The man mentioned in this chapter was born blind. We find the Lord's disciples asking Him:
"Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered, "Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be manifest in him."
When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him:
"Go wash in the pool of Siloam."
The blind man went his way and washed, and his eyesight was restored.
Observe what that man did. He did _just what Christ told him to do_. The Savior's command to him was to go to the pool of Siloam and wash; and "he went his way therefore, and came seeing." He was blessed in the very act of obedience.
Another thought: God does not generally repeat Himself. Of all the blind men who were healed while Christ was on earth, no two were healed in exactly the same way. Jesus met blind Bartimeus near the gates of Jericho, and called him to Him and said:
"What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?"
The answer was: "Lord, that I might receive my sight."
Now, see what He did. He did not send Bartimeus off to Jerusalem twenty miles away to the pool of Siloam to wash. He did not spit on the ground, and make clay, and anoint his eyes; but with a word He wrought the cure, saying:
"Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole."
Suppose Bartimeus had gone from Jericho and had met the other blind beggar at the gate of the city of Jerusalem, and asked him how it was he got his sight; suppose they began to compare notes--one telling his experience, and the other telling his. Imagine the first saying:
"I do not believe that you have got your sight, because you did not get it in the same way that I got mine."
Would the different ways the Lord Jesus had in healing them make their cases the less true? Yet there are some people who talk just that way now. Because God does not deal with some exactly as He does with others, people think that God is not dealing with them at all. God seldom repeats Himself. No two persons were ever converted exactly alike, so far as my experience goes. Each one must have an experience of his own. Let the Lord give sight in His own way.
There are thousands of people who