e Lord kept him as the apple
of His eye, and led him about, and bore him on His shoulders."
[Deut. 32:10 ff.][20]

Hence arose those exhortations in the Psalter: "I remember the
days of old; I meditate on all Thy works; I muse on the work of
Thy hands." [Ps. 143:5] "Surely I will remember Thy wonders of
old." [Ps. 77:11] Again, "I remembered Thy judgments of old, O
Lord, and have comforted myself," [Ps. 119:52] These exhortations
and the like are intended to teach us that, if God was with us
when we thought it not, or when He seemed not to be with us, we
should not doubt that He is always with us, even when He appears
to be far from us. For He Who, in so many necessities, has
sustained us without our aid, will not forsake us in our smaller
need, even though He seem to be forsaking us. As He saith in
Isaiah, "For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great
mercies will I gather thee." [Isa. 54:7]

Moreover, who had the care of us so many a night, while we slept?
Who cared for us when we were at work, or at play, or engaged in
all those countless things wherein we had no care for ourselves?
Indeed, how much of our time is there in which we have the care
of ourselves? Even the miser, careful as he is to gain riches,
must perforce put by his care in the midst of all his getting and
gaining. And so we see that, whether we will or no, all our care
falls back on God alone, and we are scarcely ever left to care
for ourselves. Still, God does now and again leave us to care for
ourselves, in order to bring home to us His goodness, and to
teach us how great the difference between His care and ours.
Hence, He suffers us now and then to be assailed by some slight
malady or other ill, dissembling His care for us (for He never
ceases to care), and yet at the same time preventing the many
evils that threaten us on every side from bursting in upon us all
together. Hereby He tries us as His well-beloved children, to see
whether we will not trust His care, which extends through all our
past life, and learn how vain and powerless a thing is any care
of ours. How little, indeed, do we or can we do for ourselves,
throughout our life, when we are not able to stop a small pain in
one of our limbs, even for the shortest space of time?[21]

Why, then, are we so anxious in the matter of a single danger or
evil, and do not rather leave our care to Him? For our whole
life bears witness to the many evils from which He has delivered
us,