Page:Meditations For Every Day In The Year.djvu/269

 claimed St. Paul, "we  live,  and  we  move,  and  we  are." (Acts xvii.  28.)  Hence  St.  Augustine  thus  expressed  his gratitude: "You  place  me  under  obligations  to  you,  O Lord,  every  moment,  because  every  moment  you  bestow great  benefits  on  me."

III. God does  not  merely  preserve  your  life,  but  guards it from  innumerable  evils  and  miseries  which  others  suffer. Thus the  miseries  of  others  constitute  your  benefit. Ask yourself  why  you  are  not,  like  many  others,  blind, deaf, dumb,  lame,  or  oppressed  with  a  thousand  diseases and infirmities? Why have  you  not,  like  so  many  others, been slain  or  met  with  accidental  death? God has  hitherto delivered  you  from  all  these  misfortunes,  in  order that you,  being  grateful  for  so  many  favors,  "might serve  Him  without  fear,  in  holiness  and  justice  before Him,  all  your  days." (Luke i.  74.)

I. As  your  preserver,  God  has  not  only  removed  evils from you,  as  we  have  already  seen,  but,  acting  the  part of a  most  indulgent  parent,  He  has  provided  you  most abundantly with  every  necessary  and  convenience. His hands have  furnished  this  lower  world  for  you  as  a  temporary habitation;  He  has  enlightened  it  with  the  sun, moon, and  stars  for  your  benefit  and  delight,  and  has stored it  with  living  animals  for  your  use. In fine, whatever you  admire  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  or  below it,  whatever  ranges  on  it  or  swims  in  the  sea,  or  inhabits the  regions  of  the  air,  are  all  yours. "What is man,  that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him?  Thou  hast  subjected all  things  under  his  feet,  all  sheep  and  oxen;  moreover, the  beasts  also  of  the  fields,  the  birds  of  the  air  and  the