Luke 7:11-17 And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people.… We crossed Hermon, and found ourselves in a small decayed village on the edge of another bay of Esdraelon, which runs between the hills of Galilee and Hermon to the north. It was Nain. It is poor, confused and filthy, like every village in Palestine, but its situation is very fine, as commanding a good view of the plain, with the opposite hills, and especially of Tabor, that rises like a noble wooded island at the head of the green bay. And Nain, in the light of the Gospel-history, is another of those fountains of living water opened up by the Divine Saviour, which have flowed through all lands to refresh the thirsty. How many widows, for eighteen centuries, have been comforted; how many broken hearts soothed and healed; by the story of Nain — by the unsought and unexpected sympathy of Jesus, and by His power and majesty! What has Nineveh or Babylon been to the world in comparison with Nain? And this is the wonder constantly suggested by the insignificant villages of Palestine, that their names have become parts, as it were, of the deepest experiences of the noblest persons of every land and every age. (Norman Macleod, D. D.) THE WIDOW OF NAIN. Forth from the city gate the pitying crowd Followed the stricken mourner. They came near The place of burial, and, with straining hands, Closer upon her breast she clasped the pall, And with a gasping sob, quick as a child's, And an inquiring wildness flashing through The thin grey lashes of her fevered eyes, She came where Jesus stood beside the way. He looked upon her, and His heart was moved. "Weep not!" He said; and as they stayed the bier, And at His bidding laid it at His feet, He gently drew the pall from out her grasp, And laid it back in silence from the dead. With troubled wonder the mute throng drew near, And gazed on His calm looks. A minute's space He stood and pray'd. Then taking the cold hand, He said, "Arise!" And instantly the breast Heaved in its cerements, and a sudden flush Ran through the lines of the divided lips, And with a murmur of his mother's name, He trembled and sat upright in his shroud. And while the mourner hung upon his neck, Jesus went calmly on His way to Nain. (N. P. Willis.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it came to pass the day after, that he went into a city called Nain; and many of his disciples went with him, and much people. |
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