The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1895-02-21
/, rHe SUNDAY SCHOOL,


TIME.-A Sabbath " ~ in October, A. D.
%; probably soon after the feast Of tahernacles
referred to in 7:2. Andrews places this Just
before our last lesson.
JEsUs-Ncarly thirty three years old
toward the close OF tho third year Of His min
istry, about six months before His crucif xion.
CIRCUMSTANCES After the transfiguration,
In the summer of A. ID. 90, Jesus returned slow
ly to Gailoe, teaching His disciples By the
way We find Him next at Capernaum lies.
VIZ In the autumn Jesus went to Jerusalem
to attend the feast Of tabernacles which that
year began October ii. The dtscourses of
Jesus at that time. as He walked around the
city and temple. are recorded in John and 8
1t was on one of His walks that He met the
blind man of to-day lesson.
LESSON NOTES.
Blindness is specially frequent in the
east. While in northern Europe there
is only one blind in thousand, in
Egypt there is one in every hundred;
indeed, very few persons have their
eyes quite healthy. The causes are Q)
the sudden changes in temperature and
light; ta) the intense brightness of the
sun. and (3) the fine dust in the air of
those sandy countries.
His Threcfold Atliiction.-Q) He was
blind. Consider what terrible evil
blindness is; OF how large part of all
that is happy and blessed in life it de-
prives one: how it darltcns and mar
rows the life; how little of beauty can
come in; how many avenues of learning
it closes up Mr.. Rusllin says that ''the
greatest thing human soul ever does
in this world is to see something, and
to tell what it sees in "A plain way.
Hundreds of people can talk for one
who can think; but thousands can
think for one who can see. To see
clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion
all in one" (2) He was helpless.
There was almost nothing which
a blind person could do in that
country This man could neither re-
move his blindness nor support him
self. He must be dependent on his
friends, and little it was they could do
for him. (S) He was poor; a blind
beggar ". 81 by the gate of Jerusalem.
The False Charge Against His Char
acter. .. "And His disciples asked
Him, saying" Thi. question grew out
of the fact that it was the common
opinion among the Jews that every
trouble and misfortune was the direct
result of some special sin. ''Who did
sin, this man, or his parents?"
The disciples question brings up the
old question discussed by the friends of
Job. They assumed that all suffering
is a punishment of sin, for how can a
just God send suffering upon the good?
To do SO would be rank injustice.
What! punish the innocent? For Job
to declare that he was innocent, while
suffering SO bitterly, was to charge God
with injustice. There is this truth in
their argument, that sin always results
in suffering, and that some suffering is
the fruit of sin. But the belief that
every affliction is the direct punishment
for some special sin, and that we can
judge of the moral and spiritual condi-
ton Of any person by the calamities
that befall him, or by the outward sue
cess and blessings that crown his days,
tends to several great evils; Q) self
complacency and spiritual pride; (2) TO
uncharitable Judgment of others, and
(S) to hopelessness and despair on the
part of the afflicted, instead of learning
the lessons affiiction is intended to
teach.
Jesus Answer to the Charge.
answered.: "Neither hath this man
sinned, nor his parents!"i l. e., so as to be
the cause of the blindness. Our Lord
does not deny the existence of sin
either in this man or in his parents
Godet. Nor does He deny that through
sin all evil came into the world, but
only that this blindness was not the
punishment for any particular sin in
either the man himself or his parents.
Christ the Light of the World.-The
light of the world is the sun, and the
sun is perpetual illustration of what
Jesus is doing in the moral world. The
rays from the sun are of three kinds,
different from one another probably
only as to the length of the waves of
which they are composed. ~ Light
rays. Nearly all the light we receive
comes from the sun. Even the moon
light is but reflected sunlight. Even
when we are in the shade, or in the
house, where we cannot see the sun,
the light we receive is sunlight, dis
persed from the particles in the air, re-
flected from all things around us; even
the light of our lamps and gas burn
ers is but sunlight which has
been stored up in the earth. So
is that all our spiritual light,
from whatever sources it seems to come
is really from God. Our white sunlight
is really composed of thousands of col
ors, shades and tints, which fill the
world with beauty. Such variety is in
the pure light from Christ, reflected
from our manifold natures, needs and
The light drives away
shows the way, makes clear
Heaven, goodness, God, the future; 1t
fills the world with beauty and glory.
(2) Heat rays: Nearly all the heat in
the world comes directly or indirectly
from the sun. The fires that warm us
and that are the source of power are
from the wood or coal in which the
heat Of the sun has been stored. Such
Is Gods love to us in Jesus Christ,
bringing cheer, warmth and blessing.
(3) Chemical rays, which act upon
plants, and cause the movements of