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THE KING'S BUSINESS
word makes a helpless paralytic walk. Only God can with a word make the lame walk. This one must be God.” Did they? Why not? Is it lack o f evidence, or a heart opposition that keeps many people from believing on Jesus? What a commotion and rejoicing as the restored man walks away, now carrying that on which he had been carried. He proved his sins were forgiven by his walk. The forgiveness claimed that leaves' conduct unchanged, is vain. . Who was gladdest—the Lord who for gave; the man who was forgiven; or the friends- who were instrumental in bringing the forgiven and the forgiver together? Have you the assurance, based on the word o f Jesus Himself, that your sins are forgiven ? Does your walk corroborate your profes sion? Do you know someone whom you could get three others to help you bring, if you cannot bring him to Jesus yourself? If you do so, not only will a friend be for given and healed, but more important still, God will be glorified. THE LESSON abode with the children o f men. The ten dency in us is to move away from the needy. The disciples said, “ Send them away,” but Jesus’ message always is, “ Bring them to ■Me.” W e have no details here. W e do not know whose heart among the four was first touched and moved, but we know God’s order is to lay the burden upon some one when He begins a definite work. He laid the work for young men upon the heart of George Williams, and out of his response came the Y. M. C. A., and out o f the Y. M. C. A. came the Y. W . C. A. God found a man named Booth whose heart He touched with sympathy for the unreached outcast people, and out o f it has come the Salvation Army. Associated sympathy, when it assumes a
where the skilled physician sees the disease from which they come. The palsy was evi dent to all; Jesus saw the sin and so he removed the disease first—“ Son, thy sins are forgiven.” The kindliness o f that word “ son.” The joy o f that assurance! Heal ing for soul and body both. But the cold, unsympathetic critics, flawless in their reas oning, but wrong completely in their con clusion. “This man forgives sins.” “Only God can forgive sins.’” “He is a blas phemer.” Jesus read the thoughts o f their hearts, the very act proving his Deity (2 Chron. 6:30; Jer. 17:10). His question was to lead them on to see and believe. Easier far to say “ sins forgiven,” than “ Son, walk,” for the' former could not be put to immediate proof, while the latter would be self-evident. So the seemingly easier is demonstrated by the seemingly harder. His power to forgive sins proved by His power to make the palsied walk. His visible works proved His invisible. They should have corrected their conclusion when they saw the miracle: “ This one forgives sins. Only God can forgive sins. This one with a HEART OF If you can paint a word-picture, you will have no difficulty in teaching this lesson. There is something fascinatingly attractive in the story. The theme here Vis “ sympathy.” Now sym pathy is fellow-feeling, and fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind. Sin makes men one; it brings the sorrow and suffering and woe and wretchedness which unites all humanity in the common bundle. Sympathy gives mellowness to the voice, delicacy to the touch, sweetness to the smile, grace to the mien. The teaching o f Jesus wakened a chord in many a! heart where sympathy had been a stranger. True sympathy does not stop with aroused feeling; it acts,hit moves; it does something. When the Lord looked from Heaven and saw the need of men, He moved out of Heaven and took up, His
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