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One illustration from tlie New Testament will suffice. It 
was Purpose that brought Jesus Christ into the world as 
a man ; in order that He might die ; but how was that purpose 
executed ? It was no other than by a train of causes and 
effects which we cannot but recognize as “ natural/* yet they 
issued in a preordained result. The author of ff Ecce Homo ** 
has well explained this ; that it was because the Jews could 
not forgive Him for calling Himself a king, and yet would 
not assume the attributes of their ideal monarch. Surprise 
merged into ridicule, ridicule into persecution, persecution 
into death. 
We may here too notice how judgments or punishments 
were executed upon men and nations by means of natural 
occurrences. It is expressly stated that such was the case 
in olden times; but I need hardly add we have no actual 
warrant that God so acts now. In passing on, however, we 
may catch the lesson our Lord teaches us in the fall of 
the tower of Siloam, that though the destruction of life which 
it involved was — as we say — accidental, yet such are to be 
taken as warnings that, “ unless we repent, we shall all like- 
wise perish.** 
Lastly, the production of good out of evil, so generally re- 
cognized, surely bears witness to a Divine ordinance ? Thus, 
for example, is that in the case of Joseph in Egypt ; as also in 
the total abolishment of idolatry from the Jews by their 
captivity in Egypt ; and, above all, that issuing from the 
sacrifice and death of our Lord. 
It is in all such and other kindred operations of the Deity 
the difficulty which our finite minds feel so strongly really 
lies. That which has been so often expressed in the attempt 
to reconcile God*s fore-knowledge with man*s free-will 
becomes relatively far less in comparison with his power to 
overrule, as it were, but without limiting his free-agency. 
This, of course, is no new difficulty, but as we find it repre- 
sented alike in nature and revelation, they would at least 
seem to testify mutually to the truth in each. 
Now an especial value of the discovery of this truth, which 
has long been recognized and testified to by such expressions 
as — “ The lot is cast in the lap, but the disposing of it is of 
the Lord ; ** and “ Man proposes, but God disposes,** lies in 
the fact that it leads to important results, for it seems to 
throw great light upon the character of Providence. 
The general idea of Providence appears to have arisen from 
the relationship which exists between a father and his family ; 
and the fact that the whole Bible speaks of God under this 
aspect has of course tended to strengthen man’s belief that 
