Let us learn from these verses, how entirely our tinieB are in OocCs hands. Our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us this lesson by His reply to those who bade TTiTn depart, because Herod would kill Him. He said, ** I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow." His time was not yet come for leaving the world. His work was not yet finished. Until that time came it was not in the power of Herod to hurt Him. Until that work was finished no weapon forged against Him could prosper. There is something in our Lord's words which demands the attention of aU true Christians. There is a frame of mind exhibited to us which we should do well to copy. Our Lord, no doubt, spoke with a prophetic foresight of coming things. He knew the time of His own death, and He knew that this time was not yet come. Fore- knowledge like this, of course, is not granted to believers in the present day. But still there is a lesson here which we ought not to overlook. We ought, in a certain measure, to aim at having the mind, that was in Christ Jesus. We ought to seek to possess a spirit of calm, unshaken confidence about things to come. We should study to have a heart ''not afraid of evil tidings,'' but quiet, steady, and trusting in the Lord. (Psalm cxii. 7.)
The subject is a delicate one, but one which concerns our happiness so much that it deserves consideration. We are not intended to be idle fatalists, like the Mahom- etans, or cold, unfeeling statues, like the Stoics. We are not to neglect the use of means, or to omit all prudent provision for the imseen future. To neglect means is fanaticism, and not faith. — ^But still, when we have done all, we should remember, that though