Providence and the Care of God

To-morrow

If to-morrows are not to be boasted of, are they good for nothing? No, blessed be God. There are a great many things we may do with to-morrows. I will tell you what we may do with them if we are the children of God. We may always look forward to them with patience and confidence, that they will work together for our good. We may say of the to-morrows, "I do not boast of them, but I am not frightened at them; I would not glory in them, but I will not tremble about them." Yes, we may be very easy and very comfortable about to-morrow; we may remember that all our times are in His hands, that all events are at His command; and though we know not all the windings of the path of providence, yet He knows them all; they are all settled in His book, and our times are all ordered by His wisdom. And, therefore, we may look upon the to-morrows as we see them in the rough bullion of time, about to be minted into every-day's expenditure, and we may say of them all, "They shall all be gold; they shall all be stamped with the King's impress, and therefore, let them come; they will not make me worse—they will work together for my good."

Yea, more, a Christian may rightly look forward to his to-morrows, not simply with resignation, but also with joy. To-morrow to a Christian is a happy thing; it is one stage nearer glory. It is one step nearer heaven to a believer; it is just one knot more sailed across the dangerous sea of life, and he is so much the nearer to his eternal port.

To-morrow! the Christian may rejoice at it; he may say of to-day, "O day, thou mayst be dark, but I shall bid thee good by, for lo, I see the morrow coming, and I shall mount upon its wings, and shall flee away and leave thee and thy sorrows far behind me."

All Things working for Good

Christ is the arbiter of all events; in everything His sway is supreme; and He exercises His power for the good of His Church. He spins the thread of events, and acts from the distaff of destiny, and does not suffer those threads to be woven otherwise than according to the pattern of His loving wisdom. He will not allow the mysterious wheel to revolve in any way which shall not bring good unto His chosen. He makes their worst things blessings to them, and their best things he sanctifies. In times of plenty, He blesses their increase; in times of famine, He supplies all their needs. As all things are working for His glory, so all things are working for their good.

Unchangeable

There is one place where change cannot put its finger; there is one name on which mutability can never be written; there is one heart which can never alter—that place is the Most Holy—that heart is God's—that name is Love.

Providence

The boundless stores of Providence are engaged for the support of the believer. Christ is our Joseph, who has granaries full of wheat; but He does not treat us as Joseph did the Egyptians, for He opens the door of his storehouse, and bids us call all the good thereof our own. He has entailed upon His estate of Providence a perpetual charge of a daily portion for us; and He has promised that one day we shall clearly perceive that the estate itself has been well-farmed on our behalf, and has been always ours. The axle of the wheels of the chariot of Providence is Infinite Love, and Gracious Wisdom is the perpetual charioteer.

God's Tender Care

How careful God is of His people; how anxious He is concerning them, not only for their life, but for their comfort. Does He say, "Strengthen ye, strengthen ye my people?" Does He say to the angel, "Protect my people?" Does He not say to the heavens, "Drop down manna to feed my people?" all that, and more also. His tender regard secures to them. But to show us that He is not only regardful of our interests, but also of our superfluities, He says, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people." He would have us not only His living people, and His preserved people, but He would have us His happy people too. He likes His people to be fed; but what is more, He likes to give them "Wines on the lees well refined," to make glad their hearts. He will not only give them "bread," but He will give them "honey" too; He will not simply give them "milk," but He will give them "wine and milk." "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people:" it is the Father's yearning heart, careful even for the little things of His people. "Comfort ye" that one with a tearful eye; "Comfort ye" yon child of mine with an aching heart; "Comfort ye" that poor bemoaning one; "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God."

Earth's Seasons

The things which are seen are types of the things which are not seen. The works of creation are pictures to the children of God of the secret mysteries of grace. God's truths are the apples of gold, and the visible creatures are the baskets of silver. The very seasons of the year find their parallel in the little world of man within. We have our winter—dreary, howling winter—when the north wind of the law rusheth forth against us; when every hope is nipped; when all the seeds of joy lie buried beneath the dark clods of despair; when our soul is fast fettered like a river bound with ice, without waves of joy, or flowings of thanksgiving. Thanks be unto God, the soft south wind breathes upon our soul, and at once the waters of desire are set free, the spring of love cometh on, flowers of hope appear in our hearts, the trees of faith put forth their young shoots, the time of the singing-birds cometh in our hearts, and we have joy and peace in believing through the Lord Jesus Christ. That happy springtide is followed in the believer by a rich summer, when his graces, like fragrant flowers, are in full bloom, loading the air with perfume; and fruits of the Spirit, like citrons and pomegranates, swell into their full proportion in the genial warmth of the Sun of Righteousness. Then cometh the believer's autumn, when his fruits grow ripe, and his fields are ready for the harvest; the time has come when his Lord shall gather together his "pleasant fruits," and store them in heaven; the feast of ingathering is at hand—the time when the year shall begin anew, an unchanging year, like the years of the right hand of the Most High.

God's Government

There are still people to be found foolish enough to believe that events occur at hap-hazard, without divine predestination, and different calamities transpire without the overruling hand, or the direct agency of God. Alas! for us, if chance had aught to do with events of our life. We should be like poor mariners, put out to sea in an unsafe vessel, without a chart and without a helm; we should know nothing of the port to which we might ultimately come; we should only feel that we were now the sport of the winds, the captives of the tempest, and might soon be the victims of the all-devouring deep. Alas! poor orphans were we all, if we were indebted for food and clothing, for present comfort and future prospects, to nothing but chance. No father's care to watch over us, but left to the fickleness and fallibility of mortal things! What were all that we see about us, but a great sand-storm in the midst of a desert, blinding our eyes, preventing us from ever hoping to see the end through the darkness of the beginning? We should be pilgrims in a pathless waste, where there were no roads to direct us—travellers who might be overturned and overwhelmed at any moment, and our bleached bones left the victims of the tempest, unknown, or forgotten of all. Thank God, it is not so with us. We believe that everything which happens to us is ordered by the wise and tender will of Him who is our Father and our Friend; we see order in the midst of confusion; we see purposes accomplished where others discern nothing but void and vacancy. We believe that "He hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet."

Home-Mercies

When we realize that all our daily mercies come to us as the gifts of our Father in heaven, it makes them doubly precious to us. There is nothing which tastes as sweet to the school-boy as that which comes from home. So with the Christian. All his mercies are sweeter because they are home-mercies—they come "from above;" the land in which he lives is not like the land of Egypt, fed by a river; but it "drinketh water of the rain or heaven." Happy the lot of that man who thus receives everything as coming from God, and thanks his Father for it all! It makes anything sweet, when he knows it comes from heaven. This thought, also, has a tendency to keep us from an overweening love of the world. The spies went to Eshcol, and fetched thence an immense cluster of the grapes which grew there; but you do not find that the people said, "The fruits we have received from the land of promise, make us contented to stay in the wilderness." No; they saw that the grapes came from Canaan, and thereupon they said, "Let us go on and possess the land." And so, when we get rich mercies, if we think they come from the natural soil of this earth alone, we might well feel a wish to stay here. But if we know that they come from a foreign clime, we are naturally anxious to go

"Where our dear Lord His vineyard keeps, And all the clusters grow."

Christian, rejoice then in the thought that all thou hast cometh from above; thy daily bread cometh not so much from thine industry as from thy heavenly Father's care; thou seest stamped upon every mercy heaven's own inscription, and every blessing comes down to thee perfumed with the ointment, and the spikenard, and the myrrh of the ivory palaces, whence God dispenses His bounties.

Changefulness

How varied is the experience of the believer in his spiritual life! What changes there are in the weather of his soul! What bright sunlight days! What dark, cloudy nights! What calms, as though his life were a sea of glass! What terrible trials, as though his life were a tempestuous ocean! One time we find him crying, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me," and anon he sings, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name." One hour we hear him sigh forth, "I sink in deep mire where there is no standing," and then we find him exulting, "The Lord is my light, and my salvation, whom shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid." How wondrously he rises to heaven, and how awfully he dives into the deeps! Surely we who have known anything of the spiritual and inner life do not marvel at this, for we have felt these changes. Alas! what a contrast between the sin which doth so easily beset us, and the grace which gives us to reign in heavenly places. How different the sorrow of an abject distrust which breaketh us in pieces as with a strong east wind, and the joy of a holy confidence which bears us on to heaven as a propitious gale! What changes between walking with God to-day, and falling into the mire to-morrow, triumphing over sin, death, and hell yesterday, and to-day led captive by the lusts of the flesh and of the mind. Verily, we cannot understand ourselves, and a description which would suit us at one time, would be ill-adapted at another time. Changeable, indeed, is our experience; but oh, what a mercy that Christ does not change! Varied as our experience may be, His grace is varied to meet it, for He has grace to help us in every time of need, and with infinite and unfailing good-will supplies us in the strength proportioned to our day.