Let
one be spoken, and at once the mission is executed. And so it is. "The
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." His words
are vehicles of power, and when they are spoken, miracles are always
wrought. "The entrance of Thy word giveth light."

SEPTEMBER The Fifth

_FAITH AND RIDICULE_

MATTHEW ix. 18-26.

And, so one man's faith is more than a match for many people's scorn. The
steady trust of the ruler was not shaken by the rude flippancy of the
artificial mourners, and his daughter was brought from the dead. "This is
the victory that overcometh, even our faith." Everything bows, like
fragile reeds, before the march of a victorious faith. Scorn, and hatred,
and all manner of devilry, and death itself, all lose their power in the
presence of a belief which remains steady and steadfast. "Said I not unto
thee that, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God?"

And what an infinite reservoir of power is waiting to be tapped by the
hand of faith! A ruler believes and his daughter is vitalized. A poor
woman, bent and broken, reaches out her thin, frail hand, and lo! she is
erect and graceful as the pine! And "my sufficiency is of God!" All that I
may need is in the same wonderful reservoir of grace. That healing flood
is like the ocean fulness, and it will fill every bay, and cove, and creek
in the wide-stretching shore of human need.

"The healing of His seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain,
We touch Him in life's throng and press,
And we are whole again."

SEPTEMBER The Sixth

_CONTEMPTUOUS WORDS_

MATTHEW xv. 21-28.

I wonder if this word "dogs" was my Saviour's word, or had He picked it up
from the disciples that He might cast it away again for ever? Did He use
it that He might reveal its ugliness, and so banish it from human speech?
As Jesus and His disciples came along the road the Master walked before
them. "And behold, a Canaanitish woman came out from those borders!" And
the disciples whispered to one another, "Here comes one of the dogs!" And
the Master overheard it, and His tender spirit grieved. And there and then
He resolved to help the woman and at the same time cleanse the men.

Is there not therefore something half-ironical in our Saviour's use of the
word? When He spake of the woman as a "dog," and of the disciples as "the
children," would there not be something significant in His very looks and
tones? These cold,