THE LITTLE GIRL WHO WAS RAISED TO LIFE

Matthew 9: 18 to 38; 10: 1 to 42; Mark 5: 22 to 43; Luke 8: 41 to 56; 9: 1 to 5.

HEN Jesus and his disciples landed at Capernaum, after their sail across the lake, they found a crowd of people on the shore waiting for them. And a man came forward from the throng and fell down at the feet of Jesus. He was one of the chief men in the synagogue, and his name was Jairus. He said: "O Master, come to my house at once! My little daughter is dying; but if you will come and lay your hands upon her, she will live."

And Jesus went with Jairus, and his disciples followed him, and also many people, who thronged around Jesus. In the crowd was a poor woman who had been ill for very many years from a sore out of which her blood ran, so that she was very weak. Many doctors had tried to help her but they could not; and she had spent all her money, so that she was now very poor. will make me well." And as Jesus passed by, she reached out her hand and touched the hem of his robe. At that instant she felt in her body that she was cured. Jesus himself felt her touch, and turning around, said, "Who touched me?" Peter said to him, "Master, the crowd throngs around you and presses upon you. How can you ask, Who touched me?" But Jesus said, "Some one has touched me; for I feel that power has gone out from me." And he looked around to see who it was. Then the woman came forward, fearing and trembling over what she had done. She fell down before Jesus, and told how she had touched him and had been made well. But Jesus said to her, "Daughter, be of good comfort; your faith has made you well; rise up and go in peace." And from that hour the woman was free from her disease.

All this time, while Jesus was waiting, Jairus, the father of the dying child, stood beside Jesus in great trouble, for he feared that his child would die before Jesus could come to his house. And at that moment some one came to him and said, "It is too late; your daughter is dead; you need not trouble the Master any more." But Jesus said to him, "Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will yet be saved to you." Soon they came to the house where Jairus lived; and they could hear the people weeping and crying aloud. Jesus said to them, "Why do you make such a noise? The little girl is not dead, but only asleep."

Jesus meant by this that we need not be filled with sorrow when our friends die, for death is only a sleep for a time until God shall awake them. But they did not understand this; and they would not be comforted, for they knew that the child was dead. Jesus would not allow any of the crowd of people to go into the room where the dead child was. He took with him three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, and the father and mother of the child, and shut out all the rest of the people. On a couch was lying the dead body of a girl, twelve years old. Taking the hand of the child into his own, he said to her, "Little girl, rise up!" And the life of the little girl came again. She opened her eyes, and sat up. Jesus told them to give her something to eat; and he said to them, "Do not tell any one how the little girl was brought to life."

Already the crowds following him were so great that he could not teach the people in the city; and if it became known that he could raise the dead to life, the throng and the press of the multitudes would be greater. His great work was to teach and to bring life to the souls of men, rather than to heal, or to raise the dead. And he went out once more among the villages of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, and healing the sick people who were brought to him. He pitied the people, because there was no one to give them the gospel; and they were like sheep wandering and lost without a shepherd. He said to his disciples: "The harvest truly is great, but the workers to gather the harvest are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send out reapers into these harvest fields."

And after this Jesus sent out his twelve disciples to different places to preach in his name to the people. He sent them forth in pairs, two of them together, so that they could help each other. And he gave them power to heal the sick, and to cast out evil spirits from men. He said to them: "Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out the evil spirits; freely you have received, freely give. Do not take any money with you; but at every place ask for some good man, and stay at his house. "And if any people will not listen to your words, when you go out of that house or out of that city, shake off the dust from your sandals, as a sign; and God will judge that house or that city. "He that hears you, hears me; and he that hears me, hears him who sent me. And if any one will give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, he shall not lose his reward." The twelve disciples went out in pairs, as Jesus had commanded them, and preached in all the cities of Galilee, that men should cease from their sins and turn to God.