How often had the hand of the Lord--as here that of Peter--healed the sick, given the blind sight, cured the leper, and raised the dead! But if Peter's miracle in healing Oeneas of the palsy carries[38] one back immediately to the poor man let down through the roof before our Lord, there is a yet more exact identity between the great miracle of Christ raising Jairus' daughter, and Peter raising Dorcas. In the one case, the Lord "having put them all out, taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with Him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying, and taking the damsel by the hand, He said to her, Talitha cumi, which is, Damsel, arise, and immediately the damsel rose up and walked." In the other case, Peter came into the upper chamber, "and all the widows stood about him weeping--and they being all put forth, Peter, kneeling down, prayed, and turning to the body, he said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes, and seeing Peter, she sat up,[39] and giving her his hand he lifted her up." But how perfect the resemblance of the following. Luke iv. 40. "And when the sun was down, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them to Him. But He, laying His hands on every one of them, healed them. And devils went out from many." Acts v. 15. "Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that, when Peter came, his shadow, at the least, might overshadow any of them, and they might be delivered from their infirmities. And there came also together to Jerusalem a multitude out of the neighbouring cities, bringing sick persons, and such as were troubled with unclean spirits, who were all healed." The _second_ point of resemblance is, that the multitude regarded Peter among the Apostles as before they had regarded Christ: for, putting the rest of the Apostles in the second place, they flocked to him, and besought his aid. So that Luke, briefly saying of them, that "by the hands of the Apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people,"[40] goes on to Peter, and of him relates the unheard-of wonders just described, assigning to the miracles wrought by him, "that the multitude of men and women who believed in the Lord was more increased." It is just as when "there came to Jesus great multitudes, having with them the dumb, the blind, the lame, the maimed, and many others; and they cast them down at His feet, and He healed them."[41] And the fuller the resemblance these incidents shew between Peter and Christ, the more evident their proof that Peter's ministry must be considered a continuation of that which Christ begun. III. We proceed[42] to the order predetermined by our Lord in the propagation of His Church.