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hidden, but we know it exists^ and the thought is a firm support 

 for our faith. Besides, though we cannot see the object, and, 

 when asked to explain it, we are compelled to avow our ignorance, 

 we must remember that it is but natural with a being limited, 

 fallible, who can see in his brief passage over the surface of the 

 earth but a small part of God^s design. How can we — mere 

 creatures of a day — presume to complain, because we are unable 

 to comprehend the designs of a Being who is infinite and eternal ? 

 It was once said by an old dramatist of the sixteenth century 

 to a sceptic who denied providential action, — Would you 

 pronounce judgment on the plot of a drama of which you had 

 only seen one act ? And because in that act the innocent is 

 punished, would you accuse the author of having forgotten 

 justice? Wait a little and see the next act. When the 

 criminal is overtaken by the punishment he has deserved, you 

 will say that the apparent discord is turned into harmony. 

 Do you not see that we are but children ? Who could pronounce 

 judgment on the drama of the ages from a single scene ? ^' 



The old playwright said truly ; God plays a drama the acts 

 of which are centuries. He in whose eyes a thousand years 

 are as one day is patient because He is eternal. 



Or, to take another illustration, would you ask a soldier whose 

 j)lace was amid the thickest of the fight, to explain his general's 

 plan? What need for him to understand it? He sees but the 

 thundering charge, the flashing arms, the clouds of smoke and 

 dust ; he hears but the shouts, and cries, mingled with the 

 deafening roar of musketry and the deep boom of cannon. For 

 him all seems disorder and confusion, but on a neighbouring 

 height, an eye is following the progress of the action, a watchful 

 brain is directing the movements of each battalion. And is 

 there not a battle going on amid the centuries — that of truth, 

 love, and justice, against error, egotism, and iniquity ? and it is 

 not for us obscure private soldiers in the melee, to presume 

 to explain the plan of the action : enough that God is directing 

 it. We have to remain at the post He assigns to us, and to 

 struggle firmly to the end. There is a scene recorded in the 

 Old Testament which may illustrate the divine plan as carried 

 out amid the confusion of history. 



When Solomon built the Temple on the hill of Zion, we were 

 told that all the materials for the construction of this enormous 

 edifice were prepared far from Jerusalem, that the sound of the 

 workmen's tools might not break the silence of the sacred 

 city; and thus for a long period, scattered in Judsean valleys, or 

 on the heights of Lebanon, the woodcutter felled the trees, the 

 workman carved the stone, none knew the plan of the great 

 Architect, each had the order to complete his own task, till the 



