Such, in brief, are a few of the principles in the treatise on the Divine Providence. Nothing but a perusal of the work can give an adequate idea of its multiplicity of details, from the laws which regulate the affairs of kingdoms, to those which govern games of chance; and all expounded with a lucidity of thought, which finds few parallels in works on such recondite themes. No book in the whole circle of literature more satisfactorily disposes of the objections against religion, current among secularists and worldlings. The inward temptations and doubts of the devout heart, and the weariness, cares, and fret of life, are shown in its pages to be all permitted by that Divine Love which suffers not a sparrow to fall unheeded; and the minutest incidents of life are seen to be forever encircled by that Omniscience, which knows how most effectually to guard us from evil and draw us into the holy courts of heaven. Any view which we take of the Divine Providence that does not recognize this life as a beginning, a progress, and not a consummation, is necessarily erroneous. Life here is but a discipline, an apprenticeship. It is a school wherein we are scholars, learning such lessons as will fit us for uses in a higher and eternal sphere. Were life consummated by what men call death, we might have reason to complain that the comforts and pleasures of existence were so unequally distributed; and the natural man might exclaim with the Psalmist: “I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.” But when we look at the matter from higher grounds, and in the light of the Divine wisdom, or as the Psalmist did when he said: “I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end: how are they brought into desolation as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors:”—“The evil doers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth: for yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be: for the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints;”—then we obtain a right view of the matter, and find an all-sufficient reason for being patient and not fretting ourselves. Hard though our lot in life may seem, let us remember that “The vain and fleeting things of earth, (Though counted vain, alas! by few,) In his esteem are nothing worth, Who keeps eternal ends in view.” Or, as Cowper says: “The path of sorrow and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown. No traveler ever reached that blest abode Who found not thorns and briers in his road.” CHAPTER XIX.