HE miracle done in the body is purposed to be a symbol of a grander miracle to be wrought in the soul. “That ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, then saith He...!” He heals the paralyzed body that we may know what He can do with a paralyzed soul. He liberates the man who is bound by palsy that we may know what He can do for a man who is bound by guilt. We are to reason from the less to the greater, from the material type to the spiritual reality.
And so it is with all my Lord’s doings in nature. They are a glorious symbolism of what He will do in the spirit. “That ye may know how beautiful the Son of Man can make the heart of man, then saith He to the seeds of the spring-time, Come forth!” And so nature becomes a literature, in which we see our possible inheritance in the Spirit.
But on our side it is all conditioned by faith. “There He could do no mighty works because of their unbelief.” Even in the miracles of the Spirit our faith must co-operate. Divine grace and human faith can transfigure the race. “Lord, increase our faith!” And everywhere, let palsied souls be delivered, and attain to glorious freedom!
AUGUST The Fifteenth
WITHERED LIMBS
Mark iii. 1-8.
HERE are withered limbs of the spirit as well as of the body. There are faculties and powers which are wasting away, sacred endowments which have lost their vital circulation. In some lives the will is a withered limb. In others it is the conscience. In others, again, it is the affections. These splendid moral and spiritual powers are being dried up, and they hang comparatively limp and useless in the life. They have been withered by sin and sinful negligence.