g of that one into
the force of a will, and that all that will, as the Christian scheme
teaches us, is lodged in Jesus Christ. His lip speaks, and it is power.
He moves in nature, in providence, in history, in grace, because in Him
abides now in the form of a man, that same everlasting Word which was
with the Father, and by whom all things were made. The centurion bows
before the Commander, and the Christ says, 'as Captain of the Lord's
host am I now come.' Such, then, is the faith of this soldier taught him
by the Legion.

II. Now a word next as to our Lord's eulogium on his faith.

Jesus Christ accepts and endorses the centurion's estimate of Him, as He
always accepts the highest place offered Him. No one ever proffered to
Jesus Christ honours that He put by. No one ever brought to Him a trust
which He said was either excessive or misdirected. 'Speak the word and
my servant shall be healed,' said the centurion. Contrast Christ's
acceptance of this confidence in his power with Elijah's 'Am I a God, to
kill and to make alive, that they send this man to me to recover him of
his leprosy?' Or contrast it with Peter's 'Why look ye so earnestly on
us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to
walk?' Christ takes as His due all the honour, love, and trust, which
any man can give Him--either an exorbitant appetite for adulation, or
the manifestation of conscious divinity.

'And He marvelled.' Twice we read in Scripture that Christ
wondered--once at this heathen's faith, so strongly grown, with so few
advantages of culture; once at Jewish unbelief, so feeble and fruitless,
after so much expenditure of patience and care. But passing from that,
notice how much lies in these sad and yet astonished words of His:
'Verily I say unto you, I have not _found_ so great faith, no, not in
Israel.' Then, He came _seeking_ faith from this people whom God had
cared for during centuries. The one fruit that He desired was trust in
Him. That is what He is seeking for in us--not lives of profession, not
orthodoxy of conception, not even fruits in work, but before all this,
and productive of all that is good in any of them, He desires to find in
our hearts the child's trust that casts itself wholly on His Omnipotent
word, and is sure of an answer. This man's faith was great, great in the
rapidity of its growth, great in the difficulties which it had overcome,
great in the clearness of its conception, great in the firmness of