Parish Papers by Norman Macleod
page 75 of 276 (27%)
page 75 of 276 (27%)
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the path, and all the dark valleys through which it has led, the
rugged places it has passed over, or the many lofty hills up which it has ascended,--how endless, how perplexing does it appear! If, again, we try to measure the various powers which have helped to make us what we are, or to weigh the number and relative importance of all the things which have combined to produce the present result of character within, and of circumstances without us,--how soon are we lost amidst the mass of the infinite items which make up the sum of even our little history. How inadequate are all our attempts to solve the problems without number which every year suggests. _Why_, for example, has this or that happened? Wherefore this sorrow or that joy?--why such changes of place or of fortune?--why the loss of old friends or the gift of new ones?--why--But the questions are endless, and never can be answered till judgment. It is true, that we are often privileged to _see_ very clearly the reason of many of Christ's dealings with us here. He shews us His _ways_ as well as His _acts_--treating us as "friends" who "know what their Lord doeth." The wheel of Providence often makes its revolutions in so short a period that we see the whole movement. It was thus in the case of Abraham. The mystery of God's command was resolved after three days on Mount Moriah. Thus, too, the darkness of family grief and of a distant Saviour, which brooded over the household of Bethany, was dispelled, and vanished before bright sunshine, at the cry, "Lazarus, come forth!" But it is not always thus; and though it would be so more frequently if we waited more patiently upon God and considered His ways, yet, at best, but a small fraction of our life is understood here. Moreover, our own history is so interlaced with the history of others, that what is more properly theirs, in some degree is ours also. Can Moses, for instance, yet fully comprehend his own life in its relation to the Jewish nation, whose fate is still involved in |
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