Mark 9:28-29 And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?… Staying at Hastings a few months since I was much interested in watching the building of a breakwater just opposite my lodgings. It was done by driving massive piles of wood into the shingle. They were driven by a huge mass of metal being let fall upon them from a great height. True, the blows were not very quick one upon another, for it took some time to raise the weight to the necessary elevation; but when it did fall it accomplished something. Now suppose an onlooker had suggested that time was being wasted in hauling the Herculean hammer up, and had offered to tap the ironbound pile with a child's spade, saying he could give a hundred taps to the one blow, what would have been thought of his suggestion? It would have been laughed to scorn, and he would have been told that one of their blows would do more than a whole century of his tapping; that there was no waste of time in raising the iron thunderbolt, for the power of its blow was in proportion to the height from which it fell. So, believer, your power and mine to affect men is in exact proportion to the elevation of our soul life, and this elevation can only be obtained by secret communion with God, and abstinence from all that panders to the flesh and hinders the spirit's fellowship. Oh for a higher ambition to be made meet for the Master's use; a more intense longing for that secret power with God in private, that shall make us more than conquerors over hell in public. (A. G. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?WEB: When he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we cast it out?" |
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