The Unreasonableness of Man.
SURELY man is the most unreasonable of God’s creatures. Feed the birds of the air or the beasts of the field, and they will be satisfied; but the more is given to man, the more he requires. Look at it a moment. If he have riches, he will hug his bags of gold, and carry out his plans to increase them. If he have estates, he will join house to house, field to field, vineyard to vineyard. Give him a county or a kingdom, and he will crave for more. When he rises in the morning, he expects to pass through the day prosperously. If he lies down to rest at night, he expects to enjoy refreshing sleep. If he proposes a journey, he expects to perform it unmolested and uninjured. If he passes through one birthday, he expects to arrive at another in good health; to eat and drink, to ride and to walk, to wake and to sleep, in peace, without considering that these things cannot take place unless God, in his infinite mercy, keeps him from a thousand temptations, and delivers him from ten thousand dangers. So continually are we partaking of God’s blessings that we look on them as a matter of course; the seed we sow must, in our apprehension, spring up abundantly; our tables must be provided for, and the mercies of yesterday must be supplied to-day, and those of this year continued to us through the next. How seldom do we offer up the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” with a full consciousness of our entire dependence on our heavenly Father for our supplies! And how frequently do we feel more gratitude to our fellow-beings for a passing act of kindness than to the Lord of life and glory for his permanent and unmerited mercies! We bow to a fellow-sinner to obtain at his hands the empty nothingness of an hour, while the love of the Redeemer of the world, the means of grace, and the hope of eternal glory, are sought for with indifference. Let us look more on our common mercies as gifts of God. Let our health and our strength, our days and our nights, and our smallest comforts, be regarded as being bestowed by a heavenly Benefactor; and let us bear in mind our own unworthiness, that we may be more reasonable in our desires, and more grateful when they are attained.—Sel.