cure, I shall feel that I have worked with God. He is in no haste;
and if I do what I may in earnest, I need not mourn if I work no
great work on the earth. Let God make His sunsets: I will mottle my
little fading cloud. To help the growth of a thought that struggles
towards the light; to brush with gentle hand the earth-stain from
the white of one snowdrop--such be my ambition! So shall I scale the
rocks in front, not leave my name carved upon those behind me."

People talk about special providences. I believe in the providences,
but not in the specialty. I do not believe that God lets the thread
of my affairs go for six days, and on the seventh evening takes it
up for a moment. The so-called special providences are no exception
to the rule--they are common to all men at all moments. But it is a
fact that God's care is more evident in some instances of it than in
others to the dim and often bewildered vision of humanity. Upon such
instances men seize and call them providences. It is well that they
can; but it would be gloriously better if they could believe that
the whole matter is one grand providence.

I was one of such men at the time, and could not fail to see what I
called a special providence in this, that on my first attempt to
find where I stood in the scheme of Providence, and while I was
discouraged with regard to the work before me, I should fall in with
these two--an old man whom I could help, and a child who could help
me; the one opening an outlet for my labour and my love, and the
other reminding me of the highest source of the most humbling
comfort,--that in all my work I might be a fellow-worker with God.