The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

332 THE DEMONIAC
the mighty and holy names they knew to come
out. They had done everything they could. No,
there was one thing which they had either never
thought of, or which they had shrunk from doing.
They had not touched the boy. He was indeed
not an inviting object to behold ;
the look of madness
was in his eyes, the white foam about his
mouth, his clothes were torn and thickly coated
with the dirt in which he had rolled. His face and
hands were one mass of blotches and filth from his
wallowing in the mud. He was not an object which
dainty hands would be eager to lay hold of; and the
disciples had drawn the line there. Perhaps if they
had added that sympathetic touch to their prayers
and invocations, even they might have succeeded.
It is possible that we might do mighty works if we
were not so dreadfully afraid to touch people.
Then, when all things seemed at the blackest for that
father and his boy, Jesus came, and with a few strong,
cheery words about hope and faith, brought gleams
of morning into the night.
There was no shrinking
there. Christ's hands were as delicately clean and
sensitive as the finest lady's hands. But the Saviour
of the world was never afraid of touching men.
Why
should He They were His own flesh and blood.
He touched the most repulsive and loathsome human
creatures as readily as you would kiss your own child.
While that boy lay like one dead, Christ stooped
down, took him by the hand, and lifted him up, and
he arose, healed and in his right mind. Christ's
miracle-working power had driven out the unclean
spirit ; but it was the grasp of that strong gentle
hand that set the lad on his feet and completed