WAITING ON GOD. 387 earth, and the inhabitants of it are as grasshoppers be- fore him ; yea, the nations are as the dropof the bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance : he taketh up the isles as a very little thing; all nations be- fore him are as nothing, they are counted unto him less than nothing, and vanity." Isa. 40: 15, 17, 22. To what end doth the Lord thus set forth and declare his glo- rious greatness and power l It is that all might be brought to trust in him and wait for him, as at large declared in the close of the chapter. For shall grass- hoppers, a drop of the bucket, dust of the balance, things less than nothing, repine against or wax weary of the will of the immense, glorious and lofty One 1 He that taketh up the isles as a very little thing may surely, if he please, destroy or forsake one isle, one city in an isle, one person in a city; and we are before him but single persons. Serious thoughts of this infinite, all - glorious Being, will either quiet our souls or overwhelm them. All our weariness of his dispensations towards us arises from secret imaginings that he is such a one as ourselves; one that is to do nothing but what seems good in our eyes. But if we cannot comprehend his being, we can- not make rules to judge of his ways and proceedings. And how small a portion is it that we know of God! The nearest approaches of our reason and imagination leave us still at an infinite distance from him; and in- deed we know not well the import of what we speak ofhis greatness; we only declare our respect to that whichwe believe and adore, but are not able to compre- hend. All our thoughts come as far short of his excel- lent greatness as our natures do of his that is, infi- 1
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