And remember that this prerogative of dealing with physical nature, by the bare forth-putting of His word, is not only a doctrine of Christianity, but that more and more physical investigation is coming to the unifying of all forces in one, and to the resolving 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 its affiance, great in the humility with which it was accompanied.  Such a faith He seeks as the thirsty traveller seeks grapes in the wilderness, and when He finds it growing in our hearts, then He is satisfied and glad.