A
person who believes he has his succour at hand, and that he acts in
the sight of his friend, often exerts himself beyond his abilities,
and does wonders that are not to be matched by one who is not
animated with such a confidence of success. I could produce
instances from history of generals who, out of a belief that they
were under the protection of some invisible assistant, did not only
encourage their soldiers to do their utmost, but have acted
themselves beyond what they would have done had they not been
inspired by such a belief. I might in the same manner show how such
a trust in the assistance of an Almighty Being naturally produces
patience, hope, cheerfulness, and all other dispositions of the mind
that alleviate those calamities which we are not able to remove.
The practice of this virtue administers great comfort to the mind of
man in times of poverty and affliction, but most of all in the hour
of death. When the soul is hovering in the last moments of its
separation, when it is just entering on another state of existence,
to converse with scenes, and objects, and companions, that are
altogether new--what can support her under such tremblings of
thought, such fear, such anxiety, such apprehensions, but the
casting of all her cares upon Him who first gave her being, who has
conducted her through one stage of it, and will be always with her,
to guide and comfort her in her progress through eternity?
David has very beautifully represented this steady reliance on God
Almighty in his twenty-third Psalm, which is a kind of pastoral
hymn, and filled with those allusions which are usual in that kind
of writing.
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