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2 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.)