Moral Harmony With God's Providence

Things animate and things inanimate, things in space and things in time, things said and things done, all being and all action, in themselves and in their relations, in their rights and in their influences, form a part of the great system of the facts and arrangements of divine Providence. Man, and all the acts and all the sufferings of which he is the source and the subject, is placed in the midst of this great ocean; this great and moving flux and reflux of other men, and other acts, and other sufferings, and is required to be in moral harmony with it. It is this requisition, this rule, existing under these circumstances, which constitutes the providential law, —  a law operating from the external upon the internal; a law founded in infinite wisdom, just and inflexible in its requirements, just and inflexible in its retributions.

The law of Providence coincides with the law of the Scriptures. God, who speaks in Providence as well as in the Scriptures, cannot utter voices which, in their principles and claims, are discordant with each other. We may sometimes fail in our interpretations of the Scriptures; we may sometimes attach a meaning to them different from God's meaning; but when the declaration of God in the Scriptures is rightly understood, it will always be found to harmonize with his providential voice. If, for instance, he requires us, in his written law, to love our neighbor as ourselves, he has also arranged in such a manner the things and relations which constitute his providential law as to make the same requisition. And it will be found true, under the operation of the divine Providence, that man will and must suffer just in proportion as he comes short of that divine law of love. It will be the same in other similar instances.

— A Treatise on Divine Union (1851) Part 6, Chapter 2.

The Law of Providence

We cannot well understand and appreciate the doctrine of the law of Providence without some proper view of the mutual relationship and connection of things. It was a maxim of the Schoolmen, and is not less a maxim of nature, NIHIL EX NIHILO FIT. Everything, therefore, which exists, if it do not have an existence which is eternal and independent, must come from a common source. Consequently, there must be some common relationships, some common alliances.

And this is just as true of events which exist in time as of things which exist in place. It is true of everything of which it can be said, it is. If God calls into existence, or, in any way, gives rise to certain things and events and establishes them in their order, which, as a "God of order," he cannot fail to do, he necessarily gives to them their position, their relations, their rights, their influences. All these are theirs by the nature of the case. They do not make them of themselves, but have them, as it were, by inheritance. It is not easy to see how it can be otherwise. It is a matter of necessity, although we may properly make a distinction between things and events in some respects, that they should have their place and relations, their appropriate rights, their appropriate effects.

The True Rest

'Tis not in vain the mind,
By many a tempest driven,
Shall seek a resting-place to find,
A calm like that of heaven.

The weak one and dismayed,
Scarce knowing where to flee,
How happy, when he finds the aid,
That comes alone from Thee.

In Thee, O God, is REST;
Rest from the world's desires,
From pride that agitates the breast,
From passion's angry fires.

In Thee is rest from fear,
That brings its strange alarm,
And sorrow, with its rising tear,
Thou hast the power to calm.

— American Cottage Life (1850).

Madam Guyon: A Little Bird I Am

Translated from a poem of Madam Guyon, written when she was in prison.

A little bird I  am,
Shut from the fields of air;
And in my cage I sit and sing
To Him, who placed me there;
Well pleas'd a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleases Thee.

Nought have I else to do;
I sing the whole day long,
And He, whom most I love to please,
Doth listen to my song;
He caught and bound my wandering wing,
But  still he bends to hear me sing.

Thou hast an ear to hear;
A heart to love and bless;
And, though my notes were e'er so rude,
Thou wouldst not hear the less.
Because Thou knowest, as they fall,
That love, sweet love, inspires them all.
Thou wouldst not hear the less.

My cage confines me round;
Abroad I cannot fly;
But, though my wing is closely bound,
My heart's at liberty.
My prison walls cannot control
The flight, the freedom of the soul.

Oh, it is good to soar,
These bolts and bars above,
To  Him, whose purpose I adore;
Whose providence I love;
And in Thy mighty will to find
The joy, the freedom of the mind.

— American Cottage Life (1850).

One Great Consideration

Amid all the trials of life, amid the rebukes, calumnies, and persecutions of evil men, in seasons when Satan seems to triumph, there is one great consideration which ought to tranquilize and elevate the Christian mind; and that is, that God, who sees the end from the beginning, will glorify himself, and will make even the wrath of his enemies to praise him.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CVIII.

All of God and Nothing of the Creature

There is a remarkable expression of the Savior, and worthy of serious consideration, vis: "I can of mine own self do  nothing." John v. 30. Hence the voice from heaven recognizing the paternal care over him, and saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Hence the interesting statement, that Jesus, who had his weeping infancy and his helpless childhood, "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Hence the Savior's disposition to go apart into gardens and forests and mountains, that he might hold communion with God in prayer. Hence, in the mount of transfiguration, the appearance of Moses and Elias, who "spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." Hence the appearance and the ministration of angels who appeared to him and administered to him after the temptation in the wilderness and in the agony of the garden. But if the Savior, in his human nature, was thus dependent on the Father, deriving all things from him and able to do nothing of himself, who among his followers can hesitate for a moment to acknowledge his own littleness and dependence? Who can doubt, that, whatever religious light and strength he has, comes from God? Who will not rejoice in the "All of God and nothing of the creature?"

— Religious Maxims (1846) CVII.

Holiness is Power

If, as the wise men of the world assure us, "knowledge is power," the Christian can assert with still greater truth, that  holiness is power. But holiness wins its victories, not by the accessory aids of cunning devices and of artificial eloquence; but by its own intrinsic excellence. It is gentle in its language, and mild in its gesticulation; but the energy of the great God is heard with transcendent efficacy in its still small voice.

— Religious Maxims (1846) CVI.

To Freedom From the Earliest Days

To freedom from the earliest days,

The soul of poetry has given

The tribute of its mighty lays,

A note, that had its breath from heaven.

Nations have started at its call;

And not a heart and not a hand

Was absent from the living wall

That rose around the bleeding land.

And yet, which gives the greatest pain?

The links the outward man that bind?

Or  that unseen but galling chain,

Which subjugates the sinful mind?

Oh Sinner! If there's truth and power

In all that calls us to be free,

Awake! 'Tis now the day, the hour!

Arise, assert thy liberty!

— American Cottage Life (1850).

Quietness of Spirit Reflected in the Life

When from the heart its ills are driven,
And God restor'd, resumes control,
The outward life becomes a heaven,
As bright as that within the soul.

Where once was pride and stern disdain,
And acts expressing fierce desire;
The eye, that closest looks, in vain
Shall seek the trace of nature's fire.

No flame of earth, no passion now,
Has left its scorching mark behind;
But lip, and cheek, and radiant brow,
Reflect the brightness of the mind.

For where should be the signs of sin,
When sin itself has left the breast;
When God alone is Lord within,
And perfect faith gives perfect rest.

— American Cottage Life (1850).

Irregular Desires Bring Misery

We should guard against irregular desires not only because they imply guilt, but because they tend to render one miserable. The laws of the mind are such, that irregular and inordinate desires can never be fully and permanently gratified. If they meet with a present gratification, they always lay the foundation for their own re-existence in the shape of subsequent and still stronger desires, which will fail of being gratified. A mind, which is under the dominion of such urgent but ungratified desires, can never be at rest, can never be happy. It is inwardly goaded onward, without the possibility of consolation and peace.

And it is in this manner, that Satan, impelled by desires which aim at supreme dominion without the possibility of ever being satisfied, is consumed inwardly and forever by a flame, that can never be extinguished. This, it is true, is not the only source of his misery: but it is a principal one. Desires, therefore, conform in this respect to the universal law, viz. that guilt always brings misery. Have we not, then, sufficient reason for saying, that all irregular and inordinate desires should be especially guarded against?

All irregular and unsanctified desires stand directly in the way of the operations of the Spirit of God upon the soul; the obstacle they present being in proportion to the strength of the desire. God in the person of the Holy Ghost would immediately set up his dominion in all hearts, were it not for the obstacle presented by desires. God loves his creatures. And he wants nothing of us, but that we should remove the obstacles which shut him out of our hearts. It is self evident that desires and purposes of our own, in distinction from God's desires and purposes, inasmuch as they are not in the position of obedience and are not in the line of God's inward movements, are incompatible with his dominion in the soul. If, therefore, we would be without guilt and misery, if we would enjoy renovation and liberty of spirit, and would have God enthroned in our hearts as our king and sovereign, we must cease from desires. That is to say, we must cease from natural or unsanctified desires. We must desire nothing, on the one hand, out of the will of God; and must refuse nothing on the other, that happens to us in conformity to his will. And it is thus and thus only, that God can become to us an indwelling and paramount principle of life and action. Our All in All.

— edited from The Interior or Hidden Life (1844), Part 2, Chapter 2.