“IT WAS NOISED THAT HE WAS IN THE HOUSE”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25802, 24 March 1945, Page 3

“IT WAS NOISED THAT HE WAS IN THE HOUSE”

Written for the Otago Daily Times By the Rev. Gardner Miller

When I begin to read the second chapter of Marie’s Gospel I always halt after I have read the first verse. It has always been a habit of mine, when anything in my reading grips me, to stop and let my thoughts carry me where they will. I love to see, in thought, the implications—and the modern equivalent—of the words that send me a-roving. And there is something specially intriguing about the first verse of Mark, chapter two. You will find it in the second clause: “And it was noised that he was in the house." It is the word “ noised ’.’ that quickens my imagination. There is something cheery about it. Other words could have been used, such as it was “ rumoured,” or it “ became known,” but the translators' gave us this word as the best way of expressing in English what was meant by the author of the Gospel. It is the very opposite of whispering. It has the suggestion of a man calling to a friend across the road “ What’s the news? ” and the reply coming, so that everybody near could hear, “Jesus is in a cottage in Fisherman's row. There’s a crowd there." It was the topic of conversation when housewives met and had a chat (as they still do) in the middle of their shopping. It was “noised”—it was something interesting, exciting, and full of expectancy. It was a public secret that everybody knew. Now as soon as I read this first verse and stop, my thoughts, almost inevitably, leap to something similar in Bunyan’s “ Pilgrim’s Progess.” It is that word “noised” again: “Now while they lay here (the land of Beulah) and waited for the good hour (to cross the river) there was a noise in the town that there was a post come from the Celestial City, with matter of great importance to one Christiana, the wife of Christian the pilgrim.” And the post was that she was to get ready at once for she would meet her Lord within ten days. What a wonderful way of announc’ng your passing! I know people who have had a message from their Lord that He was waiting to receive them. What gloom would be lifted from all death beds if only we realised that dealth is just the messenger to convoy us Home! But I must get back to this verse. The Crowd As soon as the news got round that Jesus was in the house (probably Peter’s cottage) the crowd collected. I love, crowds. I am always most mycrtlP T i n fVro mirlct nf a

As soon as the news got round that Jesus was in the house (probably Peter’s cottage) the crowd collected. I love, crowds. I am always most myself when I am in the midst of a crowd. I have been in a crowd that numbered a million—the day when the Cenotaph was«unveiled in Whitehall, London —and felt the thrill of a great occasion. What a crowd would gather in any of our cities if it were “ noised ” that Jesus was to be seen in the house of one of His friends! What a personality He was! People simply could not dismiss Him. And here is something to think about. There have been men and women, down through the centuries, who have had the same wonderful gift of drawing crowds—not to witness a spectacle, but to hear the Word of Life. To me the explanation is simple: it is the very presence of Christ within them that attracts others. There is no greatej- truth—an experience—we should strive for than the realisation that Christ may live in each of us. Whitefield (unfortunately overshadowed by Wesley) was one who had this compelling attraction. On the very night he died the crowds filled the house where he was staying. “ I am tired.” said Whitefield. “ and must go to bed.” He took a lighted candle and sought his chamber, but the sight of the crowd (filling the hall and street and patiently waiting was too much for him. Pausing on the staircase he began to speak, and then, insensibly, to preach. It was “ the ruling passion strong in death, and his voice went on pleading, exhorting, fiamihg, and waning, and flaming again until the candle went out, burnt down to the socket.” Many others have had it since Whitefield. but not-so many in our generation. I am not sure whether we lack burning preachers to-day or whether we have not listeners burning to hear the good news. It is in the combination of the two that revivals are born, but I am inclined to *lhink that the burning listeners are made by burning preachers. A pulpit on fire fills empty pews. From the pulpit that Jesus occupied, the doorstep of a fisherman’s cottage. He “preached the word unto them” (verse 2). But He never lost touch with the individual, even when thronged by crowds (remember, Jesus and the woman in the crowd!) and in this crowd there was one who needed His word very much. The Man a sick man. unable to walk, but get to Jesus he must. His friends could not get him through the croiyd, so they made a hole in the roof, and got in. first. Blessed audacity! There surely was a smile on the face of Jesus as He commended the sick mans; friends for their faith, which is just holy audacity. He healed the sick man’s sick soul before He healed his body. And that is the true method of healing. Wherever Jesus is, pain and misery and frustration seek Him out. It is as if the whole kingdom—a very wishful kingdom it is—of sickness is drawn to Him as by a magnet. And it kis just as He would wish it. “ Come unto Me —and I will give you rest.” Peter and his wife, and his mother-in-law, too, must have been humbly proud that day when Jesus used their home as a pulpit and a hospital. I wonder if Jesus would be at home in your home and mine! I am sure He would welcome our invitation to stay with us. And I wonder if the needy and the anxious and the sin-laden come to our homes to see us because they have heard it “ noised that He was in the (our) house ”!