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sider is, Am I seeking Him? Am I conscious LECT. of blindness, of spiritual darkness; and, if conscious, am I applying unto Him for relief? Am I looking for Him, feeling after Him, in those ways which He suggests? Are we all here in the habit of earnest prayer; of daily, diligent, and thoughtful study of God's word; of regular and devout attendance upon His ordinances; frequent guests at His sacramental board?

We may not marvel at blindness, at the unhappiness and evils which this malady symbolizes, if Siloa's fountain is unfrequented, and the messenger of the covenant is rarely applied to, and never heartily applied to, for healing virtue. Why do we toil and groan under this weary load, when there is one who offers to remove it from us, saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest?" Why do we pine away in our malady, when there is one who will take it away, and give unto us the light of life?

To Him let us apply: to Him address the fervent petition, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may see the wondrous things of Thy law." None ever heartily put up the prayer, and duly employed the means, in vain.

LECTURE XLI.

THE MAN THAT WAS BORN BLIND BEFORE

THE PHARISEES.

LECT.
XLI.

JOHN ix. 8-17.

GREAT was the astonishment of the neighbours, we might well have expected, at what had happened to this poor, blind man. We learn from this opening verse that he was poor, unable probably from his life-long defect to do aught towards earning his own livelihood, and so subsisting upon the charity of the passers by. We learn from it too that his case and his appearance were well known: and though doubtless his newly opened eyes lighted up his whole countenance with an expression which had never gleamed there before", yet there was no reasonable doubt as to his identity. There was so much of change indeed as to fill them with astonishment, and enough of his former appearance to enable them to recognise the man.

Some however, friends of the Pharisees, enemies of Jesus; anxious even at the expense of conscience and of truth to commend themselves to the rulers; unwilling to admit that such a miracle had been wrought; more blind even than this blind man, (for none so blind as those

Aperti oculi vultum mutaverant." Aug. in Jo. Tr. xliv. 8.

XLI.

who will not see;) poorer even than this wayside LECT. beggar, (for what poverty greater than meanness of spirit?)—some, we find, pretended to doubt; nay, determined to shut their eyes to the fact, resolved never to admit the miracle, thought to pass off the miserable subterfuge, "he is like him." It cannot be he, but some one who closely resembles him. It may remind us of the wretched attempt of the rulers to disparage the resurrection of Jesus. And while all this shews the blinding force of prejudice, and the mean arts to which it may descend, it yet illustrates the fidelity of the sacred historian, and confirms his word. But all such artifices and vanities were at once blown away by the honest breath of this plain, outspoken man. While "some said, This is he," and "others said, He is like him, he said, I am he." After this there could be no room for doubt, or for the pretence of it.

So they at once turn upon him: both parties; those who admitted, and those who denied, the miracle; those who at once recognised the man, and those who, for their own ends, had pretended to doubt his identity. Both began to question him;. the better-affected, and the illaffected those from sheer wonder and a very reasonable curiosity; these in the malignant hope of extracting that from his statements which might tell in some way against Him whom they well suspected to be the author of the miracle, and so commend them for their zeal against Jesus

b Matt. xxviii. 11—15.

• Hereupon Bp. Hall pertinently remarks, " No truths have received so full proofs as those that have been questioned."

LECT. to the wicked rulers of their people. So they question him, "How were thine eyes opened ?"

XLI.

Hear now his plain, unvarnished tale in reply; the simple statement, "remarkable for its energetic brevity," "A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash: and I went and washed, and received sight." In this single verse we have an admirable recapitulation of the whole transaction. Here we may see, as before, the sufferer, the healer, the means employed, the gracious delay in cure, the command, the obedience of faith, and the end of faith. And this record of the miracle, the experience of the man telling his simple story, may well encourage any to come and apply for the same; yea, for a higher and spiritual blessing. They shall not be sent empty away.

There is one minute feature in this simple story which it may be well to observe. You will notice that the man speaks only of the clay, not of what was mingled with it. For, being blind, he could not see what our Lord did; he could only feel what He applied. This little coincidence is a great mark of truth. It is one which could not come by design.

d Dr. Hales, quoted in D'Oyly and Mant.

Indeed, the

e "Remark the appropriateness of these words in a spiritual sense as applicable to ourselves. The Son of God became Man (&v@pwños) and Saviour ('Inooûs). He came to us in our blindness, as we sat and begged by the way-side of life; He made clay, i. e. He took of the mortal dust of our earthy nature, (see v. 6.) and moulded it by the breath and moisture of His mouth, and blended it with the Divine Nature, and anointed it with the Holy Ghost; and sent us to Siloam, and on the co-operation of our faith and obedience with His Divine Power and Love, our eyes are opened, and we see." Wordsworth.

XLI.

way the whole story is told, especially the man's LECT. own simple version of it, has an unmistakeable air of credibility and truthfulness. Can any thing

be more straightforward? It is a plain tale, and beyond all doubt a true one. Here too we may see faith in the acting; instant and painstaking: "I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments."

Having heard from the lips of the man that was born blind this incontestible account of his wondrous cure, his questioners are anxious to see Him who wrought this miracle of healing. They ask not now, as in that former case of healing at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath day, "What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk'?" but only, for Jesus now was well known, "Where is He?" And if, as it would seem, both parties, as before, joined in the question, the motives of each in asking it were widely different. "Where is He?" the one might enquire, that we may give Him the honour due, that we too may obtain from Him like gifts of healing, and any other signal benefits and good gifts. "Where is He?" the other might desire to know, that they might wreak upon Him their malice, and apprehend Him, and bring Him before their council. For when the man answers, "I know not," proving how impossible was any collusion, how little the Lord sought for honour from man, these malignant ones, unable to bring Jesus Himself before their rulers and employers, do the next best, or, in their intention, the next worst thing, and carry

f ch. v. 12.