Amid the perplexities which arise from the unexpected events of life, we are not left without sufficient guidance; for although, in particular instances, the most reasonable calculations are baffled, and the best plans subverted, yet there remains in our hands the immutable rule of moral rectitude, in an inflexible adherence to which we shall avoid what is chiefly to be dreaded in calamity—the dismal moanings of a wounded conscience. "He that walketh uprightly walketh surely," even in the path of disaster. And while, on the one hand, he steadily pursues the track which prudence marks out; and, on the other, listens with respectful attention to the dictates of honor and probity, he may, without danger of enthusiasm, ask and hope for the especial aids of Divine Providence, in overruling those events that lie beyond the reach of human agency. Prayer and calculation are duties never incompatible, never to be disjoined, and never to shackle one the other. For while those events only which are probable ought to be assumed as the basis of plans for futurity, yet, whatever is not manifestly impossible, or in a high degree improbable, may lawfully be made the object of submissive petition. Few persons, and none who have known vicissitudes, can look back upon past years without recollecting signal occasions on which they have been rescued from the impending and apparently inevitable consequences of their own misconduct, or imprudence, or want of ability, by some extraordinary intervention in the very crisis of their fate, or, perhaps, they have been placed by accident in circumstances of peril, where as it seemed, there remained not a possibility of escape. But while the ruin was yet in descent, rescue, which it would have been madness to expect, came in to preserve life, fortune, or reputation, from the imminent destruction. That such conspicuous deliverances do actually occur is matter of fact; nor will the Christian endure that they should be attributed to any other cause than the special care and kindness of his heavenly Father: and yet, as they belong to an economy which stretches into eternity and as they are not administered on any ascertained rule, they can never come within the range of our calculations, or be admitted to influence our plans: a propensity to indulge such expectations indicates infirmity of mind, and is in fact an intrusion upon the counsels of infinite wisdom.