of this history, from
an idle post boy was become a respectable farmer. God had blessed
his industry, and he had prospered in the world. He was sober and
temperate, and, as was the natural consequence, he was active and
healthy. He was industrious and frugal, and he became prosperous in
his circumstances. This is the ordinary course of Providence. But it
is not a certain and necessary rule. _God maketh his sun to shine on
the just and on the unjust._ A man who uses every honest means of
thrift and industry, will, in most cases, find success attend his
labors. But still, the _race is not always to the swift nor the
battle to the strong_. God is sometimes pleased, for wise ends, to
disappoint all the worldly hopes of the most upright man. His corn
may be smitten by a blight; his barns may be consumed by fire; his
cattle may be carried off by distemper. And to these, and other
misfortunes, the good man is as liable as the spendthrift or the
knave. Success is the _common_ reward of industry, but if it were
its _constant_ reward, the industrious would be tempted to look no
further than the present state. They would lose one strong ground of
their faith. It would set aside the Scripture scheme. This world
would then be looked on as a state of reward, instead of trial, and
we should forget to look to a day of final retribution.

Farmer White never took it into his head, that, because he paid his
debts, worked early and late, and ate the bread of carefulness, he
was therefore to come into no misfortune like other folk, but was to
be free from the common trials and troubles of life. He knew that
prosperity was far from being a sure mark of God's favor, and had
read in good books, and especially in the Bible, of the great
poverty and afflictions of the best of men. Though he was no great
scholar, he had sense enough to observe, that a time of public
prosperity was not always a time of public virtue; and he thought
that what was true of a whole nation might be true of one man. So
the more he prospered the more he prayed that prosperity might not
corrupt his heart. And when he saw lately signs of public distress
coming on, he was not half so much frightened as some others were,
because he thought it might do us good in the long run; and he was
in hope that a little poverty might bring on a little penitence. The
great grace he labored after was that of a cheerful submission. He
used to say, that if the Lord's prayer had only contai