The prophet Ezekiel once had an extraordinary vision of God. He tries
to tell us about it, but his description seems to be a meaningless
jumble of cherubim, and wheels,--wheels within wheels, complex,
wonderful, unresting. Behind all, he saw the Glory of God. And again
and again he tells us that "the Spirit of Life was in the wheels."
Now that at least is intelligible, and it is a good thing for us to
think about. The Spirit of God is in the wheels.
I want to suggest to you that He is in the wheels of industry. We have
no hesitation in saying that God gives the farmer his harvest, and we
actually thank Him for it in His temple. A shepherd with a lamb in his
arms is for a pastoral people like the Jews the very image of the
Saviour God. But men who dwell in towns, and work in mills and
factories and yards and railways, or who control or manage such places,
have little to do with either corn or sheep. Is it not worth while to
remind them that God is also in the wheels? Do you remember how
Kipling's old chief engineer Macandrew believed that his twin monsters,
driving the liner onward on her way, sang their hourly hymn of praise to
God? And why not? From all the wheels of industry and man's
inventiveness, goes there not up to Him a praise as real as the song of
His little birds?
Where two or three gather together on Lord's days, God is truly and
graciously present. But I want you to remember that out in the noisy
moving world of industry and business, God is present also, guiding,
controlling and bringing His long, long plans to pass. It is by His
decree that all the countless wheels of traffic and production turn and
spin, for He needs them all, and has brought them into being by the
hands of men, and they are His, as the Church is His. I would not have
you, as Christian men, look upon your week-day world with its mechanism
and its traffic, that world of yours that goes so literally upon wheels,
as a province of life very far remote from the presence of God. I would
remind you rather that God's spirit is in those wheels, that they move
at His bidding, and that they are working out His purposes upon the
earth.
I would suggest, further, that God is in those wheels whose turning
brings us Change. If you will allow the figure, I would say that God is
in the wheels of Change and time.
As we grow older, we resent more and more the constant alteration of the
surroundings of life. It saddens us that there should be such a
continual moving on. But perhaps it is in the realm of doctrine and
practice that changes hurt and perplex us most. Godly old customs die
out. The face of truth seems to alter. Old notes in religion disappear
and new ones take their place, and we are sorely tempted to ask if it be
possible that the children can know God better or serve His Christ more
truly than their fathers. Ah yes, from forty years and upwards, men are
very apt to have a quarrel with change. They resent it, and would spike
Time's wheels if they could.
Forgetting that the Spirit of God is in those very wheels. Change is
God's method and His blessing. The Bible does not envy the man who has
no changes. It is afraid for him, afraid that for want of them, he may
settle on his lees, and forget the fear of God.
Of course, no one will defend every new fashion, or assert that
everything recent is an improvement on what went before. But I, for
one, do believe that generation after generation men are moving up,
being shepherded up, the long slope of history nearer to God. I believe
that God's promise is that He will do better for us than at the
beginnings, and I believe He is keeping His promise. I must believe
that the history of this world which man rough hews, is--spite of all
the wars--being shaped by God Himself, or else there is no God at all.
And so I would say to those who distrust the continual changes of life,
and would fain stop the wheels that turn on and on and never halt, "Fear
not! Be of good courage! For aback of all change is God our Father,
and it is His Spirit that is working in the wheels."
Again, I would suggest to you that God is in the wheels that shape your
own lot and mine. The wheels of Chance, they are sometimes called, the
mere whirligig of destiny, as if the world were some blind irresponsible
machine grinding on in the dark, and heeding not which or how many lives
were broken in its teeth.
And I grant you that there be times when that idea seems feasible. For
life is full of mysterious happenings, and chance sometimes seems the
most probable explanation. The tragedy of Job is always being played
somewhere. There are men who up to a certain point in life have known
nothing but good fortune, and after that, nothing but disappointment and
disaster. Out of a blue sky the bolt may fall on any one; while from
clouds lowering and heavy, it is waited for, expected and dreaded--and
never comes! The merest knife-edge of circumstance sometimes affects
results out of all proportion to its importance. "A grain of sand in a
man's flesh" as Pascal remarks, "has changed the course of Empires."
Yes, I grant you, there be times when the blind chance theory does
suggest itself.
But by an overwhelming majority the instinct of man is against it. And
best of all, Jesus Christ, our supreme authority, has pledged Himself in
His life and death, that the Ruler and Disposer of all events is Eternal
Love. We have learned from Jesus to say and to trust "Our Father who
art in Heaven." We know and believe that whatever is to come falls not
by chance, but is sent and permitted by the Love of God, who makes no
mistakes. Taught and inspired by Jesus, many thousands of men and women
have committed themselves and all their interests--home, health,
happiness, reputation, loved ones--to the keeping of God the Father, and
known by the peace that came to them, that it was a real transaction.
Soulless wheels of destiny! say some. The blind mechanism of law! Ah,
no, Jesus is the refutation of that. Law there is, and mechanism there
must be. But neither blind nor soulless. For, above all, is the Father
Love of God, and it is His spirit that is guiding and governing the
wheels.
Wheels of Industry, Wheels of Change, Wheels of Destiny. And God's
Spirit in them all!