'And He said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee:
go in peace.'--LUKE vii. 50.
We find that our Lord twice, and twice only, employs this form of
sending away those who had received benefits from His hand. On both
occasions the words were addressed to women: once to this woman, who
was a sinner, and who was gibbeted by the contempt of the Pharisee
in whose house the Lord was; and once to that poor sufferer who
stretched out a wasted hand to lay upon the hem of His garment, in
the hope of getting healing--filching it away unknown to the Giver.
In both cases there is great tenderness; in the latter case even
more so than in the present, for there He addressed the tremulous
invalid as 'daughter'; and in both cases there is a very remarkable
connection hinted at between faith and peace; 'Thy faith hath saved
thee, go in peace.'
Now, there are three things that strike me about these words; the
first of them is this--