ains you ever had in your head are
not equal to the pains Christ had in His head. All the acute suffering you
ever had in your feet is not equal to the acute suffering Christ had in His
feet. By His own hand He fashioned your every bone, strung every nerve,
grew every eyelash, set every tooth in its socket, and your every physical
disorder is patent to Him, and touches His sympathies.

He is also touched with the infirmities of our prayers. Nothing bothers the
Christian more than the imperfections of his prayers. His getting down on
his knees seems to be the signal for his thoughts to fly every whither.
While praying about one thing he is thinking about another. Could you ever
keep your mind ten minutes on one supplication? I never could. While you
are praying, your store comes in, your kitchen comes in, your losses and
gains come in. The minister spreads his hands for prayer, and you put your
head on the back of the pew in front, and travel round the world in five
minutes.

A brother rises in prayer-meeting to lead in supplication. After he has
begun, the door slams, and you peep through your fingers to see who is
coming in. You say to yourself, "What a finely expressed prayer, or what a
blundering specimen! But how long he keeps on! Wish he would stop! He prays
for the world's conversion. I wonder how much he gives toward it? There! I
don't think I turned the gas down in the parlor! Wonder if Bridget has got
home yet? Wonder if they have thought to take that cake out of the oven? Oh
what a fool I was to put my name on the back of that note! Ought to have
sold those goods for cash and not on credit!" And so you go on tumbling
over one thing after another until the gentleman closes his prayer with
Amen! and you lift up your head, saying, "There! I haven't prayed one bit.
I am not a Christian!" Yes, you are, if you have resisted the tendency.
Christ knows how much you have resisted, and how thoroughly we are
disordered of sin, and He will pick out the one earnest petition from the
rubbish and answer it. To the very depth of His nature He sympathizes with
the infirmity of our prayers.

He is touched with the infirmity of our temper.

There are some who, notwithstanding all that is said or done to them can
smile back. But many of you are so constructed that if a man insults you,
you either knock him down or wish you could. While with all resolution and
prayer you resist this, remember that Christ knows how much you have