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 the parts, no provided safety for the head which does not
number all the hairs. The Old Testament doctrine of a special and
minute providence over the chosen nation is expanded by Christ's loving
teaching and ministrations into an equal care for the personal
individual (Matt. vii, 11; xviii, 19; Heb. iv, 16). The cold glacial
period of human fear that poured its ice floe over the mind of man,
making him feel like an orphaned race in a godless world, has retired
before the gentle beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and the winter is
past, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds
and hearts has commenced.
It is everywhere recognized that the great outcome of a man's life is
not the title to a thousand acres. He is soon dispossessed. It is not
all the bonds and money he can hold. A dead man's hands are empty. It
is not reputation that the winds blow away. But it is character that
he acquires and carries with him. He has a fidelity to principle that
is like Abdiel's.
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