Psalm 22:9-10 But you are he that took me out of the womb: you did make me hope when I was on my mother's breasts.… To a contemplative mind nothing will suggest more powerful inducements, perhaps, for adoring the wisdom and the goodness of God than a distinct consideration of the many faculties, passions, and propensities with which a human creature is furnished. Exposed to various evils; encompassed with manifold infirmities; subject to pain and labour, to poverty, disease, and death, we might soon feel life a burden unless there were some pervading principle which seems to connect us with futurity, and bids us forget our past calamities and our present sorrows in the bright prospects that are to come. Hence by the goodness of God we are all possessed of that lasting and universal passion, Hope. Now let us consider — I. ITS NATURE AND INFLUENCE. It enters largely into every man's system of happiness, whether they be prosperous or afflicted. It is the spring of men's conduct, the end of their life. It keeps his soul alive within him, invigorates his faculties, purifies his passions, and directs the exertions both of his mind and body to their proper objects. II. BY WHAT PRINCIPLES TO REGULATE IT. A passion so general, and that has such an influence on the sum of life, cannot be too carefully regulated nor disciplined to its proper objects. In this, as in most other cases of moral and religious duty, the folly and the danger of extremes should be avoided. The happy medium, which we should all labour to attain on the present occasion, lies equally remote from silly and extravagant expectations, — from sluggish indifference and helpless despondency, or the dead calm of insensibility. The one is apt to lead to every kind of excess, and to end in misery and disappointment; the other disqualifies us for fulfilling the duties of life, and is, in fact, the destruction or subversion of every virtue. III. THE OBJECTS TO WHICH IT SHOULD BE DIRECTED. These are to be found in the blessed future world. (J. Hewlett, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.WEB: But you brought me out of the womb. You made me trust at my mother's breasts. |
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