the Pharisees and the Disciples of Jesus. They associate themselves unwarrantably with the Baptist, by whom they had been reproved and would be disclaimed; but it lends an air of respectability to their opposition. No man could venture to dispute the apparent authority of John. They make the most, here as elsewhere,2 of their own merits, and put the conduct of the Disciples, as we find from our Lord's words afterwards 3 they did that of the Master Himself, in the worst possible light; as though the opposite of ascetism must needs be intemperance. Our Lord, as usual, answers them in parables. There is a time for all things. The Disciples, to adopt the Baptist's own figure in answer to a somewhat like expostulation, were now like the Friends of the Bridegroom, rejoicing in His presence. Fasting therefore would be for the present out of place. The time would come soon enough when, by reason of His absence, they would forget to eat their bread. Then shall they fast of their own accord. This fulness shall fit them to endure that emptiness. 4 CXLIII. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Luke v. 36-39. And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved. No man also having 1 St. Matt iii. 9, 10; xxi. 25; St. Luke vii. 29, 30. 2 St. Luke xviii. 12. 3 St. Luke vii. 31-34. St. John iii. 25, 26, 29. Ps. cii. 4. There is a verse in one of Mrs. Hemans' Poems which contains a kindred thought, "Check not in its lightness The young heart's full glow, drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better. Another reason the Lord adds (for He will not give all that might be given) why He does not now force this subject of fasting upon His Disciples. They were not able to bear it, any more than an old garment would bear being patched with a new piece, which would but make the old worse, as well as look worse; or old leathern bottles or skins1 bear the fermentation of the new wine. Both must be new together. For new wine, new bottles. Their doctrines. would but altogether mar those into whom they should be suddenly introduced. The Lord adds another brief parabolic saying, growing out of the former, of wide application.2 No man who knows anything about wine will turn from old to new. And the inference implied is that it is vain to expect those who have tasted the generous and wholesome 3 and cordial teaching of Christ, to care for the crude and frothy notions of the Pharisees. Here He compares their doctrine to fermenting liquor, as in another place to fermenting leaven. Beware of both. The general lesson is to avoid patchwork in religion; to stand upon the old ways; to shun new-fangled notions; that there be no schism in the body. Of whatever is offered to us in Theology it may be said, speaking generally, that what is true in it is not new, and what is new is not true. 1 The skins which serve for bottles, are familiar to all travellers in the East, and indeed in most wine countries. So in Ps. cxix. 83, the leathern vessel so exposed would soon be shrivelled. 2 John Wesley refers to it in his Journal, contrasting the worship at the Kirk with that of the Church, both of which he had attended the same day. 3 1 Tim. vi. 3. St. Matt. xvi. 11, 12; St. Luke xii. 1. 5 Jer. vi. 16; xviii. 15. 1 Cor. xii. 25. CXLIV. THE HEALING OF THE IMPOTENT MAN AT St. John v. 1-4. After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. Our Lord has now returned from Galilee into Judæa, as before we saw Him journey from Judæa into Galilee.1 The reason of His return at this time was that He might be present at one of the religious Festivals, which He always made a point of attending. The Pool here spoken of was the one near that gate of the city which was called the Sheepgate,3 as it is in the margin. It was called in the language of the Jews" Bethesda," which means "The house of mercy;" and round it were built five porticoes or chambers,* 1 St. John iv. 3. 2 Notwithstanding Bp. Hall's just censure of the speech of Maldonatus here, an inquiry into this subject may not be altogether unprofitable, or barren of some good results, even though we cannot conclude with certainty which Feast it was. Yet this may still be said for the anciently received opinion, that admitting that this was one of the three great Festivals, it cannot have been (1) the Passover, for there could scarcely have been a year's interval since the last mention of that Festival (ch. ii. 23) and the Second Passover is mentioned further on (ch. vi. 4). Again it can not have been (2) the Feast of Tabernacles, which is mentioned for the first time in ch. viii. 2. If this had been that Feast, we should doubtless have had the same distinctive mode of expression here, in mentioning it for the first time, which is used there. The inference therefore is that it was the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost; which, moreover, would be the only one of the three not mentioned, if not mentioned here. 3 So in Nehem. iii. 1, 32; xii. 39. Those who are familiar with the Ghauts of the Hindoos can readily imagine such a structure. for the accommodation of those who waited there for healing. For this pool was endued with a healing power, which however was exercised only at intervals. It was apparently an intermittent spring. The waters were not at all times, but only at certain seasons, remedial; their occasionally turbid appearance being the sign that the healing power was present. And for this the sick folk in the little chambers on the brink were eagerly watching. And when it appeared, each strove to step in first; for whoever first stepped in, before the particles which caused the disturbance, and on which depended the healing power, had subsided (for these seem only to have lasted for a moment or two at a time, just long enough to enable one at a time to partake of their healing influence) whoever thus immediately availed himself of the benefit, was made whole of his particular disease. This occasional and temporary disturbance of the water was attributed, in the popular belief, to the instrumentality of an angel; not "that an angel visibly descended from heaven, but the occasional healing virtue of the water was ascribed to the power of some angel employed by God for that purpose." For "according to the Jewish way of speaking, everything that had a Divine effect was said to be done by ministering spirits or angels." And the idea, for aught we know, may have its measure of truth. 1 Bp. Mann in D'Oyly and Mant. 2 Bp. Pearce, ibid. It will be proper to observe in a note, that this fourth verse is admitted on almost all sides to be a marginal gloss, which was only added to explain the two points which were considered obscure -the assemblage of the sick, and the answer of the impotent man in ver. 7 --and which found its way from the margin, through the carelessness of copyists, into the text itself. The most sober and reverent commentators are here agreed, that this fourth verse 2 formed no part of the original text. Abp. Trench, who has an admirable summing-up of the evidence, refers us to Rev. xvi. 5, as a remarkable point of contact. Bp. Jer. Taylor, confounding or identifying Siloam with Bethesda, says: "Baptism is, like the pool of Siloam, appointed for healing; it is salutary and medicinal; but the Spirit of God is that great Angel that descends thither and makes them virtual; and faith is the hand that puts us in."-Worthy Communicant, iii. 1. CXLV. THE SAME SUBJECT—continued. St. John v. 5–7. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, 1 have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Among the sick folk on the banks of Bethesda was a man who had been suffering from some disease which had almost deprived him of the use of his limbs for thirty and eight years. To him the Lord, out of compassion for his present case, and aware, without having been informed by any, of the long continuance of his infirmity, addressed a question which "at first might seem superfluous; for who would not be made whole if he might? and his very presence at the place of healing attested his desire. But the question has its purpose. The impotent man probably had waited so long, and so long waited in vain, that hope was .... well nigh dead within him, and the question is asked to awaken in him anew a yearning after the benefit . . . . It was something to learn that this stranger pitied him, was interested in his case, and would help him if he could. So learning to believe in His love, he was being prepared to believe also in His might. Our Lord was assisting him now to the faith which presently He was about to demand." In the impotent man's answer there is no direct reply to our Lord's question. He perhaps understood it as an expression of surprise, that he should lie there so long when the means of recovery were within reach. Therefore he explains the reason of this. He complains of the want of a friend, and Abp. Trench. Chrysostom (Ser. vii. In Paralyticum) assigns other reasons, as that He might afford him an opportunity of setting forth his sad case, and of becoming a teacher of patience. |