believing wives. Believing parents shall once more see believing children. Christ shall unite the whole family in the great home in heaven, and all tears shall be wiped from all eyes.
Notes. Ltjkb VIII. 49—66.
49 . — \Thy daitghter is dead.] GhemDitius remarks, that, with one exception (Mark i. 30), we never read in the Gospels of children coming to Christ on hehalf of their parents, though we frequently read of parents applying on behalf of their children. He makes the deep observation, that ** love is more prone to descend than * to ascend."
[The Master.] Let it be noted that the Greek word so trans- lated is not the same as that used in the 45th verse. It here signifies *' the Teacher."
51. — PeteTt and JameSy and John.] These three apostles, it should be remembered, were three times singled out from the rest of the twelve, and allowed to be our Lord's companions on special occasions. They were with him on the Mount of Trans- figuration, and in the Garden of Gethsemane, and on the occa- sion of this miracle. None of the apostles had such a clear revelation of our Lord's divinity, our Lord's humanity, and our Lord's power and compassion towards the sorrowful and sinful.
b^.—{8he is not deady but sleepeth.] Much has been said about the difficulty of this expression, but without any just cause. The strength of it has led some to assert, that the daughter of Jairus was not really and literally dead, but only in a trance. Such an assertion contradicts the context, while there is really no difficulty in the expression, that does not admit of explanation.
Burkitt says, that our Lord's meaning was this : — " She is dead to you, but asleep to me ; not so dead as to be beyond my power to raise her to me."
Alford says — " The words are most probably used with refer- ence to the speedy awakening which was to follow."
Jones, of Nayland, says — " As we have but imperfect notions of the relation and difference between life and death, oiu* Saviour, when he was about to raise a maid to life, said to those who were present, ' the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.' He did not say. She is dead, and I will raise her to life ; but, she is asleep, whence it was to be inferred that she would awake. They who were not skilled in the language of signs and figures laughed him to scorn, as if he had spoken in ignorance what was expressed with consummate truth and wisdom. The substitution of sleep for death has the force and value of a whole sennon in a single word."
290 EXPOsrroKY thoughts.
54. — [He put them aU outJ] When we read this expression, we should remember the words in the preceding verse, " They laugh- ed Him to scorn." It seems a rule in Christ's dealings with men not to force evidence upon them, but rather to withhold from scorners and scoffers those proofs of His own mission which He affords to others. And as it was when He was upon earth, so it is now. The scoffing spirit is the spirit which is often left to itself!
55. — [Her spirit came again.'] This is one of those texts which show plainly the separate existence of spirits, and their indepen- dence of the body. Matthew Henry remarks — " This proves that our souls exist and act in a state of separation from the body, and therefore are immortal, that death does not extinguish the candle of the Lord, but takes it out of a dark lantern. It is not, as Grotius observes, the temperament of the body, or any- thing that dies with it ; but something that subsists by itself, which, after death, is somewhere else than where the body is. Where the soul of the child was in the interval we are not told. It was in the hand of the Father of spirits, to whom all souls at death return."
[To give her meat.] This would be proof positive that her body was really alive again, and that her parents saw no vision, but real material flesh and blood. It is the same evidence of resurrection which our Lord gave His disciples after His own rising from the dead : " Have ye here any meat ? And he did eat before them." (Luke xxiv. 41 — 43.)
56. — [Tell no man.] Let us note here, as in many places, how little our Lord desired publicity. To do great works, and say nothing about them — to work powerfully, and yet noiselessly and quietly, is to walk in Christ's steps. The shallowest streams and emptiest vessels make most noise.