Our duty is to read daily God s Word, to meditate thereon, to strive and lay the Divine promises on our hearts, to urge our souls to believe, to strive and fight against doubting and distrust, to give ourselves to earnest prayer for the working of God s Spirit within us. It is to extend itself unto the diligent use of lawful ordinary means to procure things needful, and there stay. We are so prone to fly to extremes that much care is needed in order to strike the happy medium. The most industrious labours of the farmer will produce no crop unless God sends sunshine and rain, and the most assiduous study of Scripture profits not the soul unless the Holy Spirit sanctifies it unto us. On the other side, there must be no disdaining of means under the pretence of more fully trusting the Lord.
Indolence is disobedience.
The farmer who prays and expects God to give him a good harvest though he has neither ploughed nor sown his fields is guilty of the wildest fanaticism. The able-bodied person who is out of employment, and lazily sits down pleading the Divine promises to supply his need instead of going forth to seek work, is tempting God and not trusting Him. When he is ill, it is both the duty and the privilege of the Christian to spread his case before the great Physician, yet if he scorns to use the helps and remedies which Divine providence sets before him, he acts presumptuously and not in faith. The parent who fails to train and teach his child as the Word enjoins, counting on Divine election to save him, is making an evil use of that precious Truth. Our duty in regard to the obtaining of temporal supplies is fully discharged when we have diligently put forth honest endeavors, used all lawful means, and humbly sought God s blessing thereon.