( 153 ) 
E VERYTHING comes to pass either with the knowledge and permis¬ 
sion of God, simply; or besides, by the direct will and decree of 
God. There is really no such thing as chance. Men nse the word chance, 
ho.wever, in speaking of trivial events that occur unexpectedly or in a man¬ 
ner to them inexplicable. 
“Be assured,” says St. Augustine, “nothing happens that is not first 
either commanded or permitted in the ^visible court of the Supreme 
Monarch.” 
When we consider things merely according to the outward senses,— 
for instance, the blossoming of trees, 'plants, and flowers , some of which 
are white, others yellow, while some are long and others short; when we 
consider these and countless other things that we see daily, we are like 
little children who hear the clock strike the different hours; they hear the 
noise it makes and think that it comes solely from the hammer which 
strikes the hours, because they know nothing of the works that are hidden 
inside the clock and regulate its movements. In the same way, too, we 
pay no attention to the beautiful machinery hidden in the Divine Nature, 
that ordains and arranges every visible thing, the smallest as well as the 
greatest, in number, weight, and measure, as the Prophet says. 
“Not a hair falls from your head/' says Jesus Christ, “without the 
knowledge and will of your Heavenly Father.”* Not a sparrow flies 
through the air without the divine ordering, for “All things were made by 
Him, and without Him was made nothing.”! 
God is the only Father of this great household, Who arranges, moves 
and regulates all that happens in the whole world, at all times. And He 
takes as great care with the smallest creature, as with the greatest. 
The Sacred Scripture says: u IIe made the little and the great, and 
He hath equally care of all A—Wisd. vi., 8. 
*Lukexxl. 18. 
tJohn i, 3. 
