these against a giant almost twice his height and years, and armed to the
teeth? Yet the ruddy-faced stripling had something better yet along with
his sling and stones and skill. He had a simple trust in God. He had a hot
protest in his heart against the slandering of God's people by this
heathen giant. He _combined_ all he had, sling, stones, skill, and faith,
and the laughing, sneering giant is soon under his feet, and feeling the
edge of his own sword. "Let down your nets." Use what you have.

There was a woman living down by the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea a
good while ago. Her heart had been touched by God, and ever after beat
warm for others. But what could _she_ do? She couldn't make speeches, nor
write papers for the missionary society, nor preside over its meetings.
She seemed to have one special gift. She could sew. She could do plain
sewing and overcast, cross-stitch and hem-stitch. I suppose she knew the
herring-bone-stitch and feather-stitch, and other sorts too.

And so she just busied herself finding out poor folks who needed clothing,
some women too hard-worked to care for their children's clothing. And she
sewed for them. She was a seamstress for Jesus' sake to all the needy
folks she could find. I expect she stuck pretty closely to the plain
stitching, though likely as not she would put in some of the fancy too to
please the people she was winning to her Master.

And she sewed the story of Jesus, and the heart of Jesus, into coats and
skirts and such. All through Joppa her message went into homes not
otherwise open perhaps. And the women read the story of her heart in the
stitches and they found Jesus through her needle. She used what she had.
And the women of the church have rightly honored her name in their
societies.

But mark keenly this: while using to the full, and faithfully, just what
you have, there must needs be utter dependence upon God. Not what you
have, nor what you can do, but Somebody _in_ what you have, and _through_
what you do. Notice, "Their nets were _breaking_." They were to use their
nets, but the power was somewhere else. As we are made up, there
frequently needs to be a breaking before the glory of God is revealed. It
need not be so, necessarily.

Yet as a matter of fact most people have to stub their toes and then go
stumbling down with a clash, measuring their length on the earth, and
getting some scars that stay before they can be mightily used. So many
strong wi