d overrun all the
departments of life. The view one takes of God, the faith or lack of faith
and trust one has in Providence, have their effect on the character and
give a direction to all one's ways of thinking, feeling, acting, in regard
to the world we live in, in regard to mankind in general, in regard to the
causes, purposes, and destinies of all things.

Our conceptions of Providence are vital, therefore. They really determine
what our life is to be, and they are an index to the life that is
finished. It is impossible that we should be quite the same whether we try
to eliminate God from our lives, or allow His blessed influence to cheer
and lead us on; whether we look upon Him as a cold Master, waiting to
exact and to punish, or as a kind Father and Shepherd, seeking to spare
and to save; whether we regard Him as hid far in the heavens, caring
naught for the creatures and the world He has made, or whether we conceive
Him as intimately bound up with all the works of His hands, although
distinct from them, as guiding and regulating everything, as tenderly
loving and providing for all the needs of our souls.

Another most harmful result of deficient faith and confidence in God is
that it leads us to trust in creatures. It causes us to reverse the proper
order of things. We are dependent beings, and we instinctively feel our
deficiencies and the need of some one, or something on which to lean, at
times, and to which we can look for assistance. We may not be entirely and
always conscious of this tendency in us, we may be too proud or too blind
to admit it, or we may wish we could overcome it and rid our lives of so
constant a need; but whether we see it and acknowledge it or not, whether
we encourage it or try to repress it, the need is always there, deeply
engraved in our nature as creatures, and we cannot but seek to satisfy it.
There is none of us, frail beings that we are, who is entirely sufficient
unto himself. Sometimes, of course, the voice of our needs is silent, and
we feel that we shall never want; "I said in my abundance," observes the
Psalmist, "I shall not be moved forever;"(86) but when the tide begins to
ebb and prosperity subsides, how soon do we remember that we are dust! How
frequently in times of trouble, in times of illness and poverty and
suffering, when face to face with our foes, or when death steps in and
slaughters, are we made aware of our insufficiency, and of our utter
helplessness to live