it and life enter us through the light they
contain. Let us look at one or two with a view to find what spirit and
life we can: One Sabbath day Jesus met a man in a Jewish house of
worship, called a synagogue, whose right hand was WITHERED. Notice,
the man's hand was withered. This means that it was dead, just as we
mean that a plant is dead when it is withered, or so nearly dead that
its life is almost gone. This man's hand must have been powerless. He
could not use it to do anything; and it was his right hand. He could
not move a joint of it. It was simply powerless.

But notice particularly what Jesus commanded him to do. He said to
this very man: "Stretch forth thy hand." Does not that look like an
unreasonable command? The man might have plausibly said: "I cannot do
this. I have not been able to reach my hand to my mouth in the past
year. I can not do as you tell me." But instead of urging objections
he instantly obeyed, for the words, "Stretch forth thy hand," were not
more than out of the Lord's mouth when we read, "And he did so: and
his hand was restored whole as the other." Now I ask, Did this man
have any part to act, or duty to perform in this miracle of healing? I
answer, He did; and without his obedient cooeperation his hand would
have been left dangling powerless at his side.

Is there not a lesson here? Let us try to gather crumbs of instruction
from it. If you take your Bible and concordance, and hunt up the
places where the expression "right hand" is used, you will plainly see
that "right hand," when spoken of as the "right hand" of God, means
_power_, the power of God. As applying to man, it means the same, the
_power_ of man. In this sense the right hand of every unconverted man
and woman is _withered_ under the blighting curse of sin. But Jesus is
present to heal. He is ever ready to heal all who have need of healing
now, just as truly as when he was visibly among men. But he cannot
heal you without your willing consent to obey his commands. He first
of all commands you to repent, for now "God commandeth all men
everywhere to repent." The moment you are willing to obey this
command, that moment he will give you the power to obey. Without aid
from the power of the Lord that man never could have stretched forth
his withered hand; but the instant he was willing to obey, that very
instant he received the power to obey.

Again he says: "Give me thy heart." But your heart is all withered
too. It is so