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I. THE MEANING OF THE WITHERED HAND. The disease was not like the palsy, a type of universal inaction; it was not like some consuming fever, a type of the way in which sin and vice pervert all the faculties of the soul; but there was a vivid picture of that infirmity which destroys a man's power of doing anything well in this world of ours. The hand of man is one of those noble physical features which distinguish him from the brute. "The hand" is but another name for human skill, power, and usefulness, and for She studied adaptation of means to ends.

1. The bigotry of these Pharisees rendered them useless in the great kingdom of God, and destroyed their power of serving Christ. Christ did not keep the Sabbath in their way, and that was enough for their malice. That man with a "withered hand" was an apt picture of the way in which their bigotry had incapacitated them for any holy service. Bigotry ties up men's hands still.

2. Prejudices wither up some of the energies of men. By prejudices I mean opinions taken up without sufficient reasons, and maintained with obstinacy; opinions that rest on feelings rather than on facts. There are many men — and professing Christians, too — who are so full of obstinate prejudices that they invariably find fault with every good work that has to be done, and with every possible way of doing it; but who very seldom do anything themselves. Their hand is withered.

3. Past inconsistencies often wither up the power of service. It is a mournful truth that if a man has once forfeited his character for integrity, or Christian prudence, he may have repented; but still his power for service is crippled.

4. Easily-besetting sins will paralyze the useful. ness of any man who does not with earnestness wage war against them. Let a man yield himself indolently to the slavery of an evil habit, idle talk, vain thoughts, he will soon find that his hand is withered, that his power of serving God is gone. Indolence, fear of man, ungoverned temper, paralyze our energies.

II. THE HEALING OF THE WITHERED HAND. Christ came into this world not mainly to set men free from the bondage of sin, but to emancipate all his faculties for holy service. There are three lessons we may learn from this narrative.

1. We may gather Christ's willingness to heal us.

2. The way in which we are to make use of Divine strength. When the man willed to stretch forth his hand, God willed in him; the communication of Divine strength was granted to him at the very moment when he determined to obey the command of Christ. If we will we may make the Divine strength our own. Verily while we "work out salvation with fear and trembling," God is working "within us both to will and do of His good pleasure."

3. Here is the great rule by which at all times, through the help of God's grace, we may overcome our listlessness and uselessness in His service. It is by our own vigorous effort to overcome the withering up of our faculties that we shall test the worth of Divine promises.

(H. R. Reynolds, B. A.)

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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.