The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 135

said that the human affections of llather, mother, etc., do not fully manifest or realize themselves in the merely human life; it is the Divine life in which the ideal of each is rendered possible. II. IN WHAT BEBPEOTS DIFFEBING J'BOH THESE. 1. The affection, characteristic of the hwman family will spring from a ,pi,ritual principle and ezpres, Divi™ looe. " The will of God," or" the will of the Father," will take the place of blind instinct or selfish gratification. Thus springing from a new source they will be transformed, purified, and freed from limitation and defect. "The will of God" will be the law according to which they will express themselves; but as that will has been interpreted as salvation and universal benevolence, so the distinctions of human affection will be brought into play in furthering the redemptive scheme of the Father amongst his sinful children ; and through them phases of the Divine love will be realized that would otherwise find no expression. They will thus, also, be universalized and directed into channels of service and helpfulness, 2. The Divine relationship is therefore Txued upon a new nature. It is only those who are born of the Spirit who can do the will of God. It is the life of the Spirit in them that changes and adapts them for the unselfish affections of the family of God. 3. The Divine relationship is a 'fl'Wl'al possiln"lity of every one. Every woman may become a sister, a mother, of Christ; every man his brother.-M. Ver. 2.-A miracle of healing. The cnre of the man with a withered hand was more obviously a supernatural work than sudden recovery from a fever, so that we need not wonder at the excitement it aroused. But it was only an example of many similar works, and as such we propose to consider it. L THE MmACLE WHICH JEsus DID. I. It wa.9 a removal of bodi?y infirmity. Although the Son of God came from heaven to do a spiritual work, much of the time of his earthly ministry was spent in curing physical disorders. We might have supposed that, coming from a painless and sorrowless world he would have had sparse sympathy with such suffering ; that he would have exhorted to fortitude and self-control, and expectation of a time when pain would be no more. It was not so, however. He sympathized with all sufferers, and, although he had before him a stupendous spiritual work, he by no means confined himself to it. Though sometimes he had "no leisure so much as to eat," he found time to heal many bodily diseases ; and he did this without hurrying over it as if it were an inferior work, or as if it were necessitated by the hardness of the human heart; but he did it lovingly and constantly, as being an essential part of his mission. In some respects, no doubt, this was a lower work than preaching. The body is inferior to the soul, as the tent is to its inhabitant. The effects of cure were only transient, for none were promised exemption in the future from disease or death. Yet these lower and temporary blessings were generously bestowed by One who habitually stood in the light of eternity. Point out the ministry of mercy which the Church has yet to do, in Christ's name, for suffering humanity. 2. It was a miracle with a moral purpose. The supernatural works of Christ were not mainly intended to excite attention. When he was asked "for a sign" with that object, he resolutely refused it. Had this been his purpose, he would have flung snowy Hermon into the depths of the sea, instead of doing the kind of work which is more slowly done by human physicians. He had a better purpose than this. He healed disea8e because, as the Conqueror of sin, he would point out and abolish some of its effects. He rescued a man, if only for a time, from the evil that harassed him, to show that he was his Redeemer. And besides this, he appeared as the Representative of God, and therefore did what he is ever doing in more gradual methods. A modem writer has wisely said, "This, I think, is the true nature of miracles; they are an epitome of God's processes in nature, beheld in connection with their source." We are apt to forget God in the processes through which he ordinarily works, and this forgetfulness could not be better checked than by the miracled in which Christ did directly what is usually done indirectly. For example, when we eat our daily bread, we know all that man has done with the corn since the harvest, and sel<lom think of God who gave life to the seed, strength to the hus- baudman, and nutriment to the ground. But if we saw the processes condensed lnto one Divine &e1;, 118 the multitwle did on the hillside, when Jesus created bread, there would be a recognition of God which would afterwards find expression in the more ordinary events we saw. So with the healing of the diseased. Every such miracle  132 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [os. m. 1-35.