oui' God shall see good to permit it. " His angels encamp round about usV' and have an especial charge to " keep us in all our ways, that we dash not our foot against a stone '^." " Neither the arrow that flieth by day, nor the pestilence that walketh in darkness, can hurt us. Thousands may fall at our side, and ten thousands at our right hand ; but it shall not come nigh us'."
We are not indeed at liberty to rush needlessly into danger, from an expectation that God will deliver us ; (this were to *' tempt the Lord our God™;") but in the path of duty we have nothing to fear : we may " tread upon the lion, the adder, or the dragon " ; " we may drink poison itself", or suffer ourselves to be committed to the flames, without experiencing the smallest injury P : nothing in the whole universe can " harm us, if we be followers of that which is good*!;" if God see fit to keep us^ we are as safe " in a den of lions" as in a house of friends.]
From this subject we may learn,
1. To seek God without delay —
[There is no period of life when we can call one day, or one hour, our own. We are altogether "in God's hands;" and, if he withdraw his support for one moment, we perish, as certainly as a stone gravitates to the earth. Shall we then, when so entirely dependent on our God, provoke him to cast us out of his hands ? Shall we continue to despise his patience and forbearance, till he swear in his wrath that our " time shall be no longer '^?" Think, how many have lost the time afforded them, and how bitterly they now bewail their folly : and beg of God, that he would " so teach you to number your days, that you may apply your hearts unto wisdom ^"]
2. To serve him without fear —
[We are too apt to keep back from serving God through fear of the persecutions we may endure from man. But, if our times be in God's hands, all our concerns must be there too ; and nothing can befall us but by his appointment, " Who art thou, then, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker' ? " Are we not told, tliat " the wrath of man shall praise him ; and that the remainder of it he shall restrain"? " Be bold then for God ; " set your face as a flint against the whole world ^," and trust in him for pro- tection. He will not indeed screen you from all trials ; because it is on many accounts necessary that you should feel themy:
' Ps. xxxiv. 7. ^ Ps. xci. 11, 12. ' Ps. xci. 5 — 7.
in Matt. iv. 6, 7. " Ps. xci. 13. Acts xx\aii. 3 — 6.
" Mark xvi. 18. p Dan. iii. 25—27. i 1 Pet. iii. 13.
r Rev. X. 6. ^ Ps. xc. 12. *■ Isai. 11. 12, 13.
" Ps. Ixxvi. 10. ^ Isai. xlix. 7 — 9. >' 1 Pet. i. 6.
545.] god's goodness to his believing people. 213
but he will suffer none to come upon you which he will not enable you to bear, none which he will not sanctify to your eternal good^
3. To trust him without carefulness —
[It is foolish as well as impious to distrust God, or to murmur at any of his dispensa,tions. In whose hands could the disposal of all events be placed so much to our advantage, as in his, who possesses infinite wisdom to devise what is best, and infinite power to effect it? Would we be made the sport of chance or fortune? Or would we have our present and ever- lasting concerns left wholly to our own management? If we are not fit to regulate our temporal affairs till we attain the age of manhood, how much less can we ever be competent to take the reins of God's government into our own hands, and to order the affairs of his kingdom ? But our times will be in God's hands, whether we acquiesce in it or not. Let us therefore contentedly leave ourselves to his all-wise disposal, assured that " he doeth all things well," and will make " all things to work together for good to them that love him."]