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One of the most famous pictures in the world is the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Jesus sits at the table with His twelve disciples. It is said that the artist sought long for a model for the Saviour. He wanted a young man of pure holy look. At length his attention was fixed on a chorister in the cathedral named Pietro Bandinelli. This young man had a very noble face and a devout demeanour. Leonardo used him as a model in painting the face of the Master. Soon after this Pietro went to Rome to study music. There he fell among evil companions and was led to drink, and then into all manner of debasing sins. Year after year the painter went on with his picture. All the apostles were now painted save one — Judas, the traitor. Da Vinci went from place to place, looking for some debased man who would be suitable as a model. He was walking one day on the streets of Milan, watching the faces of evil men he chanced to meet, when his eyes fell on one who seemed to have in his features the character he sought. He was a miserable unclean beggar, wearing rags, with villainous look. The man sat as the artist's model for Judas. After the face was painted Da Vinci learned that the man who sat for him was his old friend Pierre Bandinelli, the same who had sat a few years before as the model for the Master. Wickedness had debased the beautiful life into hideous deformity. Sin distorts, deforms, and destroys the human soul. It drags it down from its greatness until it grovels in the dust. In Me is thy help. — Help for all: — The first thing that a man does after waking up to his sinful condition, is to try to help himself. How are we to come to moral and spiritual health? As long as the heart is wrong the life will be wrong.

I. GOD IS WILLING TO HELP US BY GIVING US THE HOLY SPIRIT TO SHOW US JUST THE POSITION WE OCCUPY. What is the use of conviction? Without it, a man does not want Christ and His salvation. The Holy Spirit coming into the heart, a man wakes up to see his true state.

II. GOD IS READY TO HELP US, BY GIVING US REPENTANCE. There is a great difference between seeing my sin and turning from it. Conviction and conversion are not the same thing.

III. GOD IS WILLING TO HELP US, BY ENABLING US TO EXERCISE FAITH IN CHRIST. The most exhausting work to which I ever put the energies of my soul was to believe in Christ. Indeed, it is so great an undertaking that no man can accomplish it of himself.

IV. GOD IS WILLING TO HELP US, BY GIVING US THE PARDON AND PEACE OF THE GOSPEL. He can save you.

(T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

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KJV: O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

WEB: You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your help.