have ears and hear not." Ezek. 12:2. (1) "He took him aside from the multitude." He wanted to be alone with the man. In dealing with an in- quirer, if possible get him by himself; in no other case is it so t r ue as in soul winning, "Three is a crowd." (2) "He put his finger into his ear." This is the personal touch necessary in soul winning. He touched the place of need. He put His finger upon the deaf ear. We need to touch the sore spot in men's lives; lay our fingers upon the sin which keeps them from hearing His blessed invitation, and let them under- stand what a hardship a deaf ear is. (3) "He touched his tongue." The tongue is the vehicle for testimony, Christ wants to be confessed before men. He longs for people to tell out the story of redeeming love. He wants lips opened to show forth His praise. (4) "He looked to heaven and sighed." Here we see the double as- pect. The sigh of sympathy with the unsaved and the prevailing prayer for their salvation. We need to be sensi- tively sympathetic for their infirmities and we need the faith to believe in the power of God to open eyes, open ears, open mouths and open hearts, so that His own fullness may be poured in. Thank God, the deaf can be brought to hear and the dumb to speak, and we may be the ministering spirits sent of God to do this work. Lord give us the In the lesson today there are three things about a sign. The Pharisees asked for a sign, the disciples had for- gotten a sign and the blind man re- ceived a sign. The lesson concerns three blind classes. 1. The Pharisees were blind, persist- ently, wilfully blind. They knew that the Lord had cured the demoniac at Gadara, had raised the daughter of Jairus and had healed the woman with the issue of blood. They had been con- fronted with testimony unanswerable: \~t) God had given them eyes, but they would not see; they rejected all testimony be- cause they had been rejected by Christ as Spiritual leaders; Christ would not respond to their plea because He knew that it was not an honest request. He Himself was the most significant sign from heaven and they repudiated Him. 2. The disciples were blind. He had warned them concerning the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod; but they ™ . ; desire. — \ Lesson 5. November 3d. Golden Text John 7:12.
cry of each, but He determined to bring out the truth in connection with each. Approach to Christ must be upon the ground of the truth. A Gentile cannot come to God on Jewish ground, neither •can a Unitarian com^ to Christ on the ground of our Lord's perfect humanity. He will not give the bread of heaven to those who deny His deity. To the •centurion who confessed his unworthi- ness to receive anything, He expresses His willingness to give him everything he desires. This woman and this man, so diver- gent in station, exemplify that which so pleases the Lord, an unqualified faith. We do not read that He ever put His disciples there, but, on the contrary, He says to them, "O ye of little f a i t h !" Where does He put you, and why? While this is a great text for the un- saved, let us not narrow it down to them. Is it not t r ue that here is a great invitation to us all? Why do we not exercise faith and go to Him; He will never cast us out. Our unworthi- ness is our card of admission to His presence. He loves to have us come, He loves to share our sorrows, He loves t o bear our burdens, He loves to ease our heartaches, He loves to help and heal. His arms are outstretched and always, night and day, He is saying,' "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." Let us honor Him by •our faith. There is as endless a variety in the works of grace as we find in the works of nature. He speaks and it is done, "but when it is done it is marvelously done. There are people who think God must save everyone in the same way, that the conditions must be the same, t h e experiences the same; and unfor- tunately they would like everyone made a f t er their own mould. The miracles of healing were not alike^ the conditions under which He wrought them were varied; no two persons .are alike any more than any two leaves are exactly similar. What we need to do is get our eyes properly focused on the important word in our text, "He hath done all things well." He maketh the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak." Man is pic- tured to us here in an abnormal state, but we- see beyond the abnormal man, t h e Man Christ Jesus. We have here a suggestive lesson on soul winning. Jehovah had said, "They Lesson 4. October 27 Golden Text, Mark 7:37
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