could never be this first, missed always the LECT. blessing"."

Thus he speaks of his want of help, and shews, by reason of his own impotence, the utter necessity for it. Then comes the gracious sequel. "Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk;" and the man believes in the power of Him who thus. speaks for His word was with power: and feels in his body that he is healed of his infirmity. At the Lord's bidding, he essays to do according as he is bidden, and finds it even so; finds that through the power in which he believes, he is able to do even as he is bidden: "immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked." He took up that whereon he lay, his bedding, which in the milder climate of the East is usually nothing more than a rug or a kind of blanket, or at the most a light portable couch of matting or twisted cord". He who a moment ago was almost too infirm to crawl, is now able to walk as any other man, and to carry his burden. The command doubtless has reference to the man's former inability to walk, being bedridden; and one reason why this word was added, that he should take up his bed, was probably to prove the completeness of the cure. He was not only restored to health so as to be able to walk, but to perfect strength so as to be able to carry his bed.

The significance of the words which the Evangelist adds, "and on the same day was the Sabbath," in connexion with this event, we shall

"Trench.

The native charpoy will doubtless occur to any reader who has been in India.

XVI.

LECT. see when we come to consider the context which follows.

XVI.

From the record of this miracle we may now draw one or two profitable reflections.

How eager were these impotent folk to be delivered from their bodily diseases! Would that there were as great eagerness for the healing of the soul!

God caused the troubling of the waters, but left the sick folk to themselves to get in. In like manner, "God has put virtue into the Scriptures and ordinances; if we do not make a due improvement of them, it is our own fault"."

...

This poor friendless man had an infirmity, had lost the use of his limbs, for thirty and eight years. "Shall we complain of one wearisome night, who, perhaps, for many years have scarcely known what it has been to be a day sick, when many others, better than we, have scarcely known what it has been to be a day well P ?"

It may do us good sometimes to visit hospitals and asylums for the sick and afflicted, that we may learn to be more thankful for our own blessings, and more ready to relieve their sufferings.

This poor man seems to have had no friend. It may be so some day with us, or troubles may come upon us which no earthly friend can alleviate, or perhaps even understand. But Jesus knows. He can sympathize. He can heal. And to Him the troubled soul turns with the cry, "Give us

"Utinam tanta esset animæ sanandæ cupiditas!" Bengel.

P Henry.

"Let the

XVI.

help from trouble, for vain is the help of man. LECT. With Thee only is our help found." infirm, and the friendless, and the despairing, take comfort from this wondrous narrative."

The Lord saw this poor man lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case. "Those that have been long in affliction may comfort themselves with this, that God keeps account how long, and knows our frame."

Observe, further, that though this man had waited long time and in vain, "yet still he continued lying by the pool side, hoping that some time or other help would come." So saith the prophet, "Though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come." And our Lord tells us, "Men ought always to pray, and not to faint." He will not fail to notice those who with desire frequent His ordinances.

Finally, with respect to the word "Rise, take up thy bed, and walk," it has been well observed, that if this man "had not attempted to help himself, he had not been cured; yet it does not therefore follow, that when he did rise and walk, it was by his own strength"."

So let us apply this instructive record of bodily infirmity and mercy to the deeper necessities of the soul.

A Plain Commentary. t Luke xviii. 1.

T Henry.

• Hab. ii. 3.

LECTURE XVII.

JESUS JUSTIFIES HIMSELF TO THE JEWS.

JOHN V. 10-18.

LECT. . We were informed in a previous verse that this
XVII. miracle was wrought on the Sabbath. The sacred

historian closes his account of it with these words,
"and the same day was the Sabbath." Here on
the seventh day of the week the Lord ordered
a man who had been the subject of a miraculous
cure to carry away his couch or bedding, as on
some other day of the week" He had ordered
another person similarly situated to do the same
thing. In this case, however, the day being the
Sabbath, the Jews take advantage of the circum-
stance to foment their own malice, and Jesus
takes advantage of it to shew them who and what
He is. He shews them, as we shall see in the
course of the chapter, from the testimony of His
Father, of John the Baptist, of His own works,
and of the Scriptures, who and what He is.
The event came about in this way.
of the Jews, elders or heads of the nation, members

Certain

a Luke vi. 17–26. Whatever day this might have been, it is clear that it was not the Sabbath, as Matthew was the same day sitting at the receipt of custom, see ver. 27: or still more strongly in the parallel passage, Matt. ix. 9. “ Καὶ παράγων ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐκεῖθεν,” which indicates that the call of Matthew took place on the same day as the cure of the paralytic.

XVII.

of the Sanhedrim or council, (for such our Evan- LECT. gelist by this name "the Jews" always intends",) met the man who had been healed, on his way home, carrying his couch or bedding as the Lord had commanded. Therefore as a matter of course, and as it would appear their bounden duty, being the spiritual heads of the people, they stop to reprove the man for what was not merely a transgression of the tradition of the elders, but what does certainly seem to have been contrary to the Law and the Prophets. And it is worthy of note, that our Lord in His subsequent reply does not find fault with them for this. Honest zeal would not have found in Him a reprover, however where it was mistaken He might have set it right. But the error of these men, as the subsequent history shews, was not that, ignorant of the peculiar circumstances of the case, they reproved what was in those days a manifest breach of the Sabbath, but that, when informed of the circumstances which perfectly justified it, they continued in their opposition. Whence it would appear, that it was not zeal for God which animated them, but rather annoyance at the setting aside of their own authority.

Upon this subject also we may observe once for all, that, in His remarks upon the whole case, our Lord is not now upon the reasonableness of the deed being done on the Sabbath. This was indeed the ground He occupied in other cases of healing on that day but He is now upon another point.

b Trench, who gives the following references, ch. i. 19; vii. 1; ix. 22; xviii. 12, 14.

Jer. xvii. 21, 22.

d Matt. xii. 9-12. Luke vi. 6-11. and xiii. 10-16.