Vol. 2

402 ST. LUKE.hood but the conversion of sinners, and the hopes ofseeing all tears one day wiped from her eyes." 14. And he came and touched the bier : andthey that bare him stood still.man, I say unto thee,It isArise."And he said, Younga very great mercy that God does not abandonus under the death of sin, but vouchsafes tocome to meet us. Whenever he strikes a sinner'sbody with some disease, his senses with some objects,and his ears with some words, which, by themeans of his grace, prove instrumental to his conversion,he may then be said to touch the living coffinof a dead soul. Men are not sensible that thesestrokes proceed from a hand of grace and mercy,while they are yet under the death of sin ; and theyvery frequently never reflect upon them, even whenthey are risen again.What acknowledgment is notdue to God, from a young man, who is carried outby his passions to the grave of a sinful habit, whereinhe would be buried for ever; but grace stops thembetimes, raises him again, and gives him a new life !" 15. And he that was dead sat up, and beganto speak. And he delivered him to his mother."He whom God teaches effectually, 1. Rises orsits up, by forsaking his sins ; 2. Begins to speak, inconfessing them; 3.Puts himself into the hands ofhis mother, in submitting himself to the power anddiscipline of the church,resigning himself up to theconduct of her ministers, and living by her spirit.When Christ delivers us into the hands of ourmother, he does not thereby leave us, because sheherself is in the hands of her Lord. Since the sinneris restored to the church, it is plain that he had