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popular sentiment. Jesus had declared that the sins of the paralytic
were forgiven. The Pharisees caught at these words as an assumption
of infinite power, a blasphemy against God, and conceived that they
could present this before the people as a crime worthy of death. They
did not express their thoughts, but these worshipers of forms and
symbols were saying in their minds, He is a blasphemer! Who can
forgive sins but God alone? They were laying hold of the Saviour’s
words of divine pardon, to use as a means by which to accuse him.
But Jesus read their thoughts, and, fixing his reproving glance upon
them, beneath which they cowered and drew back, addressed them
thus: “Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier
to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say,
Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the
Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of
the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way
into thine house.”
Then he who had been borne to Jesus on a litter, and whose limbs
were then useless, rises to his feet with the elasticity and strength of
youth. The life-giving blood bounds through his veins, seeking its nat-
ural channels with unerring precision. The lagging human machinery
springs into sudden activity, the animating glow of health succeeds
the pallor of approaching death. “And immediately he arose, took up
the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all
amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.”
Oh! wondrous love of Christ, stooping to heal the guilty and the
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afflicted! Divinity sorrowing over and soothing the ills of suffering
humanity! Oh! marvelous power thus displayed to the children of
men! Who can doubt the message of salvation! Who can slight the
mercies of a compassionate Redeemer!
The effect of this wonderful miracle upon the people was as if
Heaven had opened and revealed the glories of the better world. As
the man who had been cured of palsy passed through the crowd, bless-
ing God at every bounding step, and bearing his burden as if it were
a feather’s weight, the people fell back to give him room, and with
awestruck faces gazed upon him, and whispered softly among them-
selves, saying, “We have seen strange things today.” The Pharisees
were dumb with amazement, and overwhelmed with defeat. They saw
that here was no opportunity for their prejudice and jealousy to inflame