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THE SYROPHENICIAN WOMAN.

"Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table." MATTHEW, Xv. 27.

How wonderful is the love of God! how mysterious in its workings, how glorious in its effects! "I tell you of a truth," said Jesus, "many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian."

In like manner, we find Philip the evangelist sent from his work of labour and success in Samaria, unto a place that was desert, for the sake of one single soul.

We must turn not only to St. Matthew's gospel, but to that of St. Mark also, for the full particulars of this interesting story.

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In the narrative, as related by these two Evangelists, we have a most striking and affecting example of the mysterious dealings of God with his suffering children. Jesus had been followed by crowds of urgent and admiring people,—we read in the sixth chapter of St. Mark's gospel, that they ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard He was; and whithersoever He entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought Him that they might touch, if it were but the border of His garment; and as many as touched Him were made whole." But suddenly Jesus turned away, and departed thence. Was He wearied, and sickened at heart, by the cold formality of the scribes and pharisees, who, full of the traditions of their own religion, had come to find fault with His disciples for eating bread with unwashen hands; whose religion was reduced to an utter mockery of what is great, and good, and beautiful, and true, and vital? or, was He thinking of the honest and true-hearted woman, the single sheep in the wilderness to which He bent His steps? He arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and

Sidon."

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In His unsearchable wisdom, when He came to the place He entered into an house, and would have no man know

it; but, adds the evangelist St. Mark, "He could not be hid." A mother came to Him-a mother whose heart was torn by love and grief, on account of the mysterious and frightful disorder by which her young daughter was afflicted. The welfare of her child was as dear to her as her own; and thus, when she cried unto the Lord for her daughter, she said not, Have mercy upon her, but, “Have mercy upon me.” "Lord, help me." We are told, she heard of Jesus-probably she had never heard of Him before ; and she came and fell at His feet, and cried unto Him, and besought Him, saying, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil." It was a moving cry from this poor mother's heart-it was the statement of a desperate case! Did she meet with pity? We know she did! but, no, not then, not at once: He answered her not a word. But she, it seemed, continued beseeching Him with earnest cries of entreaty, and His disciples on this occasion seemed to feel more than He did for her misery, and came and besought Him saying, "Send her away, for she crieth after us." Listen to her, O Lord; attend to her cry, and heal her daughter; and do, as Thou hast often done, send away thine afflicted supplicant with an answer to her prayer, and the relief which she is seeking at Thy hands. But He answered and said, "I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep