The Psalmist saw that God was good, and worthy to be praised.  But he saw, too, that he and his forefathers would never have found out that for themselves.  It was too great a discovery for man to make.  God must have showed it to them.  God had showed His word to Jacob, His statutes and ordinances to Israel.

He had not done so to any other nation, neither had the heathen knowledge of His laws.  And, therefore, they did not trust God; they did not consider Him a good God, and so they worshipped Baalim, the sun and moon and stars, with silly and foul ceremonies, to procure from them good harvests; and burnt their children in the fire to Moloch, the fire-king, to keep off the earthquakes and the floods.  God had not taught them what He had taught Israel—­to trust in Him, and in His word which ran very swiftly, and in His laws, which could not be broken:  a faith which, my friends, we must do our best to keep up in ourselves, and in our children after us.  For it is very easy to lose it, this faith in God.  We are tempted to lose it, all our lives long.

Our forefathers, in the days of Popery, lost it; and because they did not trust in God as a good God, who took good care of the world which He had made, they fell to believing that the devil, and witches, the servants of the devil, could raise storms, blight crops, strike cattle and human beings with disease.  And they began, too, to pray, not to God, but to certain saints in heaven, to protect them against bodily ills.

One saint could cure one disease, and one another; one saint protected the cattle, another kept off thunder, and so forth—­I will not tell you more, lest I should tempt you to smile in this holy place; and tempt you, too, to look down on your forefathers, who (though they made these mistakes) were just as honest and virtuous men as we.

And even lately, up to this very time, there are those who have not full faith in God; though they be good and pious persons, and good Protestants too, who would shrink with horror from worshipping saints, or any being save God alone.  But they are apt to shut their eyes to the beauty and order of God’s world, and to the glory of God set forth therein, and to excuse themselves by quoting unfairly texts of Scripture.  They say that this world is all out of joint; corrupt, and cursed for Adam’s sin:  yet, where it is out of joint, and where it is corrupt, they cannot show.  And, as for its being cursed for Adam’s sin, that is a dream which is contradicted by Holy Scripture itself.  For see.  We read in Genesis iii. 17, ’Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.’