Gold Nugget 185 - Gentleness of the Immense Forces

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      Human life is like a flower, that can thrive only if fenced from storms and frosts.  We are in a world filled with forces which, if they broke loose, would be our destruction.  There is power sleeping in the winds and waves to wreck or drown all our navies; in earthquakes, to overthrow all our cities; in blight and insect ravages, to destroy our harvest.  Even the light snowflakes, if they fell for a fortnight twenty feed deep all over our land, would turn it into a desert of the dead.

      On the other hand, how gently those immense forces work which minister to life!  How smoothly earth flies in her yearly circle!  No eye, or ear, or sense of ours can make the vapour rising from the ocean to fill the springs and water the plains; the secret ministry of the world of plants of the life of the animal world – pouring forth from numberless millions of millions of invisible mouths vital air, and removing what otherwise would soon poison and stifle us; or the pulse of growth in bud and blade, leaf, flower, and fruit, in spring and summer, as the returning tide of life answers to the gentle sunshine. …

      How gently the great machine works!  How gently the sunbeam touches the eye, after its flight over ninety millions of miles in eight minutes!  How gently the force of gravity, that holds suns and worlds in their places, draws the child’s food to the ground and poises the gnat in the air! 

      True, nature has a stern side, by fixing our thoughts on which a gloomy view may be made out.  But take in the whole scope of natural law and Divine providence.  For one city overthrown by earthquake, how many have stood safe for ages!  For one shipwreck, how many prosperous voyages!  For a season of local scarcity, how many plenteous harvest!  For one home in mourning, how many bright with health and love! – how many happy years, perhaps, in that very home!

The Pulpit Commentary, Psalms I p. 122, Psalms 18:35, (E. R. Conder, W. Clarkson)

Gold Nugget 185

Gentleness of the Immense Forces

 

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