absurd it is to depend upon ourselves for any thing. If we are mere
creatures of God, if God alone has every blessing both of this world
and the next, and the will to give them away, whom ARE we to go to
but to Him for all we want? It is so in the life of our bodies, and
it is so in the life of our spirits. If we wish for God's
blessings, from God we must ask them. That is our duty, even though
God in His mercy and long-suffering does pour down many a blessing
upon men who never trust in Him for them. To us all, indeed, God
gives blessings before we are old enough to trust in Him for them,
and to many He continues those blessings in after-life in spite of
their blindness and want of faith. "He maketh His sun to shine on
the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust." He gives--gives--it is His glory to give. Yet strange!
that men will go on year after year, using the limbs, and eating the
food, which God gives them, without ever believing so much as that
God HAS given them, without so much as looking up to heaven once and
saying, "God, I thank Thee!" But we must remember that those
blessings will not last for ever. Unless a man has lived by faith
in God with regard to his earthly comforts, death will come and put
an end to them at once; and then it is only those who have trusted
in God for all good things, and thanked Him accordingly in this
life, who shall have their part in the new heavens and the new
earth, which will so immeasurably surpass all that this earth can
give.

And it is the same with the life of our spirits; in it, too, we must
live by faith. The life of our spirits is a gift from God the
Father of spirits, and He has chosen to declare that unless we trust
to Him for life, and ask Him for life, He will not bestow it upon
us. The life of our bodies He in His mercy keeps up, although we