or that occurs in his wide empire. From a sermon delivered on September
20th, 1857 by Ebenezer Rogers, two days after the steamship
Central America sank during a hurricane, 560 of the 626 people on board
lost their lives. Upon the whole history of this
solemn event is stamped the record of the absolute sovereignty of
God. It is not an enemy who has done
this. God is sovereign and this is the hand of God. All that
occurs in his wide empire, from the falling of a leaf to the
extinction of a race, from the death of a sparrow to the blotting
out of a star, is only the fiat of him who is from everlasting
to everlasting. God, whose counsel shall stand
and who will do all his good pleasure. There is a God who
reigns in the earth. Affliction does not come forth
from the dust, neither does trouble spring out of the ground. But
the Lord God omnipotent reigns. God is sovereign on his throne.
All the powers and processes of nature are but the ministers
who do His pleasure. Rising above the roaring of the
ocean, above the moaning of the blast, above even the shrieks
of drowning men, is heard the solemn voice of the Almighty,
saying in tones of overwhelming majesty, Be still and know that
I am God. Let us enthrone above these scenes
of apparent disorder and arbitrary infliction, a sovereign God,
a God of wisdom, a God of power, a God of love, who sees the end
from the beginning and orders all things according to the counsel
of His will. And here at least we have an
anchorage for faith, a place where she can cling and look
up amid the jarring elements and say, even so, Father, for
so it seems good in your sight. Who would not prefer, if called
on to submit uncomplainingly and absolutely to the most trying
circumstances and dealings, that these should be ordered by a
wise, just, and good being, one whose infinite wisdom enabled
him to devise the best things, whose infinite power enabled
him to accomplish them, and whose infinite goodness disposed him
to exert that power? Who would not choose that a father's
hand should pour the bitter cup which he was to drink even to
the dregs? Oh, to be taught that a sovereign God rides upon the
billows and directs the storms which have swept all our idols
away and left us beggared and forlorn is a lesson worth to
the tried and tempted soul of man all that it costs to learn
it. To my own mind, this fearful
event and all its horrors is full of teaching on that great
point which lies at the foundation of all religion, but which men
are so constantly prone to forget. that there is a sovereign God
in the heavens before whom all must bow and to whom all must
give account. As Daniel chapter 4 verse 35
says, all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand
or say to him, what have you done?