not always strive with us" in this manner : the time is coming when he will requite us according to our deeds, and turn a deaf ear to all our entreaties q? O that we may be wise in time, and improve aright " this day of our salvation1!"]
2. Those who think they are forsaken and forgot- ten of God —
[This may be the state even of the best of men ; for David, and even the Messiah himself, in a season of derelic- tion, cried, "My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken mes?" Nevertheless, for the most part, the hidings of God's face may be traced to some special cause : some inward lust unmortified, or some wilful neglect indulged. Search out then, and put away, whatever is displeasing to your God. But, if you cannot find any particular reason for the dispensation, then follow that advice of the prophet, " Who is among you that feareth the Lord, and yet walketh in darkness, and hath no light ? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay him- self upon his God1." Let him plead with God, as David did, and sum up his petitions with that bold request, " Arise, O God, and plead thine own causeu!" We may be sure that " God will not contend with us for ever, because he knows that our spirits would fail before him, and the souls which he hath made x." Even where we have been wilfully rebellious, he gives us reason to hope, that, for his own sake, he will heal our wounds, and speak comfortably to our souls y : but, if we humble ourselves before him, then are we sure that in due season he will lift us upz.
Let every one then, however disconsolate he may be at the present moment, yea though heaven, earth, and hell should seem conspiring to destroy him a, check his unbelieving fears, and say, " Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me ? Hope thou in God ; for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance, and my Godh."]
i Prov. i. 24 — 31. r Compare ver. 8. with 2 Cor. vi. 2.
s Ps. xxii. 1. ' Isai. 1. 10. u Ps. lxxiv. 19—22.
x Isai. lvii. 1G. >' Isai. lvii. 17, 18. and Hos. ii. 14.
z Jam. iv. 10. a Ps. xlii. 7. b Ps. xlii. 11.