Mark Twain on the Sovereignty of God

...although I seriously doubt he would have meant to honor God with this, yet his Presbyterian upbringing and bedrock presupposition is there.

This is from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, describing the death of Injun Joe and the tiny drip of water in the cave which provided some small comfort to him as he was slowly starving to death.

That drop was falling when the Pyramids were new; when Troy fell; when the foundations of Rome were laid when Christ was crucified; when the Conqueror created the British empire; when Columbus sailed; when the massacre at Lexington was "news." It is falling now; it will still be falling when all these things shall have sunk down the afternoon of history, and the twilight of tradition, and been swallowed up in the thick night of oblivion. Has everything a purpose and a mission? Did this drop fall patiently during five thousand years to be ready for this flitting human insect's need? and has it another important object to accomplish ten thousand years to come?