Word of Divine Revelation is emphatically styled a fountain of living waters, the truths of which have a purifying and healing virtue; and because they cleanse the soul from inward pollutions, the Word, as a fountain of healing waters, is said to be "opened for sin and uncleanness." (Zech, xiii. 1.) This WORD, with all its truths, is here denoted by the pool of Bethesda; for Divine Truth, in its complex, is that "river whose streams make glad the city or church of God. God is in the midst of her—she shall not be moved." (Psalm xlvi. 4, 5.) The pool is named Bethesda, a word signifying the house of pity or mercy. Surely it is a house of mercy; for it contains the waters of life! Truths originating in love are designed to instruct the human race, to bless and enrich them with the treasures of heaven, and to raise them from the death of sin to the life of righteousness and peace. Here, in Bethesda's pool, the blind are made to see; the understanding, the eye of the soul, is opened to a perception of the realities of a future world; the halt are cured of their crippled walk in the religious progress, and with firm and steady steps walk in the paths of righteousness and peace; while the withered in spiritual affection and thought, are raised to the beauty and youthfulness of heavenly joy.
O reader, plunge into Bethesda's pool, and thou shalt be healed and blessed. The pool having five porches will shew the exact number of inlets through which the truth finds its way into the soul of man, and these shadow forth the five bodily senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing, through which we recognise the presence of earthly objects, with their forms, sounds, and qualities. In a religious sense, an
