midst of the sea. Yea, though the sun were turned to darkness, and
the moon to blood, and the stars fell from heaven, and all power and
order, all belief and custom of mankind, were turned upside down,
yet there would still be One above who rules the world in
righteousness, whose eye is on them that fear him and put their
trust in his mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to feed
them in the time of dearth. Darkness may cover the land for awhile,
and gross darkness the people. But while I sit in darkness, the
Lord shall be my light, till the day when he shall say once more,
"Let there be light," and light shall be.'

Yes. To the man who is a good man and true; who has any hearty
Christian feeling for his fellow-men, and is not merely a selfish
superstitious person, caring for nothing but what he calls the
safety of his own soul; to the man, I say, who has anything of the
loving spirit of Christ in him, what question can be more important
than this, Is the world well made or ill? Is it well governed or
ill? Is it on the whole going right or going wrong? And what can
be more comforting to such a man, than the answer which the Bible
gives him at the outset?--

This world is well made, in love and care; for Christ the Lord made
it, and behold it was very good.

This world is going right and not wrong, in spite of all appearances
to the contrary; for Christ the Lord is King. He sitteth between
the cherubim, be the earth never so unquiet. He is too strong and
too loving to let the world go any way but the right. Parts of it
will often go wrong here, and go wrong there. The sin and ignorance
of men will disturb his order, and rebel against his laws; and