath in his mind a clear
knowledge of every stone which shall be laid in its prepared space,
and how vast the edifice shall be, and when the top-stone shall be
brought forth with shoutings of “Grace! Grace! unto it.” At the last it shall be clearly seen that in every chosen vessel
of mercy, Jehovah did as he willed with his own; and that in every
part of the work of grace he accomplished his purpose, and glorified
his own name.