sculleries, if there is no pipe that joins it with the source of
supply? My dear friend, these rough illustrations are only
approximations to the absolute impossibility that Christ can help,
heal, or save any man without the man's personal faith. 'Whosoever
believeth' is no arbitrary limitation, but is inseparable from the
very nature of the salvation given.

III. And now, lastly, note the effects of the power of the Name.

The Apostle puts in two separate clauses what, in the case in hand,
was really one thing--'hath made this man strong,' and 'hath given
him perfect soundness.' Ah! we can part the two, cannot we? There is
the disease, the disease of an alienated heart, of a perverted will,
of a swollen self, all of which we need to have cured and checked
before we can do right. And there is weakness, the impotence to do
what is good, 'how to perform I find not,' and we need to be
strengthened as well as cured. There is only one thing that will do
these two, and that is that Christ's power, ay, and Christ's own
life, should pass, as it will pass if we trust Him, into our foulness
and precipitate all the impurity--into our weakness and infuse
strength. 'A reed shaken with the wind,' and without substance or
solidity to resist, may be placed in what is called a petrifying
well, and, by the infiltration of stony substance into its structure,
may be turned into a rigid mass, like a little bar of iron. So, if
Christ comes into my poor, weak, tremulous nature, there will be an
infiltration into the very substance of my being of a present power
which will make me strong.

My brother, you and I need, first and foremost, the healing, and then
the strength-giving power, which we never find in its completeness