“The moment I saw his face I believed. My heart beat audibly within me. A divine ardor burned in my soul. A faith, strong as the mountains or the ocean, took possession of my whole being. My impulse was to rush forward, fall at his feet and proclaim him the Messiah to the assembled multitude. Martha held me back and said: ‘Listen! he speaks!’
“Yes—he spoke; and I heard that voice I had so often heard in my dreams, dreaming of the restoration of Israel!
“He spoke to the oldest, the feeblest, the most forlorn-looking person in the crowd:
“ ‘Wilt thou be made whole?’ he said, in a voice of infinite tenderness and beauty.
“Strangely enough, before the sick man answered, the same question entered into my own soul. I felt a deadly, paralytic sensation throughout my spiritual frame, and I knew that I needed to be made whole even more than the poor creature on the steps. The Divine question was put to the sick man, to me, to the Church, to the whole world. It was infinite. While I was ejaculating internally, ‘Yes, Lord! yes! entirely whole,’ the paralytic replied:
“ ‘I have no one, sir, when the water is troubled to put me into the pool, but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.’
“Poor, old, helpless, friendless creature! Others had relatives or friends who assisted them to descend into the restorative waters; and day after day the selfish ones had pushed aside the weak, slow, pallid wretch. But the great Friend had come!
“Jesus, stretching forth his hand over the prostrate form, with a majesty indescribable, exclaimed:
“ ‘Rise, take up thy bed and walk.’
“And the paralytic arose amid the exclamations and plaudits of the crowd, which pressed about them until he and Jesus were concealed from our sight.