THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
221 
form a thing of beauty entrancing to the be¬ 
holder. 
“ So the hidden workings of Providence 
come to us. The little event that touched us 
away back yonder in life, and so lightly as not 
to attract our notice, the steps divinely directed 
when we saw not the need of guidance,, or the 
suggested thought that crept into the mind so 
opportunely and yet so quietly, and thus changed 
the misgoings of life,—these were all divine 
caretakings, unobserved at the time, or thought 
trivial vagaries of Providence; but when the 
events, all foreseen by our watchful Benefactor, 
were fully developed, and the Father’s hand 
seen in them all, it was then that we exclaimed 
in the fulness of our gratitude, ^ Thou knowest 
my downsitting, and mine uprising, thou under- 
standest my thought afar off. Thou compassest 
my path and my lying down, and art acquainted 
with all my ways^ Thou hast beset me behind 
and before, and laid thine hand upon me.’ 
“ The crawling worm from which we turned 
with loathing was travelling to his glorious 
destiny of incarnation as a butterfly, clothed 
in unsurpassed beauty—from grovelling in the 
dust and feeding on wood and poisonous net- 
