beautiful letter. It is known as the Old Testament. It tells us of God, his wisdom, his power, his holiness, his justice, his wondrous love. It tells us many things that we have hungered to know, and our hearts are strangely warmed and our spirits fed as we ponder over the message he has sent. But somehow it does not fully satisfy. Even yet there is confusion of mind. Something else we need. We do not know just what it is. But he knows. An object lesson! A living reality! For God's plan of salvation is adapted not to the wise only, but to the ordinary mind and the common man also. We need the actual image of himself in the person of a living man. And in the fullness of time he who supplies every need of man, sent forth his Son, born of woman, incarnated under the law. His name was Immanuel -God with us. He dwelt among us. He entered our homes. He sat at our firesides. He ate at our tables. He talked to us face to face. He taught us many beautiful things of the life that now is and of the things that shall be hereafter. But, chiefest of all, he taught us what God is. His teachings, his miracles, his holy life, these revealed God to us as never before. But more than all these his life with men, his attitude toward them, his pity for the weak, his kindness to the erring, his forgiveness of insults, his gentleness toward the penitent, his unchanging love under all circumstances and yet along with it unswerving hatred of sham and evil - all of these have given us in Christ Jesus our Lord, a perfect image of the One True God. For in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was the express image of the invisible God. He that hath seen him hath seen the Father. He that knoweth him knoweth God. He was Deity incarnate. Upon this rock he has built his church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

ARTICLE VI.

TO WHAT EXTENT DOES GOD REIGN?

BY THE REVEREND JAMES MUDGE, S.T.D.,
MALDEN, MASS.

FEW questions penetrate further into the roots of theology than this, few have a closer grip on practical affairs, few have more intimate relations with religious enjoyment. The doctrine of Divine Providence, Dr. Charles Hodge has said, "is confessedly the most comprehensive and difficult in the compass either of theology or of philosophy." And nothing but a thorough knowledge of this doctrine can properly answer the query propounded above. Therefore that it is difficult to answer it with complete satisfaction may well be admitted. And the difficulty will, of course, fully account for the great diversity of theories which have been set on foot in regard to the matter. Men have differed and debated about it from time immemorial; they will differ and debate about it till time shall be no more. Hence, in attempting here an explanation of that which has occupied so many wise heads, we do it with no hope of securing universal agreement. We believe, however, that the argument here presented cannot be successfully assailed, and we are sure that unspeakable comfort comes to those who find themselves able to receive it, for it brings God into closer connection with our days than any other scheme and fills the devout heart with perpetual bliss.

The art of always rejoicing rests on a twofold foundation:

We must make our will one with God's will, and we must identify God's will with the occurrences of each moment. If both these things be done, evidently our will is thus brought into perfect accord with every event, precluding all friction, insuring perpetual peace and triumph. If we behold and hail a living, loving will of our Heavenly Father in every minute happening of each second, we are in a constant attitude of welcoming gladness and genuine exuberance as we greet the day's unfoldings. It is only with the second part of this double identification that any one can, theoretically, have trouble; for all admit that we should submit to God, but all do not seem able to comprehend how God is in everything. To this we accordingly address ourselves.

All must see its deep significance. For what boots it to say, with St. Paul, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God," if we balk at the weighty word "all," and except from its scope those things which are mingled with human malice or mistakes, either other people's or our own? The profoundest necessities of the most practical piety require a distinct, unequivocal recognition of the absolute sovereignty of God in the affairs of the world. Not otherwise can there be that constant perception of the Divine Being as always appearing, even in the smallest events, which is so essential to any close walk with him. There cannot be that direct dealing with him so promotive of entire deliverance from the distresses that come when the provocations of men and the perversity of things fill the eye of the soul. God's promises cannot afford a sufficient basis for our trust unless his power to carry them out to the very letter under all circumstances is put beyond question. Prayer will find its pinions clipped if any doubt whatever is cast upon the ability of the Father to succor his children. Our peace will suffer

irretrievably if there is any loophole, even the slightest, for the possible defeat of God's purposes concerning us. Christian resignation under the minor adversities and little trials, as well as the greater troubles, of life, becomes practically impossible unless we are quite sure that the hand of God, and not the hand of man or the devil, sends the calamity; and we can hardly be thus sure in any instance unless we are in every instance. Only he can rejoice always, without the possibility of being pronounced a fool or a fanatic, who knows that always what touches him is a manifestation of the blessed will of his loving Father. This surety is the source, and the only source, of the deepest peace, the highest exultation, the warmest gratitude, the clearest hope, the strongest trust, the profoundest patience, the completest calm, and the supremest beauty that can crown the religious life. It is the firm foundation of all personal piety, the unfailing fountain of the sweetest, noblest, truest devotion.

To grasp this truth we need to be convinced of just two propositions: The first is that God is the source of all motion in the physical universe. It may be said, we think, with confidence, that this is now the practically unanimous conclusion of those best qualified to have an opinion on the subject, or at least of all Christian theists, if not of all who recognize the existence of God at all. They are substantially agreed that there must be a Power working through the mechanism of the universe, and that this Power is the Being we call God; that he is the only ultimate force in material matters, and hence the sole responsible author of all physical action. This view, not a very recent one, has been constantly strengthening its hold on the men of the learned world for a long time. Weighty names in abundance might be quoted to this effect.

They affirm that the whole universe is the will of one supreme intelligence, that all the phenomena of nature reveal the universal presence and ceaseless agency of the Deity. He is in creation, not on the outside of it. Matter has no existence apart from the continuous energy of the Divine will, upholding all things by the word of his power. The cause of the uniformities of nature is to be found in the will of the omnipotent intelligence whose plans are changeless because his wisdom is perfect from all eternity. Not an atom of matter has ever changed its position but in obedience to his will. Therefore no sinful purpose can obtain objective fulfillment, can be consummated in external action, except by the agency of God, which means, of course, except the result contribute to the advancement of his eternal plans. What we cali nature (including, of course, the bodies of animals and men) is but the form and product of God's ceaseless activity. In him we live, and move, and have our being." God is the life of everything that lives, the motor of everything that moves, the fountain of all force. Providence is not an exceptional interference with the course of nature; the course of nature is itself providence; and nothing is too small to be included in it. If there is purpose in anything, there is purpose in everything. All objective things, all things in the material realm, are mere causal points where God is and where he works, are activities of the living God. The universe is nothing other than God in action. Thus God, it will be manifest, is the responsible author of each occurrence in the physical or material world, whether that occurrence be in connection with human activity or entirely divorced therefrom; and every event is, in the strictest sense of the term, a providence, a godsend.

This brings us to the second of the propositions referred