In holy action God gives the natural powers, and by his word and Spirit influences the soul to use these powers aright. But in evil action God gives only the natural powers; the evil direction of these powers is caused only by man. _Jer. 44:4_—“_Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate_”; _Hab. 1:13_—“_Thou that art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and that canst not look on perverseness, wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy peace when the wicked swalloweth up the man that is more righteous than he?_” _James 1:13, 14_—“_Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man: but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed._” Aaron excused himself for making an Egyptian idol by saying that the fire did it; he asked the people for gold; “_so they gave it me; and I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf_” (_Ex. 32:24_). Aaron leaves out one important point—his own personal agency in it all. In like manner we lay the blame of our sins upon nature and upon God. Pym said of Strafford that God had given him great talents, of which the devil had given the application. But it is more true to say of the wicked man that he himself gives the application of his God-given powers. We are electric cars for which God furnishes the motive-power, but to which we the conductors give the direction. We are organs; the wind or breath of the organ is God’s; but the fingering of the keys is ours. Since the maker of the organ is also present at every moment as its preserver, the shameful abuse of his instrument and the dreadful music that is played are a continual grief and suffering to his soul. Since it is Christ who upholds all things by the word of his power, preservation involves the suffering of Christ, and this suffering is his atonement, of which the culmination and demonstration are seen in the cross of Calvary (_Heb. 1:3_). On the importance of the idea of preservation in Christian doctrine, see Calvin, Institutes, 1:182 (chapter 16). Section III.—Providence. I. Definition of Providence. Providence is that continuous agency of God by which he makes all the events of the physical and moral universe fulfill the original design with which he created it. As Creation explains the existence of the universe, and as Preservation explains its continuance, so Providence explains its evolution and progress. In explanation notice: (_a_) Providence is not to be taken merely in its etymological sense of _fore_seeing. It is _for_seeing also, or a positive agency in connection with all the events of history.