Page:Jesus of Nazareth the story of His life simply told (1917).djvu/229

 XXVIII.

"TALITHA CUMI!"

When we try to picture to ourselves our Blessed Lord in the midst of the poor of Palestine, we must bear in mind that a crowd of poor, such as we are accustomed to, is respectable compared with an Eastern crowd. Dirty, ragged, and afflicted beyond anything we can imagine, were those among whom His days were spent. They "thronged Him, pressing upon Him to touch Him as many as were diseased. They stayed Him that He should not depart from them." They poured into the house where He was, "so that He could not so much as eat bread," says St. Mark. Think what this means.

Everything in our Lord was most delicate and refined. He was more sensitive than any of us to what is unsightly and unpleasant. Yet He never complained, or seemed to notice what must have distressed Him sorely. He bore with these poor people. He let them press upon Him and touch Him. How often He was weary of standing and speaking, of going here and there as He was wanted, of satisfying the endless needs of such a multitude! For they could never have enough of Him. Used to seeing themselves objects of contempt and disgust to the Pharisees, they beheld with wonder and delight the gentleness and tender compassion of their new Rabbi, and in His company forgot everything else, even consideration for Him.

It was not often that He sought to escape from the