The dead maiden.
There are three instances of Christ's raising the dead recorded by the evangelists. In them a suggestive progression may be observed. On this occasion, a child had but recently died, and was laid upon the bed in her own home, amongst those who could still see the dear face, which was now void and irresponsive. On another occasion a young man had been dead long enough for his funeral to have begun, and he was being carried forth on a bier through the village in which he had lived. On the third occasion we read that when Jesus came to Bethany he found that Lazarus "had been dead three days already," and that the grave had closed on him. In all these he gave evidences of his life-giving power, and this with ever-growing intensity until that glorious day when he himself, in spite of the Sanhedrim's seal and the Roman guard, appeared as being in his own person the Conqueror of death and the grave. In answer to the prayer of Jairus, and perhaps to the prayer of his child before she died, Jesus came into the ruler's house. He found it filled with hired mourners, and heard the music of their flutes, the droning of liturgical chants, the wails and cries by which they sought, not only to express grief, but further to excite it. There was something stern about his utterance—"Give place!" Such an exhibition Could not be other than offensive to One so sincere and true and natural as he was. And they who have his Spirit would rather be lamented by the few whose hearts are really touched with sadness, than by a multitude who offer ceremonial lamentation. Christ Jesus "put them all out." And we must get rid of all that is artificial and false if we would feel that Jesus is near, and we must be out of the company of the mockers who "laugh him to scorn" if we would hear his voice. It is in the quiet hour that he speaks, and we then can say—
"In secret silence of the mind,
My God and there my heaven I find."
We may look upon that dead maiden—
I. AS AN EXAMPLE OF PHYSICAL DEATH. When Jesus said, "She is not dead," he did not mean, as some suppose, that she was in a trance. He spoke metaphorically, just as he did when he said, "Our friend lazarus sleepeth," though immediately afterwards he said "plainly, lazarus is dead." A boaster would have laid stress on the fact of her death in order to exalt his own power in restoring her, but Christ spoke of it as a sleep, because he wished, not to magnify himself, but lovingly to prepare her friends for the overwhelming joy that awaited them. Sleep is a true image of death. like it, death follows weariness when the work of life has been hard and its sorrows many; it gives quietude of which the stillness of the body is but an outward sign; and it will be followed by a glorious awakening on the morning of the eternal day. Christ is "the resurrection and the life." He who gave this child back to her parents, and the lad at Nain back to his widowed mother, and lazarus back to his sisters, will restore to us all those dear ones who now "through faith and patience inherit the promises."
II. A SYMBOL OF SPIRITUAL DEATH. The child lay there, unconscious that her friends were weeping for her, and that Jesus Christ was near. But suddenly she felt the touch of his hand. She heard his voice in language such as her mother and nurse used—the language of the children—saying, "Talitha cumi!"—"Dear child, arise!" and she opened her eyes and saw Jesus, and from that moment her heart was his. As truly he speaks now, in the stirring of sacred feeling, in the revival of old memories, in the loving influence of Christian friends; and they who obey his voice begin from that moment a happier life than they ever knew before. Very significant is the command of Christ "that something should be given her to eat." It was a reminder that she really lived, that she had natural appetite, that he lovingly thought of the little things his dear ones needed, and that she was back again in the old life and home, though with a new love in her heart. So, many now who are dead to the old life and alive unto righteousness are called upon by their Lord to go back to their former work and companionship, but to serve him by shedding on these the light of holiness and love. From some he demands the public confession that they are on his side which he asked of the woman who had been secretly cured; but there are others to whom publicity is painful, whose experience is not to be blazed abroad, lest the beauty of childlike trust and the bloom of early piety be destroyed.—A.R.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN