WAITING ON GOD. 407 nity, Psalm 39 :5 ; and James, Our life (which is our best, our all) is but a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanishethaway. chap. 4 : 11. But enough has been said by many on this subject. And we that have seen so many thousands each week in one city car- ried away to the grave, have been taiìght the truth of our frailty even as with thorns and briars.* But I know not how it comes to pass, there is not any thing we are more apt to forget than what we ourselves arc : and this brings men into innumerable sins towards God and one another. Thou therefore that art exercised under the hand of God in any severe dispensation, and art ready on all occasions to fill thy mouth with complaints, sit down a little and take a right measure of thyself, and see whether this state of mind becomes thee. It is the great God against whom thou repinest, and thou art a man, and that is a name of a worm, a poor, frail, dying worm ; and it may be, whilst thou art speaking thou art ready to drop in death. And wilt thou think it meet for such a one as thou art to magnify thyself against the great possessor of heaven and earth'? Poor clay! poor dust and ashes! poor dying worm! know thy state and condition, and fall down quietly under the mighty hand of God. Though thou wranglest with men about thy concerns, let God alone. "The potsherds may contend with the potsherds of the earth; but wo unto him that striveth with his Maker." Again, consider that in this frail condition we have all greatly sinned against God. So did Job : " I have * Referring to the plague of London, A. D. 1665, 'wherein 68,000 persons are computed to have died.
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