The Tupelo journal., 1908-02-21

LESSON TEXT.-John 5:1-1S. Memory
verses 8, 8.
GOLDEN TEXT.-"Himself took our
infirmities, and bare our sicknesscs."-
Matt. SIT.
PLACE.-The Pool of Bethesda at Jeru-
salem.
TIME.-In the spring of A.. d. %. Two
Or three months after the last lesson.
John the Baptist was put in prison about
this time.
Comment and Suggestive Thought.
V. 3. Lay a great multitude of
impotent folk" Literally, people with
out strength, especially, as here, de-
bility caused by sickness. The class
of diseases brought to these waters is
described as blind, halt Tor lame, as
from rheumatisln) "withered," men-
bers of whose body were deprived of
their natural juices, wasted, shrunk.
Waiting for the moving of the water"
That there was a moving of the water
is evident from the statement of the
sick man in ". Z. But this part of v. 3
and the whole of v. 4, explaining the
cause of the movement. is omitted
from both the r. V. and the Am. w.,
because they are not found in the best
manuscripts. But the explanation may
be true.
V. 4. THE angel is not necessari-
ly a person. Angel means ''messen-
ger" an agent sent by God to do a
certain work. Thus it is said (Psa.
104:4, r. W that God maketh winds
his messengers" his angels.
Jesus Going About Doing Good
The meeting of Jesus with the invalid
at Bethesda is one instance of his
method of reaching men. He went
about doing good. One Sabbath at
even, when the sun did set, they
brought unto him all that were dis
eased, and them that were possessed
with devils.
And he healed many hat were sick
of divers diseases, and cast out many
devils: That it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet,
saying, himself took our infirmities,
and bare our ~sicknesses. Matthew
and Mark.)
Imitation of Jesus in Doing Good
All the experience of modern mission
aries in the east goes to show the
wisdom of the method employed by
Jesus Christ and his apostles in giving
attention to diseased bodies as a
means of access to diseased souls
Isabella Bird Bishop.
Christ tells us that those who be-
love in him cho1J do Oroofor morlyc
than he, and it is true that Christ in
his Christianity is doing on a far lar
ger scale the works of Christ than it
was possible for him to do in Pales-
tine. The kindly feeling, the desire to
help, the increased skill, which spring
up under Christianity as flowers and
fruits grow in the sunshine, have made
Christ's works through his people
greater than those he wrought on
earth. They are not miracles, but are
better than the power of miracles, as
the prolonged sunshine is better than
a flash of lightning. Blind asylums
have opened many eyes, and caused
people to read and work even without
sight. Hospitals have cured and cared
for m%ultitudes of sick and insane.
1t is the privilege of each individual
Christian to know something of
Christ's healing power. The cheer, the
hope, the inspiration, the uplift Of
faith in him, is a healing power over
disease. Prayer is said by experts
to be a real power in curing the in
sane. Jesus himself can still heal our
diseases in his own way. And yet
more, he can nus them to bring
spiritual health and peace.
1t is the privilege of every Christian
to go about doing good in the name Of
Jesus.
Jesus cures the morally sick as he
did this MAI at Bethesda, not so much
by what he does for them as what he
does in them. With the command
came the inspiration, the power to
obey. Therein lies the difference be-
tween the advice which men give and
the commands and invitations which
God gives. Advice to be good is no
doubt often of value. But what men
llSto anu Wldl bOu SlVSS Is lllt, new
hearts, strength to follow the advice.
All other religions give advice; Christ
is the way, not merely an ideal, but
the way to reach the ideal; not a pic
ture of what we ought to be, but the
way, the power, the life by which men
can realize the picture.
V. 8. Took up his bed" Showing
his faith and obedience. And walked"
Showing the completeness of the cure.
The Cure of the Soul Went with the
Cure of the Body.-A little later in
the day Jesus finds the man in the
temple. His religious nature was
awakened by his cure. He had doubt
less been for a long time wanting to
worship God, but was unable to go.
l remember well in my boyhood's days
that my first deep and earnest seeking
for the religious life a during the
later stages of recovery from sickness.
The disease and danger were gone, but
the heart turned toward God. In the
temple Jesus made himself known,
and babe him sin no more.
The healing of the body is of small
account unless there is also a healing
of the soul.
And this is symbolic of his work
even where he did not heal. Why did
he not at a word heal all the sick in
Palestine?
l. One of the great disciplines and
powers for the transformation of char
acter lies in the triumph of the soul
over evil, as by Paul's thorn in the