hings at the goodness of God toward him, says, "Thou
understandest my thoughts afar off, Thou compassest my path and
my lying down." Which is as though he said, Whatever I have
thought or done, whatever I shall achieve and possess, I see now
that it is not the result of my industry, but was ordered long
ago by Thy care. "And there is no speech in my tongue."[54] Where
is it then? In Thy power.

We learn this from our own experience. For if we reflect on our
past life, is it not a wonder that we thought, desired, did and
said that which we were not able to foresee? How far different
our course would have been, had we been left to our own free
will! Now only do we understand it, and see how constantly God's
present care and providence were over us, so that we could
neither think nor speak nor will anything except as He gave us
leave. As it is said in Wisdom vii, "In His hands are both we and
our words"; [Wisd. 7:16] and by Paul, "Who worketh all in all."
[1 Cor. 12:6] Ought not we, insensate and hard of heart, to bang
our heads in shame, when we learn from our own experience how our
Lord hath cared for us unto this hour, and given us every
blessing? And yet we cannot commit our care to Him in a small
present evil, and act as if He had forsaken us, or ever could
forsake us! Not so the Psalmist, in Psalm xxxix, "I am poor and
needy; yet the Lord thinketh on me." [Ps. 40:17] On which St.
Augustine has this comment: "Let Him care for thee, Who made
thee. He Who cared for thee before thou wast, how shall He not
care for thee now thou art that which He willed thee to be?" [55]
But we divide the kingdom with God; to Him we grant (and even
that but grudgingly) that He hath made us, but to ourselves we
arrogate the care over ourselves; as though He had made us, and
then straightway departed, and left the government of ourselves
in our own hands.

But if our wisdom and foresight blind us to the care that God
hath over us, because perchance many things have fallen out
according to our plans, let us turn again, with Psalm cxxxviii,
and look in upon ourselves. "My substance was not hid from Thee
when I was made in secret"--that is, Thou didst behold and didst
fashion my bones in my mother's womb, when as yet I was not, and
my mother knew not what was forming in her;--"and my substance
was curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth"--that is,
even the form and fashion of my body in the secret chambers of
the womb were not