hly hopes or for sad remembrances? They die in the fruition of a
present God all-sufficient for mind, and heart, and will--even as the
sun when it is risen with a burning heat may scorch and wither the
weeds that grow about the base of the fruitful tree, whose deeper
roots are but warmed by the rays that ripen the rich clusters which
it bears. 'Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide _with
God_.'

And then, as a consequence of such an occupation of the whole being
with God, there will follow that second element which is included in
the precept, namely, the recognition of God's will as operating in
and determining all circumstances. When our whole soul is occupied
with Him, we shall see Him everywhere. And this ought to be our
honest effort--to connect everything which befalls ourselves and the
world with Him. We should see that Omnipotent Will, the silent energy
which flows through all being, asserting itself through all secondary
causes, marching on towards its destined and certain goal, amidst all
the whirl and perturbation of events, bending even the antagonism of
rebels and the unconsciousness of godless men, as well as the play of
material instruments, to its own purposes, and swinging and swaying
the whole set and motion of things according to its own impulse and
by the touch of its own fingers.

Such a faith does not require us to overlook the visible occasions
for the things which befall us, nor to deny the stable laws according
to which that mighty will operates in men's lives. Secondary causes?
Yes. Men's opposition and crime? Yes. Our own follies and sins? No
doubt. Blessings and sorrows falling indiscriminately on a whole
community or a whole world? Certainly. And yet the visible agents are
not the sources, but only the vehicles of the power, the belting and
shafting which transmit a mighty impulse which they had nothing to do
in creating. And the antagonism subserves the purposes of the rule
which it opposes, as the blow of the surf may consolidate the
sea-wall that it breaks against. And our own follies and sins may
indeed sorrowfully shadow our lives, and bring on us pains of body
and disasters in fortune, and stings in spirit for which we alone are
responsible, and which we have no right to regard as inscrutable
judgments--yet even these bitter plants of which our own hands have
sowed the seed, spring by His merciful will, and _are_ to be regarded
as His loving, fatherly chastisements--sent