the harbour. They have no settled moral home.

My Lord, help me to regard all good things as merely passages leading to
Thee! Let all good things bring me into intimate fellowship with Thee.

AUGUST The Fourteenth

_THE PARALYSIS OF THE SOUL_

LUKE v. 17-26.

The 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.

There 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.

And the Lord is the healer of withered limbs. He can deal with imprisoned
affections as the warm spring deals with the river which has been locked
in ice. He can minister to a stricken will, and make it as a benumbed hand
when the circulation has been restored. He can give it grip and tenacity.
And so with all our powers. He, who is the Life, can vitalize all!

But here again the remnant of our withered endowment must be used in the
healing. We must surrender to the Healer. We m