Now I cannot see why we should not allow,--what is certainly true,--
that the world moves by fixed and regular laws: and yet allow at the
same time,--what I believe is just as true,--that God's special
providence watches over all our actions, and that, to use our Lord's
example, not a sparrow falls to the ground without some special
reason why that particular sparrow should fall at that particular
moment and in that particular place. I cannot see why all things
should not move in a divine and wonderful order, and yet why they
should not all work together for good to those who love God. The
Psalmist of old finds no contradiction between the two thoughts.
Rather does the one of them seem to him to explain the other. 'All
things,' says he, 'continue this day as at the beginning. For all
things serve Thee.'

Still it is not to be denied, that this question has been a difficult
one to men in all ages, and that it is so to many now.

But be that as it may, this I say, that, of all men, seafaring men
are the most likely to solve this great puzzle about the limits of
science and of religion, of law and of providence; for, of all
callings, theirs needs at once most science and most religion; theirs
is most subject to laws, and yet most at the mercy of Providence.
And I say that many seafaring men have solved the puzzle for
themselves in a very rational and sound way, though they may not be
able to put thoughts into words; and that they do show, by their
daily conduct, that a man may be at once thoroughly scientific and
thoroughly religious. And I say that this Ancient and Honourable
Corporation of the Trinity House is a proof thereof unto this day; a
proof that sound science need not make us neglect sound religion, nor
sound religion make us neglect sound science.