JAIRUS COMES FOR JESUS.

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in fact "while He was yet speaking these things" (Matthew says, and he was there), there was a great stir outside; the common people stood back, or bowed in reverence, and there entered a man of the nobility.

There can be no doubt of Matthew's chronology in this whole narrative of the feast, and what there took place. Matthew was a ready and methodical writer.-Dr. Abbott.

It was a great day for Matthew; he immortalized himself on that day, and being a writer and one familiar with putting down details in his peculiar business, made a business of writing the particulars in order of this his greatest day.

Jairus entered the guest-chamber.

He was a local dignitary. He directed the whole affairs of the synagogue (Talmud, quoted by Lightfoot). It was at an early period of Christ's work in Capernaum. Jairus could never have overcome the rabbis' accumulated prejudice against Jesus at a later period and come humbly to Him for a favor.

Jairus bowed before Jesus, saying:

“I have a little daughter at my house, who is about twelve years of age, who lies at the very point of death. Come, I pray you, and save her."

"And Jesus arose (from the table)," and so did His disciples, and followed Jairus to his house.

It was a long walk, for when Jairus left the house the child was alive, but before he got back with the Physician-that was all Jesus was to him or his household-servants met him, saying:

"Do not trouble the teacher further, thy daughter is dead" (Farrar follows this order).

Jairus and those of his house did not expect Jesus to save her if dead! It never entered into the realm of possibilities in their world.

Such a thing was never heard!

Nain was but a few hours away; Capernaum was the every-day market of her people. If the raising of the widow's son had first occurred, would not Jairus and his

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AT JAIRUS' HOUSE—A TUMULT.

household have known the fact, and not now "despaired," as they evidently did? The report of such a mighty miracle would have travelled over all Galilee as by electricity—and did.

"Now great fear came on the ruler.”—Mark 5: 36.

All hope had departed: the child was dead!

"Fear not," said Jesus, encouragingly," she shall live: only believe."

They reached the house.

What sounds are those greeting their ears?

"The dirge of the flute-players," says Matthew (9: 23). "The mourners weeping and wailing," says Mark.

The poorer families must dispense with the former, but none were so poor as to do without the "professional wailers." Here, however, with indecent haste, the musicians and wailing women had entered, and "begun the tumult❞—FOR PAY.

"There was always a horrible clamor at Eastern funerals; this had already begun, for early burials were usual.”—Dr. P. Schaff.

"Why this tumult and weeping?" Jesus demanded. "Cease it: she is not dead, but sleeping.'

A loud and scornful laugh greeted this announcement. "Put them all out," said Jesus, with authority.

Taking Peter, James, and John, and the child's parents, Jesus entered the inner chamber, and taking the child by the hand, said, in the Aramaic language, the endearing words: "Little maid, arise."*

"And her spirit returned: and she rose up immediately," says Luke.

Great amazement seized upon the parents.

Well may they have been "amazed with a great amazement," as Mark says, for "it was the first miracle which manifested the Master as Lord over death and life.”—Cook.

But Jesus, calm and commanding, said to the mother:

*Talitha Cumi, a word of endearment to a young maiden, equivalent to "Rise, my child."-Alford. "Mark has the diminutive, 'little maiden.' "—Dr. Cook.

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“LITTLE MAID, ARISE."

Give her something to nourish her."-Mark. Next,

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He charged them (parents and disciples) to tell no man what had been done."-Luke.

Nevertheless the fame of this first miracle of raising the dead spread all over the land. Matthew, who stood outside at the time, tells us of this later, while Peter, inside, reports through Mark (at a later date) what he saw there.-Dr. Schaff.

The works of Christ were progressive. His work of healing "may be contemplated as an ever-ascending scale of difficulty, each a greater outcoming of the power of Christ than the preceding."-Trench.

Let us compare this with the raising at Nain.

This child was not dead when Jesus was called. It was not expected that if dead He could raise her. At Nain He may have gone on purpose to save the widow's only son and support.

He went secretly in to this child, when it was known that she was dead; * He permitted no witnesses save five.

At Nain He met a large funeral in a public way, and before them all, and His own retinue, probably a great throng,† He openly commanded the son to rise, though he had been dead a day at least. This child had barely expired when He raised her. There was nobody's certificate of her death save interested mourners; whereas the widow's son could not have been borne out of the city without a certificate of death.

The latter was the greater and stronger case.

So great and new was this miracle that all the synoptists record it minutely, while the one at Nain, ceasing to be so wonderful, being the second, that Luke only mentions it.

One more evidence that the Capernaum raising occurred before that of Nain lies in the report of each. The first was

* Death is spoken of in the Talmud, in a hundred instances, as "sleep" (Lightfoot). See Ps. 13: 3, "The sleep of death." Job 3: 13, "I should have slept."

† A great multitude, and His disciples, implying the twelve.-Luke 7: 11.

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THE FIRST RAISING OF THE DEAD.

soon reported in all that country (Matthew). The other was reported in Judea (Luke), as it would be a repetition to report it in Galilee, where a former raising was already widely known.

John's disciples were present at the raising of the widow's son (Luke 7: 18), whereas they were excluded from witnessing the raising of Jairus' daughter, though with Jesus at the hour previous (Matt. 9: 13). In the raising of the dead I fail to find the least proof that Nain was before Capernaum.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE SECOND CIRCUIT.

TIME-Mid-Summer of A. D. 28.
PLACE Capernaum and vicinity.

AVING

References.

Luke 6: 12-38.

Matt. 5, 6, 7 Chs.

and 8: 1.

completed the number of His disciples, Jesus Mark 3: 13-20. appointed a place in which

to meet them in the morning (Luke), while He went out over night to the mountain alone, to pray.

The phrase "the mountain" implies a near and prominent one, and the fact that He merely "went out," also that the Twelve followed early in the morning, point to the same conclusion. "He called whom he would."

Tradition has chosen a hill, some ten or eleven miles distant, called the "Horns of Hattin," a hill with two horn-like heights rising less than a hundred feet above the plain between them. It lies "two hours west of Tiberias," says Geikie. (Actually seven miles.)

The village of Hattin lies under the base and at the north and east side of the mountain. The route and the village have already been described in these pages. From Capernaum it is a crooked and rough road, first down the coast to Magdala, thence through the once robber-infested gorge, up a steep and rocky ascent, and so on to Hattin.

The spot designated, where Jesus met the twelve, is said to