Deuteronomy 29:29

Secret things.

"Secret things belong unto the Lord our God." So says the great lawgiver. On a not dissimilar topic, Bishop Butler says, "We do not know the whole of anything." Is it not so? Who can tell all about a stone or about a blade of grass? Who can aver that the furthest star has been yet discovered, or tell us what lies beyond it? There are secrets among the minute; there are secrets among the vast.

I. LET US MAKE A DISTINCTION AS TO THE MANNER , KIND , OR DEGREE OF SECRECY .

1. Some things are secret, awaiting fuller discovery to reveal them.

2. Some things are secret, but await the unfolding of events in God's providence.

3. Some things are secret in one sense, but not in another. We often know manifestations, but not essences; phenomena, but not nomena; facts, but not modes or reasons.

4. There are some secret things which are altogether unknowable, and must long remain so; e . g . Who can give an account of the reason why sin was permitted to enter? Who can tell whether it will always exist? Who can explain the doctrine of the Trinity? Who can descry the reason why this man had such and such suffering? etc; etc. How soon, when we come to ask questions like these, are we in "a boundless deep, where all our thoughts are drowned!"

II. LET US INQUIRE , IN WHAT RESPECT DO SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO GOD ? They belong unto him:

1. To conceive them.

2. To will them.

3. To originate them.

4. To comprehend them.

5. To overrule them.

6. To conduct them to their final issue.

III. LET US ASK , WHAT EFFECT SHOULD THE FACT THAT SECRET THINGS BELONG UNTO GOD HAVE UPON US ?

1. It should humble us to find out how incompetent we are to scan the Divine works and ways.

2. It is obvious that we must leave secret things with him to whom alone they belong.

3. It is manifestly right to leave them with him.

4. It should give us no uneasiness to leave them there.

5. We should be fully content to leave them there. For we have

6. We should be adoringly thankful that God keeps in his own hands what we could not understand, and entrusts us only with what we can.

7. Thankfully leaving in God's hands what belongs to him, let us lovingly attend to that which belongs to us.