What first strikes us is, that she was in earnest. She came to Jesus with a heart burdened with a great sorrow and a great desire. She is too much in earnest to pay any attention to the proprieties of style; she never thinks of liturgical etiquette; her prayer is abrupt, impassioned, agonizing; she cries out after Christ, in the public way; she follows after Him, still crying, "have mercy on me, O Lord!" She draws near Him, in her anguish of spirit; she falls at His feet; she worships Him. She has one thing to ask, and in asking for that she employs no artifice of language, but rather

The simplest form of speech

That infant lips can try.

Thus it is that prevailing prayer is always offered. The petition which goes up from a heart breaking with its own unutterable longing, pierces the heavens. There is an energy in holy desire which makes the prayer prompted by it irresistible.

It is sometimes said that the highest acts of prayer are marked by serene tranquility of spirit; that the agony of painful desire belongs to a low, not to say morbid spiritual state; that perfect acquiescence in the divine will would preclude wrestling at the throne of grace; that unwavering faith would keep the heart free from solicitude and sorrow, even though the particular blessing sought for should be withheld. Whatever grains of truth may be contained in such speculations, the view, as a whole, is at war with Scripture and the facts of Christian experience. Our blessed Lord was sinless and perfect, yet when He prayed in the garden, He was in AN AGONY, and sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. The holiest men whom the church has ever held in her communion, we speak with reverence,have drunk of the cup of Christ; each has had his Geth

semane; each has had moments of awful anguish, when his soul seemed exceedingly sorrowful even unto death.

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The Syro-Phenician woman is an example of faith. It is this which Jesus Himself commends: "O woman, great is thy faith." Her faith indeed was very extraordinary. Her very coming to Jesus was an act of heroic faith; for she came not only without an invitation or a promise, but in the face of fearful discouragements. Somehow she had gained a firm persuasion that He was both able and willing to help her. She believed beforehand in His love to her, a poor Gentile mother; and this was great faith indeed.

This faith of hers grew stronger, and shone more brightly through the progress of a trial which would have utterly extinguished that of any ordinary believer. When she came to Jesus she was not encouraged by gracious looks and words; but she prayed. He answered her not a word; but she prayed. He spoke at last in words apparently calculated to extinguish all her hopes; but she prayed. He called her a dog; but still she prayed and made that very name the ground of her final,· triumphant appeal. Thus her faith grew stronger by the discouragements it encountered.

Now this faith is what makes prayer mighty and victorious; for it is this alone which brings us into that living sympathy with God in which lies the possibility and prevailing power of prayer. The prayer of faith is importunate and persevering, unselfish and without regard to iniquity; it draws its arguments from the Word and promise of God; it appeals to His love and compassion; it makes mention of His holy Name, and seeks His glory; it pleads the merits of the ascended and ever-living High Priest, and rests in His gracious intercession. In a word, it offers the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man which availeth much. So prayed the Syro-Phenician woman. Lord, teach us thus to pray!

CHAPTER IV.

JOURNEY THROUGH ZIDON AND DECAPOLIS TO THE SEA OF GALILEE.

EPHPHATHA!”—FEEDING OF THE FOUR THOUSAND—PHARISEES SEEK A SIGN-WARNING AGAINST THE PHARISAIC LEAVEN-HEALING OF THE BLIND MAN AT BETHSAIDA-PETER'S CONFESSION-JESUS FORETELLS HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION.

MATTHEW XV. 29-39; xvI. 1-28. MARK VII. 31-37; VIII. 1-38. LUKE IX. 18–27.

AFTER the events narrated in the last chapter, there was, in that region, no longer any seclusion or repose for our Lord; and He therefore continued His journey. There seems good reason for believing that His route led first northward, through the territory of Zidon; thence along the southern slope of Lebanon, and under the shadow of the snowy Hermon, to the Jordan,* which He crossed, and, passing southward through Decapolis, reached the lake of Gennesaret, on its eastern shore. How long He wandered among those mountain solitudes is not recorded; but the motive which prompted the journey is obvious. He sought rest. There is, besides, abundant evidence that Jesus loved the mountains. While we do not attribute to Him the sentiment which, in our own age, hungers for grand and beautiful scenery as for the bread of life, we doubt not that the Son of Man delighted in those objects and aspects of the material world which

*This view rests on Tischendorf's text of Mark vii. 31. "Departing from the coasts of Tyre He came through Zidon to the Sea of Galilee.”