nd under these storms and
clouds reason is swayed from her highest and best conclusions; and the
contradictions without, are faithfully reflected within the soul.

"And so I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the
sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide
with him of his labor the days of his life, which God giveth him under
the sun." Here we get the heralds of a storm indeed. They are the
first big drops that bespeak the coming flood that shall sweep our
writer from all reason's moorings; the play of a lightning that shall
blind man's wisdom to its own light; the sigh of a wind that soon shall
develop into a very blast of despair.

What a contradiction to the previous sober conclusion, "It shall be
well with them that fear God"! Now, seeing that there is no apparent
justice in the allotment of happiness here, and the fear of God is
often followed by sorrow, while the lawless as often have the easy
lot,--looking on this scene, I say, "Eat, drink, and be merry;" get
what good you can out of life itself; for all is one inextricable
confusion.

Oh, this awful tangle of providences! Everything is wrong! All is in
confusion! There is law everywhere, and yet law-breaking everywhere.
How is it? Why is it? Is not God the source of order and harmony?
Whence, then, the discord? Is it all His retributive justice against
sin? Why, then, the thoroughly unequal allotment? Here is a man born
blind. Surely this cannot be because he sinned before his birth! But,
then, is it on account of his parents' sinning? Why, then, do the
guilty go comparatively free, and the guiltless suffer? Sin, surely,
is the only cause of the infliction. So the disciples of old, brought
face to face with exactly this same riddle, the same mystery, ask,
"Master, who did sin--this man, or his parents, that he was born
blind?" "Neither." Another--higher, happier, more glorious reason,
Jesus gives: "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that
the works of God should be made manifest in him." So the afflicted
parents weep over their sightless babe; so they nurse him through his
helpless, darkened childhood, or guide him through his lonely youth,
their hearts sorely tempted surely to rebel against the providence that
has robbed their offspring of the light of heaven. Neighbors, too, can
give but little comfort here. Why was he born blind? Who did _the
sin_ that brought this eviden