the
northern part of the country, and all these wonderful things were
transpiring.

The Pharisees and doctors of the law had come to Capernaum to look
into the reports that were spread abroad. The house where they were
gathered was filled to overflowing, and these wise men were listening
to the Savior's teaching. Many of them hardly believed a word that He
said. It may be there were some believing ones among these wise men.
Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea may have been there: if so, they
were not yet known as disciples of Jesus.

The writer of the Gospel says: "The power of the Lord was present to
heal them." We are not told, however, that one of them was healed. So
it is very often now. The power of the Lord may be present to heal in
these gatherings; yet many will come and go, wondering what it all
means, and without being healed of their spiritual diseases. What we
need is to have the power of God in our midst.

A man came into one of our meetings in London. He got into a part of
the hall where he could not hear a word of what was spoken or sung; he
could not even hear the text or the portion of Scripture that was
read. There he had to sit through the service, so to speak, shut up
alone with himself. A little while after he told some one that as he
sat there God had revealed Himself to him, and spoken peace to his
soul. There is such a thing as the power of God being present to heal,
though men may not hear the voice of their fellowman.

These four men were real workers. They were worth more than a houseful
of these Pharisees and doctors of the law who came merely to criticise
and look on. I do not know who the four men were, but I have always
had a great admiration for them. It may be one of them had been blind
and the Lord had given him his sight. The other may have been lame
from his birth; when the Master restored him to strength, he thought
he would like to use it in bringing some one else to be healed. The
third man may have been a cured leper, and he wished to help in
getting some other afflicted one cured. Perhaps this palsied man was
his next-door neighbor. The fourth man, it may be, had been deaf and
dumb, and he thought he would employ his hearing and his speech in
helping some one else. These four young converts said to themselves:
"Let us bring our sick neighbor to Christ." The palsied man may have
said he had no faith in Christ. But these four friends told him how
they had been cured, and if the