Much more should we have a good opinion of what God’s Providence does in the world, although we cannot grasp it. Now, my dear brethren, if we with good reason form such a favorable opinion of the works of man, although we do not understand them, and form that opinion simply because we trust every master in his own art, what judgment should we, must we, form of the works of Divine Providence? When we consider what goes on in this world, it appears to us not otherwise than as a mighty clock, in which there are many different wheels, some large, others small; some turn here, others there; that is, one man has a wide sphere of action, another a very small one; one is seated on a throne in great honor, another lies on the ground, poor and neglected; one is rich, another poor; one healthy, another sick; one idle, another busy from morning till night, like the pendulum of the clock; one is prosperous and fortunate, another tried with sorrow and affliction; for one the clock strikes too soon, for another too late: many things seem to us inconsistent, many actually unjust, and most things inexplicable; we are quite bewildered at what we see around us; but let us seek out the Master who is still working at this clock and putting each part of it into its place, until it shall be completely finished at the end of the world.
For God is the Master, who arranges all. Who is this Master and Artist? The almighty, most wise, and most just God, whom we have never seen, but of whom we know for certain that He cannot go wrong in anything, that He is “holy in all His works.”[1] Oh, therefore must we think, and firmly believe that whatever this Artist begins and completes must be good and right, and as it should be, and that it could not be done better; and although we may not understand the reason of it, this one fact, God has so ordained it, should suffice to make us form that judgment. One who is making a voyage in a ship begins to doubt if the course steered is the right one; it should be enough to resolve his doubts to tell him that the captain’s orders are being followed out, especially when the captain is an experienced sailor who knows his way over the sea, and has often made that voyage before. In the same way when a prisoner is sentenced to death, and you doubt whether his sentence is a just one, it should satisfy you to be told that the sovereign pronounced on the man after having carefully weighed the evidence on both sides, especially when you know the sovereign to be just and upright. In olden times amongst the Grecian philosophers of the school of Pythagoras, all doubtful questions
- ↑ Sanctus in omnibus operibus ejus.—Ps. cxliv. 13.
