then leave it to go of itself. No; "His mercy is over all His
works." Loving and merciful, the God of nature is the God of grace.
The same love which chose us and our forefathers for His people
while we were yet dead in trespasses and sins; the same only-
begotten Son, who came down on earth to die for us poor wretches on
the cross,--that same love, that same power, that same Word of God,
who made heaven and earth, looks after the poor gnats in the winter
time, that they may have a chance of coming out of the ground when
the day stirs the little life in them, and dance in the sunbeam for
a short hour of gay life, before they return to the dust whence they
were made, to feed creatures nobler and more precious than
themselves. That is all God's doing, all the doing of Christ, the
King of the earth. "They wait on Him," says David. The beasts, and
birds, and insects, the strange fish, and shells, and the nameless
corals too, in the deep, deep sea, who build and build below the
water for years and thousands of years, every little, tiny creature
bringing his atom of lime to add to the great heap, till their heap
stands out of the water and becomes dry land; and seeds float
thither over the wide waste sea, and trees grow up, and birds are
driven thither by storms; and men come by accident in stray ships,
and build, and sow, and multiply, and raise churches, and worship
the God of heaven, and Christ, the blessed One,--on that new land
which the little coral worms have built up from the deep. Consider
that. Who sent them there? Who contrived that those particular men
should light on that new island at that especial time? Who guided
thither those seeds--those birds? Who gave those insects that
strange longing and power to build and build on continually?--
Christ, by whom all things are made, to whom all power is given in
heaven and earth; He and His Spirit, and none else. It is when HE
opens His hand, they are filled with good. It is when HE takes away