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I. HOW GREAT AND MYSTERIOUS THE IMPORTANCE ATTACHING TO TOUCH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

1. Thus touch is pollution (Haggai 2:12, 13).

2. Thus touch is consecration (Exodus 30:26, 29).

3. Thus touch is strength (Daniel 10:10, 16, 18).

4. Thus touch is wisdom (Jeremiah 1:9).

5. Thus touch is purity (Isaiah 6:7).

II. THE GREAT LESSON OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IS BY TOUCH, TO SHOW TO US THE ABSOLUTE COMMUNICABILITY OF THE DIVINE POWER AND HOLINESS; IT IS THE STORY ALSO OF THE VACCINATION OF THE WORLD. The Old Testament is the story of the first man, and how one sin tainted the world. The New Testament is the story of the second Man, and how His holiness purified the tainted stream. Jesus went about touching. The holy awakening of Divine grace restores man.

III. THERE IS NO CURE WITHOUT CONTACT. You cannot satisfy hunger without eating, although your table be covered with food. You cannot satisfy thirst without drinking, although fountains play before the eye. You cannot satisfy faith by reading about Christ, or by knowing Him — you must appropriate Him. Imputed righteousness is really transferred righteousness; the purity of the Saviour becomes ours. What does the whole teaching and miraculous life of our Lord convey to us but this doctrine — Transfusion. Faith is the finger by which man touches God. Meanwhile it is not faith that saves; it is faith in Jesus Christ. We are not saved by faith as an act of the mind, but by faith on the object of the mind. It is not the faith, but the Person. No cure without contact. Thus if man cannot come to God, God must come to man, or these two can never meet. This is the meaning of Christ's incarnation. By faith we come into contact with God, and are saved; by sympathy, we come in contact with man and cure.

(E. P. Hood.)

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KJV: And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.

WEB: He went with him, and a great multitude followed him, and they pressed upon him on all sides.