Returning for a moment to the body of the narrative, we cannot but feel the sincerity

of the testimony of verse 25. The Pharisees said, "We KNOW that this man is a sinner"

(24). The blind man replied, "Whether he be a sinner or no I know not, ONE THING I

KNOW, that whereas I was blind, now I see" (25). The man's theology was perhaps

lamentably crude. Yet he knows "one thing". We in our turn may not be able to answer

all the questions which tradition, hatred, or ignorance may put to us; but "one thing" we

know too. Here is a fixed, subjective, personal commencement. This is not creed, but

conviction, not theology, but truth, not so much light, as it is life. If there is an element

of vagueness in the words "The man that is called Jesus" in verse 11, there is none in the

concluding portion of the statement, "I went and washed and I received my sight". His

knowledge of the Person of his Saviour grows constantly upwards from "The man that is

called Jesus" to "a prophet", "a man of God" to the "Son of God" and "Lord". His

sight was immediately and completely given. He did not as one on another occasion "see

men as trees walking", he "came seeing".

If we collect the testimony of Scripture concerning the blindness of Israel and consider

the testimony alongside of this sign, we shall see much that is parallel and prophetic. Let

us praise God for the revelation given concerning the duration of this condition:--