The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

256 THE TOUCH OF JESUS
itself felt
;
just as your hand does what you mean to
do, and obeys your will. What follows on this
Among other things this
1. The condition of the Church's power\ or of any
}
Christian s strength, ties in the closeness and the vitality
of connection between that Churchy or that Christian, and
the Lord.
Let that connection be broken, and nothing will
compensate for it. Once suffer prayerlessness to
destroy contact, and the supply of force is as completely
cut off as electricity would be, if the wire were
snapped into the earth. Therefore we have here a
call to more earnest prayer, to a deeper sense of
our helplessness without Christ, or apart from Him
;
and it is just at this point, in a busy life crowded
with activities, that danger most threatens us.
Just as the hand of Jesus was the means of blessing
because it was directly associated with His life and
will, so the Church may be a means of blessing, if
only there is close and constant contact with Him who
is its soul and life ;
for Christ is in us as the hope of
glory.
2. But the other side of this truth must not be for-
The hand which expressed the Lords will was
gotten.
brought into contact witJi the one whom He intended to
bless.
It was like the
ladder which linked heaven's power
with earth's] weakness, as it could not have done
unless it had touched both. Here, too, is a lesson for
us. While we who serve Christ must be in vital
fellowship with our Lord, we must also be in loving
relation with our fellows, whom we mean to bless.
tree is only health}- when its roots are firmly struck in
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