Sovereignty
“The Lord reigneth.” — Ps. xciii. 1.
No Bow of Promise in the “dark and cloudy day” shines more radiantly than this.
God — my God — the God who gave Jesus — orders all events, and overrules all for my good!
‘’ When ^” says He, “hrmg a chad over the earth,’’’ He has no wish to conceal the hand which shadows for a time earth’s brightest prospects. It is He aUke who “brings” the cloud, who brings ns into it, and in mercy leads us through it! His kingdom ruleth over all.” The lot is cast into the laj:), hut the whoh disposing thereof is of the LordP We are tenants at will; but, blessed thought, at Godh will. He puts the burden on, and keeps it on, and at His own time will remove it I
Beware of brooding over second causes. It is the worst form of atheism! When our most fondly-cherished gourds are smitten — our fairest flowers lie withered in our bosom — this is the silencer of all reflections, “The JjORB jjrepared the worm!” When the Temple of the Soul is smitten with lightning — its pillars rent — “The Lord is in His holy Tern- ‘pleP’’ Accident, Chance, Fate, Destiny, have no place in the Christian’s creed. His is no unpiloted vessel left to the mercy of the storm — no weed left to the sport of the fitful waves.” The voice of the Lord is upon the icatcrs /” There is but one explanation of all that befals him:” jT will he dumb, I will ojoen not my mouth, because Thcu didst it
Death seems to the human spectator the most capricious and wayward of events. But not GO. The keys of Hades are in the hands of this same reigning God! Look at the Parable of the Fig-tree. Its prolonged existence, or its doom as a cumberer, forms matter of conversation in Heaven; the axe can not be laid at its root until God gives the warrant! How much more will this be the case regarding every “Tree of RigliteousDess, the planting of the Lord?” It will be -watclied over bj Him, “lest any one should hurt it.” Every tremblin-g fibre He will care for; and if made early to succumb to the inevitable stroke,” lulio hnoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath icroughtthis V (Job. xii. 9).
Be it mine to merge my own will in His; not to cavil at His ways, or seek to have one jot or tittle of that will altered; but to lie passive in His hands; to take the bitter as well as the sweet, knowing that the cup is mingled by One who loves me too well to add one ingredient that might have been spared!
Who can wonder that the sweet Psalmist of Israel should seek, as he sees it spanning the lowering heavens, to fix the arrested gaze of a whole world on the softened tints of this Bow of Comfort — “The Lord reigneth, LET THE Earth rejoice.”