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Distorted Vision and Ministry of Second
Wednesday Night Bible Lecture by Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D., Christ Church, London.
Reported for The Golden Age by M. I. H.—Coopyright Applied for.
SYNOPSIS
I. THE MYSTERY.
1. The only incomplete Miracle.
2. Other Miracles of Blind Healing.
(a) Two blind men. Matt. 9.
(b) Two blind men of Jericho. Matt.
20.
(c) The blind man of Jerusalem.
John 9.
(d) Blind Bartimaeus. Mark 10.
11. THE REASON.
1. Lack of Earnestness.
2. Lack of Knowledge.
3. Lack of Faith.
111. THE LESSON.
1. That we may see our Lack of Spiritual
Vision.
(a) In Nature.
(b) In other People.
(c) In the Bible.
(d) In Opportunities.
2. That we may receive the second touch.
(a) By seeing our Lack.
(b) By full surrender to Jesus’ Lord-
ship.
(c) By appropriating His promise of
the Spirit.
The Mystery.
HERE are three things about the
healing of this man of Bethsaida
that I want to impress upon you.
First, the mystery. It is to me
exceedingly interesting. You will
observe that it is the only incom
plete miracle that our Lord, ever
performed; every other miracle
was complete the very moment that
T
He dealt with it. . . .
This miracle, however, is in two parts, it is
incomplete, and it is complete. It is only com
plete after the second touch. When you take
this blind man’s case, and compare it with the
other six blind men and their healing, as we
find them described in the Gospels, you will
see something of the uniqueness of this mira
cle. The other six miracles of blind healing
that we find are: The healing of the two blind
men, recorded in Matthew 9. The two blind
men of Jericho, in Matthew 20; the blind man
of Jerusalem in John 9; and blind Bartimaeus,
in Mark 10.
Now, when you read the accounts given of
the healing of these six blind men, you will
see how differently our Lord proceeds with
them, and with the man that we are studying
tonight. In every one of these cases, when
He touched their eyes or spake the word to
them, their sight came to them fully, and they
saw with clear vision. But in the case of this
man, when our Lord first touched his eyes he
only received partial vision. Our Lord asked
him if he could see, and he answered, “I see
men as trees walking,”—that is how well he
could see. He could see; but his sight was
blurred. And then our Lord gave him a sec
ond touch, and he saw perfectly. His full
vision had been given him.
The Reason.
Now, I say that this is all sufficiently unique
to cause us to venture further, and ask the
reason why; for there is a reason for every
thing if we could only see it. Every effect
must be preceded by a cause. Everything
that our Lord did had a reason. Everything
that He did, or did not, had a reason. And
The Golden Age for November 28, 1912.
so, here in this miracle there is a reason for
what He has done; and it is that reason that
we want to get at just now. As I see it, it is
threefold. First, it is because of a lack of
earnestness. This is seen in three ways:
First, he was brought to Jesus., Brought by
his friends. But you say, others were
brought; what are you to say to that ? I reply,
we are not considering them just now, but
this man, and as we study him we will see
the difference between him and other men. He
was brought to Jesus by his friends. No evi
dence that he desired to be brought. These
friends, I fancy, had heard tell of Jesus, wit
nessed His works, and coming across this man,
they gathered him up, and brought him into
the presence of Jesus.
Then, again, he never prayed. That is evi
dence, to my mind, of the fact, that he had
very little concern about it. We see no lack
of earnestness in the case of the six blind men.
They prayed, and prayed some of them, very
violently; they besought the Lord Jesus to
have mercy on them, in their blindness. This
man did not. He was simply carried into the
presence of Jesus, without a word except when
Jesus asked him a question.
Then, again, Jesus took him by the hand, and
led him out of the city, away from the crowd.
To my mind, this is the most pathetic and beau
tiful picture that we have presented to us in the
life of our Lord. Jesus, taking a poor, blind
beggar—for, no doubt, he was a beggar—by
the hand and leading him out of the city, away
from the crowd, off to himself, where He and
the blind man could have fellowship and com
munion. There was a motive in Jesus taking
him out in that way. I think that Jesus saw
that the man had no concern about the mat
ter; he was brought there and placed before
Him hardly knowing what he had come for or
to whom he had come. Jesus wanted to stim
ulate faith in that man that He might heal him.
The man had no faith to work upon. So He got
him to himself. He could not commune with •
him in the midst of the crowd; His mind would
have been distracted.
The next reason I assign, is a lack of knowl
edge and his lack of earnestness —for that mat
ter —was to a great extent due to a lack of
knowledge. He did not know that this was
Jesus, with all power in heaven and earth,
standing by him. If he had known that, do you
not suppose he would have been all earnest
ness ! There is no doubt that he had been
told, but not in away to grip him or set him
on fire. He was like many a man today in
London, —for that matter, —who has heard the
Gospel all his life until he is Gospel hardened.
He has heard, but he does not know; he is still
groping in the dark, and because of his igno
rance he lacks earnestness, and zeal and enthu
siasm.
Then again, it was a lack of faith. There are
three ways by which we apprehend things:
sense, reason and faith. Sense is confined to
things material. Reason considers things ab
stract from matter. Faith operates in the
region of the soul. And yet with all three of
these we find knowledge connected. With ref
erence to the senses, knowledge is a result.
With reference to reason, knowledge is a result
We do not have to have knowledge to exercise
a sense. You do not have to have knowledge
to exercise reason; reason results. But no
man can have faith without a certain amount
of knowledge. No man can believe until he
is told. This is one of the strongest argu
ments for our sending the Gospel to the heath
en. It is not a question as to whether the
heathen are lost; that is not our business. I
know that I am personally responsible for giv
ing them the Gospel of Christ, and His religion
that they may know and believe.
Now this man had a phase of knowledge, but
it was a knowledge that had not gripped him
much; hence, he had at first little faith. Jesus
gave him as much sight as his faith could take
in, and no more. That is all He does for any
body. You ask me why is it that this or that
man has such results from faith. It is be
cause he has appropriated as fast as Jesus has
given; he has brought his bucket to Jesus, and
He has everlastingly filled it.
Moody, one time was asked, after an enquiry
meeting, by a man who was seeking the Lord,
How much religion he had a right to expect
Jesus to give him, and Moody said: “Jesus
will fill your bucket, never mind how big, or
how small it is, —and He will do no more.
Jesus filled that man’s capacity. At the time
he only had enough faith to receive partial
sight, and Jesus gave him that sight.
The Lesson.
Now, this brings us to the lesson, and it is
about this specially that lam concerned. It is
two-fold:
First, that we may see our lack of spiritual
vision.
Second, that \ve may receive the second
touch, and have our full sight given.
First, we need to see our lack of spiritual
vision in nature. You may ask, What has na
ture got to do with it? Why! a man who does
not see God in nature, has a very limited vis
ion. And yet, my friends,, a large per cent, of
us never see God in nature. We look up into
the skies, we look out upon the flowers, and
we see no God there! No God anywhere in
nature. Nothing that we see around us ever
speaks of God. Why is it? It is because of
a lack of vision; we are not able to penetrate
beyond the mists, and see God, as He lies back
of these things. Some years ago two men were
standing at Niagara Falls. One of these men
was a man of purely mercenary motive, he
looked at everything from the standpoint of
the money that was in it. The other man was
a devout poet, a man who loved God. They
stood side by side on the Canadian side of the
Falls. This man of the mercenary spirit drew
up to his poet friend and said, “My Lord! how
I would like to harness this great waste of wa
ter, and hitch it to the wheels of machinery.”
That was all he saw! Power hitched to wealth!
The other man did not say anything for a
time, and then he turned and looked at his
friend, and said: “Well, I don’t see that; for
the life of me I can not see how you can even
think about money!” And then his lips quiv
ered and he dropped down on his knees, and
took off his hat, and waving it he said: “I
feel like singing, ‘Praise God, from whom all
blessings flow!’ ” That is the way it impress
ed him! He saw God. The other man saw
wealth.
Second, in other people. Do you know there
are very few people in this world that have
not some expression of God in them? And if
we were spending our time as eagerly to find
God in them, as we are to find their faults, it
would be much better. Do you know that the
trouble with us, after all, is, that we are look
ing at men to criticize them for their weak
nesses and ugly traits of character, rather than
to find in them a semblance of goodness.
And, how much better the Church would be,
to say nothing of the world, if the Church
would go to looking at people with the view
of finding out everything in each other that
is worth knowing; to get all the good that we
can; would not that be a blessed state of
things!
Third, in the Bible. I need not dwell upon
this. It is too obvious. Our eyes must be clear
to see the truth.
(Continued on Page 14.)