Page:Works of Martin Luther, with introductions and notes, Volume 1.djvu/139

Rh 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?

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, without our doing. To know this, is indeed to know the works of God, to meditate on His works, and by the remembrance of them to comfort ourselves in our adversities. But they that know this not come under that other word in Psalm xxvii, "Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operations of His hand, He shall destroy them, and not build them up." For those men are ungrateful toward God for all His care over them during their whole life, who will not, for one small moment, commit their care to Him.