“God never makes half a providence any more than man makes half a pair of scissors.” This golden sentence was coined by the late Dr. Gordon, and a thousand passages of Scripture, and ten thousand incidents in our lives confirm its truthfulness. We see how perfectly God works in creation, and how nicely He dovetails part with part, wedding strength to beauty, mountain with valley, zones with climates, and products with seasons. He so beautifully fits the fin to the sea, the wing to the air, the eye to light, the ear to pulsations of the atmosphere and each joint to its socket, that the whole creation becomes a glass transparency, revealing the matchless wisdom of God. It shows Omnipresence in every atom, and discloses the momentary operation of His infinite will in every successive instant through thousands and millions of years, without a pause, without a blunder or a single trace of His forgetting anything, from the insect in a quivering leaf to the giant orbit of suns and stellar systems.  

It is all simply inconceivable, and could we see it in its total reality, it would crush our intellects with an overwhelming weight of sublimity. And then think that all this infinite perfection of balancing part with part is repeated over and over again in the inspired Scriptures. These are like another created universe, in which there is an infallible compilation and record of history, biography, precept, parable, promise, poem, punishment, names of persons, places and things. There are verbs descriptive of every moral act that transpires in Heaven, earth or hell. All are so arranged as to contain not a single error, or foolish or useless statement. They tower as far above all human books as the noon day sun rises above a tallow candle, and reveals such vast worlds of intellectual and spiritual truth, linked in such golden chains of beauty from Genesis to Revelation, as to form an intellectual universe, surpassing in brilliancy the material creation.  

And then in addition to these two creations of nature and Scripture, there is a third universe of God’s providences, which is crowned with infallible arrangements of God’s forethought. Every moment in the life of every human being, of all the millions on earth, is filled in with the most minute, and wise, and delicate, and loving, and just superintendence of that same God Who floods every atom of nature and every word of Scripture with His personal presence. Verily we are walking through a limitless ocean of Divine love and supervision.  

The special providence of God is a third Bible, which He is incessantly writing out in the lives of His creatures. On the silver pages of each swiftly passing day He is writing out His dealings with each of us in such accuracy and compassionate love, and patient, impartial wisdom. He balances need with supply, dovetails prayer to answer, interblends sorrow with joy, and fear with hope, and sweetly joins faith and fruition, and the supernatural with the natural, and the motive of the heart with the reward of the act. If we could see it all as an angel can discern it, the very sight would dazzle us into ecstasy.  

At the very moment that Isaiah’s yearning heart was mourning over the defects of his spiritual life, saying, “Woe is me,” the seraphim—types of glorified prophets—were crying, “Heaven and earth are full of God’s glory,” for they saw the presence of God moving through every atom of nature and providence.  

If we take time to think quietly over the daily dealings of God with us, and lovingly watch for every little symptom of God’s presence in us and around us, we will soon be astonished at the degree we will discover of His presence, and at the perfection with which He weaves things together for our good. He never makes half a providence.  

The very night that young Solomon was praying for wisdom to judge rightly the people, a poor, heartbroken mother, in the lowly walks of life, was crying for her babe that another woman had stolen from her. The same infinite ear that drank in the sweet prayer of the beautiful young prince, at the same moment drank in the sad wail of a poor outcast mother in the slums of Jerusalem. He gave the young prince the superhuman wisdom to know how to judge between the women, and to settle the dispute as to who was the mother of the living child.  

The same God who saw the lonely Jacob wending his sad way over the desert of Syria, looking for a home, arranged to have the beautiful Rachel go forth with her father’s sheep, and have them meet at the well. They were each but the two hemispheres of one thought in the mind of God. Are not our lives crowded with just such providential supplementings?  

I know of a Christian worker who at one time was hedged about with what, to all human opinion, were absolutely insurmountable difficulties. But he shut himself in with God, with much fasting and prayer that God would open a certain field of work to him. In his prayer he read the Scripture where Ahasuerus was kept awake all night in answer to Mordecai’s prayer, and he begged the Lord to keep somebody awake all night in his behalf. Twelve hundred miles away a Christian gentlemen, whom he had never met, was kept awake all night in prayer and study about that man. God spoke to that gentleman in a distinct voice, “Send that man a check for a certain amount of money, and have him come here and work with you in a mission.” Before the check had time to reach that worker, a neighbor of his called upon him and said, “I have had a dream, in which I saw a large, portly man and yourself at work in a certain city.” He went on to describe what he saw in his dream of persons and places, which in a few weeks came to pass with the most absolute precision.  

How slow we are to trust God in all the details of life, just as really and unbrokenly as we trust our souls to the merit of Christ’s precious blood! Yet the handwriting of God on the wall of every passing hour is just as infallible as His handwriting in Scripture. Can God be divided? Can God be any less infinite in His providences than He is in His Word? “Oh, fools, and slow of heart, not to believe all.” If the Holy Ghost has called you to a certain line of work, He never takes back His own call. God does not fool with His creatures to mock at their deepest convictions and yearnings of heart. As truly as He has spoken in your heart a call to any sphere of work, so truly has He prepared that sphere for you somewhere in the world, and at the right point of time He will bring the two hemispheres of His providence together.  

God never makes a wing to mock a poor bird, but He fills an azure sky with air upon which the wing can fly. There is plenty of room in the air for every wing there is formed. God does not allow the great eagle to monopolize the whole atmosphere, but each little sparrow shall have the boundless domain open to it. When we are absolutely sunk into God’s will, and seek only to please God, no creature, nor any multiplied millions of creatures, either good or bad, can get in our way, or hinder us, or do us any harm. God delights to reveal Himself to the real humble heart, in little ways and startling providences, which lofty-minded persons never have eyes to see, nor faith to accredit.  

I was once on my way from South Carolina to Texas to work in meetings for the Lord. I had only a limited time to reach my destination before the Sabbath, and a very limited amount of money to pay my expenses. When I boarded the train in Atlanta, the conductor said, “The South-bound mail from New York is over two hours late, and we shall have to wait for it.” This would throw us over two hours behind in Birmingham, Alabama, where I was to connect with the train for New Orleans. On enquiring if the through train to New Orleans would wait for us at Birmingham, he said, “No, for that train is always on time, and does not wait for late trains. Your only way is to lie over at Birmingham for the night.”  

I at once sat down and leaned my head against the window, and closing my eyes told my Heavenly Father all about it—that I was working for His precious Son, that I belonged entirely to His Son, that the interest of His only begotten Son was infinitely greater than all the railroads, and that He saw my scanty means and my limited time before the Sabbath. Would He please make that fast-bound train to New Orleans in some way get delayed just as long as we should be? A sweet restfulness settled on my spirit, and I felt like smiling.  

When we reached Birmingham, sure enough there stood the long train waiting for us. It had been detained in an unusual way by something they could hardly account for, and when I asked the conductor how he happened to be so late, he said, “We don’t know, unless it was to get passengers from Atlanta.” I then told him of my prayer, and said, “I wish you railroad men would put your trust in the living God.”  

You may rest assured that you are always enveloped in the presence of the Holy Ghost. He watches every movement of your inner being, and has His hand this very moment on everything in creation. He is incessantly adjusting causes to effects, and the inner spirit to the outer circumstance, and things near to things hundreds and thousands of miles away. Nothing can be too small for His loving notice and superintendence. Let us watch for God in His daily dealings with us. The more thoughtfully we watch, the more we will see of Him. And the more we see, the more we will love Him.