The Touch of Faith by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 25, 1897

The Touch of Faith

By Editor

Editorial

The Touch of Faith.—God reveals himself to man through all the physical senses. Through these, if kept responsive to the will of God, will his power and life and love enter the soul. In our study this week we will consider the touch of faith, the divine power answering to the sense of feeling. The story is a simple one, not unlike many other incidents in the life of our Lord. Read it in all the evangelists.

The scene is laid in Capernaum, by the beautiful “Blue Galilee.” Jesus chose this place as his home when driven from inhospitable Nazareth. Here were performed some of his most noted miracles, and in this vicinity he taught some of his most precious lessons. Truly, as said the prophet, speaking of this time and place seven centuries before, “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.”

Jesus had just returned from the other side of the sea, where he had healed the demoniac, and had been entreated of the people to depart, because the demons had driven the swine to destruction. The loss of the swine was more to them than the salvation of the soul. But one, so far as we know, among all the people of Gadara, longed for Jesus, and he, the man to whom our Lord had spoken reason, freedom, and salvation. He heard, and was released from his terrible bondage. Before Jesus reached Capernaum, the multitude were waiting to welcome him. One man, a proud ruler, more eager than the rest, could be seen walking to and fro, exhibiting, in oriental intensity, the anxious feelings of his heart. We can imagine him saying in agony almost too intense for utterance, “Will he never come?” But Jesus came. The keel of the fishers’ boat grates upon the pebbles of the beach; the crowd, with many glad utterances, welcome the Great Healer and Teacher. The synagogue ruler, Jairus by name, his pride and dignity crushed by his great grief and overpowering anxiety, falls at the feet of Jesus, and with broken utterances pleads, as only sorrowing love can plead, that Jesus would come and heal his daughter, his one only daughter, who lay a-dying. And the Lord Jesus, ever responsive to the cry of need, went with the sorrowing father to heal the child.

The Faithless Crowd.—But as he went, “the people thronged him,” crowded him, jostled against him in their eager desire to see and hear, and thus impeded his progress. They see, but it is only the man Jesus. They hear, but at the most only a wonderful teacher or prophet. They wonder, but it is to see some miracle wrought, some sign given. They touch him, throng him, press him, but it is the casual contact, at the most a pride of having touched the great and noted, and perhaps obtained from him a passing glance.

The Faithful One.—But there was one in that throng who saw more than this, heard more, felt more. Nay, she wrapped up all the longing and faith and hope of the heart, put it all into the sense of feeling or touch. For years her life current had been oozing away. Physicians many had she consulted, but had grown worse instead of better. Luke, the “beloved physician,” tells us that no doctor could cure her. It was evidently so. Bloodlessly pale, she stood in that throng, and her heart filled with a great thought of the Master. Timid with weakness, she did not dare speak to him. She might have thought herself not worthy that the Master should speak to her, that the Great Healer should “touch” her even as he had others. Her greater faith grasped a simple means. She said: “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. O, there is virtue in him to heal! Even his garments will connect me with his mighty power.” Pressing through the throng behind, with physical strength, doubtless, well-nigh spent, we can see her reaching out her frail, feeble hand toward the Center of the throng. Will she fail? Will the great hope awakened within perish?—No, thrice no. God never awakens hope after him but that he meets it in blessed fruition. She reaches forth her hand, touches the mere “hem,” the “border” of his seamless robe, and immediately the power of his endless life entered her being, the flow of her blood was staunched, and joyfully she knew herself healed.

Another Knew.—Immediately Jesus turns in that throng and asks, “Who touched me?” The various ones about him answer what seems to the disciples so unreasonable a question in the negative. A strange question! Was the Master bereft of reason? They could keep silent no longer. “Master, thou seest the

multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou. Who touched me?” But these did not touch Jesus the Son of God. They simply pressed against the man. But Jesus knew that somebody touched him, felt after him, found him, came in contact with his life. “Somebody hath touched me; for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.” Triumphantly the woman now comes forward. She sees that she is not hidden from him. She falls down before him, and pours out of a full heart her story, and her gratitude for the wondrous work wrought in her by the power of Jesus. And now he speaks to her heart the blessed words, “Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.”

The Lesson.—Why need we say more? Jesus Christ is still the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever. Tho in heaven, our great High Priest, his blessed Spirit of life and light and peace is everywhere, uniting him by a living bond to every longing soul. He truly can be literally touched by the feeling of our infirmities. Reach out after him. Even tho you can not see in the darkness, or hear amid earth’s din, “feel after him and find him,” for he “is not far from every one of us.” Acts 17:27. Are you soul sick or body sick, reach out, and by faith touch the hem of his garment. From his great heart of love flow out the healing streams of life to all. He knows not the casual touch; he honors the touch of faith. Touch him and live and rejoice; and from him will come to you those blessed words, “Thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”