The Fundamentals
88
A SECOND MOTIVE There are five several passages in the Gospels which speak of Christ as having, or as being moved with, compassion. One is when Jesus saw two blind men and where He gave them sight ; another is where He saw a leper and where He touched and healed him; another is where He saw a widow mourning the loss of her dead son and where He raised that son to life; another is where He saw the hungry multitudes and where He fed "them; and the last is where He saw multi tudes uncared for and where He asked His disciples to offer prayer in their behalf. Now, all of these passages are interesting, as revealing the heart of Christ, He being the “God of compassion” whose “compassions fail not.” But the last passage is particularly in teresting, as it gives to us a view of present world-conditions and of the thought of God concerning them. For what was true that day in Galilee is still true the world over; and what Christ was He still is. Let us, for a moment, consider the passage. Jesus had come to His own city of Nazareth, and later He had gone forth from thence throughout the neighboring dis tricts. Both in the city and out of it, He had dispensed His largess of healing, from, apparently, early morning until late evening. As a result of His ministrations, He had gathered at last great crowds about Him, made up of men, women and children, and now these had no place to turn to for the night and had many physical and spiritual needs still unsupplied. That Jesus had had compassion upon the people all through the day, His words and acts attest. But now, seeing the multitudes in such a pitiable condition, it is recorded—for this is the impli cation—that He had peculiar compassion upon them. He saw that they were hungry and weary, just as sheep are at the close of the day when they are unfed and exhausted ; and He saw also that they were like a great harvest field, whose
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