ary and March; but on the thirteenth they observe a fast to commemorate the day fixed for their extirpation. Let us learn from this history the truth of the doctrine of a particular Providence. The continual care which God exercises over the affairs of the world is a source of the greatest comfort to the true Christian. For whatever may occur, whether he is prosperous or distressed as to temporal good; whether there be wars and tumults, or peace and quiet, in his time; whatever, in short, be the aspect of events, he is sure that they are all ordered and directed according to the counsels of Infinite Wisdom. And this superintendence embraces all classes of persons, and all kinds of circumstances. For the wrath of wicked men is made to praise GOD; and not one sparrow falleth to the ground without his authority. Those, therefore, who love him, to whom he has promised that everything shall work together for good, have the strongest reason to repose at all times their implicit confidence in him. "I have set the LORD always before me," says David; "because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." There are many, however, who entertain strong objections to this doctrine of a particular providence. They allow that on what they call great occasions the power of the Deity may interfere; but they consider it unnecessary, they sometimes call it irreverent, to appeal to his care as upholding and ruling all things. Ordinary events they seem to think may be safely left to themselves; these will run in a regular course, and need no superintending mind. But surely the principles on which such men argue are very erroneous. For how is it possible to admit the distinction, which we make between great and little, in the sight of GOD? All things in the world are to him upon a level. And just as to a man who looks down into crowded streets from a lofty steeple, the difference of stature of the passing crowds is unperceived-so, infinitely more indeed, to Him who sitteth upon the circle of the earth, all the inhabitants thereof are but as grasshoppers; to regard the highest of whom is an inconceivable condescension, which the concerns of the meanest stretch only a little, a very little, more. A prince, in fact, is not of more consequence than a peasant with Him who has expressly declared himself to be no respecter of persons. And, indeed, we are apt to estimate the relative importance of individuals and events by a very false standard. Gop looks upon them with other eyes. He deems the welfare of one of his poorest people, whom the world overlooks, more precious than the fortunes of a destroying conqueror. We know that just Lot, whom the inhabitants of his city vexed and persecuted, was an object of greater care to the LORD than the multitudinous population of wicked Sodom, with all her pomp and pageantry. Besides, it frequently happens that what we call great events depend on very trifling circumstances. The finest links may unite the different parts of the most ponderous chain. Many illustrations of this fact occur both in sacred and profane history. We see one in the narrative before us. A proud courtier of the Persian king takes affront because a Jewish exile will not bow to him. Can anything appear of less importance than this? And yet from such an inadequate source arose the determination of Haman, which he had well-nigh put into practice, to destroy the whole nation of the Jews. A monarch, again, passes a disturbed night, and to compose his mind orders his attendants to read to him the chronicles of his reign. What result could be expected from this? And yet this recitation revives the memory of an important service rendered him by Mordecai, which is a principal link in the ruin of Haman and the consequent deliverance of the destined victims. It is not, therefore, for us to say what is a great event and what is not. The seed may be very small, and yet there may spring from it a plant growing in time into a magnificent tree. The mightiest events, too—the rise and fall of empires, the destruction or regeneration of nations-are usually the aggregate of many inferior occurrences. If, therefore, you strike out several or even one of these, you derange the whole machinery, and disappoint the intended result. For if GoD orders the whole of anything, he must order all its parts; and if one part be excepted from his sway, or be left out in his counsels, a disturbing element is introduced, which might frustrate his purposes and derange the universe. And thus, as every great event is the result of a long train of smaller ones, if these last be neglected, the whole could not be said to be under the authority of GOD. So that when it is asserted that it is enough to attribute to him the grand consummation of things, while the circumstances that tend thereto are overlooked, the reasoning is the same as if it were recommended to a husbandman to mind only the time of harvest, while the preparatory ploughing and sowing were forgotten. The analogy of nature proves the peculiar care of GOD for little things. It is remarkable that the minuter creatures, which we might think of least account, seem to have been the especial objects of creative care. If we would have the fullest proofs of contrivance, we shall go to the world of insects, and there, as every naturalist can tell us, we find a wisdom, and skill, and delicate curiosity of workmanship, far less prominently displayed in animals of greater bulk. The conclusion then is evident. If there is this care of the most insignificant beings in creation, we may fairly infer that in the ordinary dealings of his providence none of the concerns of the lowliest man are disregarded. The real source of men's denying to GOD the full government of all things, is an unworthy conception of his power: it is because they would bring down his omnipotence to the level of their own weakness. They have a notion that sovereignty is a weight to him, and the upholding of the universe a labor. They forget that his eye penetrates everywhere without exertion; that his voice has only to speak, and it is done; his will to command, and it stands fast. We may be dizzied and distracted with the whirl of business: we may be unable to ascend to all that is vast, and to stoop to all that is little we may fail to grasp the immensity of space, and to comprehend the niceties of animated nature;-but is GOD to be crippled by the measure of man? As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts. He holds all that he has made in the hollow of his hand his vigilance is everywhere present to watch; his power to work; and every wheel in the mighty machine knows his voice, and stands still, or moves onward, at his mere volition. If, indeed, GOD govern not all the concerns of the universe, it must be either for lack of power, or for want of will. No man, perhaps, who believes there is a GOD, will deliberately deny his ability; and as respects his will, let it be remembered that all the minute provisions of the Jewish law, all the ornaments of the tabernacle and the temple, were described and commanded by GoD, with a distinctness of enumeration which condescended to every particular. Who, after this, will say that he chooses not to concern himself with the concerns of his creatures? Be it recollected, also, that our SAVIOUR, when instructing his disciples on this very point, assured them that the hairs of their head were numbered, and deduced an argument from the care which had decked the lilies of the field, to the watchful superintendence which would certainly provide for them. The most wonderful part of this universal government is, that it is exercised over intelligent creatures: they are left to act according to their respective dispositions, and yet the hand of GoD, without putting any force upon them, so as to deprive them of moral agency, moulds and fashions the heterogeneous mass of conflicting principlesinasmuch as evil has broken in upon a universe created good-into a sure result of glory to his great name. He directs the living wheels, when they know not that they are doing his work, and brings out the ultimate prosperity and happiness of his faithful people. And this is the happy confidence which they may repose in him. No event befalls them unlooked-for or beyond his wise purpose; if trials come, they are such as he permits for the better proving of their faith; if enemies rise up against them, he provides them with the means of successful resistance; if they are persecuted they are not forsaken-cast down, they shall not be destroyed. Surely, nothing can so persuasively invite us to diligent exertion in the cause of godliness. If it is true that his eye is ever on us, we may act as knowing that our "labor shall not be in vain in the LORD." If his care ministers to our minutest necessities, we must gratefully yield ourselves to him who so has loved us. It is the affection that a parent shows towards a beloved child, which that child will repay with simple trust and ready obedience. How blessed to be brought into such a union with GOD through JESUS CHRIST! And let worldly, irreligious men reflect, that their paths are equally observed, their lives equally under the Divine authority. Only, as in the one case his government is administered for the welfare of his people, so, in the other, it is directed to the vindication of his justice on his enemies. In this story we may also perceive the wisdom and goodness of GOD in counteracting the evil designs of ambitious men against his church. It exhibits also the pernicious nature and consequences of an envious spirit. The fall of Haman and the ad vancement of Mordecai show that the path of the wicked is slippery, and terminates in shame and destruction, while that of the righteous, though obscure and rugged for a time, is sure and honorable, "and shineth more and more," or becometh more glorious," unto the perfect day." That day is hastening on a pace in which the triumph of the wicked shall cease for ever; and when the despised, poor, and afflicted children of GoD shall be raised on high, to the confusion of all their enemies. Their accuser and adversary, with his associ ates, shall be turned into the pit of destruction, and "then shall the redeemed of the LORD return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." Isaiah li. 11. JOHN THE BAPTIST. BEHEADED IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 31. Both HE Old and New Testaments are closely con- festation of his grace through JESUS CHRIST. It is well known that just before the dawn of day the darkness is at its greatest pitch, and that the air is much colder than at any other time. In this state the morn ing star "sheds his beams" with peculiar lustre, and appears to call slumbering mortals to welcome the approach of day. But there are few who heed the invitation, or can bring themselves to renounce their downy luxury for the fragrant incense of the morning. A deeper torpidity then seizes the faculties, and it requires a strong degree of resolution to get the better of the pleasing lassitude. Such was the moral condition of the world when the day of human redemption, so variously prefigured, and so often predicted, was about to break, and the "Sun of righteousness to arise with healing in his wings." Mal. ii. 2. In the Jewish church there was a deadness to spiritual objects; gross darkness was spread out over all its services; priests and people, generally speaking, were insensi ble to the life of religion, had unworthy notions of GOD's word, and were, moreover, either sunk into a Sadducean infidelity, or the Pharisaic superstition. In that dark and insensible state did the harbinger of the day of grace arise, and call a sleeping world to repentance, and to a due reception of Him who was to disperse the clouds of doubt and error, and to "bring life and immortality to light by his blessed gospel." 2 Tim. i. 10. There were, however, some even in that gloomy state who "waited for the consolation of Israel." Among these were Zacharias and Elisabeth, the parents of the Baptist. He was "a priest of the course of Abia ;" she was "of the daughters of Aaron," and "they were both righteous before GOD, walking in all the commandments and or. dinances of the LORD blameless." Luke i. 1, 2. These religious Israelites, it is observed, "had no child, because that Elisabeth was The two Testaments may be fitly resembled to the double doors of the Temple, one whereof enfolded another. The Old is the New enfolded; the New is the Old explicated. For there are above two hundred and sixty places of the Old Testament cited in the New; so that in almost every needful point the harmony is expressed. |