vain expectations...

Joseph Stevens Buckminster was only 28 when he died and his health was never strong. He was, in his brief life, revered by his fellow Boston Unitarians and his congregation. Reading his sermons gives a hint of why. This excerpt from "Our lot in life not at our own disposal, but ordered by God':

"How is it, my friends, that if left to ourselves, we should consult our own happiness less than it is already consulted by the uncertainties, the disappointments, the casualties of the present arrangement of human affairs? The reason, is simply this; that happiness does not consist in external circumstances. Of course, arrange your situation in life as you please; surround yourself with wealth, power, influence, fame; still, if you bring not with you the temper most proper for your situation, you have lost, rather than gained, by the privilege you have exercised. Such is the wisdom of God's providence, that the temper most proper for every situation, can be formed only by feeling the very uncertainty on which that situation is granted...

However paradoxical it may appear, I will venture to assert, that if the formation of our moral characters depended less than it now does upon unforeseen circumstances, in other words, if the virtues which men sometimes exhibit, were placed more easily within their own power, we should probably be not only less happy, but even less virtuous than we now are. It is not too bold to suggest that even a man under the influence of a pure moral principle, and aspiring after eminent attainments in goodness, if left to choose his own character, would neither consult his own true worth, nor his best happiness. We should see him carried away with false estimates of particular excellences...

Let us bow at the feet of the Omniscient Being who orders our circumstances in life, and say, O God ! I am ashamed of my pride, my discontent, and my vain expectations. I have been disappointed in life, but it was thou who didst disappoint me, and I murmur not. I have been fortunate, but it was thy blessing which gave this unexpected success to my projects, and I am humble. If my plans had always succeeded, they would have interfered with the wise arrangements of thy providence, and merely for my partial good, disconcerted the profound and extensive operations of thy wisdom and beneficence. When I look back upon my life, I see that thou hast trained me up in the sure and progressive order of thy providence, to the character and the hopes, which I now possess. When I have thought myself abandoned, thou hast been watching me with paternal care; when I supposed myself most miserable, I have found myself nearer to the acquisition of the only permanent good. The very circumstances of my life, which I thought the most inauspicious, I find the most favorable, and the very trials, which I thought would terminate in my misery or death, I now find had the most benevolent tendency, the most cheerful conclusion. My expectations have been often defeated, and my views altered, but I still find myself crowned with loving kindness, and surrounded with opportunities for virtue and happiness. In all the events of life, then, I will bless thee. Though the fig- tree should not blossom, and there should be no fruit in the budding vine of my hopes, yet will I bless the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation. I have trusted thee for this life, and with sentiments like these, in continual exercise, may I not trust thee, O God, for eternity ?"

Blessings