ONE day I met a little boy in the street, who was going along very slowly, feeling his way by the houses and the fences; and I knew that he was blind. If he had had eyes to see with, he would have been running and jumping about, or driving a hoop, or tossing a ball, like the other boys in the street. I pitied him. It seemed so hard for the little fellow to go about in the dark all the time, never to see the sun, or any of the pretty things in the world―never to see even the faces of his parents, and brothers, and sisters. So I stopped to talk with him. He told me that his name was Robert, that his father was sick at home, and that his mother had to take in washing, and work very hard to get a living. All the other children had some kind of work to do, but as he could not see to work, he was sent after clothes for his mother to wash! I asked him if he did not feel angry because he was blind. He looked very thoughtful and solemn for a moment, and then he smiled and said, “Sometimes I think it hard to have to creep about so. Sometimes I want to look at the bright sun that warms me―and at the sweet birds that sing for me―and at the flowers that feel so soft when I touch them. But God made me blind, and I know that it is best for me; and I am so glad that He did not make me deaf and dumb too. I am so glad that He gave me a good mother, and a school to go to; and I am also glad that I am not one of the heathen children that pray to idols.”
“But, Robert, if you could see, you could help your mother more.” I said this without thinking, and was sorry as soon as I said it; for the little boy’s smile went right away, and tears filled his blind eyes, and ran down his pale cheeks.
“Yes,” he said, “I often tell mother so; but she says that I help her a great deal now, and that she wouldn’t spare me for the world; and father says, I’m the best nurse he ever had.”
“I am sure you are a good boy, Robert,” I answered quickly.
“No, sir,” he said, “I am not good, but have got a very wicked heart; and I think a great many wicked thoughts―and if it wasn’t for the Saviour, I don’t know what I would do!”
“And how does the Saviour help you!”
“O, sir, I pray to Him, and then he says, ‘I forgive you, Robert! I love you, poor blind boy!’ And then I feel so happy; and it seems to me as if I could almost hear the angels up in heaven.”
“Well, Robert, do you ever expect to see the angels?”
“O, yes, sir! It is only my clay house that has no windows. I can see with my mind now, and that, mother tells me, is the way they see heaven. And I heard my father reading in the Bible the other day, where it tells about heaven, and it said there is no night there. But here it is night to blind people all the time. O, sir, when I feel sorry I cannot see, I think about heaven, and it comforts me!”
I saw now that Robert began to be uneasy, and acted as if he wanted to go on. I said, “Don’t you like to talk with me, Robert?”
“Yes, sir, I do; and it’s very kind of you to speak so to a poor blind boy, but mother will be waiting for the clothes.”
This evidence of the little fellow’s frankness and fidelity pleased me. I had become much interested, and made up my mind to find out more about him. So I took some money out of my pocket, and gave it to him, telling him to take it to buy something for his sick father. Again the tears filled his blind eyes.
“O, sir,” he said, “you are too good! I was just wishing I could buy something for poor, sick father; he has no appetite, and we have nothing in the house but potatoes. He tries to eat them, and never complains; but if I could only get a chicken for him, it would make him better, I know it would! But I don’t want you to give me the money—can’t I work for you, and earn it?”
I made him take the money, and then watched him to see what he would do. He went as fast as he could for the clothes; then bought a chicken to make broth of; then a loaf of bread; and felt his way home. I followed him, without his knowing it. He went to a little, old looking house, that seemed to have but one room! I saw that he put the bread and chicken under the clothes, and went (as I thought by the sound) close to his father’s bed before he showed them—then dropping the clothes, he held up the loaf in one hand, and the fowl in the other, saying, “See, father; see what God has sent you!”
He then told about my meeting him and giving him the money, and added, “I am sure, father, that God put it into the kind man’s heart; for God sees how much you wanted something to nourish you.”
How beautiful to love God and to trust in Him, as poor Robert did! Could you be so contented and happy, if you were as poor as he was, and blind, too? Think about it, dear children.
Who did sin? John 9:1-411And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 4I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. 6When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, 7And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. 8The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? 9Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he. 10Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened? 11He answered and said, A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight. 12Then said they unto him, Where is he? He said, I know not. 13They brought to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. 14And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. 15Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. 16Therefore said some of the Pharisees, This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them. 17They say unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of him, that he hath opened thine eyes? He said, He is a prophet. 18But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. 19And they asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see? 20His parents answered them and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: 21But by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes, we know not: he is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself. 22These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. 23Therefore said his parents, He is of age; ask him. 24Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. 25He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. 26Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes? 27He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples? 28Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples. 29We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. 30The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. 31Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. 32Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. 33If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. 34They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out. 35Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 36He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? 37And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. 38And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him. 39And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. 40And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? 41Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth. (John 9:1‑41).