It is not an uncommon thing to meet with persons who really hope that they are delivered from the imputation of sin, and therefore free from the bondage of the law, who still feel the greatest difficulty in their progress in a Christian life. They really hope that a great change has taken place. They are in a very different position to what they once were. But still they cannot get on. It appears as if there was a barrier they could not pass. Their way is blocked by some besetting sin which they cannot overcome, and they are sometimes almost tempted to say that it was better with them before they began their struggle. Such a temptation is very wrong; but there is nothing new in it, for it is just what Israel felt when they found their way blocked by the Red Sea. They then said (chap, xiv. 12), ‘It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’ They had been set free, but progress appeared impossible. Now let any one who thinks his own progress impossible look well at these facts. It was perfectly true that those people were hopelessly hedged in between the sea and Pharaoh’s host. There was nothing that they could do to overcome their difficulty. But Jehovah had promised, ‘I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm,’ and the result was that when Moses stretched forth his rod, the sea itself opened to let them pass. Some excellent persons have endeavoured to explain this by supposing some remarkable combination of wind and tide. But we do not want the help of such explanations. It is better to accept it at once as a miracle that cannot be explained, a miracle wrought out by the strong arm of the Redeemer. And, remember, that it is the same strong arm which can deliver the very weakest amongst us from the greatest difficulties which ever yet beset the path of the Christian. You say, ‘I cannot,’ but He says, ‘_I_ can.’ You say, ‘I have tried; and it is impossible.’ He says, ‘With God nothing is impossible.’ Never, therefore, again must you say, ‘It cannot be.’ If the Lord has set you free from the dreadful yoke of imputed sin; if the Redeemer Himself is leading you to the promised land, remember that your ‘Redeemer is strong, the Lord of Hosts is His name;’ and whatever be your practical, personal, peculiar difficulty, He is just as well able to overcome it as He was to divide the Red Sea: so that, trusting Him you may be delivered as Israel was delivered, and be enabled, with a thankful heart to say, ‘Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people whom thou hast redeemed.’ * * * * *