Bible Truths Illustrated by J. C. Ferdinand Pittman

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BIBLE TRUTHS ILLUSTRATED
Our gracious God not only leads us in the way of mercy, but He
prepares our path before us, providing for all our wants even
before
they occur.
698. The mind of a pious workman, named Thierney, was
much occupied with the ways of God, which appeared to him
full of inscrutable mysteries. The two questions, "How?" and
"Why?" were constantly in his thoughts—whether he considered
his own life, or the dispensations of Providence in the government
of the world. One day, in visiting a ribbon manufactory,
his attention was attracted by an extraordinary piece of machinery.
Countless wheels and thousands of threads were twirling
in all directions ; he could understand nothing of its movements.
He was informed, however, that all this motion was connected
with the centre, where there was a chest which was kept shut.
Anxious to understand the principle of the machine, he asked
permission to see the interior. "The master has the key," was
the reply. The words were like a flash of light. Here was the
answer to all the perplexed thoughts. Yes, the Master has the
key. He governs and directs all. It is enough. What need I
know more?
699. There is a striking passage, in which a great philosopher,
the famous Bishop Berkeley, describes the thought which
occurred to him of the inscrutable designs of Providence, as he
saw in St. Paul's Cathedral a fly moving on one of the pillars.
"It requires," said he, "some comprehension on the part of an
intelligent spectator to take in at one view the various parts of
the building in order to judge of their symmetry. But to the
fly, whose prospect was confined to a little part of one of the
stones of a single pillar, the joint beauty of the whole, or the
distinct use of its parts, was inconspicuous. To that limited
view the small irregularities on the surface of the hewn stone
seemed to be so many deformed rocks and precipices." Dean
Stanley.
700. I asked a hermit once in Italy how he could venture to
live alone, in a single cottage, on the top of a mountain, a mile
from any habitation. He replied that "Providence was his very
next-door neighbor." Sterne.
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