ree falleth, there it shall be._" "_In the morning sow thy seed, and in
the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall
prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike
good._" The argument is, God who made you to toil, to till the ground,
and to till the more difficult and perilous seed-field of domestic,
social, and political life, made the world thus. Both your vocation as a
workman, and the field of your labour, with the conditions of that
labour, are ordained by Him. There must then be an essential harmony.
One wise and intelligent Being as the author of the whole system; and
this law of calamity is not at war with your vocation, but is also its
minister, and in deep and far-reaching ways is working with you to your
ends. It is not, according to the dark pagan theory, the work of a
malign spirit, strong enough to break in and make the homesteads and the
lives which God has made His charge, a wreck. "_I form the light and
create darkness; I make peace and create evil; I, the Lord, do all these
things._" It is all the work of one hand, and that a wise and loving
one. Work on, work bravely, work gaily; storms may sweep your fields and
shadows may darken your homes; but no calamity, inward or outward, is
unto death. The storm and blight of this year will swell the bulk of
next year's harvests; and the deeper cares and sorrows of our spiritual
husbandry but load us with an increase which the years lay up in the
garners of eternity. Practically, the husbandman finds it to be so.
Making the fullest allowance for all the crosses, the storms, the
blights, the violence of Nature and of man, the balance is still amply
on the side of the faithful workman. Year by year man's tillage
advances; the wilderness and the solitary place is made glad by his
toil, and the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose. This means that
a wise and loving Hand holds all the disturbing forces under control,
and fixes their bounds where they instruct and stimulate, but never on
a grand scale scare and paralyse mankind. The losses and the crosses of
the croupier of the gaming table are borne with profound patience, for
there is a certain chance in his favour which must inevitably in the
long run fill his coffers with gain. How calmly, now joyously, should we
work on through our storms and sorrows, who have, not a margin of
security guaranteed by the theory of probabilities, but the certainty of
an abundant and