3. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

4. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

Bethesda, the House of Mercy, was almost certainly the Virgin's Fountain outside of the city wall, southeast of the Temple at the foot of the Ophel slope, on the edge of the Kidron valley and its small stream that runs between Jerusalem and Mount Olivet. In verse 2 it is said to be by the sheep market (Am. R., " the sheep gate"). But both" market " and " gate" are in italics because neither word is in the original

Greek, but simply the adjective sheep = "pertaining to sheep," and it would naturally indicate the Virgin's Fountain for it is still the place where flocks are gathered for watering.

Again "the Virgin's Fountain is the only spring in the vicinity of Jerusalem which presents the phenomenon of intermittent 'troubling of the water,' which overflows from a natural syphon under the cave, and it is still the custom of the Jews to bathe in the waters of the cave when this overflow occurs, for the cure of rheumatism and of other disorders." Having five porches. "Covered colonnades where people can stand or walk protected from the weather

From a photograph. and the heat of the sun."Thayer's Greek Lex. "It is true that no remains of porches are to be seen here, but excavations have never been made, and it is possible that such remains exist buried beneath the deep accumulations of débris that now surrounds this fountain." - Prof. Lewis B. Paton in Jerusalem in Bible Times. The Virgin's Fountain was in front of a crack Roman legion when Jerusalem was destroyed, A.D. 70; and it is not likely that any porches would escape their battering rams and catapults. No other site is now regarded as probable.

In the baths near Tiberias, Herod's summer resort on the sea of Galilee, "the hall in which the spring is found is surrounded by several porticoes in which we see a multitude of people crowded one upon another, laid upon couches or rolled in blankets, with lamentable expressions of misery and suffering." Bovett.

'Min

3. The crowds in these porches were waiting for the moving of the water. eral springs impregnated with minerals to such a degree as to possess medicinal properties are found in many parts of the world. The ancients ascribed supernatural properties to mineral springs, and their priests, especially those of Esculapius, placed their sanctuaries near them, as at the Alkaline Springs of Naupha, and the Gas Springs of Dodona. Such places were provided, not merely with baths, hospitals, and medical schools, but also with theatres and other resorts for amusement." Cyclopedia.

Intermittent Springs. "There is a spring of this kind at Kissingen, which, after a rushing sound, about the same time every day, commences to bubble, and is most efficacious at the very time the gas is making its escape. The spring is especially used in diseases of the eye." - Tholuck. The geysers in Iceland, and in Wyoming on the Fire-Hole River, and elsewhere, are examples of intermittent springs.

5. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

4. This verse explains the cause of the movement of the waters. Both the Revisions omit this verse because it is not found in the best manuscripts. It seems to have been a marginal note just as many of us write certain things in the margin of our Bibles, and in some of the manuscripts, all done by hand, the last sentence of verse 3 and all of 4 were copied in. This does not make the statements untrue, although it may not have been written by John. That there was an intermittent movement of the water is shown by verse 7, and by the fact that the intermittent flow continues to this day.

Thus in Psalm

The word angel does not always mean a distinct order of beings. 104: 4 (Revised vers.), it is written, "Who maketh winds his messengers

It may well be" in reverent poetic or figurative phrase, that a messenger or agency from God wrought the change." We do not conflict with science, or follow superstition, when we speak of God as giving food and life and health and all our blessings, by whatever natural channels they may reach us.

III. JESUS HEALS THE IMPOTENT MAN BODY AND SOUL, vs. 5-9. Jesus draws near the waiting crowd in the Porches, who were eagerly waiting for the troubling of the water. While he is looking on, the sound of the flow is heard, and the crowd rushes forth into the bubbling waters. But one man is left behind, one who had had an infirmity thirty and eight years. This was a peculiarly sad case. He was friendless; not one of the rushing crowd was willing to help him into the waters. So helpless a man must have been poor. In Dr. Trumbull's Studies in Oriental Social Life, we are told that "Palestine now, as doubtless was the case in the days of our Lord, seems fairly overrun with those afflicted by one form or another of bodily ailment." They fairly thronged the entrance ways to Jerusalem, and the paths to Gethsemane, and the Mount of Olives. "And for these there is little help. There are no hospitals or poorhouses. The native doctors have little scientific knowledge of the healing art. . . . When any serious accident has happened, or

6. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

7. The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

8. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

9. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked and on the same day was the sabbath.

any dangerous disease infected them, they are utterly helpless, and things take their course.

"The medicinal springs form an exception to this rule, and seem to be the one real healing agency in the country. The bluish waters bubble with sulphuretted hydrogen, and smell abominably, but they cure sicknesses of some kinds. For other diseases there is no native cure." So that this sick man was shut out from all hope. He was living in the Slough of Despond, utterly discouraged.

Moreover, in the words of Rev. Thomas G. Selby, in Miracles of Jesus: A careful reading of the narrative will show us that in the character of this unhappy man there were traits of weakness which explain his past history. The admonitory words with which Jesus closes his mission to the forlorn paralytic, sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee, imply that for some vice of his youth, or of his early manhood he was suffering a life-long disability. The moral weakness which had early borne such acrid, poisoned fruit, after persisting through a life of physical emaciation, reappears in the crisis of his healing. Never, perhaps, in the whole course of His ministry did the Divine Physician restore a man whose faith was at so low an ebb."

6. When Jesus saw him. he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole ? The Object of the Question was to awaken hope in his soul, to arouse him from his despondency, and listlessness. "Not always are the miserable willing to be relieved." The saddest cases of paralysis are those where the will-power has almost been lost."

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7. I have no man, when the water is troubled. The bubbling of the healing gases lasted for only a short time, so that but few could get under its influence before it ceased. While I am coming, etc. "Thus picturing the extreme haste and rapidity with which the favorable opportunity was seized. There was a rush and scramble for the one chance, such as we have seen for choice seats in a car or a hall."-G. W. Clark. 8. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk, a threefold call to exertion, marking distinct stages of progress.". New Century Bible. This com

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mand (1) awakened the dormant faith in the man. (2) It aided his will to move him into action. (3) It drew the man to a realizing sense of Jesus as the author of his cure. The bed was a thin mattress or padded quilt. "He was commanded to take up his bed that he might recognize that the cure was permanent." "No doubt many of the cures at the pool were merely temporary. The cures wrought by Christ are perfect, and do not only give some relief." Exp. Greek Test.

An Eastern Bed.

9. And immediately the man was made whole. He felt the pulses of a new life throbbing through his whole system. He knew that he was cured. Therefore without hesitation he obeyed Christ's word, and took up his bed, and walked, no doubt to the astonishment of the crowd in the porches.

1. Не

Why was this man the only one of the crowd in the Porches who was cured? was the most needy and helpless of them all. 2. The others had other plans for healing, and would probably have given no heed to Jesus, but preferred the troubled waters. 3. They were selfish; not one offered to help the impotent man. They

10. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.

II. He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk.

12. Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk?

13. And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.

14. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. 15. The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.

would not have received Jesus as their Lord, and been repentant, and sought forgiveness of sins, as the impotent man did. Jesus' healing of the body was not only the symbol but the means of healing the soul.

The healing of the body is of small account unless there is also a healing of the soul. It is taking away the pain without removing the disease that caused it. It seems to have been the ordinary custom of Jesus thus to make his healings doubly effective. IV. THE DOUBLE HEALING, vs. 9–15. 9. And on the same day was the sabbath. The Jews seeing the man that was cured carrying the pallet, on which he had been resting, through the streets of Jerusalem, said to him (v. 10), It is the sabbath day it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. "The law is laid down in Ex. 23: 12; Jer. 17:21, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day.' The rabbinical law ran: Whosoever bringeth anything in, or taketh anything out from a public place to a private one, if he hath done this inadvertently, he shall sacrifice for his sin; but if wilfully he shall be cut off, and shall be stoned." Exp. Gk. Test. from Lightfoot.

II. The man's reply was, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. He did not know his name, but he was sure that any one who could cure him by a word must be from God, and therefore would not break God's laws, or ask him to do anything wrong.

13. He that was healed wist not (Am. R., " knew not ") who it was.

14. But Jesus had not completed his work with this man. They had separated after the cure, but later on that Sabbath day Jesus went into the temple to worship God and to do good to man, and there he met the man whom he had healed, who doubtless went there to thank God for his wonderful cure. His religious nature was awakened by it. I remember well in my boyhood's days that my first deep and earnest seeking for the religious life was during the later stages of recovery from sickness. The disease and danger were gone, but the heart turned toward God.

Though the healed man had failed to keep hold of Jesus, Jesus does not lose hold of him; Jesus findeth him, as if he had been looking out for him." Exp. Gk. Test.

Jesus completed the cure by this kindly warning: Behold, thou art made whole : sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee (Am. R., " befall thee "). The man needed this warning, to help him overcome the temptations that had been the cause of disease. The new heart, the new will, the new love are essential. The cleansing of the soul is worth vastly more than the cleansing of the body alone.

V. SOME LESSONS THIS STORY TEACHES US.

First. "Christ cures the sick, not by what He does to them, but by what He does in them, and by what He thus arouses them to do in and for themselves. God delivers us from our appetite, our pride, our vanity, our covetousness, by stirring up within us a resolute will and purpose to vanquish every sin and unworthiness, and by giving us the power in the effort to exercise it. For every St. George the dragon is vanquished only by the heroism wrought in St. George's heart. The Apollyon is not taken out of the path of Pilgrim; God conquers Apollyon for him, because God puts courage and resolution in Pilgrim's heart." Lyman Abbott, D.D.

Second. The Gospel of the Body. "There would be much more of bodily healing if there were more devoted delighting in God's will, more following intelligently of his leading in caring for the body.

"The healing of the seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain;

We touch him in life's throng and press,
And we are whole again.'

"All disease and bodily weakness come through sin, somebody's sin; that is, through disobeying the law of the body, or failing to obey it. It may be direct, some particular failure, or some actual disobedience of that law, or a series of such failures and disobedient acts. We may not be conscious that it is so, for much disobedience of this sort is done in ignorance.

"But much is done consciously and wilfully. It is surprising how much wilful disobedience there is regarding the body. It is disobedience of God, of course, for the law of the body is God's carefully thought-out law for the body. Even thoughtful, earnest people will lightly neglect, or misuse, or abuse, their bodies, as though it were not a serious thing to do.

"Yet a man's body is a holy thing. Its condition largely determines his usefulness to God and to his fellows. Without doubt God is seriously handicapped in his plans of service for men, and for redeeming the world, through many a Christian man who is careless or thoughtless or needlessly ignorant of his body." S. D. Gordon

in Sun. Schl. Times.

Third. There is a wonderful blessing in the fact that we are living in " The Beautiful Land of Beginning again."

Fourth. Sickness and Trouble are instruments in God's providence for leading us to realize our sins and needs. They compel us to turn away for a time from the rush and excitement of worldly business and pleasure, and in quietness look at our hearts and lives. "The suffering you see around you hurts God more than it hurts you, or the man upon whom it falls. But he hates things that most men think little of, and will send any suffering upon them, rather than have them continue indifferent to them. Men may say, 'We don't want suffering; we don't want to be good! But God says, 'I know my own obligations, and you shall not be contemptible wretches if there be any resource in the Godhead.' The God who strikes is the God whose Son wept over Jerusalem." George Macdonald.

Illustration. The truth that when God's judgments are removed from the wicked, often they do not turn to righteousness, is illustrated by Bulwer Lytton's poem of "Death and Sisyphus.' This craftiest of Greeks had made a chair for his creditors so that when they came and wanted the money due them, he politely invited them to sit down for a while in the chair,

"When out from the back of which
Darted a hundred ligaments of steel,
And bound him coil on coil,"

and held him till he cancelled the debt.

When Death came for this crafty thief he bade him sit down in that chair, and he was held fast. Death was no more at work in the world. The result was that when Jupiter listened for the prayers of men,

"Not a single voice from man arose;
No prayer, no accusation, no complaint,
As if, between the mortals and the gods,
Fate's golden chain had snapped.

"Since then these mortals, fearing death no more,
Live like brutes who never say a prayer."

Lost Tales of Miletus.

Fifth. No matter how great the progress of modern medicine, or the skill of physicians, we all need the Great Physician, who can cure not only bodily disease, but

can

"Minister to a mind diseased;

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,

And with some sweet oblivious antidote

Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff

Which weighs upon the heart."