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back in full possession of sight, it was clear to all unprejudiced minds that one was there who possessed power superior to any ascribed to that mysterious stream. Some of the young man's neighbours were at hand. They could hardly believe their own eyes. Surely this was the blind beggar they had so often seen sitting there. Yet, if so, how did he see? An investigation took place, which, to be appreciated, must be read, and being carefully read, can, we think, hardly fail to convince any impartial and intelligent person of its historical reality. Here are marks of truth too manifest and too numerous to be invented.

The authorities were perplexed by the incident. Unable to confute or silence the blind man, they put into execution against him a law they had already established—namely, that whoever confessed Jesus to be the Christ should be excommunicated (John ix. 22), or expelled from the synagogue, which involved expulsion from society. Put under the ban for simply asserting the truth, the man was found and received by Jesus, who, doubtless, like a good shepherd, had been searching for this lost sheep. So has it been from that day to this. The utterance of God's truth for man's good has brought social disqualification and expulsion from the church on many of the noblest men and most worthy Christians. But, disowned and persecuted by priests, they were found, received, upheld, and loved by Jesus. Their loss was heavy, but their gain a far exceeding weight of glory. If God be for us, who or what can be against us? (John ix.).

He stood in darkness, and to him unknown

This living world of loveliness and light,

Till, touch'd by Jesus' hand, the shades of night
Fell from his sightless orbs, and round him shone
The kindling light of day. And shall we own

The power divine, that chas'd his earthly gloom,
Nor listen to the voice that said, 'I come

A light to those who see not'? From the throne
Of mercy infinite, the heavenly rays

Of truth descend upon the sinking heart
Of darken'd man; the heavy shades depart
Of sorrow, sin, and death; and to his gaze
The glories of immortal love, unfurl'd,
Disclose the visions of a brighter world.

The person who had been blind confessed Christ, and was received by him. The hard-hearted priests arrayed themselves in active hostility to Christ, and were condemned. The cure had made obvious the great gulf which sunders the good from the bad. A blind beggar had become a friend of the Son of God, the heir of heaven and earth; those who accounted themselves the special servants of the Most High, were, in God's sight and in Christ's, cast down from their lofty pedestal. Thus for discrimination ('judgment') Jesus came-to bring out existing con

trasts, to make prominent real diversities, to exalt and to abase, according to the eternal laws of truth and justice.

Those who had just set themselves against the cause of the gospel, were the authorised teachers of the Hebrew nation. Yet, misled by pride of office, attachment to tradition, and especially by 'filthy lucre,' they closed the door to every new thought, and darkened the chamber in which they kept the people's mind. Jesus, on the contrary, was the 'light of life,' teaching the truth that he had heard of God, and ever prompt and glad to open the eyes of the blind and promote the spread of knowledge. He sought God's will; they, their own. This was the great contrast which had been at the bottom of the facts constituting the last incident. Hence is our Lord naturally led to discourse of the qualities of the true and the false teacher. Availing himself of the proneness for figurative language prevalent in Eastern lands, and employing a metaphor which, with a pasturing people like the Israelites, had peculiar force, he delivered his exquisite parable of the Good Shepherd.

THE GOOD SHEPHERD.

As the good Shepherd leads his sheep
Through paths secure,

And while a-fold by night they sleep,

Doth keep them sure;

So the true Shepherd, Christ, our souls doth guide,

Safe in his eye, protected by his side.

Great Shepherd! do we know thy voice,

And follow thee?

Is thy safe fold our rule and choice,

From bondage free?

Upheld by faith, the obedient sheep shall stand,

'And none shall pluck them from thy Father's hand.'

The fold was an open enclosure, having stone walls on all sides, with one opening or door. At this entrance was placed a watchman, who during the night had to keep guard over the flock. The thief came. He could not find entrance at the door, for he was known to be a thief. He therefore climbed over the wall, in order to commit his depredations. In the morning the shepherd appeared, to lead out the flock to pasture, and entered in by the proper entrance. In the East, sheep bear names, and often follow, not precede, the shepherd, being led, not driven, and sometimes led to the notes of a rural pipe. They know, however, the tones of the shepherd's voice, and follow him wheresoever he may go.

The parable had reference to the parties with whom Jesus had been in conflict. These were the sacerdotal aristocracy of the nation, who, making the law of Moses void by their traditions, had in effect set up a new species of religion, in which their chief aim was their own honour and advantage. This had they done of their own authority; and therefore, not having been commissioned of God, they had entered into his fold, not through the door, but in the use of violence and by a way of their own. By this they showed themselves to be thieves and robbers. The sheep, however, knew them not, and would not follow them. Jesus, on the contrary, was the good Shepherd, sent of God to feed his people; he came in the regular way, as Moses and Isaiah came, and, having entered the fold and uttered his voice, he was recognised and followed by the sheep.

This, which seems to be the substance of the parable, affords many topics for edifying meditation. Let the reader specially observe that Christ's sheep know him and are known by him. Between Jesus and all his true followers there is a real, deep, constant sympathy, which involves supervision on his part and ready obedience on theirs. This sympathy has in itself a vital power and a principle of growth, and may proceed until disciples become one with the Son, and so are united also with the Father.

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This union of men with the Eternal God has for its connecting link the oneness of Jesus with Him who sent him, and is exhibited and exemplified in the deeds which the Messiah did, the words which he uttered, and the sacrifice of himself to which he submitted. Accordingly, our Lord in express terms declared, I and my Father are one.' Wilfully misunderstanding his meaning, the Jews, on a pretext of blasphemy, again took up stones to kill Jesus.

These attempts to stone the Saviour must not be regarded as the mere outbreaks of popular fury. It may be doubted if the people, considered as different from the populace, had any thing to do with them. Traditionary law, with a reprehensible latitude and vagueness, permitted the summary punishment by stoning

of such as were clearly held guilty of blasphemy-a crime then, as at all times, which might mean almost any thing that popular fanaticism pleased. Profiting for their own malignant purposes by this consuetudinary law, the priests seem to have lost no opportunity to urge the rabble to seize or slay our Saviour.

On the occasion now before us they once more failed. Many, however, heard the words of Jesus not in vain. But he, finding the danger to be increasingly pressing, went away beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptised (John x.).

The last-mentioned events (John x. 22-42) took place at 'the feast of Dedication' (the renewal, Dec. 782), which was instituted by the champion of Jewish liberty, Judas Maccabe'us, in memory of the purification and renewal of the temple-worship, after it had been profaned for three years by the Syrian monarch, Antiochus Epi'phanes, who, for his wild acts of persecution against the Israelites, had his surname, Epiphanes (illustrious), changed into Epi'manes (madman). This was an annual festival which, beginning in the middle of December, lasted for eight days. One of its chief features was a general illumination, whence it is called by Josephus 'the feast of Lights.' The evangelist adds that it was winter, or the rainy season. This remark is made in order to explain why the ensuing conversation was held, not in the uncovered court of the temple or in the open air, but in Solomon's porch, which was a colonnade on the eastern side of the temple-buildings, so called because held to derive its origin from that monarch, it having escaped destruction in the time of Nebuchadnezzar.

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The simple words, and it was winter,' contain in them more than may at first appear. They show how minute was the writer's acquaintance with facts. A statement so definite, yet so brief, would not, moreover, have been ventured on by a deceiver, for it was too likely to lead to detection. Nor would such a fact have been mentioned had John written chiefly for Jews; since Jews, wherever they were, knew that 'the festival of Dedication' took place in winter.

CHAPTER VIII.

JESUS RETURNS BEYOND JORDAN AND TEACHES, CORRECTING FALSE NOTIONS AS TO SIN AND PUNISHMENT, WARRING AGAINST SPIRITUAL STERILITY, EXPLAINING THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF THE GOSPEL.

When he arrived on the banks of the Jordan, where he had received John's testimony and opened his great commission, our

Lord found himself surrounded by an innumerable multitude of people, who consisted in part of residents in the neighbourhood, in part of persons returning home from the festival. He began to address them. And what topic more likely to occupy his mind, what more fitting to bring before his audience, than the hollow and base hearts of the Pharisees, from whose ceaseless plots he was ever flying, and whose evil influence counteracted much that he did and said before the world? Their power, however, was very great; and in consequence, Jesus urged on his hearers considerations fitted to make them regard and obey God rather than man, giving them_assurance that the good are in the heavenly Father's hands. Forcibly and appositely enlarging on the universal care of Divine Providence, and the need which men have of directing their first, last, and best attention to their spiritual culture, he used those beautiful words in which, making external Nature lend her voice to his lessons, he gave a religious tongue to the ravens, and caused the lilies to utter wisdom (Luke xii.):

Lo, the lilies of the field,

How their leaves instruction yield!
Hark to Nature's lesson given

By the blessed birds of heaven!
Every bush and tufted tree
Warbles sweet philosophy:

'Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow;
God provideth for the morrow!

'Say, with richer crimson glows
The kingly mantle than the rose ?
Say, have kings more wholesome fare
Than we poor citizens of air?
Barns nor hoarded grain have we,
Yet we carol merrily.

Mortal, fly from doubt and sorrow;
God provideth for the morrow!

'One there lives whose Guardian eye
Guides our humble destiny;

One there lives, who, Lord of all,
Keeps our feathers lest they fall;
Pass we blithely, then, the time,
Fearless of the snare and lime,

Free from doubt and faithless sorrow;
God provideth for the morrow!'

Probably it was at this time Jesus was informed that Pilate, the Roman governor of Palestine, had put to death several Galileans while they were offering their sacrifices in the temple, so that their blood mingled with the blood of the victims. This was a proceeding which shocked and revolted public feeling. The temple was a sacred place. The guilty there found an asy

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