remain small, it is to grow and become great, in order to withstand temptations without which it cannot remain. And how otherwise could faith become approved than by trials and temptations? The Christian's faith is like unto a spark of fire. If no draft strikes it, it glimmers for a little while and then dies, but if a current of air falls upon it, it brightens up and may become a great fire. Because faith, to grow and to become approved, must be exercised in trials, therefore God suffers all His Christians to be tempted by the enemies: the flesh, the world and the devil; yea, often God Himself tries His children, not to destroy them, or to torment them, but to lead them on from faith to faith. For this we here have a very plain example. This woman comes to Christ in the cheerful confidence that He will help her; for she knows from the prophets and has heard from reports that He is a ready helper to all that call upon Him. In this confidence she calls after Him, but He walks on as though He had no ears to hear. This woman had flesh and blood as we all have, and her reason, doubtless, argued that she had been mistaken in her confidence; for now she could see that this man was not a merciful helper, but a hard man who would not even listen to the cries of the unfortunate. But strongly as her own heart may have tempted her to turn back, she kept on in her cries, and the disciples came to her aid, saying: "Send her away; for she crieth after us." But this intercession of the disciples appeared rather to make bad worse; for the Lord answered: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Most likely these words were spoken in the hearing of the woman, and they sounded as though He meant to say, with this Gentile woman He would have nothing to do. If she heard these words she must have been tempted to say: Is that the way? To the Jews He is a merciful helper, but not to me, because I am a Gentile woman. But by this rebuff her confidence was not broken. She came and kneeling before the Lord she said: "Lord, help me." But now came the unkindest thrust of all; for He answered: "It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." This was as much as to say, the Jews were the children, the Gentiles were

dogs, and He must first give the children bread before He could pay any attention to the dogs. Might we not expect this woman to have retorted with flashing eyes, if He would not help her He need at least not insult her? But even this severest thrust she bore bravely, yea she caught the Lord in His own words, saying: Truth, Lord; yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table." She wanted only dog's-right, to pick up a stray crumb. And now the Lord was overcome and had to yield.

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Indeed, this woman's faith was great, and we may well ask, wherein lies the secret of her strength and perseverance? Several circumstances serve to make this plain. We observe in the text that the Lord never directly denied her request. At first He said neither yea, nor nay, and this looked hard. Then He said that He was only sent to the house of Israel, but He did not say that this woman should have no part with Israel; and finally He compared her with a dog, but did not say that she should not have a dog's right, and this still left her room to claim the right of a dog. The Lord's behavior looked unkind and His words sounded hard, but they always left room for hope, and this woman always put the best construction on them. How could she put a good construction on things which looked so much the other way, when naturally the human heart is so much inclined and so quick to put the worst construction on everything? She could do this, because she had something more certain to go by than appearances. She had the Word of the prophets that Christ would be a merciful helper to all, and this was established by His former acts, the fame of which she had heard. This Word she believed. She doubted not, this Word must be true and the Lord would and must have mercy upon her. Therefore when His behavior appeared to be at variance with the Word she trusted the Word more than appear:

ances.

Thanks be to God that the history of the Lord's behavior toward this woman is transcribed for us. Here is a strong staff for all those to lean on whom God suffers to be tried in high, spiritual temptations of the soul. These severest of all trials

come upon the Christian when God behaves towards him as the Lord did toward this woman. A Christian cries unto God for help, but there is no response; he continues his cries, but his prayers seem to vanish away in thin air. Then he perhaps remembers that the Lord said: "If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven," Matt. 18, 19, and relying on this Word he goes to other pious Christians, asking them to unite their prayers with his, yet there is no answer. Then it begins to appear to him as though God had forsaken him, as though the Lord had turned against him, and instead of finding peace and rest he finds only greater unrest. Perhaps he even begins to be tormented with the thought that he is none of God's elect, but a castaway; or he might have committed that unpardonable sin which can not be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come, and therefore God would not hear his prayers. Those are high and fiery trials which not all Christians experience, or not all in the same measure, but they that have passed through them know that the greatest bodily afflictions are light as compared with the agony which these high siftings of the soul bring the believing Christian. Job speaks of them in the 30th chapter, saying: "I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not. Thou art become cruel to me: with thy strong hand thou opposest thyself against me."

Now if God sees fit to permit our faith to be proved in such fiery trials we may learn from this woman what to do. According to the Word which she had heard of Him she firmly believed that Jesus was a merciful helper, and to this Word she steadfastly held, though He acted and spoke like a hard man, yea even called her a dog as though He greatly despised her.

"This," says Luther, "Is written for our comfort that we should learn to know, that God often secretes His grace from us, and that we are not to judge of Him by our feeling and thinking, but straight according to His Word. For here you behold, though Christ pretends to be unwilling, yet there is here not an absolute denial. All His answers sound like no,

but they are not no, they hang in the balance. He does not say: I will not hear her, but is silent, saying neither yes nor no. Neither does He say that she is not of the house of Israel, but that He is sent alone to the house of Israel, leaving His answer in the balance between no and yes. Neither does He say: Thou art a dog and shalt have nothing of the children's bread, but: it is not meet etc., leaving it undecided, whether she be a dog or not. Yet all three sound more like no than yes, and nevertheless it is more yes than no. Indeed it is all yes, but secret and hidden, and it seems all no.

Here the condition of our heart in the time of temptation is pictured to us. As the heart feels, so Christ here behaves. The heart thinks, it is all no, and yet it is not so. Therefore the heart must turn away from its own feeling, and with firm faith must lay hold on the Yes which is hidden deeply under the No, and must hold it according to God's Word, as this woman did." So Martin Luther, a man of large experience in many spiritual temptations. See his sermon on this text.

Let appearances be as they may, let our feelings be ever so bad, we should hold and believe of God, not according to appearances, not according to our feelings, but purely according to His Word. What the Word says of God that He is and does, and though our experiences would seem to contradict it, His Word nevertheless remains true. Appearances may deceive, our feelings may mislead, but the Word of the Lord can neither lie nor deceive. The Word tells us that God is love, and whosoever shall call upon His name shall be saved. If now it appears as though God were turned against us and hated us, we should hold by the Word that He is love, and if our heart would persuade us that God is cruel and has cast us away, yet we should believe the Word more than our own heart. Abiding by the Word we should always be ready to say:

I hold the Word my Savior taught

And trust it, whether felt or not. Amen.

TEXT: And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself, is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the unclean spirit

is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it. Luke 11, 14-28.

"Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." Matt. 7, 13. Two gates by which men enter; two ways in which men walk; and two places to which men go. Every man is walking either in the broad way, which is the way of the world, or in the narrow way, which is the way of Christ; and at the end of the way every man will find himself either in the place of torments, or in the place of pleasures for evermore;