give with the hand, and which is current coin, which anyone else may give, and which is of the same value, whoever gives it; but rather that which we communicate from our own heart and soul, and which is our own peculiar treasure—­the accumulation of a life’s experience.  To add a little to anyone’s outward comfort is always worth doing; but to impart to another what becomes life and strength and encouragement perennially within himself is surely better.  Frequently the help we chiefly need is nothing outward and material, but that which one bare human spirit can render to another.  But alas! when thrown back upon our inward resources, we are so conscious of our poverty that we think sixpence or a shilling is probably of greater value than anything which can come straight from our spirit.

Of the lame man little is told us which may give us a clue to his state of mind.  He was one of those who had been left unhealed by Christ.  Often must Christ have passed him, and yet He had never spoken nor laid healing hand upon him.  Perhaps during the long hours the lame man sometimes thought of this, and bewailed his own negligence in not using opportunities now for ever gone.  He could only look with envy and self-reproach on those who had once been blind, or, like himself, lame, and whom he now saw in perfect health.  His feelings were akin to the remorse of those who imagine that their day of grace is gone, and exclaim : 

  Thy saints are comforted, I know,
    And love Thy house of prayer;
  I therefore go where others go,
    But find no comfort there.

There is no despair worth calling despair but despair of salvation.  But what Christ has not done, an Apostle may do.  The lesser instrument may effect what the more powerful has not effected.  A feebler ministry may in some cases produce results which the abler ministry has not produced.

Another feature of the beggar’s state of mind appears in listless, mechanical way in which he asks an alms.  He had not even troubled to look up.  Too commonly human prayer is the monotonous whine of the beggar that scarcely troubles to consider to whom the petition is addressed.  Had this man taken the trouble to scan the appearance of those fishermen he would have seen that silver or gold could not be expected.  But he had fallen into one chant, uttered as soon as the shadow of the passer-by fell upon him.  It is a picture of the unreal and indifferent spirit in which much prayer is offered.  There is no harm in asking for certain benefits every day of our life, and no harm in using the same words, if we have chosen these words as the fittest.  But there is harm in allowing a form of words to engender monotony and lifelessness in the spirit, so that we never consider carefully the object of our worship and what it is fit that He should give.  This cripple had come to be content with the few coppers which would furnish his supper and bed; all the great world with its pleasures, its enterprise, its high places lay quite beyond his hope; and thus does one find his own soul dying to all that lies beyond daily needs, and forgetful of the great and glorious things that are written of the heirs of God.  It is surely a great art to know “who it is that speaks to us, and what is the gift of God.”