of God. If I may take a very rough
illustration, there is a story in the Old Testament about a king, to
whom were given a bow and arrow, with the command to shoot. The
prophet's hand was laid on the king's weak hand, and the weak hand
was strengthened by the touch of the other; and with one common pull
they drew back the string and the arrow sped. The king drew the bow,
but it was the prophet's hand grasping his wrist that gave him
strength to do it. And that is how the Spirit of God will work with
us if we will.

III. Finally, consider the purpose of all the diverse manifestations
of the one universal gift.

'To profit withal'--for his own good who possesses it, and for the
good of all the rest of his brethren.

Now, that involves two plain things. There have been people in the
Christian Church who have said, 'We have all the Spirit, and
therefore we do not need one another.' There may be isolation, and
self-sufficiency, and a host of other evils coming in, if we only
grasp the thought, 'The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every
man,' but they are all corrected if we go on and say, 'to profit
withal.' For every one of us has something, and no one of us has
everything; so, on the one hand, we want each other, and, on the
other hand, we are responsible for the use of what we have.

You get the life, not in order that you may plume yourself on its
possession, nor in order that you may ostentatiously display it,
still less in order that you may shut it up and do nothing with it;
but you get the life in order that it may spread through you to
others.

'The least flower with a brimming cup may stand,
And share its dew-drop with another near.'

We each have the life that God's grace may fructify through us to
all. Power is duty; endowment is obligation; capacity prescribes
work. 'The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to
profit withal.'

You can regulate the flow. You have the sluice; you can shut it or
open it. I have said that the condition, and the only condition, of
possessing the fulness of God's Spirit is faith in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, the more you trust the more you have, and the less your
faith the less the gift. You can get much or little, according to the
greatness or the smallness, the fixity or the transiency, of your
desires. If you hold the empty cup with a tremulous hand, the
precious liquid will not be poured into it--for some of it will be
spilt--in the same fulness as