Psalms 43:2

Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

The secret of sadness

I. Is it because I am not really fighting against him? Am I doing my best, or only allowing religion to be a sentiment, a dream, and not a real stern battle?

II. Is it because I am only fighting a part of the enemy? Prince Rupert, at the battles of Edgehill and Marston Moor, was utterly defeated because he concentrated all his strength on one wing of the enemy, heedless of the other. So is it often with Christians.

III. Is it because I am fighting too exclusively my own battle? When cholera threatens, men look to the sanitary conditions, not of their own house merely, but of the neighbourhood round. Christians, too, often think only of their own souls and not of others.

IV. Is it because I am fighting too much in my own strength? The late Isaac Taylor, the engraver, was a very holy but a very poor man, and had much to try him; it was his wont to retire for an hour each day for communion with God. So he won, and so must we win, spiritual victory. (Joseph Ogle.)