en the pressure of domestic affliction ? We can appeal, then, to your own notions of true greatness, for a refutation of the common arguments against the Providence of God. We know not why that should be derogatory to the majesty of the Ruler of the universe, which, by the general confession, would add immeasurably to the majesty of one of the earth's potentates. And if we should rise in our admiration and applause of a statesman, or sovereign, in proportion as he showed himself capable of attending to things comparatively petty and insignificant, without neglecting the grand and momentous, certainly we are bound to apply the same principle to our Maker-to own it, that is, essential to his greatness, that, whilst marshalling planets and ordering the motions of all worlds throughout the sweep of immensity, he should yet feed "the young ravens that call upon him," and number the very hairs of our heads; essential, in short, that, whilst his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endureth throughout all generations, he should uphold all that fall, and raise up those that are bowed down.

We would add to this, that objections against the doctrine of God's providence are virtually objections against the great truths of creation. Are we to suppose that this or that ephemeral thing, the tiny tenant of a leaf or a bubble, is too insignificant to be observed by God; and that it is absurd to think that the animated point, whose existence is a second, occupies any portion of those inspections which have to spread themselves over the revolutions of planets, and the movements of angels? Then to what authorship are we to refer this ephemeral thing? We subject it to the powers of the microscope, and are amazed, perhaps, at observing its exquisite symmetries and adornments, with what skill it has been fashioned, with what glory it has been clothed but we find it said that it is dishonoring to God to suppose him careful or observant of this insect; and then our difficulty is, who made, who created this insect? I know not what there can be too inconsiderable for the providence, if it have not been too inconsiderable for the creation, of God. What it was not unworthy of God to form, it

cannot be unworthy of God to preserve. Why declare any thing excluded by its insignificance from his watchfulness, which could not have been produced but by his power? Thus the universal Providence of God is little more than an inference from the truth of his being the universal Creator. And men may speak of the littleness of this or that creature, and ask how we can believe that the animalcule, scarce perceptible as it floats by us on the evening breeze, is observed and cared for by that Being, inaccessible in his sublimity, who "sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers:" but we ask in reply, whether or no it be God who gave its substance and animation to this almost invisible atom; and unless they can point out to us another creator, we shall hold that it must be every way worthy of God, that he should turn all the watchfulness of a guardian on the work of his own hands-for it cannot be more true, that, as universal Creator, he has such power that his dominion endureth throughout all generations, than that, as universal sustainer, he has such carefulness for whatever he hath formed, that he upholdeth them that fall, and raiseth up all that are bowed down.

But up to this point, we have been rather engaged with removing objections against the doctrine of God's providence, than with examining that doctrine, as it may be derived from our text. In regard to the doctrine itself, it is evident that nothing can happen in any spot of the universe which is not known to him who is emphatically the Omniscient. But it is far more than the inspection of an ever-vigilant observer which God throws over the concerns of creation. It is not merely that nothing can occur without the knowledge of our Maker: it is that nothing can occur, but by either his appointment or permission. We say either his appointment or permissionfor we know, that, whilst he ordereth all things, both in heaven and earth, there is much which he allows to be done, but which cannot be referred directly to his authorship. It is in this sense that his Providence has to do with what is evil, overruling it so that it becomes subservient to the march of

his purposes. The power that is exerted over the waters of the ocean, is exerted also over the more boisterous waves of rebellion and crime; and God saith to the one, as to the other, "hitherto shall ye come and no further." And as to actions and occurrences of an opposite description, such as are to be reckoned good and not evil-can it be denied that Providence extends to all these, and is intimately concerned with their production and performance? It must ever be remembered that God is the first cause, and that upon the first all secondary depend. We are apt to forget this, though unquestionably a self-evident principle, and then we easily lose ourselves in a wide labyrinth, and are perplexed by the multiplicities of agency with which we seem surrounded.

But how beautifully simple does every thing appear, when we trace one hand in all that occurs. And this we are bound to do, if we would allow its full range to the doctrine of God's providence. It is God whose energies are extended through earth, and sea, and air, causing those unnumbered and beneficial results which we ascribe to nature. It is God by whom all those contingencies which seem to us fortuitous and casual are directed, so that events, brought round by what men count accident, proceed from divine, and therefore irreversible appointment. It is God by whom the human will is secretly inclined towards righteousness; and thus there is not wrought a single action such as God can approve, to whose performance God hath not instigated. It is God from whom come those many interpositions, which every one has to remark in the course of a long life, when dangers are averted, fears dispersed, and sorrows removed. It is God, who, acting through the instrumentality of various, and, to all appearance, conflicting causes, keeps together the discordant elements of society, and prevents the whole frame-work of civil institutions from being rapidly dislocated. It is God-but why attempt to enumerate? Where is the creature which God does not sustain? where is the solitude which God does not fill? where is the want which God does not supply? where is the motion which God does not direct? where is the ac

tion which God does not overrule? If, according to the words of the Psalmist, we could ascend up to heaven, and make our bed in hell; if we could take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; in all this enormous travel, in this journey across the fields of unlimited space, we could never reach the loneliest spot at which Deity was not present as an upholder and guardian; never find the lonely world, no, nor the lonely scene on any one of those globes with which immensity is strewed, which was not as strictly watched by the ever-wakeful eye of Omniscience, as though every where else the universe were a void, and this the alone home of life and intelligence. We have an assurance which nothing can shake, because derived from the confessed nature of Godhead, that, in all the greatness of his Almightiness, our Maker is perpetually passing from star to star, and from system to system, that he may observe what is needed by every order of being, and minister supply-and yet not passing; for he is always present, present as much at one moment as at another, and in one world as in another immeasurably distant; and covering with the wing of his Providence whatever he hath formed, and whatever he hath animated.

And if we bring our thoughts within narrower compass, and confine them to the world appointed for men's dwelling, it is a beautiful truth that there cannot be the creature so insignificant, the care so inconsiderable, the action so unimportant, as to be overlooked by Him from whom we draw being. I know that it is not the monarch alone, at the head of his tribes and provinces, who is observed by the Almighty; and that it is not only at some great crisis in life, that an individual becomes an object of the attention of his Maker. I know rather that the poorest, the meanest, the most despised, shares with the monarch the notice of the universal Protector; and that this notice is so unwearied and incessant, that when he goes to his daily toil or his daily prayer, when he lies down at night, or rises in the morning, or gathers his little ones to the scanty meal, the poor man is tenderly watched by his

God; and he cannot weep the tear which God sees not, nor smile the smile which God notes not, nor breathe the wish which God hears not. The man indeed of exalted rank, on whom may depend the movements of an empire, is regarded, with a vigilance which never knows suspense, by Him "who giveth salvation unto kings;" and the Lord, " to whom belong the shields of the earth," bestows on this man whatever wisdom he displays, and whatever strength he puts forth, and whatever success he attains. But the carefulness of Deity is in no sense engrossed by the distinguished individual; but, just as the regards which are turned on this earth interfere not with those which pour them selves over far-off planets and distant systems, so, whilst the chieftain is observed and attended with the assiduousness of what might seem an undivided guardianship, the very beggar is as much the object of divine inspection and succor, as though, in the broad sweep of animated being, there were no other to need the sustaining arm of the Creator.

And this is what we understand by the providence of the Almighty. We believe of this providence that it extends itself to every household, and throws itself round every individual, and takes part in every business, and is concerned with every sorrow, and accessory to every joy. We believe that it encircles equally the palace and the cottage; guiding and upholding alike the poor and the rich; ministering to the king in his councils, and to the merchant in his commerce, and to the scholar in his study, and to the laborer in his husbandry-so that, whatever my rank and occupation, at no moment am I withdrawn from the eye of Deity, in no lawful endeavor am I left to myself, in no secret anxiety have I only my own heart with which I may commune. Oh! it were to take from God all that is most encouraging in his attributes and prerogatives, if you could throw doubt on this doctrine of his universal providence. It is an august contemplation, that of the Almighty as the architect of creation, filling the vast void with magnificent structures. We are presently confounded when bidden to meditate on the

eternity of the Most High: for it is an overwhelming truth, that he who gave beginning to all besides could have had no beginning himself. And there are other characteristics and properties of Deity, whose very mention excites awe, and on which the best eloquence is silence. But whilst the universal providence of God is to the full as incomprehensible as aught else which appertains to Divinity, there is nothing in it but what commends itself to the warmest feelings of our nature. And we seem to have drawn a picture which is calculated equally to raise astonishment and delight, to produce the deepest reverence and yet the fullest confidence, when we have represented God as superintending whatever occurs in his infinite domain-guiding the roll of every planet, and the rush of every cataract, and the gathering of every cloud, and the motion of every will— and when, in order that the delineation may have all that exquisiteness which is only to be obtained from those hometouches which assure us that we have ourselves an interest in what is so splendid and surprising, we add, that he is with the sick man on his pallet, and with the seaman in his danger, and with the widow in her agony. And what, after all, is this combination but that presented by our text? If I would exhibit God as so attending to what is mighty as not to overlook what is mean, what better can I do than declare him mustering around him the vast army of suns and constellations, and all the while hearkening to every cry which goes up from an afflicted creation-and is not this the very picture sketched by the Psalmist, when, after the sublime ascription, "Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations," he adds the comforting words, "the Lord upholdeth all that fall, and lifteth up all those that be bowed down?"

We have only to add, that the doctrine of a particular and universal Providence, on which we have insisted, is strictly derivable from the very nature of God. We are so accustomed to reckon one thing great and another small, that when we ascend to contemplations of Deity, we are apt to forget that there is not to him that gradu

shall vessel upon vessel, laden with reason, and high intelligence, and noble faculty, be drifted to and fro, shattered and dismantled, and at last thrown on the shore as fuel for the burning. But there are ships which shall not founder in this battle and dissolution of the elements. There are ships which shall be in no peril whilst this, the last hurricane which is to sweep our creation, confounds earth, and sea, and sky; but which-when the fury is overpast, and the light of a morning which is to know no night breaks gloriously forth

-shall be found upon crystal and tranquil waters, resting beautifully on their shadows. These are those which have been anchored upon Christ. These are those-and may none refuse to join the number-who have trusted themselves to the Mediator, who humbled himself that he might lift up all those that are bowed down; and who have therefore interest in every promise made by Him, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and whose dominion endureth throughout all generations.

In our last discourse we spoke of an everlasting kingdom, and of a dominion which endureth throughout all generations. It will be of a kingdom which must terminate, though it appertain to a divine person, that we shall have to speak in expounding the words of our

text.

There are two great truths presented oy this verse and its context, each deserving attentive examination-the one, that Christ is now vested with a kingly authority which he must hereafter resign; the other, that, as a consequence on this resignation, God himself will become all in all to the universe. We proceed at once to the consideration of these truths; and begin by observing the importance of carefully distinguishing between what the Scriptures affirm of the attributes, and what of the offices, of the persons in the Trinity. In regard of the attributes, you will find that the employed lan

guage marks perfect equality; the Father, Son, and Spirit, being alike spoken of as Eternal, Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent. But in regard of the offices, there can be no dispute that the language indicates inequality, and that both the Son and Spirit are represented as inferior to the Father. This may readily be accounted for from the nature of the plan of redemption. This plan demanded that the Son should humble himself, and assume our nature; and that the Spirit should condescend to be sent as a renovating agent; whilst the Father was to remain in the sublimity and happiness of Godhead. And if such plan were undertaken and carried through, it seems unavoidable, that, in speaking of its several parts, the Son and the Spirit should be occasionally described as inferior to the Father. The offices being subordinate, the holders of those offices, though naturally equal, must