The Bible says: "Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been a long time in that case." So He came close to him, and said, "Wilt thou be made whole?" Ah! the poor man could not answer that question straight off! There was only one remedy he knew of, and that was impossible. So he looked up into the face of Jesus, and gave a very pitiful and simple answer, in words like these: "Sir," he said, "I am lying here helpless, and when the water is stirred, there are numbers of others who can step down into the water before me, and I am left behind!" Then our dear Lord Jesus gave 'The Word of Command'—and when He, the Son of God, commands, He gives the power to obey—and He said to the poor man, "Rise! take up thy bed and walk!" And immediately the man was made well; and without any hesitation, he rose straight up, took up the mat he had been lying on, and was able to walk away quite well. Afterwards, Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, "Thou art made whole; go and sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Jesus had seen how hopeless this man had been, and He healed him, but He wanted him to have a greater blessing still, even to have his sins forgiven. And for us—He sees how we need to be healed of our sins, and from the remembrance of what we have done wrong; and He says to us, too: Wilt thou be made whole? Wilt thou have my forgiveness, and come to me and be saved? And then, like the helpless man in the story, we can look up into the face of Jesus, Who is in Heaven looking down on us now, and all at once we can realize His mighty power to save us! and we can yield ourselves to His love. If we come to Him so, He will make life a different thing for us. We shall go about our work, or our school, or our home, or our play, with a glad heart because we have Jesus, as our own Saviour. [Illustration] XIII. LET THROUGH THE ROOF MARK 2.4 [Illustration: LET THROUGH THE ROOF MARK 2.4] THE poor man, who you see in this picture, had been very ill for a long time. He had four friends who loved him very much, and who had heard that the Lord Jesus could heal those who were sick. When these friends heard that Jesus was in their city, they were very anxious to get the sick man to Him. But he was so helpless that he could only lie on his bed, waited on by those around him. But these four friends firmly believed that Jesus could heal the sick man, and they decided to carry him, just as he was on his bed, and ask Jesus to cure him. But when they reached the house where Jesus was, there was such a crowd that they could not even get near the door. You can imagine how they tried to persuade the people to make room for them to get in; but everyone was so anxious to see the Lord Jesus, and to hear Him speak, that they could not even get near the door. What was to be done now? Should they turn back? What? get so near to Jesus, and not be healed after all! Then the four friends thought of another plan.