Hopelessness.
"There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous." Nothing can be more distressing than the consciousness of powerlessness in the presence of the deepest human need; to witness from the seashore the wreck, and to be utterly unable to save the shipwrecked mariners; to be sure that some one is in the burning edifice, and yet for it to be impossible to reach him and to bring him out; to stand before an audience alarmed by some needless cry, and to see the rush towards the doors, and to be unequal to checking it; or even to be by the bedside of one in life's youth or manhood's prime, and to hear that disease has, humanly speaking, prematurely seized its victim, and that medical help cannot cure, but only, and that for a time, alleviate. This position is occupied by many an earnest-hearted worker for God and the good of souls, in relation to the moral salvation of men. Nahum sustained it in reference to the Ninevites. He saw in them a people wrecked through the adverse winds and tempests of evil, consumed by the fires of unholy passion, on the mad rush to ruin and death, diseased through and through so that recovery was impossible; and hence, unable to heal, he cried in the sadness of his heart, "There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous" (verse 19). So Isaiah said, "Ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick," etc. (Isaiah 50:5, Isaiah 50:6). So still. Note—
I. THIS STATE OF MORAL HOPELESSNESS IS NOT REACHED ALL AT ONCE, BUT IS BROUGHT ABOUT BY DEGREES.
II. IT IS NOT BROUGHT TO PASS THROUGH DIVINE HELP AND STRENGTH BEING UNAVAILABLE.
III. IT CANNOT BE EXCUSED ON THE GROUND OF THERE BEING A LACK OF WARNINGS AND EXPOSTULATIONS.
IV. IT IS ENTIRELY SELF-CAUSED; THE TRANSGRESSOR BRINGS HIMSELF INTO THIS STATE OF HOPELESSNESS; THE SINNER IS HIS OWN DESTROYER. "Take heed lest ye be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Hebrews 3:12, Hebrews 3:13).—S.D.H.