The log cabin Democrat., 1908-03-12
Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind Sunday School Lesson for March Is, 1903
 Specially Prepared for This Paper

| GOLDEN TEXT.-'T am the light of | the world. John 9;5.
 | TIME-About six months after our last lesson October, A. D. g. At the | Feast of Tabernacles, which began that year October Il. Toward the close or | the third year of Jesus ministry. PLACE.-The pool of Sloan, at Jeru- | salem.
 Comment and Suggestive Thought. | V. 1. "As Jesus passed by" Walking | to Jerusalem on Sabbath day (v. IA, probably near the temple where he may have been worshiping, and around the gates of which were usu' | ally crowds of the poor and unfortu- | nate begging for help from. the wor' | shipers, whose hearts were softened | by the religious influences of the place Saw a man which was blind | from his birth" Of the six miracles | connected with blindness which are recorded in the Gospels, this is the birth. In this lies it's special charac' | teristic (v. 32)
 V. 2. "Who did sin, this man. or his parents, that Gas the result of his sim he was born blind?" The K. V. That he should be- expresses the meaning Sin, as Jesus himself rec | ognized in more than one instance, was the cause of suffering (Mark 2: 5; Luke 13: 1-5; John 5:14) Hence the disciples wrongly inferred that special suffering was always caused by some special sin.
 V. 8. Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents" Not that they were perfect, and had never done wrong, but the affliction had not come as the result or pun ishment of any particular sin, beyond that of others who did not suffer an affliction, as in the case of those up on whom the tower of Siloam fell Uuke 13: 1-5) Sufferings do come upon children from the sins of par ents, as stated in the second com mandment; but it is not a punishment of the sufferer Everybody in the world to-day is suffering more or less from the sins of others, but the suffer ing is not punishment for those sins. But (the blindness camel that Depressing not the purpose of the blindness but the result, the outcome) the works of God should be made manifest in him." Manifest to him. self, and through him to the world all down the ages. Who would not be willing to be blind for a few years if thereby he could reveal and pro claim Jesus as the light of the world, and reflect the goodness, the power, the comfort of God to millions of his fellow-men? The blindness was no wrong to the man, for it gave him a knowledge of Jesus, a hope of heaven. new virtues, and experiences which could not have been his in any other way.
 V. z. "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam," to wash off the clay from his eyes. The pool of Siloam is in the valley of the Kidron, south of the Temple Area. and 1,200 feet little southwest of the Virgins fountain (the probable pool of Bethesda) from which living fountain a stream flows through a rock-cut aqueduct to the pool of Siloam It must have been large pool 70 feet square, surrounded by an arcade. It was from this pool that the water was taken in golden pitch CT in the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. "Siloam (Hebrew) by interpretation, Sent" (Greek) The pool may have been called sent because the waters were sent" forth from the aqueduct from the Virgins Spring. The word sent" is so fire. quently used by Jesus of himself that we naturally apply it here also to him. self as if the noiseless stream which their fathers had despised Qsa. 8:6), and which they could trace to its source, was a fit type of him whom the Jews rejected, because they knew his origin, and because he had no ex- ternal force'-EXp. Greek Test.
 He obeyed. He washed, and came seeing" either to his home or to the temple region where Jesus had met him.
 Jesus the Light of the World.- l. Jesus is the Light of the World be- cause he brings light from heaven, the light we need in our darkness: The light of the knowledge of God, of his fatherhood, his love, his forgiving mercy his truth, his law, of heaven and the way there. Jesus himself, with his character, his teachings, his deeds, was himself Light in the world, revealing these things.
 2. He is the Light of the world be- cause he opens our eyes to see the light of heaven, and ourselves, and life. and the world in the light of heaven. New Life in the soul, the life given by the Holy Spirit, is the means of our seeing the light
 3. Jesus is the Light because he sheds light on all our sicknesses, and troubles, and burdens. He cures dis eases, he makes all things work to. gether for good to those that love him. he gives new motives and hopes that tighten our burdens.