answered, the child was saved. But this health-message of the Master has reached beyond the feverish boy to an unspiritual father, who, believing for his son as he left the Saviour's presence in Cana, comes now, in the fulness of this blessing, to believe for himself.

They tell the story in the upper Alps of two travellers, belated, as the night came on, in the pass of the great St. Bernard. The cold was intense, and the snow was drifting and deep. At last, worn out by the long and weary climbing, and overcome with the bitter cold, one traveller sank in the snow, benumbed and drowsy, to die. His companion shouted for him to come on, but in vain. His own blood was chilled and sluggish, and his arms and limbs were numb with freezing, but he resolved, if possible, to rescue his comrade from so terrible a death, even if he failed himself to reach the hospice, whose lights were beginning to glimmer far above him. And so, putting aside his outer wraps, he began to shake his prostrate companion, to drag him along the drifting path. He rubbed his hands and kicked his feet, and struggled to lift his body upon his own shoulders. The effort quickened his own pulses, and sent the blood tingling through his own veins, until his limbs lost their numbness and his senses their torpor. And as he grew warm in his exercise for his comrade, his strength and courage came again, so that, although unable to arouse his friend, he was able to push on and up through the terrible cold and stinging snow, to the shelter of the old monastery above, whose monks hurried forth to find and save, ere it was too late, his benumbed and dying fellow-traveller. Thus many a man, doing for another, has done for himself. And so this father, seeking life for his child, finds it for himself and his whole

household. For, rejoicing in the restoration of the heir of the house, they heard with wonder the story of Jesus' words of healing and power and love; and, influenced by the open confession and full faith of the father, they all, mother and son and servants, became disciples of Him who not only could heal the sick, but forgive the sins of

men.

Thus, the miracles of Christ became not only the credentials of the court from which he came, but evangels of spiritual life and blessing to the world, lifting, as here, the needs of the body up into the desires of the soul, and making the lower a stepping-stone to the higher gift of God, while their rewards of faith reach not only from father to son, but from generation to generation.

The lesson of this miracle at Cana is one of hopethat all the roads of human experience lead to Christ our needs, our sorrows, and our joys; and once in his presence, the power of God can fan the spark of our faith into a flame, and lift our prayers for help into psalms of joy.

JESUS AT BETHESDA.

JOHN V. 5-18.

"And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years," etc.

THERE was in Jerusalem a certain pool the water of which was supposed by the people to have at times so powerful a healing virtue, that whosoever then stepped into it was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. Great crowds gathered about the place, waiting to be cured. Five porches, or covered colonnades, were built to give them shelter from the sun and rain. One sabbath day Jesus, passing by, saw, among the other sick people, a certain man who had been infirm for thirty-eight years. Knowing how long he had been in that wretched condition, the Lord said to him, "Wilt thou be made whole?" The poor cripple began at once to explain how helpless he was, moving so slowly that others always went down before him, and that he had no friend to help him in. While he was yet talking, Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk." And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked. After this, Jesus found him in the temple, and said, "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." I. Human nature is in a state of disorder and ruin. Perhaps the words "disorder and ruin' are stronger

than many would use; perhaps they are stronger than facts warrant. There is, on the whole, so much that is good in the world; men have shown in their various works and enterprises so much strength, enthusiasm and perseverance; fidelity, patriotism and virtue have been so often and so nobly displayed, and even physical health and vigor brought under favorable circumstances to so great perfection, that we hardly feel justified in saying that human nature is in disorder and ruin. The most hopeful will, however, not venture to claim that men in this world are at their best. The ills that beset them behind and before are so numerous and so deadly; they strike so deep, leave so sharp a sting, and give so little opportunity for man to recover himself, that we are ready to confess with the ancient lawgiver though our years "be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.'

These pains and infirmities of the flesh are only the signals of some deeper distress. As science is making it more and more probable that all the forces of nature may be at last resolved into one original force, so revelation and experience are making it clearer and clearer that all distresses and disorders of mind, body and estate are the result of some original disorder, buried in the very heart of humanity. This is clearly implied in the warning given to the impotent man, "Behold, thou art made whole sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Humanity can never be whole and sound till sin is taken away. This is the real malady. "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." There appears to be a deep-seated and universal conviction among men that diseases do somehow, even when they can not tell how, spring from transgression and

The souls

There is

disobedience. Suffering is the rebound of sin. and bodies of men are very near together. action and reaction. The pains of the body are felt in the soul, and the failures and faults of the soul take effect in the body. "After all," says one, "how nearly divine a thing is health, be it in the soul or in the body; and as the fibres of both are intertwined with such marvelous cunning, all through, how shall either fall out of God's order alone, or come back into it alone? The whole man quivers in the shock of sin. The crystalline order of soul and body is shivered by the same blow."

This view is quite in accordance with the phrase so often on our Saviour's lips, "Go in peace; thy sins are forgiven thee." Speaking of a poor woman long bowed with disease, he said, "Whom Satan hath bound these eighteen years." His mission among men was to seek and to save the lost, and his method was sometimes to reach the body through the soul, and sometimes to reach the soul through the body; or, perhaps, working upon both at the same time, giving to the one faith, and to the other physical vigor. Of the fact that those people found by our Saviour waiting round the pool were diseased in body and mind, there can be no doubt, and it is equally clear that human nature is still in a state of disorder and moral disability.

II. The divine remedy for this condition of things is found in Jesus Christ.

When we remember what John said in the first chapter of his Gospel, how, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; and all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that is made; and in him was life, and the life was the light of men, -we begin to understand how