WAITING ON GOD. 403 by we see little of its beauty or order, and do not know how it ought justly to be disposed of. That particular may seem deformed to us, which to His eye, who sees all at once, past, present and to come, with all those joints and bands of wisdom and order by which things are related to one another, is beautiful and glorious. For as nothing is of itself, nor by itself, nor to itself, so nothing stands alone; there is a line of mutual influence that runs through the creation and every particular of it, and that in all its changes and alterations from the beginning to the end, which gives it its loveliness, life and order. He that can at once see but one part of a goodly statue or colossus might think it a very deform- ed piece, when he that views it altogether is assured of its due proportion, symmetry and loveliness. Now, all things, ages and persons, all thus at once are naked to the sight of God, and he disposes them with respect to the whole, that every one may fill its own place, and sustain its part and share in the common tendency of all to the same end. And hence it is that in public judgments and calami- ties God often suffers the godly to be involved with the wicked, and that not on account of their own persons, but as they are parts of the community which he will destroy. This Job expresses somewhat harshly; but there is truth in this assertion, " This is one thing, therefore I said it, he destroyeth the righteous with the wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent." chap. 9 : 22, 23. God in pub- lic desolations often takes good and bad together; a sudden scourge involves them all. And this God does for sundry reasons ; as,
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