II. Confiding nearness to God brings quiet rest.

'Rest' and 'being quiet' are treated here partly as consequences of
faith, partly as duties which we are bound to strive to achieve.

1. See how confidence in God stills and quiets the soul.

The very exercise of communion with Him brings peace and rest, inasmuch
as all things are then possessed which we can desire. There is a still
fruition which nothing can equal and nothing destroy.

Trust in God brings rest from our own evil consciences.

It brings rest from our own plans and purposes.

Trust gives insight into the meaning of all this else unintelligible
world.

It brings the calming and subduing of desires, which in their eagerness
torture, in their fruition trouble, and in their disappointment madden.

It brings the gathering in of ourselves from all the disturbing
diffusion of ourselves through earthly trifles.

2. Notice what this rest is not.

It does not mean the absence of causes of disturbance.

It does not mean the abnegation of forethought.