The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 379

long ye:m of infirmity were the consequence of his own evil-doing. Tho mnn know t,hat well enough, and in all likelihood lamented bitterly over his folly. .All sufforol'e deN11nd sympathy; sufferers through their sin most of all. Josue did not begin lecturing the impotent man as he lay by the pool. Ho healed him first, and then spoke plainly, e,en severely, to him after. III. WHAT JESUS GIVES MAN MUST GUARD. While this poor man le.y helpless many temptations passed him by. Now that he was well again, temptations would cr~wd in upon him. The tempter says, "You are getting old; tho years al'e fow: make up for what you lost ,.11 the time you were so helpless." Jesus could easily miike frcah physical energy pour into every organ and member of this disabled me.n. But when it was a question of making him spiritually strong, then ho had to be appealed to in a very warning way. What a dreadful possibility Jesus presents to the man I "A worse thing may happen to thee." What can be worse than a life of physical suffering? And yet t.here are degrees even in that. Moro sin might mean oven worse bodily suffering, though it is almost certain Jesus meant tho ruin of the whole nature. IV. THE RESPONSIBn.ITIES OF HEALTH, Those in full vigour of body and mind must not be astonished when they aro spoken to plainly. If they aro not careful, their very strength and capability work out all the more evil. When we mourn over pro- mising lives made useless by bodily infirmity, wo must remember another aspect of bodily infirmity, namely, that people who might have done great mischief have thereby been made harmless.-Y. Ver. 36.-The witness-bea,ring works C1j Jesus. I. THOSE TO WIIOM THE TESTIMONY WAS OFFERED. Jesus had done two things which exceedingly shocked and horrified the Jews of JerUS&lem. On the sabbath day he had healed an impotent man, and told him to take up his bod and walk. Ho had also said that God was his Father, making him~ self equal with God. The words, the deecls, and the appearance of Jesus seemed con- tradictory to those who would not wait to look under the surface, but judged everything by their own traditions and prejudices. .And when Jesus was confronted by all this prejudice and narrow-mindedness, all he could do was to go on with his work and his witness-bearing. Not for himself he needed to fear anything, but he did fear for those who were blind to his claims. The hearts of mon had got so hardened and their minds so twisted, that the trne was reckoned to be the false, and the right to be the wrong. It did no harm to Jesus that he should be called sabbath-breaker and blasphemer, but it did great harm to those falsely calling him so. Hence he tries, quietly and patiently, to get t1rem to examine into the evidence for his claims. Jesus never wanted people to take his bare word. He knew that false Christe would go out into the world, and therefore ho woul<l. furnish ample and comforting evidence that he was the true Christ. Somehow or other, there were immense difficulties in the way of people receiving Jesus as the Christ of God. But they were not difficulties that Jesus made. Jesus is on onr side acre.inst the difficulties. The works of Jesns, going on from day to day, gradually monnted up to a body of testimony, on which tho faith of a sincere heart could build as on a foundation of rock. IL THE WITNESS-BEARING wonirs. John was a witness, but Jesus had greater witness than that of John. - J esns did not speak in any way depreciatory of John. The best of men may not be the best of witnesses. John told people whllre to look. He fixed their attention on Jesw;, and they were then to watch what Jesus would do. From our own observation of Jesus we know fM more than ever John could have told us. The deeds of Jesus speak with unsurpassed power and tenderness to those who are disposed to listen. There they lio in their simple beauty and depth of suggestion, waiting till we look at them and search into them and put them together, investigating to tLeir very depths, so that whatever witness-bearing power is in them may be brought out to the full. What men say about Jesus is all very well in it11- way, but what we can see Jesus himself doing is far better. He meaDB that we should, as it were, see him with our own eyes. III. Oun RESI'ONSIBI.LITY BEFORE THIB WITNESS-BEARING. We may neglect to examine into these witnesses, but that does not prove them unworthy of our closest study. Jesus knows his own. What you are disinclined to look at just now, you may pe ea~er to ~rcb into by-and-by. 'l'ho\Ul&QdtJ pooh-pooh tho reality and possibility Oil, VI, 1-71.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 24!,