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are encircled with a halo of unfading glory. O how rich in kind affections must have been the heart of him who spoke those ever-living and most loving words! And the woman wins our warm esteem. She did more, she gained the approval of her Saviour. Thy faith,' he declared, hath saved thee; go in peace.' What was her faith, save that trust in Jesus which her own loving heart inspired her with,-her undoubting confidence that if she went to him with a heart full of overflowing gratitude, both herself and her offering would be welcomed? She was right. Confidence in the good, as it is the offspring of love, is also the parent of mercy. May our faith spring from love, find utterance in acts of reverence towards Jesus, and meet with acceptance from his lips!

The clearness of the great facts, and the obscurity which lies over some connected circumstances in this incident, may serve to illustrate similar clearness and similar obscurity in regard to the gospel in general. The obscurity relates to inconsiderable, the clearness surrounds and pervades the essential, parts of the narrative. Exactly the same is it with the difficulties raised by unbelievers, and the truths received and held by Christians. The former may remain difficulties, or they may at length be explained, or they may only partially pass away: however this may be, the truths remain unaffected, they are ever the same. Whether Matthew's Gospel was originally written in Hebrew or Greek, has always been a disputed matter. Whether the event

which has occasioned these remarks took place in Nain or in Jerusalem, now or at a later period in the history, will probably never be ascertained. What then? Does the fact obliterate a single one of those recorded words of light, which, being once recorded, can never become extinct? In the same way, a perverse ingenuity may show that some of the deeds and words ascribed to Jesus cannot easily be brought in their right place, into a consecutive narrative of his life. What then? Does that difficulty in the slightest invalidate the broad features of Christ's history? Can his words be obliterated-his doctrines be disproved-his loving spirit be rooted out of men's memories ? The Gospels are so full of Jesus, and Jesus is so great and sublime, yet so tender, in the Gospels, that they can well spare some things that may look like repetitions, or do not readily fall into their proper position. A hostile criticism may prosper to the utmost, but it cannot reach the sun of this firmament. Jesus remains and the gospel remains, both entire, after unbelief has done its worst.

CHAPTER XII.

JESUS RETURNS TO CAPERNAUM-DELIVERS THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER-HEALS A BLIND MAN-SPEAKS OF THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT-IS VISITED BY HIS MOTHERTEACHES BY THE SHORE OF THE LAKE.

April 14, A. D. 29.

Accompanied by the twelve, Jesus returned to Capernaum. He had also other companions. His gentle and affectionate nature attached to his side certain women, who, with characteristic fidelity, followed his footsteps, and clung to him in the dark hour when all others forsook him and fled. Among these faithful and excellent persons, whose names are an honour to their sex and their kind, were Mary Magdalen; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, king Herod's steward; and Susanna, with many others (Luke viii. 1-3). If the conjecture is well founded that the woman who anointed Jesus with oil in the Pharisee's house was Mary Magdalen, then we see how it was that she came to follow the footsteps of her beloved deliverer; and doubtless other women were led to join his band of companions out of gratitude and love to its head. The box, or rather bottle, of alabaster full of ointment, was a costly gift of affection. Joanna was a person in a superior station. Hence we see that some at least of these females were possessed of solid property, if not wealth. And could they make a better use of their influence or their riches than to employ them in the service of Christ? How happy must they have been in day by day, and almost every hour, hearing his gracious words and beholding his wonderful deeds! Yet more happy were they still when, at the end of a wearying journey or at the close of a harassing day, they had the enviable privilege of ministering to his wants or his comforts. Jesus is no longer on earth. But a blessing bestowed on the needy is before him accounted as if it were done to himself. Why are there not more of rich and influential women engaged in thus ministering to Christ? And scarcely can any one be so lowly or so poor that she has nothing to communicate to others. She that has nothing but a kind heart is rich in blessings for the work of the gospel (Luke viii. 1-3).

In proceeding down to Capernaum, our Lord may have passed through Magdala, the town of Mary, hence surnamed Magdalen. It was a small place standing near the Lake of Galilee, about midway between Capernaum and Tiberias.

Having entered into Capernaum, he taught in parables, or fictions full of meaning, the multitudes that thronged around him. It was, perhaps, on this occasion that he delivered that

striking and instructive lesson which is conveyed in the parable of the Sower. In this mode of conveying instruction by stories, which has in all times been common in the East, Jesus, as in all other things, holds an undisputed pre-eminence; for nothing can surpass his parable of the Prodigal Son or that of the Good Samaritan. This method of instruction was pursued to a great extent by Christ, in order that he might thereby accommodate his high spiritual instruction to the untutored minds of his audiand in the simple but impressive form of parables or stories, Jesus has embodied the great truths which form the essence of his gospel.

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While occupied in giving his instructions, our Lord had his attention drawn to a man who was blind and dumb. In the simple language of the Scripture, he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.' This was considered a case of exorcism, or of casting out demons. The Pharisees, on hearing of this extraordinary cure, ascribed it to the agency of Beelzebub, the prince of demons, with whom they would have it that Jesus was in alliance. How forcible is the reasoning with which our Lord rebuts the imputation! Beelzebub, as the chief of evil spirits, would surely not overpower and expel his own emissaries. Besides, the Jews held that by means of the name of Solomon they had the power of exorcising evil spirits. Were they, then, in league with this god of Philistine idolators? (2 Kings i. 2). But if in truth Jesus did overcome even the prince of the demons, surely God was with him.

What blindness, what hardness of heart, what perversity of will, did these Pharisees display, and that at the very time that they gave themselves out as leaders of the blind! Their voluntary inaptitude to receive truth, was a lamentable evidence of the darkening and disturbing power of sin. From such men there was no good to be expected. Even the finger of God, manifest to all eyes, was unseen by them. Nay, worse, the agency of God himself they ascribed to a heathen idol which was a vanity and a lie. Jesus knew their depravity, and proclaimed the doom which they had brought on themselves. Theirs was the unforgiven sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit, the sin which went the length of ascribing acts of divine power to evil spirits. Hence the emphatic terms employed by Jesus, who clearly and justly intimated that the wrong was far greater than would have been committed by speaking against himself, the Son of Man. The heinousness of this sin lay in this, that those who saw the miracles performed by God, refused to acknowledge God's hand, and, in their evil dispositions, referred God's own deeds done for the express purpose of establishing the gospel, to a diabolical agency which that gospel was intended to destroy. This its heinousness makes the sin against the Holy Ghost peculiar to the days of the Son of Man on earth; though

wilful blindness and hardened perverseness of heart, combined with high pretensions, must in all ages be attended with a moral deadness, if not an active turpitude, most alien from religion, and so very near and ready for destruction (Matt. xii. 24, seq.; Mark iii. 22, seq.).

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While Jesus was endeavouring to awaken his opponents to a sense of their danger, and while he was discoursing to the surrounding crowd, he was informed that his mother and his brethren' desired to speak with him. His great fame having reached Nazareth, his mother was impelled to repair to his side, in order that she might behold his glory' with her own glad eyes. Nor was Jesus one to disregard the kindness which their coming implied. It afforded him, however, an opportunity of declaring the importance of his Heavenly Parent's work in which he was engaged, and which must take precedence of even the regard due to a mother's love. Under this feeling he was led to utter one of his universal truths, declaring that, intimate and valid as were the ties of blood, moral relations were, as more lofty and comprehensive, so also higher and more urgent in their claims: And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.' The closest and dearest ties of home must give way at the call of yet higher duties. This is the grand principle which induced Jesus himself to give his life for the world, and has made fathers into patriots and mothers into martyrs (Matthew xii. 46—50; Mark iii. 31, seq. ; Luke viii. 19-21).

The fame of the mighty works which Jesus did, and of his surpassing wisdom, kept constantly around him a throng of eager hearers, and made it almost impossible for him to speak with effect on the land. How many speeches full of heavenly light and goodness have we lost!-for evangelists sometimes restrict themselves to recording the fact that he taught the people. Yet what was uttered by him when surrounded by the earnest eyes, the breathing spirits, the warm, beating hearts of those who had come from far and near to see and hear him, must have had a force and a life peculiarly vivid; while, doubtless, it possessed also a high value in being specially adapted to the immediate and urgent wants of ignorant, sinful, diseased, and suffering men.

Desirous of being more at liberty for his instructions, and in order that he might command a hearing from a larger circle, he went into a ship and taught on the lake. The ships employed on the Lake of Tiberias, on which Jesus now was, were small vessels or fishing-boats, which were easily fastened near the shore, and, from their proximity to the land, and their standing somewhat above its level, afforded to a teacher peculiar facilities for

communicating instruction to persons ranged along the brink of the water. In this position Jesus, according to the report made by Matthew, delivered a succession of parables, all wisely designed, and admirably serving, to illustrate the nature, value, and operation of divine truth. In particular, our Lord here dwells on the very important fact that as is the hearer's heart, so will his understanding be, and so also will be the profit derived from what is offered him. The Jews of his day were deaf and blind to the Divine voice which spoke in Jesus, as of old they had been deaf and blind when God spoke to them by Isaiah. It was with a view to meet and dispel this darkness of soul, that Jesus spoke in parables. Yet even these pointed lessons fell on stony bosoms without effect (Matt. xiii. 1—52; Mark iv. 1—34; Luke viii. 4-18).

CHAPTER XIII.

JESUS GOES ACROSS THE LAKE OF GALILEE, INTO THE COUNTRY OF THE GADARENES.

April 14th, A. D. 29.

Having dismissed the multitudes, Jesus, at the approach of evening (April 14, 782), went, together with disciples, on board a ship, in order to pass over to the eastern shore of the Lake of Galilee. The day had been long and toilsome. Overcome with weariness, Jesus fell asleep in the stern, when he was rudely awakened by the question, 'Master, carest thou not that we perish?' As was usual, on a sudden a squall had arisen, which, tossing the frail bark vehemently, threatened immediate destruction. And Jesus arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And there was a great calm.' What painting have we here! In a few bold strokes the whole scene is put before the eye. Surely he who painted thus, must have seen what he so forcibly delineates (Mark iv. 35—41). The application made to Jesus in this emergency deserves notice. It shows the light in which his attendants regarded him. When in danger of their lives, men do not play a part. The disciples obviously went to Jesus because they knew he had power to give them succour. Yet, had their faith been such as his deeds justified, they would have been in no alarm, assured that he who gave life to the widow's son could pacify the stormy lake. When, however, they saw the billows sink at his word, they, as was natural, 'feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?'

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