Research source

As to what is commonly termed good or ill luck, we may be assured that they have no other existence but in the…

Date of account: Published 1857
Source: The Spirit Land
Reference: The Spirit Land · selected passage 108
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

As to what is commonly termed good or ill luck, we may be assured that they have no other existence but in the imagination

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

As to what is commonly termed good or ill luck, we may be assured that they have no other existence but in the imagination. Luck means chance; but every thing, great and small, is under the wise and gracious direction of God. Nothing can happen without his permission, and he permits nothing but what, in his wonderful plans, he designs to work for our good. We are kept in ignorance of the particular events that are to befall us, in order to keep alive within us an abiding sense of our dependence on God, and a constant obedience to the directions of his word, by which alone we can be prepared to meet the dispensations of his providence. The Bible tells us quite enough of futurity to teach us to prepare for it, as far as it rests with us to prepare. And it is both vain and wicked to endeavor to obtain any further information from any other source, or for any one to pretend that they possess it. Had it been necessary for our good that we should know every thing beforehand, the information would have been given us in the Bible, or it would have been left so that we could have gathered it from general instruction and observation, as is the case with every kind of knowledge that is essential to our present as well as everlasting good.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a historical account assembled under the reporting and publishing conventions of its period. It may preserve testimony, hearsay, retelling and editorial interpretation together.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

A modern comparison can identify recurring descriptions and possible explanations, but the account is not treated as independently verified evidence merely because it appeared in print.

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