| Devotional Hours with the Bible |
Chapter 14 |
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The Case was still sadder because the man never had seen. Those who have their eyes for a time and then lose them may cherish the memories of the beautiful things they once looked upon. But this man never had seen. He could form no conception of colors, nor could he understand anything about the appearance of objects. The world was a great dark blank to him. Then the blindness of this man was incurable. He was absolutely hopeless in the darkness. His poverty was an added element of distress in his condition. He sat and begged for alms, receiving only such pittances as passers-by grudgingly gave him. No wonder that when Jesus saw him sitting there saw his blank, sad face, knowing all that lay behind it, and beheld his hand outstretched, He pitied him.
There is another blindness, which is still worse than natural blindness. It is the blindness of the soul’s eyes. There are those who see well the beautiful things of nature, but who see nothing of the still more beautiful things of God’s love and grace. They have no eyes for the loveliness of righteousness and truth. They see not the divine Hand that moves everywhere in providence. They never behold the face of Jesus Christ, in which shines all the glory of God. There is a whole world of spiritual beauty lying about them, of which they see nothing — the love of God, the divine promises, the hopes of heaven, and all the joys of salvation. Men of the world hear devout Christians speak with rapture of the joys of Christian faith and of Christian experience, and say, “I cannot see any such joys as these in religion.” It is because they are blind.
In those days the belief was almost universal that every trouble was due to special sin in the person. The friends of Job insisted that the patriarch must have been a great sinner, to bring upon himself so much of the disfavor of God. There is much of the same feeling found yet in the world, even among Christian people. Misfortune is associated in many men’s minds with guilt. We often hear it said by those who have had some trouble, “I wonder what sins God is punishing me for now.” The disciples, when they saw this poor man sitting in his blindness, imagined that sin either in him or in some ancestor was the cause of his calamity.
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