ically they have
no expectation that they shall ever be strong, vigorous useful men in
His Kingdom. If you asked them why they are so punctual in attendance on
all religious services, they would say, "Why, is it not a right thing to
do?" Press them further with our Lord's question, "Are you expecting to
be made whole? Is this your purpose in coming here?" They will refer you
to their past, and tell you how it has always seemed to be some other
person's case that was thought of, how the Spirit of God seemed always
to have other work than that which concerned them. But here they are
still--and commendably and wisely so; for if this man had begun to
disbelieve in the virtue of the water because he himself had never
experienced its power, and had shut himself up in some wretched solitude
of his own, then the eye of the Lord had never rested upon him--here
they are still; for the best part of a lifetime they have been on the
brink of health, and yet have never got it; for eight-and-thirty years
this man had seen that water, knew that it healed people, put his hand
in it, gazed on it,--yes, there it was, and _could heal him_, and yet
his turn never came. So do these persons frequent the ordinances, hear
the word that can save them, touch the bread of communion, and know that
by the blessing of God the bread of life is thereby conveyed, and yet
year by year goes past, and for them all remains unblessed. They begin
despairingly to say--

"Thy saints are comforted, I know,
And love Thy house of prayer;
I therefore go where others go,
But find no comfort there."

This miracle shows such persons that there is a shorter way to health
than a languid attendance on ordinances--an attendance that is satisfied
if there seems to be still in operation what may be useful to others. It
is the voice of Christ they need to hear. It is that voice summoning to
thought and hope that we all need to hear, "Wilt thou be made whole?"
Are you weary and ashamed of your infirmity; would you fain be a whole
man in Christ, able at last to walk through life as a living man, seeing
the beauty of God and of His work, and meeting with gladness the whole
requirements of a life in God? Does the very beauty of Christ's manhood,
as He stands before you, make you at once ashamed of your weakness and
covetous of His strength? Do you see in Him what it is to be strong, to
enter into life, to begin to live as a man ought always to live, and are