SUNDAY SERVICE

Evening Star, Issue 16911, 7 December 1918, Page 2

SUNDAY SERVICE

SUPPLIED BY THE UNITED CHIUS TIAN COUNCIL. Wo have received assurances oi appreciation of the order service supplied in this column during the past three weeks (the period of the influenza epidemic, while the churches have been closed), and at the request of the United Christian Council have agreed to the continuation of the column till the end of the year.

Braver: 0 God, we have heard with our cars, and our fathers have declared to us, the noble works that Ihou didst in their days, and in the old time before arise, help us, and deliver us for Thine honor. . From our enemies defend us, U t/imsi. Graciously look upon our afflictions. Pitifully behold the sorrows of our forgive the sins of Thy P Favorably with mercy hear our prayers. 0 Son oi David, have mercy upon us. Both now and ever vouchsafe to near us, ° Graciously hear us,_ 0 Christ; graciously hear us, 0 Lord Clirist. Scripture: 8. Mark v., 2143. Sermon; It is said that Jesus very seldom heard good news. When we hear of people coming to Him, it is_ generally to tell of a sick servant, a dying child, or of some other great sorrow. It seems to bo always so, for does nob Mrs Browning sing: Eyes that the teacher cannot school. By wayside graves are raised, And lips sav “ God bo pitiful.” That ne’er said “God be praised.’

The story of Jairus is a case in point, rfe came to Jesus in great distress for his daughter, his “little daughter "—die was only 12—was at the point of death. For a few minutes let us consider the revelation Jesus makes of Himself in this in- , cident. Wo note our Lord’s responsiveness to hurn.au need and His sympathy was wide and tender and deep. Multitudes came to Him —some from the classes, some from the masses; some we should call interesting cases, others were distressing and perhaps oven repulsive, but he turned none empty away. Gliarlcs Wesley draws our attention to what might have been seen any day in the city streets and squares: See whore the lame, the halt, the blind, The deaf, the dumb, the sick, the poor Flock to the friend of human kind And freely all obtain their cure. To whom did He His help deny? Whom in His days of flesh pass by? I cannot think of anyone to whom He denied help. Even the foreigner from Syro-Phcsnicia overcame him. There is a suspicion in many minds that broad sympathies are not very deep, not very tender, and not personal. The deep stream, it is said, cuts a narrow channel. In this story we see that the feelings of Jesus wore very tender and individual. Let us note several touches that bring out this point. “He took her by the hand.” It has often been remarked that when Jesus treated a sufferer He touched him—even the leper, loathsome and shunned. I shall not soon forget seeing a woman doctor in India take on to her lap the emaciated frame of a Hindoo girl, and with what a firm, unshrinking, kindly hand she treated the sufferer. Dean Blumptro somewhere speaks of “ the evangelisation of the hand.” _ There is soothing and strength in the touch of some hands. When a daughter I know lav down to die she said to her mother i “"Hold my hand, lam stronger to die when you are holding me.” When Jesus called ‘this little airl back through the Valley of the. Shadow He took her hand, and sho was welcomed back by the tendorest soul that ever looked through human eyes, and her father and mother were standing by. .And He said to her: “ Talitha cumi.” These foreign words are Aramaic, not Greek, the language in which the story is written. It was probably the language the little girl used as she went to tho synagogue school or played about her home. Idle translation in our version, “ Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise,” impresses us as formal and cold, and it docs not express the tenderness of the Saviour’s speech. We. may better render the words: “Little girl, I am telling you to rise.” or, more strictly, “ Little lamb, get up.” Wo may be quite sure that Ho who spake ns never man spake, upon whose words men hung listening, knew how to speak to children. He could talk their dialect. He had, wo may be sure, tho “simple, merry, tender knack” attributed by Mrs Browning to moth era rather than to fathers, Of stringing pretty words that make no sense, And kissing full sense into empty words. He commanded that something should bo given her to cat. That is a womanly touch. One would have expected the mother to have, thought of that, but Jesus anticipated oven the mother. Our Saviour came upon a spiritual mission, but ho never overlooked the needs of the body. His disciples on one occasion would have, sent tho multitudes away because they were in a desert place and it was almost dark. Jesus said: “Feed them first, or they will faint by the way.” Simon Jasper, one of Mark Guy Pearce’s characters, said that when he went preaching hr. sometimes was treated by the congregation as if ho were an angel from Heaven—as if he had no stomach. Simon, after service, had to find his food in tho blackberry hedges. Jesus tho Saviour of the world did not overlook even the prosaic wants of tho bodv. Some men who are engaged in greet duties are sometimes singularly neglectful of little duties and little courtesies. Such was not our Saviour's way. lie never omitted them, and ho marked when others did so. In our store he has the woman’s instinct, which, in His case is wifter than the mother’s.

I have said that the sympathies of our Saviour were not only wide and tender, but also deep and persons 1. Love identifies the lover with the loved. Sympathy is not feeling for, it is feeling with—-a much closer relation. Wo are commanded to rejoice with, to weep with. When Matthew watched Jesus at His work of healing, this was the thing that struck him—that He identified Himself with the sufferers. He reminded Matthew- of Isaiah’s great picture of the suffering servant of Jehovah, and he said : “ Himself took onr infirmities and bare our sicknesses,” Such Ho was while with us hero, but a cloud has received Him out of our sight. He is, however, still th© same.

Love and sorrow still to Thee may come And find a hiding-place, a rest, a home.