The Pulpit Commentary — Mark — Volume 1 — Section 280

presence of God. Modified by intelligence, purified from superstition, fear passes into that reverence which is the ground-tone of religious feeling. III, THE TEBBOnB OF GoD CONCEAL HIS LOVE. Behind the tempest is his "smiling face." The voice of the Comforter and Saviour of man speaks from the dread a ppari- tion of the lake. So from out the mystic scenes of nature, the Alpine tempest and avalanche, the mountainous swelling of the sea,and all human changes and turbulences of history, speaks a voice, clear, calm, and still, if we will but hearken, like that which greeted Elijah: "Have courage; it is I. Child of man, I love thee; rest on me and be at peace." It is when we realize that we are members of the kingdom of spirit and under the protection of its Head, that we can defy the "wild deluge of ca_res." It is nc;. because God is not near to us, or that help is not available, that we tremble and fee-.. forlorn; it is because, like the disciples, our "minds have become dull."-J. Vers. 53-56.-Commotion in Gennesaret. 1. A STIR AMONG THE SICK AND THEIR FRIENDS. We read of "fashionable events" and" arrivals in the fashionable world." This was not such. The quality of a movement teaches much as to its origin. The poor and sick know their friends, and their thronging is a testimonial to worth. II. THE PROGRESS OF HEALING AND PITY. Contrast with the progress of the conqueror or the cold pomp of royalty. Wherever Christ goes, and men come into contact with him, they are made well. Worth much is the testimony of any suffering one to the private Christian: "I am the better for seeing you; you do me more good than the doctor." There is a contagion of health as well a.s of disease.-J. Vera. 1-6. Parallel passage: Matt. xiii. 54-58.-The rejection at Nazareth. I. Otra Lono's VISIT TO NAZARETH. This chapter commences with our Lord's removal from the house of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, where he had performed the miracle recorded at the close of the last chapter; or rather from Capernaum, where the synagogue appears to have been situated. In either case he proceeded to visit his fatherland-not in the wide sense of that term, but in the narrower meaning of the township where his parents' home had been, and where his own childhood, youth, and early manhood had been spent. It is scarcely necessary to remind our readers that, while Bethlehem was the place of our Lord's nativity, and while Capernaum is called his own city, as the place of bis frequent resort and the scene of so many of his mighty works, Nazareth was the place where he had been brought up. In a beautiful, basin-like valley, enclosed by some fifteen hills, was situated this place of world-wide renown. 'l'he town or village of Nazareth seems to sleep among the hills. The hills around this happy valley, as it has been called, have been compared to the petals of a rose, or the edge of a shell, with the little town on the lower slope of the western hill which rises high above, and which, from its elevation of nearly six hundred feet, commands one of the finest prospects in Palestine, with the Great Sea and Carmel on the west, the great plain of Esdraelon two miles to the south, Tabor six miles to the south-east, and Hermon's snowy summit away to the northward. II. CAUSE OF ms REJECTION. A previous rejection, if we mistake not, had taken place at Nazareth, and with greater violence than at this time, according to the record of St. Luke. On the previous occasion passion had impelled them; now prejudice blinds them. He had begun to adtlress the congregation; his eloquence and oratory amazed them. He had not gone far, however, without interruption. They admit his superiority; they acknowledge his wisdom; but, in a sinister manner, they question its source and character, asking," Whence is it? From above or below? What is it? Is it supernal or infernal? And then such mighty works are wrought by hi8 hands I Ho is the instrument of some superior power-not the originating cause or author of them." Such seems to be the insinuation. Envy and jealousy were at the root of this prejudice. They canvassed the humble position of his family, and the lowly occupation of its members. "Is he not," they said," a carpenter-a common carpenter, and the son of a carpenter-the village carpenter? Is he not a carpenter himself?" They were ignorant of the dignity of labour, and the nobility of honest toil. They overlooked the fact that Jews were wont to learn a trade, and that, according to Jewish ideas, a parent. who did not have his son taught a trade was regarded as guilty of training him to dis- honesty. Justin Martyr preserves the tradition of our Lord having made ploughs o.nd  THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. MARK. [en, v1, 1-66,