XV. OPENED EARS AND UNBOUND TONGUES.
"He Hath Done All Things Well." IT is a sad thing to lose one's senses, or to lose any one sense. He is to be pitied who can not smell the fragrance of the rose or taste the delicate flavor of the apple and the peach. He is to be pitied even more who can not see the light of God's sun and stars, the shining eyes of loved ones, the beauties of field and tree and mountain, the fern and grass and flower. He, too, is to be pitied who can not hear the murmur of the wind in the trees, the bird songs of the grove, the footfall of friends, the voices of loved ones, the hymns of praise to God. BUT sadder than all these are those who have not senses exercised to discern both good and evil, to see the greater visions, to hear the higher, sweeter, purer, stronger voices, to "taste and see that the Lord is good." And yet how many there are who are blind and deaf and dumb to the better things! JESUS recognized this, and all his physical miracles had their lesson for man's deeper, higher needs. An illustration of this is given in Mark 7:32-35. The account is so brief that we give it here: "And they bring unto Him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech Him to lay His hand upon him. And He took him aside from the multitude privately, and put His fingers into his ears, and He spat, and touched his tongue; and looking up to heaven, He sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. And his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain." THE afflicted one was deaf. The trouble in his speech probably arose largely from his deafness. He could hear no sounds; he could not correct his speech by comparison. Like many people in the moral world, he was his own standard; but unlike them, not of his own will. His friends evidently brought him; the man—if he were a grown man—could not be made to understand all that his friends had in mind. They desired that the afflicted one should be placed in that condition where he might understand. It is even so with the deaf spiritually. To one who has heard and who knows the Master's voice it is not hard to lead him to the Master. It is sweet music to listen again. It is the unconverted hearts which bring the burdens upon devoted Christians. The Christian father and mother are anxious for a loved son or daughter. They plead with him to accept what he needs but does not know. He will listen to preaching and exhortation, but he hears only the human voice, and goes on in his own worldly way, seeking for his soul-needs in the very things that blast all future good. Let them bring Him to the Healer and "beseech Him to lay His hand upon him." Let the power of God break through the din of pleasure, through the deafness of worldliness. Only so can he hear the voice of his Saviour. THE faith of the afflicted one needed a tangible something on which to rest, and Jesus met the need. By a touch He healed. By a word He brought life to the dead. But here He takes the man aside privately; He puts His fingers in the deaf ears; He touches the untaught, imperfect tongue; He lifts His heart and eyes to His Father, and sighs, because of the afflicted ones in the earth,—the ears deaf to the voice of God, represented by the poor soul before Him. Then the very word He spoke is given us, Ephphatha (ef-fath-ah'), "Be opened." And the divine power of God entered the ears and the sound channels were opened, the tongue was unbound, and the man "spake plain," and heard his Saviour's voice, needless to say, the sweetest music to his ears that ever fell upon them. JESUS did not heal to advertise Himself. He kept no array or exhibit of cast-off crutches, or trusses, or canes, or human aids to deformity. Above all things else He came to save men from sin; and all the mighty miracles recorded are written, not that some man shall seek to imitate Him, but "that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in His name." John 20:31. He would not have the superficial create great excitement by publishing Him as a healer, draw great crowds, stir up the government, and so hinder His work. The people were astonished. They said, "He hath done all things well." But they could not or would not heed His word. So few dipped below the surface. They desired body-healing, but not soul-healing. Yet He cleansed the leper with a word, that earth's victims afflicted with the worse leprosy of sin might have hope in knowing that His all-potent word would cleanse them. He gave healing to the palsied man, that every soul palsied by some sinful habit might know there was strength in the Master. He rebuked the demons possessing souls, that every demon-tortured soul, every one bound in the toils of the devil, might go free in Him. And so He unstopped the deaf ears, that those of us who do not hear the harmony and sweetness and melody in the Voice which calls ever upward, may have our ears—dimmed and benumbed by the noises of earth's pleasure, greed, grind, and sin—opened and attuned to hear the voice of God; and that our tongue which may have babbled so imperfectly of all things, may tell plainly, sweetly, clearly, and gladly, the story of His power and love.