this woman was just as truly bound as if she had been in
chains. When Jesus entered the synagogue his eye saw her instantly,
and he detected her difficulty. He is in the midst of us to-day, and
while we are unconscious of the bondage of the one who is beside us, he
understands it perfectly. That minister who has lost his old power and
is therefore an enigma to his people, that church officer who is out of
communion and whose testimony has lost its old ring of genuineness,
that young woman bordering on despair because in her heart she knows
she is not right with God, and that young man whose character is being
undermined by the cultivation of a secret sin--all these are known to
him. He looks them through and through, and not a point of weakness is
hidden from his gaze.

Note again, that she was powerless to help herself. I doubt not that
she had tried again and again to lift herself up. She had been unable
to turn her eyes upward to see the stars, her vision had been centered
upon things below, and in this way she is like many a Christian
attempting to be satisfied with earthly things and making life a
miserable failure. The Scriptures declare that she "could in no wise
lift up herself," and I have been told that this expression is the same
word which is used in another place in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
where Jesus is said to be able to save to the uttermost; so that really
the Scriptures mean that she tried to the uttermost to lift herself up
and failed, and that she had gone to the uttermost in the matter of
bondage, and then because Jesus is able to save to the uttermost he set
her free; or, in other words, her need was met by his power. Oh, what
an encouragement to know that the thing which has been your defeat and
mine he may easily conquer! It is a striking picture to me; he laid
his hands on her and said, "Woman, thou art loosed," and she stood
straight and glorified God.

Some years ago there came into the McAuley mission, in New York City, a
man who was, because of his sin, unable to speak and was bound down
until, instead of standing a man six feet high, as he should have done,
he was like a dwarf. He came to Christ in the old mission, and when
kneeling at the altar he accepted him, as if by a miracle Jesus set him
free also, and when he stood up the bonds were snapped that held him,
and he had his old stature back again. His speech, however, was not
entirely recovered. It is the custom in the