July 13

Who knoweth what is good for man in this life? - Ecclesiastes 6:12.

MEN think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. “Vain man,” says Zophar, “would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.” Yet how liable is he to be deceived and deluded. How unable is he to distinguish between appearances and realities; how incapable of knowing how he is to fill and act in a new and untried condition; and even the very limited knowledge he may possess may be influenced by the strongest prejudices; it may be used and it may be misapplied, so that his ignorance may become error; and error is often worse than ignorance.

How often, when we look back and examine and compare the past, do we find how different have the same things appeared to us, as they were viewed in prospect or retrospect! How often have we been mistaken both on the side of our hopes and fears! How often have we been anxious for things which have proved to us some of our severest crosses, and how eager have we been to decline other things which, after a while, we have found to be some of our chiefest and choicest mercies!

How have we erred when we thought ourselves most sure, and how have we been deceived when we were most confident! Our pains and pleasures, our hopes and disappointments, our enemies and our friends, have differed exeeedingly from those we have reckoned upon when we have portrayed, these things in speculation only. Had some of our connections and some of our situations in life-yea, had the principal events which have taken place in our history been previously announced to us, should not we have exclaimed, with the unbelieving nobleman, “If the Lord should make windows in heaven might this thing be.”

“The way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”