CCXXXII. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Mark v. 30-34. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague. Virtue streams forth from Him as rays from the sun. The very border of His garment, when touched in faith, conveys healing virtue; like the precious ointment on the head of Aaron which descended "even to the skirts of his clothing." So was the Spirit of the Lord upon Him. He "anointed to heal." As the woman perceived the sudden stanching of her wound, so the Lord, not the loss, but the going forth of His healing power. The sun loses none of that light and heat which he yet gives forth. This question he asks not for information, but for this afflicted woman's greater good; for the healing of her soul no less than of her body. She must give glory to God. She must tell all the truth.3 So only can she obtain that comfortable dismissal, and be indeed made whole. Believing with the heart, and confessing with the mouth, her cure shall be confirmed and complete. But not yet do the Disciples, not even their spokesman Peter,5 understand their Lord. There was more in this "touch" than they supposed. Many in that crowd, we may not doubt, could not but touch Him; but they did not touch Him, as this woman, "in any way 1 St. Luke iv. 18. 2 St. Lube viii. 44. St. Luke viii. 45. 4 3 Joshua vii. 19. that He should take note of," for a purpose, and in faith. "So is it evermore in His Church; many press upon Christ ... near to Him and to His Sacraments outwardly; yet not touching Him, because not drawing near in faith; not looking for, and therefore not obtaining, life and healing from Him, and through these." It is a "solemn warning to all who crowd on Christ; who use His name lightly and profanely; who make familiar addresses to Him in (so called) religious hymns; who treat with carelessness and irreverence His Day, His House, His Sacraments, His Ministers; or who read His Holy Scriptures in a carping spirit, handling them as a common book."2 Such crowd upon Christ, but they do not touch Him. Yet is this "a most encouraging miracle for us to recollect, when we are disposed to think despondingly of the ignorance or superstition of much of the Christian world. He who accepted this woman for her faith, even in error and weakness, may also accept them." 3 CCXXXIII. THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS RAISED FROM THE DEAD. St. Mark v. 35-39. While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe. And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed synagogue, greatly. And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead but sleepeth. James. On the road to this Ruler's house, the Lord and those who 3 Alford. Abp. Trench. 2 Bp. Wordsworth. followed Him were met by this message,' that the child, who was at the point of death when the father set out to seek the good Physician, had meanwhile breathed her last. This deputation of servants or friends from the Ruler's house evidently looked upon the Lord as no more than some great Physician, who, though possibly he might be of use while life remained, could be of no possible use after the child was dead. Much patience had this poor father shown. The Lord could understand how he was suffering during the delay occasioned by the act of another sufferer. No sooner therefore is the message spoken (which, though spoken it might be only to the Ruler himself, was heard by the Lord as well) than he interposes with that word of encouragement "Fear not," that promise that if he will but believe she shall yet be made whole. The Lord who had allowed the crowd to accompany Him so far, when they arrived at the Ruler's house allowed none of them to enter, not even the rest of the Disciples; only those selected three, who should be witnesses, with the parents, of His mighty work. Too many He finds in the house already; professional mourners, besides the friends and relations of the family. For the custom among the Jews on such occasions was to have hired minstrels chanting a lament for the dead, a funeral dirge as we might call it. Even the poorest Israelite, we are told, was not content at such a time with less than two pipers and one bewailing woman. The time for this, the Lord The maiden was not so dead 3 tells them, is not yet come. that she would not live again. She was not departed for ever. He was about to recall her to life. In His eyes, and to His mighty power, she was but as in a sleep from which He will awake her. 1 St. Luke speaks of one, the spokesman of the deputation; St. Mark of more than one, those who accompanied him. Is there any more real discrepancy in other instances which have been alleged than here? 2 St. Luke viii. 50. 3 Lightfoot. See Josephus B. J. iii. ix. 5. "Death and sleep are alike to Him, who can cast whom He will into the sleep of death, and awake when and whom He pleaseth out of that deadly sleep."-Bp. Hall. CCXXXIV. THE SAME SUBJECT-continued. St. Mark v. 40-43. And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, TALITHA CUMI: which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat. That this damsel was actually dead, that she was then no longer in the land of the living, is plain from their action who, not understanding His words, laughed Him to scorn. In our fancied wisdom we are sometimes disposed to deride those who are after all wiser than ourselves. These then He all puts out, and takes with Him into the chamber of the dead none save His chosen. "The house was now solitary and still. Two souls, believing and hoping, stand like funeral tapers beside the couch of the dead maiden-the father and the mother. His Church the Lord sees represented in His three most trusted Apostles. . . . St. Mark gives us, probably from the lips of Peter, the very words which the Lord spake in the very language wherein He uttered them. . . . And at that word, and at the touch of that hand, her spirit came again, and she arose straightway, and walked.' For she was of an age for this. And "hereupon, at once to strengthen that life which was come back to her, and to prove that she was indeed no ghost, but Abp. Trench, who refers to St. Luke viii. 55, 1 Ki. xvii. 22. It has been surmised that St. Mark gives the actual Syriac or Aramaic words uttered by our Lord, to indicate that He did not employ any mystic or magical formula. Alford renders it, "Come, my child." had returned to the realities of a mortal existence, 'He commanded to give her meat;' a precaution the more necessary, as the parents in that ecstatic moment might easily have forgotten it." In His miracles this economy is ever observed. So He gives us our being at the first, and provides the means whereby we live, but He expects us to use those means to support that being. Nor is it otherwise in the case of the soul and in the use of the provided means of grace. Her parents were astonished, as well they might be. They had never seen it on this fashion. He had done for them exceeding abundantly even above all that they asked or thought. The reasons of this charge at the last we need not go far to find. He seeks to avoid that growing popularity which leads the people to take Him by force to make Him a king.2 CCXXXV. SIGHT GIVEN TO TWO BLIND MEN IN THE HOUSE. St. Matthew ix. 27-31. And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly Abp. Trench, who refers again to St. Luke xxiv. 41; St. John xxi. 5; Acts x. 41. 2 St. John vi. 15. Latimer (Ser. xxix.) on the argument for purgatory drawn from this place, has a characteristic passage:-"I will ask here a great clerkly question, Where was the soul now after it went out of this young maid? . . . Now I will make a clerkly answer unto my question, and such an answer that, if the Bishop of Rome had gone no further, he should have been well enough .. Now my answer is this,-I cannot tell. But where it pleased God it should be, there it was, Is not this a good answer to such a clerkly question? I think it be. Other answer nobody gets at me; because the Scripture telleth me not where she was." |