CHAPTER XIII. PROVIDENCE INTERPOSING IN EXTREMITY. The Lord my pasture shall prepare, ADDISON. Ir is a common saying that "man's extremity is God's opportunity." And in the course of providence we may observe, that relief is sometimes afforded just in the moment of need. God permits his people to be brought into straits, that he may see the exercise of their faith. When we are most desolate, we have the most need of faith, and the greatest reason to exercise it. God is always our refuge and our strength, but in time of trouble a present help. He sometimes permits his people to be in great dangers, that they may see and acknowledge his hand in their preservation, and have more lively experience of his tenderness in affording them assistance. We should therefore repose in God with as much confidence, in the desert, as in the city; among savages, as among the most sociable of men; for we have a God who is restricted to no particular means of assistance, and is never at a loss to perfect his strength in our weakness. We have to do with a God who knows what will further our good, and accordingly orders it; and knows what will hinder it, and therefore prevents it. He can arrange events in such a train, as shall conspire together as one link to bring about success, and make even contrary events meet in one gracious end; as rivers which run from the North and the South, from the East and the West, arrive at length in the sea. Though events may seem to be contrary to each other, they shall never be contrary to his word, which he hath magnified above all his name. His eye is peculiarly fixed upon them that fear him, Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his ways. Hence it follows that good men, being the objects of a special providence, have sufficient grounds to bear up under all the sufferings, and amid all the storms of life. As the great and good Charnock observes, "How doth the presence of a skilful pilot in a weather-beaten ship cheer the hearts of the passengers? What a dread would it be to them to have the vessel wherein their lives and all are concerned, left to the fury of winds and waves, without an able hand to manage it? God hath a bridle to check the passions of men, to marshal them according to his pleasure they are all his instruments: God can lay a plot with more wisdom for a good man's safety, than the enemy can for his destruction; he can undermine their plots with more power than they execute them; he can outwit their craft, overpower their strength, and turn their designed cruelty against them, as a knife into their own breasts." It should not however be forgotton, that the interposition of God, in the different fields in which it is displayed, never excludes the employment of second causes. In the field of creation he gives us plants by the combined employment of all the elements-heat, moisture, light, and the atmosphere. Thus too, in the field of prophecy, does he bring his predictions to their accomplishment. He prepares, for ex ample, long beforehand, a warlike prince in the mountains of Persia, and another in those of Media; the former of these he had indicated by name two hundred years before; he unites them at the point named with ten other nations against the empire of the Chaldeans; he enables them to surmount a thousand obstacles; and makes them at last enter the great Babylon, at the moment when the seventy years, so long marked out for the captivity of the Jewish people, had come to a close. In the field of his miracles, even, he is pleased still to make use of second causes. To divide the Red Sea, he not only causes the rod of Moses to be stretched out over the deep-he sends from the east a mighty wind, which blows all night, and makes the waters go back. To cure the man that was born blind, he makes clay and anoints his eyelids. And so also, in the field of providence, he accomplishes his greatest plans by means of the unexpected concurrence of a thousand millions of human wills, alternately intelligent and yielding, or ignorant and rebellious. "Herod and Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel" (influenced by so many different passions), "were gathered together," he tells us, only "to do whatsoever his hand and counsel had determined before to be done." The following instances will illustrate the re marks which have been made, and will show how providence sometimes interposes in the moment of need and extremity. How remarkable for example, were the circumstances in connection with Mordecai. At the very moment when Haman came in to speak to his master about the death of Mordecai, he found the scale of things turned in a surprising manner, in favour of that good man. The king had been denied the gift of sleep, and to beguile the tedious hours, he called for the book of records, and was providentially directed to the very page in which were recorded the integrity and loyalty of Mordecai. Haman is immediately called in, and commanded to shew the highest marks of royal favour towards the man whom he had wickedly doomed to an ignominious death. Esther vi. 1-11. David with his handful of men, was just on the point of destruction by the hand of Saul, who pursued him with a powerful army. David was on one side of the hill, and Saul on the other. The prey was almost in the teeth of the devouring lion, but just at the critical moment, a messenger arrived to inform Saul, that there was an invasion of his territories, which required his immediate exertions to suppress. Saul, on hearing this news, leaves David at full liberty to return thanks to God, and say "Our soul is |