John 9:1 Sin a Disease I. The instinct that there is a connection between sin and penalty is universal and from God. The grossest forms of sacrifice that have made the name of religion horrible had their root in a true instinct. The revelation of God in Christ came not to uproot this belief, but to... [ Continue Reading ]
John 9:2 The Discipline of Sorrow It is not very easy to see, nor is it necessary for us to determine, in what way the disciples thought that a man could be born blind in consequence of his own sins. They may have supposed that it was done in a kind of anticipatory justice, and that God, knowing b... [ Continue Reading ]
John 9:4 The principle which makes work Christian is the will and the glory of God. In the midst of our working life, in the midst of our religious thought, in our times of devotion, in our hours of prayer, Jesus speaks to us and bears His unflinching testimony, calling upon the Christian to persev... [ Continue Reading ]
John 9:6 If we find that in the exercise of His miraculous power, our Lord in many instances, in a greater or less degree, employs means, the question naturally arises, in what relation do these means stand to the result? I. Now, in the first place, it is obvious that the means employed, for insta... [ Continue Reading ]
John 9:24 This history is of especial interest, because it gives us so completely the history of the spiritual progress of a man who in the day of our Lord's flesh was privileged to be brought into very near connection with Him, and who was one of the first that was permitted to suffer for His sake... [ Continue Reading ]
John 9:25 I. The text points to the extreme importance of having, in religious matters, the witness to the truth of God within ourselves. There are three easily conceivable attitudes of mind which we can assume with respect to the faith of Christ. We may either accept Christianity by a sort of educa... [ Continue Reading ]
John 9:29 Truths temporary and truths eternal. The arguments of the Pharisees, both as regards miracles, and as regards the suspicion with which we should look on a doctrine opposed to the settled opinions of our lives, have in fact, in both cases, a great mixture of truth in them; and it is this v... [ Continue Reading ]
John 9:35 This is the very question which Jesus still puts to the conscience of every man, and on the answer given to it does the salvation of every man still depend. How often also is the answer which our hearts would return, the very same with that which was made by the blind man to Christ: "Who... [ Continue Reading ]