Ver. 7.-Mental d,epression. "Faint." A common experience enough this. Some people pride themselves on the speciality of their experiences,just as t'iey consider their physical ailments to be altogether peculiar and unique. Faint I Who amongst us does not understand that? Why, we do not know. Care is like the atmosphere; its pressure is enormous, but the thing itself is invisible. "Light as air," some say; but many temperaments could say, "heavy as air," which depresses all the nerve-functions of the body. Faint! We like to know not only that it is common, but that greatly heroic spiritual natures have felt it! Read at your leisure Luther's letter where he says of the evil one, "He lies closer to me than my Catharine," and. where in one, part of his diary he is so desolate and disheartened that he suggests, if God wishes .the Reformation to go on, be must come and take it in hand himself. Faint I If 1:usy men feel it, women feel it sometimes more-thinking about the children; having the worry of household management; finding it so dificult to preserve elevation of thought amid the cares of common life. I. \VE ARE FAINT IN OUR FAILURES TO REACH OUR OWN IDEAL OF THE DIVINE LIFE. Oar ideals have been beautiful They have charmed our meditation, inspired our purposes. I am not speaking of spiritual excitements or emotions, No, my friend I Rather quiet and meditative hours. When we verily and indeed feel that piet.y is more than safety, when we feel that we would not do without religion if we could, we are ful- filling all the noblest aspirations within us. .And these have been noble. In gazing on the image of Christ we have desire to be conformed to that image. But our condition licre, you say, is one in "'hich we have to do with such mean things-it is such a battle to live at all! M.ean things? No, my friend. Nothing is mean that Christ can shine through. W,e can dignify common life, or God would not have given: us common life to dignify. Christian life is beautiful, but it is difficult. It is detail that casts down men and women too. When we read Stanley's last journey through the dark continent, we find a week's desolation is crowded into ten lines of print; but it must have been very wearisome sometimes, and now and then all seemed. nearly over. .Yet the motto was "Onward!" You may have an idea or two--but try and write a book. It is completeness that tries. You may have looked at .the Christian life with restbetic admiration. But now you are in it. God help you, as he will. Be diligent. Gird up tLe loins of your mind. Be sober. Hope to.the end. The ideal shall be realized some dny. Not destroyed. You will be without fault before the.throne. 11. WE ARE FAINT IN BKLATION TO THE MORAL BT.ATE OF THE WORLD. Jesus wept over Jerusalem as he gazed on the city that was doomed, for its own denial and rejection of himself. We are not one whit nea,rer solving the mystery of moral evil. No one can give us the why of sin. Some of the Germans have tried .hard at a philo- sophy of that, but have failed. It cannot be educational only, or we should nevtlr have the sense of guilt. But ,here it is, and we ha.ve it in ourselves. Even now sin exists, if it dues not reign. .And here it is around us everywhere. We have a mighty Saviour, an<l we want men to love him, to trust him. But they are often so besotted, so blinded, w L.ardened, that they prefer their slavery. What wonder we are faint-hearted I You tell us that Christ is the same in heaven that ho was on earth-the same in all sensitive care and love and desire. Yes. Alld I believe that the world's sin grieves him still,- l'ains him always. "Ye crucify the Son of God afresh" is not to be frittere~ away 88 a mert metaphor! What did Christ say after his ascension to the persecutmg Saul? " Saul, Saul, why persecutel!t thou me P" Not" My Church" merely,,, 'l'he Hea<l felt OR, XIII. 1-22,] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISA.IA.H. 235
with the members, Faint I I spoke of great mc·n just now. Pid not Moses shatter the tables of the Lnw in and o.nd bitter disappointment? Did not Paul find fickleness in his converts? Did not the Judaizers ham~r his work? Did not some of his com- panions desert him? Wns not sin still mighty within him, ns well ns around him? But Obrist, the Conqueror of ein and death, wae hie Lord. The Holy Ghost gave him inner might. III. FAINT IN DELATION TO THE DISCIPLINE OF 80RP.OW. We need it. But "no affliction for the present eeemcth to be joyous, but grievous." J<'aint ! You may have left one at home who used to come and drink of the brook by the way at church, who ii frail and ill now. You remember some who have had a dire disci:>line of trial through kith and kin, who have cast the crown of honour into the dwt. You would not thiok much of them if they had not been cast down. Superficial people who say, "Make an effort!"" Cheer up!" only worry the nerves; they do not really ease trouble, because we cannot be "merry" wi1h a heavy heart. You must lift up with a wise hope, a real trust, a phild's confidence. "Show 11s the Father," then we can endure; then we. can "rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him." But you say," Faintness depresses us." Mind what you say, been.use you reveal charactei·. It is just like sayiqg, "Music must always be made for me; 1 won't be made sad; I won't enter an atmospher~.of depression.'' Human hearts cannot always smile. Faint people must be in a world. like this, but it will be only for a season; it will lead them to him who can raise up, who will lay beneath them Lis own everh1sting arms, who will "not destroy." Never. "Chastened, but not destroyed "-tested, but not destroyed. At such times do not rest in "moods" or feelings, but look out of yourselves to Cbrist. IV. WE ARE FAINT IN RELATION TO 0UB INFLUENCE OVER OTHERS. We had hoped so much to send such bright rays over the dark sea from the lighthouse of our faith; to give the emerald beauty of a new spring to so many sterile places. We have not been such guides, such comforters, as we hoped to be. And the fault has beeo, not in lack of doing, but in want of being. To live has not been Christ. We have not been watc)lful en9ugh either, against inimical forces in our fields. The Red Indians come when, we are.asleep or on a journey, and stamp ont our corn. We are" faint" too because arre.st will so soon be laid on. our powers. But is it not right to rejoice that we have been able to do some good? Certainly. We have been unprofitable sc:rvan ts at the best, but it would be not only unreal, but wrong, to forget what God may have accomplished through us. Paul said, "Now thanks )Je unto God, which alway causeth us to triumph iQ Cbrist." . We, are not.as, the men of .this world, cast down into tbe loss of joy and hope.:....aud in despair. No, it is only for a season. We are Christ's. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.''-W. M. S.