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noble prize of victory which their country has won, were as much the object of their Maker's care, though His hand warded not from them the stroke of death, as their comrades, whom we shall welcome back to our land, waving in triumph the colours which they proudly followed to victory. It is a joyous lesson to learn from this contemplation of God's general laws, that, suffer what we may, and die where we may, the suffering is not directed by chance. It is not inflicted on us capriciously; its infliction is a proof of love; for it is part of a great system which is guided by a Being all-powerful and all-loving. It comes from His hand. Though myriads of links in the chain of causation may separate us from Him, yet it is His act, His personal act, the expression of His all-perfect will," for in Him we live, and move, and have our being."

Surely, brethren, under this light, the consideration of general Providence has led us to the same result of a resigned spirit which the Scripture inculcates, and the same confidence which it inspires.

Nor is it necessary to add one word more, save to remind you that besides this general Providence of which we have spoken, there is another system taught us in the Bible (if indeed it be not rather in some incomprehensible manner a portion of the same),— a system perhaps in itself as general, yet suited to every need, directed by one who knows human

wants; for it is administered by the God-man Jesus. Here we can take our refuge. When I think of those laws of absolute generality which nature shows me, I tremble sometimes lest I may be overlooked; but when I remember that in Jesus there is a human nature mingled with the divine, I feel sure that He is a being who knows what special wants mean, who can be touched with human sensibility, and can remember the woes and temptations of human infirmity.

What a blessed and amazing thought! Yonder on the throne there sits this God-man. Within the very shrine of the eternal glory, He has mounted up to plead for sinful men. Yonder, by the side of the Infinite One, who holds in the compass of His laws of infinite generality the infinity of the visible and invisible creation, is one conscious of our needs and touched with our infirmities.

Yes! we know that we are as much the object of that Saviour's mercy as though this universe were empty of all inhabitants but ourselves. He knows what we need. He cannot be perplexed by multiplicity, nor confounded by minuteness. Therefore, we may leave all confidently in His hands, committing ourselves to Him in prayer; and though we may have to wait for the dawn of the eternal morning to illumine some of the dark passages of His Providence, yet we may rest confident of His power, His wisdom,

and His goodness. He is omnipotent to save us

because He is God.

He is willing to help us inas

much as He is man.

"I cannot always trace the way

Wherein the Almighty One doth move;
But I can always, always say,

That God is love."

NOTE

On Special Providence.

The following is a brief outline of the Sermon on this subject, which was designed to follow the preceding one :—

First an investigation, conducted historically, into the teaching of Scripture on the subject would have been given.

Then, a sketch of the schools of thought, in which the doctrine of Special Providence has been denied, with illustrations of their influence on literature, as, e.g. in the poetry of Pope.

Next, an investigation of theories, which have been supposed to suggest a reconciliation of the doctrine with the existence of general laws, such as (a) the Monadic theory of Leibnitz; with illustrations, showing how modern physical investigations, by resolving various supposed forms of matter into power, seem to lend support to something like his theory; and (6) the machine theory of Babbage's "Bridgewater Treatise."

After criticism on these attempts at explanation, it was proposed to examine whether the Scripture teaching must be surrendered, as merely a human or Jewish point of view; and to show that such is not the case, by offering tests to distinguish the human from the Divine element in the inspired teaching of Scripture.

Thus, assuming that we must believe with equal confidence in general laws on the evidence of science, and Special Providence

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on the evidence of the teaching of Holy Scripture, it was proposed to examine this apparent paradox, investigating the ideas of Mr. Mansel (at that time only inferred from his metaphysical works, and from his tract on Eternity," but now so ably exhibited in his "Bampton Lectures")— ideas which are in part an application of Kant's philosophy, which would make such a paradox to arise from the incapacity of the human mind to comprehend such an object, not from real contradiction in the object known.

After this investigation, it was intended to suggest the possibility of a system of moral providence revealed in Scripture, as actual part of the system of physical providence, developed in science, harmonious with it, and not contradictory to it.

Lastly, some notice would have been taken of the fallacy by which persons conceive of a general law, as if it had an existence apart from the individual instances which make it up. This fallacy, an offshoot of the ancient Realism, besets the human mind alike in its conception of general laws in nature, and of God's government in the Christian Church. The body of the Church has no more existence apart from its members, than a general law has apart from the instances which exemplify it. Part of the confusion in regarding laws of nature as being distinct from God's working in nature, seems attributable to this fault of giving real existence to human generalisations.

The Sermon was not preached, partly because of the long interval of many months which intervened before the opportunity occurred for it; and partly because, in the meantime, Mr. Mansel, in the 6th of his "Bampton Lectures," had sufficiently investigated the subject and preoccupied the ground.

SERMON III.

DIVINE BENEVOLENCE IN THE ECONOMY OF PAIN.

(PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY, FEBRUARY 13TH, 1859.)

GENESIS xlvii. 8, 9.

And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.

THESE words record a scene which thought might well love to dwell upon, and art to depict, even if the lesson to be learned from the view of life contained in them were less valuable than it is.

The scene is a striking one,-the interview of a Hebrew shepherd chieftain of the desert, with the haughty Pharaoh, monarch of the first empire of his time. It carries us back to an age of the world which

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