Orth. -We assert that only his body was deprived of the sense of sight?
Eran. -Yes.
Orth. -And again when we hear Amaziah saying to the prophet Amos, "Oh thou seer go flee away into the land of Judah," and Saul enquiring: "Tell me I pray thee where the seer's house is," we understand nothing bodily.
Eran. -Certainly not.
Orth. -And vet the words used are significant of the health of the organ of sight.
Eran. -True.
Orth. -Yet we know that the power of the Spirit when given to purer souls inspires prophetic grace and causes them to see even hidden things, and, in consequence of their thus seeing, they are called seers and beholders.
Eran. -What you say is true.
Orth. -And let us consider this too.
Eran. -What?
Orth. -When we hear the story of the divine evangelists narrating how they brought to God a man sick of the palsy, laid upon a bed, do we say that this was paralysis of the parts of the soul or of the body?
Eran. -Plainly of the body.
Orth. -And when while reading the Epistle to the Hebrews we light upon the passage where the Apostle says "Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed," do we say that the divine Apostle said these things about the parts of the body?
Eran. -No.
Orth. -Shall we say that he was for removing the feebleness and infirmity of the soul and stimulating the disciples to manliness?
Eran. -Obviously.
Orth. -But we do not find these things distinguished in the divine Scripture, for in describing the blindness of Isaac he made no reference to the body, but spoke of Isaac as absolutely blind, nor in describing the prophets as seers and beholders did he say that their souls saw and beheld what was hidden, but mentioned the persons themselves.
Eran. -Yes; this is so.
Orth. -And he did not point out that the body of the paralytic was palsied, but called the man a paralytic.
Eran. -True.
Orth. -And even the divine Apostle made no special mention of the souls, though it was these that he purposed to strengthen and to rouse.
Eran. -No; he did not.
Orth. -But when we examine the meaning of the words, we understand which belongs to the soul and which to the body.
Eran. -And very naturally; for God made us reasonable beings.
Orth. -Then let us make use of this reasoning faculty in the case of our Maker and Saviour, and let us recognise what belongs to His Godhead and what to His manhood.