CHAPTER X. CONTINUATION OF OUR LORD'S GLORIOUS DOCTRINES T BENEFICENT ACTS AND ASTONISHING MIRACLES WROUGHT IN CONFIRMATION OF THE DIVIN- HE divine Preacher having closed this excellent sermon, he repaired to Capernaum, and was met by certain messengers from a centurion, desiring him to come and heal a servant who was dear to him, and ready to die. This centurion, from the account given of him by the evangelist, seems to have been a proselyte to the Jewish religion, as he was a lover of the sons of Jacob, and had erected for them a place of worship; and accordingly the inhabitants of Capernaum strongly espoused his cause on this occasion, saying, "that he was worthy for whom he should do this. For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.' Luke vii: 4, 5. There was not the least danger that this petition would be rejected by the blessed Jesus, who sought all occasions of doing good to the children of men. Accordingly, he very readily accompanied the messengers; but, before he came to the house, he was met by some of the centurion's friends, who expressed the high idea that officer entertained of his power, and desired that he would not take the trouble of coming to his house, as a word was abundantly sufficient to perform the cure. At this message, Jesus turned himself about, and said to the multitude, "I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." Luke vii: 9. The persons having delivered their message, returned to the house, and found the servant, who had been sick, perfectly recovered. Having thus miraculously healed the centurion's servant, he repaired to Peter's house to eat bread; but the multitude came again together, and surrounded the house in a tumultuous manner, demanding, in all probability, that he would heal their sick; and it was not without difficulty they were dispersed by his friends. The multitude being dispersed, Jesus called unto him the twelve apostles he had before chosen, and conferred on them the power of working miracles, in confirmation of the doctrines they were appointed to preach, and delivered them such instructions as he thought necessary to enable them to discharge the duties of this important commission. "Go," said their heavenly Master, "and preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Publish in every corner of Judea, the glad tidings of the gospel, and the near approach of the Messiah's kingdomnot a temporal, but a spiritual, empire-consisting of righteousness and peace. To inure them to those hardships and dangers which were to attend them in their preaching, after the death of their Master, our Lord forbade them to provide anything for their journey-teaching them to rely wholly on the providence of God for support in every distress, and to have recourse to his protection in every danger. Our Lord's disciples had, perhaps, flattered themselves with the pleasing expectation, that the glad tidings they were going to publish, and the miraculous cures they were enabled to perform, would procure them an honorable reception wherever they came. Their Master, however, told them the event would not, in any manner, answer their expectations; but that they were every where to be despised, persecuted, delivered into the hands of the rulers, and punished as wicked men. But, at the same time, he promised them the aid of the Almighty, and gave them instructions how to behave in every particular. He added, that those who rejected their message should be treated with severity by the great Judge of all the earth; but those who received them kindly, and gave even a cup of cold water to the least of his disciples, for their Master's sake, should not fail of receiving a large reward. Having received this commission, the apostles visited all parts of Palestine, where the Jews inhabited, preaching the doctrine of repentance, working miracles for its confirmation, and particularly healing the sick, while our blessed Lord continued the course of his ministry in Galilee. The apostles being returned from their tour, Jesus went to Nain, a town situated near Endor, about two miles south of Mount Tabor, attended by many of his disciples, and a great multitude of people. On their coming to the entrance of the city, a melancholy scene presented itself to the eyes of Jesus and his followers: "Behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow." Luke vii: 12. Who would not have imagined, that God had indeed "forgotten to be gracious, and, in his anger, shut up his tender inercies" from this poor widow, suffering under the heaviest load, and laboring under the most oppressive burden of distress? Deprived of her son, her only son, in the flower of his youth, when he might have repaid his mother's toils, and been to her in the place of a husband-of that husband she had long since lost, and whose loss was supportable only through the comfort of this child, the surviving image of his departed father, the balm of her grief, the hope of her afflicted soul-who now shall administer consolation to this solitary widow, to this lonely parent, bereaved of her husband, deprived of her child? What misery can be more complicated? What can be more natural than that she should "refuse to be comforted," that she should "go down to the grave with mourning," and visit the chambers of death, the residence of the beloved remains of her husband and her son, with sorrow? Toward this receptacle of mortality, that dreary waste of forgetfulness, the mournful funeral was now, with slow and solemn pomp, advancing, when the compassionate Redeemer of mankind met the melancholy procession, composed of a long train of her weeping neighbors and relations, who pitied her distress, sympathized with her in this great affliction, and were melted with compassion at her deplorable circumstances: but sighs and tears were all they had to offer; relief could not be expected from a human being; their commiseration, though grateful to her oppressed soul, could neither restore the husband nor the son; submission and patience were the only lessons they could preach, or this afflicted daughter of Israel learn. But though man was unable to relieve the distresses of this disconsolate widow, the Saviour of the world, who beheld the melancholy procession, was both able and willing to do it. There was no need of a powerful solicitor to implore assistance from the Son of God; his own compassion was abundantly sufficient. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her: he both sought the patient, and offered the cure unexpectedly. "Weep not," said the blessed Jesus to this afflicted. woman. Alas! it had been wholly in vain to bid her refrain from tears, who had lost her only child, the sole comfort of her age, without ministering the balm of comfort to heal her broken spirit. This our Redeen.er well knew; and, therefore, immediately advancing toward the corpse, "he touched the bier." The pomp of the funeral was instantly stopped, silence closed every mouth, and expectation filled the breast of every spectator. But this deep suspense did not long continue; that glorious voice, which shall one day call our dead bodies from the grave, filled their ears with these remarkable words, "Young man, I say unto thee, arise." Nor was this powerful command uttered without its effect. "He spake, and it was done;" he called with authority, and immediately "he that was dead, sat up, and began to speak. And he restored him to his mother." He did not show him around to the multitude, but, by a singular act of modesty and humanity, delivered him to his late afflicted, now astonished and rejoicing mother, to intimate, that |