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"Weakness." How expressive, how suggestive, is that word to many. What memories it may awaken of anxious times in the history of souls and bodies! It may recall to some of us long days of dangerous sickness, their own or another's. To some it will speak of experiences, not less marked, of failing heart and discouraged resolution, in spiritual conflicts; times when, in the face of difficulties and trials to which they felt themselves unequal, they have had at the same moment no clear perception of any such power unseen as could turn the scale in favour of escape or victory. There is, indeed, no sense of the word, and no part of our being, in which the text has not again and again been verified — "By faith, out of weakness, they were made strong."

1. It has been exemplified, in every age, apart from all fancy and all fanaticism, in the body. There are cases on record in medical history, in which the perfect peace of a soul entirely prepared for either alternative has actually arrested the march of disease, and made the patient literally out of weakness strong. There are cases on record in which it has been said by the physician to the sufferer, desirous to depart and to be with Christ, "Sir, in this state of joyous anticipation you cannot die." But while we believe that there is a true sense of the words in reference to the restoration of bodily health, we read them with even more pleasure in other applications — still in the region of the body — of which none can challenge the certainty or the consolation. For example, there are persons marked from infancy to old age with this sign alone of disease or mortality, that they are "weak" — "without strength." There are those whose days and years are divided between the positive seclusion of the chamber and the comparative seclusion of the home. The life so truly described as that of an "invalid" — in other words, of one without strength — makes a very peculiar demand upon the faith and patience of the sufferer. Natural good sense, conscious or unconscious self-interest, the mere habit of suffering, may do something to check murmuring, to teach silence, even to induce resignation and self-control; but there is a grace beyond these, which is the gift of Christ alone — by virtue of which the negative passes into the positive, making the physical weakness spiritual strength, and the home of the invalid a very "house of God" to inmates and visitants taught (as St. Peter says) "without the word" by the mere "conversation," that is, the tone and spirit and demeanour, of the sufferer.

2. We pass, by no violent transition, to a weakness, not physical, but mental, and would say a word upon cases in which an intellectual inferiority has been strengthened by a Divine power into a robustness not natural to it. We can recall companions of our boyhood who have done nothing, as the phrase is, in the world. They were regarded with admiration in that young community, in which gift is everything and attainment nothing; in which facility is the idol, and toil a synonym for dulness. Side by side with this unfulfilled hope and this broken promise, we place a career opposite to it in each particular — alike in the poverty of the expectation and in the richness of the result. Diligence, earnestness, perseverance, have won the day, and the saying, "Out of weakness were made strong," has received its fulfilment even before we pass entirely out of the region of man and the world. How much more when we bring God in — when we think of a case in which a true turning of the heart, a resolute faith in Christ, and a humble looking in all things to the present help of the Holy Spirit, has changed the barrenness of nature and of the Fall into the blessed harvest of grace and the gospel.

3. But if in all these ways the text has had its fulfilment — in the body, in the mind, which God the Creator has fashioned in His wisdom, has endowed out of His fulness, yet could not — the one thing He cannot do — create into independence of Himself; how much more is it witnessed in the spirit; in that part of the man, which is capable of communion with God, of action for God, but which, above even the two other, bears the impress of the defectibility, of the weakness, of the corruption of the Fall. I cannot doubt that there are persons who feel that the word "weakness" is the true description of their present spiritual state. The sense of duty is in them — but how to perform that which is good they find not. The "weakness" which they deplore is a weakness of will; they would be Christians indeed, and they cannot; they would be servants of God, and they find themselves, on the contrary, the servants of sin. Is there yet hope for this despair — strength for this weakness? When St. Paul asks, "Who shall deliver me?" he is able to answer, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And the text says, "Out of weakness were made strong." By the strong motive of the Cross and Passion, drawing us to God "with cords of a man, with bands of love" — by the mighty power of His Holy Spirit, actually giving the strength which is obedience — thus is the work done. Thus St. Paul found himself emancipated, quickened, transformed. Thus all who in any age have given themselves, like him, to the seeking, have found, have attained, have conquered. The words are sweet, are attractive, are strong. But let us not rest in the words — let us press onward to the thing signified. "Out of weakness were made strong." Think with yourselves, each one, where and what is your weakness? Is it in some duty which flesh shrinks from? Is it in some affection, not lawful, or not moderate, or not compatible with the supreme Love? Is it in the difficulty of prayer — the heart flying back from the work of seeking and grasping and communing with the Invisible? Is it in some revelation which you cannot receive — something in the ways or in the works or in the will of God, which contradicts your present idea of the just, the wise, or the good? Bring that particular weakness to God in Christ for His strengthening. Delay not, dally not, try not again and again the miserable, the hopeless experiment of your own strength, your own will, your own endeavour. Come as weak, and be thou strong!

(Dean Vaughan.)

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KJV: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

WEB: who, through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,