And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
The reciprocal gaze
The gaze was one which read character in the expression of the man’s face, and discerned that he had faith to be healed (verse 16). And he, in his turn, was to look on them that he might read in their pitying looks, not only the wish to heal, but the consciousness of power to carry the wish into effect. (Dean Plumptre.)
The proper effects of the sight of misery
When thou seest misery in thy brother’s face, let him see mercy in thine eye; the more the oil of mercy is:poured on him by thy pity, the more the oil in thy cruse shall be increased by thy piety. (F. Quarles.)
Magnetic influence over our fellow-creatures
You may take a lily and draw it through the sand, and it comes out clean. Nothing holds to it. You may take a magnet and draw it through, and out come the iron filings with it. The magnet knows and catches that which is germane to it--that which is susceptible to its attraction. There are some natures that are like magnets, and that touch lust in you. You do not know what it is that affects you. You feel unwashed after they are gone. There has been nothing said, and there has been nothing exactly done. It is that subtle magnetic power which feeling has on feeling. If on one instrument in the room you sound a given chord, every other instrumentin that room has a tendency to sound its octave. If you go among men of strong natures there is a certain vibration in them of a feeling which is strong in you. When you have been with some persons you feel finer, you feel lifted up. And yet they have not exhorted you. There has been no magisterial instruction whatever given to you. You have drunk the wine of being, and by it you are lifted up and strengthened. (H. W. Beecher.)
