suppliant was to be an action of no small importance. It was nothing less than a prelude to the disclosure of the great mystery which had been hidden for ages, and was not openly to be revealed before Christ's ascension, that through him the gate of mercy was opened to the Gentiles. When an action was about to be done significant of so momentous a truth, it was expedient that the attention of all who stood by should be drawn to the thing by something singular and striking in the manner of the doing of it. It was expedient that the manner of the doing of it should be such as might save the honour of the Jewish dispensation, that it should mark the consistency of the old dispensation with the new, by circumstances which should im ply, that the principle upon which mankind in general were at last received to mercy was the very same upon which the single family of the Israelites had been originally taken into favour,—namely, that mankind in general, by the light of the gospel revelation, were at last brought to a capacity at least of that righteousness of faith which was the thing so valued in Abraham that it rendered him the friend of God, and procured him the visible and lasting reward of special blessings on his posterity. It was fit that she who was chosen to be the first example of mercy extended to a heathen should be put to some previous trial; that she might give proof of that heroic faith which acts with an increased vigour under the pressure of discouragement, and show herself in some sort worthy of so high a preference. The coldness therefore with which her petition was at first received was analogous to the afflictions and disappointments with which the best servants of God are often exercised; which are intended to call forth their virtue here and heighten their reward hereafter. It is one of the many instances preserved in holy writ, which teach the useful lesson of entire resignation to the will of God, under protracted affliction and accumulated disappointments,-upon this principle, that good men are never more in the favour and immediate care of God than when in the judgment of the giddy world they seem the most forgotten and forsaken by him. 66 Our Lord's attendants, touched with the distress of the case- penetrated by the woman's cries-perhaps ashamed that such an object should be openly treated with neglect (for what had hitherto passed was upon the public road) and little entering into the motives of our Lord's conduct, took upon them to be her advocates. They besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us." Send her away,- that is, grant her petition, and give her her dismissal. That must have been their meaning; for in no instance had they seen the prayer of misery rejected; nor would they have asked their Master to send her away without relief. If our Lord had his chosen attendants-if among those attendants he had his favourites, yet in the present case the interest of a favourite could not be allowed to have any weight. He had indeed belied his own feelings had he seemed to listen more to the importunities of his friends than to the cries of distress and the pleadings of his own compassion. The interference of the disciples only served him with an occasion to prosecute his experiment of his suppliant's faith. He framed his reply to them in terms which might seem to amount to a refusal of the petition which before he had only seemed not to regard: He said, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Oh miserable woman! offspring of an accursed race! cease thy unavailing prayers; - he hath pronounced thy sentence! Betake thee to thy home, sad outcast from thy Maker's love! Impatience of thy absence but aggravates thy child's distraction: Nor long shall her debilitated frame support the tormentor's cruelty Give her while she lives the consolation of a parent's tenderness; it shall somewhat cheer the melancholy of the intervals of her phrensy; it is the only service thou canst render her. For thyself, alas! no consolation remains but in the indulgence of despair. The Redeemer is not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and to that house, ill-fated Canaanite! thou wast born and thou hast lived a stranger! : The faith of the Syrophoenician idolatress gave way to no such suggestions of despair. It required indeed the sagacity of a lively faith to discern that an absolute refusal of her prayer was not contained in our Lord's discouraging declaration. In that godly sagacity she was not deficient. "He is not sent!" Is he then a servant, sent upon an errand, with precise instructions for the execution of his business, which he is not at liberty to exceed? — No: He comes with the full powers of a son. Wise no doubt and just as the decree that salvation shall be of the Jews, blessing shall take its family of Abraham, that the general beginning in the that the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem: Be it, that by disclosing the great scheme of mercy to the chosen people, he fulfils the whole of his engagement; yet though he is sent to none but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, no restriction is laid upon him not to receive his sheep of any other fold, if any such resort to him. What though it be my misfortune to have been born an alien from the chosen stock? what though I have no claim under any covenant or any promise? I will hope against hope; I will cast me on his |