A GREAT commendation, but deserved. Human excellences are rare and individual. One man does one thing well, another does another thing well ; but He does all things well. The little men do well, is only comparatively well ; all He does, is absolutely well. And this will appear, whether we consider him as the Creator, and survey the works of nature, or as the Saviour, and contemplate the wonders of grace, or as the Governor, and examine the dispensations of his providence.
We have some fine specimens of his agency recorded in the Scripture. Take, for instance, the history of Joseph. Read it over again and again, and then ask, Could any link in this chain, any stone in this structure have been omitted? In this achievement, could any thing have been added to the plan or the execution? From a part we may estimate the whole. And what applies to his dealings with others, will apply to his dealings with us ; for all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth.
But whence then is it, that we cannot really and readily, with regard to his agency in our affairs, and especially in those of a trying nature, adopt the acknowledgment, and say, He hath done all things well ?
The reason is, we judge atheistically. Every unregenerate sinner lives without God in the world. But a Christian is made to differ from others, and from himself. Yet his sanctification is not complete. Something is left in him of all the old kinds of leaven ; and therefore something of this atheism. He is in a good frame when, with Eli, he can say of whatever befalls him, It is the Lord ; let him do what seemeth him good." But he does not always see him. He sometimes stops at the instrumentality employed : Oh, it was that unlucky accident: it was that heedless servant; it was that perfidious neighbor; it was that cruel enemy. No wonder he does not do all things well, when he is not acknowledged as doing any thing.
We judge selfishly. We are not to view ourselves as detached individuals. We are parts of a whole, and variously connected with others. What is not good for us personally, may be good for us relatively. Suppose a trying dispensation makes us more tender and compassionate towards our fellow---creatures and our fellow---Christians ; suppose a distressing experience gives us the tongue of the learned, and enables us to speak a word in season to him that is weary ; suppose, as witnesses and examples of the power and excellency of the gospel, we arouse the careless, and confirm the wavering ; is there not enough here to call for our resignation and praise? Ezekiel was deprived of the desire of his eye with a stroke ; to himself this was painful, but it was profitable to his ministry, and useful to his charge ; and this was the design of it. No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
We judge carnally. What is not pleasing may yet be beneficial ; and natural evil may be moral good. When things are agreeable to our wishes, we never think of any difficulty in the divine proceedings. While we have ease and health and friends, and success in business, we never complain of the darkness of Providence. But as soon as there is any reverse, then we groan out, "His way is in the sea, his path in the deep waters, and his footsteps are not known ;" as if every thing was to be estimated by our accommodation and convenience---as if God acted wisely or unwisely, righteously or unrighteously, just as his doings affect us, and affect, too, not our best interests, but our present and temporal. Is it wonderful that we who deserve stripes, should feel the rod; that we who need correction, should meet with chastisement? Is it mysterious that the vine should be pruned, the ground ploughed, the gold tried in the fire? If the child now thinks certain restraints and privations and rebukes to which the father subjects him needless and harsh, he will more than approve of them when he comes to years of maturity.
We judge prematurely. He that
believeth maketh not haste. It is good for a man not only to hope, but quietly
wait for the salvation of God ; and one reason is, because it will prevent a
wrong conclusion.
"Therefore," says the apostle, "judge nothing before the time, until the Lord
come." You would not judge of the abilities of the limner from the unfinished
sketch, but you would wait till the canvas had received the last touches of his
masterly pencil. You would not judge of the perfection of a building from the
digging of the foundation, and the coarse materials lying in a kind of disorder
all around, especially if you had never seen the plan or the model ; but you
would stay till the parts were all put together in their places, and the
top---stone brought forward with shouting. Let us stay till God has done. "What
I do," says he, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Then every
thing will speak for itself. Then we shall walk, not by faith, but by sight.
Then we shall see what we now believe, and for ever acknowledge, "He is the
Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment : a God of truth and
without iniquity, just and right is he.''
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