it did not make them unintentionally cruel, they would surely be
silent for pity's sake; they would let men go on in the pleasant delusion
that there is a living God, and a Word of God who has revealed Him to
men; and would hide from their fellow-creatures the dreadful secret which
they think they have discovered--That there is none that heareth prayer,
and therefore to Him need no flesh come.

Men take up with such notions, I believe, most generally in days of
comfort, ease, safety. They find the world so well ordered outwardly,
that it seems able enough to go on its way without a God. They have
themselves so few sorrows, struggles, doubts, that they never feel that
sense of helplessness, of danger, of ignorance, which has made the hearts
of men, in every age, yearn for an unseen helper, an unseen deliverer, an
unseen teacher.

And so it is--and shameful it is that so it should be--that the more God
gives to men, the less they thank Him, the less they fancy that they need
Him: but take His bounties, as they take the air they breathe,
unconsciously, and as a matter of course.

And therefore adversity is wholesome, danger is wholesome; so wholesome,
that in all ages, as far as I can find, the godliest, the most moral, the
most manful, and therefore the really happiest and most successful
nations or communities of men, have been those who were in perpetual
danger, difficulty, struggle; and who have thereby had their faith in God
called out; who have learned in the depth, to cry out of the depth to
God; to lift up their eyes unto the Lord, and know that their help comes
from Him.

I know a village down in the far West, where the 121st Psalm which I just
quoted, was a favourite, and more than a favourite. Whenever it was
given out in church--and the congregation used often to ask for it--all
joined in singing it, young and old, men and maidens, with an
earnestness, a fervour, a passion, such as I never heard elsewhere; such
as shewed how intensely they felt that the psalm was true, and true for
them. Of all congregational singing I ever heard, never have I heard any
so touching as those voices, when they joined in the old words they loved
so well.

Sheltered beneath the Almighty wings
Thou shall securely rest,
Where neither sun nor moon shall thee
By day or night molest.
At home, abroad, in peace, in war,
Thy God shall thee defend;
Conduct thee through life's pilgrimage
Safe to thy journ