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SERMON XXXV.

GOD'S CARE FOR HIS PEOPLE

BY THE REV. A. E. FARRAR.

“He careth for you."-1 Pet. v. 7.

Ir ever opinion entertained by any human mind was fraught with more than ordinary absurdity and cruelty, it is that which, excluding the divine Being from the government of the world he has formed, represents it as abandoned to the sport of a blind and uncertain chance. For were it possible to conceive that infinite Wisdom knows not our affairs; or that, supremely happy in himself, the God of unbounded love does not concern himself about them; could it be credited, that of him who "fills all things," the world is empty, while we gazed upon "the fatherless void," we might exclaim as Paul did, under a supposition not more abhorrent to truth, "We are of all men most miserable."

This appears to us to contain an awful reflection upon God. We deny not, that a thinking man, contemplating the grandeur of his Creator, may, for a moment, be tempted to question the individuality of his attentions. Led by the discoveries of science, the imagination may travel from world to world, and system to system, amidst the still increasing magnificence of the divine formations, until our earth becomes an indiscernible speck, and appear to bear no more proportion to the other productions of creative energy, than a single leaf to the foliage of a widely extended forest. Amid the illimitable expansion around, we may feel ourselves dwindle into nothingness, and with somewhat of the hesitancy of There is, however, another sentiment unbelief, may ask, "What is man, that upon this subject, which, if more feasible, thou art mindful of him?" But, be it is not less scripturally incorrect. I remembered, that little and great are disallude to the theory which represents the tinctions of finite minds, which will bear Almighty as "full orb'd, in his whole no correct application to the divine Being; round of rays complete," and only con- and when we consider, that he "filleth descending to afford mankind some all in all," that he is at the same moment general and undefined regards; and his every where, no object can be too minute government as a mere mechanical agency, for his attention; and while he "hangs controlled by certain immutable laws, the earth over the empty space," and which admit not of one peculiar or bene- wheels planets in their orbits, he, with volent attention. Infidels and semi-infi- no less regard, superintends "the flutterdels have attempted to derive support to ings of the bee," and directs the smallest such views from the consideration of corpuscle of blood that flits through the man's comparative insignificancy. In veins of the smallest animalcule. the flowery numbers and classic styles of poetry, we have been taught

The universal cause
Acts not by partial, but by general laws,
He sees with equal eye, as Lord of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall;
Systems or atoms into nothing hurl'd,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world."

I am not prepared to say the subject of a particular providence involves no difficulties. One is, the apparent disorder that exists in many providential arrangements; but of this we are incompetent to judge, because we cannot embrace the whole circumference of the divine proceeding. The mighty chain of his deal

ings seems often intercepted and broken; "falleth not to the ground without his but when we are enabled to trace up the notice." He "feedeth the young raconcatenation of causes and events to vens;" he "careth for oxen." "The their ultimate tendencies-to look along eyes of all wait upon him, and he giveth the line to its termination, every thing them their meat in due season." Incomwill demonstrate the perfection of a parably beautiful in this view is the landivine agency. At present, "we know" guage of our Lord to his disciples. only "in part." The infinite combina-"Take no thought what ye shall eat;. tions and workings of the admirable ma- consider the ravens; they have no barn chinery, which, to the eye of the artist, nor storehouse; your Father feedeth them. are simplicity itself, may seem to us And why take ye thought for raiment? mere complicated confusion; but when, Consider the lilies of the field; they toil in the light of eternity, and with an eye not, they spin not; and yet I say unto strengthened by the vision of God, we you, that Solomon in all his glory was look through the perplexing movements, not arrayed like one of these. Your every thing will appear honourable to the Father clotheth them." But the arrangewisdom and benevolence of Him who, in ments of Providence, like the dispensaadoring wonder, we shall perceive, "hath tions of grace, concern more immediately done all things well"-"Clouds and man. darkness are round about him; but justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne."

Every difficulty, however, with which this subject is perplexed, gives place to the authority of God; and it is sufficient for us that the doctrine of a particular providence is pre-eminently that of the Scriptures. On this point, no words need be more explicit than those of the text-"HE," that is God, "CARETH FOR YOU." They are adduced as a motive for "casting all our care upon him ;" and it is impossible to conceive a motive more obvious and persuasive. But I purpose to give them a distinct consideration as a truth of general practical importance. Let us inquire to whom they refer? Whether the truth they state can be established? and what improvement should be made of the doctrine? And,

Him God has made capable of knowing and loving himself. In the visitations that meet him he can recognise his Father; and through the channel of benevolent communication made to him, return to the source of all his blessings. And man needs the most effective expressions of divine attention. Immortals, standing on the brink of eternity, and yet ignorant of the events of the next hour; capable of celestial enjoyments, but placed in circumstances inimical to their attainment; surrounded with enemies, and incident to a thousand unseen calamities; miserable indeed were your lot, my brethren, if left to struggle alone with your difficulties. I know we are unworthy of the divine attention. Though "he careth for you," some of you are thoughtlessly unconcerned about him. Suppose not, however, that Providence waiteth upon your sins, continuing impenitent; every part of his word denounceth wrath against you, and your final doom must be inevitable and There is, indeed, a sense in which God aggravated perdition. Yet Providence cares for all his creatures, animate and is co-operating with grace to save you. inanimate. He "maketh the outgoings In what period hath God left himself of the morning and evening to rejoice." "without witness, doing good, sending He covers the fields with abundance. rain and fruitful seasons, and filling men's He❝ crowns the year with his goodness." He beams forth in the spring, and approaches us in the bounties of summer, and loads us with the profusion of autumn. During the stormy winter, the insignificant sparrow chirping on the hedge,

First, To WHOM DO THESE WORDS REFER? Not to the inanimate, but rational creation to man.

hearts with food and gladness?" To what part of the world hath he not gone forth in expressions of beneficence and mercy; shining in the splendour of the sun, instructing by the pale glory of the moon, and twinkling in the stars?

"Day unto day uttereth speech." In every thing, the Lord is looking after the interests of man.

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But the persons more immediately concerned in our subject, are described in a preceding part of the epistle, as "called out from darkness into marvellous light;" "which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever." "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctification of the Spirit." This is designatory phraseology, which needs no explanation. But if there be any circumstances in which the consolation of the subject may be peculiarly claimed, they are those of suffering. Of the persons primarily interested in the text, the apostle says, "If need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations ;" and intimates, that further and severer trials awaited them. Think it not strange," &c. How soothing must it have proved to persons so situated, to read, " Casting all your care upon HIM, for HE careth for you."

"His saints are lovely in his sight,

He views his children with delight,
He sees their hope, he knows their fear,
He looks and loves his image there."

Secondly. Our next inquiry is, WHETHER THE TRUTH THESE WORDS STATE, CAN BE SUBSTANTIATED?

And, happily, on a point of so much consequence, we are not left to mere conjectures. Had we no express declaration on the subject, we might, indeed, safely rest it upon deduction; and an inference, the most obvious, drawn from the most simple premises, would immediately offer itself; an inference from the divine interest in us. Shall not the Maker care for his works? Does the potter form his vessel that it may be instantly dashed in pieces by the first rude hand that may touch it? Does the artist employ his pains and skill in constructing a curious piece of machinery, and then abandon it to the sport of a blind or malevolent curi

osity? But God has expended upon believers wonders of wisdom and goodness: he has done more; he has made them miracles of mercy; and can he cease to feel interested in their welfare? Similar, on this topic, was the reasoning of our adorable Redeemer-" Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? and not one of them falleth to the ground without your Father. Ye are of more value than many sparrows."

This is not a subject involving the least uncertainty. It is revealed in the most explicit terms. We have but to turn over the pages of the holy writ, to perceive it shining in all the radiance of divine illumination. Let us examine a few passages. Here is one-"Fear not Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward." Perhaps, you say, this concerned Abram only. But "they that are of faith are Abram's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Well; here is another. "The Lord's portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste-howling wilderness; he led him about; he instructed him; he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him." This, you say, refers to the Israelites; recollect, however, that "the things which happened unto them were examples." We will turn to the book of Psalms

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The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers."—"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him; for he knoweth whereof we are made, and remembereth that we are but dust." On this pleasing subject, the prophet Isaiah is equally evangelical as upon every other. "Fear thou not," says he, in the language of God; "I am with thee. When thou passest through the water and through the fire, I will be with thee; the flames shall not kindle upon thee, neither shall the floods drown thee. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they

this have we found; know now whether it be thy son's coat or not?" "It is my son's coat," said he. "Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces; some evil beast hath devoured him; I will go down to the grave unto my son mourning." His tears were scarcely wiped, his wounds were not yet closed, when his sons returning from Egypt, where they had been to purchase corn for the support of their families during a famine, informed their father, that unless their younger brother, Benjamin, returned with them into Egypt, the governor would sell them no more corn. The prospect of this second loss was more than Jacob could well bear. "How was it that ye dealt so ill with

may: yet will I not forget thee. I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." I will make one quotation more. "Then," says Malachi (and they were bad times in which he prophesied,) "Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard them; and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." These are all passages from the Old Testament; in the New, this doctrine, like that of immortality, shines still more re-me, as to tell the man ye had yet a brofulgently; and it may be enough to state, that the sermons of our Lord, and the epistles of his apostles, are in perfect coincidence with the language of our text, and most explicitly prove that God "careth for us."

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ther? Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and now ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me, and ye will bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave!" Stop, Jacob! God "careth for thee." "Joseph is yet alive, and is governor of Egypt." And when a few weeks after, Jacob had embraced the long-lost exile on the plains of Goshen, he heard the same from his own lips-"God hath sent me before you, to save your lives by a great deliverance."

An instance may be selected from the New Testament; the case of Peter himself. His enemies had put him in prison, and waited but the lapse of Pentecost to glut their malice in his blood; but

Is it asked, do the divine proceedings correspond with this language? We appeal to facts. The truth derives the most ample illustration and confirmation from experience. A few instances may suffice for selection. The first that presents itself is in the Old Testament. And here you anticipate me: it is the history of Joseph. The foolish predilection of Jacob had rendered Joseph obnoxious to his brethren's hatred; when sent to the fields of Dothan, where they fed their flocks, to inquire after their welfare, the unnatural" prayer was made of the church without men seized the opportunity of revenging the preference of their father upon the innocent object of his affections; and "Joseph was sold into Egypt." To conceal their crime from the aged patri-him from his sleep, snapped his fetters, arch, they dyed Joseph's coat in the blood of a kid, and set forward towards the vale of Hebron, the family residence. I seem to see the venerable Jacob ascend the hill, look wistfully toward Dothan, and then, as if boding some ill, retire thoughtfully to his home. At length, the ten sons make their appearance; he casts over them his inquiring eye, and has scarcely asked for Joseph, when they produce the blood-stained robe, and, with all the apathy of guilt, state, "Behold,

ceasing to God for him." And the very night before he was to have been brought out to the people, an angel of God, specially appointed for the purpose, roused

and "delivered him from the will of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews." I see him in the street, after the angel's departure looking this way and that, and asking "Is it not a dream? Am I awake?' At length, arrived at the house of hi friend, John Mark, just as the little society were rising from their knees, &c. their prayers were turned into praises, as they gazed upon him, supposing it to have been his angel, I hear him exhort

ing, "Cast all your care upon him, for though the point has been established generally, enter a little more at large into particulars. His care extends to

he careth for you."

Your property. This may, indeed, be but little, and for the reason I am assigning, because God "careth for you;" for

Let us refer to history. Were the history of the church well written, (but nothing is worse written,) it would be so many records of God's kindness. A few striking instances of it have been pre-"the cattle upon a thousand hills are his," served. One shall serve for quotation. In and so are "the wool and the flax, the that period of Christian barbarism, render- silver and the gold," and he has promised ed infamous in a neighbouring country by to "withhold no good thing from them the revocation of the edict of Nantz, when that walk uprightly." But little as it the blood of the saints was shed without may be, without him flames shall not measure (since then God has given that consume it, thieves shall not steal it, nor nation blood to drink)-some of those bankruptcies waste it. In proof of all this, persons employed in the diabolic work of I need only refer to the well known persecuting to death, under the name of history in the first chapter of the book of heretics, their unoffending neighbours, | Job. "There was a day," says the hiswere sent in pursuit of the celebrated Du torian, "when the sons of God came to Moulin, a minister of eminence among present themselves before the Lord, and the Protestants. They had long sought Satan came also among them. And the for him in vain, when at length they Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest traced him to a house, and followed thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, immediately his steps into it. Every and said, From going to and fro in the corner of this house they searched, an earth, and from walking up and down oven excepted; which he who can em- in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, ploy on the designs of his mercy an Hast thou considered my servant Job?" insect as well as an angel, had rendered, He needed not information, but he would by means of a despicable spider, the se- have the avowal from Satan's own lips. cure asylum of his servant. A web just "Then Satan answered the Lord, and thrown over its mouth prevented scrutiny, said, Doth Job serve God for nought? and thus Du Moulin was preserved! God Hast thou not set a hedge about him, and "cared for him." about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?" Observe these words, "a hedge"-impenetrable even by the devil; and before Satan could touch one of Job's camels, or even a single ewe lamb, God must make a breach in this hedge! And is he not a hedge round his people now? He is "a wall of fire round about them, and the glory in the midst of them." "He careth for"

You say these instances are extraordinary. True; what then may we not expect when his care can be evinced by ordinary means? But why do I appeal to Scripture, and to history? Are none of you instances of this care? What say you? Methinks, if the decorum of this service admitted, one would rise and say, "The Lord is my shepherd-he maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters." Another would add, "He hath led me by a way that I knew not; he hath made crooked things straight, and rough places plain before me. And a third would state, referring to some particular deliverance, "In that day the light was neither clear nor dark, but it was a day known to the Lord, not day nor night; but it came to pass, that at evening time it was light." "He careth for you."

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We may carry the subject farther, and

Your families. Is it necessary to prove this? I appeal to the ark, where a shameless Ham is floating among the wrecks of the deluged world, preserved for the father's sake. I refer to the history of Lot. "Hast thou here," said the angel who was about to inflict righteous judgment upon Sodom, "Hast thou here any besides, sons in law or daughters? Get them out of this place; for I can do nothing till ye be come yonder." I refer

; but there is no need to multiply evidence. "The mercy of the Lord is

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