I. THE TESTING-TIME THAT COllES TO ALL MEN, It is true that prosperity bas its own perils, and makes its own demands on the human spirit. But when the sky is clear above us, wben loving friends stand round us with protecting care, when privile<Tes abound on every side, it is comparatively easy to maintain an equable and obedi:nt mind. We can all row with the stream and sail with the favouring wind. But the hour must come to ·us that comes to all in time, when we have to face difficulty, or to bear obloquy, or to sustain heavy loss, or to go on our way with a lonely heart, or to suffer some keen aud all but crushing disappointment. When we are moved to say with Jacob, "All these things are against me;" with Elijah, "Lord, take away my life; " we faint and fall in the day of adversity. II. THE RESOURCES THAT SHOULD BE AT OUR COMMAND. When that hour comes to us, as it certainly will, we should be prepared to bear ourselves bravely and well; for there are many sources of strength with which we. should be supplied. There is: 1. Ordinary human fortitude. Such manliness and strength of will as have enabled many thousands of souls-even without any aid from religion-to confront danger or death; or to show an undisturbed equanimity of mind in the midst of severe sorrows. But beyond this there is for us: 2. Christian resignation. The willingness to leave the whole disposal of our lives to the wisdom and the love of God; readiness to endure the holy will of a Divine Father, of our best Friend. 3. Christian faith. The assurance that God is dealing with us in perfect wisdom and parental love at those times when we can least understand his way. 4. Christian hope. The confidence that " unto the upright there will arise light in the darkness;" that God will grnnt a happy issue out of all our afflictions; that though the just man fall seven times, he will rise again (see ver. 15) ; that though weeping may endure even for a long and stormy night, joy will come in the morning (Ps. xxx. 5). 6. Communion with God. To the distressed human spirit there remains that most precious refuge, the leaning of the heart on God, the appeal of the soul to him in earnest, believing prayer. III. TlIE INFERENCE WE ARE OBLIGED TO DRAW, If, with all thPse resources at our command, we "faint;" (1) if we indulge a rebellious spirit, repining at our lot and thinking ourselves hardly used; or (2) if we yield ourselves to misery and melancholy, showing ourselves unequal to the duties that devolve upon us, resigning the useful activities in which we have been engaged ;-then we must conclude that" our strength is small ; " we have failed to enrich our souls with that spiritual power of which we might and should have become possessed. But that we may not have to deplore our weakness in the day of adversity, and that we may not give a sorry illustration of Christian life as it ought not to be seen, let us learn what is- lV. Oun WISDOM .AT THE PRESENT TIME. And that is to be gaining strength, to be continually becoming" strong in the Lord, and in the .power of his might." '!'his is nn·imperative duty (Eph. vi. 10; 2 Tim. ii. 1; 2 Pet. iii. 18). And we tire not without the necessary means. If, in the days of sunshine and prosperity, we nre daily nourish- ing our faith, our love, our hope, our prayerfulness, by constant exercise in devotion and in sacred duty, by using the privilegeR so amply supplied to us, by cultivating and caerishing our union with Jesus Christ our Lord, we shall be strong, and we shall not faint.'-C,
Vers. 11, 12.-Inexcusable indifference. The principles contained in this passage are these- I. THAT ALL HUMAN NEED IS A CLAIM FOR DELP. God has so "fashioned our hearts alike," and has so bound together our lives nnd our interests, that we arc under serious obligation to one another. No man is at liberty to live an isolated life; he owes too much to those that have gone before him, and is too closely related to those who are around him, to allow of such a course. To wish it is unnatural, to attempt it is immoral. "We are members one of another;" we are brethren and sisters one of another. And whenever any one about us-whoever or whntever be or she may be- ls in any kind of difficulty or distress, is in need of sympnthy nnd succour, there is an imperative demand, as clear as if it came from an angel's trumpet or straight out of the heavens above us, that we should stop, should inquire, should help as bost we ~n (see 1 John iii. 17, 18). ll. 'l'.UAl' THE lUTilEMITY OF IlUMA:N NEED IS A :MC'ST P0IVEJ\l<'UL· PLEA, If any THE PROVERBS. toH, XXIV. 1-34,