The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-03-18
INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSON
Copyright, Davis V, Clark,

| Save for my daily range
 AmcTs Wr,t the pleasant fields of Holy
 I might despair. -Tennyson. | First Quarter. Lesson XII. John ix, 1-11. March 10. 1905.
 | HEALING or THE MAN BORN BLIND | To the thirty three parables the thir- l ty-three miracles of Jesus may well be
 added; for the latter were. in fact. 1 parables. too-deeds packed with an 1 inexhaustible symbolism. The | uplifted stones, the glaring faces of those who thirsted for His blood. has | just forcibly reminded Jesus of the rapid approach of the night of death. | in which He must cease from these | symbolic deeds. He will crowd the | few remaining hours full of them. |. Among the lazzaroni crowd | ing the approach to the temple stands | the well-known beggar blind from | birth. Pfenninger with the instinct of | a poet imagines a discussion among | the apostles as they half halt in pass | ing: Judas began, His parents must | have heavily sinned.' Thomas replied. l Or God foresaw great sin in him. John adds, know not what to think there
 on.' Peter finally breaks out, Master. | tell us who." The words of Jesus may have fallen upon the ears of the unfortunate man. all the more alert because the other sense was lost. Those words may have been the seeds of that faith which was so soon to shake like Lebanon. Neither this man nor his parentsw What joy to be rid of the odious imputation cast at him from childhood, that his phe- nomenal suffering must be penalty of phenome enal sin! Now. that he Is in this sad and. humanly speaking, reme- diless plight, he furnishes a rare sub ject for the display of My Divine pow CT, will make him a new. indubitable,
 and lustrous seal upon My claim to Messiahship." It pleased the
 Master to cordescend to the use of the
 crude materia medica of the day in or
 der to strengthen the growing faith
 of the unfortunate man, and to make
 the cure the more conspicuous. Across
 the city he goes. holding the poultices
 of clay to his sightless eyes. followed
 by an eyer-increasing crowd of curl
 osity-mongers, some of whom, no
 doubt. gibe at his credulity. He went;
 he wast ed; he saw. As the clay log enges dropRed, siloam's mirrored sur
 face reflected for him the beetling crags of the temple-crowned mount, and over all the azure dome. What wonder that his very neighbors doubted the identity of the man upon
 whose expressionless face the light of the soul was now pouring through his opened eyes! The man himself has passed into a new world, but has no doubt about his being the same man who once cried on the temple steps,
 Pity one born blind!' Nor has he a shadow of doubt as to who wrought his cure. Mayhap some hired and overalert emissary of the Sanhedrim hales him before that august body. It was, for them, the most unfortunate catch" they ever made. The man de- poses like a self-possessed witness. He rests the irresistible lever of his logic upon an indisputable fact, and bears down upon 1t with the vigor of true manliness. Behold you, the ancient, vaunted. colossal superstructure of an effete ecclesiasticism topples to its fall! There Is a wild scurrying to its rescue.
 The attempt is made to ter rorize the mans parents into the lie that his blindness was not congenital. Their very timidity enhances the value of their testimony. The man himself
 Is now recalled, and. as if in his ab-
 sence a foul plot had been discovered
 to foist Jesus upon the nation by
 means of a fictitious miracle, he is ad-
 jured by all the pains and penalties at discretion of the Sanhedrim to deny
 the validity of his cure. Like
 a pillar of Hercules this humble man
 stands while, the highest court of his
 nation frets itself into foam of rage against him. He is overborne at length. and swept contemptuously out like so much filth and of1scouring. But
 he Is quickly found of Jesus and en-
 sconced in that church against which
 the gates of hell shall neer prevail.
 The Teachers Lantern.
 picked up an autograph album in
 the home of my friend, Professor Sultz- berger. in Frankfort on the Main, and. opening 1t at random, my eye fell on the, to me, familiar handwriting of the first Methodist bishop to make the cir cult of the globe. The sentiment was one never to be forgotten: ''rhe ques-
 tion is not so much how sin got into
 the world as how to get sin out of the world.-C. Kingsley" Jesus steers His disciples away from a sub Ject that Is purely speculative in char acter. He attempts no theodicy. He simply affirms that in this instance. though the parties were not sinless per sons, the uncommon suffering was not due to an unusual degree of sin in
 them. But Providence would avail
 Himself of this instance of phenomenal afhiction to show the Divine power that
 was in Christ. =. An eccentric thought which Victor Hugo somewhere weaves into one of his fictions is this the normal condition of our world is one of darkness, only relieved by the intrusion upon 1t of the Illuminating orb. What may be mere conceit as regards the material world, Is a fact | in the moral sphere. The utters and obstinate darkness of mems minds to the things of God is only relieved by
 Him who said, T am the Light of the | world" Professor Tyndall can trace the subtle metamorphoses of
 sunlight in its manifestations in or ganic and inorganic, vital and physical power. In every fire that burns, and | every flame that glows, he. sees a dis pensing of light and heat which orig | inally belonged to the sun. Yet, when
 1t comes to believing that the moral
 darkness of the human soul can be ir-
 radiated, and its weakness stored with higher potencies. he hesitates, he de-
 nies. The miracles of sunlight to one
 so competent to define and trace them,
 ought to make belief in the miracles of
 moral illumination comparatively easy.
 . Johns glowing narrative gives I us a dissolving view, fascinating and
 impressive. The pitiful mendicant fades away, and in his stead appears a
 glorious confessor, witty, dauntless
 meet to be enrolled in the noble army
 of the faithful if we but knew his | name. Converts shouldn't be
 coddled. The healed man was left to | l. N-AS A. Az-H. IA a.k