LETTER XXV.
Dear Charles,— * * * yes, but I must again
remind you that it is in the little things the hand of a special
providence is discerned. It is delusion and presumption to
look for extraordinary means even in uncommon deliverances,
and to regard nothing as a special providence except what
borders on the miraculous, is derogatory to God. Very extraordinary
providences do show themselves, both in regard
to persons and communities; the special care may be discerned
daily.
If some men's ideas of the divine government were true,
the great majority of us would be excluded from our heavenly
Father's care. It would be difficult to find any very important
sense in such expressions as “the steps of a good
man are ordered of the Lord;” “the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous;” “take no thought for to-morrow,” and
many similar ones.
Are not all these words for the encouragement of every
Christian? And are the promises fulfilled only to great men,
or on great occasions, or according to our silly apprehensions
of fitness and decorum and dignity? Is nothing important
that cannot be discerned with the naked eye? Shall
all special interference be confined to the clergy, while the
poor, the humble, the illiterate laymen and their affairs are
too small for particular care?
Charles, if “the poor have the gospel preached unto
them,” then the poor are, in the sight of heaven, “of more
value than many sparrows;” and yet not one sparrow falls
without special permission. There is a perverse tendency,
even in sanctified men, “to make God altogether such an
one as ourselves;” and because we are “respecters of persons,”
we easily conclude God must be. Hence if a king,
or a bishop, or a general, or a magistrate, or a rich man
with an elegant town-house and also an enchanting country
residence, talks about a special providence, (and many such
persons have often just occasion to celebrate the divine care,)
why, oh! ah! he is somebody, and it does seem rather natural
and proper that in his behalf there should be a special interference;
and above all, if “he have built us a synagogue
and been kind to our nation.”
But if a mechanic, who works at eight shillings per diem;
or a small retail merchant; or a small farmer on a rented
farm, with a rather unfashionable wife and daughters;
and more especially if a shoe-black, or a servant—if this
sort of folks talk with gratitude of a special providence—
pshaw! it is preposterous! What! an interference for them!
No! such are governed by general (?) laws! If not content
with these laws, they may look in vain for others, unless
they can be levelled up!
Human dignity, thou art often a great—Strut! Thou
hast magnifying and keen eyes to discern when one in “gay
clothes and gold rings” cometh into the temple; and thou
dost, with marvellous grace, gallant the elegant, and beauteous,
and tasteful away up to the very altar to pray; and
with magnificent coldness dost turn up thy scornful nose at
plain apparel and point—with such an air!—to thy footstool!
Thy god is not the God of the Bible. Go it, dignity!
elevate thy offended brow! pucker thy mouth and draw
down the corners! pull in thy chin! and in all ways play off
thy littleness. All that will not stay special and particular
providences wherever men of any rank or no rank “hope in
the divine mercy!”
Charles, your clerical and official gravity—(before the
world)—makes you often rebuke me for “these sallies;”—
as if silly things ought not to be laughed at! Now, sir, look
attentively at many showy matters that pass for bigness, and
solemnity, and grandeur, and wisdom; and like dissolving
views, they suddenly melt away into littleness, and grimace,
and puff, and foolery! Yes, sir, these vapor around like
active wiggle-tails in a drop of old vinegar magnified, and
sport with an indescribable activity and funniness, that
gravity itself, surprised, is betrayed into a rude horselaugh!
And these worldly things affect to look amazed when
one talks of a special providence! and a devotional spirit,
and an entire and childlike trust in divine promises! Were
it not for heaven-born Pity filling the eyes with tears, good
men could but smile at the magnificent antics Philosophy
often plays—so grandly complacent!—so majestically self-satisfied!
And then the awe-struck vulgar, auribus arrectis!
—while Philosophy, “with great swelling words,” rationally
and on scientific principles explains the arcana of Revelation!—shows
the rationale of its miracles! the lucky accidents
and coincidences of its prophecies! and the necessity
of nature's general laws!—a kind of fate superior to Divinity
itself! And then the Thing smiles so profoundly benevolent
at a fanaticism founded in “faith and not in reason!”
Charles, what a ferociously grand little worm! How
like an active skipper in a cheese, trying to prove to the
other mites, that their habitation of curds was an eternal
cheese, from which they, like the Athenians from the earth,
had sprung by the laws of nature! and would in due season
be absorbed into the bosom of the divinity, sparks of celestial
cream! That cheese itself was divinity! and the pantheistic
lacticality was diffused through all their atomical skipperality!
To me, Charles, the intrinsic silliness of what opposes
true religion is apparent. I feel such Philosophy must
“rise to shame and everlasting contempt.” In that well-deserved
contempt is the ingredient to embitter the cup of
fury and indignation to be poured on malignant adversaries;
a constituent of the worm that, undying, shall gnaw on the
conscience, and make “the wounded spirit that cannot be
borne!” If we carry with us beyond the grave an intellectual
and moral nature, unsubdued to the belief and practice
of truth, and have not become “little children” and
“fools for Christ's sake,” we carry hell with us! Truly
devotional men are now by many called, and by more believed,
to be fools; while such men, on the other hand, deem
mere worldly wisdom folly:—this question Infinite Wisdom
in that Day, will, in the presence of a whole universe, decide.
That decision kindles the quenchless flame; and
whoever stands the scorn and contempt of the whole universe,
is then in hell!
Charles, there is at least a hint for a sermon; and here
is a text: “The wicked shall rise to shame and everlasting
contempt!”
