my tiny affairs? Can He care if I am sick,
worried, or poor, or depressed? Surely I must be ready to say with the
Psalmist--

'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the
stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man, that Thou art mindful of
him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?'

Yet that quaint old saying of John Flavel the Puritan is right, 'The man
who watches for Providence will never want a Providence to watch.' In
other words, he who trusts his concerns to a higher power, he who puts
his cause in the Lord's hands, will never be disappointed. The God who
rules the universe will not forget to attend to him, but will watch him,
and guide him, and help him, as tenderly as if he was the only being in
that universe.

St. Augustine used to say, 'Lord, when I look upon mine own life, it
seems Thou hast led me so carefully and tenderly, Thou canst have
attended to none else; but when I see how wonderfully Thou hast led the
world and art leading it, I am amazed that Thou hast had time to attend
to such as I.'

How much more must we wonder at God's loving care, when we look beyond
this tiny world to the countless millions of worlds in the universe!

Nehemiah was watching for Providence. He had taken his case to God, he
had trusted all to Him, and Nehemiah did not want a Providence to watch;
the God in whom he had put his confidence did not disappoint him.

'Let me go that I may rebuild Jerusalem,' says the cup-bearer; and the
great Persian king does not refuse his request, but (prompted, it may
be, by the queen who was sitting by him) he asks: 'For how long shall
thy journey be? and when wilt thou return?'

'And I set him a time.' How long a time we are not told. Nehemiah did
not return to Persia for twelve years; but it is probable that he asked
for a shorter leave of absence, and that this was extended later on, in
order to enable him to finish his work.

Cheered and encouraged by the king's manner, feeling sure that God is
with him and is prospering him, Nehemiah asks another favour of the
king. The Persian empire at that time was of such vast extent, that it
reached from the river Indus to the Mediterranean, and the Euphrates was
looked upon as naturally dividing it into two parts, east and west.
Nehemiah asks, ch. ii. 7, for letters to the governors of the western
division of the empire, that they may be instructed to help him and
forward him on his way.

He asks, ver. 8,