capable at all times of being analysed at all. But here at least is one analysis of it. This religious depression of Israel was so analysed by God. And we may well fear lest our own may be resolvable into the same elements. For, if we were to convert those dark, dim, gloomy forebodings and fears, out of anticipations into thoughts, might we not find ourselves saying in effect some one or more of these things? God cannot save, or God does not care to save, or God does not know the right time to save. And that is not the spirit, surely, of those whom God ever will save. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength."

And now, having analysed this depression, God gives His answer to it. This depression is certainly a state of feebleness. It may also be a state of sin, and, when looked at closely, of downright unbelief. But at least it is one of feebleness, of weakness. And there is only one way to renewed strength-" they that wait upon the Lord shall renew strength." This truth is the burden of the passage; but it is stated in several ways, and even the reason of it is given. The Lord is the strong; He is Creator of the ends of the earth, He fainteth not, neither is weary. Since He is strong, they who wait on Him. become strong. Lying beside Him, they imbibe His strength. From sympathy, if from nothing else, they themselves grow strong. The child is strong beside the Father fear not, for I am with thee; I hold thee by My right hand, as one leads a little child. When the child feels our stronger hand grasp his, his fear subsides,

and he shares our strength. The Lord fainteth not, He giveth power to the faint.. It is natural at first sight, without inquiring very deeply into the reason, that they who are in sympathy and fellowship with the Omnipotent should themselves be potent. It makes us strong to feel ourselves beside power. But it is the fact, rather than the reasons of it, that is the chief thing shown here: "they that wait upon the Lord renew their strength." This fact is shown on two sides: they who wait are strong, and they who do not wait have no strength. The youths faint; but they who wait renew their strength. The truth taught is: the weakness of all strength which is not divine, and the strength of weakness when it waits for God. "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew strength."

On the one side, all strength which is not divine is weakness: the youths faint. Natural strength has no permanence; there is no power of self-renewal in it when it fails. It is speedily, often suddenly, exhausted. Youth, lavish of its energy, becomes feeble; overwork exhausts it; years bring it to infirmity; the strongest in a few years may be seen tottering to the grave; and it utterly falls, comes too often to the ground even in the midst of its days. A fever, an accident-how little physically; a surprise, an emer gency, a sudden perplexity, a temptation-how small a thing morally, puts an end to it, and makes it utterly fall. But they who wait upon the Lord renew strength,

draw out of Him new moral and even mental energy. A surprise, a temptation, but brings to light their hidden strength; every new term of life evolves new reaches of capacity; and if it seem to contract and be for a moment spent, the reaction but develops greater energy.

It is a great mystery, this fainting and wearying of the youths-premature death-the exhaustion and burning out of greatly endowed but passionate natures that utterly fall. The loss of strength, the expenditure of life and power in the universe, is incalculable. Nature is very prodigal of her means. She flings countless seeds into the soil that she never vitalises; and of the countless seeds that she brings to life she takes the trouble to mature but a very few. She brings myriads of human souls into existence, a crop thick and fresh, and then she neglects them. Like a thriftless housewife, she wades about among her resources and lavishes them, indifferent alike to pain and hope and loss. The youths faint and are weary. The vital energy subsides in them, and they die. The world is filled with vain efforts that realise no effect, with great promises that are not fulfilled. It is somehow the greatest promises that are oftenest broken. It is the choice young men, as the word means, that utterly fall. We have seen some young spirit, endowed with wondrous gifts, rise like a star upon the horizon of our day, and move among other lights in the sky, easily to be detected from all others, with a light like none else-a colour of

power peculiar to himself, a complexion of luminousness the world had seldom seen, but longed to see and retain and rejoice in; and, when the eyes of many worshippers were being turned to it, it was seen to become troubled and obscured, or suddenly to shoot away into the darkness. We comfort ourselves by thinking that it is not extinguished, but gone to rise and shine on another horizon than ours. But that does not solve the mystery why it became dark to us; why we were promised the comfort and the shining of its light, and the promise was utterly broken; why so many great beginnings are made, that reach nothing.

The youths become weary, and the choice young men utterly fall. It is the choice young men that utterly fall; their fall is often signal; like a brilliant meteor, they come down. This is oftenest seen in moral falls. It is in the choice young men that these are most notable—in the finely endowed, in the generous, in the lofty-minded, in the ardent and adventurous. When the fire of the soul burns most brightly, men see clearest when it burns out. There are, indeed, some young men who cannot be said to fall. For only those can fall who have reached some elevation. There are men who can hardly be said to have ever been young, men who come into the world with all the ways of age about them - calculating, scheming, imperturbable men, who never knew a generous impulse, who were never guilty of any folly, -men who always know their whereabouts, who will rigidly audit and tax even their dubious pleasures lest

they pay beyond the market price for them. These are men of whom Scripture does not say that they fall. They can hardly fall. It is the choice young men, the men of strong natures, but uncontrolled; the men of impulse, carried away by their passions like a reckless rider-capable of all powerful and beautiful and noble deeds, if they were but controlled by Heaven; it is they who utterly fall.

They who wait upon the Lord renew their strength. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. Men are so made that only the love of God rules their whole nature. As the heavens draw the ocean from its farthest shore, and lead it on in rising tides, so God alone can move the nature of man to its deeps, and command it all. Other affections sometimes move it for a time. Appetite will promise much to human love, and it will perform something. It will for a time deny itself. But after a brief space it will generally break its vows, and even be mad and brutal to the object to whom it once promised all things.

And there are many perplexities arising from the world which nothing at all in any way meets except God. Doubts, the darkness of life, this very thing,— that men give way to evil, -the world furnishes no clue to penetrate this mystery; only waiting on God can clear it up. Only men of faith are victorious over all things. Other men are men of power on some sides, often on many sides, but never on all sides. They are