How often has the supreme Disposer made use of those agents to accomplish his purposes, who were themselves the last to acknowledge his superintendence, or perhaps the first to oppose his will! How consolatory to the Christian to reflect, that the passions of the human mind, the madness of ambition, the rage of envy, the misrule of tyrannic power, the animosity of persecution, the decrees of princes, the events of war and of peace, the elements of nature, and the powers of the invisible worlds, are under the perfect control of God! A Pharaoh shall cause his "name to be declared throughout all the earth," by giving occasion to the most transcendent miracles, and the most direct and indisputable interference of Omnipotence--a Cyrus shall pursue a wonderful career of conquest; victory after victory shall enhance his fame; nations shall be subdued, and gates of brass broken before him, for the sake of Israel the elect of God, and Jacob his servant--an Augustus shall unconsciously fulfil a divine decree by means of an edict of his own--the Roman empire shall be enrolled, that Jesus may he born in Bethlehem. It appears that Mary was supernaturally strengthened to perform the necessary duties to her infant charge, in the cold and comfortless situation in which she was thrown. No one seemed at hand to commiserate her sufferings, to supply her wants, or to assist her weakness. Her own life was endangered; but maternal tenderness struggled for the life of her firstborn, and a divine faith in God and his promises sustained her amidst the privations of her desolate abode. Let not his people permit despondency to becloud their days or extinguish their hopes; but, relying on his assurance, "As thy day is, so thy strength shall be"--an assurance so remarkably verified in the mother of Jesus, and so often corroborated by the experience of Christians--let them imitate the patience and faith of this illustrious woman, who was at once the ornament of religion and the glory of her sex.