Duties are Ours, Events are God's - Part 2

In a previous blog post, I aimed to identify the originator of the famous saying "Duties are ours, events are God's." It was a maxim of Matthew Henry, Stonewall Jackson, and others. I traced it back to a similar saying of Pierre Corneille, the French playwright, as used in a play that was produced in 1639.

Since then, I have done a little more research and found that besides Matthew Henry, it was a saying of his father Philip Henry. Philip, moreover, read the Letters of Samuel Rutherford, and in fact, Rutherford articulated this very expression in a letter dated March 7, 1637, to David Dickson.

Letter CX (March 7, 1637), Letters of Samuel Rutherford (1891 ed.), p. 226:

Now for my case: I think that the council should be essayed, and the event referred to God; -- duties are ours, and events are God's.

Duties Are Ours, Events Are God's

There is much wisdom in the way of, as a wise pastor has said, "holy resignation." Calvinists do not live like amoebas floating and passively moving wherever the Sea of Providence directs, but rather being moral creatures we are called to do our duty and leave the event, ie., trust or commit the result, to God.

This bit of wisdom has been said many times, many ways. Here are some of the expressions that I have come across.

Pierre Corneille, Horace (1639), Act II, Scene viii:

Faites votre devoir et laisser-faire aux dieux. (Do your duty, and leave the rest to heaven.)

Matthew Henry, Commentary on Ps. 37.5-6 [Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.]:

We must do our duty (that must be our care) and then leave the event with God.

Richard Cecil:

Duties are ours; events are God's. This removes an infinite burden from the shoulders of a miserable, tempted, dying creature. On this consideration only, can he securely lay down his head, and close his eyes.

John Quincy Adams:

Duty is ours; results are God's.

Gen. T.J. (Stonewall) Jackson:

Duty is ours; consequences are God's.

Walter Savage Landor:

Consult duty, not events.

Gen. George S. Patton, Jr., Diary, November 8, 1943:

If I do my full duty, the rest will take care of itself.

Douglas Bond, Duncan's War (2002), p. 58:

When the Psalm singing ended, his father continued, "Mary, m'love, it's been said that 'Duties are ours; events are God's.'"