The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-16
READING FOR THE DAY.
sanaay-school Lesson for May 80. 1885

6unuay-ScnOOk Lesson tOr d1ay lcoos
JESUS AT BETHEsDA.-Johu, v, sis.
Eolden Text-Wilt thou be made wholel-John, v. 8.
A great deal of space and time has been given
10 settle two questions involved in this lesson.
The feast that brought Jews to Jerusalem at
this time may i.ly be called 1.-THE unknown
FEAST as the scholars differ so widely. The
weight of authority seems to be against its
being the Passover. The only Importance OF
deciding the matter grows out OF the fact that II
It we're the Passover it makes Christs ministry
three and half years long; otherwise only two
and half as we have three other distinct Pass
overs that He attended. AS to the pool here called
Bethesda, 1t Is now agreed that 1t cannot De
the pool of that name near St Stephens Gate
within the present city. 1t was probably stu
ated at what is now called the Fountain of the
Virgin, near Sloan. The water rises and falls
there to-day in a mysterious way. But the Bible
does not claim that there was any miraculous
power in the water. But it might then have
been supposed to have had supernatural healing
qualities, and nervous sufferers might easily
have been helped through their imagination
The same picture of throng OF lame, bilnd,
helpless ones may De seen around the hot springs
near Tiberias to day, as around Bethesda of old.
We must supply to the scholars the facts that
precede the lesson, as it begins abruptly with
the fifth verse.
The fourth verse, that tells of the angel NOV
liar healing power, has been found to be spuri-
Gus gem in the crown of the Gospel of St john
1t is not found in the oldest manuscript, and has
evidently been interpoiated by later copylsts.
At first the statement was probably written in
the margin of some manuscript as matter OF
explanation or legend; the next copyist took it
out of the margin and placed 1T in the text and
there 1t remained until discovered by modern
scholars who have gone again and again through
the Bible hunting for the leaven of mans work.
MS the jews go through and through their houses
the day before the Passover searching for the
least crum Of leaven to destroy It
PRACTICAL LESSONS.
l. Jesus knowns that he had been long time
lmpotent The wonderful personal knowledge of
al the details Of ones life is here taught. Jesus
knows all about US, and can adapt Himself to us
II we will only come
q Wilt thou be made whole2 Jesus intends
y complete cure--a complete salvation. Our
weak faith reaches only to an incomplete, half
Finished cure, and the church is full of half
healed, lame, blind impotent men and women
who call themselves converted Christians. The
Master must do his work in less thorough way
than of old, or faith is impotent.
g. have no man to put me in. Every one
needs some good kind friend to lead him to
Jesus. Many would come IL the way could be
opened before them. If the churches had more
helping hands there would be more conversions.
f. He took up his bed and walked. he can
easily carry now what was before an impossible
burden. When once converted, all the things
that seemed go hard and difficult before will be
found to be easy and delightful. The new life
and strength make all things possible.
s. He had done these things on the Sabbath
day. We are drifting away to the opposite ex-
treme in the matter of Sabbath observance, and
we make it entirely day OF rest and pleasure
rather than holy day for work and worship.
The Christian Sabbath Is a day for Christian
work, and the Masters Sabbath is the type of
ours
THE GREAT TEACHING
l. For Belief. Bethesda, or Christ. We have
presented in sharp contrast the way of healing
that men prefer to that which God sends We
naturally like that mysterious way, by some
moving waters, into which we are cast and find
ourselves healed. We expect that by some mys-
terious spiritual movement in and of the church,
tina. comes at times, we are to be made Chris
tians. We look to the church and its machinery
rs this man looked to the pool of Bethesda. But
we are not saved that way, but by the power of
Christ. Christ worked within the porches OF
Bethesda, but not by the moving waters. Those
who wait for the moving waters all the while
ignore the Christ who Is always present in the
church to save
2 For Practice. The great practical lesson
is about the fact of backsliding and losing the
benefits of salvation Nothing Is surer than that
those who were once saved may lose their expert
ence But it is also true that those who have
had q thorough, deep conversion ara not likely
to backslide. There are many so-called back
bliders in the church who never had any religion
20 lose But mark the fact that real backslidng
Implies the commission of known sin and of
the sins once familiar to u.s. The last state of
Buch men is worse than the first. One may fall
into spiritual darkness and coldness without
Wilful disobedience, and such have not lost their
sonship though they have lost their assurance.