properly, a person who has lucid intervals. Prof. G. Stanley Hall says that it is now regarded by medical science that the moon is a cure for lunacy. R. V. translates epileptic, for "the Greek term was not applied to insanity, but to epilepsy, which the ancients supposed to become worse at certain stages of the moon."--Broadus. of Christ's 23. HEALING All Manner of DISEASE.—We should gain a clear conception of this peculiar, rich and abundant miraculous accompaniment of the Son of man. It surrounds him like the halos the old painters cause to radiate around their pictures of The Number Christ; or as the space around the infant Jesus in Miracles. Raphael's Sistine Madonna is filled with angel faces. A considerable portion of the gospels is occupied with accounts of miracles. Thirty-six are described in the gospels, half of them repeated in more than one gospel; so that there are sixty-seven reports of distinct miracles, besides the large number noticed but not recorded in detail. In spirit, we can see accompanying him, like the invisible twelve legions of angels ever ready at his call, or the unseen armies that surrounded Elisha at Dothan, the vast multitude of those whom he had healed and saved, those whom he had raised from the dead, those from whom he had cast out devils, the blind he had made to see, and the lame that now walked, the lepers he had cleansed, the deaf he had caused to hear, the sick he had restored to health. LIBRARY. R. F. Horton's "Cartoons of St. Mark," "The Cartoon of Healing"; Trumbull's "Studies in Oriental Social Life, "Calls for Healing in the East." Whittier's Poems, "Our Master." "But warm, sweet, tender, even yet A present help is he; And faith has still its Olivet And love its Galilee. REFERENCE. See on viii. 16, 17. These miracles were object lessons, expressing the love and forgiveness and comfort from God. Every one was a parable and a 25. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan. A.D. 28. April and May. CALLING THE EARLY DISCIPLES GREAT GALILEAN MINISTRY. sermon. Every one made it easier to trust in God and love him. They called the attention of the people to the gospel. They rang the bell that summoned them to spiritual blessings. And whenever in answer to prayer he guides to the right physicians and the right means of cure he as really heals men as if he wrought a miracle of healing. The tree that grows from the seed is as truly a work of God as if created at once by a word. Miracles as Object Lessons. Testimony of Isabella Bird Bishop. "The medical mission is the outcome of the living teachings of our faith. I have now visited such missions in many parts of the world, and never saw one which was not healing, helping, blessing, softening prejudice, diminishing suffering . . telling in every work of love and of consecrated skill of the infinite compassion of him who 'came, not to destroy men's lives, but to save them.""-Isabella Bird Bishop. Jesus Christ is living now and is working through his people in the same directions as when visible on earth. As he promised his disciples (John xiv. 12), he is healing more sick, opening more blind eyes, binding up more broken-hearted than he and Healing. did in Palestine, 1,800 years ago. Christianity Wherever the Gospel prevails, life is prolonged, many lives are saved, hospitals spring up, the sick are cared for, the means of healing increased. So in all things the Gospel blesses our lives in this world, multiplies comforts and enjoyments, ministers to prosperity, to beauty, to education, to helpful arts. To see this, compare the Christian with the heathen world. REFERENCE. See on xi. 2. 25. AND THEre followed Him great MULTITUDES.—“ Imagine, if you can, the condition of a country in which there are no doctors, where the healing art is only practised by a few quacks, who rely more on charms than on physic for their cures. Such is now. and such was Palestine in our Lord's day. There, until the medical missionaries were sent by several English societies, there was not a physician in the land, and even now there are very few. In such a country as this, with sick and crippled in every village, picture the eager excitement when the news spread that there is a good physician arrived in town; that he has healed a fierce demoniac by a word, and a great fever by a touch."-H. D. Tristram, D.D., LL.D., in Sunday-School Times. LIBRARY.-"The Philanthropies"; "A Colony of Mercy" describes what Christianity is doing for all forms of disease in a town in Germany; John Mason's famous sermon on "The Gospel for the Poor "; The Ely Volume" of the A. B. C. F. M.; R. S. Storrs' The Divine Origin of Christianity Indicated by Its Historical Effects." In the book, "A Colony of Mercy," a saint of olden time was taunted with the poverty of his community. In reply he pointed to the sick and the suffering and said, "These are my treasures." CHAPTER V. 1. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain : and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: 2. And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, A.D. 28. ON THE STUDYING THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. "Dr. Shedd tells preachers 'to study daily, nightly, and everlastingly, the best authors.' The advice is good. Just as an ambitious painter will study the Sistine Madonna of Raphael, or as an ambitious sculptor will study the Moses of Michael Angelo, or an ambitious composer the Ninth Symphony of Beethoven, so let the conscientious teacher study devoutly the Sermon on the Mount until he knows it through and through, and he will grow wise in winning souls." -Rev. John De Witt, D.D. THE SALON CARRÉ.-The Sermon on the Mount is like the Salon Carré, the small room in the Louvre, where are the choicest pictures in all that wonderful Palace of Art. The Beatitudes are the choicest gems of this Salon Carré. COMPARISONS.-The Sermon on the Mount is Christ's Inaugural Address. A chart of life, as charts show sailors where to go and what to avoid. The keynote of this discourse is found in Matt. v. 48: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." CHRIST'S BIOGRAPHY. "The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount are Christ's biography. Every syllable he had already written down in deeds. He has only to translate his life into language." -W. Burnett Wright, D.D. THE BEATITUDES are The Text of the Sermon on the Mount. "The Sermon on the Mount," says Andrew Tait, "is like a precious stone with many facets. It emits light from all sides." THE BEATITUDES. IN THE REVELATIONS. The kingdom of heaven. Reigning with Christ.-Rev. iii. 21. Personal succor and friendship. - Rev. ii. 17. IN THE GOSPEL. Matt. v. 3, 10. 4, 5, Inherit the earth. Obtain mercy. Not hurt of the second death.-Rev. ii. II. 8, 9, See God. Power over the nations.-Rev. ii. 26. Eating of the Tree of Life.-Rev. ii. 7. Honored in God's presence.-Rev. iii. 5. Called the Children of Bearing His name forever.-Rev. iii. 12. God. A CONTRAST.-The Ten Commandments are negative, the Beatitudes positive. The one forbids, the other enjoins. The one was delivered on Mount Sinai-cold, bleak, barren, inaccessible—a type of merely law morality; the other on Mount Hattîn-built of solid rock, but covered with fertile soil, beautiful with shrubs and treesa picture of the morality of the gospel of love. AT COMPOUND INTEREST.-I saw not long ago on a gentleman's watch-chain a gold coin dated 1600 with some curious inscription of the Sons of Malta upon it. He said that if that coin had been put at compound interest at six per cent. it would amount now to 125 millions of dollars. The Beatitudes put at compound interest in our hearts and lives will enrich our characters and the world. THE RELATION OF THE BEATITUDES TO ONE ANOTHER. Those persecuted for obeying these laws THE SALT OF THE EARTH..........THE Light of the world, Poor in Spirit is the necessary condition, the soil in which the others grow. It is "the trunk of the tree, of which the others are the branches"; the hall of the house, of which the others are the rooms. |