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

336 THE DEMONIAC
saved by the Gospel which flows through the hands,
who cannot be saved by the Gospel which is preached
through the lips. Words, however beautiful and impressive,
however tearful and thrilling, are not like the
grasp of honest, tender hands, which tell a man that
you still think of him as a brother man, and are not
ashamed to touch him. If he is very low down, the
first thing he needs is to have the least bit of selfrespect
infused into him, and some faint glimmering
of hope. He needs to be taught first that he is not
utterly despised and despicable, and that somebody
really cares for him. And nothing will convince him
of that but a kindly grip of the hand. You may
tell him a thousand times that Jesus loves him, but
you will not make him believe it unless he feels that
there is a bit of love in you. Take his hand ! That
will be the proof that he wants. Hold his hand with
a bit of genuine warmth, as you hold the hand of your
child. There is a might}-, attractive force in that hand
of yours if you use it in a right way. It will lift up
man)- a degraded sinner who, without that, would in
all
probability never rise at all.
There is a wide sphere of usefulness provided by
every church and congregation for what I may call
the Gospel of the hands—of course if
your hands are
cold, stiff, and formal, I have not the slightest wish
that you should use them at all. They are only fit to
wear gloves or play mechanical tunes on pianos. If
they stroked a dog. it
For even a dog knows the
would only make the dog snarl.
difference between unfeeling
hands and hands that are alive with sensitivenerves
of love. But if you have what I call live hands,
what grand room for your activities there is in the sane-