JOHN ix.13-25.

Here is a ceremonialism which is blind to the humane. Its scrupulous ritualisms have dried up its philanthropy. It thinks more of etiquette than equity. It esteems genuflexions more than generosity. It values the husk more than the kernel. It is Sabbatarian but not humanitarian. My God, deliver me from all pious conventionalities which make me indifferent to the ailments and cries of my fellow-men!

And here is a dense prejudice which is blind to the evident. |They did not believe that he had been blind.| A prejudice can deflect the judgment, as subtle magnetic currents can deflect the needle. The film of an ecclesiastical prejudice can be so opaque as to make us |blind to facts.| We do not |see things as they are.| Our perverted eyes give us a crooked world.

And here is a bitter violence which is blind to the glory of the Lord. |We know that this man is a sinner!| And so it comes to that. Our judgments can become so warped that when we look upon Him, |who is the chief among ten thousand and the altogether lovely,| |there is no beauty that we should desire Him|! And therefore let this be my daily prayer, |Lord, that I might receive my sight!|