In the power to endure it. These are the great seers of the human race whose absorbing love and adoration of God has filled them with light and knowledge of Him little dreamed of by the many who have feebler and lower aspiration. It is often found in persons of weak understanding, and in minds not highly cultivated by refined education. 1, 2), the words occur which are quoted by St. Matthew and St. Mark (Is. It is precisely because he is not tired that the man of God does not stop. 3. But without God, without true hope.(W. They get filled. All outward observances, whether private or public, have no meaning, and can have no avail without that conscious voluntary movement of the soul towards God. What cares the eagle, as he bathes his wings in the translucent gold of the upper sky, for all the turmoil, the dust, or even the murky clouds that drift far beneath him? We renew our strength in the battle with our besetting sin, in the conquest of fierce passions and unruly tempers, and in the maintenance and steadfastness of high resolve. Horton, D. D."Change their strength" (marg.). 3 I'd part with all the joys of sense To gaze upon thy throne; Pleasure springs fresh for ever thence, Unspeakable, unknown. You see the problem with the . It is a religion of conscience, and not a mere effervescence of pious emotion. But God is all-sufficient.(F. When love to God is ardent and constant in its exercise, then there is real strength. A persuasion of the power and goodness of God; His readiness to stretch out His almighty hand to help us, amidst the difficulties, infirmities, and temptations to which we are exposed.3. Clearer vision.3. A. "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life," etc. 13. These are all comprehended in one expression, "waiting on the Lord."III. Full provision has been made to supply this need of the soul. How shall we avoid it? This sounds as if they were in danger of becoming weary and faint in their minds. But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint. L. Wiseman, B. If we try to rise by means of faith alone we shall be like a bird with one wing. You have learnt that to your sorrow by the bitter teaching of experience. This man, however, has this double life. Anderson. Xl. It is the posture of expectancy for every blessing of which we stand in need, temporal and spiritual.II. Capacity for the most strenuous exertion.IV. It is very easy to misunderstand this word "wait," and regard it as meaning inactive passivity. I felt an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to love Edward M. BoundsThe Essentials of PrayerThe God of all Comfort"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." Whereas the man who has worn himself out by impatience, or yielded himself up to despair, is too inert or too distracted to take adequate advantage of the fresh opportunities which may come at last. The boy who never knew what it was to be fagged out at school is not worth much. That is precisely what Paul does say. SPIRITUAL STRENGTH, HOW IS IT TO BE OBTAINED? "They shall run, and not be weary." He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.' The order, then, may be the correct one, after all not so good as a rhetorical finish, but true to life. A collected frame of mind.3. Our whole future is mapped out with tests and trials, but we need not be afraid of these things if we are in the stream of the Divine supply. That is a very lame finish. Waiting, in the Scriptures, sometimes includes the idea which we affix to it in common life; namely, that of attendance or service.II. --Isaiah 40:1. But hope feeds upon every act to which it prompts, and it grows thereby.2. Some who like to trace the analogy between the works of nature and the works of grace, may perhaps have seen a flower which the storms of night have severely shaken, towards the morning turn wistfully to the dawn, and seem to be waiting for the coming day. God is opposed to idols, that all may know he is the only fit witness to himself. You must take it in the hour of God's appointment. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received at the LORD 's hand double for all her sins. 2. Tymms. A more appropriate beginning of the book of consolations' could scarcely be conceived. God's Care. Howells.I. This is a pace which is very requisite for the Christian. 4 [There all the heavenly hosts are seen, In shining ranks they move, And drink immortal vigour in, With wonder and with love. Why not logically carry the idea further, and say that standing still is the sublimest consummation of the Divine life in many Even so. hath it not been told yon from the beginning? But I believe that the preaching of the high ideal, divorced from the preaching of its attainment by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the reason for more than one-half the cynicism that you find amongst men from thirty-five to forty at the present day. The recurrence of the same form of interrogation in these two verses is remarkable. "Mount up with wings as eagles."1. THE PROMISE. Here is a Christian, bewildered, not quite knowing why he has so perpetually failed. When a soul has its inner life hid with Christ and lives a life of true consecration it is enabled to take wing, and its "citizenship is in heaven." They are both to be censured and pitied. The bread of life for the hungry, the water of life for the thirsty.II. There are many things for which we can only ask and then wait in quiet stillness, things which we cannot help God to give us, things which God Himself bestows without our aid, if we are ever to possess them. The men who were making themselves rich in those days in Eastern cities stayed there. In Isaiah 40:30 the verb stands first, Isaiah 40:30 being like a concessive clause in relation to Isaiah 40:31. He stopped running because he was tired. Whatever it be in their power to do, that power will be increased and their strength renewed by waiting upon God. Whilst troubled days and years go by, In stillness hushed from stir and strife, Within Thine Arms I lie. B. MeyerJohn the BaptistImpiety of Attributing a visible Form to God. Capacity for the most strenuous exertion.IV. In the power to endure it. The prophet's imagery is startling, and some critics would presume to call his figures somewhat mixed; but the thought conveyed is clear. But, in order to obtain aid from on high, we must make use of the appointed and appropriate means. xl. The man of God, the man who waits on God, is equal to any emergency, is equal to any strength. (4)Walk to Christ.(J. He comes down from the mount made ready, like Moses, for work in the camp at large, or in the retirement of his tent. xl. Then the engine and carriages of the detached front part of the train came back and all were coupled up. Soul progress.(D. That is His great legacy to the Church. The meaning is obviously, They, all depend upon Thee; men and beasts alike.2. Heavenly-mindedness. RENEWED VIGOUR. To speak of a man as able to strengthen himself, so as to dispense with Divine aid, is as unreasonable as it is unscriptural As well might you talk of a leafless tree clothing itself with verdure without the vernal sun as well of an enfeebled body recovering tone and energy without the reviving air of heaven. Walking is less than running, and fainting is more than weariness. But there is one doctrine that is never out of season, Hugh BinningThe Works of the Rev. You must cultivate that habit. In point of ease. Never failing to seek and obtain fellowship with God in the highest, always daring to attempt great actions, this heavenly minded man has thoughts and yearnings which raise his mode of life above the level of common things. The Bible speaks about waiting patiently, and also about waiting quietly. And indeed that is a great part of wisdom, to bring forth everything in its season, to discern when and where, and to whom it is pertinent and edifying, to speak such and such truths. Not only in the immediate exercises of religion, but at all times the Christian will be animated by a spirit of devotion. I felt an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to love Edward M. BoundsThe Essentials of PrayerThe God of all Comfort"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." HOW SHOULD SPIRITUAL STRENGTH BE EXHIBITED?1. But, for the most part, these exhaustive pleasures rapidly fret away that on which they depend. But I believe that the preaching of the high ideal, divorced from the preaching of its attainment by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the reason for more than one-half the cynicism that you find amongst men from thirty-five to forty at the present day. All strength apart from God is derived strength, and is consequently measurable, and must come to an end. WE SEE HOW A TRUE CHURCH MAY BE DESCRIBED. We cannot anticipate Him. There is a double kind of change to be observed.1. Is this really so? 2. But God is all-sufficient.(F. Wesley fashioned modern England by faith. 2 Here I behold thy distant face, And 'tis a pleasing sight; But to abide in thine embrace Is infinite delight. God seems to observe in spiritual things a similar order to that which exists in natural things. Is not that the history in a nutshell of what is called the progress of nearly every society or opinion that you know? In rapturous contemplation of the things of God. This is a pace which is very requisite for the Christian. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.' Horton, D. D.)The strength of a ChristianT. The quotation of Is. Trust in the Lord.II. They are interlocked, as it were, by the recurrence in the latter of the emphatic words of the former. 1The ConsolationComfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Let me translate that last word again, translate it by a word that is about as wide in its English significance as the word used by the prophet in his own time, "They shall mount up, they shall run, they shall go." It is because we do not constantly wait upon the Lord.(J. )Waiting upon GodAndrew Murray.One brother in the ministry asked me, "Is there not a danger of too great passivity?" It expresses a solid endurability such as belongs to a stiff piece of oak that never bends and never breaks under heavy pressure. Hast thou not known? Our utter impotence. Why not logically carry the idea further, and say that standing still is the sublimest consummation of the Divine life in many Even so. When the body is debilitated and needs to be strengthened, they spare no pains or expense to recover impaired health. The national life was restored, and that restoration of national life in the Jews is unique in the history of mankind; you cannot point to anything like it since man walked this earth, but it took place. At any rate he found in the matchless wing-power of the eagle a sublime image of an inspiring and God-seeking man. All things are possible to him that believeth. (2) In the subject, for the former strength is only in the outward, this in the inward man. That word "become," in the new version, is full of deep meaning in this connection. Our revisers have left this text exactly as, it stands in the A.V., "Mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and walk," and yet I do not think it is what the prophet meant. In short, it is a grace, just as much as the grace of faith, or love, or humility. Our Lord trusted to faith to subdue humanity. They are not. It is a power that is not your own, a power that comes from no earthly source, a supernatural power, power from on high which the prophet is here offering.(F. Holy joy is an element of strength. How is this renewing influence, then, to be obtained? So it is possible for the Christian to be moving on by a power that very soon expends itself, and by a process of exhaustion he falls back again under the gravitating influence of his evil tendencies. Halsey. L. Wiseman, B. A.But it is said the prophet gives us the natural order. Sweet childhood of eternal life! With a stronger stroke than the eagle's wing will he be able to beat the air and penetrate to the third heaven; he will run before the chariot of the king and get to the city sooner than the fleetest horses of which even the king of Israel can boast; like Asahell he shall be lissom of limb and light of foot; and when far in the trackless desert even the endurance of the camel gives out, shall the man of God hold on his way. Our task of spreading message of Christ to this area seems so impossible. Now those composite figures had subtle meanings. But how does He leave it? But while we cannot pass over such times and such experiences, it would be unhealthy to be dwelling upon them as if they were the whole of life. Wait for the power of the Holy Spirit every day. Tucker, B. A.I. We are not to spend all our time in rapturous contemplation. His intention is to comfort his people (40:1) - to promise a coming Messiah, to show man's frailty and mortality, and his bent . (3) But as only few can fly and only some can run, there are still some who can only walk. "These wait all upon Thee; that Thou mayest give them their meat in due season." For even before conversion there is a kind of strength which does appear, and that also in reference to religion, and the duties of it, but it is not such a strength as any are to rest themselves contented with. L. Wiseman, B. A.Mount up with wings as eagles, run, walk. 'Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. Impatience, too, weakens. This implies the recognition of God as the supreme Arbiter and Disposer of all human events. "They shall renew their strength." His largeness and clearness of view give corresponding elevation and decision to his character. Xl. To think that we are labouring in vain is the thought that paralyses. (3) Here is the swiftness and agility of the motion. Capacity for the most strenuous exertion. The quotation of Is. SPIRITUAL STRENGTH, HOW IS IT TO BE OBTAINED? 2. They will run nimbly enough after pleasure, wealth and fame, but not after the things which God bids them run after. Words occur which are quoted by St. Matthew and St. Mark (.. Recover impaired health worth much concessive clause in relation to Isaiah 40:31 and their strength '' (.. Be OBTAINED the inward man are not to spend all our time in contemplation! 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