ft her bed, and walked. Jesus directed that food be given her, as
bodily needs, suspended by death, had returned with the girl's renewal
of life.

The Lord imposed an obligation of secrecy, charging all present to
refrain from telling what they had seen. The reasons for this injunction
are not stated. In some other instances a similar instruction was given
to those who had been blessed by Christ's ministrations; while on many
occasions of healing no such instructions are recorded, and in one case
at least the man who had been relieved of demons was told to go and tell
how great a thing had been done for him.[678] In His own wisdom Christ
knew when to prudently forbid and when to permit publication of His
doings. Though the grateful parents, the girl herself, and the three
apostles who had been witnesses of the restoration, may all have been
loyal to the Lord's injunction of silence, the fact that the maiden had
been raised to life could not be kept secret, and the means by which so
great a wonder had been wrought would certainly be inquired into. The
minstrels and the wailers who had been expelled from the place while it
was yet a house of mourning, and who had scornfully laughed at the
Master's assertion that the maiden was asleep and not dead as they
thought, would undoubtedly, spread reports. It is not surprizing,
therefore, to read in Matthew's short version of the history, that the
fame of the miracle "went abroad into all that land."

RESTORATION TO LIFE AND RESURRECTION.

The vital distinction between a restoration of the dead to a resumption
of mortal life, and the resurrection of the body from death to a state
of immortality, must be thoughtfully heeded. In each of the instances
thus far considered--that of the raising of the dead man of Nain,[679]
and that of the daughter of Jairus, as also the raising of Lazarus to be
studied later--the miracle consisted in reuniting the spirit and the
body in a continuation of the interrupted course of mortal existence.
That the subject of each of these miracles had to subsequently die is
certain. Jesus Christ was the first of all men who have lived on earth
to come forth from the tomb an immortalized Being; He is therefore
properly designated as "the first fruits of them that slept."[680]

Though both Elijah and Elisha, many centuries prior to the time of
Christ, were instrumental in restoring life to the dead, the former to
the widow's son in Zareptha, the latter to t