single consecrated shrine.  But the true belief is that the whole sweep of a life is under the will of God, and that when, for instance, war ravages a nation, though the sufferers be involved in a common ruin occasioned by murderous ambition and measureless pride, yet for each of the sufferers the common disaster has a special message.  Let us believe in a divine will which regards each individual caught up in the skirts of the horrible storm, even as it regards each individual on whom the equal rays of His universal sunshine fall.  Let us believe that every single soul has a place in the heart, and is taken into account in the purposes of Him who moves the tempest, and makes His sun to shine upon the unthankful and on the good.  Let us, in accordance with the counsel of the Apostle here, first of all try to anchor and rest our own souls fast and firm in God all the day long, that, grasping His hand, we may look out upon all the confused dance of fleeting circumstances and say, ’Thy will is done on earth’—­if not yet ’as it is done in heaven,’ still done in the issues and events of all—­and done with my cheerful obedience and thankful acceptance of its commands and allotments in my own life.

II.  The second idea which comes out of these words is this—­Such union with God will lead to contented continuance in our place, whatever it be.

Our text is as if Paul had said, ’You have been “called” in such and such worldly circumstances.  The fact proves that these circumstances do not obstruct the highest and richest blessings.  The light of God can shine on your souls through them.  Since then you have such sacred memorials associated with them, and know by experience that fellowship with God is possible in them, do you remain where you are, and keep hold of the God who has visited you in them.’

If once, in accordance with the thoughts already suggested, our minds have, by God’s help, been brought into something like real, living fellowship with Him, and we have attained the wisdom that pierces through the external to the Almighty will that underlies all its mazy whirl, then why should we care about shifting our place?  Why should we trouble ourselves about altering these varying events, since each in its turn is a manifestation of His mind and will; each in its turn is a means of discipline for us; and through all their variety a single purpose works, which tends to a single end—­’that we should be partakers of His holiness’?

And that is the one point of view from which we can bear to look upon the world and not be utterly bewildered and over-mastered by it.  Calmness and central peace are ours; a true appreciation of all outward good and a charm against the bitterest sting of outward evils are ours; a patient continuance in the place where He has set us is ours—­when by fellowship with Him we have learned to look upon our work as primarily doing His will, and upon all our possessions and conditions primarily as means for making us like