Yet now, when he saw the work begun before his eyes, he felt the faithlessness of those very prayers, and knew that they could have won no fulfilment, but for the merits of the great Intercessor in whose name they had ever been offered.
"Why should it be thought a thing incredible to you that God should raise the dead ?" This question of the apostle comes with power to the Christians of our own day.

Do you really believe it _possible_ for God to raise to newness of life the dead in trespasses and sins?
There is no soul so hardened that it cannot be melted to penitence by the touch of the mighty Spirit of God.

Let this thought make us fervent, importunate, instant in prayer for the souls that are at death's door and hasting to destruction.
Can any thing but the power of God make the moral man, once proud of his own uprightness, humble as the little child, leaning only on the cross of Christ for salvation?
He who works this wonder can do yet more.

What are the sins and self-will of the human heart, in comparison with the might of the majesty of Jehovah?
He who laid the strong foundations of the earth, and led forth the marshalled millions of the stars in their wonderful order, can mould and fashion the soul of man at his will.

Let us not stand doubting, timid, and faint-hearted, discouraged by the foul sins which blot and efface in man the fair image of his Maker.