sickness or health, in a palace or a hovel, in liberty or bondage, it matters little in the Divine sight, except so far as it affects his eternal condition. And in his all-wise Providence, He permits man to be brought through just such states of trouble or of joy, of pleasure or pain, of freedom or of restraint, as He sees in His wisdom will best conduce to the great end—man's everlasting happiness. By keeping in mind this great law of Divine action, we have at once a key to a thousand permissions, which seem mysterious, strange, and unaccountable to one who takes into view only this world and this life. How often, on this passing drama of existence, is Vice seemingly triumphant, and Virtue overwhelmed and prostrate; the tyrant powerful and successful, and the innocent, his helpless victims. God looks on, and does not stay the oppressor's hand. No! He lets the wicked have their way for a time. But He is ceaselessly effecting His own wise purposes; for the good, He is secretly turning the engines of oppression into means of purification,—while with the same instruments their wicked oppressors are preparing their own destruction. The tears of the Madiai[1], shed in the silence and darkness of their prison. He is using to water the tender plants of humility and resignation in their own souls, thus preparing them to ascend from the depths of their dungeon to a higher place in heaven:—while, at the same time, the sight of their unjust sufferings is rousing the thought and heart of their countrymen and of all Europe, and aiding to prepare
- ↑ Two persons, man and wife, imprisoned in Tuscany, on the charge of having in their possession the Protestant Bible, and of attempting to make proselytes to the Protestant faith.—They have since been released.
