The Pool of Bethesda, a type of favoured localities in a religious community in which the highest miraculous aid has not yet appeared
The miraculous aid is
I.
ENIGMATICAL: An angel troubling the water.
II. OCCASIONAL: At a certain season.
III. EXTREMELY LIMITED: To the one who steps in first.
IV. TO MANY UNAVAILABLE: The impotent. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)
The working of God in the medicinal spring an emblem of the saving work of God in general
I. IN ITS FORMS.
1. The saving operation of the Father in the kingdom of nature.
2. That of the Son in the kingdom of grace.
II. IN ITS STAGES.
1. Christ’s miraculous healing and raising of dead in general.
2. The spiritual awakening and the organic unfolding of salvation in the New Testament dispensation.
3. The finished work of salvation in the general resurrection. (J. P.Lange, D. D.)
The sins of summer watering-places
Outside Jerusalem there was a watering-place, the popular resort for invalids. At a certain season an angel troubled the water. That angel has his counterpart in the angel of healing, that in our day steps into the mineral springs or into the salt sea, where multitudes who are worn out with commercial or professional anxieties, as well as these who are affected with disease, go and are cured. These Bethesda’s are scattered all up and down our country, thank God. Let not the merchant begrudge the employs, or the patient the physician, or the Church its pastor, a season of inoccupation. But I have to declare the truth that our fashionable watering-places are the temporal and eternal destruction of thousands.
I. The first temptation that hovers in this direction is TO LEAVE YOUR PIETY AT HOME. Elders and deacons and ministers, who are entirely consistent at, home sometimes when the Sabbath dawns, take it all to themselves. On the other days the air is bewitched with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and the toughest thing is to keep religion.
II. Another temptation is the HORSE RACING BUSINESS. I never knew a man who could give himself to the pleasures of the turf and not be battered in morals. And the betting, drunkenness, and financial ruin associated with it everywhere cluster round it under a pleasant pseudonym at the watering-place.
III. The temptation to SACRIFICE PHYSICAL STRENGTH. Instead of recuperating their health many lose it. Families accustomed to retire early gossip until one or two in the morning, and dyspeptics take strange liberties with viands they would be afraid to touch at home.
IV. THE FORMATION OF HASTY AND UNDESIRABLE ALLIANCES. Watering-places are responsible for more of the domestic infelicities of this country than all other things combined. You might as well go among the gaily-painted yachts of a summer regatta to find war vessels, as to go among the light spray of the summer watering-place to find character that can stand the test of the great struggle of human life. Ah! in the battle of life you want a stronger weapon than a lace fan or a croquet mallet! The load of life is so heavy that in order to draw it you want a team stronger than one made up of a masculine grasshopper and a feminine butterfly.
V. The temptation to BANEFUL LITERATURE. There is more pestiferous waste read by the intelligent classes in July and August than in the other ten months of the year. Men and women, who at home would not be satisfied with a book that was not really sensible, read those which ought to make them blush. “Oh, you must have intellectual recreation.” Yes, there is no need to take books on metaphysics. But you might as well say, “I propose now to give a little rest to my digestive organs, and instead of eating heavy meat and vegetables, I will, for a little while, take lighter food--a little strychnine and a few grains of ratsbane.” Literary poison in August is as bad as literary poison in December.
VI. The temptation to INTOXICATING BEVERAGE. The watering-place is full of this temptation; after the bath, the game, the dinner, in the morning and at night the custom is to tipple.
VII. CONCLUSION:
1. The grace of God is the only safe shelter.
2. There are spiritual watering-places accessible to all. (T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)
The house of mercy
Bethesda means house of mercy, and we have such a House and such a pool in the Church of God and the water of salvation. The pool was a crowded spot, and the poor crippled man had been all these years without finding a place in it.
I. But THERE IS ROOM IN CHRIST’S HOUSE OF MERCY, AND IT IS THE BEST PLACE FOR ALL.
1. For little children.
2. For young men and maidens.
3. For the old.
II. God’s House is the best place for all who HAVE SINNED AND REPENTED. Very often people who have gone wrong cease to come to Church. They feel unfit. But let them repent and come home like the prodigal. Then they will find pardon and peace.
III. God’s House is the best place for those WHO CAME TO JESUS, BUT HAVE GONE BACK AGAIN. Can that companion of drunkards and bad women be the same who used to say, “Our Father” with innocent lips, and was ashamed to tell a lie? Are you happier for going back from Jesus? Well, there is room for even you in the House of Mercy, and cleansing for you in the Blood of Jesus.
IV. HOW MANY OF US ARE LYING LIKE THESE MEN AT BETHESDA?
1. Some of us are paralyzed by sin, evil habits, worldliness.
2. Some are dumb who babble in the world but never speak to God.
3. Some are deaf who hear the offers of the market, yet cannot hear the offers of God.
4. Here in God’s House of mercy there is a hospital for all manner of disease. (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.)
Waiting in mercy’s house
1. Who wonders that a place which had such a history as that described in this chapter should be called mercy’s house? We should not have been surprised if we had heard of it as being near the Temple; but, as if God would teach us that His mercy is to be got wherever sought, the house of mercy is close by the place where money is made.
2. How came the five porches to be built? Had some of those which had found health built them for the comfort of seekers for mercy, and thus shown their appreciation of what they had received? Let those who find grace to help in the means provided see that others have the chance of getting the same privileges. Let us write on the walls of these porches
I. IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND. It is evident this man thought so. Thirty-eight years hoping for a cure. How often he had been disappointed! One can see him as he smiles a sickly smile, and whispers, “Better luck next time.” Some need to be encouraged to hope that it is not too late to be cured of the malady which threatens their soul. Do Dot despair. Satan could not wish for anything better than that your hopes should die, and your prayers cease.
II. On the second porch, write, WAITING ON THE LORD IS TRUE WISDOM. If you don’t wish to grow worse, keep in mercy’s house. Do not be persuaded to give up going to Church. How pleased the enemy of your soul would be if he could but persuade you to spend the whole of your life away from God. “Faith cometh by hearing.” Some convinced of sin, never able to rejoice in God our Saviour, are tempted to give up. People might have said to this man, “Why keep going to the pool?” “If I die without salvation, I will die at the feet of the Saviour.”
III. On the third porch, write, CHRIST IS THE SHORT WAY TO COMFORT. The pool was called the house of mercy, but Christ was mercy itself. All mere human instrumentalities are to Jesus what the house is to the Master. We have an indication of Christ’s plan of saving men. The poor man did not ask Jesus to heal him. It was mercy who took the initiative. Christ gave a command as well as asked a question. “Take up thy bed and walk.” This was something that was a physical impossibility; yet the man made the effort, and was helped of God, and so was made whole. Jesus says to you, who are willing to be saved, “Believe on Me.” Why say you cannot believe? God’s commandments are promises. He never commands what He will not help us to do.
IV. In the next of the porches we will write up, THE NEWLY SAVED MAY EXPECT A CHECK. The man was met as he was going down the street by those who objected to his carrying his bed. Do not be surprised if some one tries to rob you of your new-found joy. Let not any one stop you from joy in the Lord, it is your strength.
V. There is yet one porch on which we will write, SIN WILL HURT YOU MORE THAN DISEASE. “Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” (T. Champness.)
Scripture a record of human sorrow
What a scene of misery Bethesda must have presented.
I. THE BIBLE IS FULL OF SUCH DESCRIPTIONS OF HUMAN MISERY. It begins with the history of the curse, and ends with predictions of judgments.
II. And, further, IT SEEMS TO DROP WHAT MIGHT BE SAID IN FAVOUR OF THIS LIFE, and enlarges on the unpleasant side of it. Little does it say on the pleasures of life. But then human tales and poems make things better than they are. Scripture tells the truth, “Man is born to trouble.”
III. THIS VIEW IS THE ULTIMATE AND TRUE VIEW OF HUMAN LIFE, AND A VIEW WHICH IT CONCERNS US MUCH TO KNOW, else we shall he obliged to learn it by sad experience; whereas if we are forewarned we shall unlearn false notions of its excellence and be saved from disappointment, and learn to bear a sober and calm heart under a smiling cheerful countenance.
IV. CONSIDER WHAT IS THE CONSEQUENCE OF IGNORANCE OR DISTRUST OF GOD’S WANING VOICE. For a while all will be enjoyment: health is good, spirit high, troubles easily mastered; but as years roll on it is discovered that substantial good is wanting. Then a man will get restless and discontented, for he does not know how to amuse himself. He has made no effort to change his heart, strengthen his faith, or subdue his passions. Now their day is come, and they begin to domineer. He had no habitual thought of God in the former time, and now he dreads Him. Where shall he look for succour? To those around him he is a burden. And so he will lie year after year by Bethesda no one helping him, and unable from long habits of sin to advance towards a cure.
V. THERE IS A MORE SOLEMN CONSIDERATION STILL--THAT TAUGHT BY LAZARUS AND DIVES. Suppose the world to remain a faithful friend till the last, its vanity will be disclosed after death. These disclosures of Scripture, then, are intended to save us pain by preventing the unreserved enjoyment of the world. Let this not seem to make life melancholy. The true Christian rejoices in those earthly things which give joy, but in such a way as not to care for them when they go.
VI. OUR SAVIOUR GIVES US A PATTERN WHICH WE ARE BOUND TO FOLLOW. True, such self-command composure and inward faith are not to be learned in a day; if they were why should this life be given us? It is given us as a preparation time for obtaining them. Its sights and sorrows are to calm you, and its pleasant sights to try you. Learn to be as the angel who could descend among the miseries of Bethesda without losing his purity or happiness. Gain healing from troubled waters. Be light-hearted and contented because you are a member of Christ’s pilgrim Church. (J. H.Newman, D. D.)
An old Jerusalem infirmary
I. THE HOSPITAL (Joh_5:2-3).
1. Its site. Where God has a temple His worshippers should found a hospital (Isa_57:7; Mat_25:35-40).
2. Its form. It was not the five porches of man’s construction, but the water of God’s providing that healed; but the former enabled patients to take advantage of the latter. In nature and grace man is permitted to be God’s fellow-worker (Deu_8:3; Deu_8:18; Psa_23:1; Psa_67:6; Hos_2:21; 2Co_11:1; Php_2:13), but in both He is “Jehovah Rophi” (Exo_15:26; Deu_32:39; Psa_103:3).
3. Its name: House of Grace, than which none could be more appropriate for an institution whose origin was love and whose end was healing, and to which Christ came.
4. Its inmates: specimens of the poor creatures who still crowd the world’s infirmaries, and emblems of spiritual invalids.
II. THE PATIENT (Joh_5:5).
1. A great sufferer for half a lifetime.
2. A friendless outcast, touching the lowest deep of human wretchedness Psa_142:4). Many such in the lazar house of humanity.
3. A disappointed seeker. One wonders that his heart was not broken by his endless disappointments (Pro_13:12; Pro_18:14). But “hope springs eternal in the human breast” (Rom_8:24). What a comfort there are no such disappointed seekers after spiritual health (Isa_45:19;Mat_7:7-8; Zec_13:1; Tit_3:5).
III. THE PHYSICIAN (verse 6).
1. His quick observation. Christ’s people should cultivate the “seeing eye,” for there is no lack of opportunities (Ecc_9:10; Heb_13:6).
2. His perfect diagnosis. Christ apprehends both the man and his malady in every instance (Psa_7:9; Psa_119:168; Psa_139:1-4; Pro_15:11; Joh_1:48; Joh_2:24-25; Joh_4:29; Rev_2:23).
3. His tender compassion, implied if not expressed. He distinguished between the sinner and his sin (verse 14). So in imitation of Mt
5:45 Christian philanthropy should embrace the criminal classes within itsGa 6:10).
4. His hopeful inquiry.
5. His extraordinary prescription equivalent to Eph_5:14; Mar_1:15. Christian duty transcends natural ability, but what Christ commands He is willing to supply (Joh_1:12).
IV. THE CURE.
1. Instantaneous, like all His cures physical and spiritual.
2. Complete. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
A hospital sermon
I. Christ always honoured the religious observances of his day. He shows us
1. The advantage of church institutions.
2. The relative value of religious ritual.
3. The duty of public worship.
II. NEAR THE TEMPLE WAS A HOSPITAL. The connection between the Church and benevolent institutions (and between the philanthropist and the Christian) is vital. Show one and you will find
1. That Christian love has started it.
2. That Christian liberality has supported it.
3. That Christian charity has been its daily guardian.
III. WHAT HAVE THE SYSTEMS OF INFIDELITY DONE FOR THE POOR AND SICK OF OUR LAND? Did Voltaire ever endow an almshouse? What have Tom Paine, Rousseau, Hume, Gibbon, etc., done for the amelioration of the race? What building stands to commemorate the sympathy, heroism, and liberality of the secularism of our day? It was the Christian in Howard that made him a religious reformer; in Wilberforce that made him a slave emancipator; that inspired Florence Nightingale, etc. The Church is the poor man’s refuge; the Bible the sorrowing man’s hope; Christ the world’s great need; heaven the weary man’s rest. (G. Minkle.)
Bethesda
I. THE POOL.
1. In Jerusalem, typical of the Church into which you have been introduced by baptism.
2. The pool itself is emblematical of that “Fountain opened in the house of David,” etc. It is full, not of water, but of Spirit, and His baptism is life to the soul and healing and power to its injured and enfeebled faculties.
3. The five porches set forth the five springs in the Rock of Ages, hands, feet, side, each yielding its separate stream of blessing.
II. THOSE WHO LAY ROUND THE POOL.
1. Representatives of the unconverted citizens of the Spiritual Jerusalem.
(1) The blind, unable to discern the right hand from the left, nay, incapable of seeing any hand to the soul at all.
(2) The halt, divested of faculty for every motion.
(3) The withered, incompetent “as paralytics are” to move the limbs or organs of the soul. Why, if the powers of the congregation were suddenly let loose, the results would arouse the whole world: there would not be a house in the district, however poor and sinful; however rich and worldly, that would not be beset, as it were, by a host of inspired apostles. Attempt to move men in their ordinary state to Sunday-school teaching, missionary exertion, or hearty contribution towards religious objects: some will say, We cannot see the matter as you do; others will say, We approve of the object, but cannot move in it; we are bound by such special bonds that we cannot stir in the case, or if we went and followed your advice, we should be helpless as the dead. What is this but being blind, halt, withered?
2. Take the case of an actual believer. He may feel himself providentially impeded; his way may be hidden, his powers confined, fast bound with bonds invisible. The thought of what a neighbour, or a newspaper, or an enemy, or a dignitary may say, ties him as within gates of brass. He would speak, but invisible ligatures fasten his tongue. He will say, “For that I should have a higher position, a larger fortune, more vigorous powers.” Well, this may be true; yet an energetic grasp of the Hand that moves the universe might remove all these restrictions.
III. THE TROUBLING OF THE POOL.
1. The day: the Sabbath. The pool is always troubled, but the Lord’s day is the day for finding it out. Abolish Sunday and not only would the pool he neglected, but it would become dry.
2. The place: God’s House, not exclusively of course, for it is everywhere accessible But hers are unusual facilities.
3. The troublers: God’s ministers as His agents.
(1) By prayer.
(2) By preaching.
(3) By sacraments. (T. D. Gregg, D. D.)
Bethesda
I. How eager were these folk to be cured! Would that there were the same earnestness for the healing of the soul.
II. GOD CAUSED THE TROUBLING OF THE WATERS, BUT LEFT THE SICK TO GET THEMSELVES IN. As Matthew Henry says, “God has put virtue into Scripture and ordinances, and if we do not make a due improvement of them, it is our own fault.
III. THIS MAN’S INFIRMITY WAS OF THIRTY-EIGHT YEARS’ STANDING; SHALL WE COMPLAIN OF ONE WEARISOME NIGHT. We should visit hospitals sometimes that we may learn to be thankful for our own blessings and to pity the sufferings of others.
IV. HE SEEMS TO HAVE HAD NO FRIEND. Some day troubles may come upon us which no earthly friend can alleviate or understand. But Jesus knows, He can sympathize and heal.
V. LEARN PATIENCE AND HOPE PROM THE PERSEVERANCE OF THIS MAN Heb_2:3; Luk_18:1). (G. J. Brown, M. A.)
Bethesda
The porches were once places of luxurious indulgence for the rich. In the process of time they became hospitals for the poor.
I. THE WORLD’S PAIN IS SCATTERED OVER A VAST SURFACE, BUT THERE ARE GATHERING PLACES, FOCUSSES OF SUFFERING. It will do us good to go into the back street or infirmary where it hides itself.
II. THE PEOPLE WERE A GREAT MULTITUDE.
1. Sorrow has always been in a majority.
2. The great multitude represented a great variety of diseases. There are some thousands to which the human frame is subject. Think of a thousand ways of taking a man to pieces; of God having a thousand scourges by which He can lay His hand of punishment and trial on the sinner. I can run away from fire and water; but who can escape God?
3. The man who is, popularly speaking, in the robustest health to-day may be smitten before the setting of the sun with a fatal disease. In the midst of life we are in death. Therefore, “Whatsoever thy hand,” etc.
4. All the people were waiting. We are all doing the same. “Man never is, but always to be blest.” There are two methods of waiting.
(1) The method which means patience, hope, assurance that God will in His own time redeem His promises; (2)the method of impatience and distrust and complaining that wears the soul out.
III. EVERY LIFE HAS SOME OPPORTUNITY GIVEN IT. “There is a tide in the affairs of man,” etc. Every one has bad a door opened. The angel is present to-day.
1. You may heal the disease of selfishness by timely generosity.
2. You may heal the disease of indolence by Christian work.
IV. TROUBLED WATERS ARE OFTEN HEALING WATERS. Not the little puddles you make with your own foot; but the troubles that God makes by His angels and a thousand ministries by which He interposes. You may take hold of trouble by the wrong end and abuse it, or you may make it a place for thought and vow.
V. IN ALL CLASSES THERE IS A SPECIAL MAN. I am groaning over something I have had for ten years, and there is a man that has had something for five and twenty and never made half the noise about it. I have only one loaf; another man says he has not tasted for three days. There is always someone worse off than you are.
VI. WE CANNOT GET USED TO PAIN, BUT WE GET ACCUSTOMED TO THE SIN THAT MAKES IT.
VII. THE PHYSICIAN IS SENT NOT TO THE WHOLE BUT TO THE SICK. The very asking of His question has healing in it. Some people ask about our sickness but make us worse; others ask us how we are and the kind inquiry makes us feel better.
VIII. THE SELFISHNESS OF PAIN. Here again we come on the subtle working of sin. Does any one say to the man who has been lying in pain for thirty-eight years, “You are worse than I, I shall give you a turn this time.” Great numbers of people had been healed, but no one offered help. Blessing unsanctified may increase our selfishness.
IX. CHRIST’S POWER IS NOT SECONDARY BUT PRIMARY. He speaks and it stands fast.
X. LET US APPLY THE WHOLE THING TO THE MATTER OF SALVATION.
1. It was an angel who troubled the water; it is the Son of God who opens the fountain for sin.
2. The water was moved at a certain time only; the atonement of the Son of God is open to our approaches night and day.
3. Whosoever first stepped in was cured at Bethesda; here the whole world may all go in at once.
4. Go to the fountain and one thing you will never find there--one dead man. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Bethesda
Christ was eminently a public man. Wherever most people were congregated, there was He; not induced by curiosity, pleasure, or desire for admiration, but to fulfil His mission. Here we find Him after a fifty-six miles’ walk. The prospect of usefulness made it worth the trouble.
I. THE NARRATIVE.
1. The hospital and its bath. The cloisters were designed for ordinary bathers, but since it bad become medicinal, they were filled with the diseased.
2. The patients and their diseases.
(1) The blind with all manner of ophthalmic complaints.
(2) Halt, persons lame from accident, disease, or eruptions.
(3) Withered, those whose sinews had shrunk, and power of movement had become impossible.
3. The angel and his operations.
4. The impotent man and his special infirmity. He was deprived of the power of rapid motion, and laid expecting help; but helpful friends are only found at feasts, not in hospitals,
5. The Physician and His cure.
(1) What a question He asked! The doctor generally says, “Tell me your disease, its symptoms; let me feel your pulse.” This Physician knew more than the patient.
(2) Power came with the healing word, and the man instantly became vigorous.
6. The objectors and their cavils.
7. The restored man and his lesson.
(1) The miracle had a beneficial effect, for he went into the Temple to express his gratitude.
(2) Christ gave him a caution. A worse evil might accrue through sin than thirty-eight years’ affliction. And so now: a guilty conscience, loss of God’s friendship, hell.
8. The communication and its effects. Who can blame the man for his effusive testimony to his benefactor? Yet it was scarcely prudent, a fact that should be borne in mind by the over-zealous, for “the Jews sought to kill Jesus.”
II. THE INSTRUCTION.
1. Sickness is often God’s discipline to prepare the mind to welcome Christ. “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest.” The Thessalonians “received the Word in much affliction.”
2. If we would be healed of our spiritual maladies we must be found where that healing is ordinarily bestowed.
(1) This may be a work of difficulty, as in the case before us.
(2) There are special seasons in which God vouchsafes signal blessings to the Church.
3. The most desperate and lengthened cases are not beyond the reach of Christ’s powers.
(1) Those who have reached the age of this man and whose sin seems inveterate.
(2) Backsliders.
4. Copy the sympathy of Christ to the afflicted. We cannot help them as He did, but we can help and comfort them. Visit the fatherless and widows, the sick, etc. (J. Sherman.)
The pool of Bethesda
This is a picture in miniature of the world.
I. The world is GREATLY AFFLICTED.
1. Effects of sin.
2. Often the means of salvation.
II. The world has ALLEVIATING ELEMENTS.
1. Medicinal properties of the earth.
2. Soothing influences of nature.
3. Offices of social love.
4. The Gospel of Christ.
III. The world is SADLY SELFISH.
1. The injustice of selfishness.
2. Its impiety.
3. Its misery.
IV. The world has a GLORIOUS SAVIOUR.
1. He cures the greatest of sufferers.
2. By His own Word.
3. At the earnest desire of the patient. (W. H. Van Doren, D. D.)
The pool of Bethesda
I. SOME PROBABLE ACCOUNT OF WHAT IS MYSTERIOUS HERE. This pool is placed near the sheep market or gate. You read of this sheep gate in Nehemiah. Josephus tells us that near one of the gates which corresponds with this was Solomon’s pool, which we may conclude to be Bethesda. But the pool of Solomon derived its waters from the fountain of Siloam or Shiloh, which also fed the pool of Siloam. Isaiah uses the waters of Siloam “that go softly” to represent the kingdom of David, which is emblematic of the kingdom of Christ. Accordingly, the Jews attached a sacred character to them, applying to them during the feast of Tabernacles the words, “With joy shall ye draw water,” etc. May we not think, therefore, that as those waters foreshadowed the kingdom of Christ, God was pleased when that kingdom was near to endue those waters with a healing power, as though to give notice of the restorative virtue that Christ would exert? A long and dreary season, without prophecy and miracles, had elapsed since Malachi; but when the time of Christ was at hand prodigies began again; and prophecy recommenced. Why not add to other attestions that one furnished by the text? Here an angel descended in token of the return of intercourse between earth and heaven. The cripple had lain for thirty-eight years, and attendance probably commenced when the waters became healing. This would place the first advent of the angel about 7 B.C., just when the heraldy of approach was likely to begin.
II. CONSIDER THE NARRATIVE AS SIGNIFICATIVE.
1. It was only at certain seasons that the angel descended, and only he who was instantly upon the alert became healed. The fountain opened for sin is ever equally efficacious, but there are precious opportunities in every man’s life, on the taking advantage of which may depend his final salvation. There is too much ground to believe that Sunday assemblings are seasons to many of the troubling of the waters, and nevertheless not seasons of the restoration of health, because the agitation is allowed to subside.
2. The condition of cure was personal willingness. The man might have found it profitable to be maimed. Many a cripple prefers begging with one arm to working with two.
(1) Wilt thou be made whole, oh young man, who art the slave of thy passions, and whose god is pleasure? Think what it is to be made whole, to mortify thy passions, to deny thyself, “to live soberly,” etc.
(2) Wilt thou, oh man of ambition?
(3) Wilt thou, oh woman of frivolous tastes? There is a secret unwillingness which frustrates the ordinances of grace, and keeps Bethesda still crowded. Men dread the stirring of the waters, and whenever they find them agitated pour upon them the oil of flattering deceit.
3. The man was not wearied out by repeated disappointments. Men now wait upon the means week after week without apparent benefit, and are tempted to give up. But you may be giving up at the very moment when God, having duly exercised your patience, is about to interpose. The greatest promises are to those who wait upon the Lord. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Jesus at Bethesda
I. THE DIVINE HELPER.
1. He saw him. It is something for a man to look on wretchedness. Men’s eyes, as a rule, are turned the other way. The Christian rule is, “Look not every man on his own things,” etc.
2. He knew the circumstances of this patient, and He knows ours.
3. He pitied this poor man. “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” But Jesus is a high priest that “can be touched.”
4. He addressed him. He made the first advances, and awoke new hope within him.
5. He healed him. But not until the arm of flesh had failed. “Sir, I have no man,” etc.
II. THE FAULTFINDERS. Surely a life so beneficent should have been left alone. But the faultfinders are everywhere, and are never at a loss for a text or pretext. They are dogs in the manger. They sneer at foreign missions, protesting that “Charity begins at home,” but when beggars pass by mutter, “This is a fine sight in a Christian country.” How shall we behave towards such people? Let them alone, and go on with our own business as Jesus did.
III. THE NEW CONVERT.
1. He was obedient.
2. He was found in the Temple, doubtless to give praise to God. But “thanksliving is better than thanksgiving”; therefore our Lord says, “Sin no Job_20:11). The ruin of the soul is worse than thirty-eight years of palsy (Heb_6:4-9).
3. He testified of Jesus. Witness-bearing is the best preaching. (D. J.Burrell, D. D.)
Jesus at Bethesda
I. THE PATIENT.
1. He was fully aware of his sickness, and owned it He was not like those who are lost by nature, who do not know it or will not confess it.
2. He waited by the pool expecting some sign and wonder. This, too, is how many wait, persevering in ordinances and unbelief, expecting some great thing, that on a sudden they will experience strange emotions and remarkable impressions, or see a vision or hear a supernatural voice. No one will deny that a few have been thus favoured--Colossians Gardiner, e.g.
but such interpositions are not to be looked for. Jesus Himself is the greatest of wonders. In regard to this matter of waiting remark
(1) That it is not the way which God has bidden His servants preach. The gospel of our salvation is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
(2) This ungospel-like gospel of waiting is immensely popular. Why? Because it administers laudanum to the conscience. When the minister preaches with power and men’s hearts are touched, the devil says “Wait.”
(3) Is not this waiting a very hopeless business? Of those who waited how few were healed? What right have you to expect that if you wait another thirty years you will be different?
(4) There lies our poor friend. I do not blame him for waiting, for Jesus had not been there before.
(5) Having been so often disappointed he was growing in deep despair. Moreover he was getting old; and life is wearing away with you. You have waited all this while in vain, sinfully waited. You have seen others saved, your child, your wife; but you are not.
II. THE PHYSICIAN.
1. He made an election. This man was possibly selected because his was the worst case and had waited longest of all.
2. Jesus said, “Wilt thou be made whole?” not for information, but to arouse attention.
3. He gave the word of command.
4. There is nothing said in the text about faith, but the whole incident shows that the man must have had faith.
5. The cure which Christ wrought was
(1) Perfect. The man could carry his bed.
(2) Immediate. The man was not carried home by friends and gradually nursed into vital energy.
III. APPLY THE INSTANCE TO THE PRESENT OCCASION. Why should we not on this very spot have instantaneous cures of sick souls? Man fell in a moment; why should not Christ restore in a moment?
1. Look at the Biblical illustrations of what salvation is. Noah built an ark, the type of salvation. When was Noah saved? After he had been in the ark a week or two? No; the moment Noah went through the door and the Lord shut him in he was safe. Take the case of the Passover; the moment the blood was sprinkled the house was secured. When the brazen serpent was lifted up were the wounded told to wait till it was pushed in their faces, or until the venom showed certain symptoms? No, they were commanded to look. Were they healed in six months’ time?
2. Take Biblical instances. The dying thief, the 3,000 at Pentecost, the Philippian jailer.
3. The work of salvation is all done. You want washing, but the fountain does not need filling. You want clothing, but the robe is ready.
4. Regeneration cannot be a work of a long time. There must be a line, we cannot always see it but God must, between life and death.
5. For God to say, “I forgive thee,” takes not a century or a year. The Judge pronounces the sentence and the criminal is acquitted. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The miracle at Bethesda
I. THE PORCHES WERE FULL OF SICK FOLK. The world is full of the spiritually sick--thieves, drunkards, harlots, proud, covetous, etc.
II. THESE SICK FOLK WERE FULL OF EXPECTANCY ALL THE TIME. So are many now, but their expectancy is misdirected. “As soon as I get out of my present business I will reform”; “I am going to church oftener”; “Next week is my birthday; I will then turn over a new leaf”; “I will repent on my death-bed”; “I expect to be healed in the next revival.”
III. THE SICK MAN’S HEALING DEPENDED ON HIS TURNING FROM THE POOL TO JESUS.
IV. HEALED THE MAN WAS; NOW JESUS BIDS HIM BE HOLY. Christ our physician
I. WE ARE ALL LABOURING UNDER THE MALADY OF SIN. This malady is
1. Universal.
2. It pervades our whole nature.
3. It is attended by
(1) Degradation;
(2) suffering;
(3) loss of power.
4. It will issue if not arrested in eternal death.
II. NO MAN CAN CURE HIMSELF. This is proved
1. By consciousness.
2. By experience. All efforts at self-cure result in failure or self- deception, or, at best, in mitigation of the symptoms.
III. NO MAN OR SET OF MEN CAN CURE OTHERS. This has been attempted
1. By educators.
2. By philosophers.
3. By ascetics.
4. By ritualists. The world is filled by spiritual charlatans.
IV. CHRIST IS THE ONLY PHYSICIAN.
1. He secures the right of applying the only effectual remedy by propitiating the justice of God, and securing liberty of access to the soul for the Holy Spirit.
2. He sends that Spirit as the Spirit of life and strength. As the constitution is radically affected, a radical cure is necessary, which can only be effected by a life-giving Spirit.
3. The cure is certain and permanent. It results in immortal vigour, beauty, and strength.
4. This Physician is accessible to every one at all times. He requires no preparation, and will receive no recompense.
Inferences:
1. The duty of every one to apply to Him for cure.
2. The reason why any are not cured must be in them, not in Him.
3. The duty of making this Physician known to others. (C. Hodge, D. D.)
Conversion as illustrated by the miracle
1. The utterly lost, hopeless state of every sinner sitting by the waters of salvation (Joh_5:5).
2. The offer of help addressed to each man’s free will for his personal acceptance (Joh_5:6).
3. The first phase of conflict that pride is apt to make in blaming others and excusing self (Joh_5:7).
4. The peremptoriness of the gospel demand: Do something, and God will help (Joh_5:8-9).
5. The next phase of conflict which external opposition makes discouraging the soul with mere cavils (Joh_5:10).
6. The full and honest justification of conduct: The One that healed me told me what to do (Joh_5:11).
7. The salutary experience of solicitude against old besetting sin (Joh_5:14).
8. The happy obedience of active confession of Christ before others; say openly and everywhere, “It was Jesus that made me whole!” (Joh_5:15) (C. S.Robinson, D. D.)
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.--Jesus never, as a rule, let a feast go by without visiting Jerusalem.
1. To fulfil the duty of an Israelite.
2. To use the opportunity of preaching to the largest multitudes.
3. To testify the truths then to the leaders at a time when He might appear before them without their venturing to lay hands upon Him.
Evangelical clergymen should use the high Christian festivals with conscientious fidelity.
1. Because then larger congregations are attracted, and many are present then who come at no other time.
2. Because souls are then in a more solemn mood than at other times. (Heubner.)
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep-market a pool
The water supply of Jerusalem
was one of the most wonderful things in that wonderful city. The cisterns, in what is now called the Sanctuary, appear to have been connected by a system of channels cut out of the rock, so that when one was full the surplus water ran into the next, and so on until the final overflow was carried off by a channel into the Kedron. One of the cisterns, that known as the Great Sea, would contain two million gallons; and the total number of gallons which could be stored probably exceeded ten millions. This supply of water appears to have been obtained from springs, wells, the collection of rain in pools and cisterns, and water brought from a distance by aqueducts. The extensive remains of cisterns, pools, and aqueducts show that little dependence was placed on any natural springs existing in or near the city; and, indeed, from the formation of the ground it is doubtful whether any existed besides the Fountain of the Virgin in the Kedron Valley. There may have been a source in the Tyropaeon Valley, but it could only have been a small and not very lasting one. Water was brought into the city by two aqueducts, the “low level” and the “high level”; but the course of the former can alone be traced within the walls of the city. (Recovery Jerusalem.)
Bethesda.--The most natural etymology of the word is “House of Mercy.” Whether the name alludes to the munificence of some pious Jew who had constructed the porches as a shelter for the sick, or whether it relates to the goodness of God, from whom this healing spring proceeded is uncertain. Delitsch supposes that the etymology was Beth-estaw, peristyle. Others have taken it from Beth Aschada, place of out-pouring (perhaps of the blood of victims). It might be supposed that the porches were five isolated buildings arranged in a circle round the pool. But it is more natural to consider it one single edifice, forming a peritagonal peristyle, in the centre of which was the reservoir. Some springs of mineral water are known at the present day at the east of the city; among others the baths of Ain-es-Schefa. Tobler has proved that this spring is fed by the large chamber of water situated under the mosque which has replaced the Temple. Another better known spring is found at the foot of the southeastern slope of Moriah, called the Virgin Spring. It is very intermittent. The basin is quite dry; then the water is seen springing up among the stones. On one occasion Tobler saw it rise four and a half inches with a gentle undulation; on another it rose for more than twenty-two minutes to a height of six or seven inches, and came down again in two minutes to its previous level. Robinson saw it rise a foot in five minutes. He was assured that this movement is repeated at certain times twice or thrice a day, but that in summer it is seldom observed more than once in two or three days. These phenomena present a certain analogy to what is related of the Bethesda spring. Eusebius speaks also of springs in this locality, the water of which was reddish, evidently due to mineral elements, but, according to him, to the filtering of the blood of victims into it. Tradition places Bethesda in a great square hollow, surrounded by walls, at the north of the Haram, south from the street which leads from the St. Stephen’s Gate. It is called Birket-Israil, and is about twenty-three yards deep, forty-four yards broad, and more than double in length. The bottom is dry, filled with grass and shrubs. Bethesda must have been in this vicinity, for here the sheep-gate was situated. As it is impossible to identify the pool, it may have been covered with debris or have disappeared, as so often happens in the case of intermittent springs. Those which are found at the present day prove only how favourable the soil is to this sort of phenomena. (F. Godet, D. D.)
The identity with Bethesda of the deep reservoir in Jerusalem, which today bears its name, Robinson regards as improbable, and is more inclined to find it in the intermittent fountain of the virgin on the south-east slope of the Temple Mount. From Joh_5:7 and the close of Joh_5:8, it appears that this spring probably was gaseous, and bubbled at intervals. There is a spring of this kind at Kissengen, which, after a rushing sound about the same time every day, commences to bubble, and is most efficacious at the very time the gas is making its escape. This spring is especially used in diseases of the eye. (Tholuck.)
For an angel went down at a certain season
Textual criticism
This verse has undoubtedly no right to a place in the text. That fourth verse the most important Greek and Latin copies are without, and most of the early versions. In other MSS. which retain this verse, the obelus which hints suspicion, or the asterisk which marks rejection, is attached to it; while those in which it appears unquestioned belong mostly, as Griesbach shows, to a later recension of the text. And this fourth verse spreads the suspicion of its own spuriousness over the last clause of the verse pre- ceding, which, though it has not so great a body of evidence against it, has yet, in a less degree, the same notes of suspicion about it. Doubtless whatever here is addition, whether only the fourth verse, or the last clause also of the third, found very early its way into the text; we have it as early as Tertullian, the first witness for its presence At first probably a marginal note, expressing the popular notion of the Jewish Christians concerning the origin of the healing power which from time to time these waters possessed, by degrees it assumed the shape in which now we have it: for there are marks of growth about it, betraying them- selves in a great variety of readings--some copies omitting one part, and some another, of the verse--all which is generally the sign of a later addition: thus, little by little, it procured admission into the text, probably at Alexandria at first, the birthplace of other similar additions The statement rests upon that religious view of the world, which in all nature sees something beyond nature, which does not believe that it has discovered causes, when, in fact, it has only traced the sequence of phenomena, and which everywhere recognizes a going forth of the immediate power of God, invisible agencies of His, whether personal or otherwise, accomplishing His will. (Archbishop Trench.)
The other side
The verse is not found in “Sin,” B.C. 0, nor in a few cursive MSS., nor in the Cureton Syriac, but they were in copies of this Gospel in the time of Tertullian, and are quoted by Chrysostum, Cyril, Augustine, and others, and they exist in important MSS. As to the question why it is inserted, the reply is to assign a cause for the phenomenon. But, on the other hand, reasons no less valid may account for its omission. Who had seen the angel? What Jewish writer had recorded his appearance and operation? These are questions which might have been urged by sceptics of old as now, and the easiest way of removing objections might seem to be to omit the words. We know that this feeling operated so strongly with critics of old as to lead them to omit, not only a few words, but entire books. (Bp. Wordsworth.)
Jewish legends about healing waters
The Jews themselves had several legends of the healing waters. Thus the “Fount of Miriam,” from which the Israelites drank in the desert, was said to flow, after the conquest of Canaan, into the lake of Galilee; and it was believed that, at the end of every Sabbath, its waters flowed out and mingled with the waters of all fountains. Whoever had the good fortune to draw from a fountain at the moment when the waters of the “Fount of Miriam “ mingled with it, and bathed himself with that water, would be cured of all his diseases--even if these were of the most loathsome description. Lightfoot cites an instance of a man suffering from a grievous disease who went down to the lake of Galilee to swim. Now, it happened to be the time when the Fount of Miriam was flowing, so that, when he came out of the water, he found that he was healed. The same author instances a case from the rabbins, of a fountain that was inhabited by two spirits--one evil and one good. When Abba Joses sat at this fountain, there “appeared to him the spirit that resided there, and said, ‘You know well enough how many years I have dwelt in this place, and how yourselves and your wives have come and returned without any damage done to you. But now you must know that an evil spirit endeavours to supply my room, who would prove very mischievous to you.’ He saith to him, ‘What must we do then?’ He answered him and said, ‘Go and tell the townspeople that whoever hath a hammer and an iron pin or bolt, let him come hither to-morrow morning, and have his eye intent upon the waters, and when you see the waters troubled, then let them knock with the iron, and say, “The victory is ours”; and so let them not go back till they see thick drops of blood upon the face of the waters.” To which the gloss adds, “By this sign it will appear that the spirit was conquered and killed.” The reader who is concerned about the result of this stratagem may be glad to know that it proved quite successful. In connection with this general subject it is interesting to note the belief, among primitive peoples all over the world, in the waters of life. In a legend found among the Modern Greeks the water of life flows within a hollow rock, and is inaccessible except to a favoured few; in another case where the waters are concealed in the same way, the rock opens at noon, and discloses several springs, each of which calls out, “Come, draw from me,” but only one is the spring of the water of life; and this true spring is pointed out by a bee which flies directly to it. Whoever draws this water Of life can sprinkle a few drops of it upon any dead animal or man, and immediately the dead will spring to life. Even when the dead have been hacked to pieces, the water of life sprinkled over the parts will bring them together, and unite them into a new and youthful life. In some cases, two springs are said to flow side by side, one giving forth the water of life, the other giving forth the water of death. If the water of death is taken instead of the water of life, the opposite effect is produced. A drop or two will kill a living man at once. There are also legends throughout the whole world concerning the waters of strength. These are generally fabled to be guarded by some mythical monster--snake or dragon--but whoever eludes the vigilance of these guardians, and possesses himself of the water, has the means of endowing himself with superhuman strength. To swallow a few drops is to make one’s self, according to the legend, more than a match for any mortal foe.
The significance of the angel’s action
What St. John affirms is that a certain invisible angel or minister was the instrument of making the water beneficial to the persons who went down into it. He accounts in this way for its operation being more useful at one time than another. That assertion, you say, interferes with the doctrine that there were certain properties in the water itself which affected the condition of human beings. How does it interfere? You hold that the vaccine matter has in itself the property of counteracting the virus of the small-pox. But you hold also that the intelligence of Jenner had something to do with making this vaccine matter available for actual cure; you hold that the intelligence of different medical men has something to do with bringing the preventive power to bear on particular cases. You know this for a fact, but physical science tells you nothing of the way in which the intelligence co-operates with the natural agent. The notion that it does is a fallacy. In no instance whatever can the mere study of physics help you to determine anything respecting moral or intellectual forces, though at every turn the study of physics compels you to the acknowledgment of such forces. It will save us from innumerable confusions if we take this proposition in the length and breadth of it. Through neglect of it the physician and the metaphysician are perpetually stumbling against each other when they might be the greatest helpers of each other. (F. D. Maurice, D. D.)
It seems a worthy exercise of Divine revelation to lead human philosophy to regard what are called physical phenomena as being not produced by natural laws, though they may be regulated according to them, but as effected by Divine agency; in a word, to elevate the human mind from the lower level of material mechanics to the higher region of spiritual dynamics. (Bp. Wordsworth.)
The troubling of the water.--In every excited fear of the vengeance of God, in every impulse which would send you to your knees, in every brief aspiration after holiness and heaven, you have tokens that the angel has been with you, summoning you to be heedful, and not to lose the opportunity which may, perhaps, be the last. And if you take not advantage of the troubling of the waters, if, that is, when you feel prompted to pray you omit to pray; when made conscious of the evil of a practice, you do not forthwith set yourselves to correct that practice; and when moved to the study of the Scriptures, you defer that study to a more convenient season, why, there is more than a probability that you will not soon again be visited with the desire after salvation, and that, even when so visited, it will be in less measure; for the Spirit of God, who is the actual agent, whatever the instrumentality employed in troubling the waters, is grieved and provoked by resistance to His influences, and may be tempted altogether to withdraw, when He has striven with you, and agitated you in vain. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
An infirmity thirty and eight years
The gospel equal to the most inveterate cases
There is a city missionary traversing this district, who finds in a room a woman ninety-eight years of age, and begins to tell her about Christ and salvation; and the poor old woman receives it, and comes to this table, at ninety-eight years of age, for the first time, avowing her faith in Christ, and linking in her hand a little girl fourteen years old, who was received into the Church with herself. Aged and young can be cured by Christ’s power. There sat in a country village a poor old diseased woman, who with the greatest difficulty got into the kitchen of a butcher, in whose house some itinerants used to go and preach, to listen to the Word; and she is seventy-two years of age; but the Word goes into her mind, she receives it, and not only becomes a devoted follower of Christ, but one of the most useful women in the village. There is hope for you! When I was at Bath I heard of a gentleman who had retired from business, surrounded with the bounties of Providence, but had not sought Christ. His wife was very anxious, good woman! about him. One day she prevailed upon him to come with her to God’s house; and as she went she prayed that God would give the minister some text that would be likely to impress her poor thoughtless, witty, indifferent husband’s mind; and when the minister gave out his text, it was this, “My Beloved is mine, and I am His.” “I thought,” she said, “I should sink in the pew; I knew what fun he would be likely to make of the passage.” However, the Word went home to him, and his thought was this--“I know my wife can say that Christ is her Beloved, and that she is Hisbeloved, but He is not mine”; and from that moment he became a devoted follower of the Lamb, used his property for the service of Christ, and went to heaven rejoicing in His favour. (J. Sherman.)
Wilt thou be made whole?
The Physician’s inquiry
I. A MARK OF AFFECTIONATE SOLICITUDE.
II. AN INSTANCE OF GRACIOUS INVITATION.
III. THE EXPRESSION OF CONSCIOUS POWER. The question is still asked--How many refuse the offer! (Preacher’s Analyst.)
The Good Physician’s question
I. ASSUMES THAT THEY TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED ARE NOT WHOLE.
II. SUGGESTS THAT NEVERTHELESS THEY MAY BE MADE WHOLE.
III. IMPLIES THAT IT DEPENDS UPON THEIR OWN WILLS WHETHER OR NOT THEY SHALL BE MADE WHOLE.
IV. PROFFERS THE NEEDED WHOLENESS TO ALL WHO ARE WILLING TO RECEIVE IT. (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
A singular but needful question
It seems a strange question. Who would not be made whole? Would the poor man have been lying at the pool had he not been anxious for healing? Yet, as our Lord spake no superfluous words, it may be perceived that the paralysis was mental as well as physical. He had waited until despondency had dried up his spirits, and he scarcely cared whether he was made whole or not. The Saviour touched a chord that needed to vibrate; He aroused a dormant faculty whose exercise was essential to cure. Are there not those here who, through having waited so long, are beginning to get paralyzed in their once earnest desires to come to occupy this seat as a mere matter of custom.
I. This question is needful, because IT IS NOT ALWAYS UNDERSTOOD.
1. It is not the same as “Wilt thou be saved from going to hell?”--every one answers “Aye” to that; but “Wilt thou be saved from sin?”
2. To help you, let me remind you that there never were but two men perfectly whole.
(1) The first Adam. We should all be willing to be in paradise with him; but are we willing to walk with God as he did?
(2) The second Adam. “Holy, harmless, undefiled,” etc. Whole towards God, man, holiness. Do you wish to be like Him?
3. When a man is whole there are certain evil propensities which are expelled, and Certain moral qualities which he is sure to possess
(1) Honesty;
(2) sobriety;
(3) truthfulness;
(4) generosity in giving and forgiving.
4. He will have spiritual graces also
(1) Humility;
(2) prayerfulness;
(3) consecration.
II. THIS QUESTION IS CAPABLE OF A GOOD MANY REPLIES, and therefore it is the more necessary that it should be asked and answered.
1. There are some whose only reply is no answer at all. They don’t want to consider anything of the sort.
(1) “We are young, and have plenty of time.”
(2) “We are business people, and have something else to do.”
(3) “We are wealthy and cultured, and must not be expected to look at these things as coarse-minded people do.”
(4) “We are too ill to trouble about it.” But there is another class, who once had a religious concern, whose answer is not very earnest. They have become habituated to unbelieving misery, and persist in carrying a burden of which their Saviour wants to relieve them.
2. Too many give evasive replies to the question
(1) “How am I to know whether I am God’s elect or not?” That is not the question at this stage. It will be answered by and by.
(2) “I have not the power to cease from sin.” God will give the power in proportion as He gives the will.
(3) “I have been so guilty in the past. The question is not, How sick art thou? but Wilt thou be made whole?”
3. There are a good many persons who practically say “No.”
(1) One says, “I would be made whole,” and yet when Divine service is over he goes back to his sin.
(2) Those say “No” who neglect the house of God.
(3) So do those who hear the Word inattentively; and
(4) those who fear lest their being made whole would involve the loss of social position, gains, or companions.
III. WHEREVER AN HONEST AFFIRMATIVE ANSWER IS GIVEN TO THIS QUESTION WE MAY CONCLUDE THAT THERE IS A WORK OF GRACE COMMENCED IN THE SOUL.
IV. WHERE THIS QUESTION IS ANSWERED IN THE NEGATIVE IT INVOLVES MOST FEARFUL SIN. You prefer yourself to God, sin to holiness. This is your deliberate choice. When you come to die, and when you live in another state, you will curse yourself for having made such a choice as this. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The cure of spiritual disease
I. WHAT IS SUPPOSED IN THE CONDITION OF THE PERSON ADDRESSED. A state of disorder and disease, or the question would be absurd. You often hear of the dignity of human nature.
1. Physically and intellectually it is dignified when we see man, in his capacity for boundless improvement, “a little lower than the angels.”
2. But how lamentable it is to find his fine powers misapplied and abused! What is man morally and religiously?
(1) His body has become mortal and subject to every calamity.
(2) His soul is alienated from the life of God.
(3) He has no spiritual health.
II. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN THE QUESTION?
1. That the disease is curable. But not by man;
(1) not by government;
(2) philosophy;
(3) the law;
(4) morality;
(5) but only by the Cross of Jesus Christ, the efficacy of whose cure is attested by millions.
2. That willingness to be cured is essential to recovery. The cure is not forced upon you, nor is it accomplished by an insensible process, nor by a charm, nor by chance. A Divine influence makes us sensible of our need, and of the importance of the blessing; then we have to choose the good part.
III. HOW ARE YOU TO RETURN AN ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION?
1. By inquiring after the way and the means.
2. By applying to the Physician.
3. By submission to the prescription without murmuring or complaint. Not like Naaman, but like the blind man who went to the pool of Siloam.
4. By the eagerness with which you look after convalescence.
IV. WHAT SHOULD URGE YOU TO AVAIL YOURSELVES OF THIS PROPOSAL?
