all three occasions there was a multitude accompanying Him, who sought to silence the voices of the claimants, but only caused them to cry the more;—that in each case Jesus stood still and demanded what they wanted;-that in each case they made the same reply in very nearly the same words; -and a great deal more. All this is so unnatural, so unlike anything in actual life, so unlike the infinite variety which the incidents of the Gospels present, that for myself I should prefer almost any explanation to this.

2

The three apparently discordant accounts of this miracle, no one of them entirely agreeing with any other, can at once be reduced to two by that rule, which in all reconciliations of parallel histories must be applied, namely, that the silence of one narrator is in itself no contradiction of the statement of another; thus the second and third Evangelist, making mention of one blind man, do not contradict St. Matthew, who mentions two. There remains only the circumstance that by one Evangelist the healing is placed at the Lord's entering into the city, by the others at his going out. This is no sufficient ground to justify a duplication of the fact; and Bengel, as I must needs believe, with his usual happy tact, has selected the right reconciliation of the difficulty; namely,

1 Some in old times and new have thought themselves bound in to this conclusion:-thus Augustine (De Cons. Evang. ii. 65); Lightfoot (Harmony of the New Testament, sect. 69); and Greswell. On the other hand, Theophylact, Chrysostom, Maldonatus, Grotius, have with more or less confidence maintained that we have here the same event.

2 Augustine (De Cons. Evang. ii. 65): Procul dubio itaque Bartimaeus iste Timæi filius ex aliquâ magnâ felicitate dejectus, notissimæ et famosissimæ miseriæ fuit, quod non solum cæcus, verum etiam mendicus sedebat. Hinc est ergo quod ipsum solum voluit commemorare Marcus, cujus illuminatio tam claram famam huic miraculo comparavit, quam erat illius nota calamitas. Cf. Quæst. Evang. ii. 48.

3 Bengel: Marcus unum commemorat Bartimæum, insigniorem (x. 46), eundemque Lucas (xviii. 35) innuit, qui transponendæ historiæ occasionem exinde habuit, quod cæcorum alter, Jesu Hierichuntem intrante, in viâ notitiam divini hujus medici acquisivit. Salvator dum apud Zacchæum pranderet, vel pernoctaret potius, Bartimæo cæcorum alter, quem Matthæus adjungit, interim associatus est. Maldonatus had already fallen upon the same reconciliation,

that one cried to Him as He drew near to the city,' whom yet He cured not then, but on the morrow at his going out of the city cured him together with the other, to whom in the mean while he had joined himself. St. Matthew will then relate by prolepsis, as is not uncommon with all historians, the whole of the event where he first introduces it, rather than, by cutting it in two halves, and deferring the conclusion, preserve a more painful accuracy, yet lose the effect which the complete history related at a breath would

possess.

There

In the cry with which these blind men sought to attract the pity of Christ there lay on their part a recognition of his dignity as the Messiah; for this name, Son of David,' was the popular designation of the great expected Prophet (Matt. ix. 27; xxi. 9; xxii. 42; cf. Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24). was thus on their part a double confession of faith; a confession first that He could heal them, and secondly, not merely as a prophet from God, but as the Prophet, as the one at whose coming the eyes of the blind should be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped (Isai. xxix. 18; xxxv. 5). In the case of the man blind from his birth (John ix.) we have the same confessions, but following, and not preceding, the cure, and with intervals between; so that first he acknowledges Him as a prophet (ver. 17), and only later as the Christ (ver. 38). Here the explanation has been sometimes found of what follows: The multitude rebuked them, because they would not hold their peace;' as though they grudged to hear given to Jesus titles of honour, which they were not themselves prepared to accord Him. We should then have

1 Grotius will have it that St. Luke's iv rŷ ¡yyilar here need not, and does not, mean, When He was drawing near to, but, When He was in the neighbourhood of,—and that this his nearness to the city was that of one who had just departed from, not of one who was now approaching to, it. But, granting that this were admitted, the notice of Zaccheus which follows is irreconcileable with the assumption that Christ was now quitting Jericho.

2 Hilary: Denique eos turba objurgat, quia acerbe a cæcis audiunt quod negabant, Dominum esse David Filium.

here a parallel to Luke xix. 39; only that there the Pharisees would have Christ Himself to rebuke those that were glorifying Him, while here the multitude take the rebuking into their own hands. But while it was quite in the spirit of the envious malignant Pharisees to be vexed with those Messianic salutations: Blessed be the King, that cometh in the name of the Lord; these well-meaning multitudes, rude and in the main spiritually undeveloped as no doubt they were, were yet exempt from such spiritual malignities. They for the most part sympathize with the Lord and his work (Matt. ix. 8). While others said that his miracles were wrought in the power of Beelzebub, they glorified God because of them. And here, too, I cannot doubt but that out of an intention of honouring Christ they sought to silence these suppliants. He may have been teaching as He went, and they would not have Him interrupted by ill-timed and unmannerly clamours. But the voices of these suppliants are not to be stifled so. On the contrary, they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Thou Son of David' Many admirable applications of this little feature in the narrative have been made. Is there not here, it has been often asked, the story of innumerable souls? When any begins to be in earnest about his salvation, to cry that his eyes may be opened, that he may walk in his light who has the light of life, begins to despise the world and objects which other men desire, he will find a vast amount of opposition, and that not from professed enemies of the Gospel of Christ, but from such as seem, like this multitude, to be with Jesus and on his side. Even they will endeavour to stop his mouth, and to hinder any earnest crying to the Lord.' And then, with

1

Augustine (Serm. cccxlix. 5): Reprehensuri sunt nos . . . quasi dilectores nostri, homines seculares, amantes terram, sapientes pulverem, nihil de cælo ducentes, auras liberas corde, nare carpentes: reprehensuri sunt nos procul dubio, atque dicturi, si viderint nos ista humana, ista terrena contemnere: Quid pateris? quid insanis? Turba illa est contradicens, ne cæcus clamet. Et aliquanti Christiani sunt, qui prohibent vivere Christiane, quia et illa turba cum Christo ambulabat, et vociferantem

a picture from the life, Augustine makes further application in the same line, of what follows, when Jesus, arrested as ever by the cry of need, stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, arise; He calleth thee.' This too, he observes, repeats itself continually in the life of God's saints. If a man will only despise and overbear these obstacles from a world which calls itself Christian; if, despite of all opposers, he will go on, until Christ is evidently and plainly with him, then the very same who at the first checked and reprehended, will in the end applaud and admire; they who at first exclaimed, 'He is mad,' will end with exclaiming, 'He is a saint.' 1

.....

hominem ad Christum ac lucem desiderantem, ab ipsius Christi beneficio prohibebat. Sunt tales Christiani, sed vincamus illos, vivamus bene, et ipsa vita sit vox nostra ad Christum. Again, Serm. lxxxviii. 13, 14: Incipiat mundum contemnere, inopi sua distribuere, pro nihilo habere quæ homines amant, contemnat injurias, . . . . . si quis ei abstulerit sua, non repetat; si quid alieni abstulerit, reddat quadruplum. Cum ista facere cœperit, omnes sui cognati, affines, amici commoventur. Quid insanis? Nimius es: numquid alii non sunt Christiani? Ista stultitia est, ista dementia est. Et cetera talia turba clamat, ne cæci clament. . . . Bonos Christianos, vere studiosos, volentes facere præcepta Dei, Christiani mali et tepidi prohibent. Turba ipsa quæ cum Domino est prohibet clamantes, id est, prohibet bene operantes, ne perseverando sanentur. Gregory the Great gives it another turn (Hom. ii. in Evang.): Sæpe namque dum converti ad Dominum post perpetrata vitia volumus, dum contra hæc eadem exorare vitia quæ perpetravimus, conamur, occurrunt cordi phantasmata peccatorum quæ fecimus, mentis nostræ aciem reverberant, confundunt animum, et vocem nostræ deprecationis premunt. Quæ præibant ergo, increpabant eum, ut taceret. . . . . In se, ut suspicor, recognoscit unusquisque quod dicimus: quia dum ab hoc mundo animum ad Deum mutamus, dum ad orationis opus convertimur, ipsa quæ prius delectabiliter gessimus, importuna postea atque gravia in oratione nostrâ toleramus. Vix eorum cogitatio manu sancti desiderii ab oculis cordis abigitur; vix eorum phantasmata per poenitentiæ lamenta superantur.

...

1 Augustine (Serm. lxxxviii. 17) Cum quisque Christianus cœperit bene vivere, fervere bonis operibus, mundumque contemnere, in ipsâ novitate operum suorum patitur reprehensores et contradictores frigidos Christianos. Si autem perseveraverit, et eos superaverit perdurando, et non defecerit a bonis operibus; iidem ipsi jam obsequentur, qui ante prohibebant. Tamdiu enim corripiunt et perturbant et vetant, quamdiu sibi cedi posse præsumunt. Si autem victi fuerint perseverantiâ proficientium, convertunt se et dicere incipiunt, Magnus homo, sanctus homo, felix cui

6

6

And he, casting away his garment,' to the end that he might obey with the greater expedition,' and without incumbrance, rose and came to Jesus.' In this his ridding himself of all which would have hindered, he has been often held forth as an example for every soul which Jesus has called, that it should in like manner lay aside every weight and every besetting sin (Matt. xiii. 44, 46; Phil. iii. 7). The Lord's question, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?' is, in part, an expression of his readiness to aid, a comment in act upon his own words, spoken but a little while before, 'The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister' (Matt. xx. 28); is in part intended to evoke into livelier exercise the faith and expectation of the petitioner (Matt. ix. 28). The man, whose cry has been hitherto a vague indeterminate cry for mercy, now singles out the blessing which he craves, designates the channel in which he desires that this mercy should run,2 Lord, that I might receive my sight.' Only St. Matthew mentions the touching of the eyes which were to be restored to vision (cf. ix. 29), and only St. Luke the word of power, Receive thy sight,' by which the cure was effected; while he and St. Mark record nearly similar words, passed over by St. Matthew: Thy faith hath made thee whole '—' Thy faith hath saved thee' (cf. Matt. ix. 22; Mark ix. 23; Luke xvii. 19). The

6

Deus concessit. Honorant, gratulantur, benedicunt, laudant; quomodo illa turba quæ cum Domino erat. Ipsa prohibebat ne cæci clamarent; sed post quam illi ita clamaverunt, ut mererentur audiri, et impetrare misericordiam Domini, ipsa turba rursum dicit, Vocat vos Jesus. Jam et hortatores fiunt, qui paulo ante corripiebant ut tacerent. How exactly this was the story of St. Francis of Assisi.

1 Thus Il. ii. 185: Bŋ de Déu, dzò dẻ xλaïvav Báλs: and in Phædrus, v. fab. 2 Stringitque gladium, dein rejecta penula; cf. Suetonius, August. 26.

2

Gregory the Great (Hom. ii. in Evang.), commenting on this request of theirs, bids us, in like manner, to concentrate our petitions on the chief thing of all: Non falsas divitias, non terrena dona, non fugitivos honores a Domino, sed lucem quæramus: nec lucem quæ loco clauditur, quæ tempore finitur, quæ noctium interruptione variatur, quæ a nobis communiter cum pecoribus cernitur: sed lucem quæramus, quam videre cum solis Angelis possimus, quam nec initium inchoat, nec finis angustat.