March 22

His compassions fail not. — LAM. iii. 22.

Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole. — LUKE viii. 50.

THIS word "Fear not," of our divine Lord, is one many times repeated in his life and ministry. It is full of compassion, comfort, and cheer. When the sad message came to the ruler of the synagogue, "Thy daughter is dead, trouble not the Master," the words sprang from Christ's lips at once, so that the faith of Jairus had no time to waver: "Fear not: believe only." Jesus immediately summons him to a trust in the almightiness of him to whom he had appealed.

Our Lord in this incident joins himself in tender sympathy to the sorrows of home life. He crosses the threshold of the domestic sanctuary, and with divine power and divine love brings "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."

Here we learn the tender compassion of Christ, the all-sufficiency of Jesus, and the reality of faith, as a personal trust in a personal Saviour, who is able and willing to heal, to help, and to save. Jesus is just as real, as personal, as near, as loving to-day as in the days of his flesh. He hears your cry, and feels the clinging of your faith about his heart.

John E. Cookman.

But warm, sweet, tender, even yet

A present help is he;

And love has yet its Olivet,

And love its Galilee.

The healing of the seamless dress

Is by our beds of pain.

We touch him in life's throng and press,

And we are whole again.

JOHN G. WHITTIER.