pass before thee, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen." Divine Providence, in its beginnings, is the face of Jehovah, upon which a finite being can no more gaze, than he can look upon the operations of his own internal bodily structure and live. If a man knew all the operations of both the brains upon the fibres, of the fibres upon the muscles, and of the muscles upon the actions, he would dispose these as he disposes his own actions, and all would be ruin and death. Divine Providence, in its terminations, by which man is led in the paths of righteousness, is as the back parts, which are seen as Jehovah passes by, and as man, viewing the past, recognizes the hand that has led him in all his ways.
There are some who strive to obtain a knowledge of future events: such is an evil desire; for it leads to a neglect of the present, to search after something in the future. It is a wish to see Providence in the face, while the eyes are closed to the outward manifestations thereof in our daily life. Such are like those of old: "Master, we would see a sign from thee." (Matt. xii. 38.) "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign." All evil is brought into the mind by man himself; and if this, when it has entered, be loved and cherished, the Divine Providence is said to permit it, not to will it. Still the mercy of God is momentarily over the sinner, and so bends and tempers the evil in those who are regenerating, that from the seeming evil, God, by man's repentance, is still educing good; leading the willing mind from a greater evil to a less one, and so on into peace and heaven. Help us, then, O God! to use the present moment well: the rest it is our glory to leave to Thee.
