No. 2.
READ Mark 5:22-24, 35-43. “And He commanded that something should be given her to eat.” How very kind and thoughtful was this of our precious Lord Jesus! and how strikingly it illustrates His own gracious words, “Your heavenly Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.” Here, then, we get a little “glimpse” of one of those many “ways” in which He “declared the Father.” (John 1:18; 17:6, 26.) The poor girl, you know, had been ill of a fever, and no doubt had suffered much; and when people suffer they can’t eat. But she had not only suffered and been sorely weakened by the fever, but it had killed her outright. Then came Jesus, and with that word, “Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise,” He gave her life again. His word sufficed. “He spake, and it was done.” And if in thus speaking the dead into life He showed His power, a power greater than that of death itself—if thus He would show that He was the life, and His word life, how tenderly, how humanely, He does it! He “took her by the band,” all unconscious as she was; for He would befriend the very DEAD. Nor was this all “He commanded that something should be given her to eat.” Wonder, amazement, and joy unspeakable, might have caused the parents and friends to forget at such a moment the need of the poor child; but Jesus forgets nothing. How calm He is in all the turmoil and excitement of this scene; how conscious of power! yet how He stoops to think of giving a poor girl “something to eat.” What tender pity for a little one! As the beautiful curtains of the tabernacle were all of “one measure” (Exodus 26:2), so the precious features of Jesus’ character were all equal. His tenderness was as deep as His love, His pity as great as His power. No doubt this little scene shadows forth a glorious future, when the daughter of Judah shall be “taken by the hand,” raised from “death in trespasses and sins,” and fed on the meat that endureth forever. But just now I want you to think over the tenderheartedness which could care for the need of a child just raised from the dead by His own almighty word. God and man stand before us in one person, and in one little scene. The resistless power that can raise the dead is united to a compassion not less tender and thoughtful than that of a mother for her little one. Love was the spring of it all; and He is love, for He is God; but, blessed thought, He is man too, and His pity is equal to His power. What a Friend to have forever! Is He yours by faith? Do you know Him as your own precious Saviour, whose blood cleanseth from all sin? Only such can have Him for a Friend, and to all such He is “a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” But to know Him as a friend you must walk in obedience and communion. (John 15:14; 13:23-26; 19:26, 27.)
K.
“READER, this year may bring to thee
A summons to eternity!
If welcome thou would’st have it be,
To Jesus come.”