The Caucasian., 1907-01-15
Calm1aQe
sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaee, D. D.

ouE ueuNIeSl DuTueilS anu dLI1cliOLs
| may be transformed into blessings
| through divine mercy and power Il
| those who ask in faith. The text is
| John iX, g. THAT the works of God
should be made manifest in him"
There is something very consoatory
to me in the fact that the character
sketches Of the Old and the New Tesla
ments 10 not deal entirely with the
Enochs and the Joshuas and the 10
sephs. These men, to be frank. are
too good for me to feel fellowship Will
.hem. | read and reread the records
of their lives. and | do not find one flaw
his mercy and pardon to a Jacob and a
David and Peter and a doubling
Thomas | say to myself, "Ah. if God
can cleanse such men of their sins,
know he can and will cleanse me of
my sins if | only throw myself upon
his mercy and bis love" Now, our
Lords disciples had the same doubts
and the same failings in their nature
as we have. Though they lived very
close to Jesus in physical sense, they
We're just as far from him in a spir-
itual sense as some of us are. The
same problems and difficulties which
are worrying us were worrying them.
The same questions which are being
discussed by us were being discussed
by them. And here today we find one
of the greatest of all modern questions
being brought by them to Christ for
settlement
Jesus was one day going out of the
temple accompanied by his friends.
There by one Of the gates stood a
young man blind from his birth. He
was beggar He had that mute ap-
peal Of sightless eyeballs SO pathetic
to look at He stood there as hundreds
east, begging for money with the
words: "BacksheeSh. Backsheesh! For
the love of God, give me backsheesh.' |
think that the disciples as they We're
walking along had their heads togeth-
er talking earnestly upon some great
gospel theme They wanted Christ to
explain for them some of the knotty
questions of theology which we all
want him to do Among these prob
lens was probably that of suffering.
Was it true. as so many Jews be-
lieved, that aff1iction was sent as pun
ishment for sin? We know from the
book of Job that such an idea was
prevalent, but was it true? There were
some facts that contradcted the the
ory Some men were undoubtedly
good, yet were great sufferers. This
difficulty was 50 obvious that another
theory had sprung up. There were
some who said, Perhaps the sufferer
is good, and his suffering may be the
result of the sin of his ancestors" AS
they talked they noticed the conspicu-
Gus beggar at the temple gate, and
they made his case the subject of
question to their Master. Why was
this man blind? Was his blindness a
punishment for his own sin or for
some sin committed by his parents?
That Is a question which has long been
mystery, and perhaps you and !
have discussed lit a hundred times.
What did Jesus say? Why, he said,
Neither hath this man sinned nor his
parents, but that the works of God
should be made manifest in him."
The Explanation.
Have you grasped the full signifi-
canoe of this answer? If you do you
have the key to some of the mysteries
of your own life. God has sent to you
that lung trouble, or that dullness of
hearing, or that dimness of eyesight,
or that family trouble, or that financial
distress, not on account of your sins
or on account of your parents sins, but
that Gods mercy and power might be
made manifest to all the world in your
life. Do you believe that? Well, If
not, want to plead with you to be-
lieve it. Therefore let us try and find
out how the works of God can be made
manifest in your present physical, men
tai and spiritual troubles, as they We're
made manifest in the miraculous cure
of, the young man of the east who was
born blind and who had his eyesight
given to him when he obeyed the COM
mands of tie Lord Jesus Christ.
When the blind mans eyes were
opened Christ performed a miracle
which no power on earth had ever
been able to do He was not an oculist
who was cutting away cataract
which, as a dark curtain. had been
dropped over the eyeball of an old
man. He was not a chariatan who
was making a salve out of the mud to
assuage the inflammation of the opb
thalmic nerves But he was a miracle
worker who could give hearing to a
deaf and dumb man who had been
born without any eardrum. without
any sounding board to catch the waves
Of sound as they came surging into the
ivory yestibules of the ear. In other
words, Christ was giving to this young
man of the east his eyesight when
there was no visual organ there, when
the ocular nerves We're gone. The
work Christ was doing for that young
mans eyes was exactly what he could
10 if he put 4 new leg upon your body |
lfter your leg had been crushed in a |
railroad accident and amputated by the |
knife. Never since the world |
was created up TO the time of Jesus