The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life

Chapter 12 of The Christian Secret of a Happy Life. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Elizabeth Ramsey. The Christian Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whittle-Smith. Chapter 12. Is God in Everything? One of the greatest obstacles to an unwavering experience in the interior life is the difficulty of seeing God in everything. People say, I can easily submit to things that come from God, but I cannot submit to man, and most of my trials and crosses come through human instrumentality. Or they say, it is all well enough to talk of trusting, but when I commit a matter to God, man is sure to come in and disarrange it all. And while I have no difficulty in trusting God, I do see serious difficulties in the way of trusting men. This is no imaginary trouble, but it is of vital importance, and if it cannot be met, it does really make the life of faith an impossible and visionary theory. For nearly everything in life comes to us through human instrumentalities, and most of our trials are the result of somebody's failure, or ignorance, or carelessness, or sin. We know God cannot be the author of these things, and yet, unless He is the agent in the matter, how can we say to Him about it, Thy will be done? Besides, what good is there in trusting our affairs to God, if, after all, man is allowed to come in and disarrange them? How is it possible to live by faith if human agencies, in whom it would be wrong and foolish to try to have a prevailing influence in molding our lives? Moreover, things in which we can see God's hand always have a sweetness in them that consoles while it wounds, but the trials inflicted by man are full of nothing but bitterness. What is needed then is to see God in everything, and to receive everything directly from His hands, with no intervention of second causes. And it is to know just this that we might be brought before we can know an abiding experience of entire abandonment and perfect trust. Our abandonment must be to God, not to man, and our trust must be in Him, not in any arm of flesh, or we shall fail at the first trial. The question here confronts us at once. But is God in everything, and have we any warrant from the Scripture for receiving everything from His hands, without regarding the second causes that may have been instrumental in bringing them about? I answer to this, unhesitatingly, yes. To the children of God, everything comes directly from their Father's hand, no matter who or what may have been the apparent agents. There are no second causes for them. The whole teaching of Scriptures asserts and implies this. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Father. The very hairs on our head are all numbered. We are not to be careful about anything because our Father cares for us. We are not to avenge ourselves, because our Father has charged Himself with our defense. We are not to fear, for our Lord is on our side. No one can be against us, because He is for us. We shall not want, for He is our Shepherd. When we pass through the rivers, they shall not overflow us, and when we walk through the fire, we shall not be burned, because He will be with us. He shuts the mouths of lions, that they cannot hurt us. He delivereth and rescueth. He changeth the times and the seasons. He removeth kings and setteth up kings. A man's heart is in his hand, and, as the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will. He ruleth over all the kingdoms of the heathen, and in his hand there is no power and might, so that none is able to withstand him. He ruleth the raging of the sea. When the waves thereof arise, He stilleth them. He bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught. He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. Whatsoever the Lord pleases, that doeth He, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places. Lo, these are the parts of His ways. But how a little portion is heard of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand? Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the Everlasting, the Lord, the Creator of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of His understanding. And it is this very God who is declared to be our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In Him I will trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snares of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings thou shalt trust. His trust shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right side, but it shall not come nigh thee. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation. And there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep in all thy ways. Be content therefore with such things as ye have, for He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will fear not what man shall do unto me. To my own mind, these scriptures and many others like them, settle forever the question as to the power of second causes in the life of the children of God. Second causes must be under the control of our Father, and not one of them can touch us except with His knowledge and by His permission. It may be the sin of man that originates the action, and therefore the thing itself cannot be said to be the will of God, but by the time it reaches us, it has become God's will for us, and must be accepted as directly from His hands. No man, or company of men, no power in earth or heaven, can touch that soul which is abiding in Christ without first passing through His encircling presence and receiving the seal of His permission. If God be for us, it matters not who may be against us, nothing can disturb or harm us, except He shall see that it is best for us and shall stand aside to let it pass. An earthly parent's care for his helpless child is a feeble illustration of this. If the child is in his father's arms, nothing can touch it without that father's consent, unless he is too weak to prevent it. And even if this should be the case, he suffers the harm first in his own person before he allows it to reach his child. If an earthly parent would thus care for his helpless little one, how much more will our heavenly Father, whose love is infinitely greater and whose strength and wisdom can never be baffled, care for us? I am afraid there are some, even of God's own children, who scarcely think that He is equal to themselves in tenderness and love and thoughtful care, and who, in their secret thoughts, charge Him with a neglect and indifference of which they would feel themselves incapable. The truth really is that His care is infinitely superior to any possibility of human care, and that He, who counts the very hairs on our heads and suffers not a sparrow to fall without Him, takes note of the minutest matters that can affect the lives of His own children and regulates them all according to His own imperfect will. Let their origin be what they may. The instance of this are numberless. Take Joseph. What could have seemed more apparently on the face of it to be the result of sin and utterly contrary to the will of God than the action of his brethren in selling him into slavery? And yet Joseph, in speaking of it, said, As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life. It was undoubtedly sin in Joseph's brethren, but by the time it had reached Joseph it had become God's will for him, and was, in truth, though he did not see it then, the greatest blessing of his whole life. And thus we see how God can make even the wrath of man to praise Him, and how all things, even the sin of others, shall work together for good to them that love Him. I learned this lesson practically and experimentally long years before I knew the scriptural truths concerning it. I was attending a prayer meeting held in the interest of the life of faith when a strange lady rose to speak, and I looked at her, wondering who she could be. Little thinking, she was to bring a message to my soul which would teach me a grand practical lesson. She said that she had great difficulty in living the life of faith, on account of the second causes that seemed to her to control nearly everything that concerned her. Her perplexity became so great that at last she began to ask God to teach her the truth about it, whether He really was in everything or not. After praying this for a few days, she had what she described as a vision. She thought she was in a perfectly dark place, and that there advanced towards her, from a distance, a body of light which gradually surrounded and enveloped her and everything around her. As it approaches, a voice seemed to say, This is the presence of God, this is the presence of God. While surrounded with this presence, all the great and awful things in life seemed to pass before her, fighting armies, wicked men, raging beasts, storms and pestilence, sin and suffering of every kind. She shrunk back at first in terror, but soon she saw that the presence of God so surrounded and enveloped herself and each one of those things that not a lion could reach at its paw, nor a bullet fly through the air, except as the presence of God moved out of the way to permit it. And she saw that if there were ever so thin a film as it were of this glorious presence between herself and the most terrible violence, not a hair on her head could be ruffled, nor anything touch her, except as the presence divided to let the evil through. Then all the small and annoying things of life passed before her, and equally she saw that there also she was so enveloped in this presence of God that not a cross look, nor a harsh word, nor pity trial of any kind could affect her, unless God's encircling presence moved out of the way to let it. Her difficulty vanished. Her question was answered forever. God was in everything, and to her henceforth there were no second causes. She saw that her life came to her, day by day, hour by hour, directly from the hand of God, let the agencies which should seem to control it be what they might. And never again had she found any difficulty in an abiding consent to His will and an unwavering trust in His care. Would that it were only possible to make every Christian see this truth as plainly as I see it. For I am convinced it is the only clue to a competitively restful life. Nothing else will enable a soul to live only in the present moment, as we are commanded to do, and to take no thought for the morrow. Nothing else will take all the risks and supposes out of a Christian life, and enable him to say, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Under God's care we run no risks. I once heard of a poor colored woman who earned a precarious living by daily labor, but who was a joyous, triumphant Christian. Ah, Nancy, said a gloomy Christian lady to her one day, who almost disapproved of her constant cheerfulness, and yet envied it. Ah, Nancy, it is all well enough to be happy now, but I should think the only thoughts of your future would sober you. Only suppose for an instant that you should have a spell of sickness and be unable to work, or suppose your present employers should move away, and no one else should give you anything to do, or suppose, Stop! cried Nancy. I never suppose. The Lord is my shepherd, and I know who I shall not want. And honey, she added to her gloomy friend, it is all them supposes is making you so miserable. You better give them all up and trust the Lord. Nothing else but this seeing God in everything will make us loving and patient with those who annoy and trouble us. They will be to us then only the instruments for accomplishing His tender and wise purposes towards us, and we shall even find ourselves at last inwardly thanking them for the blessings they bring. Nothing else will completely put an end to all murmur or rebelling thoughts. Christians often would feel at liberty to murmur against God when they would not dare to murmur against God. Therefore, this way of receiving things would make it impossible ever to murmur. If our Father permits a trial to come, it must be because the trial is the sweetest and the best thing that could happen to us, and we must accept it with thanks from His dear hand. This does not mean, however, that we must like it or enjoy the trial itself, but that we must like God's will in the trial, and it is not hard to do this when we have learned to know that His will is the will of love, and therefore is always lovely. A very good illustration of this may be found in the familiar fact of a mother giving medicine to her dearly loved child. The bottle holds the medicine, but the mother gives it, and the bottle is not responsible but the mother. No matter how full her closet may be of bottles of medicine, the mother will not allow one drop to be given to the child unless she believes it will be good for it. But when she does believe it will be good for her darling, the very depth of her love compels her to force it onto the child, no matter how bitter it may taste. The human beings around us are often the bottles that hold our medicine, but it is our Father's hand of love that pours out the medicine and compels us to drink it. The human bottle is the second cause of our trial, but it has no real agency in it, for the medicine that these human bottles hold is prescribed for us and given to us by the great Physician of our souls, who is seeking thereby to heal all our spiritual diseases. For instance, I know no better medicine to cure the disease of irritability than to be compelled to live with a human bottle of sensitiveness, whom we are bound to consider and yield to. Shall we rebel against the human bottles then? Shall we not rather take thankfully from our Father's hand the medicine they contain and, losing sight of the second cause, say joyfully, Thy will be done in everything that comes to us, no matter what its source may be? This way of seeing our Father in everything makes life one long thanksgiving and gives rest of heart, and more than that, a gaiety of spirit that is unspeakable. Faber says in his wonderful hymn about the will of God, I know not what is to doubt, my heart is always gay, I run no risk, for come what will, thou always hast thy way. Since therefore God is sure to have his own way concerning those who abandon themselves to him in perfect trust, and to what wonderful green pastures of inner rest, and besides what blessedly still waters of inward refreshment, will he lead all such. If the will of God is our will, and if he always has his way, then we always have our way also, and we reign in a perpetual kingdom. He who sides with God cannot fail to win every encounter, and whether the result shall be joy or sorrow, failure or success, death or life, we may under all circumstances join in the Apostle's shout to victory. Thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. The Will of God. Thou sweet beloved will of God, my anchor ground, my fortress hill, my spirit silent, fair abode, in thee I hide and am still. O will thou willest, good alone, lead thou way, thou guidest best, a little child I follow on, I trusting lead upon thy breast. Thy beautiful sweet will, my God, holds fast in its sublime embrace, my captive's will, a gladsome bird, imprisoned in such a realm of grace. Within this place of certain good, love evermore expands her wings, or nesting in thy perfect choice, abides content with what it brings. O sweetest burden, lightest yoke, it lifts, it bears my happy soul, it giveth wings to this poor heart, my freedom is thy grand control. Upon God's will I lay me down as child upon its mother's breast, no silken couch nor softest bed could ever give me such sweet rest. Thy wonderful grand will, my God, with triumphs now I make it mine, and love shall cry a jealous yes to every dear command of thine. End of chapter 12 Recording by Elizabeth Ramsey