The Death of the Young Encourages a Spirit of Dependence on God in the Home Life of This World
J. B. Brown, B. A. Mark 5:21-43 And when Jesus was passed over again by ship to the other side, much people gathered to him: and he was near to the sea.… It brings the unseen Hand to bear very directly and potently on the soul's deepest and most hidden springs. Let us suppose for a moment that there was a revealed ordinance of heaven that every, human being born into this world should live to three-score years and ten, and then quietly lie down to rest, and awake in eternity. Would it enrich or impoverish the life of the human world? I venture to think that it would impoverish it unspeakably. The passage of these little ones through the veil, of infants and children, of young men and maidens, of men and women in their prime, brings God's hand very near, and keeps its pressure on the most powerful springs of our nature, our warmest affection, and our most constant and active care. It is not the uncertainty which is the strongest element of the influence, though no doubt that keeps us vigilant and anxious, and helps to maintain the full strain of our power. It is rather the constant contact with a Higher Will, which keeps us in humble, hopeful dependence, which gives and withholds, lends and recalls, by a wisdom which we cannot fathom, but which demands our trust on the basis of a transcendent manifestation of all-suffering and all-sacrificing love. (J. B. Brown, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea. WEB: When Jesus had crossed back over in the boat to the other side, a great multitude was gathered to him; and he was by the sea.