FAITH

A discussion of a Sabbath School Lesson delivered before the Bible Class of the Presbyterian Sabbath School, Shelbyville, Tenn., by J. D. Hutton.

LESSON-Mark 7:24-30; Mt. 8:5-13. Read Mt. 15:21-24. Commit verses 27, 28.

Mk. 24 And from thence he arose, and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered into a house, and would have no man know it; and he could not be hid. 25 But straightway a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet. 26 Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. And she besought him that he would cast forth the demon out of her daughter. 27 And he said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. 28 But she answered and saith unto him, Yea, Lord; even the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. 29 And he said unto her, For this saying, go thy way; the demon is gone out of thy daughter. 30 And she went away unto her house, and found the child laid upon the bed, and the demon gone out.

Mt. 5 And when he was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, 6 and saying, Lord, my servant lieth in the house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7 And he saith unto him, I will come and heal him. 8 And the centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having under myself soldiers and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 10 And when Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. II And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: 12 but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 13 And Jesus said unto the

centurion, Go thy way; as thou has believed, so be it done unto thee. And the servant was healed in that hour.

"From thence He arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He entered into a house and would have no man know it, and He could not be hid." This journey of Jesus follows closely after His appearance in Capernaum, and from this city He has now gone into Tyre and Sidon. Noiselessly He has stolen away from the crowds which have followed Him, and from His disciples. He has not even told John or Peter where He was going. For reasons of His own He wanted to be alone, and He would have no man know His hiding place.

There was one thing which deeply impressed the disciples of that day and deeply impresses the followers of the Master of today, and that was the impossibility of concealment of the Lord and Master. Men with their sins and crimes cannot hide from the all-seing eye of Jehovah; no more can the Christ be hid from those who earnestly seek to find Him in the pardon of their sins. No vision of the Messiah stirred these villagers of Tyre and Sidon. They knew nothing of the Christ. They were pagans and outside of the covenant of grace. Yet within their borders Jesus could not be hid. There were those among their numbers who recognized Him as the Christ.

The disciples were impressed with this thought, and no doubt as the years went on that John would recall it on the shores of Patmos, that Peter would remember it amid the crowds of Babylon, and whenever they were worried or oppressed by opposition, or crushed by the mockery of heathendom, the

thought would come to them like cheering music, that Christ could not be hid. No doubt, too, that the thought and the remembrance and the vision of Christ brought Iscariot on that sorrowful day to the grave of a suicide. This is eminently true as we survey all the ages down to the present time. The verdict in all is that there is in Jesus that which can never be hid or lost. He has been buried almost out or sight and thought and memory a thousand times, and a thousand times, when hope was almost dead, the world has learned that He cannot be hid.

What was the meaning of the great reformation? What was the meaning of John Calvin? What was the meaning of Martin Luther? What of John Knox and John Wesley? What has been the meaning of all great upheavals, when Christ is uplifted and every eye beholds Him?

It is Christ silently and mysteriously moving in it all and cannot be suppressed or hidden.

A woman, we read in Verse 25, found Him among these pagans and besought Him that He would come and cast forth a demon out of her daughter. Jesus answered her: "Let the children first be filled." This woman was not a Jew, and therefore out of the covenant, she was a Syrophoenician by race.

We learn here again the lesson so frequently taught, that Christ came first to the Jews. When He said let the children first be fed he refers to the Jews. If they are to be fed first, then it is evident that there are others to be fed, otherwise He would have said let the children only be fed.

This is but a restatement of the great truth taught

all through the book that those of the Gentile race who accept Christ are grafted in the grand old olive tree, and, although not Jews, although not the seed of Abraham, yet are embraced in the covenant of grace with the fathers.

Christ in His gospel ministry had to make a beginning, and, being Himself a Jew, it is no discredit to the Gentile world that He came first unto His own race. We have learned in the few preceding lessons how He came unto His own, and how they spurned His invitation to come and drink of the water of life, and with what a burden of sorrow He had gone out from their homes and their ungrateful hearts. But this Syrophoenician woman would not be put away. Her answer, Even the dogs eat of the crumbs under the children's table, evinced such humility and such faith that her daughter was restored. Jesus heard her cry for her daughter, and, although she was not a Jew, and not one of the children and out of the covenant, yet answers her prayer and saves her daughter.

Now, in Matthew, 8th chapter and 5th verse, a centurion came unto Him and besought Him that He would come and heal His servant who lieth sick of the palsey, grievously tormented. This centurion was a Roman soldier, and, like the Syrophoenician woman, was not a Jew. Yet, Jesus, seeing the great faith of the man, answered him: "I will come and heal him." But the centurion said: "Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof; but only say the word and my servant shall be healed."

All through these lessons we are impressed with the thought that humility and faith go hand in hand, and in no instance in all the records do we find any, of whatsoever race or condition, who came to Jesus in humility and faith that He ever cast out.

Faith was, in Jesus' view, the greatest force in all nature. It could work all sorts of miracles, uproot mountains, bring the lame and the halt to walk, cause the blind to see, and even bring the dead to life. It is the one necessary condition of His own ability to perform His miraculous works. In all of Christ's teachings He does not define faith. He used the word frequently, and took it for granted that the religious instincts of His hearers would enable them to understand its meaning. Faith is not simply believing. It is a belief akin to knowing. One believes with the head, but to exercise faith he not only believes with the head but with the heart also. We are told that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen," that is, faith is the strong persuasive confidence of things hoped for and the conviction and reality of things not seen. None of us has ever seen Napoleon Bonaparte; none of us has seen George Washington, yet there is a conviction in the hearts of all of us that such men did live, and this conviction in our hearts brings about a reality of those lives which we have never

seen.

The import of the word faith as it occurs in the gospels means receptivity of mind and heart. An open mind and a ready heart, willing to receive and accept the good tidings of the kingdom to come, to