What preachers of righteousness would these Jews have been, had they obeyed the commands of their God! What a sermon on God's providence over His chosen, would the three years' provision in one year, and the miraculous protection of their coasts, have been to the Heathen around! It may be of importance for us to remember, that it is God alone whom we are afraid to trust. Where we have no doubt of the integrity or ability of man, we fearlessly trust. If one of the Princes of this world has an arduous undertaking to accomplish, which requires the undivided care and attention of those to whom it is committed; and if he says to his servants,--"Pursue steadily and singly the business entrusted to you, without distraction about personal provision, of which I will take sufficient care"; how many are the candidates, how eager the contention, how secure the confidence! Nay more, the obvious tendency of such a plan toward the attainment of the end in view, is seen, and its wisdom appreciated. Yet when the King of Heaven, after manifesting his unspeakable love toward us, in the sacrifice of his Son, demands of us a similar confidence, we make no scruple to withhold it. When our Blessed Lord says,--"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth," that your eye may be single in my service,--that your whole body may be full of light to discern between good and evil: when He expressly says,--"Take no thought saying,--'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or, 'Wherewithal shall we be clothed;' but seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you";--we see neither the wisdom nor goodness of His design. We begin to explain away His instructions concerning it; we hesitate about the meaning of His promises; we put far from us the privilege of believing that He, who neither slumbers nor sleeps, hatchets over us. Whence then this confidence in man, whose breath is in his nostrils, who is absent in the moment of calamity; yet diffidence in God[15] who is the Omnipotent, the very present, help in every time of trouble? Does it not arise from a fear--lest, if we trust him with our provision, he might choose for us and ours the portion he chose for the Son of his love? Does it not arise from a secret desire that our own wills may be done, and not His? Yet we may rest assured that, as it is not for the interest of a wayward child to be independent of the salutary control of an excellent Father, neither is it for ours to be able to say: "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years."