Ephesians 6:10

Ephesians 6:10

Weakness.

I. To the Christian human nature is not a poor, but an infinitely grand, thing; something from which not a little, but everything, may be expected; something which was made in the image of God, was assumed and glorified by God's own Son, has been the tabernacle of untold heroisms and saintly sufferings, and shall in the end be "renewed in knowledge and majesty after the image of Him who created it." So grand a thing as this can never find safety in weakness. It is a poor toleration which first disparages the dignity, and then tolerates the shortcoming. No, if weakness leads to wrong-doing, it is wrong to be weak; and, in the language of the Gospel, all wrong-doing is sin against God.

II. Weakness can very often be traced to want of foresight. It is weakness to follow a bad example. Yes; but might not the crisis to which the weakness has proved unequal have been prevented by a little foresight? It is weakness, no doubt; but it is weakness which gives abundant warning of its presence. It might have been foreseen, and it might have been guarded against. And, again, there is that weakness which arises from unwillingness to face anything disagreeable.

III. Prayer, if earnest and persisted in, will most surely disclose to us sources of strength of which we should not otherwise have thought; it will show us those practical means of gaining strength which experience proves to be owned and blessed of God. Two of these I will refer to. (1) The first is the precise opposite of that fatal habit of which I spoke. It is the habit of notshrinking from what is disagreeable, the habit of facing a duty with alacrity and without delay. (2) And the second means is that of acquainting yourselves with the lives of God's greatest and holiest servants.

H. M. Butler, Harrow Sermons,2nd series, p. 106.

References: Ephesians 6:10. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty,vol. ii., p. 181; S. James, Church of England Pulpit,vol. xvii., p. 121; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,8th series, p. 246. Ephesians 6:10; Ephesians 6:11. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 209; Church of England Pulpit,vol. xviii., p. 277. Ephesians 6:10. J. Ellison, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xv., p. 305.Ephesians 6:10. H. W. Beecher, Ibid.,vol. xxviii., p. 212; Church of England Pulpit,vol. xx., p. 277. Ephesians 6:11. "Literary Churchman" Sermons,p. 1.Ephesians 6:11. H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiv.,p. 275.Ephesians 6:12. Church of England Pulpit,vol. vii., p. 79; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. i., p. 90; vol. v., p. 31.