k or our special temptations may be, the principle
remains the same, only let us apply it for ourselves.

Perhaps one hardly needs to say that the kept hands will be very gentle
hands. Quick, angry motions of the heart will sometimes force themselves
into expression by the hand, though the tongue may be restrained. The
very way in which we close a door or lay down a book may be a victory or
a defeat, a witness to Christ's keeping or a witness that we are not
truly being kept. How can we expect that God will use this member as an
instrument of righteousness unto Him, if we yield it thus as an
instrument of unrighteousness unto sin? Therefore let us see to it, that
it is at once yielded to Him whose right it is; and let our sorrow that
it should have been even for an instant desecrated to Satan's use, lead
us to entrust it henceforth to our Lord, to be kept by the power of God
through faith 'for the Master's use.'

For when the gentleness of Christ dwells in us, He can use the merest
touch of a finger. Have we not heard of one gentle touch on a wayward
shoulder being the turning-point of a life? I have known a case in which
the Master made use of less than that--only the quiver of a little finger
being made the means of touching a wayward heart.

What must the touch of the Master's own hand have been! One imagines it
very gentle, though so full of power. Can He not communicate both the
power and the gentleness? When He touched the hand of Peter's wife's
mother, she arose and ministered unto them. Do you not think the hand
which Jesus had just touched must have ministered very excellently? As we
ask Him to 'touch our lips with living fire,' so that they may speak
effectively for Him, may we not ask Him to touch our hands, that they may
minister effectively, and excel in all that they find to do for Him? Then
our hands shall be made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob.

It is very pleasant to feel that if our hands are indeed our Lord's, we
may ask Him to guide them, and strengthen them, and teach them. I do not
mean figuratively, but quite literally. In everything they do for Him
(and that should be _everything we ever undertake_) we want to do it
well--better and better. 'Seek that ye may excel.' We are too apt to
think that He has given us certain natural gifts, but has nothing
practically to do with the improvement of them, and leaves us to
ourselves for that. Why not ask him to make these hands of ours m