meaning by the first term to describe her religion, that it was not Jewish but heathen; by the second, the stock of which she came, which was even that accursed stock which God had once doomed to a total excision, but of which some branches had been spared by those first generations of Israel that should have extirpated them root and branch. Every thing, therefore, was against her; yet she was not hindered by that every thing from coming and craving the boon that her soul longed after. She had heard of the mighty works which the Saviour of Israel had done for already his fame had gone through all Syria; so that they brought unto him, besides other sick, "those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and he healed them." (Matt. iv. 24.) And she has a boon to ask for her daughter, or rather indeed for herself, for so entirely had she made her daughter's misery her own, that she comes saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil;" as on a later occasion the father of the lunatic child, "Have compassion on us, and help us." (Mark ix. 22.)

But very different she finds him from that which report had described him to her; for that spoke of him as the merciful Son of man, who would not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax, who encouraged every weary and afflicted soul to come and find rest with him. He who of himself came to meet the needs of others, withdrew himself from hers; "He answered her not a word." In the language of Chrysostom, "The Word has no word; the fountain is sealed; the phy. sician withholds his remedies;" until at last the disciples, wearied out with her long entreaties, and seemingly more merciful than their Lord, themselves come to him, making intercessions for her that he would grant to her her petition and send her away. Yet was there in truth the worm of selfishness at the root of this seemingly greater compassion of theirs, and it shows itself when they give their reason why he should dismiss her with the boon she asks: "For she crieth after us," she is making a scene; she is drawing on us unwelcome observation. Theirs is one of those heartless grantings of a request, whereof we all are conscious; when it is granted out of no love to the suppliant, but to leave undisturbed the peace and selfish ease of him from whom at length it is extorted, such as his who said, "Lest by her continual coming she weary me." Here, as so often, under a seeming severity lurks the real love, while selfishness hides itself under the mask of bounty. But these intercessors meet with no better fortune than the suppliant herself; and Christ stops their mouths with words unpromising enough for her suit: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Cf. Matt. x. 5, 6.)

85

But in what sense was this true? All prophecy which went before declared that in him, the promised Seed, not one nation only, but all nations of the earth, should be blest: he himself declared, "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice." (John x. 16.) It has happened indeed with others, as with the founders of false religions, that as success increased, the circle of their vision has widened; and they who meant at first but to give a faith to their nation, have aspired at last to give one to the world. But here all must have been known: the world-embracing reach of his faith was contemplated by Christ from the first. In what sense then, and under what limitations, could it be said with truth that he was not sent but unto Israel only? Clearly in his own personal ministry.* That, for wise purposes in the counsels of God, was to be confined to his own nation; and every departure from this was, and was clearly marked as, an exception. Here and there, indeed, he gave preludes of the coming mercy ;t yet before the Gentiles should glorify God for his mercy, Christ was first to be "a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." (Rom. xv. 8, 9.) It was only as it were by a rebound from them that the grace was to light upon the heathen world; while yet that issue, which seemed thus accidental, was laid deep in the deepest counsels of God. (Acts xiii. 44-49; Rom. xi.) In the form of Christ's reply, as St. Mark gives it, "Let the children first be filled," the refusal does not appear so absolute and final, and a glimpse appears of the manner in which the blessing will pass on to others, when as many of these, of "the children," as will, have accepted it. But there, too, the present repulse is absolute: the time is not yet; others intermeddle not with the meal, till the children have had enough.

The woman hears the repulse, which the disciples who had ventured to plead for her, receive; but she is not daunted or disheartened thereby. Hitherto she had been crying after the Lord, and at a distance; but now, instead of being put further still, "came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me." And now he breaks the silence

* Augustine (Serm. 77, c. 2): Hic verborum istorum oritur quæstio: Unde nos ad ovile Christi de gentibus venimus, si non est missus nisi ad oves quæ perierunt domûs Israel? Quid sibi vult hujus secreti tam alta dispensatio, ut cùm Dominus sciret quare veniret, utique ut Ecclesiam haberet in omnibus Gentibus, non se missum dixerit, nisi ad oves quæ perierunt domûs Israel? Intelligimus ergo præsentiam corporis sui, nativitatem suam, exhibitionem miraculorum, virtutemque resurrectionis in illo populo eum ostendere debuisse. Jerome (Comm. in Matth., in loc.): Perfectam salutem gentium passionis et resurrectionis tempori reservabat.

+ Calvin: Præludia quædam dare voluit communis misericordiæ.

which hitherto he has maintained toward her; but it is with an answer more discomfortable than was the silence itself: "He answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread,* and to cast it to dogs." "The children" are of course the Jews, "the children of the kingdom." (Matt. viii. 12.) He who spoke so sharply to them, speaks thus honorably of them; nor is there any contradiction in this: for here he is speaking of the position which God has given them in his kingdom; there, of the manner in which they have realized that position. On the other hand, extreme contempt was involved in the title of dog given to any one, it being remarkable that the nobler characteristics of the animal, which yet were not unknown to antiquity, are never brought out in Scripture. (See Deut. xxxii. 18; Job xxx. 1; 1 Sam. xvii. 43; xxiv. 15; 2 Sam. iii. 8; ix. 8; xvi. 9; 2 Kin. viii. 13; Matt. vii. 6; Phil. iii. 2; Rev. xxii. 15.)

This at length would have been enough for many; and, even if they had persevered thus far, now at least they would have gone away in anger or despair. But not so this woman; she, like the centurion, and under still more unfavorable circumstances than his, was mighty in faith; and from the very word which seemed to make most against her, with the ready wit of faith, she drew an argument in her own favor. She entangled the Lord, himself most willing thus to be so entangled, in his own speech; she takes the sword out of his own hand, with that sword to overcome him: "Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." Upon these words Luther, who has dwelt on all the circumstances of this little history with a peculiar love, and seems never weary of extolling the mighty faith of this woman, ex

* Maldonatus: Habent canes panem suum minùs delicatum, quàm, filii; res naturales, Sol, Luna, pluvia, et cetera idem genus canum, id est Gentilium, panis sunt; quæ providentiâ quidem Dei, sed generali minùsque accuratâ dispensantur, et omnibus in commune, sicut porcis glandes, projiciuntur: Evangelica gratia, quæ supra naturam est, panis est filiorum non projiciendus temerè, sed majore consilio rationeque distribuendus.

Many as Maldonatus assume that there is yet a further aggravation of the contempt in the κvvapíois (the Vulgate, catellis), not even dogs, but whelps. Yet rather I should be inclined to say with Olshausen that there is in the diminutive a slight mitigation of the exceeding sharpness of the words; yet not so but that they remain most severe and cutting still. Calvin brings out well the force of the Bahɛiv. Projiciendi verbo utitur significando non bene locari, quod Ecclesiæ Dei ablatum profanis hominibus vulgatur. Clarius exprimitur consilium Christi apud Marcum v. 27, ubi habetur, Sine prius saturari filios. Nam Cananæam admonet præposterè facere, quæ velut in mediâ cœnâ in mensam involat.

Corn. à Lapide: Christum suis verbis irretit, comprehendit, et capit. Rationem contra se factam in ipsum leniter retorquet.

claims, "Was not that a master-stroke? she snares Christ in his own words." And oftentimes he sets this Canaanitish woman before each troubled and fainting heart, that it may learn from her how to wring a Yea from God's Nay; or rather, how to hear the deep-hidden Yea, which many times lies in his seeming Nay. "Like her, thou must give God right in all he says against thee, and yet must not stand off from praying, till thou overcomest as she overcame, till thou hast turned the very charges made against thee into arguments and proofs of thy need, till thou too hast taken Christ in his own words."

Our translation of the woman's answer is not, however, altogether satisfactory. For indeed she consents to Christ's declaration, not immediately to make exception against the conclusion which she draws from it, but to show how in that very declaration is involved the granting of her petition.* "Saidest thou dogs? it is well; I accept the title and the place for the dogs have a portion of the meal,-not the first, not the children's portion, but a portion still,-the crumbs which fall from the table. In this very statement of the case thou bringest us heathen, thou bringest me, within the circle of the blessings which God, the great householder, is ever dispensing to his family. We also belong to his household, though we occupy but the lowest place in it. According to thine own showing, I am not wholly an alien, and therefore I will abide by this name, and will claim from thee all its consequences." By the "masters" she does not mean the Jews, which is Chrysostom's mistake; for thus the whole image would be disturbed; they are “the children :” but by the "masters," she would signify God, using the plural on account of the plural "dogs," which Christ had used before; in the same way as Christ himself says, "Then the sons are free," (Matt. xvii. 29,) having spoken plurally before of the kings of the earth," while yet it is only the

=

*There is nothing adversative in kaì yúp etenim (see Passow), which would justify the "yet" of our version, or the "nevertheless" of Tyndale's. Wiclif's, Cranmer's, the Genevese, and Rhemish versions have the right translations: thus the Genevese, "Truth, Lord, for indeed the whelps eat of the crumbs;" in this following the Vulgate, Etiam, Domine, nam et catelli edunt. So De Wette: Ya, Herr! denn es essen ya die Hunde. Maldonatus, always acute, and whose merits as an interpreter, setting apart his bitter polemical spirit, deserve the highest recognition, has exactly caught the meaning of her reply: Hoc est quod volo, me esse canem, nam et catelli comedunt de micis quæ cadunt de mensâ dominorum suorum. The "crumbs" here alluded to are something more than that which should accidentally fall from the table; for it was the custom during eating to use, instead of a napkin, the soft white part of the bread (úñoμaydañía), which, having thus used, they threw to the dogs. Eustathius, Εἰς ὃ τὰς χεῖρας ἀποματτόμενοι, εἶτα κυσὶν ἔβαλλον. (See BECKER'S Charikles, v. 1, p. 431.)

one Son, the only-begotten of the Father, whom he has in his eye.* He, the great Master and Lord, spreads a table, and all that depend on him, in their place and order are satisfied from it,—the children at the table, the dogs beneath the table. There is in her statement something like the Prodigal's petition, "Make me as one of thy hired servants,”cognition of diverse relations, some closer, some more distant, in which divers persons stand to God,—yet all blest, who, whether in a nearer or remoter station, are satisfied from his hands.

-a re

And now she has conquered. She who before heard only those words of a seeming contempt, now hears words of a most gracious commendation,―words of which the like are recorded as spoken but to one other in all the Gospel history: "O woman, great is thy faith!" He who at first seemed as though he would have denied her the smallest boon, now opens to her the full treasure-house of his grace, and bids her to help herself, to carry away what she will: "Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." He had shown to her for a while, like Joseph to his brethren, the aspect of severity; but, like Joseph, he could not maintain it long, -or rather he would not maintain it an instant longer than it was needful, and after that word of hers, that mighty word of an undaunted faith, it was needful no more: in the words of St. Mark, "For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter."

Like the centurion at Capernaum, like the nobleman at Cana, she made proof that his word was potent, whether spoken far off or near. Her child, indeed, was at a distance; but she offered in her faith a channel of communication between it and Christ. With one hand of that faith she had held on to that Lord in whom all healing grace was stored, with the other to her suffering child,—thus herself a living conductor by which the power of Christ might run like an electric flash from him to her beloved. "And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed," weak and exhausted as it would appear from the paroxysms of the spirit's going out; or, the circumstance which last is mentioned may indicate only that she was now taking that quiet rest, which hitherto the evil spirit had not allowed. It will answer so to the "clothed and in his right mind," (Luke viii. 30,) of another who had been tormented in the

same way.

But the interesting question remains, Why this bitterness was not spared her, why the Lord should have presented himself under so different an aspect to her, and to most other suppliants? Sometimes he an

* Maldonatus: Loquitur pluraliter propter canes, quorum suum quisque dominum habet.