Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Storrs was a student at Andover Theological Seminary with young Gordon Hall. On a certain Saturday, towards the end of their course, Hall was preparing to go to Braintree to preach upon the following Sabbath, having some expectation that the invitation so to do would grow into a call. In the act of splitting some wood, however, his hat fell from his head beneath the axe, and was cut in twain and ruined. The circumstances were such that to replace it was impossible just then; and Hall, compelled to vacate his engagement at Braintree, arranged with Storrs to go in his place. Storrs went. His preaching pleased. He was invited to come again. And the result was that Hall was quite forgotten, a call was presently extended to Storrs, it was accepted, and he was in due time settled, remaining the minister of that parish until his dying day, a period of more than half a century. Hall, disappointed, one might naturally suppose at this thwarting of his hopes, had his mind turned to the foreign mission field, and became Gordon Hall, the first missionary of the American Board, whose name is for ever linked with the early enterprise of that eminent organisation. No one who has any belief in Divine providence will for a moment doubt that God stationed Storrs at Braintree and sent Hall to India; but does it not also seem as if He effected that arrangement by means of the accident to the hat? And this is the obvious lesson of the incident: that there is really no such thing as accident in this world; that "all things work together" in the execution of God's purposes, and "for good to them that love Him"; that the most trivial occurrence should be contemplated in the light of the possibilities which may flow from it; and that our least concerns, as well as our greatest, are under the supervision and control of the heavenly Father. Parallel Verses KJV: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. |
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