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that every one may take a little,' says Sense. Omnipotence says, 'Bring
the few small loaves and fishes unto Me'; and Faith dispensed them
amongst the crowd; and Experience 'gathered up of the fragments that
remained' more than there had been when the multiplication began. So the
grace utilised increases; the gift grows as it is employed. 'Unto him
that hath shall be given.' And the 'sufficiency' is not a bare adequacy,
just covering the extent of the need, with no overlapping margin, but is
large beyond expectation, desire, or necessity; so leading onwards to
high hopes and a wider opening of the open mouths of our need that the
blessing may pour in.

The other part of this great answer, that the Christ from Heaven spoke
in or to the praying spirit of this not disappointed, though refused,
Apostle, unveiled the purpose of the sorrow, even as the former part had
disclosed the strength to bear it. For, says He, laying down therein the
great law of His kingdom in all departments and in all ways, 'My
strength is made perfect'--that is, of course, perfect in its
manifestation or operations, for it is perfect in itself already. 'My
strength is made perfect in weakness.' It works in and through man's
weakness.

God works with broken reeds. If a man conceits himself to be an iron
pillar, God can do nothing with or by him. All the self-conceit and
confidence have to be taken out of him first. He has to be brought low
before the Father can use him for His purposes. The lowlands hold the
water, and, if only the sluice is open, the gravitation of His grace
does all the rest and carries the flood into the depths of the lowly
heart.

His strength loves to work in weakness, only the weakness must be
conscious, and the conscious weakness must have passed into conscious
dependence. There, then, you get the law for the Church, for the works
of Christianity on the widest scale, and in individual lives. Strength
that conceits itself to be such is weakness; weakness that knows itself
to be such is strength. The only true source of Power, both for
Christian work and in all other respects, is God Himself; and our
strength is ours but by derivation from Him. And the only way to secure
that derivation is through humble dependence, which we call faith in
Jesus Christ. And the only way by which that faith in Jesus Christ can
ever be kindled in a man's soul is through the sense of his need and
emptiness. So when we know ourselves weak, we