April 19

left in the flags, the sister is stationed to watch any favourable issues and in doing this they cast all their care upon him who cared for them, and turned the shadow of death into the morning. Miracles were never mere displays of power; nor ever were they needlessly performed, or excessive in their degree and extent. Thus our Lord prepared a fish to furnish money for the temple-tax; yet he did not supernaturally transport it through the air and lay it upon the table; but ordered Peter to go to the sea and cast in his hook. And when the angel had done what was really out of Peter's power, opened the iron gates and loosened his fetters, he yet told him to put on his sandals and mantle, and follow him: for this he could do; and why should the angel carry him forth in his arms or on his shoulder?

But though you are not to cast your work upon the Lord, you are to cast your care. For though duty is yours, events are his. But when you have diligently and properly used the means, you are not to be of a doubtful mind, or to yield to fretfulness and impatience; but to commit your way unto the Lord, and leave the concern with him. If we go forward into the world of imagination, and busy ourselves about contingencies, we invade the Lord's province, and weary ourselves for very vanity. Who by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? But he can take away one. He can injure himself though he cannot benefit. The sin brings its own punishment along with it. Our anxiousness hurts our health, our temper, our peace of mind, our fitness for duty and devotion. What a wretched burden it is! Well whatever makes up the depression, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." But how is this to be done? We are to cast all our care upon him two ways. First, by prayer. "Be careful for nothing, but in every thing, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God." "Is any afflicted? Let him pray." Oh what a relief!

Secondly, by faith—A firm and influential belief of his providential agency in all our concerns; a persuasion that all his ways towards us are mercy and truth; an assurance that all things work together for good to them that love God. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee." But who has faith enough for this? Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.

APRIL 19.—"For he careth for you."—1 Peter 5:7.

WHATEVER the world may think, religion is wisdom; and requires nothing of its followers but a "reasonable service." The privileges of a Christian are not baseless fancies; his repentance is not an ignorant sorrow; his trust in God is not a blind presumption. He is able to give a reason of the hope that is in him; and he can justify his practice as well as his expectation. How simple and satisfactory is the motive or argument here adduced to enforce the duty enjoined: "Casting all your care upon him—for he careth for you." Our affairs cannot be left to negligence and uncertainty—Some one must manage them; and care for us. Now opposed to our own care is the care of God! And how much better is the one than the other! Our care is unavailing and unprofitable. And how

little can we add to it from any relative resource! A friend is indeed born for adversity; and such a benefactor, by counselling us in our doubts, comforting us in our sorrows, and relieving us in our necessities, is one of the greatest blessings heaven can bestow. Yet how limited as well as uncertain is human friendship! All reliance on creature help is leaning on a broken reed, or hewing out broken cisterns that can hold no water. But "blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh; but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." Here is a divine friend and helper. He careth for us—Here is the case of a God engaged for us—That is of a Being possessed of infinite perfections. Here is a care attended by unerring knowledge; by almighty power; by a goodness, a kindness, a tenderness, a patience, a fidelity that knows no bounds. Surely all these advantages combined in him who careth for us, must render his care all-sufficient for every purpose, and discharge our minds from every solicitude.

But what evidence have we that he does care for us? The fact is certainly astonishing; and when we reflect upon God's majesty and holiness, and our meanness and unworthiness, we may well exclaim with David, "Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him?" Or with Job, "What is man that thou shouldest magnify him; that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him; that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment!" Yet nothing is more true. It is involved in the first essential principle of religion, and upon which all its duties are founded: for "he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." We are commanded to pray to God; but for what purpose if he takes no interest in our concerns? We are required to bless and praise him; but for what reason, if he dispenses our blessings by accident, and not from disposition and design? He also takes care for oxen. He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens that cry. He openeth his hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing. Now we may reason from the less to the greater—And hence the Saviour says to his disciples, "Ye are of more value than many sparrows." "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" The relations in which he stands prove the same. If he professes himself to be the Shepherd, the King, the Husband, the Father of his people, will he not care for his sheep, his subjects, his bride, his offspring? His promises are exceeding great and precious, and adapted to all our wants and fears. "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry." "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through

VOL I.

the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Is not this the language of one that careth for us? Review his doings for proof of this; for as we have heard so have we seen in the city of our God. What says the history of his people in all generations? Who cared for Noah when the deluge was coming on, and said, Come thou and all thy house into the ark? Who cared for David, and appeared for him in all his dangers and tribulation? Who restrained the lions and the flames that they should not touch Daniel and his companions? Whose angel stood by Paul in the storm, and said, Fear not, Paul, when all hope that they should be saved was taken away? And what says your own experience? Has he not cared for you from the womb? In childhood? In youth? In manhood? In every period of life? In every condition? In every difficulty? In every distress? And having cared for you so long, will he abandon you now? Having sought you when enemies, will he forsake you now he has made you friends? Having not spared his own son, but delivered him up for you; will he withhold any good thing from you?

"But if he cared for us, why are we so afflicted?" This instead of being an objection furnishes a proof. Your trials evince his care. You are children under discipline—And if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not. "If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." The husbandman prunes the vine because he cares for it, and wishes it to bring forth more fruit. The artificer puts the gold into the furnace because he values and wishes to improve it.

How enviable is the portion and experience of Christians! The world indeed knoweth them not. They can only see their outward condition; and because this is often poor and afflicted, they are ready to think that they are miserable and melancholy. But how differently would they think if they could see their inward security and composure—If they could see how they rise above those changes which ruffle and terrify others—If they could see how, while the men of the earth fret and turmoil and are devoured by the sorrow of the world that worketh death, they have, even in this vale of tears, an asylum where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding, keeps their hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

But alas! we often hold forth Christians as they ought to be, rather than as they are. It is lamentable that they do not more fully improve their resources, and live up to their privileges. Hence, that care which they are allowed and commanded to resign, and which their Heavenly Father and Friend is more than willing to take upon himself, they retain and even cherish, to the spoiling of their comfort: and instead of their dwelling at ease, and being in quiet from the fear of evil, they are ingenious at self-vexation, and suffer in imagination more than in reality! Lord, humble us—and forgive—and teach us to profit—and lead us in the way that we should choose.