"way" also "strength to the upright." If a seaman has faith in his captain, this gives him strength for his duty even in the roughest weather. He feels that he is not altogether left to the mercy of the blind elements, but that there is a strong and wise will guiding the ship. So confidence in an All-wise Father, in a King who "can do no wrong," is the stronghold of the upright amidst all the apparent contradictions and mysteries of life. He knows who is at the wheel of all human affairs, that "When He folds the cloud about Him, Firm within it stands His throne;" and the knowledge that "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all," makes what would otherwise overwhelm him in Doubt, and consequently in weakness, a source of strength, a power of life. But where God is not known, this confidence is absent, and nothing but chance, or an arbitrary Judge, sits upon the throne of the Universe. The terrible perplexities of life are like the rings of the wheels in Ezekiel's vision, "so high that they are dreadful," and, as such a man does not discern above them the "man upon the throne" (Ezek. i. 18-20), they are to him only mighty and resistless engines of destruction. 3. _Of Jehovah's way of grace._ The upright man has gained his strength to be upright from the way of Divine forgiveness. Even a child feels stronger when assured of his father's restored favour, and the forgiveness of God sets a man upon his feet and gives him that "joy of the Lord" which is "strength" (Neh. viii. 10). Unforgiven sin breaks the bones of the soul. "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old," but "I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." "Make me to hear joy and gladness: that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities" (Psa. xxxii. 3-5, li. 8, 9). And he gains strength to continue in the way of uprightness by communion with an unseen Saviour, by the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost. Christ is "the power of an endless life" to all who believe in Him (Heb. vii. 16). This is the "_way_" or _law_ of the kingdom of grace. "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name" (John i. 12). But to those who reject the way of grace, this "righteousness of God" (Rom. iii. 22), this "way of salvation," becomes a power of destruction; that which was ordained to be a "savour of life" becomes a "savour of death." Christ crucified is a stumbling-block and foolishness to such (1 Cor. i. 23). "Whosoever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder" (Matt. xxi. 44). The way of Jehovah is in no instance the _cause_ of the destruction of the wicked but it must be the _occasion._ The words and works of Christ were the _occasion_ but not the _cause_ of the great national sin of the Jewish nation. "If I had not come and