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

320 THE OPENING OF THE EYES
grander, dearer than all, there, beside the newly
restored man, were the form and the face that were
fairer than those of the sons of men, no longer seeming
like a tree walking, but separated from the creation
;
not a creature, but the brightness of the Father's
glory, and the express image of His Person.
What a
sublime moment was that, to behold earth in its
beauty and heaven in its glory at a single glance, to
gaze at the natural sun, and to behold Him who is
the light of the world—the true light that lighteneth
every man, in whom all the new hopes of his
quickened soul
were concentrated.
My text brings before us in a most striking way
the unique peculiarity of the miracle, which marks
it off from all others. It stops half-way to show
us the progress and the method of the cure. The
miracle is interrupted, as it were, at an intermediate
stage, in order that we may see into its
heart of meaning
and be able to realise its full significance. Jesus
asked the half-cured man if he saw aught. He
looked up and said that " he saw men as
trees walking."
There was a blurred, luminous tumult of sight
rushing into his eyes, mixed with dim shadows, like
objects looming through a mist, changing their shapes
as they moved, so that he could
not distinguish what
they were. The true focus of vision was not yet
attained. This vague consciousness of returning
sight would be like the first light of dawn stealing
over the earth, and touching by its beams the
various objects of the landscape, struggling with
the darkness of the night in a monstrous medley
of confusion. The gradual process of the miracle
is in remarkable accordance with the way in which