Page:The Garden of Eden (Doughty).djvu/136

130 one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of our head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows" (Luke xii. 6, 7). The five sparrows worth only two farthings, are very small things for the Lord to remember. The hairs of the head are very small things to be counted by God. But if even these are under his immediate observation, surely man must be. This was a doctrine that no follower of Christ must deny. So He referred them to the birds of the air, which sow not, neither reap nor gather into barns. He pointed to the lilies of the field, which neither toil nor spin. Yet the birds are bountifully fed, and the lilies are beautifully clothed, by Him who is the Father of all. Since each lily and bird, in each moment of its little life, is watched so carefully by the Lord's providence, who shall say that the least of men, in the least act or event of his life, is forgotten by Him?

Such is the divine truth. And the Christian who does not recognize this divine care in each and every least affair of each and every human life, is not penetrated by the philosophy of Jesus. And the Christian who does not know that this doctrine is universally recognized in Scripture as a central truth, has scarcely taken his first lesson in the teachings of Christ or his religion.