know,
And love Thy house of prayer;
I therefore go where others go,
But find no comfort there.

There is no despair worth calling despair but despair of salvation.
But what Christ has not done, an Apostle may do. The lesser
instrument may effect what the more powerful has not effected. A
feebler ministry may in some cases produce results which the abler
ministry has not produced.

Another feature of the beggar's state of mind appears in listless,
mechanical way in which he asks an alms. He had not even troubled to
look up. Too commonly human prayer is the monotonous whine of the
beggar that scarcely troubles to consider to whom the petition is
addressed. Had this man taken the trouble to scan the appearance of
those fishermen he would have seen that silver or gold could not be
expected. But he had fallen into one chant, uttered as soon as the
shadow of the passer-by fell upon him. It is a picture of the unreal
and indifferent spirit in which much prayer is offered. There is no
harm in asking for certain benefits every day of our life, and no
harm in using the same words, if we have chosen these words as the
fittest. But there is harm in allowing a form of words to engender
monotony and lifelessness in the spirit, so that we never consider
carefully the object of our worship and what it is fit that He should
give. This cripple had come to be content with the few coppers which
would furnish his supper and bed; all the great world with its
pleasures, its enterprise, its high places lay quite beyond his hope;
and thus does one find his own soul dying to all that lies beyond
daily needs, and forgetful of the great and glorious things that are
written of the heirs of God. It is surely a great art to know "who it
is that speaks to us, and what is the gift of God."

Peter's first care was to arouse the man. "Look on us!" The man's
attention was commanded. All his life he had been training to know
faces, to know who would give and who would not give, who would not
give if others were looking, and who would give at the gate of the
Temple, dropping the coin as into an alms box, without any regard to
the want of the beggar. One glance at the frank face of Peter tells
him he is about to receive something. That is a man to be trusted.
This is a good beginning. Trust in Peter maybe the first step to
trust in Christ. But many rest at the earliest stage, believing the
messenger, but not coming into personal relations wit