Brethren, beware of the pharisaic spirit; beware of taking counsel of your inclinations or prejudices in any religious question. Be not hasty either to oppose religious opinions, or to condemn religious persons; do not cast out their names as evil, nor call their doctrine enthusiasm. They may be right, and you wrong; and what you count foolishness may be the wisdom of God. We do not ask you to take it for granted that the matter is so, or to believe without examination. Enquire as fully as you please. Leave not anything doubtful which it is in your power to ascertain; but bring a fair and candid spirit to the enquiry; be willing to receive, when found, whatever is the will and mind of God. The truth may be humbling to your pride, it may be mortifying to your lusts, but do not on that account either refuse or corrupt it. But bow to the wisdom and to the authority of God. Let him teach, let him command you. Thus while to those who receive not the love of the truth that they may be saved, God in righteous judgment sends often strong delusion, that they may believe a lie; before you darkness shall be made light, and crooked things straight, and you shall be guided in a safe path to eternal glory.

SERMON XLVI.

JOHN, IX. 24-34.

Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear; wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples? Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

THE passage which I have read speaks so plainly for itself, is expressed so happily, and with so much life, that a paraphrase is not only unnecessary, but would weaken its force. I shall therefore offer none; but, after a few remarks on the story as it proceeds, shall apply it as the Lord may enable me to the edification of my hearers.

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After the Pharisees had called the blind man again before them, the first words which they address to him were very good words. Give God the praise." What better precept could have been given? From God proceeds every good thing which his creatures receive; to him therefore praise should be rendered for all. Alas! that so holy a counsel should be given. with a wicked mind. Yet who was there among you, my brethren, who when you heard these words read in the text, did not understand that they were said hypocritically; not

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for the sake of bringing honour to God, but for the sake of taking away honour from Christ. "Give God the praise, we know that this man is a sinner." How did they know? Did they mean because he had healed on the sabbath? The poor man knew that as well as they or did they mean to insinuate, that things had come to their knowledge against Christ of which the multitude were ignorant; and that they were therefore warranted in asserting that he was a sinner? They might expect that a poor ignorant man would be borne down by the positiveness of their assertion; and that he would not venture to dispute what learned doctors and holy Pharisees so solemnly affirmed. But the poor man answers them very sensibly : "Whether he be a sinner or no I know not; one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." He enters not into the question of what they knew, but calls upon them to account for the miracle. How would they explain the fact that through the agency of a sinner, he who was blind now saw? What would they wish him to believe? Would they have him think, that as Jesus was a sinner it was not by the finger of God that he had wrought this miracle, but by the help of Satan? If this was what they meant, why should they say, "Give God the praise," when they were actually giving the praise to the devil?

And it really seems as if they did mean this. However not to overcharge them, we may suppose them to mean, that Christ had nothing to do with the cure at all, and that nothing which he did or said had any connexion with the man's receiving his sight; but that it pleased God to heal him; which he did, and would have done if Christ had neither acted nor spoken. Was then the poor man to believe that this healing which by the supposition was altogether independent of Christ, took place by chance at the very moment when in obedience to the word of Christ he had washed in the pool of Siloam?

The simple man it seems, had set the Pharisees a hard task when he called upon them to account for the miracle on the supposition that Christ was a sinner. He had set them a task which they could not master. They therefore questioned him again, "What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes?"

The answer which he gave to this question may seem not

sufficiently respectful from a man in his condition of life, before rulers, before men in authority. No doubt every one is bound to give honour where honour is due; and the man may have failed in this; we are not at all concerned to exhibit him as faultless, nay, as yet we cannot pronounce him a Christian at all. It is by no means, however, clear that he was faulty in this answer; he shewed indeed a bold and honest indignation, but not more than the occasion called for; he had received from a stranger a great and unlooked for benefit; he had been questioned about the fact by his neighbours and by the Pharisees; he had heard his benefactor called a sinner; and, after having given repeated explanations, he is called upon to explain over again. The heart of man is so constituted that it will feel indignant at the discovery of baseness; nor is that indignation a sinful feeling; it found a place in the breast of Jesus himself; and I do not know that this poor man either felt it too strongly, or expressed it too severely, when he said, "I have told you already, and ye did not hear, wherefore would ye hear it again? Will ye also be his disciples?" Nothing cuts so deep as unwelcome truth. It cannot be answered, hence it exasperates the more. The Pharisees therefore reviled the man and said, "Thou art his disciple, but we are Moses' disciples; we know that God spake unto Moses; as for this fellow, we know not whence he is." Nothing could be more just or more to the purpose than the reply of the poor man to this reviling. 'Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing." This admirable reply is so simple, so forcible, that it would be injured by any paraphrase. But there is one assertion on which I would offer a remark or two. It is this: "Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind." This assertion was literally true, and the miracle a most extraordinary one. There was no record of such a miracle being performed by any of the Prophets of former days,

Moses could turn the rivers of Egypt into blood; could bring darkness upon the land; and divide the waters of the Red sea; Elijah and Elisha were both of them permitted to restore the dead to life. But the precise miracle of giving sight to one born blind had not by any of them been performed. Nor had the art of surgery been then so far advanced, that a patient born blind had ever, by any operation, been enabled to see. This has been done in our times, and done first by Cheseldon, an English surgeon; and God is to be praised for the healing helps of every kind which he affords. The advancement of medical science is a blessing which comes from him; and it is an honour to the physician or the surgeon, when we can consider him as an instrument whom God is pleased to employ, and "Give God the praise."

can say,

But there is something more in this miracle than we are apt to think of; for the poor man was not only by miracle enabled to see, but also miraculously taught the art of seeing. Perhaps some may not understand what I mean by this expression. I will therefore explain it. Suppose a person born blind to be at once, whether by miracle or by medical skill, enabled to see; and suppose also that the organs of sight, now for the first time made capable of performing their functions, were able to bear the light of day without inconvenience; still the person so cured would not know how to use his eyes; seeing would be an art which he would have to learn; he would have no notion of distance, the most remote objects would appear as close to his eyes as the nearest, and if he had any idea at all of touching the things which he saw, he would be as likely to raise his hand in order to lay hold on a tree which was a mile off, or to pluck a star out of the firmament, as he would be to grasp the hand of a friend which was held out to him. But the man whom Jesus healed understood at once, what we insensibly learn by daily experience. He not only possessed the organs of sight like other men, but applied them to use like other men.

Never were men more completely foiled than these learned Pharisees by this unlettered man; his examination and his answers put me in mind of the trials of the early protestant confessors before their popish persecutors. The resemblance is

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