---

The text is the expression of the unsophisticated man in the presence of earth and sky; and, mind, Jesus Christ is on the side of the unsophisticated man. "Consider the lilies, how they grow," etc. He did not say that Solomon was not a match for a landscape, but he was not arrayed like "one" of these. That is, in the estimation of Jesus Christ, there was more splendour in a single wild flower than there is in all our manufactured magnificence. It is something like what Mr. Ruskin said: "There is more beauty in a bluebell than would be necessary to decorate a dozen cathedrals." The unsophisticated man feels that there is no rivalry between our creations and the magnificence of the Creation. Everybody knows that when Aladdin's palace was built the magicians were disturbed, and left a window incomplete, and all the genius of the East failed to complete that window. But, I say, if a bit of the sky had been left incomplete, or a section of the rainbow unpainted, or the petal of a flower organically defective, who would have finished that? Oh, no, "amongst the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord." A great many art critics fancy that God Almighty is not much of an artist, and that you require a great deal of correction and idealization before you can get a picture. The botanist feels that flowers must have a great deal of care and training before they are fit for the show; and most people who have to deal with nature have a consciousness that it does not satisfy their artistic sense. So to-day, you perpetually hear of the limitation, the irregularity, the defectiveness, and failures of nature. Now, what are you to say to these? Are you to deny them? Not for a moment. But remember this, that whenever you mark the defects of nature, those alleged defects are only part of a larger ultimate perfection. Let me say this — two great canons — everything in nature is good in its place, and everything in nature is good for its purpose; not ideally perfect, but good in its place, good for its purpose. But I wish to speak to you on the perfection of God's works as revealed in His government of the race. Now, the unsophisticated man, looking at the structure of society, the independence of the nations, the unfoldings of evolution, would say at once that God was wonderful in counsel and excellent in working; amongst the gods there is no ruler like Thee, O Lord, neither is there any government like unto Thy government. But the critic steps in again. What! Look at the planet; think of human history; mark all the confusions and catastrophes of the ages; and could any government be worse than the government of God — that is, if there be such government? Now, what are we to say? Let us begin again. Everything good in its place. What is that? Get the right distance, look at the thing with a true perspective, and you will give a favourable verdict. Let me illustrate it. There has appeared, almost in our own day, a new historian — the philosophical historian. The old historians gave anecdotes of kings and of camps, stories of the people, the movement of the times. It was a series of sketches, a series of anecdotes; and there they finished. But in modern times we have another historian — the philosophical historian. What is his particular vocation? He shows how the different nations have contributed to the development of civilization; what part the Egyptian civilization played, what part the Greek, what part the Judaic, what part the Roman. Why did not the philosophical historian come earlier? Because the right point of view had not been reached; the Egyptian did not know what he was doing — the Greek did not, the Jew did not, the Roman did not. They were up in the dome, they were far too near. But the philosophical historian is the man who has got the proper distance; he has got the floor, and he begins to see that the past has not been a gigantic muddle, but there has been system in it, order, purpose. The chaos is revealing itself as a picture. The philosophical historian says, "Under everything there is a plan; running through all things there is a purpose; and what for ages looked to men but a confused and purposeless history begins to show to-day the great, universal, and splendid purpose of Him who sits upon the throne and governs all things to His own great ends." Don't you judge too quickly; you wait ten thousand years; you have plenty of time. What is ten thousand years to you? The great purpose of God that is hidden begins to make itself known through the mist, and what you once thought to be a chaos you see to be a cartoon. Yes, you say, but ten thousand years is rather trying to us, with our impatience. It is; you need not always wait so long. Three centuries ago an ugly tyranny in this nation drove out from us some of the noblest women and noblest men that belonged to the commonwealth. Now, if you had been on the Atlantic coast, and had seen the Mayflower driving across that wild sea to an unknown world, you would have said, with your little view of things, "Where is the wisdom and purpose of this? Talk of the government of God — could there be a worse government than the government that permits the expatriation of these noble men and women?" The American Republic of to-day is God's explanation of the mystery of three centuries ago, and the voyage of the Mayflower. Yes, you say, but one gets a bit tired in three centuries. It is tedious. Well now, let me tell you this. God does not always keep you waiting three centuries. You know, young people think they know every thing, and they do pretty nearly, but there are a few things that God keeps for the aged, there are a few odd truths that He whispers in our ear; and I tell you one is this. As a man gets older he begins to see that his life has not been made up of unrelated patches, but it has been an intelligent working and programme throughout. When a man is young, life seems made up of events unrelated, contradictory, grotesque; life seems made up of ups and downs, ins and outs, births, deaths, and marriages, without rhyme and without reason. But when a man gets old, at the right distance from the dome, he begins to see that God girded him when he knew it not, and that God has been shaping things from infancy to age. I don't think for a moment that I deceive myself when I think to-day of my life; I can see to-day what I did not see before, that God has been standing at the back, and He has ordered things, and what I once thought a mistake I see now to have been right, and before I have done, very likely, I shall see the picture more clearly than I see it to-day. I am a philosophical historian on a small scale, and I begin to feel that God has worked out my life with a distinct purpose and plan, and I have a deep conviction that He has done all things well. Everything good in its place — what did I say? — everything good for its purpose. Try that again. What is the object of the government of God? To make us perfect, to make us into noble men and women. The failures of society are only imperfections that aim at a larger perfection — the perfection of the man. When you judge things, you judge they are blunders, because they have spoiled your money, or they have spoiled your health, or they have spoiled your happiness. Not at all. Think how they stand related to your discipline, your higher education, your perfecting in knowledge and righteousness; think of that. Judge the purpose, and then you will see that it was not a blunder. "Thy judgments are a great deep," says the psalmist. Yes, a great deep, that is now, and we are sceptics, we are complaining, the air is filled with criticism and cynicisms and blasphemies. "Thy judgments are a great deep," and we say all sorts of wicked things. But on the last page of the book I read, "For Thy judgments are made manifest."

(W. L. Watkinson.)

---

---

KJV: Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.

WEB: There is no one like you among the gods, Lord, nor any deeds like your deeds.