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of a healthy fermentation going on within; nothing but the necessary stage in the recovery of their vision, the seeing of men, as trees, walking. And therefore on such occasions it behoves us to wait patiently on the Lord in prayer, that He would put His hands again upon the eyes of our blind, that they may be perfectly "restored," and see every man clearly," and that we may hear them say, "One thing I know, that "whereas I was blind, now I see. (John ix. 25.) And when we pray for our friends, that they may receive their sight, let us also pray for ourselves, that we may have discernment to survey the beginning and the progress of God's work in them, not with the eye of impatience or misconception, but with the ken of those who have had experience of the ways of the Lord, and who have learnt not to " scan His work in vain.”

We may also observe, with regard to the special miracle that we have been considering, that all the stages experienced by the blind man in the recovery of his sight took place when he was still out of the town. And thus many a Christian passes through all the stages of spiritual illumination before it is known to others that he is a subject of grace. Nay, many may pass out of the world, and none know that Jesus had taken

them by the hand, and led them out of the town that they have had their eyes anointed, and seen first, men, as trees, walking; and then looked up and seen clearly. This may have been known to none but themselves, and to the Lord, who led them into the solitude of their own reserve, and laid His hand upon them, "and sent" them "away to" their "house, say

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ing," as He did to the blind man on this occasion, Neither “ go into the town, nor "tell it to any in the town." (Ver. 26.) We are warranted, I think, in building a charitable hope upon this foundation, in the case of some who depart this life without having given so full a proof as we should desire, of their hearts having been under the teaching of the Spirit. They may have evidenced a certain degree of regard for the truth, have manifested some concern about their own souls, and all the rest have been shut up within their own bosoms; we had looked for open confession of sin, and found it not -for the tellings of tender experience, and heard them not; Jesus may have led them out of the town, and one day we may meet them among the great multitude, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

In further confirmation of this particular

view of our subject, we may take the case of Elisha and his young man, as recorded in 2 Kings vi. 17. "And Elisha prayed, and "said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that "he may see. And the Lord opened the

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eyes of the young man, and he saw; and "behold the mountain was full of horses "and chariots of fire round about Elisha."

"There is a natural body, and there is a "spiritual body," said the Apostle Paul (1 Cor. xv. 44), and spiritual bodies are as real in their existence as natural bodies, only they are not visible to natural eyes. The mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire in real and spiritual existence, but the young man had no eyes wherewith to see them. God, on various various occasions, opened the eyes of His chosen servants of old to see the wonders of the invisible world; and Elisha must himself have seen the wondrous host with which he was surrounded, or he could not have prayed that the young man's eyes might be opened to see them also.

When Elijah was about to be taken up, and Elisha had prayed that a double portion of Elijah's spirit might rest upon him, the prophet answered, "Thou hast asked an "hard thing of me; nevertheless, if thou see

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me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be "so." (2 Kings ii. 10.) By which Elisha meant to say that, if the Lord opened the eyes of Elisha to see the manner of his translation, it would be a token that God was about to answer his request. The chariot and horses of fire in which the prophet went up would still have been present, whether Elisha had seen them or not; but his eyes being opened to see them depended upon the special operation of God.

When God made known to Daniel that which was "noted in the Scriptures of "truth," the prophet says, "And I Daniel "alone saw the vision; for the men that

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were with me saw not the vision." (Dan. x. 7.) And in like manner, when the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul of Tarsus in the way, he alone saw the Saviour, and heard His words, for they that journeyed with him "stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man." (Acts ix. 7.) And that they did not perceive anything articulate intelligible in the sound of the voice which they thus heard, is apparent from what Paul says in a later chapter of the Acts: "And they "that were with me saw indeed the light, "and were afraid; but they heard not the

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voice of Him that spake to me." (Acts xxii. 9.)

How forcibly the above passages bring before us the reality of unseen, angelic agency of those heavenly beings, those "ministering spirits," who are "sent forth "to minister for them who shall be heirs of "salvation." (Heb. i. 14.) The angels have bodies as real as our own; countless multitudes are attending upon us; and although the mind questions this, because it sees them not, their agency on the scene of material creation is not the less sure for being noiseless, unfelt, invisible. "No

"speech, nor language, their voice is not "heard," and yet "their line is gone out "through all the earth, and their words to "the end of the world." (Ps. xix. 3, 4.) How much this ought to enlarge our views, as to the reality of invisible agencies in this nether world, and as to the possibility of modes of existence altogether foreign to our own, and imperceptible to our senses!

Now, if we take all the above-cited passages of Scripture, as illustrating the broad fact of the blindness of the natural heart to all that is going on around it in the kingdom of grace, as well as to any perception of the invisible hand of God in the dispensations of Providence, what a wide field for inter

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