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I. THEIR PREVALENCE. Ebbs and tides of feeling are common to all life, good or bad. Religious moods are as frequent, as uncertain, and as unmanageable as any other moods, and under given conditions are absolutely beyond our control. To force ourselves up into a high state of spiritual feeling is a matter we can't always do. Important occasions do not always find us with the necessary power, however we may have laboured for it. There is spring and summer, autumn and winter, in nature; in fact, everything in nature suggests that we must have our pauses and rests, that it is impossible to continue in one strain of thought or action without cessation or change. Beware of passing sweeping condemnations on yourself, or on others, in moments of spiritual dearth.

II. THE GENERAL CAUSES OF RELIGIOUS FLUCTUATION.

1. Take the constitutional.

(1) To begin with the physical. Any defect in the vital digestive organs will change the whole course of a man's religious life. His variations, unaccountable tossings and reelings and fitfulnesses, are in very many cases the result entirely of some physical infirmity.

(2) Or it may be mental. It is wonderful how our emotions and susceptibilities are bound up with our intellectual nature. It is the brain, the bodily organism, that gives identity, distinction, character to all our life. In one sense the material is simply an instrument of the spiritual nature; but in another, and a very important sense, it is the ruling and dominating element, as far as our emotions, feelings, and experience are concerned — the spiritual taking all its complexion from the material. The wavering that may be seen in one, when another is prompt to act, is just because the intellect very frequently keeps the will in restraint. Some people act on impulse, not on reason, on probabilities that a sound and vigorous mind would not dare to trust.

(3) But again, our experience varies a good deal from another point of constitutional infirmity, and that is the moral point of view. One of the great mysteries of life is the inequalities of moral perceptions that are found in the world, irrespective of the grace of God. One man's natural tendencies all lie towards sin; and right feeling and right doing is a perpetual conflict. No wonder if he is often overwhelmed with despair.

2. Providential, i.e. causes beyond our own control, not set in motion by our wish or desire, or by our negligence — and of all the heroes mentioned in the Bible, none suffered more in this respect than Job. When Providence inflicts wounds, sends you sorrow, don't dream your heaviness of soul is an indication of a faithless heart. God is testing, sifting you. Have faith; all is well; grace is not yielding to sin. When it must be winter in your soul don't you try to make it summer. "Whom the Lord loveth He," etc.

3. Characteristic. And —

(1) amongst these is an inordinate expectation of assistance from others, which in some people amounts to nothing more nor less than a radical misconception of what religion really is. If life is to be great, noble, blessed, it must grow out of sacred independence. Religious feeling, growth, power, are not developed by the caresses and fondnesses of our friends. Your own resources are better than all other resources put together, of whatever kind or nature. Until you can get the nature of the sturdy oak, that welcomes alike the cold of winter and the piercing heat of summer, you will be in a fluctuating condition all the days of your life. Like a weather glass, as far as spiritual things are concerned.

(2) A characteristic cause of our rising and falling religious life is this, depending too much upon the efficacy of spasmodic effort.

4. The vital or radical causes, which, after all, are the real causes. They are(1) The attempt to be religious without the religious principle; the attempt to lead a new life without a new nature, very much prevailing now, but with very fatal consequences. Lives these full of secret sin.

(2) Is the case where there has been a genuine conversion, but where the fire has burnt out, and there is nothing left but the form of godliness, and not the power.

(3) Is the case where there is a real connection with the life of God, but so feeble and fitful, that the believer is tossed about by every wind and doctrine.

III. THE REMEDY for this inconstancy, this fluctuation.

1. Give yourself up to a very frequent and searching self-examination before God.

2. You must be more faithful in the details of your religious life. Little things grow to big things.

3. You must be more constant in your attendance upon the means of grace, more particularly the special ordinances of God's house; but —

4. High and supreme above every other precaution and remedy, you must ever keep your heart open to the light of heaven and the grace of God; and then, whatever may be your hindrances, your drawbacks, your constitutional infirmity, or your spiritual afflictions, they shall all yield to the strength of your faith in God.

(T. E. Westerdale.)

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KJV: Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;

WEB: "Oh that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me;