It becomes us to entertain proper apprehensions of “Him with whom we have to do.”
I. God’s all-disposing agency.
1. God is the disposer of the whole world of nature. What man can produce, man can comprehend. All human workmanship is limited and finite, and capable of improvement. It is otherwise with the works of God. Here nothing is superfluous, nothing wanting, nothing by alteration can be improved. What arrangement there is in all those numerous and immense worlds which God hath created! If we are struck with a single instance of God’s arrangement in the world of nature, how much more should we be impressed with the whole if we were in a proper state of mind, and if God were in all our thoughts.
2. He is the disposer of the whole world of grace. The apostle speaks not only of grace, but of the purpose of grace. There was nothing left unappointed or unarranged. The scheme stretches from eternity to eternity, and in every part of it we see God abounding in all wisdom and prudence.
3. He is the disposer of the whole world of providence; and while He seems to be doing nothing, He is doing “all things according to the counsel of His own will.” We have many specimens of God’s providence in the Scriptures of truth. Providence has been at work in your history.
II. Practical reflections. Four ways in which the doctrine of the all-disposing energy of God may be improved.
1. In the way of conviction.
2. In the way of adoration.
3. In the way of consolation.
4. Let this subject check our presumption. (William Jay.)
