ngness with which Christ delivers us even from miseries we have
rashly brought upon ourselves. Further still, it is an instance of the
vitality of sin. This man's lifelong punishment had not broken the power
of sin within him. He knew why he was diseased and shattered. Every pain
he felt, every desire which through weakness he could not gratify, every
vexing thought of what he might have made of life, made him hate his sin
as the cause of all his wretchedness; and yet at the end of these
thirty-eight years of punishment Christ recognised in him, even in the
first days of restored health, a liability to return to his sin. But
every day we see the same; every day we see men keeping themselves down,
and gathering all kinds of misery round them by persisting in sin. We
say of this man and that, "How is it possible he can still cleave to his
sin, no better, no wiser for all he has come through? One would have
thought former lessons sufficient." But no amount of mere suffering
purifies from sin. One has sometimes a kind of satisfaction in reaping
the consequences of sin, as if that would deter from future sin; but if
this will not hold us back, what will? Partly the perception that
already God forgives us, and partly the belief that when Christ commands
us to sin no more He can give us strength to sin no more. Who believes
with a deep and abiding conviction that Christ's will can raise him
from all spiritual impotence and uselessness? He, and he only, can hope
to conquer sin. To rely upon Christ's word, "Sin no more," with the same
confident faith with which this man acted on His word, "Rise, take up
thy bed"--this alone gives victory over sin. If our own will is too
weak, Christ's will is always mighty. Identify your will with Christ's,
and you have His strength.

But the fear of punishment has also its place. The man is warned that a
worse thing will fall upon him if he sins. Sinning after the beginning
of deliverance, we not only fall back into such remorse, darkness, and
misery as have already in this life followed our sin, but a worse thing
will come upon us. But "worse." What can be worse than the loss of an
entire life; like this man, passing in disappointment, in uselessness,
in shame, the time which all naturally expect shall be filled with
activity, success, and happiness; losing, and losing early, and losing
by one's own fault, and losing hopelessly, everything that makes life
desirable? Few men so entirely miss lif