SECOND QUARTER, 1910. THE MINISTRY OF OUR LORD AS NARRATED IN THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. CHAPTERS IX. TO XV. APRIL 3 TO JUNE 26, 1910. LESSON I. - April 3. THE POWER OF FAITH. Matthew 9: 18-34. GOLDEN TEXT.— All things are possible to him that believeth.— MARK 9: 23. 1. Read the lesson text, adding Matt. 13: 54-58. Read also the parallel passages, Mark 5: 21-43; 6: 1-6; Luke 8: 40-56. Consider whether Luke 11: 14 is also a parallel. 2. Regarding the ceremonial uncleanness of the woman with an issue of blood read Lev. 15: 19-27. 3. Find other instances in which multitudes thronged Jesus: Matt. 9: 36; 15: 32; Mark 2: 2, 4; Luke 12: 1; 19: 3; 23: 27; John 5: 13; 6: 5, etc. 4. Compare this mention of Christ's coat with the description in John 19: 23. Read the prescription for the tassels in Num. 15: 38, 39; Deut. 22: 12. 5. Read the account of the working of miracles by means of garments that had touched Paul, Acts 19: 12. 6. Compare the "good cheers" of Christ, Matt. 9: 2, 22; 14: 27; John 16: 33. 7. Compare the raising of Jairus's daughter with the healing of the servant of the Capernaum centurion, Matt. 8: 5-13; Luke 7: 1-10; also with the other miracles of raising from the dead, Luke 7: 11-17; John 1I. 8. Compare the various cures of the blind wrought by Jesus: Matt. 9: 27-31; 12: 22; 20: 29-34; Mark 8: 22-26; John 9. See also the prophecy, Isa. 35: 5; 42: 7. 9. Compare with the use of the title, "Son of David," in our lesson Matt. 15: 22, 23; 22: 41-45; Mark 10: 47, 48; Matt. 21: 9. THE TEACHER AND HIS CLASS. How to Get Home Study. Tell the class that you will have them draw lots, the one that draws No. I to give an account of the first miracle, the healing of the woman, the one that draws No. 2 to tell about the second miracle, and so on; therefore they must study carefully the whole lesson, in order to be ready. Manual Work.. - Have the scholars mark at home and bring to the class the sentences and phrases in the parallel passages of Mark and Luke that give points not in Matthew's account. A man doll may be dressed by the scholars in garments like those worn by Jesus. See Edersheim's life of Christ. Themes for Brief Essays or Class Discussion. -The Miracles of Raising from the Dead Compared. The Various Cures of the Blind Compared. Miracles Worked at the Intercession of Others. Men's Dress in Christ's Time. Aspects of Faith Illustrated in This Lesson. Mourning and Funerals in the East. For Committing to Memory. — Vs. 28, 29; Eph. 2: 8; 1 John 5: 4. THE LESSON IN ITS SETTING. Introduction. THE TEACHER'S LIBRARY. Works on the miracles, by Trench, Spurgeon, Bruce, Macdonald, Taylor, Lang. Account of men's dress in Christ's day, Edersheim's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. "The Smith's The Days of His Flesh, Chap. XXIII. Principal Garvie's Studies in the Inner Life of Jesus, Chaps. XIII., XVI. Trumbull's Studies in Oriental Social Life," Funerals and Mourning in the East." The "Good Cheer" of Jesus Christ, by Rev. Charles Moinet. Robertson's Sermons, Second Series. Sermons, by Newman Hall. The Lesson in Literature. Healing of the Daughter of Jaïrus," by N. P. Willis. Other poems on the same subject in Foster's Cyclopedia of Poetical Illustrations, II., 3557-3562. "The Woman Who Came behind Him in the Crowd," by George Macdonald. "Talitha Cumi," by Susan Coolidge. Longfellow's "Resignation," "She is not dead, the child of our affection." The Lesson in Art.-Works on art describe many pictures of the raising of Jaïrus's daughter, by Veronese, Hofmann, Overbeck, Vriendt, Richter, Bida, Doré, Tissot, etc. What Faith Is and What It Will Do. In what part of Christ's life are our quarter's lessons found? In the great Galilean ministry, including nearly all of A.D. 28 and 29. It may be divided into three periods: I. From the return to Galilee until the choosing of the Twelve; December A.D. 27 to early summer, A.D. 28. II. From the choosing of the Twelve until the withdrawal into northern Galilee; early summer, A.D. 28, to the Passover, April 18, A.D. 29. III. From the withdrawal into northern Galilée until the final departure for Jerusalem; April 18 to November, A.D. 29. Our present lesson is near the beginning of the second period. How is the lesson important? It deals with one of the great fundamentals of religion, faith. "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Heb. 11:6). "In religion everything depends upon faith.". Goethe. "He that has lost his faith, what staff has he left?" Bacon. "I do not know that it is a possibility for any man to rise to a true conception of the importance of faith.”. Governor Hughes, of New York. We are to study: 18. While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live. Mark 5: 22; Luke 8: 41. I. What Faith Is.- Vs. 18, 19. Where was Jesus when he worked the miracles we are to study? In "his own city," Capernaum. He was fresh from two stupendous miracles, the stilling of the tempest on the sea of Galilee, and the healing of the Gadarene demoniacs across the sea from Capernaum. On his return he was welcomed by "a great multitude" (Mark), who had been waiting for him on the shore. 66 Who was in this waiting throng, probably the most eager of all? A ruler of the synagogue, whose name, Jaïrus, is given us in the longer accounts of Mark and Luke. He would be given a speedy chance to speak with Jesus; why? Because he was a man of importance. The "ruler " was one who presided over the elders in the synagogue; sometimes there was more than one (Acts 13: 15). The primitive bishop probably had a similar office."- New Century Bible. And another reason? Because of the sympathy of the crowd for his great and well-known trouble. How did Jairus bring his petition to Jesus? He put his whole soul into his prayer, the only kind of prayer that gets results. He worshipped him, falling at his feet, and beseeching him much (Mark). He was pleading for the life of his only child (Luke calls her μovoyevs, "only begotten"). Very likely he had been one of the elders who (Luke 7: 3) had before this pleaded with Jesus for the centurion's servant. The practice in intercessory prayer now stood him in good stead for himself, - a hint for us. The child was at the interesting age of twelve, when all the beauties and powers of womanhood were blossoming. What was the condition of Jairus's daughter? She was "at the point of death," as Mark and Luke tell us. Indeed, when the ruler left the house she was so near death that he did not know whether to speak of her as dead or alive, but in his distraction now called her "dying" and now, as in Matthew, even now dead. "Strange that a circumstance like this, so drawn from the life, so testifying to the reality of the things recorded, should be urged by some as a contradiction between one Gospel and another." "- Trench. The girl being in that desperate condition, how did Jairus show his faith? By urging that Jesus lay his hand upon her, and she should live. His faith did not rise to the height of the centurion's; he did not ask Jesus to heal from a distance. Perhaps he thought the case had gone too far for that. But it was genuine and very noble faith none the less. WHAT IS FAITH? Faith is trusting God in the dark. "Fair weather is no faith." Spurgeon. "Faith is letting down our nets into the untransparent deeps at the divine command, not knowing what we shall take." - Faber. "Faith is taking God at his word.". Evans. Therefore "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 19. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. 1 And behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the beer of his garment : be 20. 21. made who had border For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall whole. for turning seeing 22. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour. comfort; 2 I Mark 5 25; Luke 8: 43. 2 Luke 7: 50. that his dear girl was dead. Faith told him that this Jesus seen (Heb. 11: 1). It is the reality to the soul of things invisible to the senses and unprovable to the reason. The senses told this poor father Reason told him that the dead did not come to life again. could bring her to life by a touch. And faith was right. ILLUSTRATIONS. "A small steam-packet was crossing a stormy bay. Her engine suddenly stopped. For a little while the peril was great. An old lady rushed to the captain to ask him if there was any danger. 'Madam,' he replied, we must trust in God.' 'O, dear,' she cried, has it come to that?' A good many Christians are like that terrified lady. In times of great peril they are willing to trust in everything except God."- A. C. Price. Faith is no less real because it is based on the invisible and the unprovable. A man owes you fifty dollars and gives you a check for the sum. You know that he has paid you and give him a receipt, though the check in itself is worthless and only faith in the bank and in the man and in the financial system of the country makes it worth anything at all: "Out West they have a place for watering cattle. The cattle have to mount a platform to reach the troughs. As they step on the platform their weight presses a lever, and this throws the water into the troughs. They have to get on the platform, through faith, and this act provides the water. - Sam Jones. A smart steer that slipped around and looked into the trough without getting on the platform would find it dry. Faith is stepping out on the promises of God. II. Faith for One's Self. - Vs. 20-22. How did Jesus respond to Jairus's petition? He arose at once, and followed him, and so did his disciples, and a great multitude with them, expecting to be witness of a miracle. how were they interrupted on the way? another appeal, no less urgent because it was silent. It is an illustration of how the sick and wretched pressed upon Jesus all the time. But By What was the trouble of this new petitioner ? She had suffered for twelve years with a bloody flux, and had spent her living upon physicians who were unable to cure her, as Luke, the physician, says. Mark sarcastically adds that under their care she had grown worse. "Nor is this at all surprising when one considers the methods of the physicians of that period. It is written in the Talmud that the best of doctors is ripe for Gehenna.'". Rev. David Smith. "On one leaf of the Talmud not less than eleven different remedies are proposed for this disease, of which at most only six can possibly be regarded as astringents or tonics, while the rest are merely the outcome of superstition, such as the ashes of an ostrich-egg, carried in summer in a linen, in winter in a cotton rag." - Edersheim. A Street Scene. How did she approach Jesus? She came behind him, "from womanly shame or the morbid shrinking of chronic ill-health, or out of regard to the law concerning uncleanness (Leviticus 15)."- Expositor's Greek Testament. She did not dare touch his hand, |