Man, considered in himself, is a very helpless and a very wretched being.
He is subject every moment to the greatest calamities and misfortunes. He
is beset with dangers on all sides, and may become unhappy by numberless
casualties which he could not foresee, nor have prevented had he foreseen
them.
It is our comfort, while we are obnoxious to so many accidents, that we
are under the care of One who directs contingencies, and has in His hands
the management of everything that is capable of annoying or offending us;
who knows the assistance we stand in need of, and is always ready to
bestow it on those who ask it of Him.
The natural homage which such a creature bears to so infinitely wise and
good a Being is a firm reliance on Him for the blessings and conveniences
of life, and an habitual trust in Him for deliverance out of all such
dangers and difficulties as may befall us.
The man who always lives in this disposition of mind has not the same
dark and melancholy views of human nature as he who considers himself
abstractedly from this relation to the Supreme Being. At the same time
that he reflects upon his own weakness and imperfection he comforts
himself with the contemplation of those Divine attributes which are
employed for his safety and his welfare. He finds his want of foresight
made up by the Omniscience of Him who is his support. He is not sensible
of his own want of strengths when he knows that his helper is almighty.
In short, the person who has a firm trust on the Supreme Being is
powerful in His power, wise by His wisdom, happy by His happiness. He
reaps the benefit of every Divine attribute, and loses his own
insufficiency in the fulness of infinite perfection.
To make our lives more easy to us, we are commanded to put our trust in
Him, who is thus able to relieve and succour us; the Divine goodness
having made such reliance a duty, notwithstanding we should have been
miserable had it been forbidden us.
Among several motives which might be made use of to recommend this duty
to us, I shall only take notice of these that follow.
The first and strongest is, that we are promised He will not fail those
who put their trust in Him.
But without considering the supernatural blessing which accompanies this
duty, we may observe that it has a natural tendency to its own reward,
or, in other words, that this firm trust and confidence in the great
Disposer of all things contributes very much to the getting clear of any
affliction, or to the bearing it manfully. A person who believes he has
his succour at hand, and that he acts in the sight of his friend, often
exerts himself beyond his abilities, and does wonders that are not to be
matched by one who is not animated with such a confidence of success. I
could produce instances from history of generals who, out of a belief
that they were under the protection of some invisible assistant, did not
only encourage their soldiers to do their utmost, but have acted
themselves beyond what they would have done had they not been inspired by
such a belief. I might in the same manner show how such a trust in the
assistance of an Almighty Being naturally produces patience, hope,
cheerfulness, and all other dispositions of the mind that alleviate those
calamities which we are not able to remove.
The practice of this virtue administers great comfort to the mind of man
in times of poverty and affliction, but most of all in the hour of death.
When the soul is hovering in the last moments of its separation, when it
is just entering on another state of existence, to converse with scenes,
and objects, and companions, that are altogether new--what can support
her under such tremblings of thought, such fear, such anxiety, such
apprehensions, but the casting of all her cares upon Him who first gave
her being, who has conducted her through one stage of it, and will be
always with her, to guide and comfort her in her progress through
eternity?
David has very beautifully represented this steady reliance on God
Almighty in his twenty-third Psalm, which is a kind of pastoral hymn, and
filled with those allusions which are usual in that kind of writing. As
the poetry is very exquisite, I shall present my reader with the
following translation of it: