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

THE TOUCH OF JESUS 251
at Bethsaida, narrated in Mark viii. 23, which runs
" And He took the blind man by the hand, and led
him out of the town ; and when He had spit on his
eyes, and put His hands on him, He asked him if
saw ought After that He put His hands again
upon his eyes, and made him look up, and he was
restored, and saw every man clearly."
This is what we want, that by some means Jesus
should make us " look up " : above the earthly
objects which too often absorb us ; above the
sensuous view of things which makes us depressed
and despairing ; above the human agency, and the
human friends who often fail us when most we want
them. No reasoning will teach us this—nothing but
the touch of Jesus, the personal contact with Him
which will make Him real, and keep us trustful. If
you try to argue with an agnostic, you soon find
your own helplessness in convincing him ; for this
kind goes not out save by prayer and fasting, by that
devout seeking after God which draws away from
what is animal, sensuous, and temporal, and reveals
to
the clear eye of faith what no man hath seen, nor
can see at any time, by natural vision, or mental
effort. How many around us are as deaf to God's
voice as the man in Decapolis was to the voices of
his friends, till Jesus touched him. How many are
blind to all
he
spiritual realities, as the man of Bethsaida,
till Jesus took him by the hand, and led him out of
the town
It seems to me that Professor Henry Drummond
was right when he said, " The Christian apologist
never further misses
the mark than when he refuses
the testimony of the agnostic to himself.
When the