m John x. 3. ° John x. 9. ° Rev. vii. 17. P John x. 5, 9, 16.
Isai. xl. 27 — 31. Why say est thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My zvay is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God ? Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint ; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be iveary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with tvings as eagles; they shall run and not be iveary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
THE human mind is prone to extremes. Before a man comes to the knowledge of himself, he is filled with presumption, and accounts himself as safe as if there were no judgments denounced against him: but, when he begins to feel his guilt and helplessness, he is ready to run into the opposite extreme of despondency, and to account his state as irremediable, as if there were not a promise in the Bible suited to his condition. Such were the feelings of the Jews before their captivity in Babylon, and under the pressure of the troubles which they experienced in their bondage. The pro- phet, by anticipation, views them as already in Babylon, and reproves the desponding apprehensions which there depressed their souls.
The words I have read, will afford me a fit occasion to set before you,
I. The discouragements which the Lord's people suffer —
It is really no uncommon thing for even pious souls to utter the complaint mentioned in my text. They do this on a variety of occasions:
1. Under a sense of unpardoned guilt —
[Sin, which in an unenlightened state appears so small an evil, to an awakened soul appears " exceeding sinful," insomuch that he is ready to imagine it can never be forgiven. Hear David under these distressing apprehensions : " O Lord, rebuke