God's
purpose in choosing to smite Jephthah in that way was partly
intelligible, and, after all, Jephthah was elected to redeem his
country too. But what could be God's purpose in electing one of his
servants to indifference and absence of affection where he had a
right to expect it? Could anybody be better for not being loved?
Even Zachariah could not think it possible. But Mr. Bradshaw's words
again recurred. Who was he that he should question God's designs?
It might be part of the Divine design that he, Zachariah Coleman,
should not be made better by anything. It might be part of that
design, part of a fulfilment of a plan devised by the Infinite One,
that he should be broken, nay, perhaps not saved. Mr. Bradshaw's
doctrine that night was nothing new. Zachariah had believed from his
childhood, or had thought he believed, that the potter had power over
the clay--of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another
unto dishonour; and that the thing formed unto dishonour could not
reply and say to him that formed it: 'Why hast thou made me thus?'
Nevertheless, to believe it generally was one thing; to believe it as
a truth for him was another.
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