not see the personal soul for the masses. We are blinded
by the bigness of things; we cannot see the individual blades of grass
because of the field.

Now God's vision is not general, it is particular. There are no "masses"
to the Infinite. "He calleth His own sheep _by name_." The single one is
seen as though he alone possessed the earth. When God looks at the wood He
sees every tree. When He looks at the race He sees every man.

And, therefore, I need not fear that "my way is overlooked by my God." He
knows every turning. He knows just where the strain begins at the hill. He
knows the perils of every descent. He knows every happening along the
road. He knows every letter that came to me by this morning's post. He
knows every visitor who knocks at the door of my life, whether the visitor
come at the high noon or at the midnight. "There is nothing hid." "The
very hairs of your head are all numbered."

MAY The Seventeenth

_MY BODILY INFIRMITIES_

JOHN ix. 1-12.

An infirmity becomes doubly burdensome when we give it a false
interpretation. The weight of a thing is determined by our conception of
it. If I look upon my ailment as the stroke of an offended God, I wear it
like the chains of a slave. If I look upon it as the fire of the gracious
Refiner, I can calmly await the beneficent issue. It is my Lord, engaged
in chastening His jewels!

And so our Master first of all relieves the blind man of the false
interpretation of his infirmity. "_Neither did this man sin, nor his
parents._" That lifts the sorrow out of the winter into the spring. It
sets it in the warm, sweet light of grace. It becomes transfigured. It
wears a new face, placed there in "the light of His countenance."

And then our Lord relieves the blind man of the infirmity itself. The
ministry of blindness was accomplished, and sight was given. No man is
kept in the darkness a moment longer than infinite love deems good. Our
Lord does not overlook the prison-house, and leave us there forgotten. "He
that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep." So cheer thee, my
soul! The Lord is on thy side! The Miracle-worker knows His time and "the
dreariest path, the darkest way, shall issue out in heavenly day."

MAY The Eighteenth

_BLINDED JUDGMENTS_

JOHN ix. 13-25.

Here is a ceremonialism which is blind to the humane. Its scrupulous
ritualisms have dried up its philanthropy. It thinks more of etiquette
than equity. It esteems ge