This petition also includes thanksgiving. We revere the most holy will of God, and in transports of joy celebrate all his works, with the highest praise and gratulation, knowing that he has done all things well. God is, confessedly, omnipotent- and the consequence necessarily forces itself on the mind, that all things were created at his command: he is the supreme good; we must, therefore, confess that all his works are good, for to all he imparted his own goodness. If, however, the human intellect cannot fathom all the mysterious depths of the divine economy, banishing every doubt from the mind, we unhesitatingly declare, in the words of the Apostle, that " his ways are unsearchable." [1]
We, also, find a powerful incentive to revere the holy will of God in the reflection, that by him we have been deemed worthy to be illumined by his heavenly light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love." [2]
But, to close our exposition of this petition, we must revert to a subject at which we glanced at its commencement: it is, that the faithful, in uttering this petition, should be humble and lowly in spirit; keeping in view the violence of inordinate and innate desire, which revolts against the will of God; recollecting that in this duty of obedience, man is excelled by all other creatures, of whom it is written, " All things serve thee;" [3] and reflecting, that he who, unsupported by the divine assistance, is unable to undertake, not to say, perform, any thing acceptable to God, must be, of all other beings, the weakest.
But, as there is nothing greater, nothing more exalted, as we have already said, than to serve God, and live in obedience to his law, what more desirable to a Christian, than to walk in the ways of the Lord; to think nothing, to undertake nothing, at variance with his will? In order that the faithful may adopt this rule of life practically, and adhere to it with greater fidelity, the pastor will recur to the pages of inspiration for examples of individuals, who, by not referring their views to the will of God, have failed in all their undertakings.
Finally, the faithful are to be admonished to acquiesce implicitly in the simple and absolute will of God. Let him, who thinks that he occupies a place in society inferior to his deserts, bear his lot with patient resignation: let him not abandon the sphere in which Providence has placed him; but abide in the vocation to which he has been called. Let him subject his own judgment to the will of God, who consults better for our interests than we can do, by adopting the suggestions of our own desires. If oppressed by poverty, harassed by distress, or goaded by persecution; if visited by troubles or afflictions of any sort: let us recollect, that none of these things happen without the permission of God, who is the Supreme Arbiter of all things. We should, therefore, not suffer our minds to be too
