. If the opening of his bodily organs of vision
had given him such exquisite pleasure, and given him entrance to so new
a life, what might not the opening of his inward eye accomplish? He had
no patience with the difficulties raised by those who had not his
experience: "How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?" "Give God
the praise; we know that this man is a sinner." To all these
slow-brained, bewildered pedants, he had but the answer, "Whether He be
a sinner or no, I know not; _one_ thing I know, that, whereas I was
blind, now I see." No arguments, happily, can rob me of the immense boon
this Man has conferred upon me. If it gives you any satisfaction to
apply your paltry tests to Him, and prove that He cannot have done this
miracle, you are welcome to your conclusions; but you cannot alter the
facts that I was blind, and that now I see. He who has given me so
Divine a gift seems to me to carry with Him in some true form the Divine
presence. I believe Him when He says, "I am the Light of the world."

This miracle was so public as to challenge scrutiny. It was not
performed in the privacy of a sick-room, with none present but one or
two disciples, who might be supposed ready to believe anything. It was
performed on a public character and in broad day. And we nowadays may
congratulate ourselves that there was a strong party in the community,
whose interest it was to minimise the miracles of our Lord, and who
certainly did what they could to prove them fictitious. In the case of
this blind man, the authorities took steps to sift the matter; the
parents were summoned, and then the man himself. They did precisely what
sceptical writers in recent years have desiderated; they instituted a
jealous examination of the affair. And so straightforward was the man's
testimony, and so well-known was he in Jerusalem, that instead of
denying the miracle, they adopted the easier course of excommunicating
him for acknowledging Jesus as the Christ.

Ready witted, bold, and independent as this man was, he cannot but have
felt keenly this punishment. His hope of employment was gone, and even
his new joy in seeing would scarcely compensate for his being shunned by
all as a tainted person. Had he been of a fainthearted and moody
disposition he might have thought it had been as well had he been left
in his blindness, and not become an object of abhorrence to all. But
Jesus heard of his punishment, and sought him out, and declared to h