hopes, it may be, from the unusual attention of this stranger, to find such a friend in Him. I have not a man,' he says, not one to help me. And much need had he of one; for by reason of his infirmity, his movements were so slow that one and another prevented him and obtained the benefit; so that without some friendly hand to help him to the water's edge, and put him in at the right moment, he despairs of ever obtaining a cure.2 CXLVI. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. John v. 8, 9. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked and on the same day was the sabbath. Now comes the gracious sequel. At the Lord's bidding he essays to do as he is bidden, and finds that, through His power in whom he believes,3 he is able to do even as he is bidden. He took up that whereon he lay, his bedding, which in the milder climate of the East is usually nothing more than a sort of rug or 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 burthen. 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. This was as it were a trophy. It marked the completeness of the cure. few reflections we may draw from the record of this miracle. How eager were these impotent folk to be delivered from So in the original. 2 Chrysostom (Ser. xxxiv. de Resurrectione) assumes, strangely enough, that only one was healed year by year. The passage, however, is a noble one, contrasting the poverty of Judaism with the plenitude of Christian bless ing, and showing that if any "fail of A their bodily diseases! Would that there were equal eager This poor friendless man years. "Shall we com who perhaps for many ness for the healing of the soul! had an infirmity thirty and eight plain of one wearisome night years have scarce known what it has been to be a day sick, when many others, better than we, have scarce known what it has been to be a day well?" It may do us good sometimes to visit those Bethesdas which seem one of the fruits of Christ's religion, the hospitals and asylums unknown in pagan times, that we may learn to be more thankful for our own blessings, and more ready to relieve the sufferings of others. 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." This poor man had waited a long time and in vain, yet he did not give way to despair. It is a lesson of perseverance in prayer and in the use of all appointed means of Grace. It is an encouragement to us to frequent the spiritual Bethesda, the House of God.2 CXLVII. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. John v. 10-12. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk ? Certain of the Jews, elders or heads of the nation, members of the Sanhedrim or Council,3 met the man who had been 1 Henry. 2 "Car la nature est une image de la grace, et les miracles visibles sont les images des invisibles."--Pascal, Pensées, Ar. xvi. 9. 3 Such St. John by this phrase "the Jews," always intends. ch. i. 19; vii. 1; ix. 22; xviii. 12, 14. 1 healed on his way home, carrying his couch as the Lord had commanded. They stop to reprove him for what seems certainly to have been a breach of the Law of Moses. And it is worthy of note that our Lord 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 shows, 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 then justified it, they continued in their opposition. 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. That was indeed the ground He took in some other cases of healing on that day; but He is now upon another point. He is now intent upon teaching the Jews another truth. In those other cases the Lord's object was to explode wrong notions concerning His Day; here, however, His object is to impress upon them right views concerning His Divinity. The man, we find, justifies himself on the ground of our Lord's authority. He knew he could not be wrong in obeying one who, by this miracle of healing, had given signal proof that God was with Him.3 The rejoinder of the Elders is remarkable. Their malignity reveals itself in the very shape their question takes. They do not ask, as would be the more natural, What man is that which made thee whole? but, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk? They ask not to admire but to accuse.* 2 Jer. xvii. 21, 22. 2 St. Matt. xii. 9-12; St. Luke vi. 6-11; xiii. 10-16. 3 St. John iii. 2; ix. 16, 33. Ser. vii. R CXLVIII. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. John v. 13, 14. And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. 66 It is hard to find Christ in a crowd.' In His Temple however we may be found of Him. This man was there, we may reasonably suppose, to offer up his praises and thanksgivings for the late mercies vouchsafed unto him; and our Lord takes the opportunity of speaking to him a word in due season. Behold, thou art made whole:" contrast thy present with thy late condition, and realise the blessing. "Behold, thou art made whole:" restored to health and strength, and so once more exposed to those temptations from which state of sickness may in a measure shield one; therefore beware; "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." Here the man's sin is called to his remembrance. For however our Lord may elsewhere rebuke the self-complacent and uncharitable way some had of tracing an invariable connexion between earthly suffering and individual sin; or the scheme "which should in every case affirm a man's personal suffering to be in proportion to his personal guilt; a scheme which all experience refutes, much judgment being deferred and awaiting the great day when all things shall be set on the square: yet He meant not thereby to deny that much, very much of judgment is even now continually proceeding."3 As our Lord plainly intimates in words which showed " that all the past life of the sufferer lay open and manifest before Him; even things done more than thirty-eight years ago, before, that is, His own earthly life was commenced."3 In those warning words Aug. Tr. xvii. 11 3 Abp. Trench. 1 2 2 St. Luke xiii. 1-5. "lest a worse thing come unto thee we seem to have a glimpse of the fearfulness of the Divine judgments. What earthly thing could well be worse than those thirty and eight years of infirmity already inflicted? Yet is he warned, if he still refuse to be corrected, the last state should be worse than the first. The admonition was mercifully given a short interval after the cure; for with returning health come returning temptations, and the man returns too often to his former sins. CXLIX. JESUS JUSTIFIES HIMSELF TO THE JEWS. St. John v. 15-18. The man departed. and which had made him whole. secute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. told the Jews that it was Jesus, And therefore did the Jews per We can hardly suppose this action of the once impotent man to have proceeded from any bad motive; for he dwells. upon the benefit which had been done, as the Jews had dwelt upon the law which had been broken. They had asked who it was that had said to him, Take up thy bed and walk; he tells them who it was that had made him whole. He thinks in his simplicity that it only needs to be known who this was, for them to join him in his gratitude. He little knew what was in their hearts. They inquired not to honour, but, like another Herod,2 to persecute. They have now, they hope, direct evidence against the marked out victim of their malice. Therefore they persecuted Him, and sought to slay Him; probably consulting together if it were possible to |