Whatever your anxieties and trials, spread out your case before the Lord. Your spirit will be braced for endurance. The way will be open for you to disentangle yourself from embarrassment and difficulty. The weaker and more helpless you know yourself to be, the stronger will you become in His strength. The heavier your burdens, the more blessed the rest in casting them upon your Burden-bearer. Circumstances may separate friends; the restless waters of the wide sea may roll between us and them. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the Saviour. Wherever we may be, He is at our right hand, to support, maintain, uphold, and cheer. Greater than the love of a mother for her child, is Christ's love for His redeemed. It is our privilege to rest in His love; to say, "I will trust Him; for He gave His life for me." Human love may change; but Christ's love knows no change. When we cry to Him for help, His hand is stretched out to save. "The mountains may depart, And the hills be removed; But My loving-kindness shall not depart from thee, Saith Jehovah that hath mercy on thee.''28 MAN them. ANY of those who came to Christ for help had brought disease upon themselves; yet He did not refuse to heal And when virtue from Him entered into these souls, they were convicted of sin, and many were healed of their spiritual disease as well as of their physical maladies. Among these was the paralytic at Capernaum. Like the leper, this paralytic had lost all hope of recovery. His disease was the result of a sinful life, and his sufferings were embittered by remorse. In vain he had appealed to the Pharisees and doctors for relief; they pronounced him incurable, they denounced him as a sinner. and declared that he would die under the wrath of God. The palsied man had sunk into despair. Then he heard of the works of Jesus. Others, as sinful and helpless as he, had been healed, and he was encouraged to believe that he too might be cured if he could be carried to the Saviour. But hope fell as he remembered the cause of his malady, yet he could not cast away the possibility of healing. His great desire was relief from the burden of sin. He longed to see Jesus, and receive the assurance of forgiveness and peace with heaven. Then he would be content to live or to die, according to There was no time to lose; already his wasted flesh bore signs of death. He besought his 1151 "Again and again the bearers of the paralytic tried to push their way through the crowd." friends to carry him on his bed to Jesus, and this they gladly undertook to do. But so dense was the crowd that had assembled in and about the house where the Saviour was, that it was impossible for the sick man and his friends to reach Him, or even to come within hearing of His voice. Jesus was teaching in the home of Peter. According to their custom, His disciples sat close about Him, and "there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, who were come out of every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem." Many of these had come as spies, seeking an accusation against Jesus. Beyond these thronged the promiscuous multitude, the eager, the reverent, the curious, and the unbelieving. Different nationalities, and all grades of society were represented. "And the power of the Lord was present to heal." The Spirit of life brooded over the assembly, but Pharisees and doctors did not discern His presence. They felt no sense of need, and the healing was not for them. “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He hath sent empty away. 2 3 Again and again the bearers of the paralytic tried to push their way through the crowd, but in vain. The sick man looked about him in unutterable anguish. How could he relinquish hope, when the longed-for help was so near? At his suggestion his friends bore him to the top of the house, and breaking up the roof, let him down at the feet of Jesus. The discourse was interrupted. The Saviour looked upon the mournful countenance, and saw the pleading eyes fixed upon Him. Well He knew the longing of that burdened soul. It was Christ who had brought conviction to his conscience when he was yet at home. When he repented of his sins, and believed in the power of Jesus to make him whole, the mercy of the Saviour had blessed his heart. Jesus had watched the first glimmer of faith grow into a conviction that He was the sinner's only helper, and had seen it grow stronger with every effort to come into His presence. Christ who had drawn the sufferer to Himself. It was Now, in words that fell like music on the listener's ear, the Saviour said, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." The burden of guilt rolls from the sick man's soul. He can not doubt. Christ's words reveal His power to read the heart. Who can deny His power to forgive sins? Hope takes the place of despair, and joy of oppressive gloom. The man's physical pain is gone, and his whole being is transformed. Many were watch ing with breathless interest every movement in this strange felt that Christ's words were an invitation to themWere they not soulsick because of sin? Were they not anxious to be freed from this burden? But the Phari sees, fearful of los- their hearts, "He blasphemeth, "And immediately he took up the bed, and went forth before them all," " Fixing His glance upon them, beneath which they cowered, and drew back, Jesus said, "Wherefore think ye evil in |