We do not like to be intruded upon when we have retired from the scene around us into the narrow circle of our personal or domestic enjoyment. When we have drawn the curtains, made ready the fire, opened the desk or the book, we do not like to have to respond to a call from without. It is at such times we can enter into the words, “He will answer from within.” They really contain a volume of profound moral truth. They graphically and vividly set forth an attitude of heart in which we are all far too frequently to be found. We are all too ready when a call comes to send forth our answer “from within.” We are too prone to say, “Dear me! This is a most inconvenient moment for that person to call, just when I am so particularly engaged.” All this is precisely the attitude of heart set forth in the selfish words, “He will answer from within.”

And what answer is sure to be returned from the one who speaks “from within”? Just what might be expected. “Do not trouble me.” The man who has retired into the narrow circle of his own personal ease and enjoyment, closed his door, and drawn his curtains around him, does not like to be “troubled” by anyone. Such a one is sure to say, even though appealed to as a “friend,” “I cannot rise.” And why could he not rise? Because the door was shut and his children were with him in bed. His reasons for not rising were all selfish, and, when he does rise, it is only from a selfish desire to avoid further trouble.

How unlike all this was the blessed Lord Jesus Christ! His door was never shut. He never answered “from within.” He ever had a ready response to every needy applicant. He had not time to eat bread or take rest, so occupied was He with human need!