I am very sorry about your accident!

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(Letters of John Newton)

My dear friend,
I am very sorry about your accident--but I am thankful that you were not hurt. Such catastrophes, as this may properly be called, have often been attended with dislocated or broken bones, a fractured skull, or instant death--so frail is man!

Often, when he thinks himself safe, and is dreaming of his own importance, as if he were a necessary part in the complicated movements of Divine Providence--he falls like grass before the scythe! And not by the hands of a giant, or the fangs of a tiger--but the smallest trifle is sufficient to destroy him!

For example--how many loose stones do we see in the road; it seems no great matter where they lie. Yet any one of them, by changing the direction of a wheel--is sufficient to confound all the plans of this mighty creature! One stone stumbles him down; he falls with his head upon another--in that very moment all his future plans perish! But the Lord gave His angels charge over you; therefore you fell unhurt, and are still alive to praise and serve Him.

I see so much of the uncertainty of life, and how little I can either foresee or prevent what the next moment may bring forth--that I would be a very great coward--afraid not only of riding in a coach--but of walking across a room--if I was not in some degree enabled to confide in the Lord's protection!

"Hold me up--and I shall be safe!" Psalm 119:117