CHRIST GIVING SIGHT TO THE BLIND". THERE are comparatively few, very few, of the miraculous works of our blessed Lord that are circumstantially related; and, when any details are given, they consequently acquire a higher degree of importance, and a stronger claim to the most serious consideration. We meet in this account (Mark viii. 22-46) with a very remarkable peculiarity in the performance of the miracle to which we proceed to direct our attention: "And, when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that, he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up; and he was restored, and saw every man clearly." It has been suggested that this unusual mode was adopted to raise the expectations and gradually increase the faith of the man thus healed of his blindness. "He could," it is further remarked by the much esteemed commentator, Mr. Scott (Comment. in loc.), see the people walking at a distance; and their motion satisfied him they were men, or else he would not have been able to distinguish them from the trees which he dimly saw at the same time." 66 The admission, it will be observed, that perfect vision was not immediately communicated, is certainly, though very slightly and with the greatest discretion, conceded in this passage. And, indeed, it is not very easy to conceive that he, in whom "dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," would give a partial efficacy to the exercise of his power, without some obvious and adequate object. For whatever he did bore the stamp of the most complete perfection. "He hath done all things well" (Mark vii. 37.), was the admiring exclamation of the people on the coasts of Decapolis. The explanation we are about to propose will obviate the difficulty, and will equally satisfy the exigencies of the sacred text. For, when attentively considered, the confident readiness with which the man instantly replies seems to exclude entirely the idea of any, even the slightest remaining defect in the organ of sight. He exhibits no symptom of that doubt, or hesitation in recognizing at once the figures presented suddenly to his gaze, and for the first time it must be recollected, which objects dimly and imperfectly seen would naturally create. "I behold men,' cries he, "as I see trees, walking" (BAET Tous ἀνθρώπους, ὅτι, ὡς δένδρα ὁρῶ, περιπατοῦντας): an exclamation indicative of his delight no less than of his wonder. Now, the appreciation of the distance of objects from the seat of vision, of their relative distances from each other, as well as of their respective dimensions, is an operation of the mind, and is obtained by a process of reasoning founded upon early habit and experience, and upon a comparison with the indications afforded by the sense of touch. "It has been proved by optical writers," says Mr. Dugald Stewart, that, in perceiving the distance of visible objects from the eye, there is a judgment of the understanding antecedent to the perception. In some cases this judgment is From "Giving Sight to the Blind considered as characteristic of Christ and a Twofold Miracle;" by W. Escott Kirkpatrick. London: W. H. Dalton, Cockspur Street, 1846. founded on a variety of circumstances combined together-the conformation of the organ necessary for distinct vision; the inclination of the optic axes; the distinctness or indistinctness of the minute parts of the object; the distances of the intervening objects from each other, and from the and, perhaps, on eye; other circumstances besides these. And yet, in consequence of our familiarity with such processes from our earliest infancy, the perception seems to be instantaneous; and it requires much reasoning to convince persons unaccustomed to philosophical speculations, that the fact is otherwise." The truth of this proposition was practically demonstrated some years ago, in the case of a young man who underwent a successful operation for a cataract. At first, I recollect, he believed that every thing he saw touched his eye; and, when taken from a small chamber to a lofty and spacious public hall, he could not discover the least difference in their respective dimensions. By the application of the principle thus established, the confusion in the perception of the man may, we apprehend, be easily accounted for. It is precisely similar in kind, but much greater in degree, to the effect that would be produced by a landscape in which the rules of the perspective were decidedly violated. The more remote objects, in their apparent diminished volume (diminished in the ratio of their distance), being advanced too near to those on the foreground, would necessarily lose their just proportions; and, if we can imagine them all to be brought indiscriminately into juxtaposition, their comparative disproportion would be more glaringly exaggerated. Such was the image delineated on the retina in this instance; accurately and clearly defined in other respects, but defective in this one point alone, that there was no marked variety of distance whatever discernible. Consequently, the figures being confounded together without any intimation of their relative positions, the height of the more distant trees appeared scarcely to differ in size from the stature of the men; a circumstance immediately remarked by the man, and not without surprise, as being manifestly at variance with his own preconceived ideas. For, living in the country, he had been conducted, no doubt frequently, under the cooling shade of the spreading and stately cedar, to seek a shelter from the ardent rays of the summer sun. It is not unworthy of notice, too, that, in the beautiful prospect opened to him, it was not the unruffed surface of the azure lake, it was not the lofty hills by which it is surrounded, that first attracted the attention of the man: it was exclusively the men and the trees; because he beheld in them figures with which he had already been in some degree rendered familar; and--how true to nature is the scripture narrative!-these two objects present features sufficiently prominent to enable the mind to form such notions of their general outline, from the indications of the senses of touch and of hearing, as to admit of instant recognition when submitted to its more immediate contemplation through the medium of the optic nerve, that most perfect channel of communication with the material world. From the distinction which has been demonstrated to exist, between the original and the acquired perceptions of sight, we are led to conclude that our Lord in the first instance imparted to the eye the most perfect and complete exercise of its functions, and by the second touch communicated to the mind that faculty, that standard of comparison, by which we are enabled to form correct notions of the tangible qualities of bodies, and of their distance from the organ of vision, with such astonishing rapidity of thought as to leave us unconscious of the effort. The observation made with regard to the man when restored, if taken in perhaps its more literal signification, tends to corroborate this inference: "He beheld them all clearly in the distance” (Ενέβλεψε τηλαυγῶς änavraç); implying both the men and the trees, now removed from their apparent immediate contact with the eye, arranged in their respective and true positions, and reduced to their due proportions. The man had learned at once, from the allefficient touch of Jesus, to estimate the intervening distances between them and from himself, as well as to appreciate their comparative dimensions; and this was all that was wanting to give him the full and perfect enjoyment of the organ thus called into activity. LET us now dwell on some of the lessons which these words supply to us; opening, as they do, a long vista of worldly changes that reach onwari to the resurrection of the just. And, first, the brevity of the announcement is most instructive, and full of a sublime grandeur. The reigns are exactly numbered, and thus become braced all their changes in one comprehensive a pledge of the divine foreknowledge which em To give sight to the blind, then, in adopting the exposition we have suggested of this case, may be unhesitatingly pronounced a twofold manifesta-glance of wisdom. But not one detail is given; tion of divine energy. And the two miracles are the angel passes them by without a single remark. in this one instance distinctly separated, not only Yet those three reigns reach forward through fifty for the purpose that was more immediately to be years of the world's history, A.c. 534-485. Duserved, but also in order to convey the demonstra-ring that interval one whole generation, and half tion of an important truth. He, who had a perof a second, were born and passed away. The fect knowledge of the inimitable and delicate events themselves were various and important. mechanism of the human eye, and could with a Egypt, once the first of kingdoms, was finally touch repair its obstructed movement, possessed as debased into a province; and the pride of the Phadeep a knowledge of the still more wonderful raohs was for ever humbled in the dust. Mighty stracture of the human mind, with all its noble armies from Asia traversed the Arabian and Libyan faculties and capacities, and could as instanta- deserts. The nations of the east, under Darius, neously supply by a touch whatever was deficient crossed for the first time into Europe; and the in its attainments. It is the exquisite skill of the conquest of Trajan and of the Huns and Ottomans Great Artificer operating upon his own workman-in later times, beyond the Danube, were first exship. It attests the divinity of Jesus, identifying him with the predicted "Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting" (Micah v. 2). It proclaims his absolute sovereignty not only over organized matter, but also over all that constitutes the immaterial, the immortal soul. This mighty work, designated as a distinctive characteristic of the Messiah, was accomplished by Jesus, and by him alone, by him exclusively. It does not even appear among the miraculous gifts especially conferred upon the twelve apostles (Mat. x. 8) and upon the seventy disciples (Luke x. 9), to qualify them for their respective missions. We meet with one solitary exception in the Acts of the Apostles (ix. 17, 18), but the case is by no means analogous in the most essential points, for it was limited in operation to the removal, from the eyes of Saul, of an external obstruction, with which he had been afflicted for only a very few days. If, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, who knew all men" and "knew what was in man," intrusted to the frail hands of humanity no power whatever that could exert a direct and positive influence over the properties of the mind, not even to his most devoted disciples, it is to him, and to him alone, that we are to look for that spiritual enlightenment of the understanding, so essential, so indispensable to guide us into plored by Persian invaders. Tribute was imposed on twenty satrapies and a hundred and twenty provinces, from the shore of the Agean sea to the Indus. Babylon, so late the mistress of the world, revolted, was besieged and taken, and its proud walls broken down. The coasts of Asia were for the first time explored, and the Indus, now the boundary of our own empire, was navigated by the ships of Darius."The parts of Libya about Cyrene" were first subdued by the Persian armies. Thrace was subjugated, with Byzantium, the future seat of empire for a thonsand years. Greece and Persia were brought more and more into deadly conflict. Sardis was burnt by the Ionians. Cyprus revolted, and was subdued. Miletus was taken, and plundered. Europe itself was invaded with mighty armies; and the battle of Marathon gave an earnest to the Persian monarchy of those heavier defeats which it was presently to endure. The history of Greece, during the same interval, was not less fertile in events of deep interest. Pythagoras flourished, From "The two later Visions of Daniel, historically explained;" by the rev. T. R. Birks, M.A., late fellow of Trinity college, Cambridge. London: Seeleys. 1846. We offer no any except at a length too great for our pages; but we opinion on Mr. Birks's theory of prophecy, as we could not give are glad to say that much information and instruction may be reaped from this book. One observation, however, we must make: Mr. Birks uses occasionally more bitter words than ought to have fallen from his pen.-ED. and gave rise to a new school of philosophy. | deep and thrilling will the interest of this proTragedy first began, under Thespis and Phry- phecy appear, when its first and latest revelations nichus. Eschylus, Anaxagoras, Pindar, and shall blend into one, and the Persians, who fell in Sophocles were born. The naval power of Athens the Libyan sands or in the plains of Marathon, arose into formidable strength. The sons of Pisis- shall be found among the sleepers in the dust who tratus were expelled from Athens, and the Tar- have arisen for their final judgment! This proquins from Rome. In short, few periods have phecy, so wide in its range and so wonderful in been more fruitful in great events, and in names its issue, is thus like a glimpse into that Infinite that have been conspicuous through all later gene- Mind, with whom a thousand years are only as rations. Hundreds of millions were born into this yesterday when it is past, or as one of the nightworld of change, and reared from infancy to man- watches before the morning has arisen. hood. Each, with his own deep interests and emotions, a world in himself, became an actor in the eventful drama of life; and hundreds of millions, in their turn, sank into the grave, to await the solemn voice of the archangel in the day of judgment. With all these changes full in his view, the revealing angel passes them by in silence, and veils them all under one short sentence: "Behold, there stand up yet three kings in Persia." His eye of wisdom reached beyond to the most distant ages; and each separate part of the scheme of Providence, though so vast in itself as to confound human thought, is reduced at once to its due proportion in the divine narrative. His purpose was to reveal the trials of Israel, and the delay of their final deliverance; yet not to crush the spirit of his servant with the prospect of a boundless and interminable waste of suffering and sin. Therefore he wisely and graciously contracts the whole into narrow compass. He passes quickly over events just at hand, when the voice of prophecy would be still granted to his people, and dwells chiefly on those middle ages of trial under the Syrian kings, when the last prophet would have ceased his message, and still the dawn of Messiah's presence would not have risen upon Zion. All events are measured here by their bearing on the interests, the hopes and trials, of the people of God; and the conquests of Persia, the birth of Grecian poetry and philosophy, and the expiring struggle of Babylon, are equally passed by in total silence. And yet these few words, thoughtfully considered, give a dignity to the events of these reigns, beyond all which they can borrow from the skill of human historians, or from the splendour of Grecian oratory. They lift the whole out of the level of mere human perishable interests and passions, and present it to our view as one secret link, foreseen from the beginning, in the eternal counsel of God. The same spirit of prophecy has announced them, which revealed, int he previous chapter, the sacrifice of Messiah and his everlasting righteousness, and which proclaims, in the close of this same vision, the resurrection of the dead. These passing sojourners, like all the later generations of mankind, are here made to pass under a triumphal archway, whose sacred pillars are the atonement and the resurrection, infinite grace and eternal judgment. The kings and princes, the satraps and chieftains of Persia, the poets, historians, and orators of Greece, and all the multitudes who fought at Miletus or at Marathon, are here set before us, as within the grasp of infinite wisdom, which fixed the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that even in the thick darkness they might feel after the Lord their Maker. How strangely But the statement acquires a fresh interest, when we connect it with the prophet to whom it was revealed. Seventy years had now passed since he stood before Nebuchadnezzar, then in the height of his power; and he must now have been almost ninety years of age, and ready to be gathered to his fathers. How empty the world must now have appeared to him, and the glory of its mightiest empire like the dream of a night-vision! The image of gold, and its idolatrous worshippers, had all passed away for ever. The pride of Nebuchadnezzar, and the revels of his grandson, had alike been buried in the silence of the grave. The captivity so long warned of, and the deliverance so long promised, both in their turn had been fulfilled; and still a fresh waste of sin and trouble and change was now opening before him. Well might he utter, with deep emotions of pain and wonder, that earnest inquiry," O, my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?" when shall this fleeting vision of change be ended, and lasting peace, and solid and eternal felicity, dawn at length on the people of God? The contrast, indeed, must have been strange to the eyes of Daniel himself; and it is still more wonderful, now that the fulfilment has enlarged the meaning of the prediction. When he stood before Nebuchadnezzar, a lonely captive, Babylon was in the height of its glory. Now, that he is on the verge of eternity, and the glory of heaven is opening around him, the last struggles of the proud city and its double ruin are passed by in silence, as unworthy of a place in this brief notice of the three Persian reigns. At that time Persia was a despised province, and Cyrus was not yet born. Now the predicted deliverer has risen from obscurity into unexampled power, and founded an empire wider than that of Babylon, by victories which would furnish the subject of Grecian romance and eastern fable, and be celebrated through all future ages. And his course also was now almost ended; and five years would see the conqueror himself return to the dust. The history of the prophet resembled in its various changes the fleeting scenes which he had witnessed around him. First, in Judea he was one of the royal seed, and with the hopes which such a descent inspires; presently, in Babylon an orphan and an exile, and then exalted in the gate of the king. High in the favour of an earthly monarch, and honoured with the visits of angels, he is once more despised and forgotten, till the dreadful hand-writing calls him from neglect and obscurity, and he is made glorious in the very hour of Belshazzar's ruin. The den of lions is succeeded by exaltation to the highest place of honour in the Persian kingdom, and the visit of an archangel from heaven. Now, once more, he seems deserted or disgraced; but, with all the energy of superhuman might and angelic wisdom. The cruelties of Cambyses, and of Darius himself, the growing degeneracy of the Persian chiefs, would be the causes why so heavy a blow was sent upon the empire; and perhaps, also, the favour shown to the Jews, and the decree of that king for the rebuilding of God's while earth closes against the aged prophet, heaven opens more brightly to his view, and he receives here the last and most wonderful of his visions. Who, then, could enter so deeply as himself into the spirit of the message, while it refuses to dwell on the detail of these reigns, and view them only as the shadows which delay for a little time the dawning of a brighter and eternal king-house, might be the secret cause why his reign dom! was continued so long, with such general prosperity, and the main reverses were delayed to the reign of Xerxes. But, whatever might be the special form which it assumed in this instance, the truth revealed is universal in its application. The changes of states and empires do not arise by chance. However unsearchable may be the reasons which influence the counsels of the all-wise God, when he fixes the limits of each reign, the issue of every battle, and the bounds of every empire's power; we are here taught that far more is revealed to the celestial spirits than our dim eyes are able to perceive. The cry of sin from every household, in each kingdom of the world, rises before the throne. Angelic advocates are there, to plead the various claims of justice or mercy, of forbearing grace or offended and affronted holiness; and they watch with intense and eager interest the sentence which issues perpetually from the lips of the King of nations. The history of the world, now such a dreary waste to the spiritual mind because our vision is so earthly, will hereafter reveal to us all the attributes of God in ceaseless and harmonious exercise, with a brightness of The prophet was favoured now with a glimpse of this secret glory, in connection with the fullest and clearest of all the inspired predictions. But the vision will be far brighter and more wonderful, when, according to the voice of the angel, he shall stand in his lot in the end of the days, and awake from sleeping in the dust, to shine as the brightness of the firmament. "For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now we know in part, but then shall we know even as we are known." But this connexion of the message with the prophet who receives it may supply another lesson, scarcely less important. Daniel was now about to leave the world, after so long and wonderful an experience of its changes, and to enter into his rest. Yet the Son of God does not count it an useless distraction to reveal to him, at such a time, this series of political changes in the earth. His language implies, on the contrary, that the message is a precious gift, vouchsafed to the prophet because of his deep humility and fervent prayer. It is not a mark of a spiritual mind to neglect the providence of God on earth, or to be indifferent to the changes of the world's kingdom. The higher the soul advances in holiness, the more intense will be its interest in the progress of the kingdom of God, and in the display of his longsuffering, his grace and righteousness here below. There seems at first a vast and inconceivable descent, from a celestial vision so glorious to the bare enumeration of three Persian kings; but this is really the highest attainment of heavenly wisdom, to combine reality with mystery, and to bring the most glorious truths of the unseen world, to light up the passing events of time with an in-holy wisdom that will dazzle and confound us. terest borrowed from a coming eternity. During those three reigns, that temple was to be rebuilt, in which God incarnate would presently appear; and the conflicts of Persia and Greece were preparing the triumph of that language in which the mystery of godliness was shortly to be revealed and recorded by the Spirit of God, for the salvation of innumerable souls in every age. Like the rock which was smitten by the rod of Moses, the meanest and most barren event of Providence, once touched with a ray of light from God's eternal counsels, becomes a fountain of living waters, to instruct and cheer the whole church of God through countless generations. The changes of worldly politics, seen with the eye of the atheist, are a barren and sandy wilderness: read in the light which these prophecies supply to us, they are a bright land of promise, enriched in every part with earnests and sure tokens of the glory to be revealed. The history of these three reigns acquires still a deeper interest, when we associate its changes with the angelic warfare which is here dimly revealed to us. The conflicts of Persia and Greece in the reign of Darius, the Ionian revolt, the Thracian conquests, the burning of Sardis, the invasion of Greece, and the victory of Marathon, are no mere arbitrary changes, but are linked inseparably with an angelic conflict in the heavenly places, and before the throne of the supreme Judge. The princes of Persia and of Rome [Greece?], the angel of the covenant, and Michael the chief prince of Israel, are the parties in this sublime contention; and every crime of the rival empires, their kings or chieftains, has its due weight in the counsels of heaven, and is pleaded on either side But this short clause, so trivial in appearance, assumes a still deeper interest, when we reflect on the prophecies which were given during its fulfilment, and the true character of the revealing angel. During this interval, the same holy messenger, who prevailed to obtain this revelation for the beloved Daniel, continued his work of love by further messages to the church of God. When the second close of the seventy years' captivity was now come, and the predicted troubles began to lour in the horizon, a fresh series of visions were given to cheer the hearts of his people, and prepare them for his own advent in mortal flesh and in great humility. It was in the reign of Darius, so glorious in the eyes of the world, but here passed over silently as the third in order of succession, that another king was announced, whose advent was to be marked by features widely different from the proud grandeur of the world's sovereigns. He, who now appeared with such dazzling brightness before the eyes of the prophet, revealed by Zechariah his own advent to his waiting people: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, manner the account of our Lord's miraculous and upon a colt the foal of an ass. The fulfil- incarnation, and shadows forth to the comment of a prophecy seemingly the most minute fort of Israel the day of its redemption, by and insignificant included in it the fresh anthe bodily manifestation of "the day-spring nouncement of other events inconceivably wonderful and glorious. In this third reign it was from on high." In the immediate context, revealed, for the first time, that the eternal Son of we read of the virgin's visit to her relative God, Jehovah of Hosts (Zech. ii. 8), would enter Elizabeth, after the annunciation of the angel, Zion in such wonderful condescension of love, and of her reception by her cousin as "blessed and thirty pieces of silver be weighed for his price among women," and as "the mother of our by unbelieving sinners. But it was also revealed Lord." Struck, no doubt, by the coincidence that he would appear again, attended by all his of the salutation with the promise of the saints; and wonders beyond the proudest triumphs of human royalty, earthquakes, and the rending heavenly Messenger, her swelling heart gives of mountains, would bear witness to his advent as utterance to its feelings in words of praise the King of kings. "His feet shall stand in that and thanksgiving, and not only because she day," the prophet declares to us, on the Mount of of "low degree" had been raised to the high Olives; and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in and imperishable honour of bearing "the the midst thereof towards the east and towards the Lord of glory," but because in that miracuwest; and there shall be a very great valley.... lous act he had holpen his servant Israel, and the Lord my God shall come, and all the in remembrance of his mercy," and had resaints with thee." The glory of the reign of Darius has long passed away, and all his mighty deemed that "oath which he sware unto our empire crumbled into ruins and disappeared. But fathers, to Abraham, and his seed for ever." the prophecy then given by the Son of God re- And in this act of praise and rejoicing, brethmains even now a beacon of hope to the church, ren, the virgin sang not alone: her song and a bright glimpse into a glory still to be rewas but the faint echo of one which angels vealed, when Israel, shall look with agony of remust have sung before the throne of God in morse on the pierced Saviour, and their sins be washed away for ever, in the fountain he has celebrating the beginning of that reign of opened for sin and uncleanness. The succession grace and mercy which was now about to of human monarchs will then have merged in a dawn upon a world dark from its iniquities more glorious kingdom. "The Lord shall be and miserable from its bondage; a reign king over all the earth: there shall be one Lord; which was to reveal to us the character of the and his name shall be One." From the boundary of Lord, as clad in the most blessed and glorithe conquests of Darius in the farthest India, to ous of his attributes, and to promote his those of Cæsar in the remotest countries of the west, all will then be blended in one dominion of glory by its blessings upon us; a reign in peace and righteousness; "and they shall go up which, the prophet predicted, " Peace should from year to year, to worship the King, the Lord be published, good tidings of good brought, of Hosts." The end, dimly revealed to Daniel in and salvation proclaimed; when God's peothe close of his vision, is here more clearly un-ple should be comforted, and the salvation of folded in its eternal blessedness; when the Son of God shall appear, and the exclamation of joy shall burst from the lips of an admiring universe -How great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! THE FEAR OF THE LORD: A Sermon, BY THE REV. JOHN LIGHT, B.A., LUKE i. 50. "And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation." THESE words, my brethren, form a portion of that song of praise and joy which Mary, the virgin-mother of our Lord, uttered upon the assurance of her conception, and upon the assurance also of the blessedness which should pre-eminently characterize the fruit of her womb. The chapter from whence our text is taken details in the most exact our God seen by all the ends of the earth" (Isa. lii. 7); in a word, when his mercy should be more sensibly developed in its dispensation upon them that feared him, whether Jew or Gentile, bond or free. And if, my brethren, such was to be the result of the bodily manifestation of God, humbled to the likeness of a man among us, well might the angels, whose highest office in heaven is to sing God's praise, rejoice in such a prospect of glory, and we also with the virgin rejoice with enraptured thanksgiving that such "a day of good things" has come upon us; when we, by cherishing a holy fear of the Lord, may realize through the channel of Christ mercy eternal, from God infinite and everlasting. In considering, my brethren, these words of our our text, I shall endeavour, in the first place, to set before you a few features in the nature of this mercy of God; and, in the second place, the condition on which we participate in it. I. "His mercy," says the text, "is |