be the passover; while others have thought differently; alleging that John generally connects the word pascha with feast, when he intends to refer to the passover. Townsend is inclined to think that the feast of Pentecost is intended; or, at latest, the feast of tabernacles. After curing the paralytic, who was let down into his presence through the roof of the house in which he was sitting, he called Matthew from the receipt of custom to a higher and holier employment; and soon after, the time for celebrating the festival, whichever it was, drawing near, "he went up to Jerusalem," from Galilee, as was customary among the Jews.

George. Perhaps I should ask as to the state of public feeling concerning him.

Minister. He was chiefly known in the northward portions of Palestine, and there he appears to have been extensively popular. Less known at Jerusalem, there had already begun to be a diversity of sentiment respecting him. Among the people, generally, he was favoured; but the Pharisees had a strong party, and with these, even thus early, his poverty and his purity had rendered him an object of suspicion, and, with many, of dislike. They wanted a Judas Maccabeus, who might lead them to victory against the Romans, and free their sacred soil from every vestige of a foreign conqueror; and when he spoke of the bondage of sin, and offered to bless them with spiritual liberty, they only listened with contempt, and left his presence with anger. But he is now at Jerusalem; and, as it is the time of a religious festival, a large concourse of Jews, from all parts of the country, will be there. Let us, in mind, transport ourselves there, and become spectators, as it were, of these memorable proceedings.

George. First, then, as to the particular place. Is there anything remarkable about it?

Minister. You will have no difficulty in forming a general notion of it. Here is a small pool of water, into which a person can step down; and on its borders, a sort of portico, for the convenience of those who might resort there. The place, for an obvious reason, is called, in Hebrew, the House of Mercy. Fancy yourself there. Look into the portico, and tell me what you see?

George. It seems to be a complete receptacle of disease. "In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water."

Minister. We now come to the first remarkable circumstance connected with this case. Read St. John's statement. George. "For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he had." Now, Sir, how am I to understand it? I have met with an account to this effect,-that the water possessed a sort of sanative power; that the Jews were accustomed to attribute effects of whose causes they were ignorant, to supernatural agency; and that the Evangelist speaks now according to the popular modes of expression.

Minister. There is, among many, an unwillingness to receive the Bible in its proper character. It professes to be a supernatural revelation of the kingdom and will of God. Among its statements, many relate to the Jews, and distinctly teach us that they were chosen by God, by an immediate interposition, to be his peculiar people; that he actually, and, so to speak, sensibly, reigned over them, and that in the course of his dominion, from the time of Moses, downwards, there were various direct interpositions of God himself, many of which were miraculous. Now, the fair way of dealing with the case is to look at the entire question; and, instead of objecting against this or that particular instance, to go directly to the main point, and deny the supernatural character of the whole. But let this supernatural character of the entire dispensation be admitted, and these instances will appear perfectly in keeping with it. We are not to listen, it is true, to what really is popular superstition; but when examin ing the history of the Jews and of the New Testament, our first question is, Is this a cunningly-devised fable? A system of philosophical allegory, and condescension to popular misconception? That is,-for to this it comes,-Was Jesus Christ one of those moralists, of whom modern times have furnished us specimens, and who think nothing of putting forth an untruth for the purpose of deceiving the common people, as they say, for their own advantage?

George. But would this be consistent with the holiness which the Bible describes?

Minister. No, indeed; and these modern philosophers appear to have as limited notions of this subject, as they have of God's interposing power. I would meet them even on this ground. The supernatural Gospel which they so much despise brings before us a moral system incomparably purer and more elevated than any which they seem to understand. But thus it is. The Bible system is all of a piece. Its morals and its supernaturalness go together. Reject the last, and you destroy the first. Besides, as to this particular instance, John wrote many years after the occurrence. He is not quoting popular language, nor does any thing in the construction of his sentence lead to the supposition that he was alluding to the opinions of others. Anything of this sort would have suited the narrative better, had it been introduced by means of the poor impotent man. But the Evangelist states the fact as from himself. "For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole." Take this as true history, made known to John by inspiration; and you will find nothing inconsistent either with the character of the dispensation, or-and I speak with reverence-with that of the God of the dispensation.

George. Will you explain both these points, if you please, Sir? Minister. Well, then, as to the dispensation itself. If the Scripture is true, God did directly and sensibly interpose to separate Israel from other nations, and under his own government he held them, in the same manner, to the days of Christ. When God rejected the Jews, they ceased to be a nation, and a government of their own they have never since possessed. Often, too, did he employ angels, in performing his will, both in reward and punishment. Suppose, then, that, as the Messiah was promised, was expected, and it was in God's gracious purpose to send forth his Son,-suppose that some time previously, this distinct, though limited revival of miraculous power, by the ministry of an angel, should take place? If the Jewish dispensation be as we have described it, what is there in this inconsistent with it?

George. Nay, Sir, to me it appears beautifully consistent. It is only a display of the same power which cured Naaman of his leprosy when he bathed in Jordan at the command of the Prophet.

Minister. And the manner of the cure, requiring prompt obedience at the right moment, accords with the revealed principles of the divine moral government. And as to the limitation, that was necessary to proclaim the miraculous character of the occurrence, and to show that it was God that healed, and not the pool. Mercy and authority were thus united, and exhibited as united. And what do you see in the great scheme of evangelical redemption but mercy combined with authority?

George. I take the fact, then, as here stated. By the ministry of an angel at certain seasons the waters of this pool were, to the person first bathing in them, healing.

Minister. Do you wonder, then, that you see a whole multitude there?

George. No, indeed, Sir: the very chance of cure would be thought worth waiting for.

Minister. Well, but from the language of the man to our Lord, can you not form a conception of what we will call the general history of this House of Mercy? He says, "Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool; but while I am coming, another steppeth down before

me.

George. All who are there, are there with one object. Their eye is upon the pool, to perceive the very first symptom of movement. And the moment they are sure that the season is come, every one tries who shall first be in the water, and secure the benefit. Some, it seems, had friends to help them to move faster; or, if they were unable to move at all, to carry them to the pool, and plunge them in. O, Sir, what carefulness in watching, and what eager promptitude in acting, there would be!

man.

Minister. There would, indeed. But now, look at one poor For thirty-eight long and painful years he has been helpless. How long he had waited at the pool, we know not; but his case was evidently a most distressing one. Perhaps

he was just able, with great effort, attended with equal agony, slowly to drag himself onward. He had no friend to bear him to the pool; and even though he had laid his bed at the very edge, they whose diseases left the power of motion unimpaired, would reach the water first. Fix then your eye on him. His mattress is there. He is laid on it. He is alone. For, of all that multitude, there is not one but thinks on himself first. Cure after cure has he witnessed, and still has hoped that the next turn would be his own; but however near to success he might sometimes appear to be, never yet had he secured it. His heart was sick through hope so often disappointed, and so long deferred. At length, one Sabbathday, as he lay thus waiting, our Lord directed his steps to this Bethesda. Fixing his eye on this very man, and knowing "that he had been now a long time in that case," he addresses him kindly,—and yet, would it not be, likewise, with something particular, and designed to obtain an undivided attention?—and asks, "Wilt thou be made whole?" To this question was the reply given which, in few words, disclosed the helpless and sad condition of the man, and his melancholy feelings. Endeavour to realize the view. Our Lord appears in this abode of suffering and often-defeated hope. "Wilt thou be made whole?" It was what the poor man desired with all his heart. Gradually to this must all his thoughts, all his feelings have been directed, till, by the laws of human nature, to this they were all brought, and his whole being had become desire of recovery. O! how would he look on one who said to him, " Wilt thou be made whole?"

George. Yes, Sir; the coming of our Lord to that company of sufferers would be more than the descent of the angel to the pool. But did the impotent man know our Lord? Minister. Conjecture must be silent in the total absence of facts. Our Lord's fame was not confined within very narrow limits. Jesus of Nazareth, the Prophet of Galilee, was at least known by name. Besides, the Jew believed in what we may term the existence of miraculous power. His nation was only redeemed from bondage by it; and the Prophets only experienced another form of it, under which they spoke.

George. This will explain his reply, which only refers to