e was so planned for Him in
heaven and was so followed out and fulfilled by Him on earth, that, to
take up the metaphor again, He actually tried every crutch and every
staff with His own hands and with His own armpits; He actually leaned
again and again His own whole weight upon every several one of them.
Every single promise, the most unlikely for Him to lean upon and to
plead, yet, be sure of it, He somehow made experiment upon them all, and
made sure that there was sufficient and serviceable grace within and
under every one of them. So that, Mr. Ready-to-halt, there is no
possible staff you can take into your hand that has not already been in
the hand of your Lord. Think of that, O Mr. Ready-to-halt! Reverence,
then, and almost worship thy staff! Throw all thy weight upon thy staff.
Confide all thy weakness to it. Talk to it as thou walkest with it. Make
it talk to thee. Worm out of it all its secrets about its first Owner.
And let it instruct thee about how He walked with it and how He handled
it. The Bible is very bold with its Master. It calls Him by the most
startling names sometimes. There is no name that a penitent and a
returning sinner goes by that the Bible does not put somewhere upon the
sinner's Saviour. And in one place it as good as calls Him Ready-to-halt
in as many words. Nay, it lets us see Him halting altogether for a time;
ay, oftener than once; and only taking the road again, when a still
stronger staff was put into his trembling hand. And if John had but had
room in his crowded gospel he would have given us the very identical
psalm with which our Lord took to the upward way again, strong in His new
staff. "For I am ready to halt," was His psalm in the house of His
pilgrimage, "and My sorrow is continually before Me. Mine enemies are
lively, and they are strong; and they that hate Me wrongfully are
multiplied. They also that render evil for good are Mine adversaries;
because I follow the thing that good is. Forsake Me not, O Lord; O My
God, be not far from Me. Make haste to help Me, O Lord My salvation."

3. Among all the devout and beautiful fables of the "dispensation of
paganism," there is nothing finer than the fable of blind Tiresias and
his staff. By some sad calamity this old prophet had lost the sight of
his eyes, and to compensate their servant for that great loss the gods
endowed him with a staff with eyes. As Aaron's rod budded before the
testimony and bloomed blossom