them of Christ's grace and compassion, if they have fallen. Above all, we should deal with them humbly and meekly, remembering what we ourselves have gone through.
Well would it be for the Church of Christ, if Christians were more ready to good works of this kind ! There are only too many believers who in conference add nothing to their brethren. They seem to have no Saviour to tell of, and no story of grace to report. They chill the hearts of those they meet, rather than warm them. They weaken rather than strengthen. These things ought not so to be. The words of the apostle ought to sink down into our minds, "Having received mercy we faint not. We believe, and therefore we speak." (2 Cor. iv. 1, 13.) We learn, lastly, from these verses, that the servant of Christ ought to use all reasonable means in doing his Mas- ter's work. We read that our Lord said to His disciples, " He that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip ; and he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one."
It is safest to take these remarkable words in a prover- bial sense. They apply to the whole period of time between our Lord's first and second advents. Until our Ijord comes again, believers are to make a diligent use of all the faculties which God has implanted in them. They are not to expect miracles to be worked, in order to save them trouble. They are not to expect bread to fall into tlieir mouths, if they will not work for it. They are not to expect difficulties to be surmounted, and enemies to be overcome, if they will not wrestle, and struggle, and take pains. They are to remember that it is " the hand of tlxe diligent which maketh rich." (Prov. x. 4.)
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