[1] The stall-fed ox, that is grown fat, will know
His careful feeder, and acknowledge too;
The generous spaniel loves his master's eye,
And licks his fingers though no meat be by;
But man, ungrateful man, that's born and bred
By Heaven's immediate power; maintained and fed
By His providing hand; observed, attended,
By His indulgent grace; preserved, defended,
By His prevailing arm; this man, I say,
Is more ungrateful, more obdure than they.
Man, O most ungrateful man, can ever
Enjoy Thy gift, but never mind the Giver;
And like the swine, though pampered with enough,
His eyes are never higher than the trough.--_Frances Quarles._
[2] The consequences of sin are meant to warn from sin. The
penalty annexed to it is, in the first instance,
corrective, not penal. Fire burns the child, to teach it
one of the truths of this universe--the property of fire to
burn. The first time it cuts its hand with a sharp knife,
it has gained a lesson which it will never forget. Now, in
the case of pain, this experience is seldom, if ever, in
vain. There is little chance of a child forgetting that
fire will burn, and that sharp steel will cut; but the
moral lessons contained in the penalties annexed to
wrong-doing are just as truly intended to deter men from
evil, though they are by no means so unerring in enforcing
their application. The fever, in the veins and the headache
which succeed intoxication are meant to warn against
excess. On the first occasion they are simply corrective;
in every succeeding one they assume more and more a penal
character, in proportion as the conscience carries with
them the sense of ill-desert.--_F. W. Robertson,_ 1816-1853.
[3] If a sheep stray from his fellows, the shepherd sets his
dog after it, not to devour it, but to bring it again: even
so our Heavenly Shepherd, if any of us, His sheep, disobey
Him, sets His dog of affliction after us, not to hurt us,
but to bring us home to consideration of our duty towards
Him.--_Cowdray._
As the child, fearing nothing, is so fond of his play that
he strays and wanders from his mother, not so much as
thinking of her; but if he be scared or frighted with the
sight or apprehension of some apparent or approaching
danger, presently runs to her, casts himself into her arms,
and cries out to be saved and shielded by her: so we,
securely enjoying the childish sports of worldly
prosperity, do so fondly dote on them that we scarce think
of our Heavenly Father; but when perils and dangers
approach, and are ready to seize upon us, then we flee to
Him, and cast ourselves into the arms of His protection and
providence, crying and calling to Him by earnest prayer for
help and deliverance in this our extremity and
distress.--_Downame,_ 1644.