against. The second is our ignorance, equally unavoidable
and profound, of the intelligent and voluntary agencies which may be at
work, modifying, disposing, and directing that combination of causes, so
as to accomplish the purposes of the Omniscient Mind. Our want of
knowledge in either case is a reason for uncertainty; and our
uncertainty in regard to events in which we may be deeply concerned is
fitted to teach us our dependence on a higher Power. Let it not be
thought, however, that our argument for God's Providence is drawn merely
from man's _ignorance_, or that its strength must diminish in proportion
as his knowledge of Nature is extended; on the contrary, it rests on the
assumption that _man knows enough to be aware that he cannot know all_,
and that as long as he is not omniscient, he must be dependent on Him
who alone "knows the end from the beginning," and "who ruleth among the
armies of heaven" as well as "among the inhabitants of this earth."

It is in the invariable combination and marvellous mutual adjustment of
these two elements,--the regular and the variable, the constant and the
casual, the certain and the uncertain,--that we best discern the wisdom
of that vast scheme of Providence, which is designed at once to secure
our _diligence in the use of means_, and to impress us with a sense of
our _dependence on a higher Power_. And the same remark may be equally
applicable, _mutatis mutandis_, to the revealed constitution of things,
since Scripture itself exhibits certain definite truths surrounded with
a margin of mystery like "lights shining in a dark place;" and while it
prescribes and encourages diligence in the use of means, teaches us at
the same time our dependence on the Divine blessing which alone can
render our efforts effectual. Both elements, therefore, must be taken
into account and kept steadily in view, if we would form a comprehensive
conception of the method of the Divine government, or a correct estimate
of the wisdom with which it is adapted to the case of created and
dependent, but intelligent, active, and responsible beings. But when the
one is either dissevered from the other, or viewed apart and exclusively
by itself, when the mind dwells on either, to the neglect of what is
equally a part of the same comprehensive scheme, then we are in danger
of adopting a partial and one-sided view of Providence, and of lapsing
into one or other of the opposite extremes,--the theory of "Chance" or