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LECTURE X.

THE DAUGHTER OF JAIRUS, DEAD BUT RAISED TO LIFE.

ESUS was now fully engaged in His wonderful min.

istry. He went everywhere, teaching and preaching, healing the sick, raising the dead, and performing other mighty works. He had just returned from the land of the Gadarenes, across the lake of Genesareth. Hearing that He was coming, His disciples and a great crowd of people met Him, and as He stood in their midst "nigh unto the sea," He looked up, and “behold there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name." It is a great mistake to suppose that Christ moved only among the common people, though they "heard Him gladly." The rich and great were likewise attracted by Him occasionally. Joseph of Arimathea was His patron and friend. Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, came to Him saying, “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God." It is further said: "Among the chief rulers many believed on Him," and here we find a ruler, Jairus, the president of the synagogue at Capernaum, coming to Him to ask an important favor.

It was a sad occasion that brought Jairus to Jesus. "He fell at His feet and besought Him greatly, say ing, My little daughter lieth at the point of death, I pray Thee come and lay Thy hands on her, that she

may be healed." Many of us have been on missions somewhat similar to this in behalf of loved ones. As

we have gone for the physician, we have feared that the loved one would not live till we got back. Everything seemed so cheerless along the way. Birds and flowers and the glorious sunlight could not interest us now, for our loved one was perhaps dying. So felt Jairus, and we sympathize with him. We know but little of his daughter. She must have been a very interesting child, as she was the only daughter of the chief man of the city. We can imagine how she was petted and caressed by all. She was doubtless beautiful, for she was twelve years of age, when little girls generally wear peculiar charms. She was a lovely butterfly, just emerging from the chrysalis state of childhood, or to change the figure, a bud just opening in fragrance and beauty on the world,—

“A lovely being, scarcely formed or moulded,

A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.”

It was just such an object as death loves, and now he has laid his cold, rude hand upon her and claimed her for his own.

The children of the rich as well as the poor must die, for death "visits with impartial step the hovels of the poor, and the palaces of kings." But Jesus was as ready to help the rich as the poor, although He sometimes seemed severe in what He said about this class. So it is said: "Jesus arose and followed Him, and so did His disciples.”

On their way a singular incident occurred. A

woman who had been afflicted with an issue of blood twelve years," and had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse" (that was pretty bad for the physicians, but many others have had the same experience), came to Jesus to be healed. The crowd was so great she could not get very near, but she said, "If I may but touch His garment I shall be whole." She touched the hem, or fringe of His robe, and was healed. Jesus perceiving that some one had touched Him, inquired who it was, when the woman fell before Him, and "told Him all the truth." He said to her, "Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague." In going to perform one miracle, we see He stops to perform another, so that His work on this occasion has been styled a double miracle. When the woman came to Him, He might have said He had no time; that Jairus' case was urgent, his daughter might die before He could get there; but no, He must stop, and even with deliberation cure this woman. He teaches us by this that the doing of one pious work should not prevent our doing others. Because we preach the gospel, is no reason why we should not relieve the bodily necessities of men. The fact that we have branches of Christian work, such as Sunday-school teaching, or raising money for missions, or caring for orphans, or helping on the temperance movement, is no reason why we should not stop to help other needy causes that may be presented to us. It is different in spiritual from what it is in secular occupations. In secular

work, a man should circumscribe and concentrate his operations. Those who are Jacks at all trades are usually good at none. In religious work, however, we must not count the number of irons in the fire, but do good as we have opportunity. A good minister will care for the bodies of men as well as their souls, though the former is their chief work; and if not, they will not imitate Him who was a Healer, as well as a Preacher. A good physician will not be careless of the eternal well-being of his patients, on the score that he is concerned exclusively in relieving the bodies of men. I do not wonder that in olden times the preacher and physician were often united in the same person. Luke, who gives such a beautiful account of Jairus' daughter, was a physician, and there is a passage of Scripture which seems to refer to this union: "Is any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil,"-the praying was the work of the preacher, and the anointing of the physician. When we are on our way to relieve one case of distress, it will not be wrong to stop and help some other sufferer.

In the case before us nothing was lost.. A greater work was to be done because of the delay, for it is a greater work to raise the dead than merely to heal the sick. Jairus suffered no injury, for when he saw the woman healed, he was assured that his daughter would be cured, or restored. His own faith was strengthened, and he was placed in a condition to expect and appreciate the miracle that was soon to be performed in his favor.

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