March 23

"They questioned among themselves, saying, What is this? A new teaching!"—Mark 1:27 (R.V.).

A NEW teaching! the wondering people said about the words of Him who spake as never man spake.

For He spoke so boldly. It did not matter who might be listening to Him—what opponents, what adversaries. He never feared the face of man. Mightier transports moved Him. More unbending imperatives urged Him on. He saw the eternal realities, God and the soul and the everlasting world; and then it was a small thing to Him with what judgment the majority judged Him.

And He spoke so tenderly. His lips dropped honey and balm and dew. He discerned the heart beating and quivering even in sufferers whom the unclean spirits oppressed, even in lepers whom all others held in abhorrence, even in grasping publicans and despairing sinners. He knew what a priceless jewel the heart is, though it should be hidden under the mire and clay. With gentlest grace He sought and found and healed it.

And He spoke so powerfully. God's Holy Spirit was His in abundant and divinest measure. When He uttered His message, it was as if the Spirit resident in Him overflowed and entered the souls that hearkened to Him. They could not resist His wisdom, His majesty, His love. He led them captive. They became pliable and plastic in His constraining hands. He turned them, like rivers of water, into whatever channel He would.

I would fain have Jesus speak to me boldly, tenderly, powerfully. And then I would myself, in my finite measure and degree, learn His great language, catch His clear accents, make Him my pattern to live and to die.