"And taking the child by the hand, He saith unto her, Talitha, cumi." We are glad that Mark has preserved for us the very words that must have thrilled the heart of John. They had been interpreted, "My little lamb, my pet lamb, rise up." In them was a lesson for John. They were a revelation of his Master's tenderness toward childhood. It was a needed lesson, which he finally learned. As John and Peter saw the returning life of the little maid, and heard their Master's command "that something should be given her to eat," they thought not of the time when they should stand together again near the same spot with the same Master, Himself risen from the dead, and hear Him utter another command, "Feed My lambs." As they with James followed their Lord out from the death-chamber--such no longer--and heard His charge "that no man should know" what had happened, the very secrecy drew more distinctly the line of the inner circle about the three. It was not to be erased during the Lord's earthly sojourn with the twelve. _CHAPTER XVI_ _John a Beholder of Christ's Glory_ "We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father."--_St. John_ i. 14. "We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory ... when we were with Him in the holy mount."--2 _Peter_ i. 16-18. "As brightest sun, His face is bright; His raiment, as the light, is white, Yea, whiter than the whitest snow. Moses, Elias, spake with Him. Of deepest things, of terrors grim, Of boundless bliss, and boundless woe, Of pangs that none but Christ may know. "A voice sublime I panting hear, A voice that conquers grief and fear, Revealing all eternity; Revealing God's beloved Son, Born to redeem a world undone; Filled with God's fulness from on high, To gain God's noblest victory." --_Trans. Kingo of Denmark._ We may think of the twelve as Christ's family with whom He often prayed apart from the multitude. One such occasion was in Caesarea Philippi. The prayer was followed by two earnest and solemn questions. "He asked the disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of Man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."