July 6

I will direct their way. - Isaiah 61:8.

WE may here make four suppositions. The first is, suppose our affairs were left to chance. Would we like that? Would we like to rise in the morning and look upon some beloved relative pining away by some mortal sickness, and brood upon the thought that we have nothing to comfort us but this dismal reflection,- that all is left to chance or accident?

The second supposition is, that our affairs are left to our own order and arrangement, Should we not tremble at such a thought, and say, “My ignorance unfits me for it; I know not what is good in this vain life, which is spent as a shadow. For who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?” We have often been mistaken both on the side of hopes and fears. We have often desired that which would have been for our injury, and shunned that which would have been for our advantage. “The way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” Our impatience unfits us for it. God is a God of judgment. He knows best when to yield us supplies; but, like an impatient child, we desire the fruit before it is ripe. Our carnality unfits us for it. “We are so worldly-minded, and our souls so cleave to the dust, that we should be liable to sacrifice our best interests for the gratification of some earthly good. Our selfishness unfits us for it. We should think too much of our own concerns, and not enough of those of others.

The third supposition is, that our affairs should be left to the management of some fellow-creature. Who should we choose for this purpose? Not an enemy, for certain, but a friend. What friend? One who knows us best. There is much folded up in our character that our most intimate connections know nothing of. Would we have a partial friend? Ah, that partiality would most likely insure our injury and ruin. Then, should it be an angel? When God offered an angel to Moses, he declined to accept him, and told God that unless he himself went with him he would not move. “If thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence.”

Well, then, the fourth supposition is, that our affairs are left to the disposal of God himself. This is the source of our consolation. Ah, we say, will this Lord of glory condescend to be our Father and our Friend? Will he undertake our cause, and manage all for us by the way and to the end? Oh, then we may rejoice that all our times are in his hand, and all our concerns at his disposal.

“Oh, who so fit to choose our lot

And regulate our ways”

as the only wise God? and who so worthy of all the confidence of our hearts as a Being who spared not his own Son, but sacrificed him for our salvation? Here Christians may find a never failing source of consolation, and a joy which no man taketh from them.