26-34, What a contrast between the opening and the closing of this chapter! The blind sees! The

beggar is enriched! The outcast on the Temple steps is a worshiper in the temple of the spirit! And how vast a contrast to the deterioration at work in the hearts of these professedly religious men! From the -mouth of a babe in the divine life God ean elicit strength to quell the enemy and the avenger. “O God, our God, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”

The man’s judges cast in his teeth the life-long deprivation from which he had suffered, as a conclusive evidence of his sins. This was the common Jewish interpretation of such a calamity, v. 2. Our Lord, however, taught that suffering is permitted to befall for wise and good reasons, which are compatible with the character of God, and it provides a platform on which the grace and power of God may manifest themselves, each new phase of evil leading to a fresh manifestation of the power and love of God. How often he seems to say, when we are perplexed with the world’s sin and sorrow, “These things are not unto death, but to manifest the works of God’! Look not at the pain, but at its results! See what humility and patience God gives; wait to see the harvest of these sewings!

John 9:35—10:6. In v. 35 we hear of Jesus finding the outcast, whom the Pharisees had excommunicated ; and this story is appropriately followed by a picture of the true Shepherd as contrasted with the false. At night sundry flocks are brought to the Eastern sheepfold and committed to the care of the keeper or porter. In the morning the shepherds knock at the barred door of the enclosure, and the porter opens from within. Each separates his own sheep by calling their names, and when thus summoned the flock follows its shepherd, wherever he may lead.

The sheepfold in this parable holds the Jewish people. The stranger is the religious Teacher who fails to speak in the familiar phrase of Moses and the prophets. The Pharisees and scribes are the thieves and robbers

who have stolen God’s glory and made profit of his flock. Note that whenever you are put forth, you will find Christ going before.

God has sent many true shepherds from out his presence chamber, to care not only for individuals or churches but for nations.