More Room for More People

More Room for More People

(No. 3529)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1916.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"It is done as you have commanded, and still there is room." Luke
14:22.

How delightful it is to observe that the wrath of man becomes tributary
to the Glory of God! See an illustration in the parable of the marriage
supper. Those persons who were first bid would not come. In order to do
the good man of the house a despite, they declined his invitation, they
refused to grace his board. Instead of causing his honor to be
tarnished, they were, against their own will, the means of increasing
his reputation! Had they come, it would only have been said that he
made a great feast for his good friends. As they did not avail
themselves of his hospitality, he brought in the beggars from the
streets and swept the hedges and the byways to find the poorest of the
poor–to all of whom he gave a hearty welcome! So it became the common
talk all over the land, and tens of thousands extolled the generosity
of the host who had given such a sumptuous banquet to such strange
guests. Let not the haughty, the arrogant, or the scornful of the
children of men imagine that their paltry conceit can thwart God's
Covenant purpose or bring discredit on the riches of His mercy! Oh,
Sinner, if you reject a Savior, it shall be your own loss, not His! If
you live and die without faith in Christ, upon your own head the
fearful recompense will fall! When the self-righteous reject Him, it
only causes Jesus to say, "I came not to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance." When the rich men and the rulers refuse the
Gospel, then, "the poor have the Gospel preached to them." When the
wise and prudent put it aside, then it is graciously revealed unto
babes! Thus God is glorified, though the temper of men is ever so
turbulent. Let us, my Brothers and Sisters, always be patient of heart
when we see the rage of men awakened against the Gospel of Christ. They
can do it no hurt! His purpose shall stand–He will do all His
pleasure. The bit is in their mouths, the hook is in their nostrils.
Let them roar as they may, they cannot resist the force by which they
are driven as chaff before the wind! He will surely perform His work
and His name shall be glorious!

Not less delightful is it to observe how the anger of God, instead of
venting itself in rashness, vindicates His goodness. In reading the
parable to you just now, I noticed to you that because the man who made
the feast was angry, he said, "Go out quickly into the highways and
hedges, and bring in the blind, and the crippled and the lame to the
supper." So kindly disposed was he, that his very anger impelled him to
an extraordinary deed of kindness! The Lord was angry with the Jews,
and His Apostles turned to the Gentiles. The natural branches of the
olive were put away in His wrath–but what then? Why, He took us who
were of the wild olive and grafted us in who were heretofore wild and
alien, so that even His anger towards Israel turned to the benefit of
the Gentiles–and we get reconciliation out of their rejection! May we
not regard this as a rule of His government? When a congregation hears
the Word and tramples it under foot, what marvel if God takes the
candlestick out of the place in His anger? But does He break the
candlestick? No, He moves it to another place! Others get the benefit
of the Light which those despised had it aforetime. Great God of
Wonders, we bless You that even when Your anger burns, Your mercy
brightly shines. Amidst the thunder and the storm, soft showers are
rained in silver drops to make glad the earth!

Our text tells us that the servant said, "It is done as you have
commanded, and still there is room."

I think I see here a satisfactory announcement–"It is done as You have
commanded." A remarkable statement– "still there is room." And an
implied consummation–that the room will eventually be filled. First,
then–

I. A DESIRABLE ANNOUNCEMENT.

He said, "It is done as you have commanded." Those who serve God best,
have generally the least to say about it. When I hear people boast of
their religious attainments, I am apt to seriously suspect their
deficiencies. A boastful Christian I knew something of, when talking to
an earnest man, met with very curt replies. "And pray" said the one,
"have not you any Grace ?" "Yes," said the other, "but I never had any
to boast of." Disciples who are fullest of Divine Grace will

be slowest to vaunt. Humility befits a servant. "It is done," sounds
better than, "I have done as you have commanded." In like manner the
man who gained five pounds in one of the parables did not come and say,
"Lord, I have gained five pounds"–he said, "Your pound has gained five
pounds" That was the more delicate way to put it–not as an affectation
of speech, but with a becoming modesty. So, too, with the Church of
God, when she has done as Christ commands her, she will always feel
desirous to wait upon Him as a humble servant, accounting this no more
than her duty. Besides, the declaration appears to have been made in a
waiting attitude, with an expectancy of having something more to do.
"It is done as you have commanded, and still there is room," so that
the servant seems to stand ready to do something more to fill the
vacant places at the feast. And thus we ought always to stand as
Christians when we have done our best– waiting for fresh directions,
never saying, "I have done enough, and now I can retire from service."
Rather let God be thanked for what we have been enabled to do, but,
strengthened and encouraged by success, let us resolve to do more and
entreat Him to show us what still remains to be done, and what more we
can have the pleasure of doing! "Oh, my Lord, I have grown gray in Your
service! Fulfill to me Your promise, 'You shall bring forth fruit in
old age to show that the Lord is upright.' Do not put me away from your
loved employ. Honor me with some other task. Delight my willing soul
with some fresh command. Bid me do or suffer your will, but pass me not
by, leave me not to be a laggard, not honored and uninterested in
fulfilling my Lord's requests." So let the Church of God always feel
that she has never come to the place where she can say, "Rest and be
thankful." "Higher, higher, higher, higher," must still be her motto!
If her missions have conquered one continent, they must invade another!
If half the world has been converted, there would be no rest to us till
the other half were converted likewise. "It is done as You have
commanded, and still there is room–room for more work, because there
is room for more guests at Your feast."

Did I not say that this was a desirable announcement? I am afraid these
servants said what we would, some of us, hesitate to affirm. "It is
done as You have commanded." Alas, how few churches could say this! And
where the church might collectively affirm it, many members of the
church would shrink from professing individually to have done as the
host commanded! For what was that your Lord enjoined? "Go out quickly."
How little there has been of going out after sinners! We have been
content to preach to those who came to hear us! Of course, if the
people will come to hear us in such numbers, and throng this Tabernacle
so constantly, we have no reason to go away from them. But, alas, there
are places of worship which I could indicate without difficulty that
are not filled, that never were filled, that never will be filled,
where there are, probably, as many spiders as there are persons under
ordinary circumstance where there are certainly more pews than sitters!
And yet it does not seem to have ever occurred to the preacher that he
should go out after the people! Small congregations will continue to
worship in places not one-fourth occupied, when they might go across to
the theater or the music hall, or to some other large building into
which the people might come, and where they might be met with! It would
be a strange thing for the supply of fish, if our fishermen only sat at
the window and caught what came beneath it–but never went forth to sea
after the fish! There would be little game, I guarantee you, upon his
lordship's table if he sat at the drawing room window to shoot only
that which came there to be shot! But it does not come that way. The
moors must be trod and the covers must be beaten! So if we are to have
many sinners saved, we must go out of our own quiet haunts and go forth
into frequented places. We must preach in the street, or at the market,
or on the village green! We must take the Word to the people, if they
will not come to the Word. "Go out, go out," says the Savior. This is a
word that should ring loudly in the ears of many Christians. You have
almost heard enough sermons–go out and teach yourself! While you have
been eating the fat and drinking the sweet, multitudes are perishing
for lack of the heavenly bread. Go out and break it to them! Oh, that
there might come a holy impulse upon many here present to begin some
good work for Christ! Break up some soil up to now uncultivated! Make
an eruption and an invasion into Satan's territory! There is no land
that yields so well as that which is newly broken up. The virgin soil
that has long been given up to the forest, the brier and the thorn–let
but the plow go through this and there shall be sevenfold harvests! No
preaching is half as successful as that which carries the Gospel to the
dissolute classes–those who have never been hardened by hearing and
rejecting the tidings of mercy–those who, albeit they may have their
faces stained with immorality, certainly have not any affectation in
their manner! To these it comes like a new thing–it strikes them as
sweet music and, hearing the joyful sound, they full often turn to God
and live! To this day is it true, as our Savior said in His day, that
publicans and harlots enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before
Pharisees! This is a sphere of labor that remunerates the laborer. The
lowest of the low, when hearing the Word, often accept what the
so-called respectable despise. Go out, therefore, go out!

Know this, likewise, that the matter is urgent, for the Master said,
"go out quickly." Here, again, I am afraid we cannot say we have done
this. "Go out quickly"–go out in haste, go out with the utmost
speed–go out as one who runs on an errand, anxious to fulfill his
mission! Go out, not listlessly, as if you had to wait for an
opportunity, but eagerly, knowing that this is the opportune time!
Hurry yourself to have it done at once. Go out quickly. The world goes
by steam, nowadays, while the Church still jogs on by the broad-wheeled
wagon! I know some churches that crawl like a snail upon a small leaf,
making much ado to accomplish nothing! If half a dozen converts are
added in 12 months, they think it is rather too many to be safe, and
they are half afraid that they cannot be all genuine Christians! They
would gladly "summer them and winter them," as they say, and try them
in half a dozen modes. In fact, it seems to them as if God never sent a
new-born convert into their church except for them to worry it–not for
them to accept it as a blessing from Heaven and to train it, and nurse
it–but to worry it! This will never do! We are to look after something
more rapidly than the progress which these churches will ever make. Go
out quickly! Men are dying. There is no time for us to be quibbling
among ourselves! It behooves us to show our zeal rather than waste our
energies. Men are perishing! We must preach the Gospel to them
now–tell them that it is "now or never" with some of them–make known
to them a present Savior, and cry to them, "If God is God, serve Him!
If Baal is God, serve him! How long will you decide between two
opinions, for the Holy Spirit says, 'Today, if you will hear His
voice'"? There needs to be promptness, quickness, speed, eagerness
after souls in the preachers of the Gospel. "Go out quickly."

And have we not failed in another point? "Go out quickly into the
streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the blind, and the
crippled, and the maimed, and compel them to come in." There are
certain missions now established for which we have reason to bless God
greatly. There are works going on in London which are to the glory of
Christendom. God speed them all! Such beloved friends as Miss
MacPherson, Dr. Bernardo, our brother Orsman and many others deserve
our love and esteem, for they have given themselves up to work among
the poorest of the poor and the lowest of the low, bearing a great deal
which some of us might shrink from, rejoicing to show their diligence
among a people much neglected–and reaping a good harvest of comfort to
themselves in the salvation of souls! But, dear Friends, where there is
one of such works, there ought to be 50–and with this population of
London, verging now upon four millions, when we have added all these
works of faith and labors of love together, we might well say of them,
"What are they among so many?" May God touch many of your hearts, my
Brothers and Sisters, and make you feel the soft touch of sympathy for
the perishing, while you hear the Master's words spoken to you, "Go out
yourselves quickly, and lay hold on the blind, and the crippled, and
the maimed and bring them in to the supper" Yes, bring them to Jesus!
You cannot do it of yourself, but His Spirit dwells in you. Do not
forget that! You are not an ordinary man. You are not an ordinary
woman. "Know you not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy
Spirit?" God dwells in you! And with God in you, what can you not do?
Have but faith in the indwelling Deity and attempt difficulties–no,
attempt what some think impossibili-ties–and you shall find that with
God all things are possible! Weak as you are, yet, through His
strength, you shall perform all things! I pray God for this Church,
that she may not be found guilty at the coming of Christ of not having
gone out after the poor. Encourage them to come to this house at all
times, whenever you can. I do not know where we are to put any more,
but there is Thursday evening, and there is Monday evening, and there
is room then. Oh, bring in whomever you can, for perhaps when the
Gospel is preached, God may bless it to them. Let us not be deficient
in this. In the next place we proposed to draw your attention to–

II. A REMARKABLE STATEMENT.

They had fished up all the poor people in the city and they had brought
in the four characters–the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the
blind–and after that it was alleged "still there is room."

Well, well, that is a very encouraging piece of information for ungodly
people here! For those who have not come to Jesus, this is welcome
information! "Still there is room." Now we know there is still room for
sinners, from several considerations.

We may infer it, to begin with, from the Doctrine of Election. God has
chosen unto Himself a people. We are told that their number is a number
that no man can number. Well now, those who are saved are not so very
many. They are a great many more than some bigots would like to
believe, but they are a great many fewer than some enthusiasts would
imagine! I am sure God has not yet saved enough to accomplish the
number that He has proposed to save, by a very long way. It is my own
belief, as it is my earnest hope, that in all things Christ will have
the preeminence. As in other things, so also in this, He will have more
souls than Satan, that He may have the preeminence over the old
serpent. It does not look to me that there should likely be at the
last, more lost than saved. We cannot answer the question to a
certainty, but

surely the Lord's mercy will triumph over human sin and God will get to
Himself the victory! A good Divine used to say that he hoped and
thought that, at the last, there would be no more persons lost, in
proportion, than there might be found of persons in prison, in any
well-ordered State, in proportion to the number of those who were
citizens at large. I only trust it may be so. But the lines of God's
election do not encompass a mere handful. There is a great and vast
number chosen by Him–and there is no such great and vast number
gathered in yet. Therefore, we are persuaded that there is still room.

Next, the efficacy of the Atonement leads us to believe this. The
Atonement that Christ offered on the Cross was no small matter. It was
the sacrifice of Himself as an Infinite Being–as God and as Man–and I
dare set no limit to it in its efficacy, itself considered. The death
of so august a Person, in circumstances of such dishonor, amid agonies
so inconceivable, must have about it an amount of virtue utterly beyond
all reckoning! Jesus Christ is to see of the travail of His soul and to
be satisfied–and the travail of His soul does not mean the few
Christian people that are now in the world or have been–and His
satisfaction will not be consummated by the few millions that have up
to now been saved. Why, it does not satisfy us yet, and our hearts are
narrow compared with His! He will not be satisfied unless myriads are
His. The jewels of His crown must be countless as the stars of Heaven
by night, and as the sands upon the seashore by day! By that
bottomless, fathomless Atonement, I believe that there still is and
must be, room–

"Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood

Shall never Lose its power,

Till all the ransomed Church of God

Is saved to sin no more."

The end has not been reached! The virtue of the blood has not been
stayed. The ransomed Church has not been all gathered in. So there is
still room!

Again, when I consider the greatness of the adorable Persons who
entered into Covenant to devise the wondrous plan and accomplish the
mighty work of salvation, I feel persuaded that there is still room.
Who is it that saves me? It is God who made Heaven and earth! He
devised the magnificent purpose according to the good counsel of His
will. Do you think that the Architect of yonder heavens has designed a
little Church for the display of His Glory? Do you think that He who
spread the stars abroad in all their countless hosts to adorn His
universe has limited the number, with causeless thrift, of brilliant
diadems who shall celebrate the everlasting song of His praise? We
think not! It was Jesus who worked salvation and do you think that such
a Savior, of such unrivalled dignity, came to effect a petty salvation
for a petty few whom you might count upon your fingers? Incredible!
Impossible! God forbid! And what shall I say of the Holy Spirit, whose
majesty awes us, whose mystery baffles us, whose mercy enlivens us–the
Spirit of God who works in us that salvation which the Christ of God
has worked for us–do you think that He has come to dwell on earth with
any small or insignificant intent? What small sect will contribute to
His satisfaction? No, Glory be to His name, He brought three thousand
in on the Pentecostal day, and He will yet cause nations to be born in
a day, and the Church shall cry, "Who has begotten me these?
These–from where did they come?" If I go to Gethsemane and see the
bloody sweat, I expect a wondrous harvest from that matchless sowing!
If I stand on Calvary and mark the flowing wounds, I expect a marvelous
reward for those tremendous griefs! If we are not to be pitifully
disappointed, there must be something greater yet in reserve than the
world has ever seen! The history of Christendom is far more grand than
any chapter that has yet been written. There is room! There must be
room for the feast of mercy–much room still to be occupied! It is not
yet half filled! Scant at present is the array of guests, compared with
the complement of those who must be brought in!

"Still there is room." With a mysterious spiritual consciousness, with
an eager, sympathetic anxiety, the Church feels and knows that there is
room. The individual yearnings of our Lord's disciples attest it. Do I
not myself daily feel as if there were room–places that need peopling,
as well as people that needed placing at the feast? Brothers, our
Churches prove that the fresh converts introduced into their fellowship
are like fresh blood poured into their veins. A Church cannot long be
happy and healthy without recruiting, renewing, reviving–and we are
always needing fresh workers with the dew of the morning upon their
souls! We are needing preachers powerfully impressed with their own
call to proclaim the Gospel. Many pulpits need them! We need
Evangelists–men who have just welcomed the news, the good news, the
heavenly tidings, and hasten to tell it at the corners of the streets,
to the passengers along our thoroughfares! Lovers of souls, seekers of
souls, oh, how much we need them! Many a Sunday school needs teachers.
Many a Ragged School needs self-denying assistants! Everywhere there is
a need–a real need–for more helpers in the Church, for more laborers
in the harvest! So there must be room to store the fruits they need to
reap!

As the benches of the feast seem to groan for guests, so does the
Church long after fresh access to her community. Were you here
sometimes at the Monday night Prayer Meeting, you would feel there was
room! Some of our Brethren pray as if they had room in their hearts for
hundreds and thousands that must be reclaimed! When the Church gets
into the spirit of prayer, her cries and groans give proof of secret
tears and private wrestling. Her earnest members, by the instant
entreaties made to God, prove that the Church feels that the guest
chamber is not yet full. Her tent is not filled with children–she is
crying out, like Rachel of old–"Give me children or I die." She needs
to see her converts multiplied, she longs to stretch forth the curtains
of her habitations. There is–there must be room! Judging by my own
experience, I say that the minister can generally feel when God is
saving the souls of his hearers. The efforts and anxieties of his labor
are accompanied with such pangs and throes within his own soul that he
is well content with the pain and travail for the joy he has in
prospect! When last week I had some conversation with the candidates
for Church fellowship, my heart rejoiced as I found out how many of you
had lately found the Savior. After being half-dubious whether a
blessing had attended the sermons I recently preached, as I listened to
the stories of conversion that so many told me, it made my heart leap
for joy! The fact was no tidings had come to me of the expectations I
had fostered. There is an interval between the sowing time and the
reaping time. But I am encouraged. No doubt there are more of you
coming. All but decided now, you will be altogether decided soon. God
is at work with you–He means to bring you in, that His Grace may have
honor. Well, those desires and prayers, those longings and hopes, those
wishes and expectations of the Church all show that she does not feel
thorough satisfaction with present results–and certainly she feels no
misgiving as to the accommodation ready for all comers.

"Still there is room." Yes, God be praised, there is! That mother says,
"Ah, that my child were brought in!" Blessed be God, there is room for
him! And the father says, "Oh, that my sons were saved!" Well, there is
room for them! There have been thousands who have gone to Heaven of
late, but still there is room! There are thousands who have come to
Christ of late, but still there is room! Prophets, Apostles, martyrs,
confessors, saints have gone into Glory, but still there is room! In
this Church hundreds have pressed in to know the Lord, but still there
is room! There is room! There is room! And there is room for you!
Blessed be God for that! Oh, that you may occupy that room! My third
point is this, that there is implied in the text–

III. A MOST BLESSED CONSUMMATION that the room will be filled.

It is an old saying of the natural philosopher that nature abhors a
vacuum. It is true, I doubt not. But here is another axiom–Grace
abhors a vacuum. The good man of the house could not bear to see a
vacant seat at his table. All things were ready, but there were empty
places and he did not like it. The glory of the feast is to be found
not merely in the provisions, but in the guests, so he must have the
chairs occupied as well as the table covered. With reverence let it be
said, the Glory of Christ lies not only in His Sacrifice, but in the
sinners that that Sacrifice saves! A king is no king who has not any
subjects. A head is no head if it has not a body. And so Jesus Christ
would be a King without subjects if there were none saved. He would be
a Head without members–and that is a ghastly thought! He must have a
people and, what is more, He must have all His people. In our natural
bodies, if but a little finger is missing, the body is not perfect. So
also in Christ–if all His members are not saved, there would not be a
perfect Christ! The Apostle tells us that the Church is the fullness of
Christ. Hence if a part of the Church were lost, a part of Christ's
fullness would be lost. Therefore He must cause all to come in the
unity of the faith unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ, for Grace abhors a vacuum! When at last the
end shall come, and the dispensation of Grace shall be wound up, it
will be seen that at the Table of Mercy here below, there was not a
seat left empty! "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me." "Whom
He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son. And whom He did predestinate, them He also called." So it
shall be. Satan shall not be able to point to a single empty place and
say, "There should a certain soul have been seated. God appointed it,
but I frustrated His purpose!" That cannot, shall not be! The wedding
must and shall be furnished with guests!

In like manner the Table of Glory, like the Table of Grace, while the
board is richly spread, the seats shall be amply filled. There at that
Table, blessed be God, there is a place for me, and none of you can
occupy it. It will be only occupied by him for whom it was designed. If
you believe in Christ, dear Friend, there is a place for you, a
freehold, a vested right of which you cannot be deprived! There is a
crown that will fit no other head than yours. There is a harp that will
yield music to no other hands than yours. There is a mansion among the
many, many mansions in our Father's House for your residence. There
will be no mansions in Heaven at last untenanted. In some streets of
London, "To let" is written on half the houses. Cheerless is the
lookout. But when at last the King shall bring His children Home, there
will not be one pre-

pared mansion that has lost its prepared tenant! The reserved
inheritance shall revert to the reserved people–the purchased
inheritance shall inherit the purchased possession! This gives me hope
in preaching! It convinces me that I do not preach in vain. There must
and there shall be some saved. God has declared it! God has made ready
for it on earth and He has made ready in Heaven for it. Therefore, they
shall be brought in! His preparation shall not be in vain. His wedding
shall be furnished with guests. This certainty fortifies me against an
apparent contingency. It inspires me with hope about some of you, my
dear Hearers, who look hesitant, that you, before long, will be
resolute. If you come to God, there are preparations made to receive,
to welcome you, to lodge you, to feed you, to supply all your needs. Do
you desire to come? You shall not be cast away. Why should not you wear
one of these crowns? Why should not you tenant one of those mansions?
"Still there is room."

But who will help to fill that room? Who out of this dense throng of
people will help to fill the vacant places at the Gospel Supper? I
cannot call you one by one, as I would like to, but I do call to you
with all my heart, Come to Jesus! Should you say, "How shall I come?"
Well, it is not a motion of the body–it is a motion of the mind. "What
sort of motion of the mind?" do you ask. It is trust–trust–simple
conviction and unquestioning faith! If you commit your case to Him, He
will be concerned for you. Follow Christ–you shall have fellowship
with Him. Your resolution will be evidence of your Redemption! Your
plea will procure a sense of His pardon! By your acquiescence you will
learn that you are "accepted in the Beloved." May God incline you, by
the mighty operation of His Spirit, to come to Jesus! So shall my
prayers be answered! So shall your souls be blessed forever! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 8:41-56.

Verses 41, 42. And, behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a
ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus 'feet, and besought
Him that He would come into his house: For he had one only daughter,
about twelve years of age, and she lay dying. But as He went the people
thronged Him. Notice the word, "behold," for this was a wonder that a
man so high in position to come to Christ at all, especially one who
was in an ecclesiastical position, for he "was a ruler of the
synagogue." Usually those who had to do with the synagogue were great
despisers of our Lord Jesus! God works great wonders, however, and
sometimes the camel does go through the eye of the needle! This man's
name was Jairus, a common Jewish name, and you will find it was the
name of one of the judges recorded in the Book of Judges. Note this
man's humility, "He fell down at Jesus' feet." The greatest of men must
humble themselves before they can obtain mercy. Jesus Christ is always
ready to receive, to accept and bless all those who fall down at His
feet, but those who lift up themselves shall find Him to be their sure
and swift enemy–and the day shall come when He shall abase them to the
dust. "He besought Him that He would come into his house, for he had
one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay dying." She
seems to have been not only the darling of the house, but of all the
neighbors, too, for we find that all the neighbors came together to
weep and to lament her. You find Matthew says that this daughter was
already dead. It seems that some delay arose, so that the child died,
but the father, with triumphant faith, still besought Him to come and
raise her, even from the very jaws of death.

43, 44. And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had
spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,
came behind Him and touched the border of His garment: and immediately
her issue of blood stopped. This disease laughs at the physicians, and
whenever a cure has been effected it has always been a slow one. Hence
the supernatural character of this cure, "Immediately her issue of
blood stopped." This is the glory of our blessed religion, that it
heals sin-sick souls at once and upon the spot! The moment a man
believes in Jesus, his nature is changed! He becomes a new creature–in
that moment all his sins are gone! In that same hour he becomes heir of
God, and joint-heir with Christ. "Immediately."

45. And Jesus said, Who touched Me? When all denied, Peter and they
that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng You and press
You, and do You ask, Who touchedMe?What impudence on their part!
Doubtless there are many things we say of our Lord, and even to Him in
prayer, that are very far from such words as He should have from His
disciples. There were many who touched Him out of curiosity, and
doubtless some out of lack of respect to His Person came too close to
Him, but there was only one who touched Him with the finger of faith,
which was the only true touch!

46-48. And Jesus said, Somebody has touched Me, for I perceive that
virtue has gone out of Me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid,
she came trembling and, falling down before Him, she declared unto Him
before all the

people for what cause she had touched Him, and how she was healed
immediately. And He said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: your
faith has made you whole; go in peace. Faith crowns Christ and,
therefore, Christ takes the crown off His own head and puts it upon the
head of faith. "Your faith has saved you." Christ's virtue would not
have saved her without her faith–and certainly her faith could not
have saved her without Christ's virtue! We ought to note how vital
faith is to true salvation, and what a high degree of importance is
attached to it. Let us, therefore, if we have some degree of faith,
pray for more, "Lord, increase our faith, for if a little of it may
heal, what may not a great faith do?"

49. While He yet spoke, there came one from the ruler of the
synagogue's house, saying to him, Your daughter is dead; trouble not
the Master Be resigned, and say, "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken
away," and expect not the blessing back again. Do as David did, who,
while the child was yet alive, fasted and prayed, saying, "Perhaps God
will spare him," but when he was dead, fasted no more. Your daughter is
dead–trouble not the Master." Ah, but this man knew that He who can
stay the soul at the gates of death can also bring it back from the
gates of death if He wills. He that can get it from the paw of the lion
can get it from the jaw of the bear! He can deliver His people at all
times and at all seasons, and even Death is a conquered foe!

50. But when Jesus heard it, He answered him, saying, Fear not: believe
only, and she shall be made whole. "Believe only." What a depth lies in
those two words! Believe only! Ah, Lord, it ought to be the easiest
thing in the world to believe You, for You are so truthful! You keep
every promise to us, and yet sometimes when we are in the dark, and
when circumstances go contrary to us, it is hard to believe–but is it
not the hardness in our own hearts? Believe only! Christian, what is
your trouble this morning, what is your trial? Believe only, and let
your humble faith cast your burdens upon your God! "Believe only, and
she shall be made whole."

51. 52. And when He came into the house, He allowed no man to go in
except Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the
maiden. And all wept, and bewailed her: but He said, Weep not; she is
not dead, but sleeps. They were so sure she was dead that they had
actually hired the minstrels for her funeral–so Mark tells us–and the
pipers and the women that made those strange, Oriental lamentations
were there, ready to bury her.

53, 54. And they laughed Him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And
He put them out, and took her by the hand, and called saying, Little
girl, arise.But Christ put them all out. They laughed Him to scorn and,
therefore, He would not work the miracle in their presence. It is not
meet to cast pearls before swine!

55. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and He
commanded to give her food.Do note here the word, "straightway." Just
now we had the word, immediately, and now we have, straightway. It is
one of the distinguishing features of the Gospel, both of Mark and of
Luke, that both Evangelists use the word "eutheos," "straightway."
Christ's miracles do not take a long time to do–they are done
straightway! If there is a distressed soul here, now, your salvation
need not take months and years–it may be done today, and in a moment
you may be able to rejoice that your sins are forgiven, and that you
are a child of God! "She arose straightway, and He commanded to give
her food." There are no unnecessary miracles. It needed a miracle to
give her life, but food could sustain it and, therefore, there is no
further miracle performed.

56. And her parents were astonished: but He charged them that they
should tell no man what was done.But we know from another Evangelist
that the same thereof went abroad everywhere and, indeed, the healing
of a soul is not a thing to be kept secret–but when any are raised
from the dead the world must know it!