And now comes the fatnl message to him. moderate grief for the dead be assuaged under Thy daughter is dead (li.1rl0av,); the aorist the name of sleep, which manifestly inclurles expresses that her death wllB now a past the hope of the resurrection. Hence the event. Why troublest thou the Master a.ny expression with regard to a departed Chris- further 1 (Tl fr, ,n,6"11.,as TOV 3,3.lu,call.ov ;). tian, that " he sleeps in J esas." Then, The Greek word here is very strong. It is to further, this child was not absolutely and vex or weo.ry; literally, to flay. The messen- irrecoverably dead, as the crowd supposed, as gers from the ruler's house had evidently though she could not be recalled to life; abandoned all hope, and so probably would since in fact our Lord, who is the Lord of Jo.irus, but for the oheering words of our life, was going at once to call her back by Lord, "Fear not, only believe." his almighty power from the realms of deatti Ver. 3G.-The words of the narrative, as into which she had entered. So that she they stand in the Authorized Version, a.re: did not appear to him to be dead so much As soon as Jesus heard the word that we.a as to sleep for e. little while. lie says else- spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the syna- where, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; bot I gogue, Be not afraid, only believe, Bat go that I may awake him out of sleep." there is good authority for the reading Christ, by the use of such language as this, ..-apa,co6uas instead of ,o9lr,,s luco611as, meant to show that it is as easy with him to which requires the rendering, but Jum, raise the dead from death as sleepers from not heeding, or ooerhearing. This word their slumbers. (1rapaico6"') occurs in one other place in the Ver. 40.-They laughed him to soorn. He Gospels, no.mely, in Matt. xviii. 17, "And suffered this, in order that the actual death if he refuse to hear them (U,v 6/; 1rapa,co6"!1 might be the more manifest, and that so aoTwv)." Here the word can only have the they might the more wonder at her resur- meaning of "not heeding," or " refusing to rection, and thus pass from wonder anrl henr." This seems to be a strong reo.son for amazement to a true faith in him who thus giving the word a somewhat similar mean- showed himself to be the Resurrection and ing in this passage. And therefore, on the the Life. He now put them all forth ; and whole, "not heeding" seems to be the best then, with his three apostles, Peter, James, rendering. Indeed. it seems to cover both and John, and the father and the mother of meanings. Our Lord would overhear, and the child, he went in where the child was. yet not heed, the word spoken. The common crowd were not worthy to see Ver. 37.-Here we have the first occasion that in which they would not believe. They of the selection of three of the apostles to be were unworthy to witness the great reality witnesses of things not permitted to be seen of ;the resurrection: for they had been de- by the rest. The other two occasions are riding him who wieldd thid power. It is those of the transfiguration, and of the agony remarked by Archbishop Trench that in the in the garden. We ilOW follow our Lord aame manner Elisha (2 Kings iv. 33) cleared and these three favoured disciples, Peter the room before he raised the son of the and James and John, to the house of death. Shunammite. They are about to witness the first earnest Ver. 41.-The house was now set free of the resurrection. from the perfunctory and noisy crowd ; am! Ver. 38.-St. Matthew here says (ix. 23) he goes up to the dead child, and takes her that when J eeus came into the ruler's house, by the hand and says, Talitha ourni; Ii terally he" saw the minstrels (Tous aoll.11Ta:s)," i.e. the Little maid, arua. The evangelist gives tlie ftute-ple.yere, "and the people making a words in the very language used by our noise." This was the custom both with Jews Lord-the ipsissima 11erba, remembered no and with Gentiles, to quicken the sorrow of doubt and recorded by St. Peter; just us he the mourners by funeml dirges. The record gives "Ephphatho." in o.nother mimcle. of these attendant circumstances is impor- Vers. 42, 43.-Here, as in other miracles, tant o.s evidence of the foot of death having tho restoro.tion was immediate and complete: actually taken place. straightway the damsel rose up, and walked. Ver. 39.-Some have regarded the words Well might the fnther and the mother of of our Lord, the child is not dead, but sleepeth, the maiden and the three chosen apootles be ns really meaning that she was only in a amazed with a great amazement (,!l11T1111a11 swoon. But although she WRB actually dead l,c11Ta.11E1 ,u.-yc/.71.p). And then, for the purpose in the ordinary sense of that word, nnmely, of strengthening that life which be rescued that her spirit bad left the body, ye~ from the jaws of the gmrn. our Lord oom- Christ was pleased to speak of death as a manded that something should be given her sleep; because all live to him, o.nd because to eat. It has often been observed that iu all will rise at the lo.st day. Hence in the the examples of hie resurrection power given Holy Scriptures the dead are constantly by Christ there is a gmdlltion : I. The described as sleeping, in order that the d1n1ghter of Jnirus jusi dead. 2. The terror of death might be miti.auted, and im- wi,low's son from his bier. 3. Lazarus from 214 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [CB, V, 1-43,
his grave. The more stupendous miraole is pledge, when "a.II that are in their gra.vcs yet to come, of which our Lord's own resur- sha.11 hea.r his voice, a.nd shall oome fonn."' rection is at once the example and the