August 6

Led Apart

He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town — Mark 8:23

That was a very gentle thing to do. Let us look very closely at the picture — Jesus is leading a poor blind man along the street. What thoughts does it start in our minds?

The blind man represents each one of us in our sinful state, in the midst of a world of beauty, but seeing nothing; groping in the gloom, unable to find the way alone; doomed to perish forever in the darkness, unless some one takes us by the hand and leads us. As Jesus came to this man in his blindness, so He comes to each one of us, offering to take us by the hand and be our guide, to lead us, through the gloom and the dangers, home to light and glory. We can never stumble in the darkness if He leads us.

The blind man entrusting himself to be led by this stranger, without fear or questioning, and quietly and confidingly going with Him, is a picture of what true faith in Christ always does. It is in this way that we are to commit ourselves to Christ. It is not enough to lay our sins on Him; we must entrust our whole life to His guidance. We can never find the way ourselves in this world’s paths, but we may entrust ourselves with unquestioning confidence to Christ’s leading.

“I do not try to see my way,
  Before, behind, or left, or right;
I cannot tell what dangers gray
  Do haunt my steps, nor at what height
Above the sea my path doth wind:
      For I am blind.

“Yet not without a guide I wend
  My unseen way, by day, by night;
Close by my side there walks a Friend,—
  Strong, tender, true: I trust His sight;
He sees my way before, behind,
    Though I am blind.”