"The damsel is not dead, but sleepetn." THE RULER'S DAUGHTER. Peter, James, and John, privileged witnesses of His most amazing wonders, were selected to enter with the Master; the mourners were already wailing, and as our Saviour and His disciples came into the stricken household the funereal flutes were playing dirges-which indicates the arrival of Jesus as being some time after the girl's death. Jesus showed surprise at all this "tumult of people weeping and wailing," for He would teach us that death is not to be mourned over as an unmixed evil; and also because He intended to bring the girl back to life. "Why make you this ado and weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth." It was a light sleep indeed to Him who could wake the dead with a gentle whisper; but to those who had seen the child's life fade out, and knew that her heart was still, and her pale lips felt no more the breath of life, His words were a mockery-" they "But He, laughed Him to scorn." While he was yet speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying: Thy daughter is dead; why dost thou trouble the Master any farther? But Jesus, having heard the word that was spoken, saith to the ruler of the synagogue: Fear not, only believe. And he admitted not any man to follow him, but Peter, James, and John the brother of James. And they come to the house of the ruler of the synagogue; and he seeth a tumult and people weeping and wailing much. And going in he saith to them: Why make you this ado and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But he having put them all out, taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. And taking the damsel by the hand he saith to her: Talitha cumi, which is, being interpreted: Damsel, I say to thee, arise. And her spirit returned, and immediately the damsel rose up, and walked; and she was twelve years old. And they were astonished with a great astonishment. And he charged them strictly that no man should know it, and commanded that something should be given her to eat. having put them all out, taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and they that were with Him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying." There she lay ready for the tomb. But the Lord of life and death takes her white, cold hand in His, and saith to her: "Talitha cumi, which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say to thee arise." It is a command addressed to a corpse, or rather to a disembodied spirit far off in the regions of death, yet given as a master commands a servant. In after times Peter told it in the original tongue to his disciple Mark, that he might convey to us the very accents of this awful power. And how great the astonishment at beholding terrible death meekly obedient. "Her spirit returned, and immediately the damsel rose up and walked." Jesus, who did not confine His charity to great gifts like life itself, bade them give her some food. He could not suppose that such a wonder as this could be kept secret: the Apostles present, the father, the mother, the expectant multitude would soon blaze it abroad. But He hoped to suppress the knowledge of it long enough to get away from the city, and so He charged them to keep it secret. He quickly passed out towards the lake, entered one of His disciples' boats, and escaped across the water. CHAPTER XXII. THE FINAL CALLING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. Matt. x. 2-4; Acts i. 13; Mark iii. 13–19; So far the Church of Christ was in an inchoate condition. His followers had gathered to Him as emigrant families go into a new country, to live in their wagons and under trees and tents. But now our Saviour must show Himself a king and proceed to the organization and enrollment of His subjects. He is not a teacher only; He is a founder. The union of His redeemed children with Himself is organic, and makes a new kind of life in God's world, that of His Church. We shall see THE TWELVE. Him likening it to a vine with its branches; to a And it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray, and he passed the whole night in the prayer of God. And when day was come, he called unto him his disciples, whom he would himself, and they came to him. And he made that twelve should be with him, and that he might send them to preach (whom also he named Apostles), Simon whom he surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, and he called them Boanerges, which is the sons of thunder; Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew the publican and Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon the Cananean, who is called Zelotes, and Jude [or] Thaddeus the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, who was the traitor. And he gave them power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils. ST. ANDREW. faith, safeguarded by a divine order of men to rule the household, to draw and mend the net, to prune the vine, to provide guests for the banquet-that is to say, to teach the truth, to detect error and to condemn it, to order all things sweetly in His Church, to hand down the original good custom. This will make Christ's gift to men continuous, as men singly are but momentary; universal, as men and their nations are but fragments. And therefore the Master publicly sets apart His Apostles from His other followers, and bestows upon them His own authority. Several of them He had called before on two separate occasions, and the others He had, no doubt. similarly selected and tested, as Holy Church has ever since done Jesus made ready for institut- ST. SIMON. His Father all the night long in the prayer of God's Spirit, without whose guidance He undertook nothing. The vast importance of this step was fitly shown by this long prayer of our Saviour. In the morning the general discipleship, the mingled friends and adherents, new-comers and old, were called into solemn assembly to hear the names of the Apostles, names by which prince and beggar shall be christened in all civilized humanity till the end of time. Among the Apostles there was one whom Jesus appointed to be leader. This leader's name. was changed from Simon to The Rock by design, for he was to be made the corner-stone. His close associates, the brothers John and James of Zebedee, knew the Master and believed in Him before Peter, and were His seniors in the preliminary vocation at the Jordan; John also was the more beloved; Andrew was the very first disciple called. Yet Simon Peter was given the special office, the peculiar primacy, which was to be that fountain of perpetuity and that centre of unity which the Holy Ghost established in the Roman Bishopric. Peter was a genuine Galilean. He was brave without prudence; he was ever starting something new; he it was who generally spoke first, moving ahead of the others—a true, rough, untamed Galilean. He was destined to be tamed by the sad revelation of his own weakness, God's usual way of taming chosen souls. Of the disciples thus elevated to the Apostleship, the greater number, after the coming of the Holy Ghost, vanished away into heathendom to convert and save it, and only local traditions, in various parts of the world, give us glimmerings of their career. Andrew was ST. PHILIP. |