How did it happen that this unknown man could work that tremendous miracle? How, when, where, did he get this amazing power? Was he some mere street necromancer, amiably conjuring with the Holy Name? Was this story which the disciples brought to Jesus only a bit of incidental roadside news to Him? Was His reply simply a gentle beam of that tender love which shines upon all those who may be, ever so dimly, ever so stumblingly, following His “far flag”? ✠ Often I have asked of this or that one, what he thought of this wonder-worker. ✠ Every one has seemed to think of him vaguely, indifferently, as a figure carelessly thrown upon the canvas “for what he is worth,” or—in most minds—only to reveal the sweet, meek tolerance of Jesus. ✠ No wonder the disciples, who were themselves but just stumbling through the first lessons of infinite Love, could not understand. ✠ It came to me at last, that the reply of Jesus was really glowing with mighty inward joy, with the rapture of possession, of victory. ✠ The man casting out devils belonged to Him absolutely. No stranger, he, to the Christ. On the contrary, he had an intimate, secret, personal and blessed understanding with the Master. Somewhere, somehow, the World-Brother had looked into his soul, seized him, owned him, filled him with His own power, pity and love. He had entered into the divine joy, the divine Comradeship. ✠ He was working miracles of love because he must, not because he could.
Copyright, 1910
by Paul Elder and Company
OBIL
KEEPER OF CAMELS
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 | ¶AND JOHN ANSWERED HIM, SAYING, MASTER, WE SAW ONE CASTING OUTDEVILS IN THY NAME, AND HE FOLLOWETH NOT US: AND WE FORBAD HIM,BECAUSE HE FOLLOWETH NOT US. ¶BUT JESUS SAID, FORBID HIM NOT: FORTHERE IS NO MAN WHICH SHALL DO A MIRACLE IN MY NAME, THAT CANLIGHTLY SPEAK EVIL OF ME. ¶FOR HE THAT IS NOT AGAINST US IS ONOUR PART.—MARK IX: 38-40. |
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 | Women called their children to hide under mantles, or skurriedwith them to the shelter of dark huts, as Obil came riding up intoCarmel on that day of the Lord’s Great Year in Galilee; Obil,and three others, horses and accoutrements and their own bodiessteaming yet from the long rush through salt surf down from Akka toHaifa and through the clean-smelling waters of the yellow Kishonwhere it puts into the sea. What would he care—to ride a child down—that Obil? He would laughto see it wildly flying from before his horse’s hoofs. Every oneknew this, from Ptolemais to Jerusalem and even beyond, down intothe wilderness, and over across Jordan. |
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