mission for one to observe
his anniversary each year and to give a testimony. Whenever the
anniversary of this man occurred he always had another read his lesson,
then he would stand before the people bowed down as he had been in sin
and suddenly rise before them in the full dignity of his Christian
manhood, glorifying God in his standing. This was like the woman of
the text, and oh, that it might be like some one reading this who,
bound by an appetite or a passion, shall be set free by the power of
God!

The difference between this woman in the one case bound and wretched
and in the other straight and glorifying God is the difference between
Christians bound by appetite, pride or sin and when set free by the
power of Christ. It is the difference between the average Christian
experience and what God means we should be.

Two things this woman had--first, his word, when he said, "Woman, thou
art loosed"; and, second, the touch of his hand as he laid his hands
upon her. Both of these privileges we may have.

II

Have you really taken all that God meant you should have? Your life is
the test of this question. If you are constantly failing at the same
point, if you are dominated by a spirit of unrest, if you are lacking
in spiritual power, something is wrong and you need the touch of the
living Christ. The early disciples were an illustration of those of us
who have not yet fully appreciated and appropriated our Savior. He had
given them life, for in the seventeenth of John he declares that this
is true. They had peace as a possession, for in the fourteenth chapter
and twenty-seventh verse he says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I
give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." They also had joy as a
gift, for he said, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy
might remain in you, and that your joy might be full"; and yet they
quarreled among themselves, one of them denied him with an oath, and
all of them forsook him. They were a weak, vacillating company of men,
but suddenly there came a remarkable change. It was as if there had
been two Peters. The first was a coward, the second a perfect giant in
his fearlessness. The first was afraid of a little girl, the second
faced a mob and fearlessly proclaimed the truth of God that condemned
him; and the secret of this change is found in the fact that the Holy
Ghost had fallen upon