Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

134. ST. MATTHEW.
Sect. IV.— The Daughter of Jairus raised. The
Bloody Issue healed,
"18. 51 While he spake these things unto them,
behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped
him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but
come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live."
There are four conditions of a good prayer:
1. A man ought to place himself in the presence of
God, and to approach him by faith. 2. To humble
himself sincerely. 3. To lay open his wants with
a holy earnestness. 4. To have confidence in the
goodness of Christ, and in the virtue of his holy
humanity, which is the source of all the holiness of
Christians. The mysterious imposition of hands,
used by Christ in bodily cures, represents the sov-
ereign authority of Jesus Christ, the inward touches
of his grace, the communication of his merits, the
effusion of his Spirit, &c.
" 19. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so
did his disciples."
Jesus, though able to act as well absent as pre-
sent, appears upon the place, to teach his ministers
not to spare either their steps or their pains, when
the salvation of a soul is in question. He rises up,
to show them that they must quit their repose and
ease, to go in search of souls which are ^ead in sin.
When a pastor, praying earnestly for a soul, of
which he is the father, calls Jesus Christ to his
succour, he ought to hope that he will rise and fol-
low him.
" 20. % (And, behold, a woman, which was dis-
eased with an issue of blood twelve years, came be-
hind him, and touched the hem of his garment:"