its antagonism to Him. It was the sabbath following that on which He and His disciples had walked through the corn fields, and He entered what appears to have been the chief synagogue in the place, or the one to which He usually resorted; and as Luke informs us (chap. vi. 6.) "He taught the people," although Matthew and Mark are silent on that point. What gracious results were produced by His teaching, the Holy Spirit does not inform us. On the contrary, we are shown how, in the face of the preaching by God Incarnate, the human heart, instigated by the powers of darkness, could develop its worst propensities. And if so, why should the Saviour's heralds wonder when their testimony meets with contempt, and their persons with hatred? "It is enough that the disciple be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord." But most selfevident is the fact that, the greatest enmity towards Christ and His messengers has been exhibited by men "having the form of godliness." Human nature unstripped of its filthy rags, and wrapped up in an assumed righteousness, can never feel other than bitter enmity towards those who expose it. It was quite enough for the confusion of the Pharisees to be brought into close contact with that Holy One, Whose Divine simplicity in goodness formed so striking a contrast to their own guile and thinly-veiled hypocrisy; and an incident was ready, like a spark, to kindle the flame of malice within them.

Matthew says, "And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered," chap. xii. 10; and Luke (with whom Mark agrees) adds: "And the Scribes and Pharisees watched Him whether He would heal on the sabbath day," chap. vi. 7.

The "hand" throughout Scripture is the emblem of operative power. The hand "withered" therefore becomes the symbol of impotence. It cannot lay hold or make use of anything. And, spiritually—we say not, morally—this is true of all men. Spiritually -towards God, all is weakness and inability with fallen man, however morally-towards man, there may exist power to do many things-a power, nevertheless, for which man is indebted to the qualifying gifts (physical and mental) and providence of God. The vitalizing and invigorating sap has been dried up by original sin. The hand that once was free to do whatever man listed has lost its pristine vigour. It laid hold on the tree of knowledge of good and evil in Eden, but was not permitted while there, under the covenant

And

of works, to lay hold on the tree of life, Gen. iii. 22-24. Adam has transmitted his withered hand to each of his posterity. But who knows? who feels this? Only they whom the Spirit has quickened to spiritual life. Only they who, under fear of wrath, have striven to lay hold on Jehovah's mercy and promises in their own strength. Only they who have put forth every effort to believe and take the Lord at His word, and have utterly failed. No Arminianism can survive this ordeal. No duty faith can glory, when thus weighed in the balances and found wanting. The grand truth has to be submitted to that, not only the merits, but the gracestrength of Christ must be put forth on behalf of the utterly helpless one. And when will the dear Saviour afford His needed succour ? Will it be really on His holy day? Shall His resurrection power be glorified on the day that commemorates the auspicious event? No matter: it is always sabbath when Jesus works and blesses. It is the soul's peaceful resting time.

But there are watchers. There are those on the look-out who hate the Healer and have no compassion for the diseased. These are the false shepherds, the self-seeking pastors, who, from the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel until now, have the woe denounced against them for not strengthening the weak, nor binding up that which was broken. Heads of the people they may be, of those who are described as "the fat and the strong;" but they have no sympathy with him that has the withered arm. Their preaching proclaims that "God helps those that helps themselves." Vain is the hope of "him that is without power." Job xxvi. 2. Their exhortation bids the sinner take hold of Jesus and rejoice; they can only reprove those who assert their inability to do so.

Many are the allusions in the Psalms to watchful observers of the good mau; and most of them point to the treatment of the gracious Messiah. And as the Scribes and Pharisees with eager eyes beheld the man with the withered hand, they instantly revert to Him Whose fame as the compassionate and infallible Healer was known throughout all that region. And assuming a pious zeal, which served as a temporary mask for their deceit, they ventured to approach the Lord Jesus, and to ask Him, saying, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse Him," Matt. xii. 10. "But," says Luke, "He knew their thoughts and "-instead of directly answering them-He "said to the man which had the

withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst," Chap. vi. 8. Up to this time there does not appear to have been any expectation on the part of the afflicted one that he would be thus singled out for healing mercy. He was sitting with many others, listening to the life-eternal truths dropping from the lips of Him into Whom the Father had poured all His grace, and perhaps he was hoping he might yet share in the Saviour's beneficence. But suddenly he was aroused, and called to occupy a prominent position in the midst of friends and foes to illustrate the power and authority of the Lord Jesus. And well does this exemplify the way of the Lord still. Long afflicted, weary and spent, little imagining deliverance is so near, the Lord's people, bowed down with guilt and incapable of any spiritual work, are often thus suddenly brought into all the prominence of a gracious manifestation of sovereign mercy and healing power. From sitting in the dust of despondency they are aroused to stand forth as the witnesses of the Lord's "strength of salvation." The voice of the Beloved bids them "Rise up, and come away" from all that bound them in sorrow and silence before, and "or ever they are aware their souls are made as the chariots of Ammi-nadib." O wondrous voice! O irresistible call!" And he arose and stood forth." Obedient to Him who commanded him thus to act, the man serves well to exhibit the willingness of all the Saviour's redeemed in the day of His power. It is now His turn to question.

"Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thimg: Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life or to destroy it?" Luke vi. 9. Let it be remembered that it was stated just before that our Lord "knew their thoughts "—and those thoughts towards Himself were in the fullest intent those of murder. Could they have destroyed HIS life on the sabbath, "the end," as with our modern Jesuits, would have "sanctified the means," however evil in their nature. But, "Is it lawful," asks the Son of God, "to do good," in healing, or "to do evil," in seeking to accuse Him, without just cause, unto death by stoning? Were they resting from malice, and consequently from evil on the sabbath, while they condemned His activity in deeds of mercy on that day? But the Saviour presses them still closer. "And He said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and

lift it out ?" Dared they deny this? No, rigid Sabbatarians as they professed to be, they would serve their own interests by preserving a beast from destruction or injury, as an act of scripturally-approved humanity, while they loaded with obloquy the disinterested kindness of God Incarnate. But, added the Lord Jesus, "How much then is a man better than a sheep?"—one who has a soul, and especially one that is dear to the heart of everlasting love, and is waiting for the health-restoring grace of His salvation? Shall man be careful over the beasts that perish when they are his property, and shall not Jehovah care for His flock, yea, of each sheep and lamb pertaining to it, when it is not His will that one of the little ones should perish? "Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days," Matt. xii. 11, 12.

How cogent yet gentle was this remonstrating argument; but they who heard it "held their peace," Mark iii. 4, for their hearts were encased in steel, and their minds blinded with proud rage. The gracious Healer perceived this, for we are told He "looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts," ver. 5. Nor is this difficult to understand, or to reconcile with the Lord's fixed purposes concerning them. Whatever display of Nature's depravity appeared before the eyes of Christ, it could only affect His unspotted soul with anger and grief. As the sin-bearer of His people, He had to endure for them the penalty of all transgressions, and sin in every form was hateful and grievous to His immaculate purity.

Having surveyed the silent foes whose countenances proclaimed their pent-up malignity, the Lord Jesus addressed the afflicted man, saying, “Stretch forth thy hand. And he stretched it out; and his hand was restored whole as the other," Mark iii. 5. The deed was done-and on the Sabbath. The God-man had wrought a work in the fullest confidence of His Father's approbation; even as He said, "I do always those things that please Him." A needy recipient of merciful kindness had his heart gladdened by the healing bestowed, while the Pharisees "filled with madness," Luke vi. 11, "went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him," Mark iii. 6. It is thus Satan and his emissaries ever display their enmity against the work of God. Need the believer then wonder at the opposition he encounters from "the fiery darts of the devil," or men

robed in their own vain righteousness? Proving, like the man with the withered hand, that their own weakness and inability to do anything cannot prevent the Saviour working and reaching their case, their deliverance is beheld with mortified rage, and desperate hatred. Rather would carnal professors hear of No salvation, than that which is accomplished sovereignly, and in the Lord's time and way. But, eternal praise to the riches of grace! "surely His salvation is nigh them that fear Him; that glory may dwell in our land," Psa. lxxxv. 9. The withered hand that fain would lay hold on the Hope set before it in the Gospel, and touch the hem of that sacred garment of salvation and robe of righteousness, which send forth the infallible healing virtue, and provide a covering for the naked, that hand shall receive the desired power: for "He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him; He also will hear their cry, and will save them," Psa. cxlv. 19. And all is accomplished when the Saviour speaks. The Holy Spirit echoes His words with power people, and

in the hearts of His

"Gives them firmly to believe,

And to enter into rest."

No longer do they hesitate to accept the consolation of the Gospel; no longer are they staggered at the promises through unbelief. With delivered Hezekiah they can exclaim: "What shall I say? He hath both spoken unto me, and Himself hath done it." The voice of authority and empowering mercy has bid them "stretch forth the hand," and they with ease have been enabled to do so, and can now lay claim to all that God has laid up for them in Christ, and ratified as theirs experimentally by the witness of His spirit. "Lord increase our faith.” THE EDITOR.

THE POWER OF GRACE.*

Nov., 1840.

My dear Sister Jane, KNOW of no enjoyment comparable to that of solitary communion with our God; to converse with Him in the desert -this is enjoyment indeed, to freely seek from my Father and my Saviour all that I need. "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is: for he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out his roots by the river; and shall not see when heat cometh; but his leaf shall be * See page 183.