and does his duty. Remember the Psalmist's words, "I have been young, and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."[1] The Lord has a thousand ways of supplying you. Remember that he foresees everything; he is not like one taken by surprise. Before you were born, as already remarked, he knew all you would need, even to the minutest particular. Before you were married, he knew the offspring you would have, and all the wants of each one of them. He will put it into the heart of friends to assist you; he will cause you, in his providence, to meet with some one to whom your needs may be made known: and this, by the way, is sometimes an end for which Divine Providence permits even the good to be brought very, very low, namely, to break down their pride. You must not be too proud to make your wants known—after you have done all you reasonably can to supply them yourself. We are all dependent more or less on each other, and there may be seasons of distress in which an individual may be so placed as to be wholly or partially dependent on others. And if this is not his own wish nor doing, but he has been brought into that state by providential circumstances, it is nothing to be ashamed of: he must consider that this is the means which Providence has taken to supply him, and that the friends who so assist are merely the Lord's instruments. This consideration will enable him, while receiving their aid, still to preserve his self-respect. But you may be sure, that in one way or
