Morning, September 7
Go To Evening Reading
“And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered
the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down
the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.”
Mark 2:4
Faith is full of inventions . The house was full, a crowd blocked up the door, but faith found
a way of getting at the Lord and placing the palsied man before him.
If we cannot get sinners where Jesus is by ordinary methods we must
use extraordinary ones. It seems, according to Luke 5:19 , that a tiling had to be removed, which would make dust and cause
a measure of danger to those below, but where the case is very urgent
we must not mind running some risks and shocking some proprieties.
Jesus was there to heal, and therefore fall what might, faith ventured
all so that her poor paralysed charge might have his sins forgiven.
O that we had more daring faith among us! Cannot we, dear reader,
seek it this morning for ourselves and for our fellow-workers, and
will we not try today to perform some gallant act for the love of
souls and the glory of the Lord.
The world is constantly inventing; genius serves all the purposes
of human desire: cannot faith invent too, and reach by some new means
the outcasts who lie perishing around us? It was the presence of Jesus
which excited victorious courage in the four bearers of the palsied
man: is not the Lord among us now? Have we seen his face for ourselves
this morning? Have we felt his healing power in our own souls? If
so, then through door, through window, or through roof, let us, breaking
through all impediments, labour to bring poor souls to Jesus. All
means are good and decorous when faith and love are truly set on winning
souls. If hunger for bread can break through stone walls, surely hunger
for souls is not to be hindered in its efforts. O Lord, make us quick
to suggest methods of reaching thy poor sin-sick ones, and bold to
carry them out at all hazards.