“Tell mothers,” said a lady to us a short time since, “who have their little ones around them, that they are living their happiest days; and the time will come when they will realize it.  Tell them to bend in thankfulness over the midnight lamp, to smile at their ceaseless work and call it pleasure.  I can but kneel in fancy by the distant graves of my children; they are all gone.  Could I but have them beside me now, I would delve like a slave for them; I would think no burden too hard, no denial beyond my strength, if I might but labour for their good and be rewarded by their smiles and their love.”

Then in whatever situation we are, we should remember that even but a door from our own dwelling there may be anguish, compared with which ours is but as the whisper of a breath to the roll of the thunder.  We do not say then, let us console ourselves by the reflection that there are always those in the world who suffer keener afflictions than ourselves, “but let us feel that though our cup of sorrow may be almost full, there might be added many a drop of bitterness;” and never, never should we breathe the expression, “there is no sorrow like unto mine.”

WE ARE LED BY A WAY THAT WE KNOW NOT.

WE are to consider the facts and circumstances which confirm the doctrine that the Lord’s providence is at once universal and particular; and indeed that he leads us by a way unknown to ourselves.

And who that has reflected upon his own life, or upon the life of others, or upon the current events of the day, will not bear witness to the universal application of this principle?

Look to the affairs of the world, to the nations and governments of all the earth, and tell me, where is anything turning out according to the forethought and prudence of man?

Look to the movements of our own country, and say whether human prudence ever devised what we behold?  What party or what individuals have ever, in the long run, brought things about as they expected?  And how is it in our own city, and under our own eyes?

In the societies of the church, and in organizations for church extension, the same rule applies.  And I might ask, where does it not apply?  I might give examples.  But this is unnecessary, when they are so numerous, and so fresh in the memory of every one.

But when we turn to the experience of individuals, we meet with the most unlimited application of our subject.  The life of every one is a standing memento of its truth.  For who is there, that has come to his present stand-point in life, by the route that he had marked out for himself?  I will imagine that ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago each one of you fixed on your plan of life, for a longer or shorter period.  It matters not what the original plan was.  It matters not what prudence, sagacity, and forethought were employed in making it.  It matters not how much money and power have come to the support of it.  Still its parts have never been filled up as you originally sketched them.