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go. (4) Fourthly, it is a trust that rejoices, that has " joy in God, whatever happens." I am certain that the child of God who really believes in this superintending care ought to have more joy ; I do not think anything ought to be able to drag us down if we believe it. This childlike trust ought to fill us every day with a real joy that the world can neither give nor take away. (5) Lastly, it must be a trust that rests. " When Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping," Surely, when you think of it, there is something very touching in the perfect trust of that servant of God : when the very next day he might have been led out to be executed, and probably would have been, he was simply sleeping like a child, secure in the personal presence of the Father.^
3. We must cast our care on God by the energy of prayer. Prayer is the practical expression of hope. While life is sunny and all things seem to be going smoothly, our prayers are apt to be wanting in reality. They are unreal by a failure in earnest- ness. If we really need and feel our need, then, and not till then, are we earnest in our prayers. Care at least does this for a sincere Christian — it presses upon him a sense of need. And when we need, and when we exert the virtue, the duty, of hope within us, then, not till then, are we in earnest in our prayers. And we fail also by want of simplicity and minuteness. We must learn to tell God all. There is no care, no anxiety, no worry, no distress, no perplexity, too small, if it is lying heavy on our hearts, to be laid on the heart of our Father. " Commit," says the Psalmist, " thy way unto the Lord." " Is any among you afflicted ? let him pray," says St. James. How many a believer can testify that he went to the throne of grace heavy in spirit and came away light hearted ; or, if not just that, if so to speak he did nob leave his burden there, at least he brought away strength that made it comparatively light to bear. Prayer is the casting of our care on God in two ways : first, as it brings us into contact with Divine sympathy ; secondly, as it takes hold of Divine strength.
With a true heart upheaving My small load. As Thou appointest, Lord, so let me bear The duty-burden trusted to my care. ^ Bishop A. F. W. Ingram, Joy in God, 146.
148 HUMAN ANXIETY AND DIVINE CARE
And though my face should all be wet With toilsome sweat; Show Thou the road — Enough ! no grieving !
But now, my heart, be careful Lest thou care ! The Lord doth give me daily bread for nought, And for the morrow doth Himself take thought. Then let me serve Him, on my part, With all my heart, And wait my share With spirit prayerful.
Ah, Lord ! now add Thy blessing To all I do! And let Thy grace and help my word attend, From the beginning even to the end.
Let each day's burden teach my eyes, My heart, to rise — Thy rest pursue — • Thy peace possessing!
4 " Casting all your care upon him." This little word " all " includes even the trivial and passing anxieties of each day. To suppose that some cares are too insignificant to take to God in prayer is not to honour Him, but unnecessarily to burden ourselves. It has been said that "white ants pick a carcase quicker and cleaner than a lion does," and so these little cares may even more effectually destroy our peace than a single great trouble, if, in our mistaken reverence for God's greatness, we refuse to cast them upon Him.
^ One yelping dog may break our slumber on the stillest night. One grain of dust in the eye will render it incapable of enjoying the fairest prospect. One care may break our peace and hide the face of God, and bring a funeral pall over our souls. We must cast all our care on Him, if we would know the blessedness of unshadowed fellowship.^
\ To trust God with all one is, or hopes for forever, this is True Faith. To trust God with Body, Soul, Spirit; with His Promises, with His Covenant of Grace, with His Christ, with anything whereby I might secure myself from being subject to
1 F. B. Meyer, Tried hij Fire, 198.
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His pleasure ; this is Faith in good earnest, this is Faith founded upon true knowledge : He knoweth God indeed, who dareth thus trust Him. Let others trust God for Salvation, but my spirit can never rest till it dares trust God ^vith Salvation}
5. And let us cast all our care upon Him, not gradually or half-heartedly but once for all. St. Peter uses a past tense for his verb and not a present, by which he suggests that this casting of our care upon God ought to be an act of the beginning. Just as there is no half-forgiveness on His side, so there should be no partial offering of trust on our side. An anxious heart is never a holy heart; and he who has not committed himself and his concerns to the grace and power of God, and done it once for all, has still to make the right start. At the outset, says St. Paul, I suffered loss of all things, and to-day, afresh, I count them but as rubbish that I may gain Christ. There is the irreversible act of the beginning, which is renewed with every day and each tempta- tion. Having cast our care on Him, we cast it day by day afresh ; and so the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keeps both heart and thought in Jesus Christ.