nothing, but holds out a
battered hat, in order to get a copper from a passer-by. The psalmist
desired that the lifting up of his hands might be as the 'evening
sacrifice.'

If a man stands with his open, empty palm held up to God, it is as much
as to say 'I need, I desire, I expect.' And these elements are what we
must have in our prayers; the sense of want, the longing for supply, the
anticipation of an answer. What do you hold out your hand for? Because
you expect me to drop something into it, because you want to get
something. How do you hold out your hand? Empty. And if I am clasping my
five fingers round some earthly good it is of no use to hold up that
hand to God. Nothing will come into it. How can it? He must first take
the imitation diamonds out of it or we must turn it round and shake them
out before He can fill it with real jewels. As for him who continues to
clutch worldly goods, 'let not that man think that he shall receive
anything of the Lord.' Empty the palm before you lift it.

Still further, says Paul, 'lifting up _holy_ hands.' That, of course,
needs no explanation. One of the psalms, you may remember, says 'I will
wash mine hands in innocency, so will I compass Thine altar.' The
psalmist felt that unless there was a previous lustration and cleansing,
it was vain for him to go round the altar. And you may remember how
sternly and eloquently the prophet Isaiah rebukes the hypocritical
worshippers in Jerusalem when he says to them, 'Your hands are full of
blood. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings,' and
_then_ come and pray. A foul hand gets nothing from God. How can it?
God's best gift is of such a sort as cannot be laid upon a dirty palm. A
little sin dams back the whole of God's grace, and there are too many
men that pray, pray, pray, and never get any of the things that we pray
for, because there is something stopping the pipe, and they do not know
what it is, and perhaps would be very sorry to clear it out if they did.
But all the same, the channel of communication is blocked and stopped,
and it is impossible that any blessing should come. Geographers tell us
that a microscopic vegetable grows rapidly in one of the upper affluents
of the Nile, and makes a great dam across the river which keeps back the
water, and so makes one of the lakes which have recently been explored;
and then, when the dam breaks, the rising of the Nile fertilises Egypt.
Some of us have growing, unche