have taken the first step
to strength; just as, when we know ourselves sinners, we have taken the
first step to righteousness; just as in all regions the recognition of
the doleful fact of our human necessity is the beginning of the joyful
confidence in the glad, triumphant fact of the divine fulness. All our
hollownesses, if I may so say, are met with His fulness that fits into
them. It only needs that a man be aware of that which he is, and then
turn himself to Him who is all that he is not, and then into his empty
being will flow rejoicing the whole fulness of God. 'My strength is made
perfect in weakness.'

III. Lastly, mark the calm final acquiescence in the loving necessity of
continued sorrow. 'Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my
infirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon me.' The will is
entirely harmonised with Christ's. The Apostle begins with instinctive
shrinking, he passes onwards to a perception of the purpose of his trial
and of the sustaining grace; and he comes now to acquiescence which is
not passivity, but glad triumph. He is more than submissive, he gladly
glories in his infirmity in order that the power of Christ may 'spread a
tabernacle over' him. 'It is good for me that I have been afflicted,'
said the old prophet. Paul says, in a yet higher note of concord with
God's will, 'I am glad that I sorrow. I rejoice in weakness, because it
makes it easier for me to cling, and, clinging, I am strong, and
conquer evil.' Far better is it that the sting of our sorrow should be
taken away, by our having learned what it is for, and having bowed to
it, than that it should be taken away by the external removal which we
sometimes long for. A grief, a trial, an incapacity, a limitation, a
weakness, which we use as a means of deepening our sense of dependence
upon Him, is a blessing, and not a sorrow. And if we would only go out
into the world trying to interpret its events in the spirit of this
great text, we should less frequently wonder and weep over what
sometimes seem to us the insoluble mysteries of the sorrows of ourselves
and of other men. They are all intended to make it more easy for us to
realise our utter hanging upon Him, and so to open our hearts to receive
more fully the quickening influences of His omnipotent and
self-sufficing grace.

Here, then, is a lesson for those who have to carry some cross and know
they must carry it throughout life. It will be wreathed with flowers if