unless that the dread of interrupthig the discourses of their Lord should awe them into silence. The lame and viaimed (many of whom perhaps had not only their strength renewed, but their limbs, that had suffered amputation^, perfectly re- stored) how would they exult and leap for joy, clapping their hands in ecstasy, and glorifying the author of their mercies ! We may be assured of this from what is recorded of the cripple whom Peter healed^. Methinks the assembly would be like a choir of ten thousand instruments, whose notes were exceeding various, but all in perfect harmony.]
2. On the surrounding multitude —
[The spectators, many of whom were friends and relatives of those that had been healed, doubtless participated in the general joy. Their feelings however were probably less ecstatic, because their own personal interest was not so nearly con- cerned. But their astonishment at the wonders performed, their satisfaction in the success of their own labours, and their sympathy with those whose maladies had been removed, could not fail of exciting in their minds the most pleasing sensations. When the wife or husband, the parent or child, saw the object of his warmest affections restored to health, and exercising with activity and vigour the faculties that had been renewed, surely he would lift up his eyes to heaven with devoutest gratitude, or prostrate himself upon the ground in profoundest adoration. When, in addition to the mercy his relatives had received, he beheld others in like circumstances with himself, and every moment fresh monuments of mercy rising before his eyes, we may conceive him overwhelmed with the sight and lost in amazement.]
3. On Jesus himself —
[Could Jesus be an unconcerned spectator of the bliss he was diffusing ? Could he, who wept at the grave of Lazarus, refuse to sympathize with this adoring multitude ? It was one of his most common sayings, that it is more blessed to give than to receive*^; and doubtless he experienced the truth of it on this occasion. Let us then consider the joy excited in the breast of every individual that had been relieved ; let us con- solidate and compress it, as it were, into one mass ; and theu we may have some faint conception of what Jesus felt, while he was communicating such abundant happiness. He would not fail to adore, with inexpressible, though perhaps hidden, ardour, his heavenly Father, for making him the channel of so many blessings. But Jesus' happiness would be widely different from
^ This may be implied in the word kvWovq. See Mark ix. 43. b Actsiii. 8. <= Acts xx, 35.