and as Mark
adds, "be whole of thy plague."

This woman's faith was sincere and free from guile, nevertheless it was
in a sense defective. She believed that the influence of Christ's
person, and even that attaching to His raiment, was a remedial agency,
ample to cure her malady; but she did not realize that the power to heal
was an inherent attribute to be exercized at His will, and as the
influence of faith might call it forth. True, her faith had already been
in part rewarded, but of greater worth to her than the physical cure of
her illness would be the assurance that the divine Healer had granted
the desire of her heart, and that the faith she had manifested was
accepted by Him. To correct her misapprehension and to confirm her
faith, Jesus gently subjected her to the necessary ordeal of confession,
which must have been made easier through her consciousness of the great
relief already experienced. He confirmed the healing and let her depart
with the comforting assurance that her recovery was permanent.

In contrast with the many cases of healing in connection with which the
Lord charged the beneficiaries that they should tell none how or by whom
they had been relieved, we see here that publicity was made sure by His
own action, and that too, when secrecy was desired by the recipient of
the blessing. The purposes and motives of Jesus may be but poorly
understood by man; but in this woman's case we see the possibility of
stories strange and untrue getting afloat, and it appears to have been
the wiser course to make plain the truth then and there. Moreover the
spiritual worth of the miracle was greatly enhanced by the woman's
confession and by the Lord's gracious assurance.

Observe the significant assertion, "Thy faith hath made thee whole."
Faith is of itself a principle of power;[683] and by its presence or
absence, by its fulness or paucity, even the Lord was and is influenced,
and in great measure controlled, in the bestowal or withholding of
blessings; for He ministers according to law, and not with caprice or
uncertainty. We read that at a certain time and place Jesus "could there
do no mighty work" because of the people's unbelief.[684] Modern
revelation specifies that faith to be healed is one of the gifts of the
Spirit, analogous to the manifestations of faith in the work of healing
others through the exercize of the power of the Holy Priesthood.[685]

Our Lord's inquiry as to who had touched Him in the th