And He was in the hinder part of the ship, 38 asleep on a pillow: and they awake Him,

and

say

unto Him, Master, carest Thou not that we perish?

As if, where the SAVIOUR was, there could be Danger! As if, in the presence of LIFE itself, there could be Death!

"Asleep ;"-" yet was it God Himself, who keepeth over His people a sleepless and eternal watch, while He seems to them in His Providence as asleep, and as one that heareth not; though, in reality, He is trying their Faith, and waiting for their Prayers."

And He arose, and rebuked the Wind, 39 and said unto the Sea, Peace, be still.

Shewing that all Creation is conscious of its Creator. The winds, which drove the waves, fell at His rebuke: the waves, before His command, grew calm. He even spoke to the Sea, as if it had been a living creature. Consider such remarkable places as the following,-Ps. xcvi. 11 to 13; xcviii. 4, 7 to 9. Isaiah lv. 12. St. Luke xix. 40, &c. .... "O LORD GOD of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto Thee? . . . Thou rulest the raging of the Sea: when the waves thereof arise, Thou stillest them" !"

Surely, none who read the account of this

u Ps. lxxxix. 8, 9.

40

miracle can require reminding that the Storm, no less than the Calm which followed, was His work!

And the Wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Here, then, was a double miracle: for, after a storm at sea, when the wind ceases, there is not "a great calm;" but, on the contrary, the waves continue to heave and swell for hours. Read the notes on the second half of St. Mark i. 31.

Learn from this, not to distrust the power and providence of GOD. Men sometimes are prone to despair; for they think that were some present grief removed, there would still remain this and that disastrous consequence. Shall we not learn a different lesson from the stilling of the storm on the Lake? When He says, "Peace, be still," -and the storm hath "ceased,"—will there not be "a great calm," also?

"With such simplicity," (in the words of an excellent living writer,) "is mentioned a scene beyond what Poet or Painter could pourtray: in sublime majesty second to nothing since the Creation of the World,-save in the calm of one departed from the body; and escaped from the storms of this World to be with CHRIST in peace."

And He said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no Faith?

"No faith;"-yet did they wake their LORD,call loudly on Him, and shew by their words that they knew that He had power to save them. Such actions, therefore, do not prove that a man has Faith: yea, rather, they are consistent with an utter want of Faith.

And they feared exceedingly, and said 41 one to another, What manner of Man is this, that even the Wind and the Sea obey Him?

Not that they doubted His Divinity: but they found it impossible,—or they did not attempt,to realize the notion that this was He who "rideth upon the Heavens of Heavens;" "who maketh the clouds His Chariot; who walketh upon the wings of the Wind";" "who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His Hand "."

* Ps. lxviii. 33.

7 Ps. civ. 3.

Isaiah xl. 12.

The Prayer.

GRANT, O LORD, we beseech Thee, that

the course of this World may be so peaceably ordered by Thy governance, that Thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in all godly quietness; through JESUS CHRIST Our LORD. Amen.

A

PLAIN COMMENTARY

ON THE FIFTH CHAPTER OF

St. Mark's Gospel.

1 CHRIST delivering the possessed of the legion of devils, 13 they enter into the swine. 25 He healeth the woman of the bloody issue, 35 and raiseth from death Jairus his daughter.

V. AND they came over unto the other 1 side of the sea, into the country of the Gada

renes.

Escaped from the perils of the storm, the Blessed Company reach the Eastern Shore of the Sea of Galilee, where stood the towns of Gergesaa and Gadara. The latter was the chief City of that part of Palestine, — called Peræa; and was inhabited chiefly by heathens.

The miracle performed by our Blessed LORD on the Demoniacs of Gadara, is one of the most astonishing Histories in the Gospels. It contains more hints as to the nature of demoniacal possession, than any other narrative of the same class; but it raises our curiosity also proportionably higher; and suggests a greater number of inquiries

a See St. Matthew viii. 28.