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We should notice … in this passage, the almighty power of our Lord Jesus Christ. We see sicknesses and devils alike yielding to His command. He rebukes unclean spirits, and they come forth from the unhappy people whom they had possessed. He rebukes a fever, and lays his hands on sick people, and at once their diseases depart, and the sick are healed. We cannot fail to observe many like cases in the four Gospels. They occur so frequently that we are apt to read them with a thoughtless eye, and forget the mighty lesson which each one is meant to convey. They are all intended to fasten in our minds the great truth that Christ is the appointed Healer of every evil which sin has brought into the world. Christ is the true antidote and remedy for all the soul-ruining mischief which Satan has wrought on mankind. Christ is the universal physician to whom all the children of Adam must repair, if they would be made whole. In Him is life, and health, and liberty. This is the grand doctrine which every miracle of mercy in the Gospel is ordained and appointed to teach. Each is a plain witness to that mighty fact, which lies at the very foundation of the Gospel. The ability of Christ to supply to the uttermost every want of human nature, is the very corner-stone of Christianity. Christ, in one word, is “all” (Colossians 3:11). Let the study of every miracle help to engrave this truth deeply on our hearts.

There is comfort here for all who are really serving Christ, and are yet cast down by a sense of their own infirmity. There are many in such case. They are oppressed by doubts and anxieties. They sometimes think they shall never reach heaven after all, but be cast away in the wilderness. Let them fear no longer. Their strength shall be according to their day. The difficulties they now fear shall vanish out of their path. The lion in the way which they now dread, shall prove to be chained. The same gracious hand which first touched and healed, shall uphold, strengthen, and lead them to the last. The Lord Jesus will never lose one of His sheep. Those whom He loves and pardons, He loves unto the end. Though sometimes cast down, they shall never be cast away. The healed soul shall always go on “ministering to the Lord.” Grace shall always lead to glory.

There is no fence around Him to keep us off; no guard to forbid or warn us away. Any one, every one may come at once to be healed. It is the sick, not the whole, that he invites. It is the leper, the palsied, the fevered, the blind, the lame, the deaf, the devil-possessed, that he bids welcome to. On every side we may approach Him. At any time, and in any way, we may come. Whatever be the length or the deadliness of our disease, we may come. The physician is divinely skillful; the medicine is free; the cure is certain. Health for sick humanity! Medicine for a diseased world! A Physician for a dying race! Such are the messages which we bring. All of them overflowing with God’s great love to sinners; to sinners simply as such. The depths of divine compassion are infinite. So are its heights. God’s pitying love takes in the worst sinner that ever breathed the air of earth. Wide as earth; wide as the bounds of sin; wide as the evil of human hearts; wide as heaven; wide as His own infinite heart; such is the pitying love of God.

He is the great healer; the sinner’s one physician. His words are health. His touch is health. His look is health. Nay, his very garments are health ; for as many as touch either Him or them are made perfectly whole. Leprosy, lunacy, fever, blindness, death, possession by Satan, are nothing to Him. In Him all fulness dwells; and that fulness is dispensed by love. There was much here to quench that love, much to repel Him, but He will not be repelled, and his love cannot be quenched, even by the waters of unbelief. He is “mighty to save”—“able to save to the uttermost.” Omnipotence is in his touch, his look, his word. Let us do justice to his fulness and his grace, lest He have to say of us, O faithless and perverse generation.

There is comfort in this thought for all who feel a desire to serve Christ, but at present are afraid to begin. There are many in this state of mind. They fear that if they come forward boldly, and take up the cross, they shall by and bye fall away. They fear that they shall not be able to persevere, and shall bring discredit on their profession. Let them fear no longer. Let them know that Jesus is an Almighty Saviour, who never forsakes those who once commit themselves to Him. Once raised by His mighty hand from the death of sin, and washed in His precious blood, they shall go on “ministering to Him” to their life’s end. They shall have power to overcome the world, and crucify the flesh, and resist the devil. Only let them begin, and they shall go on. Jesus knows nothing of half-cured cases and half-finished work. Let them trust in Jesus and go forward. The pardoned soul shall always be enabled to serve Christ.

An appeal to the well-recognized fact that it was thus and thus only that Timothy received his call from God, is nothing other, then, than to cast him back on the Almighty arms and to make him poignantly realize that it is God and not he who is conceived as carrying through the work so begun. ‘O Timothy,’ says Paul, in effect, ‘Faint not! It is not your own strength—or rather weakness—that is here in question; it is the power of Almighty God. Do not you remember how you were brought into relations with this God? Was it of yourself that you were called with this holy calling? Nay, no works of your own entered in. It was of His own purpose that He called you; the grace that has come to you was given you from all eternity. What has come to you in time is only the manifestation of what was eternally done. It is this Almighty God who is using you as His instrument and organ. Nothing depends on your weakness; all hangs on His strength. Take courage and go onward.’ Thus Paul strengthens Timothy for the conflict before him.

To give a woman, prostrate with a fever, not merely relief, but strength to do work in an instant, would baffle the skill of all the physicians on earth. Yet Jesus “touched” Peter’s wife’s mother, and “she arose, and ministered unto them.”—These are the doings of one that is Almighty. There is no escape from the conclusion. This was “the finger of God.”

What a complete and perfect cure the Lord Jesus makes, when He heals. He takes the sick woman by the hand, and lifts her up, and “immediately the fever left her.” But this was not all. A greater miracle remained behind. At once we are told “she ministered unto them.” That weakness and prostration of strength which, as a general rule, a fever leaves behind it, in her case was entirely removed. The fevered woman was not only made well in a moment, but in the same moment made strong and able to work. We may see in this case a lively emblem of Christ’s dealing with sin-sick souls. That blessed Saviour not only gives mercy and forgiveness;—He gives renewing grace besides. To as many as receive Him as their Physician, He gives power to become the sons of God. He cleanses them by His Spirit, when He washes them in His precious blood. Those whom He justifies, He also sanctifies. When He bestows an absolution, He also bestows a new heart. When He grants free forgiveness for the past, He also grants strength to “minister” to Him for the time to come. The sin-sick soul is not merely cured, and then left to itself. It is also supplied with a new heart and a right spirit, and enabled so to live as to please God.

Verse 1

Arm these Thy soldiers, mighty Lord,
With shield of faith and Spirit’s sword;
Forth to the battle may they go,
And boldly fight against the foe,
With banner of the cross unfurled,
And by it overcome the world;
And so at last receive from Thee
The palm and crown of victory.

Verse 2

Come, ever-blessed Spirit, come,
And make Thy servants’ hearts Thy home;
Thus consecrated, Lord, to Thee,
May each a living temple be:
Enrich that temple’s holy shrine
With sevenfold gifts of grace Divine;
With wisdom, light, and knowledge bless,
Strength, counsel, fear, and godliness.

Verse 3

O Trinity in Unity,
One only God, and Persons Three,
In whom, through whom, by whom we live,
To Thee we praise and glory give;
O grant us so to use Thy grace
That we may see Thy glorious face,
And ever with the heavenly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Verse 1

Bow down Thine ear, Almighty Lord,
And hear Thy Church’s suppliant cry,
For all who preach Thy saving word,
And wait upon Thy ministry.

Verse 2

In mercy, Father, now give heed,
And pour Thy quickening Spirit’s breath
On those whom Thou hast called to feed
Thy flock redeemed by Jesus’ death.

Verse 3

O Saviour, from Thy piercèd hand
Shed o’er them all Thy gifts Divine;
That those who in Thy presence stand
May do Thy will with love like Thine.

Verse 4

Blest Spirit, in their hearts abide,
And give them grace to watch and pray;
That, as they seek Thy flock to guide,
Themselves may keep the narrow way.

Verse 5

O God, Thy strength and mercy send
To shield them in their strife with sin;
Grant them, enduring to the end,
The crown of life at last to win.

Verse 1

O Spirit of the living God,
In all Thy plenitude of grace,
Where’er the foot of man hath trod,
Descend on our apostate race.

Verse 2

Give tongues of fire and hearts of love
To preach the reconciling word;
Give power and unction from above,
Where’er the joyful sound is heard.

Verse 3

Be darkness, at Thy coming, light;
Confusion, order in Thy path;
Souls without strength inspire with might;
Bid mercy triumph over wrath.

Verse 4

O Spirit of the Lord, prepare
All the round earth her God to meet;
Breathe Thou abroad like morning air,
Till hearts of stone begin to beat.

Verse 5

Baptize the nations; far and nigh
The triumphs of the cross record;
The Name of Jesus glorify,
Till every kindred call Him Lord.

Verse 6

God from eternity hath willed
All flesh shall His salvation see:
So be the Father’s love fulfilled,
The Saviour’s sufferings crowned through Thee.

Verse 1

O still in accents sweet and strong
Sounds forth the ancient word,
“More reapers for white harvest fields,
More laborers for the Lord.”

Verse 2

We hear the call; in dreams no more
In selfish ease we lie,
But, girded for our Father’s work,
Go forth beneath His sky.

Verse 3

Where prophets’ word, and martyrs’ blood,
And prayers of saints were sown,
We, to their labors entering in,
Would reap where they have strown.

Verse 4

O Thou whose call our hearts has stirred,
To do Thy will we come;
Thrust in our sickles at Thy word,
And bear our harvest home.

Verse 1

How beauteous on the mountains,
The feet of him that brings,
Like streams from living fountains,
Good tidings of good things;
That publisheth salvation,
And jubilee release,
To ev’ry tribe and nation,
God’s reign of joy and peace.

Verse 2

Lift up thy voice, oh, watchman!
And shout from Zion’s towers,
Thy hallelujah chorus--
“The victory is ours!”
The Lord shall build up Zion
In glory and renown,
And Jesus, Judah’s lion,
Shall wear his rightful crown.

Verse 3

Break forth in hymns of gladness;
Oh, waste Jerusalem!
Let songs, instead of sadness,
Thy jubilee proclaim;
The Lord in strength victorious,
Upon thy foes hath trod;
Behold, oh, earth! the glorious
Salvation of our God.

Verse 1

Soldiers of the cross! arise;
Gird you with your armor bright;
Mighty are your enemies,
Hard the battle ye must fight.

Verse 2

Guard the helpless, seek the strayed,
Soothe the troubled, banish grief;
With the Spirit’s sword arrayed,
Scatter sin and unbelief.

Verse 3

Be the banner still unfurled,
Bear it bravely still abroad,
Till the kingdoms of the world
Are the kingdoms of the Lord.

Verse 1

With thine own pity, Savior, see
The thronged and darkening way!
We go to win the lost to thee,
Oh, help us, Lord, we pray!

Verse 2

Thou bid’st us go, with thee to stand
Against hell’s marshalled powers;
And heart to heart, and hand to hand,
To make thine honor ours.

Verse 3

Teach thou our lips of thee to speak,
Of thy sweet love to tell;
Till they who wander far shall seek
And find and serve thee well.

Verse 4

O’er all the world thy Spirit send,
And make thy goodness known,
Till earth and heaven together blend
Their praises at thy throne.

Verse 1

Oh! still in accents sweet and strong
Sounds forth the ancient word,—
“More reapers for white harvest fields,
More laborers for the Lord!”

Verse 2

We hear the call; in dreams no more
In selfish ease we lie,
But girded for our Father’s work,
Go forth beneath his sky.

Verse 3

Where prophet’s word, and martyr’s blood,
And prayers of saints were sown,
We, to their labors entering in,
Would reap where they have strown.

Verse 1

Pour out thy Spirit from on high;
Lord! thine assembled servants bless;
Graces and gifts to each supply.
And clothe thy priests with righteousness.

Verse 2

Wisdom, and zeal, and faith impart,
Firmness with meekness from above,
To bear thy people on our heart,
And love the souls whom thou dost love;

Verse 3

To watch and pray, and never faint;
By day and night, strict guard to keep;
To warn the sinner, cheer the saint,
Nourish thy lambs, and feed thy sheep.

Verse 4

Then, when our work is finished here,
In humble hope, our charge resign;
When the chief Shepherd shall appear,
O God! may they and we be thine.

Verse 1

The solemn service now is done.
The vow is pledged, the toil begun;
Seal thou, O God! the oath above,
And ratify the pledge of love.

Verse 2

The shepherd of thy people bless;
Gird him with thine own holiness;
In duty may his pleasure be
His glory in his zeal for thee.

Verse 3

Here let the ardent prayer arise,
Faith fix its grasp beyond the skies.
The tear of penitence be shed,
And myriads to the Savior led.

Verse 4

Come, Spirit! here consent to dwell;
The mists of earth and sin dispel;
Blest Savior! thine own rights maintain:
Supreme in every bosom reign.

“Be not ashamed of your faith; remember it is the ancient gospel of martyrs, confessors, Reformers, and saints. Above all, it is the truth of God, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. Let your lives adorn your faith, let your example recommend your creed. Above all, live in Christ Jesus, and walk in Him, giving credence to no teaching but that which is manifestly approved of Him, and owned by the Holy Spirit. Cleave fast to the Word of God, which is here mapped out to you. May our Father, who is in Heaven, smile on us as ever!

The hope of benefiting immortal souls is most delightful to a benevolent mind; and a successful issue to our labours is replete with joy. The disciple who was honoured with his Master’s love beyond all others, even he knew “no greater joy than to see his children walk in truth.” This accounts for the extreme earnestness with which St. Paul laboured for the salvation of men, and for their sake. He knew, that, even in the eternal world, it would augment his happiness to see that he had been instrumental in saving others; and that “he should rejoice in the day of Christ, when he found that he had not laboured in vain, or run in vain.” Indeed, so entirely was he swallowed up in the prosperity of his converts, that he was ready even to die for them, if need were; yea, and to welcome the most cruel death as a blessing, rather than to deprecate it as an evil, if only it might be subservient to the welfare of their souls.