Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-06
THE BLIND MAN SAW.
A Lesson Drawn From the Story Of
the Miracle at Bethsaida.
FAULTS OF SOCIETY AND CHURCH,
Good Seeing Finds q Difference Between
Man and Tree.
THE ONE HAS A SOUL, THE OTHER NONE


That is what blind man saw.
The man was blind-ike the rest Of Us
We may have better eyes than he had; but
we do not see with our eyes Everybody
knows that We see with our minds. Tht
mind looks out through the lens of the eye
as through glass, and so sees. But how
much we see with our eyes depends upon
the seeing mind. Every summer crowds Of
people go over to see Europe, but what
they see depends upon what they know,
The most expert oculist cannot make dull
mind see, There was a wise man in the old
time who put out both his eyes, and even
then saw more than anybody else. in all
Greece It is. the mind that sees. And
when we come to think of sight as mind
seeing, we cannot escape the confession Of
blindness. For clear seeing means clear
thinking. And who will claim the prize
for that? We are all brothers of the blind
man.
HIS EYES HALF OPEN.
This blind man, who at first saw nothing
but a universal blaekness, presently got his
eyes half open. And Christ said, 'tDo you
see anything?" and the man answered 81
see men, for behold them as trees, walk
ing" He saw men, and he was quite sure
that they were men because they were
walking about like trees. Whether the men
looked to him like trees, or the trees seemed
to him to be walking about like men, it
what hazy, laundering vision he had.
| We can see better than that We can
tell man from tree. Anyhow, we think
we can. But can we? Is that sure?
| Isn't it true, now, that man is more of a
man if he owns a tree? Suppose that he
owns a hundred trees, and a great green
acre of smooth lawn in the shadow of them;
suppose that he has got lot of big trees
together and built himself a fine house out
| of them, isn't he more of a man on that
account? And SO, isn't tree a part of a
man? Doesn't it 60 to the making of man.
hood? Ought we not to regard him as the
| trees2
| DETERMINATION OF STATION.
You will not say that, nor will ]. We
| know better than that. We know very
| well that not what man has, but what he
| Is, makes him more of man or less of man,
| and settles his real station in the company
of men. We know that character means
manhood, and that the man of best character
| is the best man, and that trees have nothing
| to do with it. We do not mistake trees for
men. But can we say as much of all our neigh
| bors? Is that the common way of estima-
| tion?
Look closely at this blind man of Beth
saida, and see if you don't know him. Isn't
his name Society?
What this blind man needs is that Christ
shall touch him and set his eyes wide open,
SO that he may know q man when he looks
at him. Aristocracy is an abiding charac-
teristio of human life. It has always ex-
or md xxyin
tinue on into the world to come. For the
aristocrats are simply the best. That is
what the word means And there will al
ways be the best. There will never arrive
day when we shall all be perfectly equal
saints and heroeE- But best in what? The
ideal aristocracy-who shall belong to it?
Sometimes it has been made up OF the men
with the stoutest muscles; sometimes of the
descendants of the Oldest settlers; sometimes
OF the people with the fullest pocketbooks.
But Christ leaves no doubt as to
THE IDEAL ARIsTocRAoY.
. Society, looking about with open eyes
and clear vision, to choose its best, will
base its choice not upon any of these oondi-
tions Christ cared not for strength, except
for strength of character. 1t mattered not
to Him though mans great-grandfather
was the patriarch Abraham And He loved
rich man. Look at the men whom Christ
chose as the actual aristocracyin His own ideal
commonwealth. The Twelve Apostles were
selected not even for their wisdom, but SIM
ply for their devotion to their Master. They
we're men who gladly followed Christ. They
were the friends of Christ.
The Bible makes short work of conven-
tional aristocracies The proudest prince
gets no praise in that impartial and just
history if he were a man who followed not
the will of God. The standard of appreciation
in the Bible is the rule Of righteousness
And when society looks out of dim eyes no
longer but sees with clear vision, touched by
the healing hand of Christ, then he will
have praise and welcome who brings man
hood with him; Christian birth or bank ac-
count. There will be no longer any doubt |
as to the identity Of a man.
KNOWLEDGE OF DIFFERENcE.
One of the most important advantages Of |
sight is that it gives knowledge of differ |
ence. 1t makes it possible Tor us to dis
tinguish between man and tree And
this knowledge of difference is one of the
most useful pieces of information that any,
body can have Because it tells us what is
and what is not. We know what
things are really worth. And that is the be-
ginning of all sorts of success.
A large part of the battle of life has been
fought and gained when one has learned the
difference between man and tree. For
that is the difference between the great and
the small, between mind and matter, be-
tween the eternal and the transitory, be-
tween earth and heaven. Success begins
with recognition of the value of things
q is conditioned upon sense ofproportion.
n obody ever made fortune who expended
any considerable amount of tsS5 timeh upon
go cent jobs" Nobody ever succeeded
who habitually mistook small things for
great, or great things for small
ANOTHER BLIND MAN
Look again at this laundering blind man,
isn't his name the Church?
This, anyhow, is exactly what the Church
s doing-making a mistaken valuation,
'eading life with wrong emphasis, setting
mall things in the place of great things. ,
some people think that the adoption of col
bred bookmarks is sign of the advance of
rue religion. A vested choir is regi-
nent enlisted against the armies of the
ievl The growth of ritual is growth in /
righteousness. Other people think that j
hose things are earthly. sensual, and of the !
pit. The mischief is in caring about these |
hings at all. What the Church wants is !
men. The mission Of the Church is to up ,
lift men. All else is utterly subordinate.
To teach the truth of God, and to get peo-
'le where they can take the hand Of Christ
this is what the Church exists to. do.
Jhrist looks straight into the eyes of men.
What does He care about the color of the
caves In the tree over his head. It is only
he blind man who mixes men up with
rees, and cannot tell which is which. The :
vhole question of ritual, the whole discus