Page:Jesus of Nazareth the story of His life simply told (1917).djvu/261

 bread for the dogs, but it is fit to give just the crumbs to the little dogs waiting under the table for them. This will not hurt the children. I am only a dog, but a little one to whom some broken bits might perhaps out of kindness be given."

How could our Lord hold out any longer! He had determined to set this poor heathen before His followers to the end of time as a model of the humble, persevering prayer that wins reward at last. Therefore He was obliged to try her by seeming hard. It was all seeming. From the first He was full of compassion for her and her unhappy child. He longed to help her, and had to hold back the tender, pitying words His heart was prompting Him to say. They came at last as an outburst of admiration that He could no longer restrain:

"O woman, great is thy faith, be it done unto thee as thou wilt!"

He who rebuked His disciples for their little faith was delighted with what He found in this Canaanite. He liked, too, the way in which she turned His words about the dogs against Him. St. Mark says it was this sharpness of hers that in the end gained her cause. And Jesus said:

"For this saying, go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter."

And, when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed, and that the devil was gone out. Was it worth while to have waited patiently and humbly, and to have persisted in spite of weariness and delay?