The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-03-08
THE SABBATH SCHOOL.
INTERNATIONAL LESSON COMMENTS
FOR MARCH ~.

Lesson Text: "Christ Healing tho Blind
Man." John ix., 1-1i-Golden Text:
John ix., 2-Comlnentary on the Days
Lesson by tho Rev. D. NJ. stearns.
/. "And as Jesus passed by He saw man
which was blind from his BIRTH" In Acts
Ill.,, 2, We see man lame from his birth
who was healed through Peter and John.
These cases Of inhrmity from birth are sug.
gestive Of the truth that We are all sinners
by birth, by nature the children OF w:ath
Eph. H., 81. The cases Of inarmitles which
come after birth are suggestive OF the after
manifestations Of the sin that Is born In us.
g. "And His disciples asked Him, saying,
Master, who did sin, this man or his pa
rents, that he was born blind2" The rea.
soning OF Jobs friends Is brought to mind
"whoever perlshed being innocent" and
many such like words Dob w., y, but when
the Lord summed up the matter He said
things (Job Kill, y. While 1t is true that
whatsoever q man soweth that shall he also
reap, yet we cannot Judge from seeing one
sick or suffering that therefore they are
reaping from some sowing, for whom the
Lord loveth He chasteneth, and II we en-
dure Christening God dealeth with US as
with sons (Heb. xiii, 6, y:
8. "Jesus answered, Neither hath this
man sinned nor his parents, but that the
works OF God should be made manifest In
him" This mans blindness was not the
result of any special sin on the part OF his
parents. This1s what our Lord says. he
does not say that his parents were not sim
ners needing a Saviour, but he does say
that this afllctton OF having blind SON was
not a judgment upon them, but rather IN
occasion for God to be glorifled. There are
many nowadays who think that blind or
lame or sickly child is an afiiction upon the
narants for eOmo ain against God.
4. 'I must work the works OF Him that
sent Me while It Is day. The night cometh
when no man can work." A carpenter
wants material on which to use his tools
and show his skill, a doctor or surgeon
wants patients, and the worse or more
hopeless tie case the more credit to the
physician for bringing cure and health.
Our Lord often repeats the truth that all
His works are commanded by and wrought
BY the Father who sent Him, and more than
once 1t Is written that as the Father sent
Him so He sends US. 1t Is equally true that
as God wrought in Hin 80 God works In
US, for while we are commanded to work
we are also told In the same connection
that 1t Is God that worketh in us both to
will and to do. It was His hand which
prepared all the good works We are to walk
In.
S. Gas long as am in the world ON the
light OF the world" This is oft repeated
(chopters l., 4, 9; WILL, ~; xii, 46). And in
the sermon on the Mount He said to His
disciples, eye are the light of the world"
We must remember that the life Is the light,
and the life Is that which men see and read.
Words may amount to but little, but holy
life Is unanswerable. We are certainly not
equal to 1t. We cannet live the CHRIST life
nor do His works, but II We are willing and
yielded He will live the life and work the
works. Paul said, 81: live, yet not I, but
Christ, 1ive.h'in me-"
6. "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" sometimes he works just
by word, sometimes by touch and at
other times as here. he uses means, but
whether by word, touch or other In
strumentality it is God who worketh. In
the clay we have the dust Of the ground
and His spittle-something Of earth and
something Of God. Is not saved sinner
just that-somethIng human, something
divine? And We are His workmanship pre-
pared for good works.
7. "And said unto him, Go, wash In the
pool OF Sloan (Which is by Interpretation
sent). He went his way, therefore, and
washed and came seeing" How often IN
this gospel does Jesus speak OF Himself as
sent of God. How suggestive, therefore,
is Sloan Of Him who was and Is truly the
sent One! The clay is to be washed Of In
| to Sloan. He who made the clay and uses
| 1t receives It back to Himself. The clay
| has no honor. It Is not to be saved and
laid up as q precious thing, but to be
washed of into Slloam. Some OF US stick
80 close to peoples eyes that they cannot
| sse.
8. sThe neighbors, therefore, and they
| which before had seen him that he was
| blind said, Is this not he who sat and
| beeged?" Formerly blind, helpless beg
gar, holding out his hand to every passer-
| by for the aims they might be pleased to
give, but now upright, with opened eyes,
seeing like other men and enjoying what
he saw as none others did, for he had never
seen before. He Is IN new world-the
sun, the sky, the trees, the aoTers; 1.-THE the
faces Of his friends, but, best OF all, little
| later the face OF Christ.
9.'"Some said, This Is he; others said,
| He is like him, but he said, am he."
! Whatever others knew or did not know, he
| could say, One thing know-that whereas,
| was blind, nowI see'' (verse 25). They
might argue all they pleased he had the
conscious joy Of possessing, what ne
never possessed In all his life before, and
| they could not gainsay 1t nor take 1t from
him. Argument Is not profitable; pos
| session ls.
| 10. Therefore said they unto him, HOW
wore thine eyes opened2" And when he
told them they would not be persuaded.
but asked his parents, and 30 their ques-
tions went on, all to no profit. The weap-
ons OF our warfare are spiritual, casting
down reason or imsginings QI Cor. 4, 4,
| S, margin).
II. "He answered and said, A man that
Is called Jesus made clay and anointed
mine eyes and said unto me, Go to the
pool OF Sloan and wash. And I went and
washed, and received sight" he told
simple, straightforward story and stuck
to It and insisted that the man must be- OF
| God or He could not work such miracles.
for 1t had never been heard OF before that
one born blind should have his eyes opened.
The PharIsees were 80 blinded by their
views OF their Sabbath day and 80 incensed
by this man who paid no attention to their
traditions that they would not listen to the
mans story OF his eyes being opened, ana
| so they cast him out. Then Jesus found
| him and said, Dost thou believe on the
Son Of God? The young man, never hav-
ing seen his benefactor, said, Who Is He,
Lord, that might believe on Him? Being
told that be was talking with Hin, he said,
Lord, believe. And he worshiped Him
oversees 35-S8). The goodness OF Coo
| brought him, and thus another was added
, to the Lord.-Lesson Helper.