sentence, a sentence broken by
His action as He begins helping the man. In effect He says, "Neither
this man nor his parents are immediately to blame; the thing goes
farther back. But"--and He reaches down and begins to make the soft clay
with His spittle--"_the_ thing is to see the power of God at work to
help." And the touch is given and the testing command to wash, and then
eyes that see for the first time.

But the one thing that concerns us now in this great ninth chapter is
the faith that was so warmly wooed up out of nothing to a thing of
courageous action and personal devotion to Jesus. It is fairly
fascinating to watch the man move from birth-blind hopelessness through
clay-anointed surprise and wonder and Siloam-walking expectancy on to
water-washing eyesight.

It is yet more fascinating to see his spirit move up in the language he
uses, from "the _man_ called Jesus," and the cautious but blunt "I don't
know about His being a sinner, but I know I can _see_," on to the
bolder "clearly not a sinner but a man in reverent touch with God
Himself."

Then the yet bolder, "a man _from God_," brings the break with the
dreaded authorities which branded him before all as an outcast and as a
damned soul. And then the earnest reverent cry "Who is He, Lord, that I
may believe?" reveals the yearning purpose of his own heart. And then
the great climax comes in the heart cry, "Lord, I believe, I believe
Thee to be the very Son of God."

And the outcast of the rulers casts in his lot with Jesus and begins at
once living the eternal quality of life which goes on endlessly. What a
day for him from hopeless blindness of body and heart to eyesight that
can see Jesus' face and know Him as his Saviour and Lord! Growth of
faith clearly is not limited to the counting of hours. It waits only on
one's walking out fully into all the light that comes, no matter where
it may lead your steps.

The Bethany Height of Faith.

The Bethany story is one of the tenderest of all. It touches the
heights. It's a hilltop story, both in its setting amidst the Bethany
blue hills where it grew up, and in the height of faith it records. It
has personal friendship and love of Jesus and implicit trust in Him as
its starting point. And from this it reaches up to levels unknown
before. Faith touches high water here. It rises to flood, a flood that
sweeps mightily through the valleys of doubt and questionings all around
about.

At the beginning