and organization is the first. Neither the universe nor any part of it is to be identified with God, any more than my thoughts and acts are to be identified with me. Martineau, in Nineteenth Century, April, 1895: 559-“What is nature, but the promise of God's pledged and habitual causality? And what is spirit, but the province of his free causality responding to needs and affections of his free children? . . . God is not a retired architect who may now and then be called in for repairs. Nature is not self-active, and God's agency is not intrusive." William Watson, Poems, 88-"If nature be a phantasm, as thou say'st, A splendid fiction and prodigious dream, To reach the real and true I'll make no haste, More than content with worlds that only seem."

(b) It exaggerates God's power only by sacrificing his truth, love, and holiness; for if finite personalities are not what they seem—namely, objective existences - God's veracity is impugned; if the human soul has no real freedom and life, God's love has made no self-communication to creatures; if God's will is the only force in the universe, God's holiness can no longer be asserted, for the divine will must in that case be regarded as the author of human sin.

Upon this view personal identity is inexplicable. Edwards bases identity upon the arbitrary decree of God. God can therefore, by so decreeing, make Adam's posterity one with their first father and responsible for his sin. Edwards's theory of continuous creation, indeed, was devised as an explanation of the problem of original sin. The divinely appointed union of acts and exercises with Adam was held sufficient, without union of substance, or natural generation from him, to explain our being born corrupt and guilty. This view would have been impossible, if Edwards had not been an idealist, making far too much of acts and exercises and far too little of substance.

It is difficult to explain the origin of Jonathan Edwards's idealism. It has sometimes been attributed to the reading of Berkeley. Dr. Samuel Johnson, afterwards President of King's College in New York City, a personal friend of Bishop Berkeley and an ardent follower of his teaching, was a tutor in Yale College while Edwards was a student. But Edwards was in Weathersfield while Johnson remained in New Haven, and was among those disaffected towards Johnson as a tutor. Yet Edwards, Original Sin, 479, seems to allude to the Berkeleyan philosophy when he says: "The course of nature is demonstrated by recent improvements in philosophy to be indeed . . . nothing but the established order and operation of the Author of nature (see Allen, Jonathan Edwards, 16, 308, 309). President McCracken, in Philos. Rev., Jan. 1892 : 26-42, holds that Arthur Collier's Clavis Universalis is the source of Edwards's idealism. It is more probable that his idealism was the result of his own independent thinking, occasioned perhaps by mere hints from Locke, Newton, Cudworth, and Norris, with whose writings he certainly was acquainted. See E. C. Smyth, in Am. Jour. Theol., Oct. 1897: 956; Prof. Gardiner, in Philos. Rev., Nov. 1900: 573–596.

....

How thorough-going this idealism of Edwards was may be learned from Noah Porter's Discourse on Bishop George Berkeley, 71, and quotations from Edwards, in Journ. Spec. Philos., Oct. 1883: 401-420-"Nothing else has a proper being but spirits, and bodies are but the shadow of being.... Seeing the brain exists only mentally, I therefore acknowledge that I speak improperly when I say that the soul is in the brain only, as to its operations. For, to speak yet more strictly and abstractedly, 't is nothing but the connection of the soul with these and those modes of its own ideas, or those mental acts of the Deity, seeing the brain exists only in idea. . . . That which truly is the substance of all bodies is the infinitely exact and precise and perfectly stable idea in God's mind, together with his stable will that the same shall be gradually communicated to us and to other minds according to certain fixed and established methods and laws; or, in somewhat different language, the infinitely exact and precise divine idea, together with an answerable, perfectly exact, precise, and stable will, with respect to correspondent communications to created minds and effects on those minds." It is easy to see how, from this view of Edwards, the "Exercise-system " of Hopkins and Emmons naturally developed itself. On Edwards's Idealism, see Frazer's Berkeley (Blackwood's Philos. Classics), 139, 140. On personal identity, see Bp. Butler, Works (Bohn's ed.), 327-334.

(c) As deism tends to atheism, so the doctrine of continuous creation tends to pantheism.—Arguing that, because we get our notion of force

from the action of our own wills, therefore all force must be will, and divine will, it is compelled to merge the human will in this all-comprehending will of God. Mind and matter alike become phenomena of one force, which has the attributes of both; and, with the distinct existence and personality of the human soul, we lose the distinct existence and personality of God, as well as the freedom and accountability of man.

Lotze tries to escape from material causes and yet hold to second causes, by intimating that these second causes may be spirits. But though we can see how there can be a sort of spirit in the brute and in the vegetable, it is hard to see how what we call insensate matter can have spirit in it. It must be a very peculiar sort of spirit-a deaf and dumb spirit, if any--and such a one does not help our thinking. On this theory the body of a dog would need to be much more highly endowed than its soul. James Seth, in Philos. Rev., Jan. 1894 : 73-“This principle of unity is a veritable lion's den, all the footprints are in one direction. Either it is a bare unity-the One annuls the many; or it is simply the All, - the ununified totality of existence." Dorner well remarks that "Preservation is empowering of the creature and maintenance of its activity, not new bringing it into being." On the whole subject, see Julius Müller, Doctrine of Sin, 1:220-225; Philippi, Glaubenslehre, 2:258-272; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 50; Hodge, Syst. Theol., 1:577-581, 595; Dabney, Theology, 338, 339.

IV. REMARKS UPON THE DIVINE CONCURRENCE.

(a) The divine efficiency interpenetrates that of man without destroying or absorbing it. The influx of God's sustaining energy is such that men retain their natural faculties and powers. God does not work all, but all in all.

Preservation, then, is midway between the two errors of denying the first cause (deism or atheism) and denying the second causes (continuous creation or pantheism). 1 Cor. 12:6-"there are diversities of workings, but the same God, who worketh all things in all"; cf. Eph. 1:23— the church, "which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." God's action is no actio in distans, or action where he is not. It is rather action in and through free agents, in the case of intelligent and moral beings, while it is his own continuous willing in the case of nature. Men are second causes in a sense in which nature is not. God works through these human second causes, but he does not supersede them. We cannot see the line between the two- the action of the first cause and the action of second causes; yet both are real, and each is distinct from the other, though the method of God's concurrence is inscrutable. As the pen and the hand together produce the writing, so God's working causes natural powers to work with him. The natural growth indicated by the words "wherein is the seed thereof" (Gen. 1:11) has its counterpart in the spiritual growth described in the words "his seed abideth in him " (1 John 3:9). Paul considers himself a reproductive agency in the hands of God: he begets children in the gospel (1 Cor. 4:15); yet the New Testament speaks of this begetting as the work of God (1 Pet. 1:3). We are bidden to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, upon the very ground that it is God who works in us both to will and to work (Phil. 2:12, 13).

(b) Though God preserves mind and body in their working, we are ever to remember that God concurs with the evil acts of his creatures only as they are natural acts, and not as they are evil.

In holy action God gives the natural powers, and by his word and Spirit influences the soul to use these powers aright. But in evil action God gives only the natural powers; the evil direction of these powers is caused only by man. Jer. 44:4-"Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate "; Hab. 1: 13-"Thou that art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and that canst not look on perverseness, wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy peace when the wicked swalloweth up the man that is more righteous than he?" James 1:13, 14-"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man: but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed." Aaron excused himself for making an Egyptian idol by saying that the fire did it; he asked the people for gold; "so they gave it me; and I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf" (Ex. 32:24). Aaron leaves out one important point

- his own personal agency in it all. In like manner we lay the blame of our sins upon nature and upon God. Pym said of Strafford that God had given him great talents, of which the devil had given the application. But it is more true to say of the wicked man that he himself gives the application of his God-given powers. We are electric cars for which God furnishes the motive-power, but to which we the conductors give the direction. We are organs; the wind or breath of the organ is God's; but the fingering of the keys is ours. Since the maker of the organ is also present at every moment as its preserver, the shameful abuse of his instrument and the dreadful music that is played are a continual grief and suffering to his soul. Since it is Christ who upholds all things by the word of his power, preservation involves the suffering of Christ, and this suffering is his atonement, of which the culmination and demonstration are seen in the cross of Calvary (Heb. 1:3). On the importance of the idea of preservation in Christian doctrine, see Calvin, Institutes, 1:182 (chapter 16).

SECTION III.-PROVIDENCE.

I. DEFINITION OF PROVIDENCE.

Providence is that continuous agency of God by which he makes all the events of the physical and moral universe fulfill the original design with which he created it.

As Creation explains the existence of the universe, and as Preservation explains its continuance, so Providence explains its evolution and progress.

In explanation notice :

(a) Providence is not to be taken merely in its etymological sense of foreseeing. It is forseeing also, or a positive agency in connection with all the events of history.

(b) Providence is to be distinguished from preservation. While preservation is a maintenance of the existence and powers of created things, providence is an actual care and control of them.

(c) Since the original plan of God is all-comprehending, the providence which executes the plan is all-comprehending also, embracing within its scope things small and great, and exercising care over individuals as well as over classes.

(d) In respect to the good acts of men, providence embraces all those natural influences of birth and surroundings which prepare men for the operation of God's word and Spirit, and which constitute motives to obedience.

(e) In respect to the evil acts of men, providence is never the efficient cause of sin, but is by turns preventive, permissive, directive, and determinative.

(f) Since Christ is the only revealer of God, and he is the medium of every divine activity, providence is to be regarded as the work of Christ; see 1 Cor. 8:6. one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things"; cf. John 5:17-"My Father worketh even until now, and I work.”

66

The Germans have the word Fürsehung, forseeing, looking out for, as well as the word Vorschung, foreseeing, seeing beforehand. Our word providence' embraces the meanings of both these words. On the general subject of providence, see Philippi,

Glaubenslehre, 2:272-284; Calvin, Institutes, 1:182-219; Dick, Theology, 1:416-446; Hodge, Syst. Theol, 1:581-616; Bib. Sac., 12:179; 21:584; 26:315; 30:593; N. W. Taylor, Moral Government, 2: 294–326.

Providence is God's attention concentrated everywhere. His care is microscopic as well as telescopic. Robert Browning, Pippa Passes, ad finem: “All service is the same with God-With God, whose puppets, best and worst, Are we: there is no last nor first." Canon Farrar: "In one chapter of the Koran is the story how Gabriel, as he waited by the gates of gold, was sent by God to earth to do two things. One was to prevent king Solomon from the sin of forgetting the hour of prayer in exultation over his royal steeds; the other to help a little yellow ant on the slope of Ararat, which had grown weary in getting food for its nest, and which would otherwise perish in the rain. To Gabriel the one behest seemed just as kingly as the other, since God had ordered it. 'Silently he left The Presence, and prevented the king's sin, And holp the little ant at entering in.' 'Nothing is too high or low, Too mean or mighty, if God wills it so." Yet a preacher began his sermon on Mat. 10:30 "The very hairs of your head are are all numbered "- by saying: "Why, some of you, my hearers, do not believe that even your heads are all numbered!"

A modern prophet of unbelief in God's providence is William Watson. In his poem entitled The Unknown God, we read: "When overarched by gorgeous night, I wave my trivial self away; When all I was to all men's sight Shares the erasure of the day; Then do I cast my cumbering load, Then do I gain a sense of God." Then he likens the God of the Old Testament to Odin and Zeus, and continues: "O streaming worlds, O crowded sky, O life, and mine own soul's abyss, Myself am scarce so small that I Should bow to Deity like this! This my Begetter? This was what Man in his violent youth begot. The God I know of I shall ne'er Know, though he dwells exceeding nigh. Raise thou the stone and find me there, Cleave thou the wood and there am I. Yea, in my flesh his Spirit doth flow, Too near, too far, for me to know. Whate'er my deeds, I am not sure That I can pleasure him or vex: I, that must use a speech so poor It narrows the Supreme with sex. Notes he the good or ill in man? To hope he cares is all I can. I hope with fear. For did I trust This vision granted me at birth, The sire of heaven would seem less just Than many a faulty son of earth. And so he seems indeed! But then, I trust it not, this bounded ken. And dreaming much, I never dare To dream that in my prisoned soul The flutter of a trembling prayer Can move the Mind that is the Whole. Though kneeling nations watch and yearn, Does the primeval Purpose turn? Best by remembering God, say some, We keep our high imperial lot. Fortune, I fear, hath oftenest come When we forgot - when we forgot! A lovelier faith their happier crown, But history laughs and weeps it down: Know they not well how seven times seven, Wronging our mighty arms with rust, We dared not do the work of heaven, Lest heaven should hurl us in the dust? The work of heaven! "T is waiting still The sanction of the heavenly will. Unmeet to be profaned by praise Is he whose coils the world enfold; The God on whom I ever gaze, The God I never once behold: Above the cloud, above the clod, The unknown God, the unknown God."

In pleasing contrast to William Watson's Unknown God, is the God of Rudyard Kipling's Recessional: "God of our fathers, known of old Lord of our far-flung battleline-Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine- Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget-lest we forget! The tumult and the shouting dies-The captains and the kings depart - Still stands thine ancient Sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heart. Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget! Far-called our navies melt away- On dune and headland sinks the fireSo, all our pomp of yesterday Is one with Nineveh and Tyre! Judge of the nations, spare us yet, Lest we forget - lest we forget! If, drunk with sight of power, we loose Wild tongues that have not thee in awe-Such boasting as the Gentiles use, Or lesser breeds without the Law - Lord God of hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget-lest we forget! For heathen heart that puts her trust In reeking tube and iron shard-All valiant dust that builds on dust, And guarding calls not thee to guard-For frantic boast and foolish word, Thy mercy on thy people, Lord!"

These problems of God's providential dealings are intelligible only when we consider that Christ is the revealer of God, and that his suffering for sin opens to us the heart of God. All history is the progressive manifestation of Christ's holiness and love, and in the cross we have the key that unlocks the secret of the universe. With the cross in view, we can believe that Love rules over all, and that "all things work together for good to them that love God" (Rom. 8:28).

II. PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE OF PROVIDENCE.

1. Scriptural Proof.

The Scripture witnesses to

A. A general providential government and control (a) over the universe at large; (b) over the physical world; (c) over the brute creation; (d) over the affairs of nations; (e) over man's birth and lot in life; (ƒ) over the outward successes and failures of men's lives; (g) over things seemingly accidental or insignificant; (h) in the protection of the righteous; (i) in the supply of the wants of God's people; (j) in the arrangement of answers to prayer; (k) in the exposure and punishment of the wicked.

(a) Ps. 103: 19" his kingdom ruleth over all"; Dan. 4: 35 — “doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth"; Eph. 1: 11-"worketh all things after the counsel of his will."

(b) Job 37:5, 10-"God thundereth. . . . By the breath of God ice is given"; Ps. 104: 14-"causeth the grass to grow for the cattle"; 135: 6, 7-"Whatsoever Jehovah pleased, that hath he done, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps. vapors. . . . lightnings . . . . wind "; Mat. 5: 45-"maketh his sun to rise. . . . sendeth rain"; Ps. 104:16-"The trees of Jehovah are filled" are planted and tended by God as carefully as those which come under human cultivation; cf. Mat. 6: 30-"if God so clothe the grass of the field."

(c) Ps. 104:21, 28-"young lions roar. . . . seek their food from God. . . . that thou givest them they gather " Mat, 6:26"b.rds of the heaven . . . . your heavenly Father feedeth them "; 10: 29-"two sparrows .... not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father."

(d) Job 12: 23-"He increaseth the nat ons, and he destroyeth them: He enlargeth the nations, and he leadeth them captive"; Ps. 22: 28-"the kingdom is Jehovah's; And he is the ruler over the nations"; 66: 7-"He ruleth by his might for ever; His eyes observe the nations"; Acts 17:26 - "made of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed seasons, and the bounds of their habitation' (instance Palestine, Greece, England).

(e) 1 Sam. 16:1-"fill thy horn with oil, and go: I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided me a king among his sons"; Ps. 139: 16-Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance, And in thy book were all my members written"; Is. 45: 5-"I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me"; Jer. 1 : 5- "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee. . . . sanctified thee. . . . appointed thee"; Gal. 1: 15, 16-"God, who separated me, even from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles."

(f) Ps. 75: 6, 7-"neither from the east, nor from the west, Nor yet from the south cometh lifting up. But God is the judge, He putteth down one, and lifteth up another"; Luke 1: 52" He hath put down princes from their thrones, And hath exalted them of low degree."

(g) Prov. 16: 33-"The lot is cast into the lap; But the whole disposing thereof is of Jehovah "; Mat. 10: 30-"the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

(h) Ps. 4: 8-"In peace will I both lay me down and sleep; For thou, Jehovah, alone makest me dwell in safety "; 5: 12" thou wilt compass him with favor as with a shield"; 63: 8—“ "Thy right hand upholdeth me"; 121: 3— "He that keepeth thee will not slumber"; Rom. 8: 28-"to them that love God all things work together for good." (i) Gen. 22: 8, 14-"God will provide himself the lamb.... Jehovah-jireh" (marg.: that is, 'Jehovah will see,' or 'provide'); Deut. 8: 3—"man doth not live by bread only, but by every thing that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth man live"; Phil. 4: 19-"my God shall supply every need of yours."

(j) Ps. 68: 10-"Thou, O God, didst prepare of thy goodness for the poor"; Is. 64: 4-"neither hath the eye seen a God besides thre, who worketh for him that waiteth for him "; Mat, 6: 8-"your Father knoweth what things yo have need of, before ye ask him "; 32, 33"all these things shall be added unto you."

(k) Ps. 7: 12, 13-"If a man turn not, he will whet his sword; He hath bent his bow and made it ready; He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He maketh his arrows fiery shafts"; 11: 6- “ "Upon the wicked he will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind shall be the portion of their cup."

The statements of Scripture with regard to God's providence are strikingly confirmed by recent studies in physiography. In the early stages of human development man was almost wholly subject to nature, and environment was a determining factor in his progress. This is the element of truth in Buckle's view. But Buckle ignored the fact that, as civilization advanced, ideas, at least at times, played a greater part than environment. Thermopyla cannot be explained by climate. In the later stages of human development, nature is largely subject to man, and environment counts for comparatively little. "There shall be no Alps!" says Napoleon. Charles Kingsley: