THE HEALING HAND OF JESUS.
The Jewish church, or synagogue at Capernaum was very beautiful. It
was of white marble, and richly carved, and was the gift of a Roman
officer to the Jews.
One Sabbath morning Jesus went in and sat among the learned Rabbis, for
He wished to speak to the people as He had near Nazareth. The people
knew and loved him, and the place was crowded to hear Him speak. He
sat there through the singing, and the prayers, and the reading.
The parchment rolls of the law and the prophets were in a case behind
Him; and there was the curtain, and the branched candlesticks. Then He
went to the Teacher's seat, and while all the people stood He sat and
taught them. People wondered, as they always did, at his words, for
they were not like the words of the Rabbis,--they were as if God
Himself were speaking through a man.
In the midst of it there was a loud cry from a man who looked like a
maniac. He had followed the people in, and the words of Jesus had
disturbed the evil spirit that was in Him,
"Let us alone," it cried, "what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of
Nazareth. Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who Thou art,--the
Holy One of God."
"Hold thy peace, and come out of Him," said Jesus, and the poor man
fell headlong on the marble floor, but in a moment he was free, for the
evil spirit had obeyed the word of Jesus, and this astonished the
people so much that they told it through all the town and the country
round about.
When He went home from the synagogue, for Peter's house was one of His
homes, He found the mother of Peter's wife very ill of fever, and they
brought Jesus to her bed. He bent over her and said some words to that
which had caused the fever, and at once it was gone.
She seemed to be quite well again, and her first wish was to do
something for this wonderful man whom Peter had been following, and she
rose and helped to prepare food for Him.
The people did not dare to come to Jesus for healing while it was yet
the Sabbath, for the Rabbis said it was wrong to cure people on the
Sabbath day, but as soon as the sun had set the Sabbath ended, and then
the streets were filled with people who came for themselves, or
bringing their sick friends to be touched by the hand of Jesus. All
around the little house of Peter they crowded, while He walked among
them looking at them with pitying love, and "He laid his hands on every
one of them, and healed them."