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of my boyhood when a man six feet two began bullying my uncle, a stripling, how grandfather, a peaceable man, thrusting the boy behind him, took up the quarrel in his behalf. We may fail now—but when Jesus comes! What will gainsayers, critics, and blasphemers say then? Those scribes were speechless. 4. The father and his son, "One of the multitude." Read the text. No.te the boy's case, point by point.. See the father's agony when the paroxysm seized his son (vv. 20, 24). Poor man! and he was "one of the multitude." Yes, there are multitudes of them; fathers and mothers, with unutterable sorrows. The open public sees little of it, it is mostly hidden. In pne afternoon, when a pas- tor, I found in my round, a young girl dying of consumption, the third victim in the family; a dear old man at the point of death with the mourners at his bedside; a young wife just widowed; a family suddenly plunged into financial ruin by a forest fire; a mother heart broken for a daughter who had eloped with a passing player; a poor man o'ut of work, with a family of five or six, in- cluding an idiot son, and daughter." "ONE OF THE MULTITUDE!" Come! Lord Jesus, come quickly." 5. The father's errand." I have brought unto Thee my son." Again "one of the multitude" but only one. Bring your boy, too, or some one's boy, to Jesus. To Jesus directly, for it is added "to Thy disciples but they could not." Do not depend on the mediation of others, priests, saints, or angels. It is well to say "pray for my boy,'" "speak to my son," it is better to bring him to Jesus. Especially consider that dreadful as such a physical attack of the devil may be, the moral and spiritual victimiz- ing of the child is infinitely worse, and just as real, but you are not so sensibly aware of it. III. THE CURE. 1. "Bring him unto Me." "Suffer the children to come unto me and forbid them not" (Mt. 19:14) ; "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden." (Mt. 11:28). If He says "Bring," He will surely bless, if we bring. 2. The diagnosis. "How long?" Our spiritual maladies begin in child- hood, their tendency is from birth. "I went astray from my youth," says the Psalmist. "How does it affect him?" Ofttimes it hath cast," etc. A review of our case, a frank confession of the fre- quency, and enormity of our sins, and our misery our physician requires of us. Some one says, too, that we need to know
what kind of a patient has the disease, as well as what kind of a disease has the patient. 3. The father's "if." "If Thou canst?" There is an "f" in "faith" but there must be no "if" in it (Jas. 1:6)« One says "If Thou wilt?" a doubt of His willingness; another "If Thou canst?" a doubt of His ability; others say, "If I touched but the hem of His garment, I shall be healed." Which is best? 4. Jesus' "if." "If Thou canst?" Not "if thou canst believe," as in the A- V. But "If Thou canst? dost thon say? all things are possible to Him (or him) that believeth. We say well, "He is able to save to the uttermost" (Hb. 7:25), why do we ever raise an if? that He loves to the uttermost (Eph. 3:18, 19), why do we ever raise an if? 5. The devil's rage. He "rent him sore," etc. My brother and an uncle were toddlers together and as toddlers they fought one another. When the mothers pulled them apart Nat, who could talk plain, cried, Mamma, let me give him one more bite!" That is the devil of it. "He has great rage for he hath but a short time." And so when Jesus is about to cast the devil out of the world (Rv. 20:1-3) there will be tribula- tions such as never were, nor shall be after (Mt. 24:21). When China is just escaping from opium, American manu- facturers are scattering cigarettes free and broadcast throughout the empire, to fix a worse, because more general habit, on the people, that their last state nlay be worse than the first. But Jesus com- manded the devil and he came out bf him, and dares not touch him again for- ever. Jesus' cure is as safe as sure. IV. THE CAUSE OF FAILURE AND ITS REMEDY 1. Faithlessness. Jesus rebuked the whole generation (v. 19). If His own followers want faith "where shall the sinner and the ungodly appear?" To find faith gladdened the soul of our Lord (Mt. 8:10, 11; 15:28); the absence of it made Him feel like getting out of the- world; for nothing shows how blind and hard we are like unbelief in a world so full of God and His goodness. He is like the rest of us in this, that He can not feel at home among them that dis- trust Him and His Loving Father. 2. The remedy, "Prayer and fasting" (v. 29). That is confessed dependence on God, and separation from the world. THE CHILD IN THE MIDST. Lesson X. Dec. 8. Matt. 18:1-14. if THE QUESTION OF AMBITION. 1. The Question, "Who is greatest,"
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