that I would care to repeat. But it at any rate may teach us, that, as the opening of the ear to hear and of the heart to believe unto righteousness is His work, so is the enabling of the tongue to make confession unto salvation.

Then our Lord "looked up to heaven." This may have been to teach us, that our help cometh from above, and that He our Helper is from above.

And, "He sighed." This may have been to teach us to pray; or it may have been a mark of His compassion with our infirmities; or perhaps both.

And He said unto him, "Ephphatha, that is, Be opened; and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain."

"He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast."

And the people said, "He hath done all things well; He maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak."

A notable attestation! As at the beginning He pronounced His six days' work very good, so doubtless must the work of

His hands in the new creation in turn give Him glory for making them to be what they were not by nature, but become by grace.

Why our Lord was pleased to charge them to "tell no man," it is difficult even to conjecture.

The difficulty is the greater, because, as on this, so on another occasion, He doubtless knew that the command would forthwith be disregarded. All that appears plain is, that their so disregarding the injunction was a most certain proof of their conviction of the truth of the miracle.

I can venture no more in explanation of these wonderful details.

Let us however observe, by way of further improving by it, that the whole history resolves itself well into proof of the doctrine of to-day's Collect, to which it is appended.

We have our Lord's readiness to hear, in His at once complying with the request of the multitude.

And of His wont to give more than we even desire, in His doing all He did in the sight of them all, instead of simply laying

His hands on the man. That is, in not only healing the individual, but by these several signs doubtless suggesting further instruction to the applicants, if only they would be at the pains to seek the meaning of them.

Giving them the good things for which they did ask, He offered other good things which they were not only not worthy to receive, but, as far as appears, never thought of asking.

They sought a temporal blessing; "He looked up to heaven, and sighed."

But we may go on further than this. We may not only find the confirmation of the doctrine of the Collect in this Gospel, but may draw from it abundantly the comfort which that doctrine suggests. Whatever be our natural blindness and incapacity, we have in Him one who can be touched with our infirmities, and even sigh over us; and whose omnipotence is ready to heal us even at others' intercession. He has but to say, "Ephphatha,"

and our ignorance shall be dispelled, and our tongues shall speak His praise.

If we seek to recall sinners from the error of their ways, we may go in sure confidence to Him for help, Who doeth "all things well," Who "maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak."

He can make the sinner and the heathen hear and confess. And He can no less give us a tongue that none shall be able to gainsay, opening our ears to the suggestions of the Spirit, that shall teach us what to say, and how to say it; and our lips, that we may shew forth His praise, and declare the wonders of His law.

Truly may we, whom He hath called to the state of salvation, exclaim, in respect of ourselves, "He hath done all things well; He hath made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak!"

Truly may we say it in respect of His work of regeneration and renovation now; and so carry on the exulting thought to

"the times of refreshing, and of the restitution of all things'."

When the clouds and darkness of trouble gather round us, let us remember His Ephphatha, Who said, "Let there be light, and there was light," and, "behold, it was very good." When the upbraidings of sin seem to stop our ears against the voice of His consolations, and the consciousness of our iniquities paralyzes the tongue; let us still remember His Ephphatha, and fear not, but cast all our care upon Him, and beseech Him to put His fingers in our ears, and to touch our tongue; that they may be opened to comfort, and this be loosed to thanksgiving.

When death has closed the eyes we loved, and stilled the voice we delighted in, let us remember His "Ephphatha,” and hope that, closing to earth, the eyes opened on heaven; that becoming voiceless here, the tongue began its praises there; and so let our thoughts go on to the last Ephphatha, to the last "Be opened;" f Acts iii. 19, 21.