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"Is not this a time of strange providences? is it not our safest course, without looking to consequences, to do simply what we think right day by day? shall we not be sure to go wrong, if we attempt to trace by anticipation the course of divine Providence? "Has not all our misery, as a Church, arisen from people being afraid to look difficulties in the face?
He was very fond of the doctrine of Special Providences.
Now there are providences of two sorts, seemingly good, and seemingly bad, and those do usually as Jacob did, when he blessed the sons of Joseph, cross hands; and lay the blessing where we would not. I say there are providences unto which we would have the blessings entailed, but they are not.
In his Analecta Mr. Wodrow noted down all the news that reached him, scandals about 'The Pretender, Court Gossip, Heresies of Ministers, Remarkable Providences, Woful Apparitions, and 'Strange Steps of Providence'. Ghosts, second sight, dreams, omens, premonitions, visions, did greatly delight him, but it is fair to note that he does not vouch for all his marvels, but merely jots them down, as matters of hearsay.
And here are we Christian ministers, talk talk talking, week in and week out; and here is Christ, by His providences and by His word, speaking far more loudly than any of us; and it all falls with absolute impotence on hosts of people that call themselves Christians. Ah! brethren, it is not only unbelievers who have their hearts hardened. Orthodox professors are often guilty of the same.
We may commence our sketch by quoting the following passage from this autobiography: "To keep myself from idleness, and to recreate myself, I have intended here to give some account of my life, in my youth, before the actions thereof, and the providences of God therein, be too far passed out of my memory; and to observe the accidents of all my years, and inclinations of my mind, that whosoever may light upon these papers may see I was not so wholly taken up, either with my father's business or my mathematics, but that I both admitted and found time for other as weighty considerations."
And from that day a long succession of secret providences began to enter Christiana's life, till, as time went on, her whole life was filled full of secret providences.
Some moments passed until Win was aroused from his own correspondence by a sudden surprised exclamation from his mother. "Never say you don't believe in special providences. This seems almost incredible, but here is a note from Mrs. Aldrich, written from London! She's come over to attend some charity congress and wants me to run up for a few days."
Such attempts to hinder or frustrate the workings of good might be part of a purpose of good because they only afforded fresh opportunities for a display of the Divine wisdom, whose ordinary interventions were accepted as Providences, whilst Miracles supplied the rarer exhibitions of its power.
Could it be for God's service that this fortune should in any considerable proportion go to a young woman and her husband who were given up to the lightest pursuits, and might scatter it abroad in triviality people who seemed to lie outside the path of remarkable providences?
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