This promise implies help for our work, and not rest from our labour. We shall have _strength_ for the conflict. But "there is no discharge from the war." There is supply for real, not for imaginary, wants; for present, not for future, need. The healthful energy of the man of God is also supposed. He is alive in the way; his heart is set in it. This makes it practicable. What before was drudgery is now meat and drink. Indeed, the more godly we are, the more godly we shall be. The habit of grace increases by exercise. One step helps on the next. Thus was the way of the Lord strength to the upright Nicodemus. His first step was feebleness and fear. Walking onwards, he waxed stronger; standing up in the ungodly council, and ultimately the bold confessor of his Saviour when his self-confident disciples slunk back (John iii. 2, vii. 50, xix. 39). . . . Thus "the righteous shall hold on their way, going from strength to strength," strengthened in the Lord, and walking up and down in His name (Job xvii. 9; Psa. lxxxiv. 5-7; Zech. x. 12). . . . No such resources support the workers of iniquity. Captives instead of soldiers, they know no conflicts; they realize no need of strength.--_Bridges._ The way of the earth doth weary them that walk in it, and doth take away their strength: but _the way of the Lord is strength to the upright,_ so that the more they go _in_ it, the more able are they to go _on_ in it. Or else because he walketh in the ways of God's most gracious providence over him, and that must needs be a strength unto him. A strong staff, that is, to support him, a strong bulwark to defend him, a strong arm to fight for him. The angel, therefore, might well say to Gideon, "Thou mighty man of valour" when he had first said, "The Lord is with thee." But as the way of the Lord is upright the way of His gracious providence over them, so He hath another way for the _workers of iniquity,_ and that is the way of judgment.--_Jermin._ _Sin is man's destruction._ 1. Sin brings many evils upon man, from which, if he were virtuous, he would be totally free, such as a decayed body, a wounded conscience, a disconnected heart, vexation in the present, fear for the future. 2. Fear puts man out of condition to render tolerable those evils which he cannot avoid. He feels the burden of them in all their pressure because he is destitute of the supports of reliance and hope. He cannot perceive in his afflictions the hand of a father, but is forced to confess them the punishment of an offended sovereign. 3. Sin prevents man from the full enjoyment of the good which outweighs the evil in the world. The Christian finds pleasure in the works of creation, the methods of providence, in beneficence, in friendship, in domestic happiness. Sin deprives us of a taste for these pleasures by enervating the mind, by selfishness, by pride. 4. Sin incapacitates us for the state of pure and perfect happiness in the world to come.--_Zollikofer._