146 Instances from the Gospels. CHAP. 



request for healing with what seemed a refusal : "I 

 am sent only to the lost sheep of the house of 

 Israel " ; and when she urged her prayer further, 

 she received what appeared a still harsher refusal : 

 " Let the children first be filled : for it is not meet 

 to take the children's bread, and cast it to the little 

 dogs." 1 But she replied, "Lord, even the little dogs 

 eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." 

 Then at last the Lord answered, saying, " woman, 

 great is thy faith : be it done unto thee even as thou 

 wilt " ; and when she went home she found her daughter 

 quietly lying on her bed and restored to sanity. 



The same is taught by the case of the woman 

 suffering from an issue of blood. 2 Her only idea, so 

 far as appears, was that Jesus was so holy a man as 

 to confer power on the very border of the garment 

 which He wore, to heal the most hopeless disease, 

 even without His knowledge. She naturally shrank 

 from publicity, and, watching her opportunity, 

 endeavoured to steal a cure; but Jesus compelled 

 her to make confession, and then said, " Daughter, 

 thy faith hath made thee whole ; go in peace, and 

 be whole of thy plague." Although this Avoman's 



1 rois Kvvaptois. Both the Authorised and the Revised 

 Versions have to the dogs ; but the woman's reply shows that 

 household pets are meant, and the use of the diminutive 

 changes the moral tone of the expression. See Dean Chad- 

 wick's Commentary on St. Mark, 2nd edition, p. 198 (Hodder 

 and Stoughton). 



2 Mark v. 25-34. See Dean Chad wick (p. 154 et seq.) on 

 this subject also. 



