Sermon 2955. Simple But Sound

(No. 2955)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1905.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1863.

"One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." John 9:25.

DID it ever strike you how wonderfully calm and collected our Lord must have been at this time? He had been preaching in theTemple, talking to a multitude of Jews. They grew furious with Him-a number of stones which were used in repairing the templewere lying about on the floor and they took up those stones to cast at Him. He, by some means, forced a passage and escapedout of the midst of them-and when He came to the gate of the Temple with His disciples-who seem to have followed Him in thelane which He was able to make through the throng of His foes-He saw this blind man and, as if there had been no bloodthirstyfoes at His heels, He stopped! He stopped as calmly as if an attentive audience had been waiting upon His lips-to look atthe blind man. The disciples stopped, too, but they paused to ask questions.

How like ourselves! We are always ready to talk. How unlike the Master! He was always ready to act. The disciples wanted toknow how the man came to be blind, but the Master meant to deliver the man from his blindness. We are very apt to be enteringinto speculative theories about the origin of sin or the cause of certain strange Providences, but Christ is always for seekingout, not the cause, but the remedy-not the reason of the disease, but the way by which the disease can be cured! The blindman is brought to Him. Christ asks him no questions, but, spitting upon the dust, He stoops down and works the dust into mortar.And when He has done this, taking it up in His hands, He applies it to what Bishop Hall calls the eye-holes of the man (forthere were no eyes there), and plasters them up so that the spectators look on and see a man with clay upon his eyes. "Go,"said Christ "to the pool of Siloam and wash." Some kind friends led the man who was only too glad to go! Unlike Naaman, whomade an objection to wash in Jordan and be clean, the blind man was glad enough to avail himself of the Divine remedy. Hewent. He washed the clay from his eyes and he received his sight-a blessing he had never known before! With what rapture hegazed upon the trees! With what delight he lifted up his face to the blue sky! With what pleasure he beheld the costly, statelyfabric of the Temple and, I think, afterwards, with what interest and pleasure he would look into the face of Jesus-the Manwho had given him his sight!

It is not my objective to expound this miracle, tonight, but well it sets forth, in sacred emblem, the state of human nature.Man is blind. Father Adam put out our eyes. We cannot see spiritual things. We have not the spiritual optic- that has gone-goneforever. We are born without it-born blind! Christ comes into this world and His Gospel is despicable in men's esteem evenas spittle-the thought of it disgusts most men. Gentility turns on its heel and says it will have nothing to do with it. Andpomp and glory all say that it is a contemptible and base thing! Christ puts the Gospel on the blind eyes-a Gospel which,like clay, seems as if it would make men more blind than before-but it is through "the foolishness of preaching" that Christsaves them that believe! The Holy Spirit is like Siloam's pool. We go to Him, or rather He comes to us-the convictions ofsin produced by the Gospel are washed away by the cleansing influences of the Divine Comforter and, behold-we who were onceso blind that we could see no beauty in Divine things and no excellence in the crown jewels of God, begin to see things ina clear and Heavenly light-and rejoice exceedingly before the Lord!

The man no sooner sees than he is brought before adversaries and our text is a part of his testimony in defense of the "Prophet"who had worked the miracle upon him, whom, not as yet did he understand to be the Messiah.

"One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." Although the parables would furnish us an admirable topic, we preferto keep to this verse and linger upon the various reflections it suggests. I. We have before us, in these words, AN UNANSWERABLEARGUMENT.

Every now and then you and I are called into a little debate. Persons do not take things for granted in this age and it isquite as well that they should not. There have been ages in which any impostor could lead the public by the nose. Men wouldbelieve anything and any crazy maniac, man or woman, who might stand up and pretend to be the Messiah, would be sure to havesome followers! I think this age, with all its faults, is not so credulous as that which has gone by. There is a great dealof questioning. You know that there is some questioning where there should not be any. Men who stand high in official positionsand who ought long ago to have had their faith established, or to have renounced their position, have ventured to questionthe very things they have sworn to defend! There is questioning everywhere, but to my mind it seems, Brothers and Sisters,that we need not be afraid. If the Gospel of God is true, it can stand any quantity of questioning. I am more afraid of thedeadness and lethargy of the public mind about religion than any sort of enquiry or controversy about it. As silver triedin the furnace is purified seven times, so is the Word of God-and the more it is put into the furnace, the more it will bepurified-and the more beauteously the pure ore of Revelation will glitter in the sight of the faithful! Never be afraid ofa debate. Never go into it unless you are well armed and if you do go into it, mind that you take with you the weapon I amgiving you tonight. Though you may be unarmed in every other respect, if you know how to wield this, you may, through Grace,come off more than a conqueror! The argument which this man used was this, "Whereas I was blind, now I see."

It is forcible because it is a personal argument. I heard a person, the other day, use a similar argument. I had been laughingat a certain system of medicine-and really, it seems to me pardonable to laugh at all the systems, for I believe they areall almost equally as good or bad as the others. The person in question said, "Well, I can't laugh at it." "Why?" I asked."Because," he said, "it cured me." Of course I had no further answer. If this person had really been cured by such-and-sucha remedy, it was to him an unanswerable argument! And to me, could he produce many other cases, it would be one that I wouldnot wish to answer. The fact is, the personality of the thing gives it power. People tell us that in the pulpit, the ministershould always say, "We," as editors do in writing. We would lose all our power if we did! The minister of God is to use thefirst person singular and constantly to say, "I bear eyewitness for God that, in my case, such-and-such a thing has been true."I will not blush nor stammer to say, "I bear my personal witness to the truth of Christ's Gospel in my own case." Lifted upfrom sin, delivered from bondage, from doubt, from fear, from despair, from an intolerable agony -lifted up to unspeakablejoys and into the service of my God-I bear my own testimony and I believe, Christians, that your force in the world will bemightily increased if you constantly make your witness for Christ a personal one!

I daresay my neighbor over there can tell what Divine Grace has done for him. Yes, but to me, to my own soul, what Grace hasdone for me will be more of an establishment to me for my faith than what Christ has done for him! And if I stand up and talkof what God's Grace has done for this or that Brother, it may do very well. But if I can say, "I myself have proved it," hereis an argument which drives in the nail-yes, and clinches it, too! I believe, Christians, if you would prevail when you haveto argue, you must do so by bearing a personal testimony to the value of religion in your own case, for that which you despise,you can never persuade others to value. "I believed, therefore have I spoken," said the Psalmist. Luther was a man of strongfaith and, therefore, he kindled faith in others. That man will never move the world who lets the world move him, but theman who stands firm and says, "I know, I know, I know such-and-such a thing because it is burnt in my own inner consciousness"-sucha man's very appearance becomes an argument to convince others!

Moreover, this man's argument was an appeal to men's senses and hardly anything can be supposed more forcible than that. "Iwas blind," he said, "you saw that I was. Some of you noticed me at the gate of the Temple. I was blind, now I see! You canall see that I can look at you-you perceive at once that I have eyes, or else I could not see you in the way I do." He appealedto their senses. The argument which our holy religion needs at the present moment is a new appeal to the senses of men. Youwill ask me, "What is that?" The holy living of Christians! The change which the Gospel works in men must be the Gospel'sbest argument against all opposers! When the Gospel was first preached in the Island of Jamaica, some of the planters objectedgrievously to it. They thought it an evil thing to teach the Negroes, but a

missionary said, "What has been the effect of your Negro servant, Jack, hearing the Gospel?" And the planter said, "Well,he was constantly drunk before, but he is now sober. I could not trust him, he was a great thief-but he is now honest. Heswore like a trooper before, but now I hear nothing objectionable come from his mouth." "Well," said the missionary, "thenI ask you if a Gospel that has made such a change as that in the man must not be of God and whether you ought not rather toput your influence into its scale than to work against it?" When we can bring forward the harlot who has been made chaste.When we can also show the drunk who has been made sober, or, better still, when we can bring the careless, thoughtless manwho has been made sedate and steady-the man who cared not for God, nor Christ who has been made to worship God with his wholeheart and has put his confidence in Jesus-we think we have, then, presented to the world an argument which they will not soonanswer!

If our religion does no more in the world than any other, well then, despise it! Or if men can receive the Gospel of Christand yet live as they did before and be none the better for it, then tell us at once so that we may be undeceived, for ourGospel is not needed. But we bring forward proofs t3o you! I hope, my Brothers and Sisters, there are scores and hundredshere who are yourselves the proofs of what the living Gospel can do! Many and many a story could I tell of a man who was afiend in human shape, a man who, when he came home from work, made it an hour of peril-for his wife and children fled to hidefrom him! And now that man-see him when he goes home-how he is welcomed by his wife, how the children run down to meet him!You shall now hear him sing more loudly than ever he cursed before! And he who was once a ringleader in the army of Satanhas now become a ringleader in the army of Christ! I shall not say where he is sitting tonight. I should need many fingersif I had to point out all such who are here. The Lord's is the Glory of it. That is the argument, "Whereas I was blind, nowI see." Do we not know of some who when they came to make their profession before the Church, said, "If anyone had told me,three months ago, that I should be here, I would have knocked him down! If any man had said I would make a profession of faithin Jesus, I would have called him all the names in the world. I, become a canting Methodist? Not I!" But Grace has changedthe man-his whole life is now different. Those who hate the change cannot help observing it. They hate religion, they say,but if religion does such things as these, the more of it the better!

Now we need, dear Friends, in the dark lanes and alleys of London-yes and in our great wide streets, too, where there arelarge shops and places of businesses-we need to give the groveling world this argument against which there is no disputing,that, whereas there were some men blind, now they see! Whereas they were sinful, now they are virtuous! Whereas they despisedGod, now they fear Him! We believe this is the best answer for an infidel age. What a deal of writing there has been latelyabout and against Dr. Colenso! You need not think of reading the replies to his books, for most of them would be the bestmeans of sending people to sleep that have ever been invented! And, after all, they don't answer the man-most of them leavethe objections untouched, for there is a speciousness in the objection which is not very easily got over. I think we wouldbe doing much better if, instead of running after this heathenish bishop, we would be running after poor sinners! If, insteadof writing books of argument and entering into discussions, we keep on, each in our own sphere, endeavoring to convert souls,imploring the Spirit of God to come down upon us and make us spiritual fathers in Israel, then we may say to the devil, "Well,Sir, you have stolen a bishop. You have taken away a clergyman or so. You have robbed us of a leader or two. But, by the helpof God we have razed your territories, we have stolen away whole bands-here they are, tens of thousands of men and women whohave been reclaimed from the paths of vice, rescued from the destroyer and made servants of the Lord!" These are your bestarguments. There are no arguments like them-living personal witnesses of what Divine Grace can do!

II. We will now change our view of the subject. Our text presents us with A SATISFACTORY PIECE OF KNOWLEDGE-"One thing I know,that whereas I was blind, now I see."

An affectation of knowledge is not uncommon. The desire for knowledge is almost universal-the attainment of it, however, israre. But if a man shall attain the knowledge of Christ, he may take a high degree in the Gospel, a satisfactory degree, adegree which shall land him safe into Heaven! Put the palm branch in his hand and the eternal song in his mouth-which is morethan any worldly degrees will ever do. "One thing I know." The skeptic will sometimes overwhelm you with his knowledge. Yousimple minds that have read but little, and whose business occupations take up so much of your time that you probably neverwill be very profound students, are often in danger of being attacked by men who can use long words, who profess to have readvery great books and to be very learned in sciences-the names of which you have scarcely ever heard. Meet them, but be sureyou meet them with a knowledge that is better than theirs! Don't attempt to meet them on their own ground-meet them with thisknowledge. "Well," you can say, "I know that you understand more than I do. I am only a poor unlettered Christian, but I havea something in here that answers all your arguments, whatever they may be. I do not know what geology says. I may not understandall about history. I may not comprehend all the strange things that are daily coming to light, but one thing I know-it isa matter of absolute consciousness to me-that I, who was once blind, have been made to see." Then just state the differencethat the Gospel made in you. Say that once, when you looked at the Bible, it was a dull, dry book. That when you thought ofprayer, it was a dreary piece of work. Say that now the Bible seems to you a honeycomb full of honey and that prayer is yourvital breath! Say that once you tried to get away from God and could see no excellence in the Divine Character, but that nowyou are striving and struggling to get nearer to God. Say that once you despised the Cross of Christ and thought it a vainthing for you to flee to-but that now you love it and would sacrifice your all for it! And this undoubted change in your ownconsciousness, this supernatural work in your own innermost spirit shall stand you in the stead of all the arguments thatcan be drawn from all the sciences! Your one thing shall overthrow their thousand things if you can say, "Whereas I was blind,now I see."

Says one, "I don't know how that can be." Let me suppose that someone has just discovered galvanism [electric shock] and Ihave had a galvanic shock. Now, 20 people come and say, "There is no such thing as galvanism. We do not believe in it fora moment." And there is one gentleman who proves by Latin that there cannot be such a thing as galvanism. And another provesit mathematically to demonstration. And 20 others prove it in their different ways. I would say, "Well, I cannot answer youin Latin, I cannot overthrow you in logic, I cannot contradict that syllogism of yours, but one thing I know-I have had ashock of it-that I do know." And I take it that my personal consciousness of having experienced a galvanic shock will be abetter answer than all their learned sayings. And so, if you have ever felt the Spirit of God come into contact with you,(and that is something quite as much within the reach of our consciousness as even the shock of electricity and galvanism),and if you can say of that, "One thing I know, which cannot be beaten out of me, which cannot be hammered out of my own consciousness,that whereas I was blind, now I see"-if you can say that, it will be a quite sufficient reply to all that the skeptic maybring against you!

How often, dear Brothers and Sisters, are you assailed, not only by the skeptic, but by our very profound doctrinal brethren?I know some very great doctrinal friends, who, because our experience may not tally with theirs, will sit down and say, "Ah,you don't know the power of vital godliness." And they will write very severe things against us and say that we don't knowthe great secret, and don't understand the inner life. You never need trouble yourself about these braggarts-let them talkon till they are finished. But if you do want to answer them, do it humbly by saying, "Well, you may be right and I may bemistaken, but yet I think I can say, 'One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.'" And I have known them to sometimesgo to the length of saying if we don't hold all their points of Doctrine and go the whole 18 ounces to the pound, as theydo-if we are content with 16 and keep to God's weights and God's measures-"Ah, those people cannot be truly converted Christians,they are not so high in Doctrine as we are." Well, we can answer them with this, "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind,now I see."

And you young Christians sometimes meet with older Believers, very good people, too, and very wise, and they will put youinto their sieves. Some of our Brothers and Sisters always carry a sieve with them and if they meet a young Brother, theywill try to sift him and they will often do it very unkindly-ask him knotty questions. I always compare this to a man's tryinga newborn child's health by putting nuts into his mouth-and if he cannot crack them, he will say, "He is not healthy." Well,I have known very difficult questions asked about such things as sublapsarianism, or supralapsarianism, or about the exactdifference between justification and sanctification, or something of that sort. Now, I advise you to get all that sort ofknowledge you can but, putting all of it together, it is not nearly equal in value to this small bit of knowledge, "One thingI know, that whereas I was blind, now I see."

I have studied many and many an old Puritan book and tried to enrich my mind with the far-sought lore of the writers of them,but I tell you there are times when I would give up everything I have ever learned, by nights and days of study, if I couldbut say for a certainty, "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." And even now, though I have no doubt aboutmy own acceptance in Christ and my having been brought to see, yet, compared with this piece of knowledge, I count all theexcellency of human knowledge-yes, and all the rest of Divine knowledge, too-to be but

dross and dung, for this is the one thing necessary, the one soul-saving piece of knowledge, "One thing I know, that whereasI was blind, now I see."

My dear Hearer, do you see a beauty in Christ? Do you see a loveliness in the Gospel? Do you perceive an excellence in God,your Father? Can you read your title clear to mansions in the skies? You could not do this once. Once you were a strangerto these things-your soul was dark as the darkest night without a star, without a ray of knowledge or of comfort-but now yousee seek after more knowledge but, if you still cannot attain it, and if you tremble because you cannot grow as you would,remember this is enough to know for all practical purposes, "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see."

III. We will again change our view of the subject. This is a MODEL CONFESSION OF FAITH.

This blind man did not do as some of you would have done. When he found his eyes, he did not use them to go and hunt out aquiet corner so that he might hide himself in it-he came out boldly before his neighbors and then before Christ's enemies,and said, "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." Why, there are some of you who, I hope, have Grace in yourheart, but you have not courage to confess it! You have not put on your regimentals. I suppose you call yourselves membersof the Church militant, but you are not dressed in the true scarlet-you do not come forward and wear the Master's badge andopenly fight under His banner. I think it is very unkind of you and very dishonoring to your Master. There are not many whospeak for Him and it is a shame that you should hold your tongue. If He has given you eyes, I am sure you ought to give Himyour tongue! If He has taught you to see things in a new light, I am sure you ought not to be unwilling to confess Him beforemen! After so much kindness in the past, it is cruel ingratitude to be ashamed to confess Him. You do not know how much youwould comfort the minister-converts are our sheaves and you who are not added to the Church, do, as it were, rob us of ourreward! No doubt you will be gathered into God's garner, but then we do not know anything about that-we want to see you gatheredinto God's garner here We want to hear you boldly say, "Whereas I was blind, now I see."

Besides, you cannot tell how much good you might do to others. Your example would move your neighbors. Your confession wouldbe valuable to saints and might be a help to sinners. Your taking the decisive step might lead others to take it. Your examplemight be just the last grain cast into the scale and might lead others to decide for the Lord. I am ashamed of you, who wereonce blind, yet now see, but do not like to say so! I pray you lay the matter to heart and, before long come out and say,"Yes, I cannot withhold it any longer. Whereas I was once blind, now I see!"

"Well," says one, "I have often thought ofjoining the church, but I can't be perfect." Now this man did not say, "I was onceimperfect and now I am perfect." Oh, no! If you were perfect, we could not receive you into church fellowship because we areall, ourselves, imperfect-and we would fall out with you if we took you in. We don't want those perfect gentlemen-let themgo to Heaven-that is the place for perfect ones, not here!

"Well," says someone else, "I have not grown in religion as I should like. I am afraid I am not as saintly as I would desireto be." Well, Brother, strive after a high degree of holiness, but remember that a high degree of holiness is not necessaryto a profession of your faith! You are to make a profession as soon as you have any holiness-the high degree of it is to comeafterwards.

"Ah," says another, "but I could not say much." Nobody asked you to say much. If you can say, "Whereas I was blind, now Isee," that is all we want! If you can but let us know that there is a change in you, that you are a new man, that you seethings in a different light, that what was once your joy is now your sorrow, and what was once a sorrow to you is now yourjoy-if you can say, "All things have become new." If you can say, "I feel a new life heaving within my bosom-there is a newlight shining in my eyes. I go to God's House now in a different spirit. I read the Bible and engage in private prayer afterquite a different fashion. And I hope my life is different, I hope my language is not what it used to be. I try to curb mytemper. I endeavor to provide things honest in the sight of all men. My nature is different. I could no more live in sin asI once did than a fish could live on dry land, or a man could live in the depths of the sea"-this is what we want of you.

Suppose now a person getting up in the church meeting, (and there are scores and hundreds here who attend church meetings),and saying, "Brethren, I come to unite with you. I know the Greek Testament. I have also read a good deal in Latin. I understandthe Vulgate. I can now, if you please, give you the 1st chapter of Mark in Greek, or the 2nd chapter of Exodus in Hebrew,if you like. I have also, from my youth up, given myself to the study of the natural and applied

sciences. I think I am master of rhetoric and I am able to reason logically." Suppose he then went on to say what he knewabout business, what a skillful tradesman he had been and, after going through that should say, "I have a great deal of theologicalknowledge. I have read the Fathers, I have studied Augustine, I could talk about all the ponderous tomes that were writtenin the ancient times, I am acquainted with all the writers on the Reformation and I have studied the Puritans through andthrough. I know the points of difference between the great Reformed teachers and I know the distinction between Zwingli andCalvin"? I am sure, dear Friends, if a man were to say all that, before I put it to the vote whether he should be admittedto church membership, I would say, "This dear brother has not any idea of what he came here for. He came here to make a confessionthat he was a living man in Christ Jesus and he has been only trying to prove to us that he is a learnedman. That is not whatwe want." And I would begin to put to him some pointed questions- something like this, "Did you ever feel yourself a sinner?Did you ever feel that Christ was a precious Savior and are you putting your trust in Him?"

And some of you would say, "Why, that's just what he asked poor Mary, the servant girl, when she was in the meeting five minutesago!" All that learned lumber is good enough in its place. I do not depreciate it. I wish you were all scholars. I love tosee you great servants in the Master's cause, but the whole of that put together is not worth a straw compared with this,"One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." And this is all we ask of you-we only ask you, if you wish to jointhe church, to be able to confess that you are a changed character, that you are a new man, that you are willing to be obedientto Christ and to His ordinances. And then we are only too glad to receive you into our midst. Come out, come out, I pray you!You who are hiding among the trees of the forest, come forth! Whoever is on the Lord's side, let him come forth! It is a dayof blasphemy and rebuke. He that is not with Christ is against Him, and he that gathers not with Him scatters abroad. Comeforth, come forth, you that have any spark of love for God, or else this shall be your doom, "Curse you Meroz, curse you bitterlythe inhabitants thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty."

IV. And now, to conclude, my text may be used in another way, for it sets before us A VERY CLEAR AND MANIFEST DISTINCTION.

You cannot, everyone of you, say, "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." My Hearers, solemnly, as in thesight of God, I speak to you. Lend me your ears and may these few words of the Truth of God sink into your hearts! Are therenot some of you who cannot even say, "I was blind"? You do not know your own blindness. You have the conceit to imagine thatyou are as good as most people and that if you have same faults, yet certainly you are not irretrievably lost! You have noidea that you are depraved, utterly depraved, saturated through and through and rotten at the core. If I were to describeyou in Scriptural language and say, "You are the man," you would be shocked at men for giving you so bad a character! Youare amiable, your outward carriage has always been decorous, you have been generous and benevolent and, therefore, you thinkthere is no need for you to be born-again-no necessity for you to repent of sin! You think that the Gospel is very suitablefor those who have gone into foul, open sin, but you are too good, rather than too bad! O my Hearers, you are stone-blindand the proof that you are so is this-you do not know your blindness! A man who is born blind does not know what it is tolose sight! The bright beams of the sun never made his heart glad and, therefore, he does not know his misery! And such isyour state. You do not understand what it is that you have lost. What it is that you need. I pray God to do for you what youcannot do for yourselves-make you feel now, once and for all, that you are blind! There is hope for the man who knows hisblindness-there is some light in the man who says he is all darkness-there is some good thing in the man who says he is allfoul. If you can say-

"Vile and full of sin I am"-

God has begun a good work in you! You know that when the leper was afflicted with leprosy from head to foot, the priest lookedat him and if there was a single spot where there was no leprosy, he was unclean, but the moment the leprosy covered him everywhere,then he was made clean-and so you, if you know your sin so as to feel you utterly ruined, lost estate, God has begun a goodwork in you-and He will put away your sin and save your soul. Alas, there are many who do not know that they are blind.

And yet I know, to my sorrow, there are many of you who do know that you are blind, but you don't yet see. I hope you may-Ihope you may. To know your blindness is well, but it is not enough. It would be a dreadful thing for you to go from an awakenedconscience on earth to a tormenting conscience in Hell. There have been some who have begun to

find out that they are lost here and then have discovered that they are lost hereafter as well. I pray you, do not tarry longin this state! If God has convinced you of sin, I pray you do not linger! I prayed tonight that the Lord would save us, andHe is now waiting. The way of salvation-oh, how many times I have preached this! And how many times more will it be necessaryto tell you over and over again the same thing? The way of salvation is simply this-trust Christ and you are saved! Just asyou are, rely upon Him and you are saved. With no other dependence, with no other shadow of a hope, Sinner, venture on Him.Venture wholly, venture now! I hear the wheels of the Judge's chariot behind you. He comes! He comes! He comes! Flee, Sinner,flee! I see God's bow in His awful hand and He has drawn the arrow to its very head. Flee, sinner! Flee while yet the woundsof Christ stand open! Hide yourself there as in the cleft of the Rock of Ages. You have not a lease of your life, you cannottell that you shall ever see another Sabbath to spend in pleasure! No more warnings may ever ring in your ears. Perhaps youwill never have even another week-day to spend in drunkenness and blasphemy. Sinner, turn! God puts this alternative beforesome of you tonight-turn or burn! "Turn you, turn you from your evil ways, for why will you die?" One of the two it must be-dieor turn! Believe in Christ or perish with a great destruction. "He that being often reproved hardens his neck, shall suddenlybe destroyed, and that without remedy." And you who are awakened and convicted tonight, I pray you to trust Christ and live!

The whole matter is very simple, "Whereas I was blind, now I see." Do you, tonight, see that Christ can save you? Do you believethat He will save you if you will trust Him? Then trust Him and you are saved! The moment you believe, you are saved, whetheryou feel the comfort of it or not-yes, and the thought arising from the full belief that you are saved will yield you thecomfort which you will never find elsewhere! Have I trust in Christ, O my Soul? You know, O Lord, I have! You know I have-

"Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on You."

It is written, "He that believes on Him is not condemned." Then I am not condemned. Perhaps I feel at this present momentno joy, but then the thought that I am not condemned will make me feel joy, by-and-by. Yet I must not build on my joy, I mustnot build on my feelings, but simply on this-that God has said, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." I, believingin Christ am saved. And that is true of you, also-you in the aisle over yonder. You by that door there, and you behind mehere. It is true of every man, woman, or child in this place who has now come to put trust in Christ! It is true of the manin the smock frock who did not intend to come here tonight, but who, seeing the people, strolled in and who has been sayingin his heart, "I will believe. I will trust Christ." Well, then, you are saved, your sin is blotted out, your iniquity isforgiven, you are a child of God, the Lord accepts you-if you have really trusted Christ- you are an heir of Heaven! Go andsin no more! Go and rejoice in pardoning love. And God bless you, for Jesus sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MARK10:46-52; JOHN 9:1-7.

We have several records of blind men being cured by the Lord Jesus Christ. One of them is in Mark 10:46-52.

Mark 10:46. And they came to Jericho: and as He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great number of people. For now His marchto the battle was like a triumphal march, which was, by-and-by, to be attended with the waving of palms and the shout of Hosannas-"asHe went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great number of people."

46, 47. Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth.That is all that the crowd called Him-"Jesus of Nazareth."

47. He began to cry out, and say, Jesus, You son of David, have mercy on me! He had advanced much further than the mass ofthe people. To him it was not "Jesus of Nazareth," but it was "Jesus, You Son of David."

49-50. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, You son of David, have mercyon me! And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort,rise; He calls you. And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. Blind as he was, he found his way to the Savior-Isuppose the ears directed by the voice helped him to do so.

51. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What willyou, that Ishould do unto you? The blindman said unto Him, Lord, that Imight receive my sight. His request was plainly put, but it was most respectfully and even adoringly addressed to Christ.

52. And Jesus said unto him, Go your way; your faith has made you whole. You will find that it is often the Savior's way tothus give the credit of His own work to the patient's faith. "Your faith," He says, "has made you whole." Whereas, you andI, if we do a good thing, are very anxious that nobody else should take the credit for it. We are very willing to have allthe honor put upon ourselves, but Jesus does not say, "I have made you whole," though that was true enough, but, "Your faithhas made you whole." And why is it, do you think, that Christ takes the crown off His own head to put it on the head of Faith?Why? Because He loves Faith and because Faith is quite certain not to wear that crown, but to lay it at His feet! Of all theGraces, Faith is the surest to deny herself and ascribe all to Him in whom she trusts.

52. And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. Another of these records is in John 9:1-7.

John 9:1-7. And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who didsin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but thatthe 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 comeswhen 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 thepool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. I will not sayanything now about this miracle, as it will form the subject of my sermon. [The exposition was before the sermon.]