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I. WHAT THE WITHERED HAND MAY BE SAID TO SYMBOLIZE.

1. It represents capacity for work. By the hand the toiling millions earn their bread.

2. The hand stands as the symbol of fellowship. This is what our custom of shaking hands expresses.

3. There is one more thing symbolized by the hand — generosity. By the hand we convey our gifts.

II. THE CAUSES OF THE HAND'S WITHERING.

1. The first suggestion is that, like some forms of blindness and certain deformities, it is sometimes a sad, inexplicable inheritance, possessed from birth.

2. The hand would become withered, I should think, if you fastened tight ligatures or bandages round the arm so as to impede the free circulation of blood. Our narrowness may cause the same result.

3. And then, perhaps, another cause may be cited — disuse of the hand, if long continued. Nature's gifts are cancelled, if not made use of.

III. THE MEANS OF HEALING.

1. The man is made to "stand forth." The healthful effects which flow to a man when he is drawn out of the solitude of a self-shrouded life, and constrained by force of circumstances to come into contact with other human beings: We need to be stored up with all sorts of social agencies.

2. There is another thing in this narrative — obedience to Christ. His obedience evidenced his faith.

(W. S. Houghton.)

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KJV: And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.

WEB: He entered again into the synagogue, and there was a man there who had his hand withered.