CHAPTER IX.

JESUS RETURNS TO CAPERNAUM.—PERFORMS VARIOUS

MIRACLES.

CALLS MATTHEW.

How long our Lord had now been absent from Capernaum we cannot tell, nor to what distance he had extended his travels. The account given by the Evangelists is very general, and such as does not render it necessary to suppose the time very long, nor the circuit very great. Capernaum was still his head-quarters; and having escaped from the crowds, who, as Mark intimates, had prevented his entering the city, he returned thither to his home.

As soon as his arrival was known, a Roman centurion, that is, captain of a company of a hundred soldiers, sent to him a message, through the Jewish elders of the city, entreating him to visit and heal a favorite servant of his who was ill of the palsy. The elders seconded the message by giving a high character of this Roman officer, who had gained the good-will of the citizens by his acts of kindness, and especially by

Matthew viii. 6.

Mark i. 45.

Luke vii. Į.

his munificence in building them a synagogue. Jesus accompanied them; but it shows the modesty and faith of the centurion, that he sent other messengers to meet our Lord and save him the trouble of coming to his house; for I know, said he, that this great prophet, wherever he may be, can as easily command diseases to go and come as I can command my soldiers. Jesus was struck by this union of humility and faith; and, turning to the people who followed, expressed his approbation by declaring, "I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel." The messengers, on their return to the house, found the servant well.

The next day he went to the city of Nain, accompanied, as Luke says, by his disciples and much people. The distance could not have been far from twenty miles; and as he seems to have returned very shortly to Capernaum, it is not improbable that he made this excursion for the very purpose of working the miracle which he did there. He may have had a particular friendship for the family of the young man who died, as he had for that of Lazarus. However this may have been, he reached Nain just as a funeral procession came out of the gate. It was the funeral of a young man, the only son of a widow, and attended by a great company of people. It

Luke vii. 11.

was a scene to call forth our Lord's sympathy, and he at once approached the weeping mother with a word of consolation. "Weep not," said he; and laying his hand on the bier to arrest the bearers, while the attending multitude stood wondering at the strange interruption, he raised his voice in a few words of authority and power,"Young man, I say unto thee, arise!" In the sight of all the people the dead arose, and was restored to the arms of his mother. This was done in the presence of hundreds at the city gate, who expressed their admiration by loudly glorifying God, and saying, "A great prophet hath risen up among us, and God hath visited his people." St. Luke remarks, that this event did much to extend his celebrity throughout Judæa. It is the first miracle of the kind recorded. Like the other two instances which afterward occurred, it was accompanied by circumstances of peculiar interest, and such as render it a touching proof of the benevolence of our Saviour's disposition.

After returning to Capernaum, he proposed one evening, in order to escape the multitudes which had collected, to sail over to the other side of the lake. The breadth of this lake is about six miles, and the length nearly eighteen. Much of the scenery about it is beautiful and striking. It is surrounded for the most part by high hills,

Matthew viii. 23. Mark iv. 35. Luke viii. 22.

and in fact lies in a sort of basin formed by two ranges of mountains, which enclose it, except at the northern and southern extremities, where the river Jordan enters and departs. It is, by this means, protected in general from the winds, and rendered for the most part a, placid and tranquil sheet of water. Yet it is subject to occasional blasts coming suddenly from the hills, which blow with the fury of a hurricane, and endanger all that is floating on its waves. Such a tempest arose on the night that our Saviour went upon the water. As Luke expresses it, there came down a storm of wind from the mountains, and they were filled with water, and were in jeopardy. The affrighted disciples rushed to their master, who was quietly asleep, crying, “Lord, save us; we are perishing!" "Why are you fearful?" said he; "where is your faith?" He arose, and rebuked the wind and the waters, and there was a calm. Much as they had known of his supernatural power, this new exhibition of it occasioned new amazement in the minds of his followers. It filled them with fresh awe, and they expressed their astonishment one to another. "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the seas obey him!"

They landed on the opposite shore, in the coun try of Gadara. Gadara was the capital of Peræa, Matthew viii. 28. Mark v. 1.

Luke vii. 26.

as the region on the other side of the Jordan was called, and gave its name to the surrounding country. It was a place of considerable importance in its day, having been rebuilt by Pompey the Great, and being one of the five cities in which the Romans established courts of justice. In the neighborhood was Gergesa, also a considerable city, with an extensive surrounding region attached to it. The lands belonging to the one city were in part included in those of the other, so that they went indifferently by the name of either; which accounts for the circumstance, that Matthew speaks of the Gergesenes, while Mark and Luke speak of the Gadarenes.

On arriving on this coast, and proceeding toward the city, there came out from the tombs, which in that part of the world are generally built outside of the city walls, two demoniacs, or men possessed with demons. These persons, like raving and unmanageable madmen, lived among the tombs. One of them was so fierce and dangerous, that it had been found impossible to keep him confined; he broke away from the chains in which he was bound, and raged wildly abroad, being night and day in the mountains and among the tombs, howling, and cutting himself with stones.. The description answers precisely to that of a raving maniac; and, indeed, many learned men are of opinion that to be "possessed with a de