October 31

be as the Master, and the servant as his Lord. May we go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach; and rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

OCTOBER 31.—“He hath opened mine eyes.”—John 9:30.

THE miracles which our Saviour performed on the bodies of men awakened peculiar attention; but the changes which he accomplishes in the soul are much more glorious and important. The benefits of the former were limited to time, but those of the latter pervade eternity. Persons might have been the subjects of the one and have perished for ever; but the experience of the other was always accompanied with salvation.

One of the signs and wonders that were to accredit the Messiah was “the recovering of sight to the blind.” And here we have an instance of it. The story is remarkably interesting and instructive—But we may consider the cure as a symbolical representation of the agency of Divine grace in healing the disorder of the mind; and so put the language into the mouth of every Christian, “He hath opened mine eyes.”

They were once blind, and, like this man, were born blind. But the Lord never leaves them as he finds them. He “opens the eyes of their understanding,” and makes them know the things that belong to their peace; and in his light they see light. The illumination is not perfect at once; and in other things the men of the world may surpass them. But they know themselves, they know the evil of sin, they know the preciousness of the Saviour, and above all things desire to win Christ, and be found in him. The enlightening principally and distinctively consists in a real apprehension of the excellency of Divine things. There is a great difference between a conviction that there is such a Being as the Lord Jesus, and such a perception of his glory as attaches us to him: and between a persuasion that there is such a thing as holiness, and a sense of the beauty of it: and between a belief that honey is sweet, and a knowledge of its sweetness: the one derived from report, and the other resulting from relish.

Two effects follow when the things of the Spirit are thus spiritually discerned. The one is a clearer, fuller, firmer, conviction of the existence of these things. Their lustre renders them more distinct and prominent. We feel assured that they cannot be fictitious, they must be real, must be of God. And now also our prejudices against them relax and remove; and we are open to conviction, and disposed to do justice to all evidence in their favour; and become studious of them, and long to increase by every method our acquaintance with them. For the other is, a superlative regard to them. There is now felt an influence in them that fixes the mind, and sways the will and the affections. We now seek those things that are above. The love of Christ constraineth us. To them that believe he is precious. There is no true faith without works; no saving knowledge without obedience. The seat of its residence is the heart; and the sphere of its activity the whole life.

And has he thus opened your eyes? Then adore and praise your Enlightener. Often dwell upon your former and present condition,

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