OFFERS.

I might mention many marks of spiritual health. Our text leads us to
take one,--walking. Jesus said to the sick man, Rise and walk, and with
that restored him to his place among men in full health and vigour, able
to take his part in all the work of life. It is a wonderfully suggestive
picture of the restoration of spiritual health. To the healthy, walking
is a pleasure; to the sick, a burden, if not an impossibility. How many
Christians there are to whom, like the maimed and the halt and the lame
and the impotent, movement and progress in God's way is indeed an effort
and a weariness. Christ comes to say, and with the word He gives the
power, Rise and walk.

Just think of this walk to which He restores and empowers us. It is a
life like that of Enoch and Noah, who "walked with God." A life like
that of Abraham, to whom God said, "Walk before Me," and who himself
spake, "The Lord before whom I walk." A life of which David sings, "They
shall walk in the light of Thy countenance," and Isaiah prophesies,
"They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall run
and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." Even as God the
Creator fainteth not nor is weary, shall they who walk with Him, waiting
on Him, never be exhausted or feeble. It is a life concerning which it
could be said of the last of the Old Testament saints, Zacharias and
Elisabeth, "They were both righteous before God, walking in all the
commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." This is the walk
Jesus came to make possible and true to His people in greater power than
ever before.

Hear what the New Testament speaks of it: "That like as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk
in newness of life." It is the Risen One who says to us, Rise and walk:
He gives the power of the resurrection life. It is a walk in Christ. "As
ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye also in Him." It is a
walk like Christ. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought so to walk even
as He walked." It is a walk by the Spirit and after the Spirit. "Walk by
the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh." "Who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." It is a walk worthy of God
and well pleasing to Him. "That ye would walk worthy of the Lord, unto
all well pleasing, being fruitful in every good work." "I beseech you,
that as ye received of us, how ye should walk and please God, _even as
ye