[Wc wonder not at the ecstacies of the restored man : we should rather wonder if he had not so expressed his joy and gratitude. But have not we also cause for joy? Does not every recovery from sickness, or every continuance of health, proceed from the same source ? and is it not equally a ground of praise and thanksgiving? The circumstance of his cure being miraculous attracted more attention, it is true ; but it added nothing to the value of the blessing bestowed : and if we were duly sensible of the benefits we enjoy, we should glorify our God even as he did.
But what if the Lord Jesus Christ has healed our souls ? What if, by his life-giving word, he has quickened us from the dead ? Should not tve praise and magnify his name ? Would not " even the stones cry out against us, if we held our peace?" See what the prophet foretold as the effect of the preached Gospel ; " Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall singk." See what David experienced as the result of this mercy to his own soul1; and know, that if the same external demonstrations of joy be not called for, the same internal frame of mind as the healed cripple possessed, should distinguish every one that professes to believe in Christ
" What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits
towards me?" is surely as proper to be asked on account of spiritual blessings, as of any mercies that can be vouchsafed to our poor perishing bodies.]
Improvement —
1. Let us seek ourselves to be living witnesses for Christ —
[Little did this healed cripple imagine what weight he added to the Apostles' testimony, or how the sight of him confounded all the enemies of the Lord Jesus. And little does the consistent Christian imagine to what a degree he strengthens the hands of those who preach the Gospel. Truly we take courage when we can appeal to the effects of our mi- nistry on the hearts and lives of our hearers. O let those who profess to have received the truth, shew, that the grace of Christ has wrought as effectually on them for the renovation of their souls, as it wrought on the cripple for the restoration of his limbs. Let every temper and disposition of our minds constrain our enemies to acknowledge, that " we have been with Jesus," and are blessed monuments of his transforming
power"1 Such an exhibition of his power and grace
will glorify him more than all the bodily cures he ever wrought".]
k Isai. xx-xv. 6. > Ps. ciii. 1. 8. '" See Isai. xliii. 11,12.
" 2 Thess. i. 11, 12. with Isai. lxii. 3.