acres and splendid estates and rich domains; another comes into the world with no other endowment than health and strength to toil for daily bread. These differences are of daily occurrence. The answer to all is, God is sovereign. He does injustice to none. But He gives or distributes according to a sovereignty which is always just, and loving, and merciful, and good. Every one receives what is right. None have any just reason for complaint, because others have reaped without sowing, or received ample wages for little labour, Were God to consult the highest beings in creation before He acts, or were He to be guided by the conflicting wishes of mankind, there would be no order.

He acts in sovereignty, and places the first last, and the last first, and yet does injustice to none.

The root of the complaint made by the labourers on this occasion was really self-righteousness. They had a lurking conviction that they deserved more than they received. They were angry apparently because the later workmen had received the same wages as the early workmen. But, really and truly, they were disappointed that they themselves had received less than they thought they deserved. Self-righteousness assumes many a plausible guise.

Christ and Bartimæus.

Matthew xx. 29-34. Mark x. 46-52. Luke xviii. 35-43.

meant.

UR Saviour was now on his way to Jerusalem, and came nigh unto Jericho, where a certain blind man sat by the wayside begging, who hearing the multitude pass by, asked what it And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace; but he cried so much the more, Thou And Jesus stood,

Son of David, have mercy on me.

and commanded him to be brought unto Him. And when he was come near, He asked him, saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.

His name, as given by one of the evangelists, was Bartimæus. When Jesus saw him, or rather when his attention was called to him, he said nothing about the origin or the cause of his blindness, but addressed himself immediately to his cure. His blindness was aggravated by his poverty; he sat by the wayside begging. His blindness necessitated his begging. There was no sin in his blindness; there was no shame in his begging. The one was the

visitation of God; the other was his misfortune: both to be pitied, and for neither was the poor man to be blamed.

One morning he took his accustomed seat by the wayside. He had often asked aid of the passing crowd; but he never thought of asking the most illustrious Pharisee or Rabbi of Israel to open his blind eyes. That day he hears the tread of many feet; shouts upon the streets as of a mighty crowd; some speaking in praise, others, probably, in censure, of Jesus of Nazareth, who assumed to be what the blind man really believed Him to be,-the Messiah.

He thought that there might be in Him an echo to his appeal; in his heart sympathy with his misfortune; and he determined, though he had no claim upon his sympathy, that if he lost the benefit he needed, it should not be lost for want of earnest and strenuous asking. He, therefore, called out, as he heard Jesus pass by, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.' The crowd, we read, and probably the disciples themselves, protested against his rude and boisterous appeal to their beloved Master. Perhaps they thought he was too contemptible to deserve notice; or, to take a more charitable view of their conduct, perhaps they thought that Jesus had too many burdens upon his spirit, too many loads upon his shoulders, to have added to these any others; and therefore, to spare the Master they loved, they rebuked the blind man that he should hold his peace. But he felt the opportunity was too precious; and, therefore, he cried the more, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me."

earnest, so ferventPrayer once arrested

Jesus, whose ear heard that loud voice-so was arrested by it, turned round and stood still. the sun in the valley of Ajalon in his meridian march; and this blind man's petition, by its fervour, arrested the Sun of Righteousness, who stood still in Palestine, with healing under his wings. Jesus told the disciples to bring the blind man to Him. How gently does Christ rebuke! Without harsh words He conveys the most pene

trating, and gives in gentle words the most salutary rebuke. He bids the very men that rebuked the blind man for his importunity bring that blind man to Him! His making the objectors to the cure the very instruments of accomplishing it was the evidence of the wisdom of God, which conveyed a rebuke that was sanctified to those who had tried to interpose their shadow, their influence, and their persons between the victim of deep misery and the Giver of all good things.

Jesus asks him, "What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?" Jesus did not need to know, for we are told that He needed not to be told what was in man; He knew what that blind man wanted just as well as the blind man knew himself. Why, then, did He ask the question? Just to let Him hear the blind man express his want in his own language. "Behold! he prays," is a spectacle that flashes from earth to heaven. Jesus will give to prayer what He will not give without prayer; and though He knows our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance in asking, yet we must ask in order to obtain. The very asking humbles, not degrades the petitioner, and exalts Him to whom the petition is addressed.

The blind man immediately asked Him to supply that which he felt to be his greatest calamity. And here we have, an instance of a temporal blessing sought and instantly bestowed. Prayer means, not first trying to find out what is best for us, or most conducive to the glory of God; but seeking the removal of the load that is heaviest, supply for the want that is deepest, mercy where mercy can be best and most effectually applied. It is God's prerogative to give when, where, and how He pleases; it is our privilege to unbosom our own deep wants, and tell Him all we feel, and ask Him to supply all we need.

The blind man, therefore, called out, "My want-the one I feel most the one that makes me beg, that unfits me for all that I would do-is, that I am blind. My prayer is, therefore, Lord,

that I may receive my sight." Jesus answered, "Receive thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee." Not thine earnestness hath saved thee, not thy love hath saved thee, not thy persistence hath saved thee; but that faith which recognised in the Man of Sorrows the Messiah of Israel.

The blind man instantly arose, and "followed Jesus, glorifying God." The sense of gratitude he felt for the transcendent mercy he had received, bound him to the Giver with cords that could not be broken.

This miracle bears upon it all the impress of a Divine character. The object on whom it was performed was not some recluse, some fanatic nun, or macerated and miserable monk, in a convent, whom only a few could see; it was a wayside beggar. Everybody knew him to be blind; every tradesman going to his shop, every merchant to his counting-house, every rabbi to his synagogue, every priest to his temple, had seen the blind man, and all knew that he was blind.

Jesus was passing by on his errands of mercy and beneficence, when a loud voice arrested his attention, and, as the world would say, accidentally, but it was really not an accident, He heard the blind man's voice amid the tumult of the crowd. There could have been no preconcerted arrangement, no plan by which any could pretend the miracle was done when no such thing had been performed.

The miracle was done in the midst, not of friends, ready to believe very little to be very splendid; but in the midst of his foessome that scoffed at it, others that derided Him, others that regarded Him as an impostor. Friends and foes equally attested the exercise of his power, and the accomplishment of the great result for which that power was put forth.

In this miracle was beneficence as truly as power. If Satan were permitted to do a supernatural thing upon the earth, there would be one brand on it unmistakeable-it would not be bene