hidden from Thee, for Thou wast fashioning it.
What does the Psalmist intend with such words but to show us by
this marvelous illustration how God hath always been caring for
us without our help! For who can boast that he took any part in
his formation in the womb? Who gave to our mother that loving
care wherewith she fed and fondled and caressed us, and performed
all those duties of motherhood, when we had as yet no
consciousness of our life, and when we should neither know nor
remember these things, but that, seeing the same things done to
others, we believe that they were done to us also? For they were
performed on us as though we had been asleep, nay dead, or rather
not yet born, so far as our knowledge of them is concerned.

Thus we see how the divine mercies and consolations bear us up,
without our doing. And still we doubt, or even despair, that He
is caring for us to-day. If this experience does not instruct and
move one, I know not what will. For we have it brought home to us
again and again, in every little child we meet; so that so many
examples proposed to our foolishness and hardness of heart may
well fill us with deep shame, if we doubt that the slightest
blessing or evil can come to us without the particular care of
God. Thus St Peter says, "Casting all your care upon Him, because
He careth for you." [1 Pet. 5:7] And Psalm xxxvi, "Cast thy
burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain thee." [Ps. 37:5] And
St. Augustine, in the Confessions,[56] addresses his soul on this
wise: "Why dost thou stand upon thyself, and dost not stand? Cast
thyself on Him; for He will not withdraw His hand and let thee
fall." Again, we read in I. Peter iv, "Wherefore let them that
suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their
souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." [1 Pet.
4:10]

O could a man attain unto such a knowledge of his God, how
safely, how quietly, how joyfully, would he fare! He would in
truth have God on his side, knowing this of a certainty, that all
his fortunes, whatever they might be, had come to him, and still
were coming, under the guidance of His most sweet will. The word
of Peter stands firm, "He careth for you." [1 Pet. 5:7] What
sweeter sound than this word can we hear! Therefore, he says,
"Cast all your care upon Him." If we do this not, but rather take
our care upon ourselves, what is this but to seek to binder the
care of God, and, besides, to make our life a life of