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Going up among the White Mountains some years ago, I thought of that passage in the Bible that speaks of God as weighing mountains in a balance. As I looked at those great mountains, I thought: Can it be possible that God can put those great mountains in scales? It was an idea too great for me to grasp; but when I saw a bluebell down by the mule's foot on my way up Mount Washington, then I understood the kindness and goodness of God. It is not so much of God in great things I can understand, but of God in little things. Here is a man who says: "That doctrine cannot be true, because things do go so very wrong." I reply: "It is no inconsistency on the part of God, but a lack of understanding on our part." I hear that men are making very fine shawls in some factory. I go in on the first floor and see only the raw material, and I ask: "Are these the shawls I hear about?" "No," says the manufacturer, "go up to the next floor"; and I go up, and there I begin to see the design. But the man says: "Do not stop here, go to the top floor of the factory, and you will see the idea fully carried out." I do so, and having come to the top, see the complete pattern of an exquisite shawl. So in our life, standing down on a low level of Christian experience, we do not understand God's dealings. He tells us to go up higher if we would know. We go up higher and higher until we begin to understand the Divine meaning with respect to us. God says, Go up higher, and we advance until we stand at the very gate of heaven, and there see God's idea all wrought out — a perfect idea of mercy, of love, of kindness, and we say: "Just and true are all Thy ways." It is all right at the top; all right at the bottom. Remember, there is no inconsistency on the part of God, but it is only our mental and spiritual incapacity.

(T. De Witt Talmage.)

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KJV: As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

WEB: Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."