And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his
disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of
Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it
was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, _thou_
son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should
hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, _Thou_ son of
David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to
be called. And they called the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good
comfort, rise; he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment,
rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What
wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him,
Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy
way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his
sight, and followed Jesus in the way.--_St. Mark x: 4.6--52._
* * * * *
_NOTE BY THE ARTIST_
_The site of Jericho is still an oasis in the surrounding desert, but
neither its fertility nor its dimensions bear comparison with those
which it attained in former days; and hardly a tree remains of the
celebrated groves of balsam, spice, and fruit-bearing trees, and the
palms which earned for Jericho the title of "The City of the Palm
Trees," and which made its neighboring plain the garden of
Palestine--the "divine district" as Joseph us calls it. This
fertility was owing entirely to skilful irrigation, traces of no less
than twelve aqueducts having been discovered. No class of sufferers
more frequently claimed and obtained from Jesus the exercise of his
compassion and healing power than that represented by blind
Bartimaus. The malady of blindness is grievously common in Palestine,
the proportion of those thus afflicted being one in every hundred of
the population, whereas in Europe the proportion is only one in a
thousand_.