whereby the loss, if sustained, might be in time retrieved. And it is no uncommon thing, to find men sacrificing their honour, their conscience, yea, their very hopes of salvation, in order to avert some impending calamity.
But it would not be thus, if we considered every thing, even " the falling of a sparrow," as regulated by an all-wise God. We might endeavour with propriety to prevent an evil; but we should never be so intimidated by its approach, as to be driven from our dependence on God, or induced to violate our duty to him.]
3. Some trouble felt —
[When trouble is heavy or accumulated, whether it be from disease in our persons, or embarrassment in our circum- stances, or the loss of some dear relative, how ready are we to give ourselves up to sorrow, as if our wound were incurable, and our misery irremediable ! The instances are not few, wherein men are so overwhelmed by their afflictions, as to have their intellects impaired, and to be reduced to a state of mental derangement. Yea, even worse effects than these are sometimes produced by trouble : for the unhappy sufferers take refuge in suicide ; and plunge their souls into hell, to rid themselves of their temporal distresses.
We are not forbidden to give way to grief. The Saviour himself wept at the tomb of his friend. But are there to be no bounds to grief? Should not our sorrow be moderated by the consideration, that the cup is put into our hands by a gracious Father, and that, if drunk in submission to his will, it shall be sanctified to our eternal good? Such excessive " sorrow " is prohibited in the text ; and well it may be ; since "nothing" can warrant it, and its operation is so injurious.]
While the Apostle thus dissuades us from careful- ness, he prescribes,
II. An antidote against it —
Prayer is no less our privilege than it is our duty —
[God is ever ready to hear the prayers of his people ; and he expects that we should " by prayer and supplication make our requests known to him." Not that he needs to be in- formed by us ; for " he knoweth our necessities before we askc:" but we ought to specify our wants, in order the more deeply to impress a consciousness of them on our own minds, and to make us duly sensible of our dependence on him, and of our obligation to him when our prayers are answered. On all occasions we should have recourse to prayer : " In every
c Matt. vi. 8.