the organs of speech which belonged to their victim, and had declared themselves. But this was not enough. It might still have been said, that these were the wild expressions of a maniac or enthusiast, fancying himself to be so afflicted. The last stage of the miracle effectually provided against such a notion. The brute was out of the reach of enthusiasm, and the same evil spirits which possessed the man had passed into the swine. To make it more apparent, it was not one animal, but a whole herd.

THE RAISING OF JAIRUS'S DAUGHTER.

Ver. 21-24. 35-43.

And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea. And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, and besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live. And Jesus went with him. 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

scorn.

John the brother of James. And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed 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. And they laughed him to 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.

It has been questioned, whether the damsel was really dead; or, whether our Lord's expression meant literally that she was not dead but asleep, i. e. in a swoon or trance. If her recovery was miraculous, and all agree in this, the question whether she were recovered from a trance or from death, ought not to affect the character of the miracle; for to mere human agents the one is as impossible as the other, and therefore the one quite as much proof of superhuman agency as the other. To man there are no gradations of power perceptible in miraculous

agency, But if you consider the impression produced, the raising from the dead would be always likely to operate on men's minds more strongly than the miraculous cure of sickness. There are really no degrees of power which can be measured by us in miracles; no divisions or gradations when once the impossible is passed; but the practical effect is as if there were.

And the effect of this miracle is accordingly one reason which would incline one to take the more common view of it, and to suppose, that the damsel was raised, not from a trance but from death. Another reason, which is stronger, is, that Christ selected, as witnesses of the miracle, the three apostles, who were admitted as select witnesses of two other of the most remarkable passages of his life-his Transfiguration, and his agony in the garden of Gethsemane. There seems a correspondence with this, in their being called on to be present, at what may thus be considered as the first instance of his restoring the dead to life.

But then how are we to understand our Lord's assertion, "The damsel is not dead but sleepeth?" In the same manner, no doubt, as when he said "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go, that I

may awake him out of sleep"." He meant to hint by this expression in each case, that it was not a final death; but one from which the person should recover, before his present connection with life and this world was interrupted for ever-and, in this respect, therefore resembling sleep. It was a temporary death.

As in the case of many of his other miracles, his tone of voice perhaps and manner might have given a further meaning to this expression. It might have aided in conveying a hint-afterwards followed up so as to be intelligible-that death was always henceforward to be considered in a new light, as more like sleep; as a temporary suspension of the energies of mind and body; and that these signal miracles were wrought to prove, that it was he, Jesus Christ, who was to remove the suspension.

To this at least we can scarcely help attributing the language of the sacred writers who so constantly use "sleep" and " sleeping" as simple, unfigurative expressions for death. Thus St. Matthew, in his account of the crucifixion, writes, "that the graves were opened, and many bodies of z John xi. 11. Chap. xxvii. 52.

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the saints which slept arose." In the Acts of the Apostles", St. Paul is described as saying, that "David after he had served his own generation fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption." The same apostle makes the same use of the phrase frequently in his Epistles, as in this sentence from the first Epistle to the Corinthians", "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."

THE HEALING OF THE WOMAN WITH THE ISSUE OF BLOOD.

Ver. 25-34.

And a certain woman, which had 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, when she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. 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 Chap. xiii. 36. © Chap. xi. 30.