And when he was come to the house, the blind men approached, and Jesus said to them: Do you believe that I am able to do this? They answered; Yes, Master. Then he touched their eyes, saying: According to your faith, be it done to you. And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus strictly charged them, saying: See that no man know. But departing, they spread his fame through all that country.

Now as they departed, there was brought to him a dumb demoniac. And the demon being expelled, the dumb man spake, and the multitude wondered, saying: Nothing like this was ever seen in Israel.*

siah, at that time current among the Jews, who all believed him to spring from the family of David, John vii. 42: for which reason, these men and all others, believing in the divine mission of our Lord, called him by that appellation, Matt. xii. 23; xv. 22; and xxi. 9, This persuasion was founded on the promises God made to David, Ps. cxxxii. 11; Acts ii. 30. These men had more correct views of the person and character of Jesus, than most moderns. They believed him to be the son of David, a real man, in nature like themselves, but did not thence doubt of his ability to save. The great majority of the Christian world have ever split on the rock Christ; and the true testimony concerning him, has been as much discredited by Christians as Jews. The unbelievers in the real humanity of Jesus, make him a God, and thereby sink into ridicule the testimony of the Bible, and the divine qualifications of the Messiah: Whilst those who believe him only a man as to nature, seldom reach the faith of these blind men, who believed in Christ's ability to save.-Faith in Jesus as mighty to save, in time and eternity, seems indispensable to the very nature of Christianity; and without it, none can receive or retain their spiritual eyesight.

* The magnitude and multitude of Christ's miracles, occasioned this reflection. On that very afternoon, he had raised the daughter of Jairus from the state of the dead; cured a woman of an issue of blood; restored sight to two blind men; and cured a dumb demoniac and all these things had he performed in Capernaum. Well might the people say: Never was the like seen in Israel! Blessed Jesus, the time of thy ministry was short! A world of rebels would not admit thy longer stay; but thy ceaseless activity, and thine unlimited and benevolent exertions to save and bless mankind, will render thy memory savoury to the latest son of Adam.

JESUS REVISITS NAZARETH.

And when he departed thence, he came into his own country, and his disciples accompanied him. But he did not many miracles there, because of their unbelief: only that he laid his hands on a few sick persons and healed them. But when the sabbath came, he began to teach in their Synagogue, and many of his hearers were astonished, and said: Whence has he this wisdom, and those miraculous powers, that such mighty deeds are performed by Him? Is not this the carpenter,* son of a carpenter? Is not his mother called Mary? His brethren James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas, and his sisters, are they not with us? And they took offence at him.

* It is very reasonable to suppose that the people of Nazareth had never heard of Christ's miraculous conception, or if the report had gone abroad in that city, Jesus being now thirty years old, so long a time might have effaced the remembrance of it, or raised up a new generation, who were unacquainted or unmindful of all that was favourable to the character of a poor carpenter. It was a laudible custom among the Jews of every rank, to teach their children some ingenious art, not only as a preventative of idleness, but a reserve in time of want. Chasinai and Chanilai, brothers of distinguished rank, were put with a weaver to learn his trade, which Josephus says, was no disparagement to them. Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho, affirms that Christ assisted his supposed father in his trade of a carpenter, and his townsmen here address Jesus as a carpenter. however could not be any reproach; for Rabbi Jose was a currier, and Rabbi Jochanan a shoemaker.

This

What is most worthy of notice here, is what these Nazarenes say of Joseph's family, which must be admitted. From this passage

it appears our Lord according to the flesh had four brothers and one or more sisters. James is here and elsewhere called the brother of Jesus. The mother of James was the wife of Cleopas or Alpheus. Luke 6. 15. John 19. 25. Matt. 10. S; and 27. 56. Alpheus and Cleopas were the same person. Jesus's mother was the same as the wife of Cleopas, and from Hegesippus and Theophilac, it appears that Joseph married Mary, wife of his brother Cleopas, who died childless, and had James, Joses, Simon, Judas and Salome by her. Jesus, though first-born, was not called son of Cleopas, because miraculously conceived, but James was called son of Alpheus. See Clarke on Mat. 13. 55; and John 19. 25.

Jesus said to them: You will doubtless say to me this proverb Physician heal thyself. Whatever we have heard, being done at Capernaum, do also here in thy own country. Moreover he said: Verily I say to you: No prophet is acceptable in his own country. But I tell you of a truth: Many widows were in Israel, in the days of Elijah, when heaven was shut three years and six months, and there was a great famine over all the land: but to none of them was Elijah sent, except to a widow woman of Sarepta in Sidon. Likewise there were many lepers in Israel, in the time. of the prophet Elisha, but none were cleansed, except Naaman the Syrian.

On hearing these things all that were in the Synagogue were filled with wrath,* and rising up, drove him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, in order to cast him down headlong. But passing through the midst of them, he departed. And leaving Nazareth† entirely,

* The peculiar cause of this people's rage at Jesus, was derived from the scope of his discourse; in which, by referring to God's dealings with Israel, in the calamitous times of Elijah and Elisha, in which the distinguishing favour of heaven had appeared suspended towards Israel, and extended to the Gentiles, in the cure of Naaman, and preservation of the widow and her son at Sarepta, he more than intimated the rejection of the Jews, and the call of the Gentiles, to incorporation as the covenant people and church of God. Oh! how deplorable is the state of that people whose heaven must be built on the ruin of their fellow-men!

† Nazareth and Capernaum were famous on account of being the principal places of our Lord's residence. Nazareth, the native place of Jesus, was a small city of Zebulon in Galilee, about 70 miles north of Jerusalem, and 10 west of Capernaum. The site of Joseph's house, and that of the ancient Synagogue, where Jesus first taught, are still shown to travellers. Constantine the Great built a magnificent temple here in honour of Christ; and there still remains a Church for the worship of the Greek Catholics. But, Nazareth, so noted in the Christian history, was never a place of great importance, nor good character. Lampe says, its inhabitants were much addicted to theft and robbery; and hence, the name of Nazarene was contemptible. Their city was built on a hill, and surrounded by mountains. Far from being grateful to divine mercy for so distin

he came down and dwelt in Capernaum* a city of Galilee, on the sea coast, in the borders of Zebulon and Naphtali: and thus was fulfilled the saying of Isaiah the Prophet: The land of Zebulon and Naphtali, countries near the sea, by the side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people settled in darkness, saw a great light;† and on them who dwelt in a place of the shadow of death, light arose.

guished an honor and exalted a privilege, as to be the favoured spot of Jesus' birth and residence for thirty years, they treat his services with contempt, on no other account than personal acquaintance, and plainness of teaching. This was the cause of the contempt manifested to Jesus, by the Nazarenes; and still to all the faithful ministers of Jesus, by the ungodly and depraved Nazarenes of modern times. Paul found that in his days some were so reprobate, as not to endure sound teaching; and there never was a more awful proof, of the abandoned state of a church or people, than that afforded by a continual desire of novelty, and an abhorence of plainness of speech, and fidelity in rebuke: and that minister who has not suffieient independence, to rebuke as well as exhort, is a dishonor and snare to the profession,

The outrage of the Nazarenes in driving Jesus from their city, and endeavouring to throw him over the precipice, induced him to abandon them totally. The word, xatamnov, Matt. iv. 13, signifies to leave finally, abandon forever; and accordingly, Jesus never favored them with another visit; and, like Pharaoh, they were consigned to hardness of heart, indicating spiritual abandonment.

*Capernaum, implying town of consolation, or pleasant village, is supposed to have taken its name from a neighbouring spring of celebrity, which watered the country of Gennesareth, Joseph. Wars iii, 35. As this city is not mentioned in the Old Testament, it is believed to have been built by the Jews, after their return from Babylonian captivity. It was'situated on the western coast of the sea of Galilee, and peculiarly adapted as an advantageons residence for our Lord. From the time of calling Peter, his house appears to have been the home of his Master. Here Matthew sat to receive the custom arising from the navigation of the Lake. Here, and in the neighbouring villages, resided the disciples of Jesus: and the trade. of this city, and shipping of the Lake, afforded great facility to our Lord's movements and ministry. The exaltation of this city to heaven intimates its flourishing condition, trade, wealth, and religious privi leges; and its depression to Hades, is accomplished, in the utter desertion and extreme desolation of the place; there being, at present scarcely a solitary remain of that once famous city.

This country underwent very great hardships, during the cas

SECTION TWENTY-SIXTH.

CONVERSATION WITH NICODEMUS AT A PASSOVER. Now the passover, a Jewish festival, being nigh, Jesus went up to Jerusalem; and, while he was at Jerusalem, during the feast, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he performed. But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because all knew him; and he needed no testimony concerning man; for he knew what was in man.

Then a Pharisee, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night, and said to him: Master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do the miracles* which thou art doing, unless God be with him. Jesus answered: Verily, verily, I say to thee, except a man be born again, he cannot discern the reign of God. Nicodemus replied: How can a man be born when he

lamities which befel the kingdom of Israel and Judah: these were its times of darkness, and of the shadow of death, i. e. of extreme affliction, according to tlie Scripture style, wherein light is used to denote prosperity, and darkness adversity, Isa. xiv. 7, and elsewhere. The prophet had foretold that this country should see happier days, which happened when Jesus Christ preached the gospel there.

*From this passage, it is manifest that all the Harmonists are mistaken in the location of this section. John records only one miracle of Christ before the interview between Christ and Nicodemus, which he calls the beginning of Christ's miracles, John ii. 11; but, this being done in a remote village, and before a few witnesses, could not have excited much attention at Jerusalem. Moreover, John states, that the cure of the officer's son was the second miracle wrought by Christ, John iv. 54; but this is related after Christ's journey through Samaria. He also states, that when Christ arrived in Galilee, the Galileans received him gladly, having seen all the things that were done by him at Jerusalem during the feast, John iv. 45. There remains, therefore, no other method of reconciling the history of John, nor the testimony of the Evangelists, but by the alteration of the arrangement of the facts, so as to obviate contradiction.

The miracles of Christ were admitted, by Nicodemus, as decisive testimony of a divine commission. They have been always so regarded by the Christian world; and have been doubted, only by a few sceptics, who have been sufficiently hardy to reject, as evidence, all human testimony, except their own assertions.