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that runs counter to our natural inclinations-much that is humbling to the pride of man's intellect and man's heart. There is nothing there, as we believe, which is against reason, but much which is above and beyond it. Not only is the luminous page of revelation bordered with impenetrable mystery, but the revelation itself is suggestive of questions which we cannot answer-problems which we cannot solve. This is not altogether according to our mind.

If we look to God's dealings with His own Church, at different places and at different times, we ineet with a great deal that is not according to our mind-a great deal that we cannot explain or account for. In one place, we see God's people enduring cruel persecution, or hiding away from it in the dens and caves of the earth; elsewhere we see them sitting at peace, under their own vines and figtrees. In one nation we see them enjoying for ages and generations almost unbroken repose-in another, suffering from continual nusettlement. One period is distinguished by the abundance of privileges-another by the lack of them. Some of God's people have been richly endowed with all that heart could wish, and have been able to say, "The lines have fallen to us in pleasant places, and we have a goodly heritage while others have lived and died in circumstances of poverty, affliction, obscurity. All this is not according to our mind. How can we account for this, that these, all of whom are confess edly the children of the same gracious and loving Father,

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should be so differently dealt with? How is all this consistent with an equal and impartial love? If to use the illustration of an old divine-we were to go into a great house, and see some children in scarlet, having all things needful, and others hewing wood and drawing water, we should conclude, they are not all children, but some children, and some slaves. But if we were told that they were all one man's children, and that the hewers of wood, that live on the bread and water of affliction, and go in tattered rags, are as dear to him as the others, and that he intends to leave them as good an inheritance as any of the rest if we mean not to question the wisdom and goodness of the father of the family, we must resolve to submit to his authority with a quiet subjection of mind. As we look upon these inequalities of condition, which are so little according to our mind, we can only say, "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight."

But, beside these apparent inequalities in the condition of God's children, we are sometimes startled by sudden and painful changes in their experience. We could not have a more signal and striking instance of this than that afforded by the history of the patriarch Job. If some great and desolating calamity had at once overtaken Noah after his drunkenness and disgrace; David, after his adultery and murder; Peter, after his blasphemous denial of his Master-it would have been, according to our mind, consistent with a certain dramatic propriety. But here we meet with something altogether different: a man living

an orderly, godly, well-regulated life, enjoying the favour of God and the esteem of man, upon whom all the winds of heaven are let loose, and from being one of the most prosperous he becomes one of the most miserable of mortals. This, surely, is not according to our mind.

This is a matter which comes home to us personally. We have no need to be reminded that there is in the experience of every individual, however highly favoured, something painful, trying, hard to bear and harder to amend-something which is not according to his mind. In our constitution, in our circumstances, in our relations, there is sure to be something which we could wish to be absent or altered. We may see some who seem to be so happily circumstanced that we are ready to say of them, "Surely they cannot know what trouble is." But if we saw more, if we saw all, we should be convinced that they were no exceptions to the general rule. Trial does not touch us all in the same way, in the same place; but in some way or other, in some place or other, it does touch us all.

How many things are there which are not according to the mind of those to whose lot they fall?

There are those who suffer through life from some bodily defect or deformity. There are many who spend their lives in pain and weariness, the victims of incurable disease or immovable infirmity. How many are there who suffer from the pressure of absolute want or painful insufficiency? There are those who

meet with reverses and discouragements in the pursuit of their legitimate business; they rise early and sit up late-they are industrious and diligent. Yet they never seem to prosper; the wind is always in their face. The failure. of some is as difficult to account for as the success of others. How many meet with that which is not according to their mind in some one or other of the manifold relations of life, and even within what should be the sacred and peaceful enclosure of the domestic circle itself! It is needless to attempt any further enumeration. We cannot evade trouble; try as we may, we cannot so order the circumstances of life that all things shall fall out according to our mind.

II. We notice, next, THAT IT IS NOT TO BE EXPECTED THAT ALL

THINGS SHOULD BE ACCORDING TO OUR MIND. Childish and unreasonable as the expectation is that all things should fit in with our plans and purposes, our expectations and desires, it is an expectation which many of us cherish in some degree, though perhaps we do not acknowledge, even to ourselves, its existence. This desire to have our own way in everything, to have everything according to our own mind, which, arter we reach years of discretion, is seldom expressed in so many words, finds expression indirectly in two very common tendencies:

The disposition we so often manifest to murmur at our own earthly lot, and to wish it were. something different from what it is.

The disposition to regard with feelings of envy and jealousy what

seem to us the more favourable condition and circumstances of others.

We thus declare, though indirectly, that if we had our way, if things were according to our mind, they should be differently ordered, so far as we and others are concerned.

This being the case, it is well for us to remember what Elihu was so anxious to impress upon the mind of Job-that in considering the works and ways of God, whether as they affect others or ourselves, there is no room for wonder or complaint when things do not turn out according to our mind.

The larger and more comprehensive view we take of things, the less likely shall we be to indulge the vain expectation that all things should be according to our mind, and exactly harmonise with our expectations and desires. We only know God's ways in part, but by what we do know, we should be led to acquiesce in the Divine utterance: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

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There are several considerations instantly occurring to us, which should suffice to convince us that man ought not to be entrusted with the power of which he is so evidently destitute-the power of ordering events, so that they should secure the fulfilment of his wishes, fall out according to his mind.

He is too unwise, shortsighted, unskilful, to have such power committed to him. Were the reins

of government' entrusted to his hands, he would not know how to order the course of events. We, the wisest of us, do not know what is best for ourselves or others-what is good for man in this life. How often do we afterwards discover that something upon which our desires had fixed themselves, and which for a while we were supremely anxious to secure, would not have been really for our good? Did we possess this power of ordering the events and controlling the circumstances of life, with the very best of intentions we should soon set everything awry.

Man is not only too unwise to be entrusted with this power-he is too selfish. He would seek to gratify himself at the expense of others; he would pursue his own private and personal ends, with an utter disregard of the feelings, interests, rights of those around. To confine attention to one particular instance, with what strange and unsatisfactory phenomena should we be presented, were men able to order the weather according to their mind!-how completely should we see everyone for himself!

He is not only too unwise and too selfish so far as his fellow-men are concerned, but that selfishness would assert itself yet more distinctly in ignoring the claims and rights of God. At present, however confused and intricate their movements may seem to us, all things are so ordered, that, directly or indirectly, they promote God's glory, and subserve God's purpose. We know enough of human nature to be assured that if man had the ordering of events

there would be little, if any, reference to the Will, the Word, the Glory of God.

Another reason why man is not to be entrusted with this power is, that he is too impatient, and anxious for present good. Childlike and he is only a child of larger growth, if he could but have everything according to his mind to-day, he would trouble very little about to-morrow; he would do more extensively what, as far as possible, he does now-sacrifice the future to the present, eternity to time.

Those then who, in judging of the providential and gracious arrangements of God, imagine that things might easily be different and better, should remember that they are as incompetent to form a judgment of the works and ways of God, as they are to assume the direction of events themselves.

III. We would notice now, THAT, BELIEVING THAT THE LORD HAS TO DO WITH ALL THINGS, IT IS FOR US CHEERFULLY ΤΟ ACQUIESCE IN WHATEVER THE LORD DOES. All things are ordered or permitted by God, and are made to contribute to the accomplishment of some wise and sufficient purpose. As we regard the more painful and trying dispensations of life, they will often appear to us dark and mysterious; but there are some reasons discernible by us here, and now why God should permit or order them. Nothing but a recognition of God's superintending providence will enable us to behave ourselves rightly under the trials of life, and derive from them the good they are designed to convey. We must try and distinguish the hand of God in all the circumstances of life, feel that God has to do with

everything, and that it is for us cheerfully to acquiesce in whatever God does.

There is a reason of necessity which we must not overlook. This, in a somewhat hard and ungracious way, Elihu pressed upon the attention of Job. Everything would go on according to God's "uncontrollable intent," whether Job liked it or not. What was true then is true now-God's purposes will be carried out, whether we refuse or choose. It is then for us to fall in with God's arrangements, knowing that cheerful acquiescence is much better than constrained submission.

But we should desire to do this even though we could do otherwise. Our utterance should always be, "Not my will, but Thine, be done." "It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good."

We shall be moved to do this as we consider who God is. As we dwell upon His sovereignty, His wisdom, His power, His righteousness, His goodness, we feel that we have every reason cheerfully to acquiesce in His arrangements, whatever they may be. Till we discover God to be wanting in some great perfection-in power, in wisdom, in faithfulness, in beneficence-we shall do well to look up to Him and say: "It is for Thee to command, it is for us to obey ; it is for Thee to appoint, it is for us to submit; it is for Thee to order and dispose events, it is for us to acquiesce in Thy arrangements." Acquiescence will become easy, and appear reasonable and right, in proportion to the reality and vivacity of our belief that things are not happening according to a capricious chance, or a

dark inexorable fate, but according to the will of a wise and powerful, loving and gracious God.

We should be influenced by a consideration of what ve ourselves are. When we remember who we are how insignificant and worthless, how sinful and guilty, how little deserving of even the least of all God's mercies-we shall see that we have no reason to complain if things are not always and altogether to our mind; and we shall be less likely to ignore the fact that, if there are some things painful in life, there are more things pleasant. Let us put a proper estimate upon ourselves, and we shall not

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of life which will suffice; there must be the believing recognition of it as the hand of our Redeemer, Saviour, Father, Friend. We must. think of God as One who is ever contemplating our good, and by various providential and gracious arrangements securing it, and often by means of those very things which are least according to our mind.

Let us then learn to acquiesce in every expression of the Divine will. We care not, we need not care, to have everything according to our mind, since we know that God is ordering all things for our good. Looking up to Him who loves us with an infinite and unchanging love, we would say:

"From darkness here and dreariness,
We ask not full repose,
Only be Thou at hand, to bless
Our trial hour of woes.
Is not the pilgrim's toil o'erpaid
By the clear rill and palmy shade?
And see we not,up earth's dark glade,
The gate of Heaven unclose?"

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A Brief Historical Sketch of the Baptist Church, High Street, Oakham, Rutland.

[Read by the Pastor, the Rev. W. SUTTON, at the Service held July 18, 1872, to celebrate the Centenary of its formation.]

MOSES, the man of God, when

giving his farewell address to the tribes of Israel, said: "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty

years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments or no." And there can be no doubt, we

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