substitute and vicar, to an aged priest at Rome. They have lost
faith, likewise, in Christ's immediate government of themselves; their
own fortunes, their own characters, and inmost souls; and, therefore,
they are tempted either to follow no rule or guidance save their own
instincts, passions, fancies; or else, in despair at their own inward
anarchy, to commit the keeping of their souls to directors and
confessors, instead of to Christ Himself, the Lord of the spirits of all
flesh.

Yes, the faith which keeps a man ever face to face with God and with
Christ, in the least as well as in the greatest events of life; which
says in prosperity and in adversity, in plenty and scarcity, in joy and
sorrow, in peace and war,--It is the Lord's doing, it is the Lord's
sending, and therefore we can trust in the Lord--that faith is growing, I
fear, very rare. That faith was more common, I think, a generation or
two back, in old-fashioned church people than in any other. It could not
help being so; for the good old Prayer-Book upon which they were brought
up is more full of that simple and living faith in the Lord, from
beginning to end, than any other book on earth except the Bible. It was
more common, too, and I suppose always will be, among the poor than among
the rich; for the poor soon find out how little they have to depend upon
except the Lord and His good providence; while the rich are tempted, and
always will be, to depend upon their own wealth and their own power, to
trust in uncertain riches, and say, "Soul, take thine ease, thou hast
much goods laid up for many years." It was more common, too, and I
suppose always will be, among the old than among the young; for the young
are tempted to trust not in the Lord, but in their own health, strength,
wit, courage, and to put their hopes, not on God's Providence, but on the
unknown chapter of accidents in the future, most of which will never come
to pass; while the old have learned by experience and disappointment the
vanity of human riches, the helplessness of human endeavour, the
blindness of human foresight, and are content to go where God leads them,
and say, "I will go forth in the strength of the Lord God, and will make
mention of Thy righteousness only. Thou, O God, hast taught me from my
youth up until now: therefore will I tell of Thy wondrous works.
Forsake me not, O God, in mine old age, when I am grey-headed; until I
have showe