Plan in History. By Rev. E. A. Lawrence, D. D. [pp. 555-564]

Plan in History.
soever relates to man is included in the unity and sweep of his
vast plan,-past, present, and future. How rich its hlarmnonies!
how vast its domain! how sublime its mnovemnent!-so vast, so
sublime, that the wild dream of the German poet can hardly be
pronounced extravagant.
"God called man in a dream into the vestibule of heaven,
saying,-' Come up hither and I will show thee the glory of
my house.' And to his angels who stood about his throne he
said,' Take him, strip him of his robes of flesh; cleanse his affections; put a new breath into his nostrils; but touch not his
human heart.' A moment and it was done, and the man stood
ready for his unknown voyage. Under the guidance of a mighty
angel, with souinds of flying pinions, they sped away from the
battlemnents of heaven. Some time on the mighty ang,el's wings
they fled through Saharas of darkness, wildernesses of death. At
length, from a distance not counted save in the arithmetic of hea ven, light beamed upon them. They sped on in their terrible speed
to meet it, and the light with lesser speed came to meet them.
In a moment the blazing of suns was around them,-a moment,
the wheeling of planets; then long eternities of twilight; then
again, on the right hand and the left, more constellations. At
last the man sank down, crying,,' Ahgel, I can go no farther;
let me lie down in the grave, and hide myself from the infini tude of the universe, for end there is none.' And from the
glittering stars there came a choral shout,'End there is none."'
But the plan of providence is as minute as it is comprehen sive, All general schemes involve in their execution a carry ing out of each particular part. Every architect, with the de sign of the edifice draws minutely all the specifications. His tory is a moral edifice with which the Parthenon, model of
Phidian art and Doric beauty, can bear no comparison. Man's
knowledge is imperfect, even in his limited sphere; and if in
his first draft he does not secure each item necessary to the ac comiplishment of his design, he experiments and mends it in
his next. But the Infinite is no experimenter. He never
mends an old plan nor makes a new one. He perceives from
the first the minutest part equally with the mightiest, and the
place and bearing of each in the general movement.
A particular providence, as a part of the divine plan, is philo
1871.]
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