say, even in the most afflictive circumstances, " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him11."]
3. How should we acknowledge God even in the most trivial occurrences !
[There is no occurrence really trivial, or unimportant: for there is such a concatenation of causes and effects fixed in the Divine purpose, that the most important events depend on circumstances, which seem to us altogether trifling and con- tingent0. Let the life of Joseph be surveyed, and we shall find that a thousand different things, apparently casual and independent, concurred to accomplish God's promises towards him. Thus it is with respect to us ; and it is our privilege to " acknowledge God in all our ways," and to commit ourselves wholly to his guidance.]
4. What a glorious place will heaven be !
[There the whole of the Divine dispensations towards us will be opened to our view. There God's "ways, which were in the great deep, and his footsteps, which were not known," nor perhaps capable of being comprehended by us in this world, will be clearly seen. O ! what wonders of love and mercy shall we then behold ! With what rapture shall we then exclaim, O the depths11 ! Let us then wait a few days ; and the most painful events of this life shall be a source of everlasting joy.]
n Job xiii. 15. ° Luke xix. 3, 4, 9. p Rom. xi. 33.
Isai. lv. 10, 11. As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but water eth the earth, and. maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the soiver and bread to the eater : so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth : it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
THE more just our views of God's perfections arc, the more firm and enlarged will be our expectations from him. We are apt to distrust his mercy and love, because we " judge him to be such an one as ourselves :" whereas, if we considered how infinitely remote his ways and thoughts are from ours, we should repose the most unlimited confidence in him,