Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-13
OF FAITH.
Lesson Drawn From the Act Of the
Sick Woman Of Capernaum.
BUT THE BORDER OF his GARMENT.
The Simple Act Was Sufficient to Arrest the
Saviors Attention.
IMPORTANCE OF THE CONFESSION
rwRrrTIN FOE THE DIsPArcH.1


eff may but touch the border Of His
garment, shall be whole"
A woman who has been sick II years, and
has spent all her money to no purpose
paying doctors bills, may be forgiven for
lack of faith. I mean lack of faith in
doctors.
We must not think that the woman Of
Capernaum who came in this evil case to
Christ knew Him as we know Him, or
thought of Him at all Is we think Of Him.
To this poor woman, Jesus was only another
doctor-a wonderful doctor, no doubt, better
than any Of the others, but yet doctor;
probably nothing more. He had no halo
about His head such as He wears in the old
pictures He dressed like other men, and
spoke like other men, and walked like
other men, along the Capernaum street.
And yet this woman saw in moment that
He was different from all the other doctors.
It marks the strong impression that Jesus
made upon this woman's mind that she
should have ventured after that discourag-
ing experience to try again.
The Touch Was Not Unheeded.
Indeed, as she regarded it, there was no
venture at all She was quite sure about it
eff may but touch the border Of His gar
ment I shall be whole" And the woman
was right She did touch the border Of His
garment and was made whole. The first
thing to think about is that Jesus noticed
this touch upon the border of His garment.
It all happened, you remember, in q
crowd. An important citizen of Caper-
naum, q ruler of the synagogue there, by
name Jairus, had come to the Master, no
doubt in haste, running through the narrow
streets, beseeching Him to come and save
his daughter; ''for he had one only daughter,
about II years of age, and she lay a-dying.
And the Master and HIS disciples started
with the ruler upon this errand of mercy.
And the people thronged about them
Capernaum was but little town, where
everybody knew everybody else. The peo-
pie in those Eastern countries live in the
streets. The sidewalk was the daily paper
of Capernaum, the only one they had. And
when the ruler of the synagogue, with tears
in his eyes, went hurrying along the street,
everybody saw him. And when he came
back, with the Master in his company, all
Capernaum was watching; and they all went
on together. The people crowded upon
Him, thronged Him and pressed Him, the
record says, as Jesus went
Twas in a Great Crowd.
And in the crowd was this woman. And
she reached out her hand, thrusting it In
perhaps between the jostling men, and
touched Him, touched just the border of
His garment And at once He stopped,
and looked about Him, and said, "Who
touched Me7" And they answered, natur-
ally enough, that a dozen people were
touching Him. The crowd was so close
about Him that he had hardly room to
walk. And yet He said, "Sombody hath
touched Me-" And then the woman came,
and fell down before Him, and told all that
had happened, how she had touched and
been healed. Jesus noticed even that little
timld touch upon the border of His gar
ment
The life Of the Master is of immeasurabls
Importance to us in every smallest detail
Of 1t, not only because it teaches US about
duty, but because it teaches US about God.
God is like Jesus. Jesus came to be the
revelation of God There is NO mystery
about that; we do not get that out of the
theologies. Evidently, we may be sure Of
this: that God is at least as good as the best
man that ever lived. And we know very
we'll that the ideal life was lived in Galilee.
He that hath seen Christ hath seen the
Father. Whoever knows Jesus Christ,
knows God.
None Are Too Obscure.
God, especially, is as loving as Christ
was God is as attentive As Christ was to
The faintest call of the most timid disciple.
Every touch upon the farthest corner of the
garment of God, God feels. There is no.
body so hidden in . crowd as to be unseen
Of God. There is no disciple 60 obsure, so
poor, SO insignificant, so weak, as to be out
of the range of the attention of God. The
very smallest prayer of the very smallest
child is heard of God. Even the hidden
thought, the trembling resolution, the un-
,poken aspiration after better love for God,
which lies away back in the heart and no
nan ever knows of, is known of God.
Indeed, that modest touch was esteemed
BY the Master above all the pushing and the
ostling Of the multitude. There were men
Him that day so close that He
aim-in His sense of the word-at all We
,ave got to be close to Christ in love and
aith in order to touch Him. The length
md the loudness of mems prayers do not
them to the ear of God. Peoples
professions do not count for very much with
Him. One is inelihed to wonder if the sane
imonious talk of q good many obtrusively
,ious people is not as unpleasing to God as
t is to most of us. Certain it is that those
With whom Christ found least in common
vhen He lived here were the people who |
made the most pretentions to religion.
Tho Pretensions Arc Not Favored.
Out of every service, out Of the presencs
f every spiritual opportunity, we go ae
hey went that day out of that crowd in
,apernaum, some helped and some not
elped at all. And it will many times be
ound that they who take a blessing with
hem are those who, like the publican, have
carce dared to lift up so much as their eyes
o heaven, or, like the woman, have ven-
ured only to touch the border Of tho gar
lent.
Another good thing to think about is that
esus rewarded this womsn's touch, not
My in spite of its faintness, but in spite Of
IL the mistaken ideas that were implied in
!. This woman, as I have already sug-
ested, had probably but blundering no.
ion about Christ She knew not who He
as. She had heard hat He had been 60
1g about all that country doing good, heal
lg the sick The great man of the neigh
orhood, the ruler of the synagogue, was
.stifying to his own confidence in the
over of Christ BY calling Him to the
eathbed of his little daughter. 1t was the
Tx of the town. And the woman had
card it, as we hear to-day of the faith cure
only with thousand-fold emphasis. She
I'd come out to meet this great physician.
No Religious Thought in It
That was probably the highest thought
le had about Him. 1t does not appear that
.ere was any religion in the woman's
olive, nor any spiritual side to it. One
ling she knew: that she was sick, and that
1t there in the street, coming along past
II own house, was the best doctor she. had
zar ha I'd of She did not auen nrau She |