Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-16
A WOMAN OF CANAAN.
The Lesson in the Savior's Answer to
Her Request for Help.
HE T0ILED WITHIN TWO LIMITS,
One the Boundary of Palestine, the Other
the Suppliant's Faith.
APPLICATION TO CHRISTIAN LIFE
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH.

|
Christ was forever doing and saying that
which nobody expected. His dealings with
men and women, as they are described in
the gospels, were full of surprises. 1t can
be said of them, as it has been said of hu-
man life, that nothing is certain but the
unforeseen"
This fact about Christ is especially notice
able in His answers to peoples questions,
and in His response to appeals. A young
man comes running to Him, of whom it is
said that he had great possessions. He is
desirous to be numbered among the dis
ciples. His life is blameless. his enthusiasm
is great; he loves the Master, and the Mas
ter, looking into his face, loves him. Here
surely Is a most acceptable addition to the
little Christian company. Youth, en-
thusiasm and wealth have always
been valuable elements in every move
ment. We want them in the church
to-day, and they counted for just as much
among men in Christ's day. What does the
Master do? Straightway He lays upon this
young mans shoulders the heaviest burden
He can think of. Go, He says, sell all thou
hast, and give to the poor, and then come!
And the youg man turns away, and makes
| the great refusal. s
But when the case In hand is that of
Matthew, a publican, a man despsedand hated
by his fellow men, one from whom anybody
who wished to have any popularity or in
fuence would have kept away, one whose
| presence in the company of the disciples
would be sure to handicap them in their
work and give occasion to scandal and
enmity. Christ does not wait for Matthew
to ask admission. He calls him, inviting
him into the apostolic company and laying
upon him no burden whatsoever.
IN APPEALS FOR HELP.
The same difference is to be noticed in the
Masters response to appeals which are
made to Him for help. Take these two in
stances which happened in the same city:
"When Jesus was entered into Capernaum,
there came to Him a centurion heseeching
| Him and saying: "Lord, thy servant lieth at
home sick of palsy, grievously tormented.
And Jesus saith unto him, will come and
heal him." "There was a certain nobleman
whose son was sick at Capernaum. When
he heard that Jesus was come out of udea
into Galilee, he went unto Him and besought
Him that He would come down and heal his
son, for he was at the point of death. Then
said Jesus unto him: Except We see signs
! and wonders We will not believe"
1t could not have been predicted accu-
rately of Christ in regard to any word which
might be spoken to Him how He would an
| swer. Nobody could tell in what attitude,
any emergency, any event, any necessity for
action or opinion would find Him. He
would have chosen Jerusalem for His
dwelling place, one would have thought
the city of the temple and the priests, the
city of holiness. Instead of that, He chose
Capernaum, the city of buyers and sellers,
the city of secular business. He would have
fraternized, one would have thought with
the religious people of His day, choosing
His friends among the rabbis, conversing
with the Pharisees. Instead Of that He
directed against the religious leaders of His
time HIS plainest and strongest rebukes and
kept His words of sympathy for publicans
and sinners.
This unexpectedness was the natural
result of Christ's perfect knowledge OF men.
He looked straight into the hearts OF the
people with whom He talked, and answered
them as He saw they needed. Because He
looked beneath the surface always, so His
speech went always beneath the surface
The superficial is for the most part con.
ventional and expected. We can predict
that we'll enough. Christ, in all His lie,
never once spoke superficial word. He
could not because He saw the heart-the
heart oil man and the heart of truth.
WHAT THE UNEXPECTED Is.
In proportion as any man knows men and
sees into the soul of truth, in that proportion
will his words and actions contain this same
element OF unexpectedness. Greatness mani
tests itself in the unexpected. For the un-
expected is simply an expression of a way of
looking at things different from our way.
Year in and year out, the common sights of
nature and the common experiences of life
enter into our thinking. We think about
them in the common way, not going beneath
the surface. But the poet looks out at life
and nature and it has all different look to
him. The man of thought, OF genius, sets
down his impressions OF these ecommon sights
and facts and suddenly they are transfgured,
or rather they are translated and interpreted
so that at last we catch their meaning. 1t is
a new meaning which we had not thought
of before. 1t is the unexpected.
Behold a woman of Canaan came out of
the same coasts, and cried unto Him, say
ing: Have mercy on me, o Lord, thou Son
OF David, my daughter is grievously Yexed
with devil. But He answered her not
word. Aud His disciples came and be-
sought Him, saying, send her away, for she
crieth alter US. But He answered and said,
1 am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Then came she and
worshiped Him, saying, Lord help me.
But he answered and said, it is not meet to
to take the chil0ren's bread and to cast it TO
dogs. And she said: Truth, Lord, vet the
dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their
masters table. Then Jesus answered, and
said unto her: o woman, great is thy faith;
be it unto thee even as thou wilt"
Here, emphatically, is the unexpected.
That Christ, who came to help people who
needed help, should have returned no an
swer to this poor mothers piteous need; that
He, who upon so many other occasions heard
and needed so many appeals like this that
the writers of the gospels have no numbers
to set beside the healings, should here have
hesitated to help; this is unex pected, indeed.
HOW TO EXPLAIN IT.
Suppose now, that in the presence OF this
singular incident, we must be as silent as
the Master was at the beginning. Suppose
we were to think about it to tine end of our
thoughts, and to read what everybody else
who mas thought about it has written,
and still find no good answer; what would
we say? We might say that Christ was
moved, as we mi ght have been, in the first
place by prejudice, and then by pity. He
refused the womau's request because He was
a Jew and she was an outsider; and then He
granted it when He saw how very much in
earnest she was, how persistent and how
deeply troubled.
That would be to measure Christ by our
own selves. And if the small can accurately
measure the great by their own selves; if
the sinner can adequately pronounce upon
the motives OF the saint; if the mind of the
unframed thinker is measure tor the mind
of the philosopher; then we can say Of Christ
that He showed here some such weakness as
we might have showed.
The truth is, however, that we stand in