Verse 49. - While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. This interruption, which must have occupied some time, was, no doubt, a sore trial to the ruler's faith. His little daughter was, he knew well, dying; and though he trusted that the famous Rabbi had power to arrest the progress of disease, he never seems for a moment to have contemplated his wrestling with death; indeed, the bare thought of recalling the spirit to the deserted clay tenement evidently never occurred to any of that sad household, while the hired mourners (vers. 52, 53, and Mark 5:38), too accustomed to the sight of death in all its forms to dream of any man, however great a physician, recalling the dead to life, transgressing all courtesy, positively laughed him to scorn. It seems to us strange now that this supreme miracle should have seemed so much harder a thing to accomplish than the healing of blindness or deafness, or the creation of wine and bread and fish, or the instantaneous quieting of the elements, the waves, and the wind. While sufferers and their friends and the Lord's disciples, in countless instances, asked him to put forth his power in cases of disease and sickness, neither friend nor disciple ever asked him to raise the dead to life. To the last, in spite of what they had seen, none, till after the Resurrection, could persuade themselves that he was, indeed, the Lord of death as well as of life.

8:41-56 Let us not complain of a crowd, and a throng, and a hurry, as long as we are in the way of our duty, and doing good; but otherwise every wise man will keep himself out of it as much as he can. And many a poor soul is healed, and helped, and saved by Christ, that is hidden in a crowd, and nobody notices it. This woman came trembling, yet her faith saved her. There may be trembling, where yet there is saving faith. Observe Christ's comfortable words to Jairus, Fear not, believe only, and thy daughter shall be made whole. No less hard was it not to grieve for the loss of an only child, than not to fear the continuance of that grief. But in perfect faith there is no fear; the more we fear, the less we believe. The hand of Christ's grace goes with the calls of his word, to make them effectual. Christ commanded to give her meat. As babes new born, so those newly raised from sin, desire spiritual food, that they may grow thereby.While he yet spake,.... The above words to the woman;

there cometh one: Mark suggests there were more than one, Mark 5:35; see Gill on Mark 5:35 and the Persic version here reads, "some of the ruler's family came"; that is, to him, who was now with Jesus: from the ruler of the synagogue's house; so the word "house" is supplied by the Syriac and Ethiopic versions; otherwise the words would be,

from the ruler of the synagogue; which could not be, since he was still with Christ: hence some versions, as the Vulgate and Arabic, render them, "to the ruler of the synagogue"; and which give a true sense, and a right view of the case; for this messenger both came from his house, and to him:

saying to him, thy daughter is dead, trouble not the master; to bring him any further, since all hope of help was now gone. The Vulgate Latin version, instead of "master", reads "him"; and the Ethiopic version, "Jesus".