The Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.

THE NOBLEMAN'S SON.

ST. JOHN iv. 46.

There was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.

THIS Day's Gospel presents us with the record of a very affecting miracle, which is related by St. John only. Our Blessed LORD, after the first Passover, on His way back to Galilee, stopped, (as we all remember,) for two days at Sychar in Samaria. Those days ended, He repaired to the village of Cana, where He had made the water, wine; and the incident on which we now propose to offer a few remarks immediately followed. 'There was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that JESUS was come out of Judæa into Galilee, he went unto Him, and besought Him that He would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death".'

The applicant in this instance is thought to have been a courtier,' rather than a nobleman;' one, in short, who was attached to the b St. John iv. 46, 47.

a St. John iv. 40.

court of King Herod. His dwelling was at Capernaum, where he may have witnessed many of our LORD's miracles of healing; and it seems reasonable to conjecture that the miracle performed on the Centurion's servant, in particular, was uppermost in his memory when he made his present application to CHRIST. His anxiety and impatience may be inferred from the fact that He went all the way from Capernaum to Cana, in person, on hearing that our SAVIOUR had reached the latter place; although, as we have seen, his son was at the point of death;' and surely, (we think,) some of those very servants who came to meet him, on the morrow, might have been sent in his stead! Who knows not, however, by experience, the anxiety which resolves that it must trust no one with a matter of vital importance; but prefers, at all hazards, doing the work in person? The present was an occasion, moreover, when delay was danger, and disappointment might be death. A parent is the anxious one; and a child the object of his anxiety. Do we wonder that the nobleman determines to perform the journey in person? resolves with his own lips to plead his cause?

And here we must not fail to point out a cir

c See St. Matthew viii. 5 to 13.

:

cumstance which might easily escape a careless reader, but which is of prime practical importance, and may not be overlooked. Our LORD'S return from Jerusalem to Capernaum had been delayed for two days. How this delay had happened, is revealed in the Gospel; and the very striking discovery is made that it had brought Salvation to a whole City! This last circumstance shews that God does all things well that not only His ends, but His very means,—the machinery whereby He effects His purposes, no less than those gracious purposes themselves, is perfect. The fact however of the delay, and the intention of it, is all we now desire to notice; and that intention proves to have been to try the faith of the present applicant to our SAVIOUR. How vexatious, in the meantime, must His delay have seemed! how unlucky' the circumstance, that instead of returning directly to Capernaum, the great Physician should have repaired to Cana first!

The reply which the nobleman met with, was not such as he either expected or desired. Then said JESUS unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.' You observe the father's earnestness and

impatience. He could not bear any topic save one: his whole heart was filled with one desire. Let it be granted, (he seems to say,) that we are thus unbelieving. On me be all that shame! Come down, only, ere my child die! . . . His reply further reveals the limits of his belief. That CHRIST Could heal, when the object of His mercy was close at hand,-this, the nobleman believed: that CHRIST could heal, without a word, at a distance,—this, the nobleman as yet knew not. JESUS saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that JESUS had spoken unto him, and he went his wayd.;

The father's way' on this occasion must perforce have been the way back to Capernaum. There was his sick child lying; and there he must have been all impatience himself to be. Already, in fancy, he pictured his return; and the emaciated boy, whom he had left at the very brink of the grave, alive, at least, if not better than when he had left him. It was evening, (being past seven o'clock,) and Capernaum was about fifteen or twenty miles off; but the nobleman will set out forthwith. On his way, behold, his servants meet him!

'As he was now going

down, his servants met him, and told him, saying,

d St. John iv. 48 to 50.

Thy son liveth".'

There must have been some

anxious wife and mother left behind,- some loving sister or brother. No sooner did these witness the marvellous change which had come over the dying youth, than they straightway sent a party of servants in the direction of Cana. At least they will meet the father on his way back! They may find him still there: but if he be returning, it will be something to have saved him a few hours of anxiety. Hence the sending of the servants. . . . They meet their master in the dark, on the road somewhere between Cana and Capernaum.

What more natural than the nobleman's first

words of inquiry? Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend '.'-He is convinced that his child liveth;' for CHRIST hath said it. But whether he had begun to amend soon after the father had left the house; or whether the fever had abated somewhat, from the time that the great Physician had delivered His comfortable assurance that the child lived; this remained to be cleared up by the servants. Accordingly the father's question was as to the hour at which the amendment took place. Yesterday,' (say they,) at the seventh hour.' 'So the father

e St. John iv. 51.

f St. John iv. 52.