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At their wit's

end.

Then they cry unto the Lord. —

"At their wit's end": — Nothing is more certain, or calls for more grateful acknowledgment, than the ready and merciful interpositions of God in our seasons of exceptional weakness and need. Nothing, perhaps, of a romantic kind attached to the circumstances in which we were placed; it was in the routine of trade rather than amid the excitements of travel; in the safe places of life, and not among gloomy cells or staggering ships, when, face to face with a yet very authentic extremity, we "cried unto the Lord, and He delivered us out of our distresses:" It is human to "cry aloud" to God when we feel ourselves in the hands of forces we cannot control, when resource of power or of knowledge is exhausted. But when men practically only "cry unto the Lord" in moments such as these; when they only claim the friendship and help of God when all else has failed; when these words set forth an habitual state, "At their wit's end, then —!" well, I will put the matter mildly, and say, this is serious. This is to reduce the Divine friendship to the low level of a mere selfish convenience, and, on the whole, to be rather more dishonourable before God than we would like to be before our fellow-man. The great mistake lies in supposing — and, indeed, sometimes in actually teaching — that our need of God is greatest in the critical moment of our lives. We are supposed to be fairly equal to the ordinary strain, or that the ordinary strain is in some way provided for. It is in the great trials we think, as their merciless grasp fastens round us, that we stand in direst need of Divine assistance. Thus we say to men, "How will you do when sickness overtakes you? If your child should die, or you yourself be called upon to step down into the valley, how will you do without God then?" Badly enough, I should say. But can there be any question that it is not at such times we are tempted to forget God? In a passionate crisis the problem solves itself. It is in the common uneventful days, in the regular routine of daily life, amid faces, and scenes, and duties familiar to us as the light of the morning, it is here that the real difficulty lies. There is no question about crying to God "out of the depths." It is not in the "depths," it is in the long level flats that most men's danger lies.

(J. Thew.)

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KJV: They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;

WEB: Those who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters;