of death with quiet confidence: but we have come to a place of trial and of extraordinary difficulty, where all speed failed us, and strength did not suffice. Then, always on our knees in agony of prayer, and always on our hands in simplicity of faith, we climbed our weary way, often fearing lest we should fall backward to our destruction, but crying out, “Lord, let my knee find a resting place, let my hand lay hold on some projecting crag of promise, that there I may get a firm hold, lest I totter and fall. I can only ascend slowly. My heart follows close after you, my spirit cries after you; Lord, help me! help me to climb this weary way, for I cannot go back.” Every Christian who knows much about divine experience will understand what this means. He will often be brought into such a position that he can make very little progress; and he must think it is quite enough if he can hold his ground against the desperate difficulties of his path. Then in many ways hands and knees are essential for a Christian’s comfort, his help, and his advance on the road to heaven.
9. II. Now, I shall have in the second place to show THE BAD RESULTS OF WEAK HANDS AND KNEES.
10. And, first, we have already hinted that one bad fruit of a Christian having weak hands and knees is this, that he himself will not be able to make much progress in the divine life. Christian men have never attained to their potential. They have only started on their pilgrimage, and after they have gone their farthest, there is still a higher point towards which they must press with earnest heart, though with weary footsteps. How is it that some of you have made very little progress on the road to heaven? In looking back on your lives, some of you must acknowledge that you do not know much more about Christ now than you did six years ago. Today you do not enjoy greater nearness of access to him than you did years ago. You are no more diligent in his service, or more fearless in his defence, than you were many years ago. Perhaps you are compelled to feel that you have made no advance, or you may even have gone backward. Why is this? Is it not because your hands have become weak, your knees have become feeble? You have neglected prayer: you have forsaken your closets, you have not poured out your hearts before God with that frequency which once distinguished you, and you do not have the faith you once possessed. You have not believed the promise as you ought to have done. You have not taken God at his naked word, and trusted on him as he deserved. And do you ever expect to make any progress on the road to heaven if you doubt your God? Do you imagine that you shall ever go far along in the heavenly pilgrimage if you neglect prayer? You could just as well expect a plant to grow without air and water as to expect your heart to grow without prayer and faith. A poor blanched thing may be produced in a dark cellar; and so may you maintain a poor, blanched miserable existence, if you live absent from your God and apart from that strength which faith can give you, but you can never attain the healthy verdure of grace. Oh man, if you wish to grow in grace, if you wish to comprehend with all saints what are the heights and depths, and know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, attend to your knees that they are strong, attend to your hands that they do not hang down.
11. The Christians of this age seem to me to be content with themselves, though there is infinite reason for the reverse. When I sit down and read the biographies of saints who have gone to heaven, I am astonished at myself, and I can only weep to think how far I am behind these men, and then how much further I must be behind my divine Master. Surely the examples of eminent saints should spur us onward. If Henry Martin could unreservedly devote his life and energies to Christ’s service, why may not we? If Martin Luther with holy boldness could face danger, why should not we? If Calvin with clear and eagle eye could read the doctrines of the gospel amid the mists of error, why should not we? If men of more modern times have been able to endure opprobrium and disgrace for Christ’s sake, or if they in private have been able to reach to the seventh heaven of communion with God, and have lived on earth as if they were in paradise, why should not we? There is no reason why the least saint in God’s family should not outrun the greatest. Why do we look upon the saints of olden time as if they were so far above us that we can never equal them? Oh, do not even dream of it! You may be what Abraham was. You ought to be what the mightiest saint of that former life was. You should never rest satisfied until you labour to surpass them all; yes, not even then, for you have not yet attained to the perfection which is in Christ. I know this age is one which is always satisfied if it gets barely enough to carry it to heaven. Where is that holy ambition which ought to stir the Christian soul to noble deeds? But few of us have felt it. We are drivelling dwarfs, content with the small height to which we have attained, forgetful of the steeps which tower above our heads. Up! Christian, up! The mount of holiness may be steep to climb, but, man, the hill of God is a high hill, even as the hill of Bashan. Up! Up! for it is only on its summit that the calm air of heaven can be breathed, and the mists of earth entirely swept away. I know that in this age weak hands and feeble knees are the reasons why so few Christians attain to any eminence in the ways and works of God.
12. Yet again, weak hands and feeble knees have another bad effect. They prevent our doing any great work for the good of the world. Oh! what work there is to do in this poor world of ours. Imagine the first colonist landing in Australia. If it had been revealed to him in a vision that, in process of time, the whole of that huge island should be ploughed, and sown, and built upon, and inhabited, he would have said, “How is this to be done? how can it ever be effected?” And, even now, great as has been the progress in that country, if we were assured that in a few short years all of it would be brought under tillage, we should be apt to ask, but how shall it be done? We should, however very readily perceive that there must be strong knees to dig, and strong hands to delve and plough, or else the work never could be accomplished. There must be many, and the many must be strong, or else the work cannot be done. And now, lift up your eyes, today! behold, the whole world lies before you like one huge untilled country. Who is to drive the ploughshare of divine grace through all the continents of this world? Who is to make this desert blossom like the rose? Who shall sow it with the good seed grain of the kingdom of God? Where are the labourers who shall afterwards reap the whitening fields? Not weak hands and feeble knees; they cannot do it. Our knees must be strong and our sinews must be well braced, or else so great a work can never be accomplished. I believe one reason why the religion of Christ makes such little progress at this time, is because most of us are so weak. We find, a few centuries after Christ’s death, his name was preached in every land; there was not one region of the known globe which had not heard the marvellous story of the cross. But, then, the followers of Christ were men who did not know what it was to tremble. They did not count their lives dear to them; but leaving houses, and land, and families, for his name’s sake, they went everywhere preaching the Word. But in this day we are not strong. We must all be assured of a livelihood before we will go forth to preach the Word; and, even then, if no one shall smile on us, how soon we cease the work. We commence an enterprise, but little difficulties appal us. How many does the pastor have to see, of little men and little women who come creeping to him, and whining because they find difficulties in serving Christ. Is not this because you have weak hands and feeble knees? If you had the strong knees of the apostles, and the mighty hands of the ancient martyrs, nothing could stand against you. Let God’s children once become strong, and woe to you, Babylon, woe to you, oh Rome; you must fall down, oh castles of the enemy. The weakness of God’s children is your hope, but their strength is your despair. Let them once believe firmly, let them pray earnestly, and behold Victory waits upon their banners, and oh enemies of Christ dismay will seize your hearts. We are at this time blessing God that great doors have been opened for the spread of the gospel. Hindustan, China, Japan, many lands we hope shall soon be visited by the Christian missionary. But are we not conscious that our opportunities are greater than our strength? Must not the Christian church confess that she has now a greater field, but she has, perhaps, fewer labourers than ever? The harvest is greater, but the labourers are fewer. Why is this? It comes from this fact, that through the church of Christ the weak hand and the feeble knee have become the general rule. “Oh,” one says, “but surely there might be found some men to go out.” And so say others as well as you, why are you not the man to go? You say others should be thrust into the vineyard, and why do you stand back yourself? That lethargy which seizes upon us, has seized upon others too. Let us not be hasty in condemning the rest of the church, until we have first examined ourselves. Do we not owe our all to Christ? Are we not personally
