For the Christian Observer. ON THE MYSTERIES OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT. No truth can be more evident and rational than this, that if God made the world, he also governs it. Even among men, a skilful artificer would not contrive and put together a curious and intricate piece of machinery fit for some noble and useful purpose, and then leave it neglected to itself, either to stop or go on; and much less would he suffer it to produce nothing but injury and destruction by its irregular movements. It is true, that man is so ignorant and short-sighted, that the thin veil which interposes between us and the unseen world, prevents our discerning, as we otherwise should do, the Divine agency. But this is no proof that it does not exist on the contrary, every thing which we see and hear, may and must convince us, if we will only open our minds to the admission of the truth, that "verily there is a God who judgeth in the earth, and disposeth the hearts of the children of men;" but whose dispensations, though infinitely wise and good, are often far too high and intricate for human discernment.

But why need we seek for proof of this fact? What is the whole world, what are all things in us and around us, but one mighty maze, the mysteries of which are infinitely beyond the reach of human contemplation? Till the Divine record of our faith was bestowed on a benighted world, all was doubt, and darkness, and gloom. Man might or might not be immortal; there might or there

might not be a God and a futu rity: we knew nothing, thought nothing, felt nothing beyond the present scene.

But Revelation burst with its celestial splendour on this dark and intricate path. The heavenly Parent saw and pitied the ignorance and weakness of his erring child, and disclosed, at once for our comfort and salvation, that blessed scheme of redemption for lost and guilty man which furnishes an answer to all our most important difficulties; especially that supremely interesting one "What shall I do to be saved?"

Yet though much is disclosed, and all this necessary for our eternal peace, how much still remains enveloped in obscurity! If we take the three great departments of God's government, Creation, Providence, and Grace, in each shall we discover that "unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out."

To begin with the works of Creation-What can be more concealed from our knowledge than the scenes which constantly surround us? What is our own earth? and what are those starry worlds that adorn the brow of night; and that sun, that lights us by his splendour and cheers us by his warmth, and invigorates our globe by his kindly influences? The more we make advances in knowledge, the more we discover our utter ignorance. The husbandman perceives day and night, summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, succeed each other his corn springs up, and a beneficent Power pours into his garner "all manner of increase:" but every part of the process is a mystery that escapes his utmost researches. Ten thousand efforts could not form one blade of grass; or one drop of rain, to water and restore its faded verdure. And if these, the most plain and cominon works of creation, are hid in mystery, so that we cannot tell even how a seed vegetates in the ground,

what shall we say of the animate creation? Especially what shall we say of that master-piece of Divine skill and power, the human frame, so fearfully and wonderfully made, that even heathens have been obliged to acknowledge it a proof of the existence of an all-wise and gracious Creator?

The Almighty, both from the whirlwind, and by the mouth of Elihu speaking to Job, pursues this argument with much force and sublimity. "Behold, God is great, and we know him not." "Can any man understand the spreading of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?" "God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend." "Hearken unto this, O Job! stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. Dost thon know when he caused the light of his cloud to shine? Dost thou know the perfect works of him which is perfect in knowledge? how thy garments are warm, when he quieteth the earth by the south wind? Teach us what we shall say unto him, for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness." If, then, the works of Creation be so complete a proof of our ignorance of God's dispensations, how much more so the works of Grace! Who shall unfold the wonderful mysteries of Redemption? Who shall comprehend, in all its awful consequences, the Fall of our first parents? Who shall tell why they were even permitted to fall? Who shall inform us how sin entered a holy and happy creation? Who shall reconcile the infinite knowledge and prescience of God, with the free powers and moral responsibility of man? Who shall tell how the Divine nature was united to the human in our blessed Lord? how our guilt was expiated by his cross and passion? how He I was made sin for us who knew no sin? how his righteousness becomes ours by faith? how the Holy Spirit operates on the human d

heart? how he enlightens our understandings, sanctifies our will, regenerates and converts our souls, and makes us meet for that inheritance which a Redeemer purchased for us freely with his own most precious blood?

The feeblest glance at these and numerous other difficulties connected with the works of grace, is surely sufficient to bow us low in the dust of humility. Well might the Apostle exclaim, "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?" And yet man, a being of yesterday, and who must die tomorrow, too often boasts of his feeble powers, adores his shortlived reason, and refuses to submit himself humbly as a penitent sinner, conscious of his guilt and ignorance, to the guidance of that blessed word which alone, under the instrumentality of its Divine Author, can lighten his darkness, and lead him safely through the intricate windings of this valley of the shadow of death, to the shores of eternal light, and knowledge, and repose! Surely our daily prayer should be; O thou infinite Source of wisdom and of grace! though we cannot comprehend either the height, or length, or breadth of thy love in Christ Jesus, yet upon it would we calmly and confidently repose by faith, till the time when thou shalt see fit to remove this veil of flesh, and introduce us, through the blood of a Redeemer, to that heavenly world, where we shall know even as also we are known!

Again: That the operations of Providence as well as of Nature and Grace are mysterious, and often far beyond our comprehension, needs, perhaps, less proof than either of the former. For what is human life, with all its comforts and sorrows, its changes and accidents, but an illustration of the solemn truth, "What I do

thou knowest not now?" If we look but one step beyond the present moment, all is blackness and mystery. We know not what a day may bring forth. Why are wars, and famines, and persecutious permitted? Why do the wicked so often triumph? Why is the Christian often plunged in apparently undeserved calamities? It is true, a reason may be easily assigned, if we regard the final end; for life is a state of probation, and all is intended for ultimate good to them that love God; but the immediate steps to this great end are often involved in clouds and darkness. Can we account for the diversities of God's providence, in affording one man health and prosperity, and suffering another to remain in sick ness and distress? Can we shew any cause why we have the Scriptures, and have heard of a Saviour, and have been invited to repent of our sins, and to place our trust in him for pardon, and salvation, and heaven; while millions of our fellow-men, more excellent and conscientious perhaps than many among ourselves, are perishing for lack of knowledge? Or (if it might be allowed to allude to a recent event in providence an event which has come home to every heart with intense anguish) have we not witnessed a deeply afflict ing, though doubtless a wise and equitable proof of the mysterious nature of the Divine dispensations? Was it likely, if man had been called to decipher the counsels of Heaven, that while the aged and afflicted progenitor was in the fourth remove preserved, two generations should have been cut off at a stroke? Did it appear a thing probable that he who has been permitted, by God's mercy, to reign a longer time on the throne of these realms than any monarch who went before him, should thus behold youth, and health, and vigour, perish in his presence; while he himself remained, like a dismantled oak, bent

beneath the hand of time, yet in a green old age, and still adorning by his presence the land which he had so long sheltered by his power and blessed by his virtues? Does not the unlooked for and untimely bereavement which we have been deploring teach, in language far more forcible than the word of man, the humbling fact of our ignorace and the utter uncertainty of all our calculations? Here, at one stroke, was cut down honour and grandeur, the luxuriance of health, the cheerful prospects of youth, all that was lovely and blooming, all that appeared calculated to complete a husband's, a parent's, a family's, a nation's happiness. Does not, then, the voice of Providence, as well as of Nature and Grace, say to us, in accents the most powerful and convincing, "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter?"

While, then, we thus behold the awful mysteriousness of the Divine counsels, let us endeavour to attain consolation from the promise just quoted-a promise which, though made individually to St. Peter on a particular occasion, may be fairly considered as belonging to all who should follow in his steps to the end of time.

Hitherto we have been like a traveller bewildered in a dark aud dreary night amidst dangers and uncertainties;--no track appeared to open before us;-Nature was dark and desolate; Providence was still darker, and even the works of Grace itself were involved in an obscurity which no human eye could pierce. But let us behold the gleam of light at length breaking on the track; let us listen to the voice of Revelation bursting from the gloom, and promising a speedy termination to all the doubts and difficulties which environ the Christian's path. "Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Every mysterious circumstance shall hereafter be so revealed, that even the

predicted such a change as we now see to have taken place? Yet even the passions and oppositions which appeared at the moment to obstruct the high and heavenly cause, we now find to have been overruled for good. Another act of this sacred drama seems to have been completed; Christianity is spreading widely and rapidly through the world; the Scriptures are fertilizing the vast tracts which infidelity and superstition lately ravaged; the Messiah's kingdom is bastening, and the latter-day glory dawning upon the world; and all this may be retraced to that Reformation which began, and for a considerable time was carried on, by means of events of apparently a very casual and sometimes even trifling nature. "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."

Perhaps, in like manner, (if it be allowed once more to allude to a more recent event, which seems even yet to meet us on every side, to mingle with our conversations, and which we neither can nor ought to dismiss from our thoughts), perhaps the awful dispensation which we have lately witnesseddark and unfathomable as it must now be considered-when looked back upon, after the lapse of a century, will appear fraught with consequences which we at present little conjecture. What they may be, whether adverse or otherwise, is not for man to divine. But whatever they are, the grand and leading truth is still clear, that the government of all things is placed in the hands of Him, who is not only "the mighty Counsellor," but also the "Prince of Peace," and to whom, therefore, " as to a faithful Creator," the Christian may with implicit faith, commit all his interests for time and for eternity.

But, after all, this world is not the place appointed for a full disclosure of the mysteries of the Divine dispensations. Much, and

perhaps the greater part, must be left to that day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed. Then shall every intricate event beam forth in the clearest splendour of truth and wisdom. The ways of God shall be fully justified in the sight of an assembled universe; so that even those who shall be condemned to "the bitter pains of eternal death," shall be obliged to confess that all was wise and equitable on the part of their Creator. A new æra of celestial light shall begin; and the abstruse points which now divide the Church of God, shall probably appear so plain, that the only wonder of heaven will be-how they seemed so mysterious upon earth. What angels already know will doubtless be made known to all the great household and family of "the just made perfect;" and even subjects respecting which, perhaps, angels themselves, at present," find no end, in wandering mazes lost," may possibly be then disclosed to the lowest of the inhabitants of that blissful world. In the mean time, of one! thing, at least, we are quite sure, that when the whole plan of God's government, in all its departments, shall be developed, it will be found that grace and mercy, wisdom and justice, with every other Divine attribute, have been magnified throughout the whole of his dispensations.

The practical inferences from this subject are very obvious and important. If we know so little," what a motive for looking up to an all-wise Teacher! If all around us be so dark, how great is our need of faith to confide in Him, where we cannot discern his footsteps! If the world be a scene of such uncertainty, how ardently should we be "looking for and hastening to" another and a better world, where all is certainty and repose; and how earnest should be our preparation for it! Let us but fully realize as we ought these im