excuse for their doubtings nnd depressions in their national circumstances. They had been so long in tho power of their enemies, and their outlook was so utterly dark and hopeless, that they concluded they were quite overlooked by the God of their fathers. And we cannot wonder at this, for circumstances, private and national, can make darkness for us under which it is easy enough for doubts to breed. We think of some. I. OVER-STUDY. There is a fixed limit of brain-power, We dare not go beyond it. And the usnal penalty of overdoing is a darkness which nourishes depressions, needless fears, doubts, mistrusts, and even despair that inspires suicide. It is needful that we should, in these days, be warned of an insidious form of evil. Educational forcings of children make darkness brood over whole lives. Pressure in manhood, under ambitioM or necessities, bring black clouds to shut the sunshine out of many a life; and much of the scepticism of our time is no more than the diseased questionings of overwrought brains. Truth only appears to quiet minds. II. DISAPPOINTMENT. When our way is closed up, our schemes fail, or our friends prove unworthy, the darkness broods over us, and we easily say, "There is no truth or trust anywhere;" and we fling our doubtings against the very throne of God. This was the secret of the fainting, of Israel. 'l'hcy were disappointed. Again and again great national changes raised high hopes, and again ancl again the darkness fell, and seemed to shut them in. Then the bitter cry arose, "God bath forgotten to be gracious." III. A SCEPTICAL ATMOSPHERE. One man breathes out bis suspicions, another his questionings; this inan attacks the things most surely believed among us; and another man writes a book to shift the old foundations, and make the great Christian house tumble about our ears; and the very air is charged with an electricity of unbelief, which all must breathe, and few have spiritual health enough to resist. Such are the times in which we now live. It is easier to doubt God than to trust him. IV. ILLNESS AND FRAILTY. The class of diseases characteristic of highly civilized times of society is precisely that which relates to the nerves, and bas for its symptoms lowness of spirits, distorted vision, gloomy fears, and melancholia. Many and many a poor burdened body cries out, "God has forgotten to be gracious," and it is only a body-cry; the heart holds fast its trust. Whensoevcr the doubting comes, the remedy is the same: the psalmist expresses it, "I will remember the years of the right band o1 the Most High."-R. T. Ver. 29.-He who has powtr alone can give it. "He giveth power to the faint." "The final verses of this chapter are remarkable for the frequent occurrence of' fainteth' and' is weary.' Tiley come in every sentence, and if we note their use we shall get the essence of the hope and consolation which the prophet was anointed to pour into the wounds of his own people, and of every heavy-laden soul since then. Notice how, first, the prophet points to the unwearied God; and then his eyes drop from heaven to the clouded, saddened earth, where there are the faint and the weak, and -the strong becoming faint, and the youths fading and becoming weak with age. Then be binds together these two opposites-the unwearied God and the fainting man-in the grand thought that he is the giving God, who bestows all his power on the weary. And see how, finally, he rises to the blessed conception of the wearied man becoming like the unwearied God. 'They shall run, and not be weary; they sh,1\l walk, and not faint'" (Maclaren). I. A MAN MUST GIVE WHAT HE POSSESSES. He only truly enjoys it by giving it. The miser who holds is miserable. 'fo have anything is simply blessed because we c~n share it, we can give it. This is more true than we think it, in n\l the best relations ol life, even under our present depraved conditions. Ideally it is the ouly noble concep- tion of life. Mothers only care for possession bccauso it brings power to give. Thinkers only acquire truth for the joy of imparting. We are permitted to think that this is true of God. He has no joy in possession. His joy is giving. He is always spending and working; and the gift of his Son is only the sublimest instance of what he is always doing-giving awl\y his possessions. II. A MAN CAN ONLY GIVE WHAT HE POSSESSES, We seek out each man for the skill he possesses. This man can give us healing, that one comforting, and this one teachincr. Each has his own possession, and each can help us in his own way. No one man c:n 9G THE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'l' ISAIAH. [cu. XLI. 1-29. ---------------------------- do all thi:ngs for us; and we are foolish indeed if we expect of a man what he has no power to give. III. WHAT GOD HAS IS THE FULL, ABUNDANT SUPPLY OF ALL OUR WANTS. '' My God shall sup1Jy all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." In the passage now before us the provision of God for us is gat1'"!'ed up into the significant 1rord "strength." P~ul's great want is also ~u~ gr_eat wa?t-the great want of every man the world over, m whom a trace of the D1vme 1mao-c 1s left. It is power-" power to perform that which is good;" some spiritual force~ act on our souls and mnke us !11~re than conquerors_ over self _and sin .. _And that is within God's abilit~. To bestow 1t 1s the purpose of his good Will. "G1nng power to the faint" is his Divinest work -H.T. •
SECTION II. RECOVERY OF THE PEOPLE OF GoD FROM THEIR Sm AND FROM THEIR BONDAGE IN BABYLON (CH. XLI.-XLVIII.), '