Nor, next, will such a faith prove to be groundless; for surely there is a _power engaged_, there is a pledge in the gospel, a sure word of promise, and even of covenant, that all things shall be ours;--"All are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's." The trial of our faith lies indeed very much upon this one point. Can we, for a moment, believe that God permits all the disorder and confusion which appears to us in the world--the prosperity of wickedness, the trials and adversity of the righteous, in order to raise a doubt on our minds whether he be not absent all the while--whether he bears or not any share in the world he created, or in all those moving causes that owe their activity and life to himself alone? God is surely present; he is powerfully operating; he is the supreme controller, and the almighty director; he is fully aware of those adverse appearances, and is no less deeply engaged in the final issue of all events, to render them consistent with the ends of justice and mercy, than as if we saw him at work with our bodily eyes: or, as if we then could fully know the mind of the Lord, or be his counsellors to instruct him. The expressions of scripture are too strong, and too agreeable to the very nature of God and of his works, to make us doubt for a moment of his providential care and unceasing watchfulness. "He is not far from every one of us; for in him we live, and move, and have our being." To the true disciple saith Christ himself, "The very hairs of your head are all numbered;" and yet more strongly, "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Promises, these, which have been ever realized in the history of the saints in all ages who have walked with God--Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and the patriarch Jacob--none more tried than he--yet we read _his_ testimony to "the God, which fed me all my life-long unto this day; the angel which redeemed me from all evil." Keeping in view the notion of what is truly good for this state of trial, and for the soul as well as for the body, there is no time and no extent to which we shall not find the promise sure, and the fulfilment exact, where God is pledged for the supply of his servants that trust in him: his eye is ever open, his ear ever attentive unto them. The petition he denies is able to operate as powerfully and as favourably on their behalf as that which he grants; merciful alike in the gift which he bestows and which he withholds, and wise alike in the evil which he permits, and which he restrains.