has been growing for a century, expects the
beauty of the fir tree, the pine, and the box to come together to
beautify the place of his dwelling.

There are other forces into which man can put his scepter of power and
hand of mastery. They all work for and with him. Does he want his
burdens carried? The river will convey the Indian on a log or the
armaments of the greatest nations. The wind fits itself into the
shoulder of his sail on the sea, and steam does more work on the land
than all the human race together. Does he want swiftness? The
lightning comes and goes between the ends of the earth saying, "Here am
I." Obviously all these kinds of forces are always on hand to work
into man's plans.

Is not our whole question settled? If these fundamental forces, these
oceans of air and energy, forces so great that man cannot measure them,
so delicate and fine that man does not discover them in thousands of
years, are all waiting and palpitating to rush into the service of man
to advance his plans, and hint of plans larger than he ever dreamed,
until he grows great by handling these ineffable factors, how can it be
otherwise than that the energies, thoughts, and loves back of these
forces, and out of which they come, and of which they are the visible
signs and exponents, are working together with man? Then, in all
probability, nay in all certainty, all other forces, whether they be
thrones or dominions, principalities or powers, things present or
things to come, will also lend all their energies to the help of man.
God does not aid in the lowest and leave us to ourselves in the
highest. He does not feed the body and let the soul famish, does not
help us to the meat that perishes and let us starve for the bread of
eternal life.

Scripture passages, literally thousands in number, proclaim God's
control of the regular operations of nature, his sovereignty over
birth, life, death, disease, afflictions, and prosperity, over what we
call accident, his execution of righteous retributions, bringing of
deliverance, setting up thrones, and casting down princes. He upholds
all things by the direct exercise of his power. "The uniformities of
nature are his ordinary method of working; its irregularities his
method upon occasional condition; its interferences his method under
the pressure of a higher law." There can be no general providence
which is not special, no care for the whole which does not include care
for all t