John 9

1,2. And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.8 The neighbours therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, 9 Is not this he that sat and begged? Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: 10 but he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? 11 He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus, made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I 12 received sight. Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not.13, 14 They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. And it was the sabbath-day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath-day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet.18 But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see? His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: but by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself. 22 These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him.

THIS man has not sinned more than others who can see, and his parents have not sinned more than others who have children who can see. But he was born blind in order that the works of God might be made manifest in him, the works of tender love which God works in Christ. Thus had he ordained it, in order that this blind man might be a witness of the glory of God, and that in him Christ might prove himself the light of the world. There lies in these words of Christ strong consolation for all sufferers. And although thy suffering, thy blindness, and all thy weakness, will never depart from thee but with thy bodily life, yet be certain of this, that thou sufferest thus in order that the works of God may be made manifest in thee—manifest in thy inward life, when thou endurest suffering with a Christian’s patience; manifest at the last before all God’s elect in heaven, when thou shalt receive the crown of life as one that hath overcome. R. B.

THE history of the ninth chapter of John is a sermon in act and deed preached on the subject of the preceding discourse: “I am the light of the world,” to which in fact the Lord expressly refers in verse 5. While the Jews are confident that they themselves are guides of the blind, lights to them which are in darkness, we behold standing over against them Jesus the true light, the true guide of the blind, and the good shepherd of his sheep. Thus the intermediate history recounted in the ninth chapter, linking to each other the discourses contained in the eighth and tenth chapters, binds all together as in one unbroken chain. R. B.—This history is remarkable, because against the will of the enemies of Jesus its truthfulness was judicially ascertained, and thereby every door closed to unbelief. C. B.

2. This man or his parents. This man who is born blind would not have been so unless he had been born of sinful parents, and himself sinful. In this the disciples are right. But they are wrong in just the same way as Job’s friends of old were wrong, in imagining that this man or his parents were greater sinners or more guilty than others, and that his blindness was an especial punishment of some especial guilt. R. B.

3. Neither. He does not repudiate that strong instinct of the human conscience, which in all ages has taught it to trace suffering to sin. What he does repudiate and condemn is the application of that principle to specific instances, by those who know so little, as we do, of the divine purposes and aims in the separate events of life. He wanted, by a vigorous stroke, to lay the axe at the root of a prevalent superstitious feeling which led to erroneous and presumptuous readings of God’s providences, connecting particular sufferings with particular sins, and arguing from the severity of the one to the magnitude of the other. H.—The Lord neither denies their sin nor his: all that he does is to turn away his disciples from that most harmful practice of guessing hidden sins in explanation of unusual sufferings. This blindness, he would say, is the chastening of no peculiar sin on his own part, or on his parents’. Seek, therefore, neither here nor there the cause of his calamity; but see what nobler explanation the evil in the world, and this evil in particular, is capable of receiving. The purpose of the life-long blindness of this man is “that the works of God should be made manifest in him;” and that through it and its removal the grace and glory of God might be magnified.

4. What he would affirm is this, No man who hath not done his work in the day, can do it in the night; for him the time cometh in which he cannot work—and he applies this even to himself. T.—The emphasis rests on the word I. To work the works of God, now to be made manifest in this blind man, such was the end for which the Father, who had been working hitherto, had sent the Son (verse 19). Well for the laborers who work while the sun is in the heaven! Christ hastens on with quick and still quicker steps in the path of blessing, in which he works with his servants, and confirms their words with signs accompanying. R. B.

5. “I am the light of the world”—said with his thought upon the opening of sightless eyes—first in the physical sense; then in the far higher spiritual sense in which he unseals eyes blinded by life-long sin. H. C.—As before the raising of Lazarus he announces himself as the Resurrection and the Life, so now he sets himself forth as the source of the archetypal spiritual light, of which the natural, now about to be conferred, is only a derivation and symbol. A.

6,7. The Saviour first draws out his faith by laying the healing power, dwelling in him, in a visible sign, and then he prescribes to the man, whom his power has touched, a journey of faith, as Elijah once did to Naaman. R. B.—Within the same compass there is no peace of dead or living mechanism so curious, so complex, so full of nice adjustments, as the human eye. It was the great Creator’s office to make that eye and plant it in its socket, gifting it with all its varied powers of motion, outward and inward, and guarding it against all the injuries to which so delicate an instrument is exposed. It was the Creator’s will that some fatal defect should from the first have existed in the eyeball of this man. And who but the Creator could it be that rectified the defect, bestowing at once upon the renovated organ the full power of vision? H.—Seeing. Who can imagine the glory which burst upon him when, as the restoring clay left his eyes, the light of the world invaded his astonished soul? Blackness of darkness—not an invading stranger, but the home-companion always there—creation not erased and treasured in the memory, but to his eyes uncreated!—Blackness of darkness! The glory of the celestial blue! The towers of the great Jerusalem dwelling in the awful space! Any wonder might follow on such a wonder. And the whole vision was as fresh as if he had that moment been created, the first of men. McD.

The great miracle of healing a man blind from his birth furnishes a critical example of a miracle tried by every possible test. In this proceeding we have, united with the divine power by which the miracle was wrought, the indication of his command over natural means, and an act to be performed by the sufferer himself (as in the case of Naaman) which at once tested his faith, and called the attention of those who beheld him going to the pool with besmeared eyes, and returning with all the joy of restored sight. Siloam is one of the few undisputed localities in the topography of Jerusalem; still retaining its old name, while every other pool has lost its Bible designation. S. (Sec. 188.)—The water of this pool had no inherent healing efficacy. The command was a test of faith, and in obeying, the blind man found what he wanted. It is the great principle which runs through Scripture. J. C. R.

13. The Pharisees.** The great council or Sanhedrim of the nation, the same body before whom our Lord made his defence in the fifth chapter of John. We can hardly imagine any other body at Jerusalem “excommunicating” a man. J. C. R.—14. This, as an act of mercy, was in the deepest accordance with the very causes for which the Sabbath had been ordained, and the very lessons of which it was meant to be a perpetual witness. But the spirit of narrow literalism and slavish minuteness and quantitative obedience had long degraded the Sabbath from the true idea of its institution into a pernicious superstition. The Sabbath of rabbinism, with all its petty servility, was in no respect the Sabbath of God’s loving and holy law. It had degenerated into that which Paul calls it, a “beggarly element.” And these Jews were so imbued with this utter littleness, that a unique miracle of mercy awoke in them less of astonishment and gratitude than the horror kindled by a neglect of their sabbatical superstition. F.

16. Envy judges of the works by the persons who do them; equity judges of persons by their works. The judgments of men will ever be divided with respect to the best of men, so long as the world is divided by different passions and interests. Q.—This division among the members of the council had this good effect, that they found it necessary to go into the case more fully. These very questions brought the reality of the miracle into fuller light than before. J. C. R.

17. He had gone on from seeing to seeing. From faith in the wonder-working Prophet, this apt scholar of grace at last arrives at faith in the Son of God (verse 35). We see in him a beautiful type of that blessed simplicity which belongs to grace where it has been truly received. He is a beautiful type likewise of that faithfulness to which will be given abundance, because it honors the firstling gifts of grace it has received, and from the gift allows itself to be drawn upward to the Giver. R. B.

20-23. The more the Pharisees examine this miracle in order to raise doubts concerning it, the more indubitable do they render it. Q.—By summoning the parents of the healed man, they brought publicly forward the two best possible witnesses as to the fact of the man’s identity, as to the fact that he was born blind, and as to the fact that he now had his sight. J. C. R.—Judicial personages, and these the avowed enemies of Christ, investigate a miracle in repeated hearings, and yet it holds its ground! A. T.

Section 92.—The Man again examined, cast out, and found by Christ.

The Temple, and the Street.

24. THEN again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the 25 praise: we know that this man is a sinner. He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. 26, 27 Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear 28 it again? will ye also be his disciples? Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his 29 disciple; but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses; as for 30 this fellow, we know not from whence he is. The man answered and said unto them,

Why, herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he 31 hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man 32 be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began 33 was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man 34 were not of God, he could do nothing. They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto 36 him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, 37 that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and 38 it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

WE have here an illustration of Christ’s choice of seasons for his deepest personal intercourse with souls. “Jesus heard that they had cast him out:” it was then that “He found him.” When all else is lost, then is the great finding. Jesus found him, and he found Jesus. It is more than a parable. It is a simple fact, made true over and over again in that spiritual world which has its laws and its events, its battles and its victories, as truly, as certainly, as any that are going on in the world of flesh and blood; only just with a veil over them, which in reality rests more upon the eye that looks than upon the object looked on.

This man had begun in great ignorance. He did not know who Christ was. He speaks of “a man that is called Jesus.” Even after his cure, he only supposed that “he was a prophet.” Not until he was called to account, and something of opposition and even of persecution threatened him, does anything of deeper feeling manifest itself, and a tone almost of heroic firmness in the maintenance of truth prepares us for the great and final confession, “Lord, I believe!” The lesson is that of all Scripture: “To him that hath shall more be given.” He who well uses the light he has, shall find that light shining more and more unto the perfect day. He who tells manfully, and acts consistently, what he knows of Christ, shall know more and feel more and love more, until faith itself is lost in sight. V.

24,25. When Christ had challenged them to convince him of sin, they were all silent; but now they know that he is a sinner and no prophet! To this they intended the healed man to give his assent, and this the hypocrites called giving glory to God, though all the while they sought their own glory, and were trying all they could to rob the Son of God of the glory which in this man he had garnered up for himself. R. B.—Our “Give God the praise,” sets the reader quite upon a wrong track. The Pharisees do not mean, “Give the glory of your cure to God, and not to this sinful man.” The words are rather an adjuration to him that he should speak the truth. We know, they would say, that it is all a collusion; we have indubitable proofs of it; do thou also give glory to God, and acknowledge that it is so. T.—One thing I know. Thus in affecting simplicity he really does “give God the glory.” What the Pharisees profess to “know” does not for one instant disturb him in the “one thing” which he “knows.” R. B.

27-29. He treats their questions as those of inquiries ready for discipleship. They retort upon him as the disciple, and here they plainly were not wrong. B.—We know. If they believed Moses as sent of God on the evidence of miracles performed twenty centuries before, much more should they believe in Jesus on the ground of far greater miracles abundantly wrought among them, one of which they could not now disprove. J. G. B.—30. This unheard-of miracle, that he was blind and now saw, caused the man less astonishment than that those who saw were blind to the work of God which had been made manifest in him. The Pharisees knew not that Jesus was of God, and the healed man in his simplicity did. It was this that excited his wonder. He could not make out the wisdom of these learned men to whom what was so clear to him yet remained hidden. R. B.

31. His faith and insight and courage had grown during this examination. He who had said a little while before, “Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not” (verse 25), avoiding the answer, now says boldly, “We know that God heareth not sinners.” T.

32. There is still no instance on record of a person absolutely born blind, obtaining the use of sight. K.—33. He answers with a courage that ranks him as the first of the great company of confessors, and with a wisdom that raises him above all those high-born and well-taught Pharisees. H.—

If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. The restored man waxes bold, and plies the logic of his strong common-sense vigorously. The man who gave me eyes must have had help from God. H. C.

34. So pungent, so unanswerable the speech, that passion now takes the place of argument, and the old weapon of authority is grasped and used. Meanly casting his calamity in his teeth, they cast him out—excommunicating him on the spot. H.—Dost thou teach us?—thou, a base-born, uneducated youth, teach us, the trained, constituted, recognized guides of the people in the things of God? B.—There appear to have been two, some say three, kinds of excommunication among the Jews, greatly differing in degrees and intensity, and our Lord often alludes to them as among the sharpest trials which his servants would have to endure for his name’s sake. The mildest was an exclusion for thirty days from the synagogue, to which period, in case the excommunicated showed no sign of repentance, a similar or a longer period was added: in other ways too it was made keener; it was accompanied with a curse; none might hold communion with him now, not even his family, except in cases of absolute necessity. Did he show himself obstinate still, he was in the end absolutely separated from the fellowship of the people of God, cut off from the congregation. T.

35. Jesus did not neglect his first confessor. F.—The Jews [ministers of the temple] cast him out of the temple, and the Lord of the temple found him. He was dishonored by those who dishonored Christ, and was honored by the Lord of angels. Chrys.—He has not been ashamed of Christ, and now Christ, the good Shepherd, first finding him, reveals himself unto him as he had not done before: no longer as the prophet of God, for to this only his faith had hitherto reached, but as the Son of God himself. T.—36. This “Son of God” surpasses his present comprehension; and therefore, true to his simple and guileless character, he asks for further information about him. A.

37. With the eyes which I have opened for thee thou hast seca him, and it is he that talketh with thee: if thou desirest to believe on him, then believe my word that I am he. Thus, while the work of Jesus showed to him the Son of God, the word of Jesus also testified to him concerning the Son of God. R. B.—Never but once before—to the woman of Samaria—was so clear, direct, personal a revelation of himself made by Jesus Christ. In both—the woman by the well-side, the blind beggar by the way-side—Jesus found simplicity and candor, quickness of intelligence, openness to evidence, readiness to confess. Both followed the light already given. Upon the man he wrought such a miracle of power and love as begat within the deep conviction that he was a true worshipper of God, a faithful doer of the divine will, a man of God, a prophet of God; and to this conviction he had adhered before the frowning rulers, and in face of all that they could do against him. He had risked all, and lost much, rather than deny such faith as he had in Jesus. And to him the fuller revelation was imparted.

38. Worshipped him.** As few of his immediate followers yet had done; worshipped him as Thomas and the others did when they had the great miracle of the resurrection and the sight of the risen Saviour to establish and confirm their faith. H.—His eyes had been doubly opened, and the humble form of Jesus was no longer any hinderance to his worshipping as the Son of God him whom all the angels of God worship. He believed and he worshipped. The living breath of faith is prayer; it is the believer’s proper sign of life. R. B.

Section 93.—The Only Door into the Fold of God.

39. AND Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not 40 might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees 41 which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

1. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold 2 but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that enter- 3 eth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

4. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow 5 him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. 6 This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were 7 which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto 8 you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: 9 but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall 10 be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

HERE is the beauty and glory of Christ as a Redeemer and Saviour of lost man, that he goes before, and never behind his flock. He begins with infancy, that he may show a grace for childhood. He is made under the law, and carefully fulfils all righteousness there, that he may sanctify the law to us, and make it honorable. He goes before us in the bearing of temptations, that we may bear them after him, being tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He taught us forgiveness, by forgiving him- self his enemies. He went before us in the loss of all things, that we might be able to follow, in the renouncing of the world and its dominion. The works of love that he requires of us, in words, are pre- ceded and illustrated by real deeds of love, to which he gave up all his mighty powers from day to day. He bore the cross himself that he commanded us to take up and bear after him. Requiring us to hate even life for the gospel’s sake, he went before us in dying for the gospel; suffering a death most bitter at the hands of his enemies, exasperated only by his goodness, and that when at a word he might have called to his aid whole legions of angels, and driven them out of the world. And then he went before us in the bursting of the grave, and the resurrection from it; becoming, in his own person, the first fruits of them that slept. And finally, he ascended, and passed within the veil before us, as our forerunner, whom we are to follow even there. In all which he is our Shepherd, going before us, and never behind; calling, but never driving; bearing all the losses he calls us to bear; meeting all the dangers, suffering all the cruelties and pains which it is given us to suffer, and drawing us to follow where he leads. H. B.

IT must have been with a rejoicing spirit that the lately healed blind man listened to this dis- course of the Saviour. For he himself was such a sheep as had both experienced the killing and de- stroying of the bad shepherds and the faithful and gracious tending of the good Shepherd. Standing before the eyes of the false shepherds, as a living interpretation of the parable, this sheep is hearing his voice, and is fleeing from the voice of stran- gers. R. B.

39-41. A number of the Pharisees approach, attracted by the interview between Christ and the man. As he sees, compares, contrasts the two— the man and them—he says, “For judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not” (as this poor blind beggar) “may see, and that they which see” (as the Pharisees) “might be made blind.” H.—Naturally the blind man’s case became suggestive of what takes place in hu- man hearts and consciences under the light of revealed truth: one class—long sitting in moral darkness—brought forth into light; another class, favored above others with the light-bearing word of God, yet resisting its demands, and blinding their eyes to its pure teachings, are doomed in judg- ment to the blindness they have cherished, and are given over to their own chosen infatuation. H. C. —According as he believes or disbelieves the gospel preached by Jesus, a man either ceases to be blind, and recovers his sight, or he loses forever the hope and the power of seeing. For unbelief in Jesus entails a judgment of obduracy. Nor must it be regarded merely as a strong figure of speech, when Jesus says that he came into the world to bring about such a discrimination. After Adam’s fall had made all men sinners, and induced univer- sal condemnation, it was God’s will, by the mission of his Son, to revoke the universal curse, to prepare a free salvation, and to separate or sift (the judg- ment here spoken of) those who would accept it from those who would not. C. B.

Christ was the King of Truth, and therefore his open setting up of his banner in the world was at once and of necessity a ranging of men in their true ranks, as lovers of truth or lovers of a lie; and he is here saying of himself the same thing which

Simeon had said of him before: “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” He is the stone on which men build, and against which men stumble, and set for either purpose. Out of this miracle unfolds itself that discourse which reaches down to verse 21 of the ensuing chapter. They had shown what manner of shepherds of the sheep they were in their exclusion of this one from the fold. Our Lord sets over against them himself, the good Shepherd and the true. T.

That they which see not might see. The blind man had received sight in two senses—bodily and spiritual. And as our Lord always treats of the spiritual as paramount, including the bodily, so here he proceeds to speak of spiritual sight. Are we blind also? Well aware of the meaning, they scornfully rejoin, “Are we, then, these blind, we, the leaders of the people?” A.—Ignorance would have excused them, as in the case of the sin against the Son of man. But their boast of knowledge was a witness against themselves. Able to see, but not willing, their blindness was their guilt. N.—Therefore your sin remaineth. To those who only stumbled in the blindness of wilful error a claim to the possession of sight was a self-condemnation. And when the leaders, the teachers, the guides were blind, how could the people see? The thought naturally led him to the nature of true and false teachers, which he expanded and illustrated in the beautiful apologue—half parable, half allegory—of the true and the false shepherds. F.

1-10. Our Lord’s object was to show the entire unfitness of the Pharisees to be pastors and teachers of the Jews, because they had not taken up their office in the right spirit, and with a right understanding of the work they had to do. He is not in this part speaking of himself as “the shepherd,” but only as “the door.” J. C. R.—It is useless to scrutinize too closely every part of this parable. Let us rest satisfied with this general view, that as Christ states a resemblance between the Church and a fold (a sheepfold, in which God assembles all his people), so he compares himself to a door, because there is no other entrance into the Church but by himself. Then it follows that they are good shepherds, who lead men straight to Christ; and that they are truly gathered into Christ’s fold, who devote themselves to Christ alone. Calvin.

1-3. I, seeking to enter into your hearts, preach Christ; if I preach other than that, I shall be striving to climb in some other way. Christ is my door; through Christ I win your hearts. Aug.—A fold in Palestine was a space inclosed by high walls. It had a gate guarded by a porter at night, as the

Syrian Sheepfold.

sheep could not be safely left alone. An Eastern shepherd knows each sheep in his flock, and has a name for each one. The sheep are led, and not driven. J. C. R.—The sheep. This simple creature has this special note among all animals, that it quickly hears the voice of the shepherd, follows no one else, depends entirely on him, and seeks help from him alone, cannot help itself, but is shut up to another’s aid. Luther.—The porter. Not to be too much pressed as significant; but certainly the Holy Spirit is especially he who opens the door to the shepherds. A.

He calleth them by name. It is a remarkable fact in Oriental husbandry, that in a flock of hundreds or thousands each individual sheep has its name, knows it, and is known by it. So Christ’s sheep are never so numerous that he will not know each one’s individual name—each one’s peculiarities, personal character, talents, fitnesses, weak and temptible points, exposures, and demands for his sympathy and care. A positive personal communion of mind, thought, sympathy, and love is constantly active between Jesus the Shepherd and every one of his sheep. They severally know him; he personally knows each one of them. He can call each one by name, and lead him out from the fold into the pasture-grounds that will best meet his wants. H. C.—What without exaggeration may be called a personal friendship is established between the Lord and each of his disciples. He has personal communication with each suitable to himself and unknown to all the rest, calling him by his own name, and expressing a personal love in the calling. Raleigh.—Another human spirit is redeemed to God: its Redeemer gives to it its new name, and forever afterward in that spirit he takes a living, personal, peculiar interest: bending over it continually with infinite tenderness, watching each doubt, each fear, each trial, each temptation, each fall, each rising again, each conflict, each victory, each defeat, every movement, by which its progress is advanced or retarded, watching each and all with a solicitude as special and particular as if it were upon it that the exclusive regards of his loving heart were fixed. No vague, indefinite, indiscriminate superintendence is that which the great good Shepherd still exercises over his flock, but a care that particularizes each separate member of it, and descends to the minutest incidents of their history. H.

4,5. This is true to the letter. They are so tame and so trained that they follow their keeper with the utmost docility. He leads them forth from the fold, or from their houses in the villages, just where he pleases. As there are many flocks in such a place as this, each one takes a different path, and it is his business to find pasture for them. It is necessary, therefore, that they should be taught to follow, and not to stray away into the unfenced fields of corn which lie so temptingly on either side. Any one that thus wanders is sure to get into trouble. The shepherd calls sharply from time to time to remind them of his presence. They know his voice, and follow on; but if a stranger call, they stop short, lift up their heads in alarm, and if it is repeated they turn and flee, because they know not the voice of a stranger. This is not the fanciful costume of a parable; it is simple fact. I have made the experiment repeatedly. The shepherd goes before, not merely to point out the way, but to see that it is practicable and safe. W. M. T.

The calling and leading are always united. He calls that he may lead. He utters the name that he, that she who answers to it may, at the thrilling word, arise and follow him whithersoever he goeth. The first in order is the calling, the assurance to the lost that the Seeker and Saviour of mankind has found and will love him to the end and for evermore. But the Shepherd is in movement; he comes to abide with us, but not to keep us abiding in the same states and circumstances. In this sense he always comes to lead, never to linger or stay. Raleigh.—This is a beautiful and clear mirror, wherein Christian shepherds and Christian flocks would do well to view themselves. Just as the good Shepherd Christ knows his sheep, and as he calls them each one by name, so also do the shepherds who come in Christ’s name and are appointed by the Holy Spirit know the sheep which are intrusted to them, and so also their watchfulness extends to each individual sheep with a distinguishing care. And as the good Shepherd Christ leads his sheep, going before them in the way which they are to follow, so do Christian shepherds lead the flock of

Christ to true pastures, while they—as examples to the flock—themselves walk in the way to that life to which their preaching calls. R. B.

6,7. The word rendered “parable” is rather “allegory,” or figurative picture. It clearly settles that the whole passage must be taken as a picture of spiritual things, and must not be interpreted too literally. I am the door. He himself is the door through whom, and by faith in whom, both shepherd and sheep must pass, if they would go inside God’s fold. Of the sheep. Not simply “the door;” to teach that the door is for the benefit of the sheep more than the shepherd. J. C. R.—The sheep throughout this parable are the real sheep, the faithful, who are what all in the fold should be. A.

8. All that came before me.** All evidently means “all of similar pretensions to my own.” The Saviour has thus in view not ordinary prophets or religious teachers—of such he could not, of course, say that they were thieves and robbers—but such as assumed to be the religious teachers and lights of the world—of such he could not but say that they were thieves and robbers. The statement is a terse, and in form somewhat obscure, assertion of his solitary and unapproached position as man’s spiritual guide and head. Kendrick.—The Pharisaical shepherds were blind to the glory of the Son of God, and scorned first to come to him, and then to feed his sheep. Instead of entering in through the door, they had climbed up some other way; therefore they were not true shepherds, but thieves who, instead of feeding the flock, fed themselves, who sought their own honor and not God’s, and thought of their own miserable gains, instead of the people’s welfare, and thus robbed God in the flock of his inheritance; murderers they were too, who, instead of leading the sheep to life in the pastures of divine grace and truth, destroyed them with the poisonous weeds of their human inventions; ay, and thrust out of the sheepfold all those who were true sheep, such as the man born blind. R. B.—Of this description were all the shepherds in the age preceding Christ, when Pharisaism and Sadduceeism sprung up. For it was not in the great prophetic promises of the Messias that the lawyers and doctors instructed the people, and as little did they seek to prepare the souls of men for the advent of the Messias. Superseding the Scripture, they inculcated upon them traditions and ordinances of their own devising. By this means they selfishly led them away from Christ, and became thieves and robbers to their souls. This was soon felt by the people, starved as they were like sheep not having any shepherd.

9. By me if any man.** External membership with the Christian Church does not admit us within the fold. Christ himself must be our point of entrance, otherwise we are lost: only in connection with him are good pasture and salvation to be found. C. B.—The expression “go in and out” implies a habit of using familiarly a dwelling, and treating it as a home. It expresses beautifully the habitual communion and happy intercourse with Christ which a true believer enjoys. The “finding pasture” implies the satisfaction, comfort, and refreshment of soul which every one who uses Christ as his door into heaven shall experience. J. C. R.—The words describe the security and enjoyment which are the privileges of God’s people. To go in and out is to transact the business of each day’s life: its rest and labor, the beginning and end of every work. Elsewhere the phrase is “go out and come in.” Here, not without meaning, the expressions are transposed. The former is the order of nature, the latter the order of grace. Burgon.

1-9. A striking thing in these verses is the facility with which the speaker passes from figurative to literal terms. Here is a sheepfold with its “door.” The door is Jesus himself. It is a “man” who enters in through this door; and so entering, he is “saved” as the souls of men are saved; yet the figure returns again. He “goes in and out” of this sheepfold as sheep are wont to do, night and morning, and he “finds pasture”—such grass as is good for sheep. But no reader need miss the sentiment—at once beautiful and forcible—the Christian soul lives on Christ; is fed and guarded, kept and made peaceful, safe, and quiet as the trustful lambs under the faithful care of their kind shepherd. H. C.—In this entire passage, though our Lord is not speaking of himself as a shepherd, and is only giving a descriptive picture of a good shepherd, there is a latent application to himself. There is no one to whom the various features of the picture apply so literally and exactly as to the great Shepherd of believers. J. C. R.

10. Our Lord now drops the figure of “the door,” and, as a fitting introduction to the character of Shepherd in which he is about to announce himself, sharply contrasts the objects of these Pharisees with his own. They sought their own advantage to the destruction of the souls they professed to teach. He sought to give life at the sacrifice of his own. J. G. B.—That they might have life, and more abundantly. Not merely to preserve, but impart life, and communicate it in rich and unfailing exuberance. A claim that is only an echo of all his teaching! B.

Section 94.—The Good Shepherd.

The Temple.