The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

180 REPEATED SIN AND
much talked of in the city, and if there had been
sound fibre in the character of this feeble man, he
would have asked the name, the history, and the
mission of his benefactor. The training which took
him to the temple ought to have enabled him to
identify a prophet. Before he fully realises the
meaning of this new beginning in his life, he is
temporising with the Pharisees. He fences their
assaults with the kind of cunning which is often
acquired by a poor, forlorn sufferer who is soured
by neglect, and in lack of healthy limbs has to
make the best possible use he can of his wits. " He
that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take
up thy bed and walk." The logic was sound and
even ingenious, but a man of higher instincts and
richer vitality would have started upon bolder
and more clearly defined ground. The bit of
promise left in the fraction of his wasted life is
jeopardised by this hesitating temper. Perhaps he
is in no danger of his old vices, but here you have
the impotence which put him wrong forty years
ago. He wavers, temporises, makes a half-hearted
fight of it at the best, as in those far-off days. The
old temptations are no longer possible, but there
is the same inbred taint and frailty. Jesus sees
and knows that the man is standing on perilous
ground, and with a renewed announcement of his
healing interweaves a message of warning. The
healed man himself recognised the point at which
danger lay, and was stirred at once to a prompt
and courageous confession which gave the promise
of better things. He went and told the Jews, "It
was Jesus who made him whole." The confession