"Often when the church thinks itself in the most imminent danger, when its friends are ready to cry in despair, 'All these things are against us, our destruction is inevitable;' angels are lost in wonder in view of the means which divine wisdom is, even then, employing to effect its deliverance and turn its despondency into triumph. For some thousands of years they have been contemplating this spectacle; their knowledge and their admiration of God's wisdom have been continually increasing, and yet every day they learn something new, every day they see new proofs that Jehovah is indeed the all-wise God; that his resources are inexhaustible; that he can never be at a loss; and that he can effect the same object in numberless different ways and by the use of the most improbable means. If the ways of a wise men are above those of a fool, how much more the ways of an all-wise God exceed ours."Edward Payson