II. That men ought to maintain a realizing sense of this important truth. For,

And

1. They are all capable of realizing it. The horse and the mule, the crane and the swallow, and all the animal creation, are dependent upon God for life, and breath, and all things; but these mere animals are entirely destitute of capacity to know that God is their creator and preserver. This exempts them from all obligations to know and realize their entire and constant dependence upon their creator and preserver. But men are made wiser than the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven, and the inspiration of the Almighty has given them understanding, to trace their own existence, and the existence of all created natures up to the first and supreme cause. though this first and supreme cause is invisible to their bodily eye, yet to the eye of their mind, "the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." So that they are without excuse, if they do not realize his being and supremacy, and their own absolute dependence upon him. Indeed, this is so easy, that children very early are capable of being made to know that God is the constant preserver of their lives. Those who have had the least instruction and lived in the greatest stupidity, can very easily realize their dependence upon God for the preservation of life in the hour of danger. The sailor, the soldier, the infidel, will instantaneously cry to God to preserve their lives, when death or imminent danger appears near. Persons of all ages and characters are daily manifesting by their conduct that they are very capable of knowing and realizing their absolute dependence upon God for the preservation of life. And this capacity creates an obligation. If they know God, they ought to treat him as God. This was the duty of Belshazzar, a heathen, and much more the duty of all who live under the full blaze of gospel light.

2. God requires all men to live under an habitual sense of their constant dependence upon him, as the preserver and disposer of life. He has informed them in his word, that he has determined the number of their months and days, and fixed the bounds of life, over which they cannot pass. He has told them, "There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain it in the day of death." And upon this ground, he has admonished them to live under a practical sense that it depends entirely upon his will every day, whether they shall live or die. "Go to now, ye that say, to-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. 52

VOL. III.

For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will we shall live, and do this, or that." Agreeably to this, we find another solemn admonition against presuming upon the preservation of life. "Boast not thyself of to-morrow: for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." These declarations of God's supremacy and man's dependence lay every one under indispensable obligation to realize that God is the preserver and disposer of life. God requires every one to live and act every day as though it might be his last, for this plain and obvious reason, that it may be his last. Every man therefore ought to begin and end the day with God, or "to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long." The word of God concurs with his providence, and calls upon all men to live from day to day, under a realizing sense that their Maker is their

preserver.

3. Good men do realize their constant and absolute dependence upon God for the preservation of life. This is the language of some of the best of men whose views and feelings are recorded in the Bible. Job speaks very freely and fully upon this subject. He says unto God, " Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay, and wilt thou bring me into dust again? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted me life and favor, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit." David says, "As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud; and he shall hear my voice. He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me. Thy vows are upon me, O God; I will render praises unto thee; for thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living? For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living." Ezra and Nehemiah frequently acknowledged the power and goodness of God in the preservation of their lives. Paul used to make his promises under a sense of his dependence upon the preserving power and goodness of God. He promised the Corinthians, "I will come unto you shortly, if the Lord will;" and he desires the prayers of the christians at Rome, that "he may come to them by the will of God." Indeed, all real christians have an habitual sense that God is the preserver of life. This they have been effectually taught, by being in the hand of God, and shaken over death and the pit. They have experienced their own weakness and dependence, and realized

that God could wound or heal, destroy or save, and that none could deliver out of his hand. Unreserved submission to God always flows from a sense of absolute dependence upon him. And while christians feel and act agreeably to their peculiar character, they live and act under a realizing sense that in God they live, and move, and have their being, and that without him they can do nothing. But if this be the genuine feeling of christians, it ought to be the feeling of all mankind; for they are all equally and constantly dependent on God, "in whose hand their breath is, and whose are all their ways." Their stupidity does not destroy their obligation to live as seeing him who is invisible, though it prevents their doing their duty.

4. Men ought to maintain a realizing sense of their constant dependence upon God for the preservation of life, in order to form all their temporal and spiritual designs with wisdom and propriety. If God be the preserver and disposer of life, then he is the disposer of all things which are connected with and dependent on life. If the lives of all men are in the sovereign hand of God, then the world and the things of the world are in the sovereign hand of God; and while men view their own lives and the lives of all other men, and the world in which they all live, as in the hands of God, the world and all things in it appear very different from what they do, when God the preserver and disposer of all is out of sight and out of mind. This is evident from general observation and experience. We see that when those who have been living without God in the world, come to realize that he is the preserver of life and disposer of all things, they feel and speak and act very differently from what they did before. Their views, opinions and conduct are greatly altered. And the reason is obvious. When they realize their own dependence, and the dependence of all men and of all things upon God, it fills their minds with a realizing sense of his universal presence and providence. This cuts off all dependence upon themselves, and upon others, which sinks them and the world into their proper vanity and insignificance. Now, if such be the natural consequence of men's realizing that God is the preserver and disposer of all things, then it is a matter of high importance that they should realize this great and practical truth. They cannot possibly judge, feel and act wisely, until they do realize their own true situation, and the true situation of all men and of all things around them. They must have false views, false hopes, and false fears, so long as they overlook the hand of God in preserving and governing all things. It therefore deeply concerns them to realize a truth which will rectify their mistakes, and naturally lead them to feel and act as dependent creatures. There is no

truth of more practical importance than this. It is necessary to be known and realized and loved, by all persons and at all times, and under all circumstances of prosperity and adversity, and of health, sickness and death.

5. If men would consider how much God does for them to preserve their lives, they could not help feeling their obligation of maintaining an habitual sense of his power and goodness, in their constant preservation. God must do a great deal to preserve the lives of such weak, feeble, careless creatures as mankind are. They are not always willing to preserve one another's lives when they are able, but often disposed to destroy them. God must not only preserve and govern the world in which they live, but all the creatures and objects in it, in order to preserve the life of every individual person. He must continue the regular succession of the various seasons. He must preserve the animal creation, to nourish, feed and clothe the human species, and preserve them from the snares, the arrows and means of death. He must constantly govern the winds and waves, and all the elements. He must watch over every individual person every moment. He must strengthen every nerve, and guide every motion of the body, and all the motions, affections and volitions of the mind. He must guide every step we take, and determine every circumstance of life. What great, and numerous, and astonishing exertions of power, wisdom and goodness does God make, to preserve the feeble lives of men for seventy or eighty years! If any one will only look back upon the days and years he has lived in a world of ten thousand dangers, diseases and casualties, he must be struck with astonishment at God's preserving mercy. How much has he done to preserve the lives of all the old and young who are now in the land of the living! He has carried them in his hand, in his eye, and in his heart, ever since they had a being. God has realized their dependence upon his power and care, if they have not. God has felt their weight, if they have not realized his supporting hand. How reasonable is it that they should awake from their stupidity, and realize his power, patience and love, in preserving such weak, guilty and worthless creatures! And this will appear still more reasonable, if we consider,

6. What peculiar methods God has taken to make mankind continually sensible of his supporting and preserving hand. He has not only preserved their lives, but preserved them in such a manner, and under such circumstances, as are best adapted to make deep and lasting impressions on their minds, of their constant and absolute dependence upon him for life and breath and all things. He has preserved them from run

ning into innumerable dangers into which they would have run, had it not been for his internal or external restraints. He has preserved them from the same dangers which proved fatal to others. He has raised them from the same mortal sicknesses which proved fatal to others; from the same flames of burning buildings which consumed others; from the same shipwrecks which sunk others in the merciless waves. When sickness has brought them to the side of the grave, and all human hopes of recovery were lost, he has raised them up, and added not only fifteen, but fifty years to their lives. How many have been preserved upon land and upon water, while thousands have fallen and perished on their right and on their left! All these circumstances have been suited to make all the living realize the power and goodness of God in preserving their lives in this dangerous and dying world. David was astonished at the preservation of his own long life, and exclaimed, “I am as a wonder unto many!” "Jeremiah was deeply affected with the preserving goodness of God. He cried, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed!" We can hardly conceive that God could use more or better means to impress upon the minds of the living a deep and lasting sense of his preserving mercy, than he has used, and is continually using. And nothing can prevent the living from realizing this, but their stupidity and ingratitude.

IMPROVEMENT.

1. If all men ought to realize that God is the preserver and disposer of their lives, we have reason to think that they generally live in the neglect of this important duty. They gener ally cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God. They do not call upon God in the morning or in the evening, from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, and from year to year, unless something takes place to alarm their fears, and constrain them to realize their dependence upon him in whose hand their breath is, and whose are all their ways. They generally feel and act as though they were entirely independent of their creator and constant preserver. They feel sufficient to preserve their own lives and supply their own wants in time to come, as they imagine they have done, in time past. They manifest this self-dependence, not only by neglecting prayer, but by forming great and complicated designs, which require years and years to accomplish. They lay out to traverse the land and the ocean, and visit distant nations and countries, to gratify curiosity or amass property. They propose to spend one year in one place, two years in another,