This is the law by which men are loosed from the bonds of sin, "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them" (2 Cor. v. 19). This is Jehovah's "way of salvation." +II. The opposite effects of the Divine way upon opposite characters.+ "The way of the Lord is _strength_ to the upright, but _destruction_ to the workers of iniquity" (see Critical Notes). All men who are not numbered with the "upright," whose moral nature has not been lifted up by contact with the Divine, are "workers of iniquity." Dr. David Thomas says of iniquity, "The word is negative--the want of equity. Men will be damned not merely for doing wrong, but for not doing the right" (see "The Practical Philosopher," p. 132). We take the words therefore to signify the two great classes into which Christ divides the world, "He that believeth and he that believeth not" (John iii. 18), and consider the different effect upon these two opposite characters of--1. _Jehovah's way of nature._ To the upright there comes strength from the contemplation of God as revealed in His material works. He feels that God is a necessity to account for what he sees around him. All created things speak to him of the wisdom, the power, and the goodness of their Maker and Upholder, and his faith is strengthened by this manifestation of "the way of the Lord." He obeys the injunction of the prophet, "_Lift up your eyes on high and behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number; He callest them all by names, by the greatness of His might, for He is strong in power, not one faileth._" And thence he draws the prophet's argument, "_That the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary,_" that "_He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength,_" and in thus "_waiting upon the Lord_" he "_renews his strength,_" he "_runs and is not weary, he walks and does not faint_" (Isa. xl. 26-31). But how different is the effect of the works of nature, when the God of nature is not acknowledged. They harden men in materialism, God's own laws are used to bow Him out of His own universe, and their working becomes so many forces of destruction because they drive men further from their only hope and help. As Paul tells us, such men "_hold_ (back) _the truth in_ (or, by) _unrighteousness, because that which may be known of God is manifest in_ (or, to) _them; for God hath showed it to them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His Eternal Power and Godhead._" But, "_professing themselves wise, they became fools, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator_" (see Rom. i. 18-32). This is destruction to any man. 2. _Of Jehovah's way of providence._ Faith in a personal God, in a Divine Saviour, makes this