022 GOSPEL ACCORDING TO CHAP. XV1H. Him as He is. But he alsogave occasionto otherstoglorify God ; as itfollows,And allthepeople,when theysaw it,gaie praiseunto God. BEDE. Not only for the giftof lightob tained,but for the merit of the faithwhich obtainedit. PSEUDO-CHRYS. We may here well inquire,why Christfor bids the healed demoniac who wished to followHim, bat permits the blind man who had receivedhis sight. There seems to be a good reason for both the one case and the other. He sends away the former as a kind of herald,to proclaim aloud by the evidenceof his own statehis bene factor,for it was indeed a notable miracle to see a raving madman brought to a sound mind. But the blindman He allowsto followHim, sinceHe was going up to Jerusalem about to accomplishthe high mystery of the Cross,thatmen having a recentreportof a miraclemight not suppose that He sufferedso much from helplessnessas from compassion. AMBROSE. In the blindman we have a type of the Gentile people,who have receivedby the Sacrament of our Lord the brightnessofthe lightwhich they had lost. And itmatters not whether the cure is conveyed in the case of one or two blindmen, inasmuch as derivingtheiroriginfrom Ham and Japhet,the sons of Noah, in the two blind men they put Greg- forward two authors of theirrace. GREG. Or, blindnessis iuEv. R symbol of the human race,which in our firstparentknow ing not the brightnessof heavenly light,now suffersthe darkness of his condemnation. Jerichoisinterpreted'the moon,' whose monthly wanings representthe feeblenessof our mortality. While then our Creatoris'drawingnighto Jericho,the blind is restoredto sight,because when God took upon Him the weakness of our flesh,the human race receivedback the lightwhich it had lost. He then who is ignorantof thisbrightnessof the everlastinglight,isblind. But ifhe does no more than believein the Redeemer who John13,(;.said,I am theway, thetruth,and thelife; he sitsby theway side. Ifhe both believesand praysthathe may receivethe everlastinglight,he sitsby the way sideand begs. Those that went before Jesus,as He was coming, representthe multitude of carnal desires,and the busy crowd of vices which before that Jesus comes to our heart,scatterour thoughts,and disturb us even in our prayers. But the