BARTIMEUS | AdventAI

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 14, 1857

BARTIMEUS.

OR THE POWER OF CRYING PRAYER.

"And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they who went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace; but he cried so much the more, Thou son of David, have mercy on me." Luke xviii, 38, 39.

What an object of pity is here! Poor Bartimeus! at this remote period our heart bleeds for thee! Blind—born blind!—and so indigent as to have to sit by the wayside begging! Alas for thee! Deprived of the precious blessing of sight, by which so many pleasures and joys of life are received. Thine eyes had never seen the sun. The works of God were an unknown blank to thee. The beauties of nature, the countenances of friends, had never imparted one thrill of gladness to thy heart. Mournful case! And to all this was added abject poverty, even to begging. What has sin done! None such as this man were found in Eden, nor shall ever be met with in heaven. "My soul, repeat his praise," who, though I am not in Eden, nor in heaven, has so graciously distinguished my lot from that of Bartimeus. "What shall I render unto God?"

But in Bartimeus' physical and temporal circumstances, all can see their own individual moral state by nature, "Blind, born blind and beggars!" Blind to the glories of God, of his works and his word. Ignorant of one's self, of the Saviour, and of the way of salvation, is every man by nature; and not only so, but spiritually poor and blind. Men may fancy themselves increased in goods, and having need of nothing; but the truth is, they are "poor, and miserable, and wretched and blind and naked." The fact is, they are "ready to perish." Dear readers, do we feel it? have we realized it? have we cried to Jesus? are we enlightened, enriched, saved?

For man, all glory to God! for man, there is a Saviour, who is near, able, willing to save. Near, by his humanity; near, by his divinity. He comes into our world to seek and save us. Ah! it is he who seeks out the perishing sinner. We are found of him, not he of us. And that he is able and willing to save, let this beggar's deliverance testify.

It was to this Saviour blind Bartimeus was praying, "crying so much the more." And what a prayer it was! What an example it sets! what lessons of prayer it teaches! Would to God, says every christian heart, I could so pray, always so pray!

It was "crying, persevering prayer."

"He cried, and cried so much the more." Under the pressure of distress the mind pushes, forces its way through, struggles, wrestles, agonizes, to get God to be heard and helped. "He cried," and when rebuked to hold his peace, "he cried so much the more." He must be heard, must be helped. Now or never. The only Saviour from his malady was passing by, might never pass again; all his hopes were hung upon this one moment, and upon Jesus, and Jesus only; therefore he would not be silenced, would not give up, but "cried so much the more." Thou Son of David have mercy on me.

Ah! it is not fine prayers, nor eloquent prayers, but crying prayers, which attract notice, and are heard and answered. "Jesus stood still." O the power of crying prayer! Are my prayers such as to stop the way of my Jesus, and cause him to stand still? O for a baptism of such prayer shed down on the churches! "Jesus stood still." Tell it, reader, tell it if you can, what were now the beggar's feelings, his hopes, his fears, his deep anxiety, what? And what now were the deep workings of the compassionate mind of Jesus towards him, and what the expectations of the lookers-on! What a moment of breathless suspense! How every eye ran

between and upon the beggar and the Saviour. The suspense must have been painful.

At last the silence was broken; Jesus said unto him, "What wilt thou?" This was not the language of inquiry. He knew what the beggar wanted; but it was the language of compassionate Omnipotence, language which on an angel's lips would be blasphemy. By this inquiry a blank is put in the beggar's hand, to write upon what he would. The powers of God are at his command. "What wilt thou?" Write, speak, ask, "open thy mouth wide and I will fill it."

"Never man spake like this man."

"What wilt thou?" "Fear not; only believe and thou shalt see the glory of God." His glorious powers on thy behalf, and his glorious grace and good will to help thee. Is anything too hard for him who drove back the sea, and brought waters gushing out of the rock for Israel, his chosen?"—Selected.