Nevertheless, so long as these extraordinary interventions are known to consist with the rules of the divine government, they may be contemplated as possible without violating the respect that is due to its ordinary procedures; and may, therefore, without enthusiasm, be solicited in the hour of peril or perplexity. The gracious "Hearer of prayer", who, on past and well-remembered occasions has signally given deliverance, may do so again, even when, if we think of our own imprudence, we have reason to expect nothing less than destruction. What are termed by irreligious men 'the fortunate chances of life', will be regarded by the devout mind as constituting a hidden treasury of boons, held at the disposal of a gracious hand for the incitement of prayer, and for the reward of humble faith. The enthusiast who, in contempt of common sense and of rectitude, presumes upon the existence of this extraordinary fund, forfeits, by such impiety, his interest in its stores. But the prudent and the pious, while they labor and calculate in strict conformity to the known and ordinary course of events, shall not seldom find that, from this very treasury of contingencies, "God is rich to them that call upon him". In minds of a puny form, whose enthusiasm is commonly mingled with some degree of abject superstition, the doctrine of a particular providence is liable to be degraded by habitual association with trivial and solid solicitudes. This or that paltry wish is gratified, or vulgar care relieved, 'by the kindness of providence;' and thanks are rendered for helps, comforts, deliverances, of so mean an order, that the respectable language of piety is burlesqued by the ludicrous character of the occasion on which it is used. The fault in these instances does not consist in an error of opinion, as if even the most trivial events were not, equally with the most considerable, under the divine management; but it is a perversion and degradation of feeling which allows the mind to be occupied with whatever is frivolous, to the exclusion of whatever is important. These petty spirits, who draw hourly, from the matters of their personal comfort or indulgence, so many occasions of prayer and praise, are often seen to be insensible to motives of a higher kind: they have no perception of the relative magnitude of objects; no sense of proportion; and they feel little or no interest in what does not affect themselves. We ought, however, to grant indulgence to the infirmity of the feeble; and if the soul be indeed incapable of expansion, it is better it should be devout in trifles, than not devout at all. Yet these small folks have need to be warned of the danger of mistaking the gratulations of selfishness for the gratitude of piety.