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SERMON IV.

THE MYSTERY OF PROVIDENCE.

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PSALM lxxvii. 19.

Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known."

THE Psalmist has employed himself in this Psalm in looking back upon God's dealings with His chosen people. And the view which was thus presented to his mind was so wonderful, so unlike what might have been expected, so beyond nature, that the holy Psalmist is led to exclaim, "Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known." Nor can we be surprised that such a feeling should arise upon a review of God's dealings with the Hebrew people. For let us consider, for a moment, by what steps they had reached the condition in which they then were. singular love of Almighty God, Abraham was chosen out from the whole world, separated even from his own family, and made the Friend of God; he received a promise that his descendants should be the peculiar care of Almighty God, and that among them the

By the

true knowledge of God should be preserved; and further, that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed. Now, in the first place, Abraham was called away from his own friends, and sent to dwell in a strange land among strangers; and here he lived in immediate dependence upon God. Thus he was kept from the temptation of falling, after the example of his family and friends, into idolatry; and was able, among strangers, living more apart from the world, to bring up his child in true religion. When Isaac was grown up he lived the same kind of sacred life; the father of a household distinct from all the world, trained in heavenly wisdom by the teaching of God Himself. So Jacob lived, and so he brought up his sons. All this while there had existed a promise which was to be fulfilled, namely, that this family should wholly possess the land in which they sojourned: northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward, from the sea to the river, all that fruitful land was to be their own. How, then, should this be accomplished, when it was already inhabited by nations great and powerful, while they were but few in number, one solitary family of wandering shepherds? The Lord brought them into Egypt, as you know, and provided them sustenance, and there they increased and multiplied: oppressed the while, and cruelly treated by their masters, till they groaned in their hard service. Yet they were not forsaken, nor was the promise forgotten. When they had so increased in numbers that they were sufficiently strong to take possession of their promised country, the Lord led them forth

from Egypt, visiting their enemies with grievous plagues, and overwhelming them at last in the sea: "But as for His own people, He led them forth like sheep and carried them in the wilderness like a flock;" dividing the waters before them, so that they passed through the sea on dry land, giving them food from heaven, and drink from the stony rock; opening again for them the waters of the river Jordan, and bringing them triumphantly into the land of promise, where all their enemies were subdued under them, and even the walls of cities fell flat before them.

What could be more wonderful than this their course? Not to speak in particular of those strange miracles which attended their deliverance from Egypt, and their passage through the wilderness, what could be more mysterious than the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham four hundred and seventy years before, by the entrance of the children of Israel into Canaan, under the guidance of Joshua? And, in particular, what could be more strange than their being brought into captivity, made slaves in a distant country, and most cruelly treated there, for this very end? and again, that when delivered from their slavery, they were not led immediately into the promised land, but suffered to wander forty years in the wilderness, supported there by miracle, until that whole generation was dead? This was the course of God's dealings which the Psalmist was considering when he exclaimed, "Thy way is in the sea, and Thy path in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known."

1 Psalm lxxviii. 53.

That which makes this history, so often recounted in Holy Scripture, so interesting to all thoughtful persons is, that here the secret designs of God were declared from the first, and we may see how every step of the after-course of this people tended towards the fulfilment of the prophecy in the end, although nothing seemed so unlikely, while these events were happening, as that they were working out the prophecy, except, perhaps, that the prophecy should ever be fulfilled at all. So that the lesson conveyed to us by this history is one most impressive, of the superintending Providence of God amid all the changes and chances of this mortal life; showing how He secretly and incomprehensibly works out His purposes, bending all things to His will, and accomplishing by famine and slavery, and the cruelty of men, by varied discipline, and miracles innumerable, "by the dispensation of angels," the fulfilment of His promise to His chosen people.

But if this lesson is conveyed to all by the consideration of God's dealings with His people, more especially should we Christians be interested in it, since the course of the Jews, from first to last, is a type, or figure, of the fortunes of the Church to which we belong. And if it is true of all that He leads them by paths that they know not, yet of us it may be said more undoubtedly, that He is leading us in mysterious and supernatural ways towards the enjoyment of those higher promises which are ours; that He is turning all events of the world, all influences of relationship, all accidents, so called, of life, to the salvation of His elect. All joys, all sorrows, all

fears, all hopes, all designs, all actions of persons far and near, are tending to this end. The course of the world, the course of the Church, the workings of her enemies, the feeblest efforts of her friends, are helping the great work of bringing the people of God to their final home. The hearts of all are in His hands, and He turneth them whithersoever He will. He rules and governs all things so mysteriously, that His ends are accomplished, His kingdom advances, though we know not how, and in our ignorance hope, or dread, or long, where we have least occasion to do so. His way is in the sea, and His path in the great waters, and His footsteps are not known.

And the end of his prison, and there be

Observe how strangely He works from the very beginning of the dispensation. "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord;"2 this is the first token that the kingdom is at hand. One comes to the Jewish people from the desert, clothed in a garment of camel's hair, and girt with a leathern girdle, and preaches to them repentance, and baptizes them with water-one of whom they say, "he hath a devil." teaching is that he is put in headed by an adulterous king. runner, of whom we read to-day, and such his end. And the King Himself is not less strange in His coming an outcast infant, in a manger: brought up in poverty and obscurity: unknown for many years; and when known, despised. He came eating and drinking, that is, living an ordinary life, conversing familiarly with men, as one of themselves, not a

2 St. Matt. iii. 3.

Such was the Fore