This blessed providence is “the almighty and everywhere-present power of God, whereby as it were by His hand He upholds and governs Heaven and Earth and all creatures.” So: “herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty — yea, and all things — come not by chance, but by His fatherly hand.”
There is also an intensely practical result of believing all of this. For thus we learn how to “be patient in adversity; thankful in prosperity; and that in all things which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father — that nothing shall separate us from His love, since all creatures are so in His hand that without His will they cannot so much as move.”
