March 12

Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been a long time in that case. He saith unto him, Wilt thou he made whole? - John 5:6.

WHAT hath sin done! How various and how numerous are the evils which affect human nature! Some of our fellow creatures are made to “possess months of vanity,” and have “wearisome nights appointed to them.” These seem incapable of enjoyment, and are unfitted for the active services of life-dying while they live. Among the objects of woe found by our Saviour on this occasion, his attention was struck by a poor wretch who had groaned under his malady for thirty and eight years, and had been waiting at the pool for the propitious moment, but always had the mortification to be prevented by those who were less helpless than himself, or who were better served. The Saviour knew all his distress, and his eye affected his heart. When Jesus saw him he knew that he had now been a long time in that case; he saith unto him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” This case is here recorded for an important purpose; and we never read the gospel, nor peruse the history of the Saviour to advantage, till we learn to bring it home to our own business and bosoms; till we learn to rise from the body to the soul, and in the recovery of the one to acknowledge the salvation of the other.

He who came into the world to seek and to save that which is lost is fully acquainted with our condition, which, like that of this impotent man, is a state of disorder and disease. And here the subject comes into conflict with the prejudices and pride of man. We often hear persons talking about the dignity of human nature; and if we consider it physically and intellectually, it is dignified; when we see man in his capacity for boundless improvement, in the expansion of his powers, in the acquisition of literature, and in the progress of philosophy, we see that man is made “a little lower than the angels.” But oh, how lamentable is it to find any of these fine powers misapplied and abused! What is man morally?-what is he religiously?- what is his state and disposition towards God? Why he is a fallen, a guilty, a depraved, a perishing, and, in himself, a helpless creature. His body has become mortal, and subject to every calamity; and his soul is “alienated from the life of God.”

Many are continually acknowledging in their devotions that “they are tied and bound by the chain of sin,” and saying “there is no health in us,” meaning there is no moral and Spiritual health in them. The Scriptures have decided this melancholy fact by the glorious provisions of the gospel-else what need of a redemption if man is not enslaved; and of a Saviour if not lost; or of a remedy if not sick and dying? And Scripture also confirms this fact by the most express decisions, declaring that “all have sinned,” “all have become guilty before God;” that all are “condemned;” that, by the law of God, “every mouth is stopped;” that the “whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint;” and that, from the “crown of the head to the sole of the foot there is nothing but wounds, bruises, and putrefying sores.”

All the principles, all the powers of the soul are affected by sin, precisely in the same way as the body is injured by disease. This is seen in the perversion of the judgment, in the ignorance of the understanding, in the rebellion of the will, in the pollution of the conscience. It is seen in the inconsistency, tyranny, and carnality of the affections, and in the folly and iniquity of the life; while destruction and misery are in their paths. This is an affecting condition. We shall hereafter consider the remedy proposed.