July 21

But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many.—Eccles. xl. 8.

A PRUDENT forecast of possible evils as future to us, arms us with patience to sustain them. Since man was expelled from the terrestrial paradise, and is below the celestial, he is liable to innumerable afflicting accidents. His condition here is like an open sea, so voluble and inconstant, so violent and furious: sometimes the ships are raised upon the tops of the waves, as if they sailed in the air; and sometimes plunged into the waters, and ready to be swallowed up. Such frequent changes happen in our passage to eternity, and it is mercifully ordered so by divine wisdom, that we may so use the world, as not to abuse it and ourselves, by overvaluing and affecting it. It is a contemplation of Theodoret, that the sun and moon, the most glorious luminaries of heaven, and so beneficial to the earth, would be honored as Deities, if they appeared with the same invariable tenor of light. And therefore God wisely disposed of their motions, that at the revolution of certain periods, they should suffer an eclipse, that the ignorant world might be convinced that they were but parts of nature, appointed for the service of man, and are not worthy of divine honor. Thus we see that often the brightest and fullest prosperity is eclipsed, to convince us by the miserable changes in this world, that the best estate of man is altogether vanity, and that these things are utterly insufficient to make us happy, and are not worthy of the chief regard and affection of our immortal souls. To set our hearts on them, is to build on the sand, and to expose ourselves to ruinous falls by every storm. A sudden blast overthrows the fabric of fancy, our conceited happiness in the enjoyment of perishing things. Our greatest comforts may occasion our greatest afflictions; The glory of a family may occasion the grief of it. Now the consideration of the mutable nature of things here below, keeps the heart loose from them, fortifies us with proper thoughts to bear evils that happen, and prevents disappointment, that is an aggravating circumstance of our troubles, and a great vexation to the mind. The Israelites, when transported from the land of Canaan to Babylon, felt the rigors of their captivity the more sensibly, in that they were confident in their term and state in that land, as their permanent inheritance: to be expelled from so rich a country, wherein they promised themselves rest, was a high degree of their misery.

There is indeed a foresight of evils that may befall us, that has torment that anticipates and exasperates misery. Fear, that gives the signal of approaching evils, often brings more terror than caution, and, like a timorous sentinel by a false alarm, astonishes rather than prepares the mind to encounter with danger. Our Saviour strictly forbids such perplexing apprehensions of future evils, as most unbecoming Christians, who are under the perpetual providence of their heavenly Father: Take no thought for the morrow, the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. But on the contrary, to be secure in our prosperity, as if we should always enjoy a favorable course of things, as if our most flourishing comforts did not spring from an earthly original, and might be suddenly blasted, or easily cut down, is to lay ourselves open to surprising disorders and perplexities when evils befall us. It is the wise counsel of Peter to believers, Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as if some strange thing happened to you. For unexpected adversity falls upon the soul in its full weight, and suddenly overthrows it. Uncomfortable accidents strike to the heart, when it is not armed to receive the blow; whereas the remembrance of our frail and fickle state, makes us less troubled in afflictive changes, because prepared for what may happen to us.