the lame man sometimes thought of this, and bewailed his own
negligence in not using opportunities now for ever gone. He could
only look with envy and self-reproach on those who had once been
blind, or, like himself, lame, and whom he now saw in perfect health.
His feelings were akin to the remorse of those who imagine that their
day of grace is gone, and exclaim :

Thy saints are comforted, I know,
And love Thy house of prayer;
I therefore go where others go,
But find no comfort there.

There is no despair worth calling despair but despair of salvation.
But what Christ has not done, an Apostle may do. The lesser
instrument may effect what the more powerful has not effected. A
feebler ministry may in some cases produce results which the abler
ministry has not produced.

Another feature of the beggar's state of mind appears in listless,
mechanical way in which he asks an alms. He had not even troubled to
look up. Too commonly human prayer is the monotonous whine of the
beggar that scarcely troubles to consider to whom the petition is
addressed. Had this man taken the trouble to scan the appearance of
those fishermen he would have seen that silver or gold could not be
expected. But he had fallen into one chant, uttered as soon as the
shadow of the passer-by fell upon him. It is a picture of the unreal
and indifferent spirit in which much prayer is offered. There is no
harm in asking for certain benefits every day of our life, and no
harm in using the same words, if we have chosen these words as the
fittest. But there is harm in allowing a form of words to engender