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^OtOfilCAL Stt*^*^
THE LIFE
4
OF
|JESUS, THE CHKIST.
BY
> HENRY WAED BEECHER.
" But when the fiikiess of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law." — Gal. iv. 4, 5.
NEW YORK:
J. B. FORD AND COMPANY.
! EDINBURGH AND LONDON: THOMAS NELSON & SONS.
\ \AU rights reserved.]
\
«
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S71,
BY J. D. FORD AND COMPANY,
in the OfiSce of ttie Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
10'/ -'
• . •*. •
Univi'rsity Press : Welch, Bicelow, & Co.,
Cambridge.
PREFACE.
I HAVE undertaken to write a Life of Jesus, the
Christ, in the hope of inspiring a deeper interest in
the noble Personage of whom those matchless his-
t nes, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John, are the chief authentic memorials. I have en-
dear -ed to present scenes that occurred two thousand
years ago as they would appear to modern eyes if
the events had taken place in our day.
The Lives of Christ which have appeared of late
years have naturally partaken largely of the dialectic
and critical spirit. They have either attacked or de-
fended. The Gospel, like a city of four gates, has
been taken and retaken by alternate parties, or held
in part by opposing hosts, while on every side the
marks of siege and defence cover the ground. This
may be unfortunate, but it is necessary. As long as
great earning and acute criticism are brought to assail
the text of the Gospels, their historic authenticity, the
truth of their contents, and the ethical nature of their
teachings, so long must great learning and sound phi-
losophy be brought to the defence of those precious
documents.
iv PREFACE.
But such controversial Lives of Christ are not the
best for general reading. While they may lead
scholars from doubt to certainty, they are likely to
lead plain people from certainty into doubt, and to
leave them there. I have therefore studiously avoid-
ed a polemic spirit, seeking to produce conviction
without controversy.
Joubert ^ finely says : " State truths of sentiment,
and do not try to prove them. There is danger in
such proofs ; for in arguing it is necessary to treat
that which is in question as something problematic ;
now that which we accustom ourselves to treat as
problematic ends by appearing to us as really doubt-
ful. In things that are visible and palpable, never
prove what is believed already ; in things that are
certain and mysterious, — mysterious by their great-
ness and by their nature, — make people believe them,
and do not prove them ; in things that are matters of
practice and duty, command, and do not explain.
* Fear God ' has made many men pious ; the proofs of
the existence of God have made many men atheists.
From the defiance sjDrings the attack; the advocate
begets in his hearer a wish to pick holes ; and men
are almost always led on from a desire to contradict
the doctor to the desire to contradict the doctrine.
Make Truth lovely, and do not try to arm her."
The history of the text, the authenticity of the
^ As quoted by Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism, p. 234 (London
ed.), 1865.
PREFACE. Y
several narratives, the many philosophical questions
that must arise in such a field, I have not formally dis-
cussed ; still less have I paused to dispute and answer
the thousands of objections which swarm around the
narrative in the books of the sceptical school of criti-
cism. Such a labor, while very important, would con-
stitute a work quite distinct from that which I have
proposed, and would infuse into the discussion a con-
troversial element which I have especially sought to
avoid, as inconsistent with the moral ends which I had
in view.
I have however attentively considered whatever
has been said, on every side, in the works of critical
objectors, and have endeavored as far as possible so
to state the facts as to take away the grounds from
which the objections w^ere aimed.
"Writing in full S3anpathy with the Gospels as au-
thentic historical documents, and with the nature and
teachings of the great Personage whom they describe,
it is scarcely necessary to say that I have not attempt-
ed to show the world what Matthew and John ought
to have heard and to have seen, but did not; nor
what things they did not see or hear, but in their
simplicity believed that they did. In short, I have
not invented a Life of Jesus to suit the critical phi-
losophy of the nineteenth century.
The Jesus of the four Evano-elists for wellnio-h two
O D
thousand years has exerted a jDOwerful influence upon
the heart, the understanding, and the imagination of
Vi PREFACE.
mankind. It is that Jesus, and not a modern substitute,
whom I have sought to depict, in his life, his social re-
lations, his disposition, his deeds and doctrines.
This work has been delayed far beyond the expec-
, tation of the pubhshers, without fault of theirs, but
simply because, with the other duties incumbent upon
me, I could not make haste faster than I have. Even
after so long a delay the first Part only is ready to
go forth ; and for the second I am obliged to solicit
the patience of my readers. But I aim to complete
it within the year.
The order of time in the four Evangelists has
always been a perplexity to harmonists, and it seems
likely never to be less. But this is more especially
characteristic of details whose value is little affected
by the question of chronological order, than of the
great facts of the life of Jesus.
I have followed, though not without variations, the
order given by Ellicott,^ and especially Andrews.^
But a recent " Gospel History Consolidated," pub-
lished in London by Bagster,^ so generally accords
with these that I have made it the working basis;
and, instead of cumbering the margin with references
to the passages under treatment, have preferred to
reproduce at the end of this volume a corresponding
portion of the text of the " Gospels Consolidated," by
* nistorkal Lectures on the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ. C. J. EUicott.
* 77/e Life of Our Lord upon Earth. Samuel J. Andrews.
* Imported and sold in the United States by John Wiley and Son, New
York.
PREFACE. yii
a reference to which, chapter by chapter, those who
wish to do so will find the groundwork on which this
Life is founded.
Although the general arrangement of the " Gos-
pels Consolidated " has been followed/ it will be seen
that I have frequently deviated from it in minor mat-
ters. For example, believing that the reports of the
Sermon on the Mount, as given in Matthew and in
Luke, are but two separate accounts of the one dis-
course, I have not treated Luke's account as the rec-
ord of a second delivery of the same matter, as is
sometimes done. The two narrations of the discourse
and uproar at Nazareth I have regarded as referring
to but a single transaction, while the " Gospels Con-
sohdated" treats them as separate events. But such
differences in mere arrangement are inevitable, and
not important. No two harmonists ever did agree in
all particulars, and it is scarcely possible that any two
ever will. The very structure of the Gospels makes
it wellnigh impossible. They are not like the " dis-
sected maps," or pictures, whose severed parts can,
with some patience, be fitted together into the origi-
nal whole, a hundred times exactly alike. They are
httle more, often, than copious indexes of a volumi-
nous life, without dates or order. It is not probable
^ I would not be understood as recommending the " Gospels Consoli-
dated" as a substitute for the four Gospels, but as an auxiliary. The
fulness with which transactions are there made to stand out will help the
common reader to attain conceptions to which scholars come by a laborious
intercomparison of the four narratives.
VUl
PREFACE.
that a single note was taken, or a line written, in
Christ's lifethne. The Gospels are children of the
memory. They were vocally delivered hundreds of
times before being written out at all ; and they bear
the marks of such origin, in the intensity and vivid-
ness of individual incidents, while chronological order
and literary unity are but little regarded. In the
arrangement of particulars, therefore, when no clew
to the real order of time could be found, I have felt at
liberty to select such order as would best helj) the
general impression.
That this work may carry to its readers the rich-
est blessing which I can imagine, a sympathetic in-
sight into the heart of its great subject, Jesus Christ,
the Redeemer of the world, and a vital union with
him, is my earnest wish and devout prayer.
HENKY WARD BEECHEE.
Brooklyn, N. Y., August, 1871.
COS"TEI^TS OF PAET I.
CHAPTER I.
Page
Introductory 1
CHAPTER II.
The Overture op Angels • . .11
CHAPTER III.
The Doctrinal Basis 44
CHAPTER IV.
Childhood and Residence at Nazareth .... 54
CHAPTER V.
The Voice in the Wilderness 82
CHAPTER VI.
The Temptation 114
CHAPTER VII.
Jesus, his Personal Appearance 134
CHAPTER VIII.
The Outlook 156
CHAPTER IX.
The Household Gate 181
X CONTENTS.
CHAPTEE X.
The First Jud^an Ministry 200
CHAPTEE XI.
The Lesson at Jacob's Well 229
CHAPTEE XII.
Early Labors in Galilee 253
CHAPTEE XIII.
A Tdie of Joy 280
CHAPTEE XIV.
The Sermon on the Mount. — The Beatitudes . . . 305
CHAPTEE XV.
The Sermon on the Mount {continv^d) .... 331
CHAPTEE XVI.
The Beginning of Conflict 364
CHAPTEE XVII.
Around the Sea of Galilee 399
APPENDIX ......... 433
INDEX 513
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIO:^S.
ENGEAVING ON STEEL.
Head op Christ. Restored, painted, and engraved by W. E.
Marshall ........ Frontispiece.
After photograph of the rapidly decaying Supper Scene of Leonakdo
DA Vinci, at Milan.
96
ENGRAYINGS ON WOOD.
1. Scene on the Upper Jordan. A Swamp op Papyrus Eeeds,
(Full page. )••.•••.••.
The idea and general view were taken from MacGregor's most interest-
ing "Rob Roy on the Jordan" ; but the scene is worked up anew,
and the reads are studied from both the Syrian and the Egyptian
papyrus. The view is found among the upper sources of the Jordan ;
looming above the horizon, to the north, is the "rounded head of
splendid, glittering Hermon," while, to the left, is seen "thefar-oflF
snow on the sharp indented Sunnin, chief of the Lebanon range."
2. Heads of Christ. (Fuiipage.) 134
Out of the multitudes of heads giving artistic fancies as to the personal
look of Jesus, six have been selected as representative. First is that
of Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452, d. 1519), reproduced in the frontis-
piece. On the page facing p. 102 are five : No. 1. From the earliest
picture of Christ that is known, a fresco in the Catacombs of St.
Calixtus, near Rome, fourth century ; No. 2. From an emerald in-
taglio of the sixth century, now in Rome, given out of the treasury of
Constantinople to Pope Innocent VIIL for the redemption of the'
brother of the Emperor of the Turks, then a prisoner of the Christians ;
No. 3. From a Pieid, or "Dead Christ," by the Italian painter Rai-
bolini of Bologna, known as Francisco Francia (b. 1450, d. 1517);
No. 4. From a crucifix by Albrecht Diirer, the great German painter
and engraver (b. 1471, d. 1528) ; No. 5. From a painting by Paul de
la Roche, the French painter (b. 1797, d. 1856).
Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
3. General Map of Palestine. (Two pages.) . . . .160
4. Plan of the Temple, according to Fergusson's restoration . 204
The ground plan is given below, and above is a longitudinal section, on
an east and west line, showing the elevation of the different jwrtions.
5. 3£ap. Vicinity of Nazareth and Capernaum, Galilee . 305
G. The Lake of Genesareth, or Sea of Galilee . . .416
Northeasterly view, from the northwestern shore of the lake across to-
wards Bethsaida and Tell Hum, or Capernaum.
MAPS.
Constructed hy A. L. Rawson. — Engraved hy G. W. & C. B.
Colton & Co.
In preparing the Maps, use was made of the latest works of Van
de Velde and of the French and Enghsh surveys, these being correct-
ed by every means of hxter information accessible.
The General Map comprises the whole countiy visited by Jesus
(except the journey in infancy to Egypt), giving but a few of the
most important names.
The Vicinity op Nazareth and Capernaum is quite full in de-
tail, showing how many towns there are or were in this region
(though nearly one half of the whole have been omitted, to avoid
crowding). *
The Plan of the Temple of Herod is after Fergusson.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
How well the Hebrew Priest, but especially the
Prophet, had done his work, may best be seen in that
moral element which made Judaism to religion what
the Greek spirit had been to the intellectual life of
the world. Nowhere out of Judaea were to be found
such passionate moral fervor and such intense spiritual
yearnings. But this .spirit had spent itself as a for-
mative power; it had already overshot the multitude,
while higher natures were goaded by it to excess.
There was need of a new religious education. This
was the desire and expectation of the best men of
the Jewish Church. How their spiritual quickening
was to come, they knew not. That it was coming
was generally believed, and also that the approach-
ing deliverance would in some mysterious way bring
God nearer to men. "Of the day and of the hour"
knew no man. The day had come when a new mani-
festation of God was to be made. A God of holiness,
a God of power, and a God of mercy had been clearly
revealed. The Divine Spirit was now to be clothed
with flesh, subjected to the ordinary laws of matter,
placed in those conditions in which men live, become
the subject of care, weariness, sorrow, and of death
itself.
2 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHIIIST.
The history of this di^dne incarnation we are now
to trace, in so far as the rehgious knowledge which has
sprung from it can be carried back to its sources, and
be made to illustrate the sublime truths and events
of the Lord's earthly mission.
Since there are four inspired lives of our Lord, — two
of them by the hands of disciples who were eye-wit-
nesses of the events recorded, namely, those by Mat-
thew and John, and two, those of Mark and Luke, by
men who, though not disciples, were yet the com-
panions of the Apostles, and derived their materials, in
part, from tliem, — why should it be necessary to frame
other histories of Jesus, the Christ? Since the mate-
rials for any new life of Christ must be derived from
the four Evangelists, is it likely that uninspired men,
after a lapse of nearly nineteen hundred years, can
do better than tJiei/ did who were either witnesses or
contemporaries of the Lord, and who were appointed
and guided by the Divine Spirit to make a record of
truth for all time ?
The impression produced by such suggestions will be
materially modified upon a close examination of the
Gospels.
1. The very fact that there are four lives, which
strikes one as a fourfold blessing, and which surely
is an advantage, carries with it also certain disadvan-
tages. For a clear view of the life and teachings
of our Lord, four fields are to be reaped instead of
one.
The early ages needed testimony; our age needs
teaching. Four witnesses are better for testimony.
But for biography one complete narrative, combining
in it the materials of the four, would have given a pic-
INTRODUCTORY. 3
ture of our Lord more in accordance with the habits
and wants of men in our day.
This diversity of witnesses subserves other important
ends. No single man could have represented all sides
of the Saviour's teaching. A comparison of Matthew's
Gospel with that of John will show how much would
have been lost, had there been only a single collector
and reporter of Christ's discourses.
It is not easy, even for one trained to investigation,
to gather out of the four Evangelists a clear and con-
sistent narrative of our Lord's ministry; and still less
will unstudious men succeed in doing it.
No one will deny that every Christian man should
seek a comprehensive, and not a fragmentary, knowl-
edge of his Lord. In other words, every Christian
reader seeks, for himself, out of the other four, to
weave a fifth life of Christ. Why should not this in-
dispensable work be performed for men, with all the
aids of elaborate investioration?
2. The impression derived from this general view is
greatly strengthened by a critical examination of the
contents of the Gospels.
It is one of the striking facts in history, that One
whose teachings were to revolutionize human ideas,
and to create a new era in the world's affairs, did not
commit a single syllable to paper, and did not organize
a single institution. An unlimited power of acting
upon the world without these subsidiary and, to men,
indispensable instruments, — viz. writing and organiza-
tion, — and only by the enunciation of absolute truths
in their relation to human conduct, is one of the marks
of Divinity.
There is no evidence that Jesus appointed any of his
4 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
disciples to perform the work of an historian. None
of them cLaim such authorization. Only Luke ^ makes
any reference to the motives which led him to under-
take the task of writing, and he claims no other than
a personal desire to record a knowledge which he
deemed fuller than that of others.
The four Gospels are evidently final and authorita-
tive collections of oral histories and compilations of
narratives which were already circulating among the
early Christians. In the cases of Matthew and John,
these materials were wrought ujDon the fabric of their
own personal observation and experience.
There is in none of them any consistent regard to
the order of time or of place. The principle of arrange-
ment evidently is to be found in the moral similari-
ties of the materials, and not in their chronological se-
quences. Different events are clustered together which
were widely separated. Whole chapters of parables
are given as if they had been delivered in a single
discourse. We should never have known from Mat-
thew, Mark, or Luke, that our Lord was accustomed
to go up to Jerusalem to the great Jewish feasts ; but
we do get it from John, who is mainly concerned with
the history and discourses of his Master in Judaea.
Matthew, on the other hand, bestows his attention
uj^on that part of the Saviour's life which was spent
in Galilee. Moreover, he seldom enters, as John does,
* Luke i. 1-4. "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth
in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among
us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eye-
witnesses, and ministers of the word ; it seemed good to me also, having had
perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to Avritc unto thee in
order, most excellent Theophihis, that thou mightest know the certainty of
those tlungs wherein thou hast been instructed."
INTRODUCTORY. 5
upon interior and profoundly spiritual experiences.
John almost as little notices the merely external facts
and events of the Lord's life, which Matthew habitually
reo-ards.-^
o
In their structure the Evangelical narratives have
been well compared to Xenophon's Memorabilia of
Socrates. They are clusters of events, parables, mir-
acles, discourses, in which the order of time is some-
times obscure, and sometimes wholly inverted.
In every age of the Church it has been deemed wise
to attempt to form a harmony of the four Gospels.
Since the year A. D. 1500, there have been more than
fftfj harmonies made by most eminent Christian schol-
ars. Of Lives of Christ and Harmonies there have
been more than one hundred and fifty.
But for some such help, the difficulties arising from a
comparison of the different narratives would be insolu-
ble. Many obstacles are thus removed, many apparent
contradictions are congruously explained, many appar-
ent inconsistencies are harmonized ; and it is shown
that, of the inexplicable facts remaining, none are im-
portant, — certainly not as respects the great truths or
the essential events of the narrative.
3. It is probable that no equal amount of truth was
ever expressed in a mode so well fitted for universal
circulation. And yet, as the Gospels were written by
' "The first three Evangelists describe especially those things which Christ
did in our flesh, and relate the precepts which He delivered on the duties
to be performed by us. while we walk on earth and dwell in the flesh. But
St. John soars to heaven, as an eagle, above the clouds of human infirmity,
and reveals to us the mysteries of Christ's Godhead, and of the Trinity in
Unity, and the felicities of Life Eternal, and gazes on the Light of Lnmuta-
ble Truth with a keen and steady ken." — Si. Aufjustine, translated hij Dr.
Wordsworth. Introduction to Commentaries on the New Testament.
6 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Jews, and with primary reference to certain wants of
the age in which the writers Hved, they are full of
allusions, references, customs, and beliefs, w^liich have
long since passed away or have become greatly modi-
fied. There are also in the New Testament allusions
to customs of which there is no knowledge whatever
preserved.
But far more important is it to observe the habits of
thought, the whole mental attitude of the Apostolic
age, and the change which has since come upon the
world. Truths remain the same ; but every age has its
own style of thought. Although this difference is not
so great as is the difference between one language and
another, it is yet so great as to require restatement or,
as it were, translation. The truth which Paul argues to
the Romans is as important for us as it was for them.
But we are not Jews.^ We care nothing for circum-
cision. The Hebrew law has never entangled us. We
have our prejudices and obstinacies, but they are
not the same as those which the Aj^ostle combated.
The truth of the Epistle to the Romans, when sepa-
rated from the stalk and ear on which it grew, is of
universal nutriment. But in Paul's own day the stem
and the husk also were green and succulent ; they
were living and indispensable parts of his statement
of the truth. Far less is this distinction applicable to
the Gospels, and yet it is, in a measure, true of them.
Our age has developed wants no deeper, perhajDS,
nor more important, than those in the Apostolic age,
^ Jews were dispersed through all the civilized world, and in general,
both in Greek and Roman cities, there were synagogues, in which the Old
Testament Scriptures were read, and in which the Apostles made known to
their own countrymen the fulfilment of those Scriptures in the history of
our Lord. Sec Acts 28 : IG - 24.
INTRODUCTORY. J
but needs essentially different. We live for different
ends. We have other aspirations. We are plagued
with new infidelities of our own. We are proud in a
different way, and vain after our own manner. To meet
all these ever-changing necessities of the human heart
and of society, men are ordained to preach the gospel.
If merely reading the text as it was originally delivered
were enough, why should there be preachers ? It is
the business of preachers to re-adapt truth, from age
to age, to men's ever-renewing wants.
And what is this, but doing by single passages of
Scripture what a Life of Christ attempts to do system-
atically, and in some dramatic form, for the whole?
Some have said, almost contemptuously, " The only
good Lives of Christ are those by the four Evangelists."
And yet these very men are so little content with these
same Evangelists, that they spend their hves in restat-
ing, illustrating, and newly applying the substance and
matter of the Evangelical writings, — thus by their
own most sensible example refuting their own most
foohsh criticism !
4. But there are reasons yet deeper why the Life
of Christ should be rewritten for each and every age.
The life of the Christian Church has, in one point
of view, been a gradual unfolding and interpretation of
the spiritual truths of the Gospels. The knowledge
of the human heart, of its yearnings, its failures, its sins
and sorrows, has immensely increased in the progress
of centuries.
Has nothing been learned by the Christian world of
the methods of moral government, of the communion
of the Holy Ghost, of the power of the Divine Spirit to
cleanse, enrich, and fire the soul, after so many centu-
8 TEE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
ries of experience ? Has this world no lore of love, no
stores of faith, no experience of joy unfolded from the
original genns, which shall fit it to go back to the truths
of the New Testament with a far larger understanding
of their contents than the?/ had who wrote them ? Proph-
ets do not always imderstand their own visions ; Apos-
tles deliver truths which are far deeper, and more
glorious in their ulterior forms, than even their utterers
suspect.
It is both a privilege and a duty of the Church of
Christ to gather up, from time to time, these living
commentaries upon divine truth, — these divine inter-
pretations, by means of human experience, of the truth
as it is in Jesus, — and carry back this hght and knowl-
edge to the primal forms and symbols. Our Lord him-
self declared that his kingdom of truth was as a seed.
But what shall interpret a seed like its own growth
and harvest ? To us the narratives of the Gospel ought
to mean far more than to the primitive disciple, or they
have been germs without development, seed without a
harvest.
All critics of the Gospels, though, in each group,
differing by many shades among themselves, may be
reduced to two classes : —
1. Those who believe that the writings of the Evan-
gelists are authentic historical documents, that they
were divinely inspired, and that the supernatural ele-
ments contained in them are real, and to be credited as
much as any other parts of the history; and, —
2. Those wdio deny the inspiration of the Gosf)els,
regarding them as unassisted human productions, filled
with mistakes and inaccuracies ; especially, as filled
with superstitions and pretended miracles.
INTRODUCTORY. 9
These latter critics set aside all traces of the super-
natural. They feel at liberty to reject all miracles,
either summarily, with "philosophic" contempt, or by
explanations as wonderful as the miracles are marvel-
lous. In effect, they act as if there could be no evi-
dence except that which addresses itself to the ma-
terial senses. Such reasoning chains philosophy to
matter : to which statement many already do not ob-
ject, but boldly claim that, in our present condition,
no truth can be Jcnown to men except that which con-
forms itself to physical laws. There is a step further,
and one that must soon be taken, if these reasons are
logically consistent; namely, to hold that there is no
evidence of a God, unless Nature be that God. And
this is Pantheism, which, being interpreted, is Atheism.
We scarcely need to say, that we shall take our stand
with those who accept the New Testament as a collec-
tion of veritable historical documents, with the record
of miracles, and with the train of spiritual phenomena,
as of absolute and literal truth. The miraculous ele-
ment constitutes the very nerve-system of the Gospel.
To withdraw it from credence is to leave the Gospel
histories a mere shapeless mass of pulp.
What is left when these venerable records are
stripped of the ministry of angels, of the mystery of the
divine incarnation, of the wonders and miracles which
accompanied our Lord at every step of his career?
Christ's miracles were not occasional and occult, but in
a long series, with every degree of publicity, involving
almost every element of nature, and in numbers so
great that they are summed up as comprehending
whole villages, towns, and neighborhoods in their bene-
factions. They produced an excitement in the public
10 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
mind so great that ofttimes secrecy was enjoined, lest
the Roman government should interfere.
That Christ should be the centre and active cause
of such stufjcndous imposture, on the supposition that
miracles were but deceptions, shocks the moral feeling
of those even who disbelieve his divinity. Widely as
men differ on every topic connected with the Christ,
there is one ground on which all stand together,
namely, that Jesus was good. Even Infidelity would
feel bereaved in the destruction of Christ's moral
character. But to save that, and yet to explain away
the miracles which he wrought, has put ingenuity to
ludicrous shifts.
Rexax, to save the character of his poetic hero, is
obliged to depict him as the subject of an enthusiasm
which grew upon him until it became a self-deceiving
fanaticism. It seems, then, that the whole world has
been under the influence of one who was not an impos-
tor, only because he Avas mildly insane !
That such a conclusion should give no pain to men
utterly destitute of religious aspirations may well be
conceived. But all others, lookmg upon this wanton
and needless procedure, will adojot the language of
Mary, and say, " They have taken away my Lord, and
I know not where they have laid him."
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 11
CHAPTER II.
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS.
Had it been the design of Divine Providence that
the Gospels should be wrought up like a poem for lit-
erary and artistic effect, surely the narrative of the
angelic appearances would have glowed in all the
colors of an Oriental morning. They are, indeed, to
those who have an eye to discern, a wonderful and ex-
quisitely tinted prelude to the dawn of a glorious day.
It is not to be supposed that the earth and its dull in-
habitants knew what was approaching. But heavenly
spirits knew it. There was movement and holy ecstasy
in the Upper Air, and angels seem, as birds when new-
come in spring, to have flown hither and thither, in
songful mood, dipping their white wings into our at-
mosphere, just touching the earth or glancing along
its surface, as sea-birds skim the surface of the sea.
And yet birds are far too rude, and wings too burden-
some, to express adequately that feeling of unlabored
angelic motion which the narrative produces upon the
imagination. Their airy and gentle coming would per-
haps be better compared to the glow of colors flung by
the sun upon morning clouds that seem to be born
just where they appear. Like a beam of light striking
through some orifice, they shine upon Zacharias in the
Tetnple. As the morning light finds the flowers, so
found they the mother of Jesus. To the shepherds'
12 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
eyes they filled the midnight arch like auroral beams
of light ; but not as silently, for they sang, and more
marvellously than when "the morning stars sang
together and all the sons of God shouted for joy."
The new era ojoens at Jerusalem. The pride with
which a devout Jew looked ujoon Jerusalem can
scarcely be imagined in our prosaic times. Men
loved that city with such passionate devotion as we
are accustomed to see bestowed only on a living per-
son. When the doctrine of immortality grew more
distinctly into the belief of holy men, no name could
be found which would make the invisible w^orld so
attractive as that of the beloved city. New Jeru-
salem was the chosen name for Heaven.
Upon this city broke the morning rays of the
Advent. A venerable priest, Zacharias, belonging to
the retinue of the Temple, had spent his wdiole life in
the quiet offices of religion. He was married, but
childless. To him happened a surprising thing.
It was his turn to burn incense, — the most honor-
able function of the priestly office. Upon the great
altar of sacrifice, outside the holy ^^lace, the burnt-
offering w^as placed. At a signal the priest came
forth, and, taking fire from this altar, he entered the
inner and more sacred place of the Temjole, and there,
before the altar of incense, putting the fragrant gum
upon the coals, he swung the censer, filling the air
with wreaths of smoke. The people who had gath-
ered on the outside, as soon as the smoke ascended
silently sent up their prayers, of Avhich the incense
was the symbol. " And there appeared unto him an
angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the
altar."
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 13
That he trembled with fear and awe is apparent
from the angel's address, — "Fear not!" The key-
note of the new dispensation was sounded! Here-
after, God was to be brought nearer, to seem less
terrible ; and a religion of the spirit and of love was
soon to dispossess a religion of ceremonials and of
fear.
" Fear not, Zacharias : for thy prayer is heard ;
And thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son,
And thou shalt call his name John.
And thou shalt have joy and gladness ;
And many shall rejoice at his birth.
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord,
And shall drink neither wine nor strong drink ;
And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's
womb.
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their
God.
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias,
To turn the hearts of the parents to the children,
And the disobedient to the wisdom of the just ;
To make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
If this address, to our modern ears, seems stately
and formal, it is to be remembered that no other lan-
guage would seem so fit for a heavenly message to a
Jewish priest as that which breathed the spirit of the
Old Testament writings; and that to us it savors of
the sermon because it has since been so often used
for the purposes of the sermon.
But the laws of the material world seemed to the
doubting priest more powerful than the promise of
that God who made all physical laws. To this distinct
promise of a son who should become a great reformer,
and renew the power and grandeur of the prophetic
office, he could only say, "Whereby shall I know
this ? " His doubts should have begun earlier, or
14 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
not at all. He should have rejected the whole vision,
or should have accepted the promise implicitly; for
what sign could be given so assuring as the very
presence of the angel ? But the sign which he asked
was given in a way that he could never forget. His
speech departed ; silence was the sign ; — as if the
priest of the Old was to teach no more rmtil the com-
ing of the New.
When Zacharias came forth to the people, who
were already impatient at his long delay, they per-
ceived by his altered manner that some great experi-
ence had befallen him. He could not speak, and could
dismiss them only by a gesture.
We have no certainty whether this scene occurred
at a morning or an evening service, but it is supposed
to have been at the evening sacrifice. In that case
the event was an impressive symbol. The people be-
held their priest standing against the setting sun,
dumb, while they dispersed in the twilight, the shadow
of the Temple having already fallen upon them. The
Old was passing into darkness; to-morrow another sun
must rise !
Elisabeth, the wife of Zacharias, returned to the " hill-
country," or that region lying west and south of Jeru-
salem. The promise had begun to be fulfilled. All the
promises made to Israel were pointing to their ful-
filment through her. These promises, accumulating
through ages, were ample enough, even in the letter, to
fill a devout soul with ardent expectancy. But falling
upon the imagination of a greatly distressed people,
they had been magnified or refracted until the public
mind was filled with inordinate and even fantastic ex-
pectations of the Messianic reign. It is not probable
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 15
that any were altogether free from this dekision, not
even the soberest and most spiritual natures. We
can therefore imagine but faintly the ecstatic hopes
of Zacharias and Elisabeth during the six months in
which they were hidden in their home among the hills
before the history again finds them. They are next
introduced through the story of another memorable
actor in this drama, the mother of our Lord.
It is difficult to speak of Mary, the mother of Jesus,
both because so little is known of her and because so
much has been imagined. Around no other name in
history has the imagination thrown its witching light
in so great a volume. In art she has divided honors
with her divine Son. For a thousand years her name
has excited the profoundest reverence and worship.
A mother's love and forbearance with her children, as
it is a universal experience, so is it the nearest image
of the divine tenderness which the soul can form.
In attempting to present the Divine Being in his
relations to universal government, men have well-nigh
lost his personality in a sublime abstraction. Those
traits of personal tenderness and generous love which
alone will ever draw the human heart to God, it has
too often been obliged to seek elsewhere. And, how-
ever mistaken the endeavor to find in the Virgin
Mary the sympathy and fond familiarity of a divine
fostering love, it is an error into which men have been
drawn by the profoundest needs of the human soul.
It is an error of the heart. The cure will be found
by revealing, in the Divine nature, the longed-for
traits in greater beauty and force than are given them
in the legends of the mother of Jesus.
Meanwhile, if the doctors of theology have long
16 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
hesitated to deify the Virgin, art has imconsciously
raised her to the highest place. There is nothing in
attitude, expression, or motion which has been left un-
tried. The earlier Christian painters were content to
express her pure fervor, without relying upon the ele-
ment of beauty. But as, age by age, imagination
kindled, the canvas has given forth this divine mother
in more and more glowing beauty, borrowing from
the Grecian spirit all that was charming in the high-
est ideals of Venus, and adding to them an clement of
transcendent purity and devotion, which has no paral-
lel in ancient art.
It is difficult for one whose eye has been steeped in
the colors of art to go back from its enchantment to
the barrenness of actual history. By Luke alone is the
place even of her residence mentioned. It is only in-
ferred that she was of the royal house of David. She
was already esj^oused to a man named Joseph, but not
as yet married. This is the sum of our knowledge
of Mary at the point where her history is introduced.
Legends abound, many of them charming, but hke
the innumerable faces which artists have painted, they
gratify the imagination without adding anything to
historic truth.
The scene of the Annunciation will always be admi-
rable in literature, even to those who are not disposed
to accord it any historic value. To announce to an
espoused virgin that she was to be the mother of a
child, out of wedlock, by the unconscious working in
her of the Divine power, would, beforehand, seem
inconsistent with delicacy. But no person of poetic
sensibility can read the scene as it is narrated by
Luke without admiring its sublime purity and serenity.
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. Yj
It is not a transaction of the lower world of passion.
Tilings most difficult to a lower sphere are both easy
and beautiful in that atmosphere which;, as it were,
the angel brought down with him.
"And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail!
thou that art highly favored \ The Lord is with thee ! "
Then was announced the birth of Jesus, and that he
should inherit and prolong endlessly the glories prom-
ised to Israel of old. To her inquiry, " How shall this
be ? " the angel replied : —
" The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
And the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee ;
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
Shall be called the Son of God."
It was also made known to Mary that her cousin
Elisabeth had conceived a son. And Mary said : " Be-
hold the handmaid of the Lord ! Be it unto me accord-
ing to thy word."
Many have brought to this history the associations
of a later day, of a different civilization, and of habits of
thought foreign to the whole cast of the Oriental mind.
Out of a process so unphilosophical they have evolved
the most serious doubts and difficulties. But no one
is fitted to appreciate either the beauty or the truth-
fulness to nature of such a scene, who cannot in some
degree carry himself back in sympathy to that Jewish
maiden's life. The education of a Hebrew woman
was far freer than that of women of other Oriental na-
tions. She had more personal liberty, a wider scope of
intelligence, than obtained among the Greeks or even
among the Romans. But above all, she received a
moral education which placed her high above her sis-
ters in other lands.
18 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
It is plain that Mary was imbued with the spirit of
the Hebrew Scriptures. Not only was the history of
her people familiar to her, but her language shows that
the poetry of the Old Testament had filled her soul.
She was fitted to receive her people's history in its
most romantic and spiritual aspects. They were God's
peculiar people. Their history unrolled before her as
a series of wonderful providences. The path glowed
with divine manifestations. Miracles blossomed out of
every natural law. But to her there were no laws of
nature. Such ideas had not yet been born. The
earth was " the Lord's." All its phenomena were direct
manifestations of his will. Clouds and storms came
on errands from God. Light and darkness were the
shining or the hiding of his face. Calamities were pun-
ishments. Harvests were divine gifts ; famines were
immediate divine penalties. To us God acts through
instruments ; to the Hebrew he acted immediately by
his will. " He spake, and it was done ; he commanded,
and it stood fast."
To such a one as Mary there would be no incredu-
lity as to the reality of this angelic manifestation. Her
only surprise would be that she should be chosen for a
renewal of those divine interpositions in behalf of her
people of which their history was so full. The very
reason which would lead us to suspect a miracle in our
day gave it credibility in other days. It is simply a
question of adaptation. A miracle as a blind appeal
to the moral sense, without the use of the reason, was
adapted to the earlier periods of human life. Its
usefulness ceases when the moral sense is so devclo2)ed
that it can find its own way through the ministration
of the reason. A miracle is a substitute for moral
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. IQ
demonstration, and is peculiarly adapted to the early
conditions of mankind.
Of all miracles, there was none more sacred, con-
gruous, and grateful to a Hebrew than an angelic vis-
itation. A devout Jew, in looking back, saw angels fly-
ing thick between the heavenly throne and the throne
of his fathers. The greatest events of national history
had been made illustrious by their presence. Their
work began with the primitive pair. They had come
at evening to Abraham's tent. They had waited upon
Jacob's footsteps. They had communed with Moses,
with the judges, with priests and magistrates, with
prophets and holy men. All the way down from the
beginning of history, the pious Jew saw the shining
footsteps of these heavenly messengers. Nor had the
faith died out in the long interval through which their
visits had been withheld. Mary could not, therefore,
be surprised at the coming of angels, but only that
they should come to her.
It may seem strange that Zacharias should be struck
dumb for doubting the heavenly messenger, while Mary
went unrebuked. But it is plain that there was a
wide difference in the nature of the relative experi-
ences. To Zacharias was promised an event external
to himself, not involving his own sensibility. But to a
woman's heart there can be no other announcement
possible that shall so stir every feeling and sensibility
of the soul, as the promise and prospect of her first
child. Motherhood is the very centre of womanhood.
The first awaking in her soul of the reality that she
bears a double life — herself within herself — brinors a
o
sweet bewilderment of wonder and joy. The more
sure her faith of the fact, the more tremulous must
20 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
her soul become. Such an announcement can never
mean to a father's what it does to a mother's heart.
And it is one of the exquisite shades of subtle truth,
and of beauty as well, that the angel who rebuked
Zacharias for doubt saw nothing in the trembling
hesitancy and wonder of Mary inconsistent with a
childlike faith.
If the heart swells with the hope of a new life in the
common lot of mortals, with what profound feeling
must Mary have pondered the angel's promise to her
son !
" He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest ;
And the Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David ;
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever,
And of his kingdom there shall be no end."
It is expressly stated that Joseph was of the " house
of David," but there is no evidence that Mary was
of the same, except this implication, " The Lord God
shall give him the throne of his flxther David." Since
Joseph was not his father, it could only be through his
mother that he could trace his lineage to David.
There is no reason to suppose that Mary was more
enlightened than those among whom she dwelt, or that
she gave to these words that spiritual sense in which
alone they have proved true. To her, it may be sup-
posed, there arose a vague idea that her son was des-
tined to be an eminent teacher and deliverer. She
would naturally go back in her mind to the instances,
in the history of her own people, of eminent men
and women who had been raised up in dark times to
deliver their people.
She lived in the very region which Deborah and
Barak had made famous. Almost before her eyes lay
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 21
the plains on which great deUverances had been
wrought by heroes raised up by the God of Israel.
But that other glory, of spiritual deliverance, was
hidden from her. Or, if that influence which over-
shadowed her awakened in her the spiritual vision, it
was doubtless to reveal that her son was to be some-
thing more than a mere worldly conqueror. But
it was not for her to discern the glorious reality. It
hung in the future as a dim brightness, whose par-
ticular form and substance could not be discerned.
For it is not to be supposed that Mary — prophet as
every woman is — could discern that spiritual truth
of the promises of the Old Testament which his own
disciples did not understand after companying with
Jesus for three years, nor yet after his ascension, nor
until the fire of the pentecostal day had kindled in
them the eye of flame that pierces all things and dis-
cerns the spirit.
"And Mary arose in those days, and went into the
hill-country with haste, into a city of Juda, and entered
into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elisabeth."
The overshadowing Spirit had breathed upon her
the new life. What woman of deep soul was ever
unthrilled at the mystery of life beating within life ?
And what Jewish woman, devoutly believing that in
her child were to be fulfilled the hopes of Israel, could
hold this faith without excitement almost too great to
be borne ? She could not tarry. With haste she trod
that way which she had doubtless often trod before in
her annual ascent to the Temple. Every village, every
brook, every hill, must have awakened in her some sad
recollection of the olden days of her people. There
was Tabor, from which came down Barak and his men.
22 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
And in the great plain of Esdraelon he fought Sisera.
The waters of Kishon, murmuring at her feet, must
have recalled the song of Deborah. Here, too, Josiah
was slain at Megiddo, and " the mourning of Hadad-
Rimmon hi the valley of Megiddon " became the by-
word of grief Mount Gilboa rose upon her from the
east. Ebal and Gerizim stood forth in remembrance
of the sublime drama of blessings and cursings. Then
came Shechem, the paradise of Palestine, in whose
neighborhood Joseph was buried. This pilgrim may
have quenched her thirst at noonday, as afterwards
her son did, at the well of Jacob ; and farther to the
south it might be that the oak of Mamre, under which
the patriarch dwelt, cast its great shadow upon her.
It is plain from the song of Mary, of which we shall
speak in a moment, that she bore in mind the his-
tory of the mother of Samuel, wife of Elkanah, who
dwelt in this region, and whose song, at the presenta-
tion of Samuel to the priest at Sliiioh, seems to have
been the mould in which Mary unconsciously cast her
own.
Thus, one after another, Mary must have passed the
most memorable spots in her people's history. Even
if not sensitive to patriotic influences, — still more if
she was alive to such sacred and poetic associations, —
she must have come to her relative Elisabeth with
flaming heart.
Well she might ! What other mystery in human life
is so profound as the beginning of life ? From the
earliest days women have called themselves blessed of
God when life begins to palpitate within their bosom.
It is not education, but nature, that inspires such tender
amazement. Doubtless even the Indian woman in
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 23
such periods dwells consciously near to the Great
Spirit! Every one of a deep nature seems to herself
more sacred and more especially under the divine
care while a new Hfe, moulded by the divine hand, is
sprmging into being. For, of all creative acts, none
is so sovereign and divine. Who shall reveal the end-
less musings, the perpetual prophecies, of the mother's
soul ? Her thoughts dwell upon the unknown child, —
thoughts more in number than the ripples of the sea
upon some undiscovered shore. To others, in such
hours, woman should seem more sacred than the most
solemn temple ; and to herself she must needs seem
as if overshadowed by the Holy Ghost!
To this natural elevation were added, in the instance
of Mary and Elisabeth, those vague but exalted expec-
tations arising from the angelic annunciations. Both
of them believed that the whole future condition of
their nation was to be intimately affected by the lives
of their sons.
And Mary said : —
" My soul dotli magnify the Lord,
And my spirit liath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
For lie hatli regarded the low estate of his handmaiden ;
For, behold, fi-om henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He that is mighty hath done to me great things ;
And holy is his name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him
From generation to generation.
He hath shewed strength with his arm ;
He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats,
And exalted them of low degree.
He hath filled the hungry with good things ;
And the rich he hath sent empty away.
He hath holpen his servant Israel,
In remembrance of his mercy ;
As he spake to our fathers,
To Abraham, and to his seed forever."
24 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Unsjnnpathizing critics remark upon the similarity
of this chant of Mary's with the song of Hannah/ the
mother of Samuel. Inspiration served to kindle the
materials already in possession of the mind. This
Hebrew maiden had stored her imagination with the
poetic elements of the Old Testament. But, of all the
* " My heart rejoiceth in the Lord ;
Aly horn is exalted in the Lord ;
My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies ;
Because I rejoice in thy salvation.
There is none holy as the Lord ;
For there is none beside thee ;
Neither is there any rock like our God.
Talk no more so exceeding proudly :
Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth :
For the Lord is a God of knowledge,
And by him actions are weighed.
The bows of the mighty men are broken,
And they that stumbled are girded with strength.
They that were full have hired out themselves for bread ;
And they that were hungry ceased ;
So that the barren hath borne seven;
And she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
The Lord killeth, and maketh alive :
He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.
The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich :
He bringeth low, and lifteth up.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust.
And lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill,
To set them among princes.
And to make them inherit the throne of glory :
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,
And he hath set the world upon them.
He will keep the feet of his saints.
And the wicked shall be silent in darkness :
For by strength shall no man prevail.
Tlie adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces ;
Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them :
The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth;
And he shall give strength unto his lung.
And exalt the horn of his Anointed."
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. ^5
treasures at command, only a devout and grateful na-
ture would have made so unselfish a selection. For it is
not upon her own blessedness that Mary chiefly dwells,
but upon the sovereignty, the goodness, and the glory
of God. To be exalted by the joy of our personal
prosperity above self-consciousness into the atmos-
phere of thanksgiving and adoration, is a sure sign of
nobility of soul.
For three months these sweet and noble women
dwelt together, performing, doubtless, the simple labors
of the household. Their thoughts, their converse, their
employments, must be left wholly to the imagination.
And yet, it is impossible not to be curious in regard to
these hidden days of Judcea, when the mother of our
Lord was already fashioning that sacred form which, in
due time, not far from her residence, perhaps within the
very sight of it, was to be lifted up upon the cross.
But it is a research which we have no means of
pursuing. Her thoughts must be impossible to us,
as our thoughts of her son were impossible to her.
No one can look forward, even in the spirit of proph-
ecy, to see after-things in all their fulness as they
shall be ; nor can one who has known go back again to
see as if he had not known.
After Mary's return to Nazareth, Elisabeth was de-
livered of a son. Following the custom of their peo-
ple, her friends would have named him after his father,
but the mother, mindful of the name given by the an-
gel, called him John. An appeal was made to the priest
— who probably was deaf as well as dumb, for they made
signs to him — how the child should be named. Calling
for writing-materials, he surprised them all by naming
him as his wife had, — John. At once the sign ceased.
26 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
His lips were unsealed, and he broke forth into thanks-
giving and praise. All the circumstances conspired to
awaken wonder and to spread throughout the neigh-
borhood mysterious expectations, men saying, "What
manner of child shall this be ? "
The first chapter of Luke may be considered as
the last leaf of the Old Testament, so saturated is it
with the heart and spirit of the olden times. And the
song of Zacharias clearly reveals the state of feeling
among the best Jews of that day. Their nation was
grievously pressed down by foreign despotism. Their
people were scattered through the world. The time
was exceedingly dark, and the promises of the old
prophets served by contrast to make their present dis-
tress yet darker. We are not surprised, therefore, to
find the first portion of Zacharias's chant sensitively
recognizing the degradations and sufferings of his peo-
ple : —
" Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ;
For hciiatli visited and redeemed his people,
And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us
In the house of his servant David
(As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets,
Which have been since the world began) ;
That we should be saved from our enemies,
And from the hand of all that hate us ;
To perform the mercy promised to our fathers,
And to remember his holy covenant,
Tlie oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
That he would grant unto us,
Thnt we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies
!Miu;ht serve him without fear.
In liolinoss and righteousness before him,
All the days of our life."
Then, as if seized with a spirit of prophecy, and be-
holding the relations and offices of his son, in language
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 27
as poetically beautiful as it is spiritually triumphant lie
exclaims : —
" And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest :
For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways ;
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people
By the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God ;
"Whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us,
To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.
To guide our feet into the way of peace."
Even in his childhood John manifested that fulness
of nature and that earnestness which afterwards fitted
him for his mission. He "waxed strong in spirit."
He did not mingle in the ordinary pursuits of men.
As one who bears a sensitive conscience and refuses
to mingle in the throng of men of low morality, he
stood apart and was solitary. He " was in the deserts
until the day of his showing unto Israel."
Mary had returned to Nazareth. Although Joseph,
to whom she was betrothed, was descended from
David, every sign of royalty had died out. He earned
his livelihood by working in wood, probably as a car-
penter, though the word applied to his trade admits of
much larger application. Tradition has uniformly rep-
resented him as a carpenter, and art has conformed to
tradition. He appears but on the threshold of the his-
tory. He goes to Egypt, returns to Nazareth, and is
faintly recognized as present when Jesus was twelve
years of age. But nothing more is heard of him. If
alive when his reputed son entered upon public min-
istry, there is no sign of it. And as Mary is often
mentioned in the history of the Lord's mission, it
is probable that Joseph died before Jesus entered
upon his public life. He is called a just man, and we
know that he was humane. For when he perceived
28 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
the condition of his betrothed wife, instead of press-
ing to its full rigor the Jewish law against her, he
meant quietly and without harm to set her aside.
When in a vision he learned the truth, he took
Mary as his wife.
In the thousand pictures of the Holy Family, Joseph
is represented as a venerable man, standing a little apart,
lost in contemplation, while Mary and Elisabeth caress
the child Jesus. In this respect. Christian art has, it is
probable, rightly represented the character of Joseph.
He was but a shadow on the canvas. Such men are
found in every commimity, — gentle, blameless, mildly
active, but exerting no positive influence. Except in
one or two vague implications, he early disappears
from sight. No mention is made of his death, though
he must have deceased long before Mary, who in all
our Lord's ministry appears alone. He reappears in
the ecclesiastical calendar as St. Joseph, simply be-
cause he was the husband of Mary, — a harmless
saint, mild and silent.
An imperial order having issued for the taxing of
the whole nation, it became necessary for every one,
according to the custom of the Jews, to repair to the
city where he belonged, for registration.^
' It is needless to consider the difficulty to which this passage has given
rise. Josephus states that Quirinius (Cyrenius) became governor of Judrea
after the death of Archelaus, Herod's son and heir, and so some eight or
ten years after the birth of Christ. How then could that taxing have
brought Joseph from Nazareth to Bethloliem ? The immense ingenuity
■which has been employed to solve tliis difliculty will scarcely add to the
value of hypothetical historical reasoning. Especially when now, at length,
it is ascertained upon grounds almost certain, that Quirinius was twice gov-
ernor of Syria. See SchafT's note to Lange's Com. (Luke, pp. 32, 33), and
the more full discussion in Smith's Bible Dictionary, Art. " Cyrenius," and
President Woolscy's addition to this article in Hard and Houghton's Amer-
ican edition.
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 29
From Nazareth to Bethlehem was about eighty miles.
Travelling slowly, as the condition of Mary required,
they would probably occupy about four days in reach-
ing their destination. Already the place was crowded
with others brought thither on the same errand. They
probably sought shelter in a cottage, for "the inn was
full," and there Mary gave birth to her child.
It is said by Luke that the child was laid in a man-
ger, from which it has been inferred that his parents
had taken refuge in a stable. But tradition asserts that
it was^ a cave, such as abound in the limestone rock of
that region, and are used both for sheltering herds
and, sometimes, for human residences. The precip-
itous sides of the rock are often pierced in such a way
that a cottage built near might easily convert an ad-
joining cave to the uses of an outbuilding.
Caves are not rare in Palestine, as with us. On the
contrary, the whole land seems to be honeycombed
with them. They are, and have been for ages, used for
almost every purj)ose which architecture supplies in
other lands, — as dwellings for the living and sepul-
chres for the dead, as shelter for the household and for
cattle and herds, as hidden retreats for robbers, and
as defensive positions or rock-castles for soldiers.
Travellers make them a refuge when no better inn is
at hand. They are shaped into reservoirs for water,
or, if dry, they are employed as granaries. The lime-
stone of the region is so porous and soft, that but a
little labor is required to enlarge, refashion, and adapt
caves to any desirable purpose.
Of the " manger," or " crib," Thomson, long a mis-
sionary in Palestine, says : " It is common to find two
sides of the one room, where the native farmer resides
30 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
with his cattle, fitted up with these mangers, and the re-
mainder elevated about two feet higher for the accom-
modation of the fiimily. The mangers are built of
small stones and mortar, in the shape of a box, or,
rather, of a kneading-trough, and when cleaned up and
whitewashed, as they often are in summer, they do
very well to lay little babes in. Indeed, our own chil-
dren have slept there in our rude summer retreats on
the mountains." ^
The laying of the little babe in the manger is not to
be regarded then as an extraordinary thing, or a posi-
tive hardship. It was merely subjecting the child to
a custom which peasants frequently practised with
their children. Jesus began his Hfe with and as the
lowest.
About five miles south of Jerusalem, and crowning
the top and sides of a narrow ridge or spur which
shoots out eastwardly from the central mass of the
Judaean hills, was the village of Bethlehem. On every
side but the western, the hill breaks down abruptly
into deep valleys. The steep slopes were terraced and
cultivated from top to bottom. A little to the east-
ward is a kind of plain, where it is supposed the shep-
herds, of all shepherds that ever lived now the most
famous, tended their flocks. The great fruitfulness of
its fields is supposed to have given to Bethlehem its
name, which signifies the " House of Bread." Famous
as it has become, it was but a hamlet at the birth of
Jesus. Here King David was born, but there is noth-
ing to indicate that he retained any special attachment
to the place. In the rugged valleys and gorges which
' Thomson's Tlie Land and the Book, Vol. II. p. 98.
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 31
abound on every side, he had watched his father's flocks
and had become inured to danger and to toil, defend-
ing his charge on the one hand against wild beasts, and
on the other against the scarcely less savage predatory
tribes that infested the region south and east. From
Bethlehem one may look out upon the very fields
made beautiful forever to the imagination by the
charming idyl of David's ancestress, Ruth the Moabitess.
Changed as Bethlehem itself is, which, from holding a
mere handful then, has a population now of some four
thousand, customs and the face of nature remain the
same. The hills are terraced, the fields are tilled,
flocks are tended by laborers unchanged in garb, work-
ing with the same kinds of implements, having the
same manners, and employing the same salutations as
in the days of the patriarchs.
Were Boaz to return to-day, he would hardly see an
unfamiliar thing in his old fields, — the barley harvest,
the reapers, the gleaners, the threshing-floors, and the
rude threshing, — all are there as they were thousands
of years ago.
At the season of our Saviour's advent, the nights
were soft and genial.^ It was no hardship for rugged
^ This is true, whichever date shall be selected of the many which have been
urged by different learned men. But further than this there is no cer-
tainty. " In the primitive Church there was no agreement as to the time
of Christ's birth. In the East the 6th of January was observed as the day
of his baptism and birth. In the third century, as Clement of Alexandria
relates, some regarded the 20th of May, others the 20th of April, as the
birthday of our Saviour. Among modern chronologists and biographers of
Jesus there is still greater difference of opinion, and every month — even
June and July (when the fields are parched from want of rain) — has been
named as the time when the great event took place. Liglitfoot assigns the
Nativity to September, Lardner and Newcome to October, Wioseler to Feb-
ruary, Paulus to March, Greswell and Alfera to the 5th of April, just after
the spring rains, when there is an abundance of pasture ; Lichtenstein
32 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
shepherds to spend the night in the fields with their
flocks. By day, as the sheep fed, their keepers might
while away their time -with sights and sounds along
the earth. When darkness shut in the scene, the
heavens would naturally attract their attention. Their
eyes had so long kept company with the mysterious
stars, that, doubtless, like shepherds of more ancient
times, they were rude astronomers, and had grown
familiar with the planets, and knew them in all their
courses. But there came to them a night surpassing
all nights in wonders. Of a sudden the whole heavens
were filled with light, as if morning were come upon
midnight. Out of this splendor a single voice issued, as
of a choral leader, — " Behold, I bring you glad tidings
of great joy." The shepherds were told of the Saviour's
birth, and of the place where the babe might be found.
Then no longer a single voice, but a host in heaven,
was heard celebrating the event. " Suddenly there was
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, prais-
ing God, and saying,
*' Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, good-will toward men."
Raised to a fervor of wonder, these children of the
field made haste to find the babe, and to make known
on every side the marvellous vision. Moved by this
places it in July or December, Strong in August, Robinson in antimin,
Clinton in spring, Andrews between the middle of December, 749, and the
middle of January, 750, A. U. C. On the other hand, Roman Catholic histo-
rians and biographers of Jesus, as Sepp, Friedlieb, Bucher, Patritius, and also
some Protestant writers, defend the popular tradition, — the 25th of De-
cember. Wordsworth gives up the problem, and thinks that the Holy Spirit
has concealed the knowledge of the year and day of Christ's birth and the
duration of his ministry from the wise and prudent, to teach them humil-
ity."— Dr. Schaff, in Lange's Commentary (Luke, p. 36).
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 33
faith to worship and to glorify God, they were thus
unconsciously the earliest disciples and the first evan-
gelists, for " they made known abroad the saying which
was told them concerning this child."
In beautiful contrast with these rude exclamatory
worshippers, the mother is described as silent and
thoughtful. " Mary kept all these things and pon-
dered them in her heart." If no woman comes to
herself until she loves, so, it may be said, she knows
not how to love until her firstrborn is in her arms.
Sad is it for her who does not feel herself made
sacred by motherhood. That heart-pondering! Who
may tell the thoughts which rise from the deep places
of an inspired love, more in number and more beauti-
ful than the particles of vapor which the sun draws
from the surface of the sea?
Intimately as a mother must feel that her babe is
connected with her own body, e"<^en more she is wont
to feel that her child comes direct from God. God-
given is a familiar name in every language. Not from
her Lord came this child to Mary. It was her Lord
himself that came.
A sweet and trusting faith in God, childlike simplicity,
and profound love seem to have formed the nature of
Mary. She may be accepted as the type of Christian
motherhood. In this view, and excluding the dogma
of her immaculate nature, and still more emphatically
that of any other participation in divinity than that
which is common to all, we may receive with pleasure
the stores of exquisite pictures with which Christian
art has filled its realm. The " Madonnas " are so many
tributes to the beauty and dignity of motherhood;
34 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
and they may stand so interpreted, now that the
Buperstitious associations which they have had are so
wholly worn away. At any rate, the Protestant re-
action from Mary has gone far enough, and, on our
own grounds, we may well have our share also in the
memory of this sweet and noble woman.
The same reason which led our Lord to clothe him-
self with llesh made it proper, when he was born, to
have fulfilled upon him all the customs of his people.
He was therefore circumcised when eight days old, and
presented in the Temple on the fortieth day, at which
period his mother had completed the time appointed for
her purification. The offering required was a lamb and
a dove; but if the parents were poor, then two doves.
Mary's humble condition was indicated by the offering
of two doves. And yet, if she had heard the exclama-
tion of John after the Lord's baptism, years afterwards,
she might have perceived that, in spite of her poverty,
she had brought the Lamb, divine and precious !
Surprise upon surprise awaited Mary. There dwelt
at Jerusalem, Avrapped in his own devout and longing
thoughts, a great nature, living contentedly in obscurity,
Simeon by name. This venerable man seized the child
with holy rapture, when it was presented in the Tcmjole,
and broke forth in the very spirit of a prophet : —
" Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
According to thy word :
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
A Ii;j;ht to lighten the Gentiles,
And the glory of tliy people Israel."
Both Mary and Joseph were amazed, but there was
something in Mary's appearance that drew this inspired
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 35
old man specially to her, " Behold, this child is set for
the fall and rising again of many in Israel Yea,
a sword shall pierce through thme own soul also."
As the asters, among plants, go all summer long un-
beautiful, their flowers hidden within, and burst into
bloom at the very end of summer and in late autumn,
with the frosts upon their heads, so this aged saint had
blossomed, at the close of a long life, into this noble
ecstasy of joy. In a stormy time, when outward life
moves wholly against one's wishes, he is truly great
whose soul becomes a sanctuary in which patience
dwells with hope. In one hour Simeon received full
satisfaction for the yearnings of many years !
Among the Jews, more perhaps than in any other
Oriental nation, woman was permitted to develop natr
urally, and liberty was accorded her to participate
in things which other people reserved with zealous se-
clusion for men. Hebrew women were prophetesses,
teachers (2 Kings xxii. 14), judges, queens. The ad-
vent of our Saviour was hailed appropriately by
woman, — Anna, the prophetess, joining with Simeon
in praise and thanksgiving.
But other witnesses were preparing. Already the
footsteps of strangers afar off were advancing toward
JudD3a. Erelong Jerusalem was thrown into an excite-
ment by the arrival of certain sages, probably from
Persia. The city, like an uneasy volcano, was always on
the eve of an eruption. When it was known that these
pilgrims had come to inquire about a king, Avho, they
believed, had been born, a king of the Jews, the news
excited both the city and the palace, — hope in one,
fear in the other, Herod dreaded a rival. The Jews
longed for a native prince whose arm 'should expel the
36 TEE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
intrusive government. No wonder that " Herod was
troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." He first sum-
moned the Jewish scholars, to knoAV where, according to
their jDrophets, the Messiah was to be born. Bethle-
hem was the place of prediction. Next, he summoned
the Magi, secretly, to learn of them at what time the
revealing star had appeared to them, and then, craftily
veiling his cruel purposes with an assumed interest, he
charges them, when the child was found, to let him be
a worshipper too !
The same star which had drawn their footsteps to
Jerusalem now guided the wise men to the very place
of Jesus' birth.
What was this star ? All that can be known is, that
it was some appearance of light in the sky, which by
these Oriental philosophers was supposed to indicate a
great event. Ingenuity has unnecessarily been exer-
cised to prove that at about this time there was a con-
junction of three planets. But did the same thing
happen again, after their arrival at Jerusalem ? For
it is stated that, on their leaving the city to go to Beth-
lehem, " lo, the star which they saw in the east went
before them till it came and stood over where the young
child was." How could a planetary conjunction stand
over a particular house ? It is evident that the sidereal
guide was a globe of light, divinely ordered and ap-
pointed for this work. It was a miracle. That nature
is but an organized outworking of the divine will, that
God is not limited to ordinary law in the production of
results, that he can, and that he does, produce events by
the direct force of his will without the ordinary instru-
ments of nature, is the very spirit of the whole Bible.
These gleams of immediate power flash through in
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. ' 37
every age. The superiority of spiritual power over
sensuous, is the ilkiminating truth of the New Testa-
ment. The gospels should be taken or rejected unmu-
tilated. The disciples plucked the wheat-heads, and,
rubbing them in their hands, they ate the grain. But
our sceptical believers take from the New Testament its
supernatural element, — rub out the wheat, — and eat
the chaff. There is consistency in one who sets the
gospels aside on the ground that they are not inspired,
that they are not even historical, that they are growths
of the imaorination, and covered all over with the
parasites of superstition; but in one who professes to
accept the record as an inspired history, the disposition
to pare miracles down to a scientific shape, to find
their roots in natural laws, is neither reverent nor
sagacious. Miracles are to be accepted boldly or not
at all. They are jewels, and sparkle with divine light,
or they are nothing.
This guide of the Magi was a light kindled in the
heavens to instruct and lead those whose eyes were
prepared to receive it. If the vision of angels and the
extraordinary conception of the Virgin are received as
miraculous, it ought not to be difficult to accept the
star seen from the east as a miracle also.
The situation of the child ill befitted Oriental notions
of a king's dignity. But under the divine influence
which rested upon the Magi, they doubtless saw more
than the outward circumstances. Humble as the place
was, poor as his parents evidently were, and he a mere
babe, they fell down before him in w^orship, and pre-
sented princely gifts, " gold, frankincense, and myrrh."
Instead of returning to Herod, they went back to their
own country.
38 TUE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
And now it was time for Joseph to look well to his
safety. If there was to be a king in Israel, he was to
come from the house of David, and Joseph was of that
stock, and his child, Jesus, was royal too. Herod's
jealousy was aroused. He was not a man wont to
miss the fulfilment of any desire on account of hu-
mane or moral scruples. The return of the Magi with-
out giving him the knowledge which he sought seemed
doubtless to the king like another step in a plot to sub-
vert his throne. He determined to make thorough work
of this nascent peril, " and sent forth and slew all the
children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts
thereof, fiom two years old and under." He put the
limit of age at a period which would make it sure that
the new-born king of the Jews would be included.
It has been objected to the probable truth of this
statement, that such an event could hardly fail to be
recorded by secular historians, and especially by Jose-
phus, who narrates the contemporaneous history with
much minuteness. But this event is far more striking
upon our imagination now, than it was likely to be
upon the attention of men then. For, as Bethlehem
was a mere hamlet, with but a handful of people, it has
been computed that not more than ten or fifteen chil-
dren could have perished by this merciless edict. Be-
sides, what was such an act as this, in a life stored full
of abominable cruelties ? " He who had immolated a
cherished wife, a brother, and three sons to his jealous
suspicions, and who ordered a general massacre for the
day of his funeral, so that his body should not be borne
to the earth amidst general rejoicings," may easily be
supposed to have filled up the spaces with minor cruel-
ties which escaped record. But here is an historical
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 39
record. It is no impeachment of its truth to aver that
there is no other history of it. Until some disproof is
alleged, it must stand.
Stirred by a divine impulse, Joseph had already re-
moved the child from dan-i-er. Whither should he flee?
O
Egypt was not distant, and the roads thither were easy
and much frequented. Thither too, from time to time,
exiled for various reasons, had resorted numbers of
Jews, so that, though in a foreign land, he would be
among his own countrymen, all interested alike in hat-
ing the despotic cruelty of Herod. There is no record
of the place of Joseph's sojourn in Egypt. Tradition,
always uncertain, places it at Matarea, near Leontopolis,
where subsequently the Jewish temple of Onias stood.
His stay was probably brief For, within two or
three weeks of the foregoing events, Herod died.
Joseph did not return to Bethlehem, though he de-
sired to do so, but was warned of God in a dream
of his danger. It was probable that Archelaus, who
succeeded to Herod in Judcea, would be as suspicious
of danger from an heir royal of the house of David as
his father had been ; so Joseph passed — it may be
by way of the sea-coast — northward, to Nazareth,
whence a few months before he had removed.
Before closing this chapter we shall revert to one
of the most striking features of the period thus far
passed over, namely, the ministration of angels. The belief
in the existence of heavenly beings who in some man-
ner are concerned in the affairs of men, has existed
from the earliest periods of which we have a history.
This faith is peculiarly grateful to the human heart,
and, though it has never been received with favor by
40 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
men addicted to jDurely physical studies, it has been
entertamed by the Church with fond faith and by the
common people with the enthusiasm of sjinpathy.
It is scarcely possible to follow the line of develop-
ment in the animal kingdom, and to witness the grada-
tions on the ascending scale, unfolding steadily, rank
above rank, until man is reached, without having the
presumption awakened that there are intelligences
above man, — creatures which rise as much above him
as he above the inferior animals.
When the word of God announces the ministration
of angels, records their early visits to this planet, repre-
sents them as bending over the race in benevolent
sympathy, bearing warnings, consolations, and messages
of wisdom, the heart receives the doctrine even against
the cautions of a sceptical reason.
Our faith might be put to shame if the scriptural
angels bore any analogy to those of the rude and puerile
histories contained in apocryphal books. But the long
hue of heavenly visitants shines in unsullied brightness
as high above the beliefs and prejudices of an early age
as the stars are above the vapors and dust of earth.
While patriarchs, prophets, and apostles show all the
deficiencies of their own period and are stained with
human passions, the angelic beings, judged by the most
fastidious requirements of these later ages, are without
spot or blemish. They are not made up of human
traits idealized. They are unworldly, — of a different
type, of nobler presence, and of far grander and
sweeter natures than any living on earth.
The angels of the oldest records are like the angels
of the latest. The Hebrew thouo^ht had moved throuij^h
a vast arc of the infinite cycle of truth between the days
THE OVERTURE OF ANGELS. 4^'
when Abraham came from Ur of Chaklosa and the times
of our Lord's stay on earth. But there is no develop-
ment in angels of later over those of an earlier date.
They were as beautiful, as spiritual, as pure and
noble, at the beginning as at the close of the old dis-
pensation. Can such creatures, transcending earthly
experience, and far outrunning anything in the life of
man, be creations of the rude ages of the human under-
standing ?
We could not imagine the Advent stripped of its an-
gelic lore. The dawn without a twilight, the sun with-
out clouds of silver and gold, the morning on the fields
without dew-diamonds, — but not the Saviour without
his angels ! They shine within the Temple, they bear
to the matchless mother a message which would have
been disgrace from mortal lips, but which from theirs
fell upon her as pure as dew-drops upon the lilies of
the plain of Esdraelon. They communed with the
Saviour in his glory of transfiguration, sustained him
in the anguish of the garden, watched at the tomb ; and
as they had thronged the earth at his coming, so they
seem to have hovered in the air in multitudes at the
hour of his ascension. Beautiful as they seem, they
are never mere poetic adornments. The occasions of
their appearing are grand. The reasons are weighty.
Their demeanor suggests and befits the highest con-
ception of superior beings. These are the very ele-
ments that a rude age could not fashion. Could a
sensuous age invent an order of beings, which, touch-
ing the earth from a heavenly height on its most mo-
mentous occasions, could still, after ages of culture had
refined the human taste and moral appreciation, remain
ineffably superior in dehcacy, in pure spirituality, to
42 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CnRIST.
the demands of criticism ? Their very coming and
going is not with earthly movement. They suddenly
are seen in the air as one sees white clouds round
out from the blue sky, in a summer's day, that melt
back even while one looks upon them. They vibrate
between the visible and the invisible. They come
without motion. They go without flight. They dawn
and disappear. Their words are few, but the Advent
Chorus 3^et is sounding its music through the world.
A part of the angelic ministration is to be looked for
in what men are by it incited to do. It helps the mind
to populate heaven with spiritual inhabitants. The
imagination no longer translates thither the gross
corporeity of this life. We suspect that few of us
are aware how much our definite conceptions of spirit-
life are the product of the angel-lore of the Bible.
It is to be noticed that only in Luke is the history
of the angelic annunciation given. It is to Luke also
that we are indebted for the record of the angels at
the tomb on the morning of the resurrection. Luke
has been called the Evangelist of Greece. He was
Paul's companion of travel, and particularly among the
Greek cities of Asia Minor. This suggests the fact
that the angelic ministration commemorated in the
New Testament would greatly facilitate among Greeks
the reception of monotheism. Comforting to us as is
the doctrine of angels, it can hardly be of the same
help as it was to a Greek or to a Roman when he first
accepted the Christian faith. The rejection of so many
divinities must have left the fields, the mountains, the
cities and temples very bare to all who had been accus-
tomed to heathen mythology. The ancients seem to
have striven to express universal divine presence by
THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST. 43
multiplying their gods. This at least had the effect of
giving life to every part of nature. The imaginative
Greek had grown familiar with the thought of gods
innumerable. Every stream, each grove, the caves, the
fields, the clouds, suggested some divine person. It
would be almost impossible to strip such a one of those
fertile suggestions and tie him to the simple doctrine
of One God, without producing a sense of cheerless-
ness and solitude. Ang-els come in to make for him an
easy transition from polytheism to monotheism. The
air might still be populous, his imagination yet be full
of teeming suggestions, but no longer with false gods.
Now there was to him but one God, but He was
served by multitudes of blessed spirits, children of
light and glory. Instead of a realm of conflicting
divinities there was a household, the Father looking
in benignity upon his radiant family. Thus, again, to
the Greek, as to the Patriarch, angels ascended and de-
scended the steps that lead from earth to heaven.
44 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST,
CHAPTER III.
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS.
Before we enter upon the childhood of Jesus, and,
with still more reason, before we enter upon his adult
life, it is necessary to form some idea of his original
nature. No one conversant with the ideas on this
point which fill the Christian world can avoid taking
sides with one or another of the philosophical views
which have divided the Church. Even mere readers,
who seem to themselves uncommitted to any doctrine
of the nature of Christ, are unconsciously in sym-
pathy with some theory. But to draw up a history
of Christ without some pilot-idea is impossible. Every
fact in the narrative will take its color and form from
the philosophy around which it is grouped.
Was Jesus, then, one of those gifted men who have
from time to time arisen in the world, differing from
their fellows only in pre-eminence of earthly power, in
a fortunate temperament, and a happy balance of facul-
ties? Was he simply and only an extraordinary Man?
This view was early taken, and as soon vehemently
combated. But it has never ceased to be held. It
reappears in every age. And it has special hold upon
thoughtful minds to-day ; at least, upon such thoughtr
ful minds as are imbued with the present spirit of ma-
terial science. The physical laws of nature, we are
told, are invariable and constant, and all true knowl-
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS. 45
edge is the product of the observation of such laws.
This view will exclude, not only miracles, the divine
inspiration of holy men of old, and the divinity of
Jesus Christ ; but, if honestly followed to its proper
consequences, it will destroy the grounds on which
stand the belief of the unmortality of the soul and
of the existence of angels and spirits ; and, finally
and fatally, it will deny the validity of all eviden-
ces of the existence and government of God. And
we accordingly find that, on the Euroj)ean continent
and in England, the men of some recent schools of
science, without denying the existence of an intelli-
gent, personal God, deny that there is, or can be, any
human hioivledge of the fact. The nature of the hu-
man mind, and the laws under which all kno^vledge is
gained, it is taught, prevent our knowing with cer-
tainty anything beyond the reach of the senses and of
personal consciousness. God is the Unknown, and
the life beyond this the Unknowable. There are
many inclining to this position who would be shocked
at the results to which it logically leads. But it is
difficult to see how one can reject miracles, as philo-
sophically impossible, except upon grounds of mate-
rialistic science which lead irresistibly to veiled or
overt atheism.
The Lives of Christ which have been written from
the purely humanitarian view have not been without
their benefits. They have brought the historical ele-
ments of his life into clearer light, have called back
the mind from speculative and imaginative efforts in
spiritual directions, and have given to a dim and dis-
tant idea the clearness and reality of a fact. Like
some old picture of the masters, the Gospels, ex-
46 THE LIFE OF JESUS, TUE CHRIST.
posed to the dust and smoke of superstition, to re-
varnishing glosses and retouching philosophies, in the
sight of many had lost their original brightness and
beauty. The rationalistic school has done much to re-
move these false surfaces, and to bring back to the eye
the original picture as it was laid upon the canvas.
But, this work ended, every step beyond has been
mischievous. The genius of the Gospels has been cru-
cified to a theory of Christ's humanity. The canons
of historical criticism have been adojDted or laid aside
as the exigencies of the special theory required. The
most lawless fancy has been called in to correct the
alleged fancifalness of the evangelists. Not only has
the picture been " restored," but the pigments have
been taken off, reground, and laid on again by mod-
ern hands. A new head, a different countenance,
appears. They found a God : they have left a feeble
man !
Dissatisfied with the barrenness of this school,
which leaves nothing upon which devotion may fas-
ten, another class of thinkers have represented Jesus
as more than human, but as less than divine. \Yhat
that being is to whose kind Jesus belongs, they cannot
tell. Theirs is a theory of compromise. It adopts
the obscure as a means of hid ins: definite difficulties.
It admits the grandeur of Christ's nature, and the
sublimity of his life and teachings. It exalts him
above angels, but not to the level of the Throne.
It leaves him in that wide and mysterious space that
lies between the finite and the infinite.
The theological difficulties which inhere in such a
theory are many. It may enable reasoners to elude
pursuit, but it will not give them any vantage-ground
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS. 47
for a conflict with philosophical objections. And yet,
as the pilot-idea of a Life of Christ, it is far less mis-
chievous than the strictly humanitarian view ; it does
less violence to recorded facts. But it cannot create
an ideal on which the soul may feed. After the last
touch is given to the canvas, we see only a Creature.
The soul admires ; but it must go elsewhere to bestow
its utmost love and reverence.
A third view is held, which may be called the doc-
trine of the Church, at least since the fourth century.
It attributes to Jesus a double nature, — a human soul
and a divine soul in one body. It is not held that
these two souls existed separately and in juxtaposi-
tion, — two separate tenants, as it were, of a common
dwelling. Neither is it taught that either soul ab-
sorbed the other, so that the divine lapsed into the
human, or the' human expanded into the divine.
But it is held that, by the union of a human and a
divine nature, the one person Jesus Christ became
God-Man ; a being carrying in himself both natures,
inseparably blended, and never again to be dissevered.
This new ihcanihropic being, of blended divinity and
humanity, will occasion no surprise in those who are
familiar with modes of thought which belonged to the
early theologians of the Church. It is only when, in
our day, this doctrine is supposed to be found in the
New Testament, that one is inclined to surprise.
For, as in a hot campaign the nature of the lines of
intrenchment is determined by the assaults of the
enem}^, so this doctrine took its shape, not from.
Scripture statements, but from the exigencies of
controversy. It was thrown up to meet the assaults
upon the true divinity of Christ; and, although cum-
48 TUB LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
brous and involved, it saved Christianity. For, the
truth of the proper divinity of Christ is the marrow
of the sacred Scriptures. It is the only point at
which natural and revealed religion can be reconciled.
But if by another and better statement the divinity
of Christ can be exhibited in equal eminence and with
greater simplicity, and if such exhibition shall be found
in more obvious accord with the language of the New
Testament, and with what we now know of mental
philosophy, it will be wise, in constructing a life of
Christ, to leave the antiquated theory of the mediaeval
Church, and return to the simple and more philosophi-
cal views of the sacred Scriptures.
We must bear in mind that many questions which
have profoundly excited the curiosity of thinkers, and
agitated the Church, had not even entered into the
conceptions of men at the time when the writings
of the New Testament were framed. They are medi-
aeval or modern. The Romish doctrine of the Virgin
Mary could hardly have been understood even, by
the apostles. The speculations which have absorbed
the thoughts of men for ages are not only not
found m the sacred record, but would have been in-
congruous with its whole spirit. The evangelists
never reason upon any question ; they simply state
what they saw or heard. They never deduce in-
ferences and principles from facts. They frame their
narrations without any apparent consciousness of the
philosophical relations of the facts contained in them
to each other or to any system. It is probable that
the mystery of the Incarnation never entered their
minds as it exists in ours. It was to them a moral
fact, and not a philosophical problem.
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS. 49
How Jesus was Son of God, and yet Son of Man, is
nowhere spoken of in those simple records. The
evangelists and the apostles content themselves with
simply declaring that God came into the world in the
form of a man. " The Word was God." " And the
Word ivas made fcsh, and dwelt among ns." This is
all the explanation given by the disciple who was
most in sympathy with Jesus. Jesus was God ; and
he was made flesh. The simplest rendering of these
words would seem to be, that the Divine Spirit had
enveloped himself with the human body, and in that
condition been subject to the indispensable limitations
of material laws. Paul's statement is almost a direct
historical narrative of facts. " Let this mind be in
you which was also in Christ Jesus : who, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God ; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon
him the form of a servant, and tvas made in the likeness
of men ; and being found in fashion as a man, he hum-
bled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross." (Phil. ii. 5-8.) This is
a simple statement that Jesus, a Divine Person,
brought his nature into the human body, and was
subject to all its laws and conditions. No one can
extract from this the notion of two intermixed souls
in one nature.
The same form of statement appears in Romans viii.
3 : " For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in
the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh." There is no hint here of joining a himian
soul to the divine. In not a single passage of the New
Testament is such an idea even suggested. The lan-
4
50 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
guage which is used on this subject is such as could
not have been employed by one who had in his mind
the notion of two souls in coexistence.
As it is unsafe to depart from the obvious teaching
of the sacred Scriptures on a theme so far removed
from all human knowledge, we shall not, in this Life of
our Lord, render ourselves subject to the hopeless con-
fusions of the theories of the schools, but shall cling to
the simple and intelligible representations of the Word.
" Great is the mystery of godliness : God was manifest
in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world,
received up into glory." (1 Tim. iii. 16.)
The Divine Spirit came into the world, in the jDcrson
of Jesus, not bearing the attributes of Deity in their
full disclosure and power. He came into the world
to subject his spirit to that whole discipline and expe-
rience through which every man must pass. He veiled
his royalty ; he folded back, as it were, within himself
those ineffable powers which belonged to him as a free
spirit in heaven. He went into captivity to himself,
wrapping in weakness and forgetfulness his divine en-
ergies, while he was a babe. " Being found in fashion
as a man," he was subject to that gradual imfolding of
liis buried powers which belongs to infancy and child-
hood. "And the child grew, and tmxcd strong in
spirit." He was subject to the restrictions which hold
and hinder common men. He was to come back to
himself little by little. Who shall say that God can-
not put himself into finite conditions ? Though as a
free spirit God cannot grow, yet as fettered in the flesh
he may. Breaking out at times with amazing power, in
single directions, yet at other times feeling the mist
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS. 51
of humanity resting upon his eyes, he declares, " Of
that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the
angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the
Father." This is just the experience which we should
expect in a being whose problem of life was, not
the disclosure of the full power and glory of God's
natural attributes, but the manifestation of the love
of God, and of the extremities of self-renunciation to
which the Divine heart would submit, in the rearing
up from animalism and passion his family of children.
The incessant looking for the signs of divine power
and of infinite attributes, in the earthly life of Jesus,
whose mission it was to bring the Divine Spirit within
the conditions of feeble humanity, is as if one should
search a dethroned king, in exile, for his crown and his
sceptre. We are not to look for a glorified, an en-
throned Jesus, but for God manifest in the flesh; and
in this view the very limitations and seeming discrep-
ancies in a Divine life become congruous parts of the
whole sublime problem.
We are to remember that, whatever A'iew of the
mystery be taken, there will be difficulties which no
ingenuity can solve. But we are to distinguish be-
tween difficulties which are inherent in the nature of
the Infinite, and those which are but the imperfections
of our own philosophy. In the one case, the perplex-
ity lies in the weakness of our reason ; in the other, in
the weakness of our reasoning. The former will always
be burdensome enough, without adding to it the pres-
sure of that extraordinary theory of the Incarnation,
which, without a single express Scriptural statement in
its support, works out a compound divine nature, with-
out analogue or parallel in human mental philosophy.
52 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Early theologians believed suffering to be inconsisi>
ent with the Divine perfection. Impassivity was es-
sential to true divinity. With such ideas of the Divine
nature, how could they believe that Jesus, a man of
suffering, and acquainted with grief, was divine ? A
human soul was therefore conjoined to the divine, and
to that human element were ascribed all the phenom-
ena of weakness and suffering which they shrank from
imputing to the Deity. This disordered reverence was
corroborated by imperfect notions of what constitutes
a true manhood. If God became a true man, they
aro"ued, he must have had a human soul. As if the
Divine nature clothed in flesh did not constitute the
most absolute manhood, and fill up the whole ideal !
Man's nature and God's nature do not differ in kind,
but in degree of the same attributes. Love in God
is love in man. Justice, mercy, benevolence, are not
different in nature, but only in degree of power and
excellence. "And God said, Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness." (Gen. i. 26.) "In
him we live, and m.ove, and have our being
Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God," etc.
(Acts xvii. 28, 29.)
This identification of the divine and the human na-
ture was one of the grand results of the Incarnation.
The beauty and preciousness of Christ's earthly life
consist in its being a true divine life, a presentation
to us, in forms that we can comprehend, of the very
thoughts, feelings, and actions of God when placed in
our condition in this mortal life. To insert two na-
tures is to dissolve the charm.
Christ was very God. Yet, w^hen clothed with a hu-
man body, and made subject through that body to
THE DOCTRINAL BASIS. 53
physical laws, he was then a man, of the same moral
faculties as man, of the same mental nature, subject
to precisely the same trials and temptations, only with-
out the weakness of sin. A human soul is not some-
thing other, and different from the Divine soul. It is as
like it as the son is like his father. God is father, man
is son. As God in our place becomes human, — such
being the similarity of the essential natures, — so
man in God becomes divine. Thus we learn not only
to what our manhood is coming, but when the Divine
Spirit takes our whole condition upon himself, we see
the thoughts, the feelings, and, if we may so say, the
private and domestic inclinations of God. What he
was on earth, in his sympathies, tastes, friendships,
generous famiUarities, gentle condescensions, we shall
find him to be in heaven, only in a profusion and
amplitude of disclosure far beyond the earthly hints
and glimpses.
The tears of Christ were born of the flesh, but
the tender sympathy which showed itself by those
precious tokens dwells unwasted and forever in
the nature of God. The gentleness, the compas-
sion, the patience, the loving habit, the truth and
equity, which were displayed in the daily life of
the Saviour, were not so many experiences of a hu-
man soul mated with the Divine, but were the
proper expressions of the very Divine soul itself, that
men might see, in God, a true and perfect manhood.
When Jesus, standing before his disciples as a full
man, was asked to reveal God the Father, he an-
swered, " He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."
Manhood is nearer to godhood than we have been
wont to believe.
54 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
CHAPTER IV.
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT N.\ZARETH.
The parents of Jesus returned to Nazareth, and there
for many years they and their child were to dwell.
There was nothing that we know of, to distinguish
this child from any other that ever was born. It passed
through the twilight of infancy as helpless and depend-
ent as all other children must ever be. If we had
dwelt at Nazareth and daily seen the child Jesus, we
should have seen the cradle-life of other children. This
was no prodigy. He did not speak wonderful wisdom
in his infancy. He slept or waked upon his mother's
bosom, as all children do. He unfolded, first the per-
ceptive reason, afterwards the voluntary powers. He
was nourished and he grew under the same laws which
govern infant life now. This then was not a divinity
coming through the clouds into human life, full-orbed,
triumphing with the undiminished strength of a
heavenly nature over those conditions which men must
bear. If this was a divine person, it was a divine
child, and childhood meant latent power, undeveloped
faculty, unripe organs ; a being without habits, without
character, without experience ; a cluster of germs, a
branch full of unblossomed buds, a mere seed of man-
hood. Except his mother's arms, there was no circle of
light aljout his head, fondly as artists have loved to paint
it. But for the after-record of Scriptures, we should
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 55
have no reason to suppose that this child clifFered in any
respect from ordinary children. Yet this was the Son
of God ! This was that Word of whom John spake :
" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word 2vas God ! "
It was natural that Joseph and Mary should desire
to settle in Judsea. Not alone because here was the
home of their father David, but esj)ecially because,
when once they believed their son Jesus destined to ful-
fil the prophecies concerning the Messiah, they would
wish him to be educated near to Jerusalem. To them,
doubtless, the Temple and its priesthood were yet the
highest exponents of religion.
Divine Providence however removed him as far
from the Temple and its influences as possible. Half-
heathen Galilee was better for his youth than Jeru-
salem. To Nazareth we must look for his early history.
But what can be gleaned there, when for twelve
years of childhood the only syllable of history uttered
is, "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit,
filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon
him?"
Not a single fact is recorded of his appearance,
his infantine ways; what his parents thought, what
his brothers and sisters thought of him ; the im-
pression made by him upon neighbors ; wdiether he
went to school ; how early, if at all, he put his hand to
work ; whether he was lively and gay, or sad and
thoughtful, or both by turns ; whether he was medita-
tive and refined, standing apart from others, or robust,
and addicted to sports among his young associates :
no one knows, or can know, whatever may be inferred
or suspected. He emerges for a moment into history
56 THE LIFE OF JESUS, TUE CHRIST.
at twelve years of age, going with his parents to Jeru-
salem. That glimpse is the last which is given us for
the next sixteen or eighteen years.
But regarding a life over which men have hung with
an interest so absorbing, it is impossible to restrain the
imagination. There will always be a filling up of
the vacant spaces. If not clone by the pen, it w^ill
none the less be clone in some more fiinciful way by
free thoughts, which, incited both by curiosity and
devotion, will hover over the probabilities when
there is nothing better. Nor need this be mischiev-
ous. There are certain generic experiences which
must have befallen Jesus, because they belong to all
human life. He was a child. He was subject to
parental authority. He lived among citizens and un-
der the laws. He ate, drank, labored, was weary, re-
freshed himself by sleej). He mingled among men,
transacted affiiirs w^ith them, and exchanged daily
salutations. He was pleased or displeased; he was
glad often and often sorrowful. He was subject to the
oscillations of mood which belong to finely organized
persons. There must have been manifestations of filial
love. In looking upon men he was subject to emo-
tions of grief, pity, and indignation, or of sympathy
and approval. He was a child before he was a man..
He had those nameless graces which belong to all
ingenuous boys; and though he must have seemed
precocious, at least to his own household, there is
no evidence that he was thought remarkable by his
fellow-citizens. On the other hand, none were less
prepared to see him take a prominent part in pub-
lic afiliirs than the very people who had known him
from mfancy. "Whence hath this man this wisdom,
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 57
and these mighty works ? Is not this the carpenter's
son ? Is not his mother called Mary ? and his brethren,
James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas ? and his sisters,
are they not all with us ? " — this is not the language of
admiring neighbors, who had thought the boy a prod-
igy and had always predicted that he would become
remarkable ! This incident throws back a light upon
his childhood. If he went through the ordinary evolu-
tions of youth it is certain that the universal experi-
ences of that period must have befallen him. Nothing
could be more unnatural than to suppose that he was
a child without a childhood, a full and perfect being
cleft from the Almighty, as Minerva was fabled to have
come from the head of Jupiter ; who, though a Jew,
in Nazareth, probably following a carpenter's trade,
was yet but a celestial image, a white and slen-
der figure floating in a half-spiritual transfiguration
through the days of a glorified childhood. He was
" the Son of Man," — a real boy, as afterwards he was
a most manly man. He knew every step of growth ;
he underwent the babe's experience of knowing noth-
ing, the child's, of knowing a little, the universal neces-
sity of development !
But there is a question of education, which has been
much considered. Was the development of his nature
the result of internal forces ? Or was he, as other men
are wont to be, powerfully affected by external circum-
stances ? Was his imagination touched and enriched
by the exquisite scenery about him ? Did the historic
associations of all this Galilean res-ion around him
develop a temper of patriotism ? Was his moral nature
educated by the repulsion of ignoble men, — by the
necessity of toil, — by the synagogue, — by his mother
58 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
at home, — and by his hours of solitary meditation^ and
of holy communion with God ?
That Jesus was sensitive to every influence which
would shape an honorable nature, is not to be doubted.
But whether there was more than mere recipiency,
may well be questioned. Circumstances may have
been the occasions, but not the causes, of development
to a divine mind, obscured in a human body, and learn-
ing to regain its power and splendor by the steps which
in common men are called growth.
We shall make a brief discussion of the point a
means of setting before the mind the jDhysical features
of Galilee, and the local influences which prevailed
there during our Lord's life.
If it was desirable to bring up the child Jesus as far
as possible from the Temple influence, in Palestine and
yet not under excessive Jewish influence, no place could
have been chosen better than Nazareth. It was a
small village, obscure, and remote from Jerusalem. Its
very name had never occurred in the Old Testament
records. And though, after the fall of Jerusalem, Gal-
ilee was made the seat of Jewish schools of religion, —
Sepharis, but a few miles north of Nazareth, being
the head-quarters, — yet, at our Lord's birth, and dur-
ing his whole life, this region of Palestine was but
little affected by Jerusalem. The population was a
mixed one, made up of many different nationalities.
A debased remnant of the ten tribes, after their cap-
tivity had wandered back, with Jewish blood and
heathen manners. The Roman armies and Roman
rulers had brought into the province a great many
foreigners. A large Gentile population had divided
with native Jews the towns and villages. Greeks
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 59
swarmed in the larger commercial towns. Galilee was,
far more than Judaea, cosmopolitan. Commerce and
manufactures had thriven by the side of agriculture.
Josephus says that Galilee had more than two hun-
dred cities and villages, the smallest of which con-
tained not less than fifteen thousand inhabitants. This
seems an extravagant statement, but it will serve to
convey an idea of the great populousness of the prov-
ince in which the youth of Jesus was spent and in
which also his public life was chiefly passed. The in-
fluences which had changed the people had jorovincial-
ized their language. A Galilean was known by his
speech, which seems to have been regarded as unre-
fined and vulgar.^
Among such a people was the Lord reared. If, as
is probable, he followed his father's business and
worked among the common people, we may perceive
that his education, remote from the Temple, not only
saved him from the influence of the dead and corrupt
schools of Jerusalem, but brought him into sympa-
thetic relations with the most lowly in life. In all his
after ministry, apart from his divine insight, he could
of his own experience understand the feelings, tastes,
and needs of his audiences. " The common people heard
him gladly." He had sprung from among them. He
had been reared in their pursuits and habits. For
thirty years he was a man among men, a laboring man
among laboring men. It is in this contact with human
life on all its sides, — with the pure Jew, Avith the
degenerate Jew, with the Greek, the Phoenician, the
Roman, the Syrian, — that we are to look for the most
fruitful results of the Lord's youth and manhood in
1 Mark xiv. 70 ; Acts ii. 7.
CO THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Nazareth and the surrounding region. In this rich and
populous province the civihzed world was epitomized.
Jesus had never travelled as did ancient philosophers ;
but he had probably come in contact more largely with
various human nature by staying at home, than they
had by going abroad.
The village of Nazareth had a bad reputation. This
is shown in the surprised question of Nathanael, who,
being a resident of Cana, m its immediate neighbor-
hood, undoubtedly reflected the popular estimate, " Can
any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " This ques-
tion incidentally shows, also, that our Lord's childhood
had not been one of portents and marvels, and had
not exhibited any such singular characteristics as to
create in the region about him such a reputation as
easily grows up among ignorant people around any
peculiarity in childhood. Something of the spirit
which had given Nazareth such bad repute shows
itself on the occasion of our Lord's first preaching
there, when, as the application of his discourse was
closer than they liked, the people offered him per-
sonal violence, showing them to be unrestrained, pas-
sionate, and bloodthirsty.
The town, or as it then was, the village, of Nazareth
was an exquisite gem in a noble setting. All winters
grow enthusiastic in the description of its beauty, — a
beauty which continues to this day. Stanley, in part
quoting Richardson, says : " Fifteen gently rounded
hills seem as if they had met to form an enclosure for
this peaceful basin. They rise round it like the edge
of a shell, to guard it from intrusion. It is a rich and
beautiful field in the midst of these green hills, abound-
ing in gay flowers, in fig-trees, small gardens, hedges of
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 61
the prickly pear; and the dense rice-grass affords an
abundant pasture." ^
The town was built not upon the summit, but upon
the sides, of a high hill. The basin runs from north-
east to southwest, and it is from its western slope that
the village of Nazareth looks forth.
It must needs be that, in his boyhood wanderings,
Jesus often ascended to the top of the hill, to look over
the wide scene which opened before the eye. It often
happens that the finest panoramas in mountain coun-
tries are not those seen from the highest points. The
peculiar conformations of the land frequently give to
comparatively low positions a view both wider and no-
bler than is obtained from a fourfold height. The
hill of Nazareth yielded a view not equalled in Pales-
tine,— surpassing that seen from the top of Tabor.
The village itself, built on the side of one of the hills
which form the mile-long basin, was four hundred feet
below the summit, and was so much shut in by sur-
rounding heights that it had but little outlook. But
from the hill-top behind the village one looked forth
upon almost the whole of Galilee, — from Lebanon, and
from Hermon, always white with snow, in the far north
and northeast, down to the lake of Gennesareth, with
Hattin, Tabor, Little Hermon, Gilboa, on the east and
southeast; the hills of Samaria on the south; Carmel
and the Mediterranean Sea on the southwest and west.
Two miles south of the village of Nazareth stretched
clear across the breadth of Galilee the noblest plain
of Palestine, — Esdraelon, (which name is but a modi-
fication of the old word Jezreel), a meadow-like plain
with an undulating surface, or, as it would be called in
' Sinai and Palestine, p. 357.
I
62 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
our Western phrase, a rolling prairie, three or four
miles wide at its widest, and about fifteen in length.
These names recall some of the most romantic
and critical events of the old Jewish history. The
places were identified with the patriarchs, the judges,
the jirophets, and the kings of Israel. Across the
great plain of Jezreel the tide of battle has not ceased
to flow, age after age ; the Midianite, the Amalekite,
the Syrian, the Philistine, each in turn rushed through
this open gate among the hills, alternately conquering
and conquered. Its modern history has made good its
ancient experience. It has been the battle-field of
ages ; and the threat of war so continually hangs
over it, that, while it is the richest and most fruitful
part of Palestine, there is not to-day an inhabited city
or villao:e in its whole extent.
The beauty of all this region in the spring and
early summer gives rise to endless praise from travel-
lers. It may be doubted wdiether this scene does not
owe much to local contrast, and whether, if it were
transported to England or to America, wdiere moisture
is perpetual, and a kinder sun stimulates but seldom
scorches, it would maintain its reputation. But in one
respect, probably, it excels all foreign contrasts, and
that is, in the variety, succession, and brilliancy of its
flowers. The fielcTs* fairly glow with colors, which
change every month, and only in August disappear
from the plain ; and even then, retreating to the cool
ravines and edges of the mountains, they bloom on.
The region swarms with singing-birds of every plum-
age, besides countless flocks of birds for game.-^
* Professor J L. Porter, in Kitto's Biblical Encyclnpcvrlin (Art. " Gnliloe")
says : " Lower Galilee was a land of husbandmen, famed for its corn-fields, as
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. G3
The whole of Gahlee is to every modern traveller
made profoundly interesting by the life of Christ,
which was so largely spent in it. But no thoughtful
mind can help asking, What did it do to him ?
Of this the Gospels are silent. No record is made of
his youthful tastes, or of his manhood pursuits. We are
unwillino: to believe that he never ascended the hill to
look out over the noble panorama, and still less are we
willing to believe that he beheld all that was there
without sensibility, or even with only an ordinary hu-
man sensitiveness to nature. We cannot doubt that
he beheld the scenes with a grander impulse than man
ever knew. He was in his own world. "All things
were made by him ; and without him was not anything
made that was made." But whether this knowledge
existed during his childhood, or whether he came to
the full recognition of his prior relations to the world
gradually and only in the later years of his life, may
be surmised, but cannot be known.
It is certain that the general statements which have
recently been made, respecting the influence of Naza-
reth and its surroundings upon the unfolding of his
genius, are without either positive historic evidence
Upper Galilee was for its olive groves and Judaea for its vineyards. The rich
soil remains, and there are still some fruitful fields; but its inhabitants are few
in number, and its choicest plains are desolated by the wild Bedouin. Gali-
lee was and is also remarkable for the variety and beauty of its wild flowers.
In early spring the whole country is spangled with them, and the air is filled
with their odors. Birds, too, are exceedingly numerous. The rocky
banks are all alive with partridges ; the meadows swarm with quails and
larks ; * the voice of the turtle ' resounds through every grove ; and pigeons
are heard cooing high up in the cliff's and glen-sides, and are seen in flocks
hovering over the corn-fields. The writer has travelled through Galilee at
various seasons, and has always been struck with some new beauty ; the deli-
cate verdure of spring, and its blush of flowers, the mellow tints of autumn,
and the russet hues of the oak-forests in winter, have all their charms."
(34 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
or any internal evidence to be found in his discourses,
conversations, and parables.
The slightest study of our Lord's discourses will
show that he made almost no use of nature, as such,
in his thoughts and teachings. He had in his hands
the writings of the old prophets of his nation, and he
was familiar with their contents. In them he beheld
all the aspects of nature, whatever was sublime, and
whatever was beautiful, employed to enforce the lessons
of morality with a power and poetic beauty which had
then no parallel, and which have since had no rival.
But there would seem to have been in his own use of
lano-uage a striking avoidance of the style of the proph-
ets. In the employment of natural objects, no contrast
can be imagined greater than that between the records
of the Evangelists and the pages of Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Habakkuk, and the Psalmists. Our Lord never drew
illustrations from original and wild nature, but from na-
ture after it had felt the hand of man. Human occu-
pations furnish the staple of his parables and illustra-
tions. It was the city set upon a hill that our Lord
selected, not the high hill itself, or a mountain ; vines
and fig-trees, but not the cedars of Lebanon, nor the
oaks. The plough, the yoke, the seed-sowing, the har-
vest-field, flocks of sheep, bargains, coins, magistrates,
courts of justice, domestic scenes, — these are the pre-
ferred images in our Saviour's discourses. And yet he
had been brought up in sight of the Mediterranean
Sea ; for thirty years, at a few steps from his home, he
might have looked on Mount Hermon, lifted up in soli-
tude above the reach of summer; the history of his
people was identified with Tabor, with Mount Gilboa,
with Ebal and Gcrizim, — but he made no use of them.
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 66
The very changes which war had wrought upon the
face of the country, — the destruction of forests, the
drying up of springs of water, the breaking down of
terraces, the waste of soil, and the destruction of vine-
yards,— were striking analogies of the effects of the
passions upon human nature. Yet no allusion is made
to these things. There are in the Gospel narratives no
waves, clouds, storms, lions, eagles, mountains, forests,
plains.-^
The lilies and the sparrows and the reed shaken by
the wind are the only purely natural objects which he
uses. For water and light (with the one exception of
lightning) are employed in their relations of utility.
The illustration of the setting sun (Matt. xvi. 2) is
but the quotation of a common proverb. The Jordan
was the one great historic stream : it is not alluded
to. The cities that were once on the plain, Sodom
and Gomorrah, are held up in solemn warning; but
that most impressive moral symbol, the Dead Sea it-
' When Moses would show God's tender care of Israel, it was the eagle
that represented God. " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over
her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her
wings ; so the Lord alone did lead him." (Deut. xxii. 11, 12.)
The profound care of our Lord Avas represented by him in the figure of
a bird, but taken from husbandry. " How often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings,
and ye would not ! "
The same contrast exists in the employment of illustrations drawn from
the floral kingdom. Had Ruskin been writing, instead of Solomon, he could
not have shown a rarer intimacy with flowers than is exhibited in Solo-
mon's Songs. " I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. Aa
the lily among thorns, so is my love among daughters. As the apple-treo
among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons." *• j\Iy be-
loved spake, and said unto me. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come
away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the flowers ap-
pear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of
the turtle [dove] is heard in our land. The fig-tree puttetli forth her green
6(3 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
self, Christ did not mention. "We must not allow our
thoughts to suppose that the Lord's soul did not see
or feel that natural beauty which he had himself cre-
ated and which he had through ages reproduced with
each year. The reasons why his teaching should be
unadorned and simple are not hard to find. The
literary styles which are most universally attractive,
and which are least subject to the capricious change
of popular taste, are those which are rich in material,
but transparently simple in form. Much as men ad-
mire the grandeur of the prophets, they dwell on the
words of Christ with a more natural companionship
and far more enduring satisfaction.
Although it is not expressly said that Christ fol-
lowed his father's trade, yet Mark represents the dis-
affected people of Nazareth, on the occasion of an un-
popular sermon, as saying of Jesus, " Is not this the
carpenter?" (Mark vi. 3.)
We should not give to the term " carpenter " the close
figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a goodly smell " In this
joyous sympathy with nature, the Song flows on like a brook fringed
with meadow-flowers. "A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse. . . .
Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; cam-
phire, with spikenard. Spikenard and saffron ; calamus and cinnamon,
with all trees of frankincense ; myrrh, and aloes, with all the chief spices :
a fountain of gardens, a well of living Avatcrs, and streams from Lebanon.
Awake, O north wind ; and come, thou south, blow upon my garden, that
the spices thereof may flow out."
The single instance, in the Gospels, of an allusion to flowers is remarkably
enough in reference to this very Solomon whose words we have just quoted.
'* Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do
they spin ; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his gloi-y was
not arrayed like one of these."
The aflluence and splendor of illustrations, in the Old Testament, drawn
from the poetic side of nature, and in contrast with the lower tone and the
domesticity of New Testament figures, will be apparent upon the slightest
comparison.
CIIILDnOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 67
technical meaning which it has in our day. All trades,
as society grows in civilization, become special, each
single department making itself into a trade. Carv-
ing, cabinet-making, joinery, carpentry, wooden -tool
making, domestic -ware manufacturing, tinkering, are
each a sub-trade by itself But in our Lord's day, as it
is yet in Palestine, they were all included in one busi-
ness. The carpenter was a universal worker in wood.
He built houses or fences, he made agricultural iin-
plements or tools, such as spades, yokes, ploughs,
etc., or houseware, chairs, tables, tubs, etc. Carving
is a favorite part of the wood-worker's business in the
East to-day, and probably was so in ancient times.
Justin Martyr says that Jesus made yokes and ploughs,
and he spiritualizes them as symbols of obedience and
activity. Even had Christ been brought up to wealth
as he was to poverty, there would be no reason why
he should not have learned a mechanical trade. In this,
as in so many other respects, the Jewish people were
in prudence greatly in advance of the then civilized
world. It Avas not only deemed not disgraceful to learn
some manual trade, but a parent was not thought to
have done well by his child's education who had not
taught him how to earn a living by his hands. But
in Joseph's case, little other education, it is probable,
had he the means of giving his son. John records the
surprise of the scholars of the Temple upon occasion
of one of Christ's discourses : " The Jews marvelled,
saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never
learned?" The term " letters " was used, as it still is,
to signify literature, and in this case religious litera-
ture, as the Jews had no other. There is no evidence
in the Lord's discourse that the occupations of his
68 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
youth had any special influence upon his thoughts or
imagination. He made no allusion to tools, he drew
no illustrations from the processes of construction, he
said nothing which would suggest that he had wrought
with hammer or saw.
More attractive io the heart are the probable in-
fluences of home. It will always make home more
sacred to men, that the Lord Jesus was reared by a
mother, in the ordinary life of the household. For
children, too, there is a Saviour, who was in all things
made like unto them.
Sacred history makes everything of Mary, and noth-
ing of Joseph. It is taken for granted that it was
with his mother that Jesus held most intimate com-
munion. The adoration of the Virgin by the Romish
Church has doubtless contributed largely to this belief
There is nothing improbable in it. But it is pure sup-
position. There is not a trace of any facts to support
it. Though an ordinary child to others, that Jesus
was to his parents a child of wonder, can scarcely be
doubted. Such manifestations of his nature, as broke
forth at twelve years of age in the Temple scene,
must have shown themselves at other times in vari-
ous ways at home. Yet so entirely are our minds
absorbed in his later teachings, and so wholly is his
life summed up to us in the three years of his min-
istry, that we are not accustomed to recall and fill out
his youth as we do his riper years. Who imagines
the boy Jesus going or coming at command, — leav-
ing home, with his tools, for his daily work, — lifting
timber, laying the line, scribing the pattern, fitting
and finishing the job, — bargaining for work, demand-
ing and receiving his wages, — conversing with fellow-
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 69
workmen, and mingling in their innocent amusements?
Yet must not all these things have been ? We must
carry along with us that interpreting sentence, which
like a refrain should come in with every strain : " In
all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren." (Heb. ii. 17.)
In the synagogue and at home he would become fa-
miliar with the Scriptures of the Old Testament. This
itself was no insignificant education. The institutes
of Moses were rich in political wisdom. They have
not yet expended their force. The commonwealth es-
tablished in the Desert has long ceased, but its seeds
have been sown in other continents ; and the spirit of
democracy which to-day is gaining ascendency in
every land has owed more to the Mosaic than to any
other political institution.
The Saviour's discourses show that his mind was
peculiarly adapted to read the Book of Proverbs with
keen relish. Under his eye the practical wisdom of
those curt sentences, the insight into men's motives
which they give, those shrewd lessons of experience,
must have had a larger interpretation than they were
wont to receive. If one has observed how the frigid
annals of history, when Shakespeare read them, blos-
somed out into wonderfid dramas, he can partly im-
agine what Solomon's philosophy must have become
under the eye of Jesus.
He lived in the very sight of places made memor-
able by the deeds of his country's greatest men. If he
sat, on still Sabbaths, upon the hill-top, — childlike, alter-
nately watching and musing, — he must at times have
seen the shadowy forms and heard the awful tones of
those extraordinary men, the Hebrew prophets. There
70 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
was before him Gilboa-, on which Samuel's shadow eama
to Saul and overthrew him. Across these plains and
over these solitary mountains, Elijah, that grandest
and most dramatic of the old prophets, had often
come, and disappeared as soon, bearing the Lord's
messao-es, as the summer storm bears the li";htnino;.
He could see the very spots where Elisha, prophet of
the gentle heart, had wrought kind miracles.
The sword of David had flashed over these plains.
But it is David's harp that has conquered the world,
and his psalms must have been the channels through
which the soul of Jesus often found its way back
to his Heavenly Father. Not even in his youth are
we to suppose that Jesus received unquestioning the
writings of the holy men of his nation. He had come
to inspire a loftier morality than belonged to the
twilight of the past. How early he came to himself,
and felt within him the motions of his Godhood, none
can tell. At twelve he overrode the interpretations
of the doctors, and, as one having authority, sat in
judgment upon the imperfect religion of his ancestors.
This first visit to Jerusalem stands up in his childhood
as Mount Tabor rises from the plain, — the one soH-
tary point of definite record.
At twelve, the Jewish children were reckoned in the
congregation and made their appearance at the great
annual feasts. Roads were unknown. Along paths, on
foot, — the feeble carried upon mules, — the people made
their way by easy stages toward the beloved city. At
each step new-comers fell into the ever-swelling stream.
Relatives met one another, friends renewed acquaint-
ance, and strangers soon lost strangeness in hospitable
company. Had it been an Anglo-Saxon pilgrimage, all
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 71
Palestine would scarcely have held the baggage-train
of a race that, instead of making a home everywhere,
seek everywhere to carry their home with them. The
abstemious habits of the Orientals required but a
slender stock of provisions and no cumbering baggage.
They sang their sacred songs at morning and evening,
and on the way. Thus one might hear the last notes
of one chant dying in the valley as the first note of
another rose upon the hill, and song answered to song,
and echoed all along the pleasant way.
We can imagine group after group coming at even-
ing into the valley of Samaria, — guarded by Gerizim
and Ebal, — beginning to feel the presence of those
mountain forms which continue all the way to Jeru-
salem, and chanting these words : —
" I will lift up mine eyes unto the Mils,
From whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord,
Which made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved :
He that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord is thy keeper ;
The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil :
He shall preserve thy soul.
Tlie Lord shall preserve thy going out,
And thy coming in,
From this time forth,
And even forevermore."
Refreshed by sleep, breaking up their simple camp,
the mingled throng at early morning start forth again.
A voice is heard chanting a psalm. It is caught up by
72 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
others. The whole region resounds. And these are
the words : —
*' I was glad when they said unto me,
Let us go into the house of the Lord.
Our fe2t shall stand
Within thy gates, O Jerusalem I
Jerusalem is builded
As a city that is compact together :
Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,
Unto the testimony of Israel,
To give thanks unto the name of the Lord.
For there are set thrones of judgment,
The thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem :
They shall prosper that love thee.
Peace be within thy walls,
And prosperity within thy palaces.
For my brethren and companions' sakes
I will now say, Peace be within thee, <
Because of the house of the Lord our God
I will seek thy good."
The festival over, the mighty city and all its envi-
rons sent back the worshippers to their homes. It had
been a religious festival, but not the less an uncon-
strained social picnic. How freely they mingled with
each other, group with group, is shown in the fact that
Joseph and Mary had gone a day's journey on the road
home before they missed their child. This could not
have been, were it not customary for the parties often
to break up and mingle in new combinations. " But
they, supposing him to have been in the compan}^, went
a day's journey." It is plain, then, that at twelve years
of age Jesus had outgrown the constant watch of his
parents' eyes, and had assumed a degree of manly lib-
erty.
They turned back. It was three days before they
found him. One day was required by the backward
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 73
journey. Two days they must have wandered in and
about the city, anxiously enough. In the last place
in which they dreamed of looking, they found him, —
"in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors,
both hearing them, and asking them questions."
Christ's questions were always like spears that pierced
the joints of the harness. It seems that even so
early he had begun to wield this weapon.
What part of these three days Jesus had spent at the
Temple, we are not told. But we may be sure that it
was a refreshinor time in that dull circle of doctors. An
ingenuous youth, frank, and not hackneyed by the con-
ventional ways of the world, with a living soul and a
quick genius, is always a fascinating object, and per-
haps even more to men who have grown stiff in formal
ways than to others. There is something of youthful
feeling and of fatherhood yet left in souls that for
fifty years have discussed the microscopic atoms of
an imaginary philosophy. Besides, where there are
five doctors of philosophy there are not less than five
opposing schools, and in this case each learned man
must needs have enjoyed the palpable hits which his
companions received from the stripling. The people
who stood about would have a heart for the child :
what crowd would not ? And, if he held his
own against the doctors of law, all the more the
wonder grew. It is not necessary to suppose that
a spiritual chord vibrated at his touch in the hearts
of all this circle of experts in Temple dialectics.
Yet we would fondly imagine that one at least
there was — some unnamed Nicodemus, or another
Joseph of Arimathea — who felt the fire burn within
him as this child spake- Even in Sahara there are
74 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
found green spots, shaded with palms, watered and
fruitful. There might have been sweet-hearted men
among the Jewish doctors!
Upon this strange school, in which the pupil was the
teacher and the teachers were puzzled scholars, came
at leno-th, her serene face now flushed with alarm,
the mother of Jesus. She, all mother, with love's
reproach said, "Son, why hast thou thus dealt with
us ? " and he, all inspired with fastrcoming thoughts,
answered, "Wist ye not that I must be about my
Father's business ? "
Not yet ! This ministry of youth was not whole-
some. Premature prodigies have never done God's
work on earth. It would have pleased the appetite
for Avonder, had his childhood continued to emit such
flashes as came forth in the Temple. But such is not
the order of nature, and the Son of God had con-
sented to be " made under the law " ! It is plain, from
his reply to his mother, that he was conscious of the
nature that was in him, and that strong impulses urged
him to disclose his power. It is therefore very signifi-
cant, and not the least of the signs of divinity, that he
ruled his spirit, and dwelt at home in unmurmuring
expectation. " He went down with them, and came to
Nazareth, and was subject unto them." (Luke ii. 51.)
This might well be said to be to his childhood what the
temptations in the wilderness were to his ministry.
The modesty, the filial piety, the perfectness of self-
control, contentment in mechanical labor, conscious sov-
ereignty undisclosed, a wealth of nature kept back, —
in short, the holding of his whole being in tranquil si-
lence, waiting for growth to produce his ripe self, and
for God, his Father, to shake out the seed which was
CUILDEOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 75
to become the bread of the world, — all this is in itself
a wonder of divinity, if men were only wise enough
to marvel. Christ's greatest miracles were wrought
within himself.
In a review of the childhood of Jesus, there are
several points which deserve special attention.
1. While it is true that, by incarnation, the Son
of God became subject to all human conditions, and,
among them, to the law of gradual development, by
which "he increased in wisdom and stature," — for "the
child grciij, and waxed strong in spirit," — we must
not fill into the error of supposing that Jesus was
moulded by the circumstances in which he was placed.
Not his mother, nor the scenery, nor the national as-
sociations, nor the occupations of his thirty 3^ears,
fashioned him. Only natures of a lower kind are
shaped by circumstances. Great natures unfold by
the force of that which is within them. When food
nourishes, it receives the power to do so by that which
the vital power of the body gives it. Food does not
give life, but by assimilation receives it. Christ was
not the creation of his age. We may trace occasions
and external influences of which he availed himself,
but his original nature contained in its germ all that
he was to be, and needed only a normal unfolding.
The absolute independence from all external forma-
tive influence, and the sovereignty of the essential self,
was never so sublimely asserted as when Jehovah
declared, "I am that I am." But, without extrava-
gance or immodesty, the mother of Jesus might have
written this divine legend upon his cradle.
2. Wo have said nothini*; of the brothers and sisters
76 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHFilST.
of our Lord. They are not only mentioned, but the
names of his brothers are given, and allusions are
made to them in several instances.^ Yet the matter
does not prove upon examination to be as simjDle as at
first sight it seems.
Undoubtedly, it suited the peculiar ideas which were
early developed in the Church, to consider Jesus not
only the first-born, but the only, child of Mnry. But
there are real and intrinsic difficulties in the case.
The term brethren was often used in the general sense
of relative. To this day authorities of the highest
repute are divided in opinion, and in about equal
proportions on each side. There are several suppo-
sitions concerning these brothers and sisters : They
were the children of Joseph by a former marriage ;
or, they were adopted from a deceased brother's
family; or, they were the children of a sister of the
mother of Jesus, and so cousins-german to him ;
or, they were the children of Joseph and Mary,
and so the real brothers of Jesus. We shall not
enter upon the argument.^ The chief point of in-
terest is not in doubt : namely, that our Lord was not
brought up alone in a household as an only child ;
that he was a child among children ; that he was sur-
rounded by those who were to him, either really his
own brothers and sisters, or just the same in senti-
ment. He had this ordinary experience of childhood.
The unconscious babe in the cradle has a Saviour
who once was as sweetly helpless as it is. The prat-
* ]\Littlic;w xii. 4G-50; xiii. 55, 5C. Mark iii. 31 ; vi. 3. Luke viii. 19.
John ii. 12; vii. 3. Acts i. 14.
* Those who desire to investigate the matter may sec Andrews's very
clear and judicial estimate of the case (Life of our Lord, pp. 101- IIG);
also, Lange, Life of Christ, Vol. I. pp. 421-437.
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 77
tling child is passing along that path over which
the infant footprints of Jesus were marked. The
later friendships of brothers and sisters derive a
sacred influence from the love which Jesus bore to his
sisters while growing up with them. There is thus
an example for the household, and a gospel for the
nursery, in the life of Jesus, as well as an "ensarnple"
in his manhood for the riper years of men.
3. While we do not mean to raise and discuss, in
this work, the many difficulties which are peculiar to
critics, there is one connected with this period of our
Lord's life which we shall mention, for the sake of
laying down certain principles which should guide us
in reading the Sacred Scriptures.
Matthew declares that " he came and dwelt in a city
called Nazareth : that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a Naz-
arene." No such line has ever been found in the
prophets.
Infinite ingenuity of learning has been brought to
bear upon this difficulty, Avithout in the slightest de-
gree solving it. It is said that the term " Nazareth " is
derived from iiebxr, a sprout, as the region around
Nazareth is covered with bushes ; and by coupling
this with Isaiah xi. 1, Avhere the Messiah is predict-
^ cd under the name of a Branch, the connection is
established. That Mr.tthcw, the most literal and
unimaginative of all the Evangelists, should have be-
taken himself to such a subtle trick of lanii'uacj'e,
Avould not surprise us had he lived in England
in Shakespeare's time. But as he wrote to Jews
who did not believe that Christ was the Messiah, we
should, by adopting this play on words, only change
78 THE LIFE OF JESUS, TEE CHRIST.
the verbal difficulty into a psychological one still
more vexatious.
Others have supposed that Matthew referred to
some apocryphal book, or to some prophecy now
lost. This is worse than ingenious. It is perverse.
The Old Testament canon was, and had long been,
complete when Matthew wrote. What evidence is
there that anything had ever been dropped from it,
— or that any apocryphal book had ever existed, con-
taining this sentence ? Is our faith in the inspired
record helped or hindered by the introduction of such
groundless fancies ? The difficulty of the text is not
half so dangerous as is such a liberty taken in explain-
ing it. Others of this ingenious band of scholars
derive the name Nazarene from who; that which
guards. Others think that it is from neh-e?; to separate,
as if the Messiah were to be a NazanV^, which he was
not; nor was it anywhere in the Old Testament pre-
dicted that he should be. Lange supposes that, already
when Matthew wrote, Nazarene had become a term of
such universal reproach, as to be equivalent to the
general representations of the prophets that the Mes-
siah should be despised and rejected, and that it might
even be interchangeable with them. The whole ground
of this explanation is an assumption. That Nazarene
was a term of reproach, is very likely, but that it had
become a generic epithet for humiliation, rejection,
scorn, persecution, and all maltreatment, is nowhere
evident, and not at all probable.
But Avhat would happen if it should be said that
Matthew recorded the current impression of his time
in attributing this declaration to the Old Testament
prophets? Would a mere error of reference invali-
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 79
date the trustworthiness of the EvangeUst? We lean
our whole weight upon men who are fallible. Must
a record be totally infallible before it can be trusted
at all ? Navigators trust ship, cargo, and the lives of
all on board, to calculations based on tables of loga-
rithms, knowing that there was never a set computed,
without machinery, that had not some errors in it.
The supposition, that to admit that there are imma-
terial and incidental mistakes in the Sacred Writ
would break the confidence of men in it, is contra-
dicted by the uniform experience of life, and by the
whole procedure of society.
On the contrary, the shifts and ingenuities to which
critics are obliofed to resort either blunts the sense of
truth, or disgusts men with the special pleading of crit-
ics, and tends powerfully to general unbelief
The theory of Inspiration must be founded upon the
claims which the Scriptures themselves make. "All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profita-
ble for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc-
tion in righteousness; that the man of God may be
perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works."
(2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.)
Under this declaration, no more can be claimed for
the doctrine of Inspiration than that there shall have
been such an influence exerted upon the formation of
the record that it shall be the truth respecting God, and
no falsity ; that it shall so expound the duty of man
under God's moral government, as to secure, in all who
will, a true holiness ; that it shall contain no errors
which can affect the essential truths taught, or which
shall cloud the reason or sully the moral sense.
But it is not right or prudent to infer, from the
80 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Biblical statement of inspiration, that it makes pro-
vision for the very words and sentences ; that it shall
raise the inspired penmen above the possibility of lit-
erary inaccuracy, or minor and immaterial mistakes.
It is enough if the Bible be a sure and sufficient guide
to spiritual morality and to rational piety. To erect for
it a claim to absolute literary infallibility, or to infalli-
bility in things not directly pertaining to fliith, is to
weaken its real authority, and to turn it aside from its
avowed purpose. The theory of verbal inspiration
brings a strain upon the Word of God which it cannot
bear. If rigorously pressed, it tends powerfully to
bigotry on the one side and to infidelity on the other.
The inspiration of holy men is to be construed as
we do the doctrine of an overruling and special Provi-
dence ; of the divine supervision and guidance of the
Church ; of the faithfulness of God in answering
prayer. The truth of these doctrines is not inconsis-
tent with the existence of a thousand evils, mischiefs,
and mistakes, and with the occurrence of wanderings
long and almost fiital. Yet, the general supervision
of a Divine Providence is rational. We might expect
that there would be an analogy between God's care
and education of the race, and His care of the Bible
in its formation.
Around the central certainty of saving truth are
wrapped the swaddling-clothes of human language.
Neither the condition of the human understanding, nor
the nature of human speech, which is the vehicle of
thought, admits of more than a fragmentary and par-
tial presentation of truth. " For we know in imrt, and
we prophesy in iiarL'" (1 Cor. xiii. 9.) Still less are we
then to expect that there will be perfection in this
CHILDHOOD AND RESIDENCE AT NAZARETH. 81
vehicle. And incidental errors, which do not reach the
substance of truth and duty, which touch only contin-
gent and external elements, are not to be regarded as
inconsistent with the fact that the Scriptures were i^i-
spired of God. Nor will our reverence for the Scrip-
tures be impaired if, in such cases, it be frankly said,
Here is an insoluble difficulty. Such a course is far
less dangerous to the moral sense than that pernicious
ingenuity which, assuming that there can be no literal
errors in Scripture, resorts to subtle arts of criticism,
improbabilities of statement, and violence of construc-
tion, such as, if made use of m the intercourse of
men in daily life, would break up society and destroy
all faith of man in man.
We dwell at length upon this topic now, that we
may not be obliged to recur to it when, as will be the
case, other instances arise in which there is no solution
of unimportant, though real, literary difficulties.
There are a multitude of minute and, on the whole,
as respects the substance of truth, not important ques-
tions and topics, which, like a fastened door, refuse to
be opened by any key which learning has brought to
them. It is better to let them stand closed than, like
impatient mastiffs, after long barking in vain, to he
whining at the door, unable to enter and unwilHng to
go away.
82 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
CHAPTER y.
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS.
The long silence is ended. The seclusion is over,
with all its wondrous inward experience, of which no
record has been made, and which must therefore be
left to a reverent imagination. Jesus has now reached
the age which custom has established among his peo-
ple for the entrance of a priest upon his public duty.
But, first, another voice is to be heard. Before the
ministry of Love begins, there is to be one more great
prophet of the Law, who, with stern and severe fidel-
ity, shall stir the conscience, and, as it were, open the
furrows in which the seeds of the new life are to be
sown.
Every nation has its men of genius. The direction
which their genius takes will be determined largely by
the peculiar education which arises from the position
and history of the nation ; but it will also depend upon
the innate tendencies of the race-stock.
The original tribal organizations of Israel were
moulded by the laws and institutions of Moses into a
commonwealth of peculiar characteristics. E:ich tribe
scrupulously preserved its autonomy, and in its own
province had a local independence ; while the whole
were grouped and confederated around the Tabernacle,
and afterwards about its outgrowth, the Temple. On
the one side, the nation approximated to a democracy ;
THE VOICE IN TUE WILDERNESS. 83
on the other, to a monarchy. But the throne, inde-
pendent of the people, was not independent of an aris-
tocracj. The priestly class combined in itself, as in
Egypt, the civil and sacerdotal functions. The Hebrew
government was a theocratic democracy. A fierce and
turbulent people had great power over the govern-
ment. The ruling class was, as in Egypt it had been,
the priestly class. The laws which regulated personal
rights, property, industry, marriage, revenue, military
affairs, and religious worship were all ecclesiastical, —
were interpreted and administered by the hierarchy.
The doctrine of a future existence had no place in the
Mosaic economy, either as a dogma or as a moral influ-
ence. The sphere of religion was wholly within the
secular horizon. There was no distinction, as with us,
of things civil and things moral. All moral duties
were civil, and all civil were moral duties. Priest
and magistrate were one. Patriotism and piety were
identical. The military organization of the Jews was
Levitical. The priest wore the sword, took part in
planning campaigns, and led the people in battle.^ The
Levitical body was a kind of national university. Lit-
erature, learning, and the fine arts, in fo far as they
had existence, were preserved, nourished, and diffused
by the priestly order.
Under such circumstances, genius must needs be re-
ligious. It must develop itself in analogy with the
history and institutions of the people. The Hebrew
man of genius was the prophet. The strict priest
was narrow and barren ; the prophet was a son of
liberty, a child of inspiration. All other men touched
' For some instructive and interesting remarks on this topic, see A. P.
Stanley, Jewish Church, § 2, p. 448.
84 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
the ground. He only had wings ; he was orator, poet,
smger, civiHan, statesman. Of no close profession,
he performed the functions of all, as by turns, in the
great personal freedom of his career, he needed their
elements.
That temperament which now underlies genius was
also the root of the prophetic nature. In ordinary
men, the mind-system is organized with only that
deo-ree of sensibihty which enables it to act under
the stimulus of external influences. The ideal perfect
man is one who, in addition, has such fineness and
sensibility as to originate conceptions from interior
cerebral stimulus. He acts without w^aiting for ex-
ternal solicitation. The particular mode of this auto-
matic action varies with different persons. With all,
however, it has this in common, that the mind does not
creep step by step toward knowledge, gaining it by lit-
tle and little. It is rather as if knowledge came upon
the soul by a sudden flash ; or as if the mind itself
had an illuminating power, by which suddenly and in-
stantly it poured forth light upon external things. This
was early called inspiration, as if the gods had breathed
into the soul something of their omniscience. It is still
called inspiration.
If the intellect alone has this power of exaltation
and creativeness, we shall behold genius in literature
or science. But if there be added an eminent moral
sense and comprehensive moral sentiments, we shall
have, in peaceful times, men who will carry ideas
of right, of justice, of mercy, far beyond the bounds at
which they found them, — moral teachers, judges, and
creative moralists; and in times of storm, reformers
and martyrs.
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 35
This constitution of genius is not something abnor-
mal. Complete development of all the body and all
the mind, with a susceptibility to automatic activity, is
ripe and proper manhood. To this the whole race is
perhaps approximating, and, in the perfect day, will
attain.
But in a race rising slowly out of animal condition,
in possession of unripe faculties, left almost to chance
for education, there sometimes come these higher na-
tures, men of genius, who are not to be deemed crea-
tures of another nature, lifted above their fellows for
their own advantage and enjoyment. They are only
elder brethren of the race. They are appointed lead-
ers, going before their child-brethren, to inspire them
with higher ideas of life, and to show them the way.
By their nature and position they are forerunners, seers,
and foreseers.
Such men, among the old Jews, became prophets.
But a prophet was more than one who foretold events.
He forefelt and fore taught high moral truths. He had
escaped the thrall of passion in which other men lived,
and, without help inherited from old civilizations, by
the force of the Divine Spirit acting upon a nature
of genius in moral directions, he went ahead of his na-
tion and of his age, denouncing evil, revealing justice,
enjoining social purity, and inspiring a noble piety.
A prophet was born to his office. Whoever found in
himself the uprising soul, the sensibility to divine
truth, the impulse to proclaim it, might, if he pleased,
be a prophet, in the peculiar sense of declaring the
truth and enforcing moral ideas. The call of God, in
all ages, has come to natures already prepared for the
office to which they were called. Here was a call
86 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
in birth-structure. This was well understood by the
prophets. Jeremiah explicitly declares that he was
created to the prophetic office : "The word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the
belly I knew thee ; and before thou camest forth out
of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee
a prophet unto the nations." (Jer. i. 4, 5.) When God
calls men, he calls thoroughly and begins early.
The prophets, although wielding great influence,
seem not to have been inducted into office by any
ecclesiastical authority. There was no provision, at
least in early times, for their continuance and succes-
sion in the community. There was no regular suc-
cession. Occasionally they shot up from the people,
by the impulse of their own natures, divinely moved.
They were confined to no grade or class. They might
be priests or commoners ; they might come of any tribe.
In two instances eminent prophets were women ; and
one of them, Huldah, was of such repute that to her,
though Jeremiah was then alive and in fall authority,
King Josiah sent for advice in impending public dan-
ger. (2 Kings xxii. 14 - 20.)
It was from the free spirit of the prophet in the
old Jewish nation, and not from the priesthood, that
religious ideas grew, and enlarged interpretations of
religion proceeded. The priest indeed had a very
limited sphere. The nature of the Temple service re-
quired him to be but little conversant with the living
souls of men, and as little with ideas. In preparing
the sacrifices of oxen, of sheep, of birds, the Temple or
Tabernacle could have appeared to the modern eye but
little less repulsive than a huge ahcdtoir. The priests,
with axe and knife, slaughtering herds of animals,
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. g7
needed to be, and certainly in the early days were,
men of nerve and muscle, rather than men of rich
emotion or of strong religious feeling/ The subordi-
nate priests had as little occasion for moral feelino-, in
the performance of their ordinary duties, as laborers
in the shambles. The higher officers were neither
teachers nor preachers. In scarcely a single point,
from the high-priest downward, do the members of
the Jewish hierarchy resemble the Christian minister.
It is true that the Levites were appointed to instruct
the people in the Law ; but this instruction consisted
merely in an occasional public reading of the Levitical
Scriptures. Until after the captivity, and down to a
comparatively late period in Jewish history, this func-
tion w^as irregularly performed, and w^ith but little
effect. If there had been no other source of moral
influence than the priesthood, the people might almost
as well have been left to themselves.
The prophetic impulse had been felt long before the
Levitical institutes were framed. Now and then, at
wide intervals, men of genius had arisen, who carried
forward the moral sentiment of their age. They en-
larged the bounds of truth, and deepened in the con-
sciences of men moral and religious obligations. It is
only through the imagination that rude natures can be
spiritually influenced. These men were often great
^ 'Wlien Solomon brought up the ark and the sacred vessel to the new
Temple, it is said that he sacrificed sheep and oxen " that could not be told
nor numbered for multitude," and, at the close of the dedicatory services,
" Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace-offerings, -which he oifered unto the
Lord, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand
sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of
the Lord." (1 Kings viii. 5, G3 ) This must have been the climax. Such
gigantic slaughters could not have been common. But the regular sacrifices
involved the necessity of killing vast numbers of animals.
88 TUB LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
moral dramatists. They kept themselves aloof. Some
of them dwelt in solitary places, and came upon the
people at miexpected moments. The prophets were
intensely patriotic. They were the defenders of the
common people against oppressive rulers, and they
stirred them up to throw off foreign rule. Wild and
weird as they often were, awful in their severity, car-
rying justice at times to the most bloody and terrific
sacrifices, they were notwithstanding essentially hu-
mane, sympathetic, and good. The old jDrophets were
the men in whom, in a desolate age, and in almost
savage conditions of society, the gentler graces of the
soul took refuge. We must not be deceived by their
rugged exterior, nor by the battle which they made for
the right. Humanity has its severities ; and even love,
striving; for the crown, must fio-ht. Like all men who
reform a corrupt age, the rude violence of the prophets
was exerted against the animal that is in man, for the
sake of his spiritual nature.
Had there been but the influence of the Temple or
of the Tabernacle to repress and limit the outflow of
those passions which make themselves channels in
every society of men, they would have swept like a
flood, and destroyed the foundations of civil life. It
was the prophet who kept alive the moral sense of the
people. He taught no subtilties. It was too early,
and this was not the nation, for such philosophy as
sprung up in Greece. The prophet seized those great
moral truths which inhere in the very soul of man, and
which natural and revealed religion hold in common.
Their own feelings were roused by mysterious contact
with the forces of the invisible world. They con-
fronted alike the court and the nation with audacious
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 89
fidelity. Often themselves of the sacerdotal order, and
exercising the sacrificial functions of the priest (as in
the instance of Samuel), yet when, in later times, true
spirituality had been overlaid and destroyed by ritu-
alism, they turned against the priest, the ritual, and the
Temple. They trod under foot the artificial sanctity
of religious usages, and vindicated the authority of
morality, humanity, and simple personal piety against
the superstitions and the exactions of religious institu-
tions and their officials,
Jeremiah speaks so slightingly of sacrifices as to seem
to deny their divine origin. He represents God as say-
ing : " For I spake not unto your fathers, nor com-
manded them in the day that I brought them out of
the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacri-
fices. But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey
my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my
people." (Jer. vii. 22, 23.)
Isaiah is even bolder : " To what purpose is the
multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? . . . . Your new
moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth
Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you
clean Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge
the fatherless, plead for the widow." (Isa. i. 11 - 17.)
Amos, in impetuous wrath, cries out : " I hate, I de-
spise your feast-days, and I will not smell in your
solemn assemblies Take thou away from me the
noise of thy songs But let judgment run down
as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream."
(Amos V. 21 - 24.)
Considering the honor in which he was held, and the
influence allowed him, the old j)ropliet was the freest-
speaking man on record. Not the king, nor his coun-
90 TnE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
sellers, nor priests, nor the people, nor prophets them-
selves, had any terror for him. When the solemn in-
fluence coming from the great invisible world set in
upon his soul, his whole nature moved to it, as the
tides move to celestial power.
But the prophet did not live always, nor even often,
in these sublime elevations of feeling. The popidar
notion that, wrapt in moods of grandeur, he was al-
ways looking into the future, and drawing forth secrets
from it3 mysterious depths, — a Aveird fisher upon the
shores of the infinite, — is the very reverse of truth.
Revelatory inspirations were occasional and rare.
They seldom came except in some imminent catastro-
phe of the nation, or upon some high-handed aggres-
sion of idolatry or of regal immorality. The prophet
labored with his hands, or was a teacher. At certain
periods, it would seem as if in his care were placed the
music, the poetry, the oratory, and even the jurispru-
dence of the nation. The phrase "to prophesy" at
first signified an uncontrollable utterance under an
overruling possession, or inspiration. It was an irre--
sistible rhapsody, frequently so like that of the insane,
that in early times, and among some nations even
yet, the insane were looked upon with some awe, as
persons overcharged with the prophetic spirit. But
in time the term assumed the meaning of moral dis-
course, vehement preaching ; and finally it included
simple moral teaching. In the later periods of Jewish
history, the term " to prophesy " was understood in
much the same sense as our phrases " to instruct," " to
indoctrinate." Paul says, " He that prophesieth speak-
eth unto men to edification, and exhortation, and com-
fort." (1 Cor. xiv. 3.) The criticisms and commands
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 91
of the Apostle respecting prophecy show clearly that
in his day it was in the nature of sudden, impulsive,
impassioned discourse, — that it was, in short, sacred
oratory.
The absolute spontaneity of the old prophet, in con-
trast with the perfunctory priest, is admirable. Out
of a ritual service rigid as a rock is seen gushing a
liberty of utterance that reminds one of the rock in
the wilderness when smitten with the prophet's rod.
Although the prophets were the religious men, far more
revered for sanctity than the priests, it was not because
they held aloof from secular affairs. They were often
men of rigor, but never ascetics. They never despised
common humanity, either in its moral or in its secular
relations.
The prophet was sometimes the chief justice of the
nation, as Samuel ; or a councillor at court, as Nathan ;
or a retired statesman, consulted by the rulers, as
Elisha ; or an iron reformer, as Elijah ; or the censor
and theologian, as Isaiah, who, like Dante, clothed phi-
losophy Avith the garb of poetry, that it might have
power to search and to purify society. But whatever
else he was, the prophet w^as the great exemplar of
personal freedom. He represented absolute personal
liberty in religious thought. He often opposed the
government, but in favor of the state ; he inveighed
against the church, but on behalf of religion ; he de-
nounced the people, but always for their own highest
good.
It must be through some such avenue of thought
that one approaches the last great prophet of the Jew-
ish nation. The morning star of a new era, John is
speedily lost in the blaze of Him who was and is the
92 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
" Light of the world." His history seems short. The
child of prophecy, — the youth secluded in the soli-
tudes,— the voice in the wilderness, — the crowds on
the Jordan, — the grasp of persecution, — the death in
prison, — this is the outline of his story. But in the
filling up, what substance of manhood must have been
there, what genuine power, what moral richness in
thought and feeling, what chivalric magnanimity, to
have drawn from Jesus the eulogy, " Among those that
are born of women there is not a greater prophet than
John the Baptist"! But his was one of those lives
which are lost to themselves that they may spring up
in others. He came both in grandeur and in beauty,
like a summer storm, which, falling in rain, is lost in
the soil, and reappears neither as vapor nor cloud, but
transfused into flowers and fruits.
One particular prophet was singled out by our Lord
as John's prototype, and that one by far the most dra-
matic of all the venerable brotherhood. " If ye will
receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come "
(Matt. xi. 14), — Elijah, called in the Septuagint ver-
sion Elias. Malachi, whose words close the canon of
the Jewish Scriptures, had declared, "Behold, I will
send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of
the great and dreadfid day of the Lord." There was,
therefore, a universal expectation among the Jews that
the Messiah should be preceded by Elijah.^ It was
^ Stanley says of this prophet: — " lie stood alone against Jezebel. He
stands alone in many senses among the prophets. Nursed in the bosom of
Israel, the prophetical portion, if one may so say, of the chosen people, vin-
dicating the true religion from the nearest danger of overthrow, setting at
defiance by invisible power the whole forces of the Israelite kingdom, he
reached a height equal to that of Moses and Samuel in the traditions of his
country.
" lie was the prophet for whose return in later years his countrymen have
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 93
an expectation not confined to the Jews, but shared
by the outlying tribes and nations around Palestine.
There is no real interior resemblance between John
and Elijah. Their times were not alike. There are
not elsewhere in recorded history such dramatic ele-
ments as in the career of Elijah. Irregular, almost
fitful, Elijah the Tishbite seemed at times clean gone
forever, dried up like a summer's brook. Then sud-
denly, like that stream after a storm on the hills, he
came down with a flood. His sudden appearances
and as sudden vanishings were perfectly natural to one
who had been reared, as he had been, among a nomadic
people, not unlike the Bedouin Arabs. But to us they
seem more like the mystery of spiritual apparitions.
When the whole kingdom and the regions round about
were searched for him in vain hy the inquisitorial
Jezebel, then, without warning, he ajopeared before the
court, overawed its power, and carried away the peo-
ple by an irresistible fascination. Almost alone, and
mourning over his solitariness, he buffeted the idola-
trous government for long and weary years of discour-
agement. His end was as wonderful as his career.
Caught up in a mighty tempest, he disappeared from
looked with most eager hope. The last prophet of the old dispensation
clung to this consolation in the decline of the state.
" In the gospel history we find this expectation constantly excited in each
successive appearance of a new prophet. It was a fixed belief of the Jews
that he had appeared again and again, as an Arabian merchant, to wise
and good rabbis at their prayers or on their journeys. A seat is still placed
for him to superintend the circumcision of the Jewish children.
" Passover after Passover, the Jews of our own day place the paschal
cup on the table and set the door wide open, believing that this is the mo-
ment when Elijah will reappear.
" When goods are found and no owner comes, when difficulties arise and
no solution appears, the answer is, ' Put them by till Elijah comes.' " — Stan-
ley, History of the Jewish Church, Part II. p. 290.
94 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
the earth, to be seen no more, until, in the exquisite
vision of the Transfiguration, his heavenly spirit blos-
somed into light, and hung above the glowing Saviour
and the terrified disciples.
" This is Elias, which was for to come." John
from his childhood had been reared in the rugged re-
gion west of the Dead Sea, southeast from Jerusalem
and Bethlehem. (Luke i. 80.) His raiment was a
cloth of camel's hair, probably a long robe fjistened
round the waist with a leathern girdle. Whether he
lived more as a hermit or as a shepherd, we cannot
tell. It is probable that he was each by turns. In a
manner which is peculiarly congenial to the Oriental
imagination, he fed his moral nature in solitude, and
by meditation gained that education which with West-
ern races comes by the activities of a benevolent life.
He probably surpassed his great prototype in native
power and in the importance of his special mission, but
fell below him in duration of action and dramatic effect.
Elijah and John were alike unconventional, each hav-
ing a strong though rude individualism. Living in the
wilderness, fed by the thoughts and imaginations which
great natures find in solitude, their characters had
woven into them not one of those soft and silvery
threads which fly back and forth incessantly from the
shuttle of civilized life. They l^egan their ministry
without entanglements. They had no 3'oke to break,
no harness to cast off, no customs to renounce. They
came io society, not from it.
Each of them, single-handed, attacked the bad morals
of society and the selfish conduct of men. Though of
a priestly family, John did not represent the Temple
or its schools. He came in the name of no Jewish
THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 95
sect or party. He was simply "the voice of One cry-
ing in the wilderness."
John was Christ's forerunner, as the ploughman goes
before the sower. Before good work can be expected,
there must be excitement. The turf-bound surface
of communities must be torn up, the compacted soil
turned to the air and light. Upon the rough furrows,
and not on the shorn lawn, is there hope for the seed.
This great work of arousing the nation befitted
John. His spirit was of the Law. He had, doubtless,
like his ancient brethren of the prophet brood, his
mysterious struggles with the infinite and the un-
known. He had felt the sovereignty of conscience.
Right and wrong rose before his imagination, amidst
the amenities of an indulgent life, like Ebal and Geri-
zim above the vale of Samaria. In his very prime, and
full of impetuous manhood, he came forth from the
wilderness, and began his career by the most direct
and unsparing appeals to the moral sense of the people.
There was no sensuous mysticism, no subtile philosophy,
no poetic enchantment, no tide of pleasurable emotion.
He assailed human conduct in downright earnest. He
struck right home at the unsheltered sins of guilty
men, as the axe-man strikes. Indeed, the axe should
be the sign and symbol of John.^ There are moods
in men that invite such moral aorgression as his.
When a large and magnetic nature appears, with
power to grasp men, the moral feeling becomes elec-
tric and contagious. Whole communities are fired.
They rise up against their sins and self-indulgent hab-
* " Anfl now ," says Matthew). But Mark's language is
THE TEMPTATION. \Yj
more strikingly significant of the prophetic orgasm :
" And immediately the Spirit drivdh him into the wil-
derness." This is the language of the prophet-parox-
ysm. Seized with an irresistible impulse, so the " holy
men of old " were impelled by the Spirit. Thus Eze-
kiel says : " In the visions of God brought he me into
the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high moun-
tain." (Ezek. xl. 2.) The operation of the Divine in-
spiration upon the mind of Ezekiel throws important
light upon the philosophy of this opening scene of
Christ's ministry.
We believe the temptation of Christ to have been
an actual experience, not a dream or a parable, in Avhich
his soul, illumined and exalted by the Spirit of God,
was brought into personal conflict with Satan ; and the
conflict was none the less real and historic; because
the method involved that extraordinary ecstasy of
the prophet-mind. Of the peculiarities of the pro-
phetic state we shall speak a little further on.
The whole life of Christ stands between two great
spheres of temptation. The forty days of the wilder-
ness and the midnight in the garden of Gethsemane
are as two great cloud-gates, of entrance to his min-
istry and of exit from it. In both scenes, silence is
the predominant quality.
The first stage of the Temptation includes the forty
days of fasting. This may be said to have been the
private struggle and personal probation.
The forty days w^ere not for human eyes. If the
history of these experiences was ever spoken, even to
the ear of John, the most receptive of the disciples, it
was not designed for record or publication. It is more
probable that the experience was incommunicable.
i
'\
118 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Even in our lower sphere, mental conflicts cannot be
adequately reported. The vacillations of the soul, a
full expression of its anxieties, its agonizing suspense,
shame, remorse, of its yearnings and ambitions, cannot
be uttered or ^vritten. For the word "shame" does
not describe the experience of shame. Nor is the
word " love " a portrait of love. The real life of the
heart is always mifolding in silence ; and men of large
natures carry in the centre of their hearts a secret
garden or a silent wilderness. But in how much
greater degree is this true of the mystery of Christ's
temptation in the wilderness, and of his trial m Geth-
semane ! If there are no heart-words for full human
feelinor, how much less for divine !
We know that Jesus grappled with the powers of
the invisible world, and that he was victorious. His
life in the wilderness is not to be imagined as the
retirement of a philosoj^hic hermit to contemplative
solitude. The cavei^nous mountain was not merely a
study, in which our Lord surveyed in advance the
purposes of his ministerial life. All this, doubtless,
formed a part of his exj^erience; but there was more
than studious leisure and natural contemplation. There
was a conflict between his soul and the powers of dark-
ness ; a sphere of real energy, in which the opposing
elements of good and evil in the universe met in
intense opposition.
Out from that infinite aerial ocean in the great Ob-
scure, beyond human life, came we know not what
winds, what immeasurable and sweeping forces of
temptation. But that the power and kingdom of the
Devil were there concentrated upon him was the be-
lief of liis disciples and the teaching of the Apostles,
THE TEMPTATION. 119
and it is the faith of the Christian Church. It is not
needful for us to understand each struggle and its vic-
tory. It is enough for us to know, that in this un-
friendly solitude every faculty in man that is tried
in ordinary life was also tested and proved in Jesus.
He was "tempted in all pohiis" or faculties, as we
are, though not with the same means and implements
of temptation. No human being will ever be tried in
appetite, in passion, in affection, in sentiment, in will
and reason, so severely as was the Lord ; and his vic-
tory was not simply that he withstood the particular
blasts that rushed upon him, but that he tested the
utmost that Satan could do, and was able to bear up
against it, and to come off a conqueror, — every fac- v
ulty stamped with the sign of invincibihty.
The proof of this appeared in aU his career. The
members of his soul were put to the same stress that
sinful men experience in daily life. There may be
new circumstances, but no new temptations; there
may be new cunning, new instruments, new conditions,
but nothing will send home temptation with greater
force than he experienced, or to any part of the soul
not assaulted in him. Through that long battle of life
in which every man is engaged, and in every mood of
the struggle which men of aspiration and moral sense ■•
make toward perfect holiness, there is an inspiration
of comfort to be derived from the example of Christ.
In places the most strange, and in the desolate way
where men dwell with the wild beasts of the passions,
if there be but a twilight of faith, we shall find his
footstep, and know that he has been there, — is there
again, living over anew in us his own struggles, and
saying, with the authority of a God and the tenderness
120 TUB LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
of a father : " In the world ye shall have tribulation ;
but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."
The world is a better place to live in since Christ suf-
ered and triumphed in it.
We pass now to another form of the Temptation.
It was no longer to be a private and personal scrutiny.
Jesus had baffled the tempter, and driven him back
from the gate of every emotion. But Jesus was not to
be a private citizen. He had a transcendent work to
perform, of teaching and of suffering. His hands were
to bear more largely than before the power of God.
Since the descent upon him of the Spirit on the banks
of the Jordan, the hidden powers of his nature were
springing into activity. Only when he was prepared
to lay aside the clog of an earthly body could he be
clothed again with all that glory which he had with
the Father before the world was. But the entrance
upon his public ministry was to be signalized, if not by
the disclosure of his full nature, yet by an ampler in-
telligence and a wider scope of power. Tropical plants
in northern zones, brought forward under glass, their
roots compressed to the size of the gardener's pot, and
their tops pruned back to the dimensions of the green-
house, are at midsummer turned out into the open
ground, and there shoot forth with new life and vigor;
and yet never, in one short August, attain to the gran-
deur of their native tropical growth. So this Heav-
enly Palm, dropped down upon Palestine, dwarfed by
childhood and youth, shot forth new growth when
enfranchised by the Holy Spirit; and yet could not
in this climate, in the short summer of human life,
swell to the full proportions of its celestial life.
These swellings of power, this new radiance of Intel- ,
THE TEMPTATION. 121
llgence, were to be employed according to the law of
Heaven ; and to this end was permitted that dramatic
threefold temptation with which the scene in the wil-
derness closes.
We have already said that the three closing tempta-
tions of Christ are to be regarded, not as parables, but
as prophetic visions. They were historical events, but
in the same sense as the visions of Isaiah or of Ezekiel
were historical. Jesus was a Hebrew, and stood in the
line of the Hebrew prophets. However fantastic the
scenery and the action of the closing temptations may
seem to modern thought, they were entirely congruous
with the Hebrew method of evolving the highest
moral truths. Nor can we fully appreciate them with-
out some knowledge of the prophetic ecstasy.
The prophet-mind, in its highest moods, hung in a i
trance between the real physical life and the equally
real spiritual state. The inspiration of those moods
seems to have carried up the mind far beyond its
ordinary instruments. Not ideas, but pictures, were
before it. The relations of time and place seemed to
disappear. The prophet, though stationary, seemed to
himself to be ubiquitous. He was borne to distant
nations, made the circuit of kingdoms, held high con-
ference with monarchs, saw the events of empires dis-
closed as in a glass. His own body often became
unconscious. He lost ordinary sight of the physical
world. He slept. He swooned. For long periods of
time he neither hungered nor thirsted. The prophets
saw visions of the spirit-land. Angels conversed with
them. The throne of God blazed full upon their daz-
zled eyes, I
More wonderfid still was the symbolization employed
122 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
in this prophetic state. All the globe became a texi>
book. Beasts were symbols of kings or of kingdoms.
Floods, whirlwinds, and earthquakes moved in proces-
sion before them as types of events in history. The
rush and might of human passions, revolutions, and
wars were written for them in signs of fire and blood.
Captivity and dispersion were set forth in the gorgeous
imagery of storm-driven clouds ; of the sun and moon
stained with blood ; of stars, panic-stricken, like de-
feated warriors, rushing headlong through the heavens.
How little are the close-cut wings of the modern
imagination prepared to follow the circuits of men who
dwelt in this upper picture-world, where the reason
was inspired through the imagination ! Physical sci-
ence has as yet no analogue for such moods. The
alembic says. It is not in me ; the rocks and soil say,
It is not in us. Poets, nearest of any, are in sympa-
thy with the prophets ; but they mostly sing in the
boughs, low down, and not from the clear air above.
The whole life of the prophet was absorbed into an
intense spiritual intuition.
The moral faculties of the human soul have this
susceptibility to ecstatic exaltation, and therefore the
prophetic mood was in so far natural. But these facul-
ties never unfold into the ecstatic visions of prophecy
except by the direct impulse of the Divine power.
And herein the prophetic differs from the merely
poetic.
If the prophets had left only these gigantic frescoes,
we might pass them by as the extraordinary pro-
duct of fantasy. But this was the prophetic style of
thinking. Out of all this wonderful commixture came
the profoundest teaching in regard to national moral-
THE TEMPTATION. 123
ity, the most advanced views of their times as to
personal purity and dignity, the most terrible invec-
tives against dishonor in the individual and corrupr
tion in the government. Those clouds and flames
and storms, those girdles and yokes and flails, those
trumjDets and voices and thunders, were only so many
letters by which were spelled out, not merely the no-
blest spiritual truths of the prophets' age, but truths
which are the glory of all ages. Men often are glad
of the fruit of the prophetic teaching, who reject with
contempt the methods by which prophets taught.
The effect becomes ludicrous when modern inter-
preters, not content with a disclosure of the ruling
thought, attempt to transform the whole gorgeous pic-
ture into modern equivalents, to translate every sign
and symbol into a literal fact. Some have thought
that prophets were insane. They were always rational
enough in their own ways. It has been the interpret-
ers and commentators who have gone crazy. The at-
tempt of men to work up the Song of Solomon into
church-going apparel is folly past all conceit. Spelling
Hebrew words with Enghsh letters is not translation.
Solomon's Song, in our modern exposition, would have
put Solomon and all his court into amazement. Who
can reproduce the opalesque visions of Ezekiel and
Hosea in the lustreless language of modern days ? If
men were to attempt with brick and mortar to build a
picture of the auroral lights, it would scarcely be more
absurd than the attempt to find modern equivalents
for every part of the sublime Apocalypse of St. John.
Let every nation think in its own language. Let every
period have its own method of inspiration. As we do
not attempt to build over again Egyptian temples in
124 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
American cities, new pyramids on our prairies, but
allow those sublime memorials to remain where they
belong, symbols of the thought of ages ago, so we are
to let the old prophets stand in their solitary gran-
deur.
Like the prophets of earlier days, Jesus fasted long,
and, shutting out external scenes, except such as be-
longed to the most solitary phases of nature, he rose
at length to the vision state ; for as in oratorios the
overture foreshadows in brief the controlling spirit
and action of the whole performance, so in the three
trial points which close the Temptation there would
seem to be a foreshadowing of the trials which through
his whole career would beset Jesus in the use of Di-
vine power.
It is impossible for us to strive too earnestly to gain
some idea of this mystery. Yet, with all our powers
of sympathy and imagination, we cannot enter vividly
into the condition of a pure being, come into the world
from the bo,?om of God to take the place of a subject
and of suffering man. He was " plagued as others are ";
he was poor and dependent on friends for very bread,
and yet was conscious of carrying within himself a
power by which the whole world should fly to serve
him ; he was in disgrace, the pity of the ignorant and
the scorn of the great, and yet held in his hand
that authority by which, at a word, the very stars
should praise him, and his brightness outshine the
utmost pomp of kings ; he was counted with servants,
and yet conscious of infinite dignity; he Avas hated,
hunted, persecuted, even unto death, — a death, too,
which then suggested turpitude and ignominy, — and
yet possessed, unused, a power which made him supe-
TUE TEMPTATION. 125
rior to all and more powerful than all. Such experi-
ences might well require beforehand that training and
divine instruction by which the Captain of our salva-
tion was to be made perfect
Weary with watching, and spent with hunger, he
beholds the Adversary approach. " If thou be the Son
of God, command that these stones be made bread."
This scene will be desecrated if we cannot rise above
the gross materialism of the Latin Church. Contrast
the awful simplicity of Christ's teachings respecting
evil spirits with the grotesque and hideous representa-
tions of the mediaeval ages. The Romans, it is proba-
ble, derived this taint of the imagination from the old
Tuscans, to whom, if we may judge from what remains
of their arts, the future was a paradise of horrors.^
' " The predominating feature of the Etruscan nation, a feature ■which
had been the result of a natural disposition, and principally of a sacerdotal
system very skilfully combined, was a gloomy and cruel superstition. The
science of the aruspices and the discipline of the augurs Avere, as is well
known, of Etruscan invention ; it was from Etruria that this kind of super-
stition, reduced to a system carefully drawn up, was imported at an early
period into Rome, where it became the religion of the state, and, as such,
intolerant and absolute ; while in Greece ideas originally similar, but re-
moved at an early period from the exclusive dominion of the priests, exer-
cised through the means of oracles and great national festivities, which con-
tinually placed the people in movement and the citizens in connection one
with the other, — exercised, I say, no other influence and acquired no other
authority than that of popular legends and traditions. With this feature
of the national character in ancient Etruria, a feature which emanates from
a primitive disposition, strengthened by the sacerdotal system, we shall
soon see how strongly impressed are all the monuments of this people.
Hence the human sacrifices which were for a long time in use there. Hence
the blood-stained combats of gladiators, which were also of Etruscan origin,
and which, after having been for a long time a game among that people,
became a passion among the Romans. Hence, in fine, the terrible images
made to inspire terror which are so frequently produced on the monuments
of this people, — the larva;, the phantoms, the monsters of all kinds, the Scyl-
lae, the Medusa, the Furies with hideous features, and Divine justice under
126 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
This sensuousness of imagination and cruel conception
of the future passed into the Koman Christian Church.
The sublime conception of the Evil One as an intelli-
gent prince, who would organize the world for selfish
pleasure, and who perpetually strives to bring down
spirit to matter and life to mere sense, the everlast-
ing antagonist of the God of love and of pure spirit,
gives place in the Roman theology to those monstrous
images which have but the single attribute of hideous
and brutal cruelty. That fatal taint has corrupted
the popular idea of Satan to this day. He is not a
mighty spirit, but a sooty monster, an infernal vam-
pire, a heathen Gorgon. The figures of the Scrip-
ture, which in their place are not misleading, the
serpent and the lion, (figures emj^loyed by Jesus to
inculcate qualities becoming even in Christians,) joined
to the herd of bestial images with which heathenism
— the heathenism of a degraded Christianity — has
filled the world, lapse into excessive grossness and
vulgarity.
Not such was the great Tempter of the wilderness.
He might well have risen upon the Saviour's sight as
fair as when, after a stormy night, the morning star
dawns from the east upon the mariner, — " an angel
of light." To suppose that there could be any temp-
tation experienced by Jesus at the solicitation of
such a Devil as has been pictured by the imagina-
tions of monks, is to degrade him to the level of the
lowest natures. In this ecstatic vision we may sup-
avenging forms ; while in Greece milder manners, cultivated by a more
humane religion, represented death under agreeable, smiling, and almost
voluptuous images." — Raoul Rocbette, Lectures on Ancient Art, translated
from the French, (London, 1854,) pp. 54, 55.
THE TEMPTATION. 127
pose that there arose upon the Saviour's imagination
the grandest conception of reason and of wisdom.
It was not meant to seem a temptation, but only a
rational persuasion. It was the Spirit of this World
soliciting Jesus to emj)loy that Divine power which
now began to effulge in him, for secular and j)hjsical,
rather than for moral and spiritual ends. It was, if
one might so say, the whole selfish spirit of time and
history pleading that Jesus should work upon matter
and for the flesh, rather than ujDon the soul and for
the spirit.
"If thou be the Son of God, command that these
stones be made bread."
K this scene were historic in the sense of an ordi-
nary personal history, how slight to a divine nature
would be the temptation of eating bread, and how
harmless the act solicited! For if it is right that
man should employ his faculties in rearing harvests
to sujoply necessary food, would it be wrong for the
Son of Man to employ his power in procuring the
needed bread ?
But as a vision of prophetic ecstasy, in which bread
is the sjrmbol of physical life, the temptation is genu-
ine and vital. "Draw from its sheath the power of thine
omnipotence, if thou be the Son of God. Come forth
from the wilderness as the patron of physical thrift.
Teach men inventions. Multiply harvests. Cover the
world with industry and wealth. Nourish commerce.
Let villages grow to cities. Let harbors swarm with
ships. How glorious shalt thou be, how will men follow
thee and all the world be subdued to thy empire, if
thou wilt command the very stones to become bread !
K such power as thou surely hast shall inspire even
128 THE LIFE OF JESUS, TEE CHRIST.
the dead rocks with nourishment, Nature, through all
her realm, will feel the new life, and seed and fruit,
vine and tree, will give forth a glorious abundance, and
the wilderness shall blossom as the rose."
This temptation, interpreted from the side of pro-
phetic symbolism, struck the very key-note. Shall
Jesus be simply a civilizer, or shall he come to develop
a new soul-life ? Is it to give new force to matter, or
to break throuorh matter and raise the human soul to
the light and joy of the great spiritual sphere beyond ?
He came from the spirit-land to guide the innermost
soul of man, through matter, to victory over it.
The reply, " It is written, Man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God," is the precise counterpart and repul-
sion of the perverting suggestion of Satan. " Men do
not need that to be strengthened in them which is
already too strong. Not silver and gold, nor wine
and oil, nor cities and kingdoms great in riches, will
raise my brethren to a higher manhood. My new
food they need, but that food is spirit-life. The word
of love, the word of mercy, the word of justice and
holiness, issuing from God, — on these the inner life
of man must feed."
Was not this single temptation a glass in which
he saw the whole throng of temptations that would
meet him at every turn, namely, of absolute power
used for immediate and personal convenience ? We
do not enough consider what a perpetual self-denial
would be required to carry omnipotence, unused and
powerless, amidst the urgent requirements of a life
vehemently pressed with motives of self-indulgence
in its myriad minor forms.
THE TEMPTATION. 129
The vision passed; but another rose in its place.
Since he would not employ physical power for physical
results, since men were not to be led through their
physical wants, but through their spiritual nature,
Jesus was next solicited to let the spirit of admi-
ration and praise be the genius of the new move-
ment. And now the vision took form. There stood
the Temj)le, and from the peak of the roof on the
court of Solomon, the plunge downward, over the
cliff, to the deep valley below, was fearful. But won-
derful indeed would it be if one casting himself down
thither, in the sight of priests and people, should be
buoyed up by invisible hands, and, bird-like, move
through the air unharmed.
" If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself do"\vn from
hence ; for it is written,
He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee;
And in their hands they shall bear thee up,
Lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone."
This symbol, as a trial scene, contains not only an
appeal to the love of praise in Jesus, but an appeal
to the principle of admiration in the multitude. If
he would have a jorosperous following and an easy vic-
tory over the world, let him become the master of
marvels. Let him show men that a Divinity was
among them, not by the inspiration of a higher life
in their souls, but by such a use of Divine power as
should captivate the fancy of all who saw the won-
ders of skill, of beauty, of power and daring, which he
should show. Still more, let him employ his Divine
power to shield his heart from the contempt of in-
feriors who were outwardly to be his masters. He
was to be a servant, when he knew that he was Lord ;
130 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
he was to have not where to lay his head, — birds
and foxes having more rights than he. He was to be
surrounded mth spies, and pointed at as a Jew with-
out love of country, as conniving with Rome and
undermining the Temple. In every way, his outward
inferiority was to be sharply brought home to him,
and that instinctive desire of all right souls, to be
held in esteem, was to be j)ainfully excited. One
flash of his will, and scoffs would become hosannas.
Let him employ Divine power for the production of
pleasure and surprise and brilliant applause, and men
would honor him, and save him from that under-
valuing contempt which the spirit of the Temple (on
which in vision he stood) was yet erelong to pour
upon him.
In a parallel way, the apparition from the mountain-
top, of all the glory of the nations, as a literal fact
was impossible except by a miracle. And though a
miracle is a fact wholly within the bounds of reason,
yet we are not needlessly to convert common events
into miracles. There is no such mountain, nor on a
round globe can be. Besides, as a direct persuasion
to worship Satan, it would be worse than feeble, it
would be puerile. Far othenvise would it seem in
a prophetic vision, where, as a symbol, it was to the
real truth what letters and sentences are to the mean-
ing which they express. The impression produced
outruns the natural force of the symbol.
There was a tremendous temptation to exhibit be-
fore men his real place and authority; to appear as
great as he really was ; to so use his energies that men
should admit him to be greater than generals, higher
than kings, more glorious than Temple or Palace. In
THE TEMPTATION. 131
that mountain vision he saw the line of temptations
which would beat in upon the principle of self-esteem,
that source and fountain of ambition among men. In
all three of these final outbursts we see a prophetic
representation of temptations addressed to his public
and ministerial course. They related to that mat-
ter of transcendent importance, the carriage and uses
of absolute power. He was in danger of breaking
through the part which he had undertaken. He must
keep the level of humanity, not in moral character
alone, but in the whole handling of his Divinity. Men
have argued that Christ did not manifest Divine
power ; forgetting that it was to lay aside his govern-
ing power, and to humble himself as a man, that he
came into the world. With men, the difficulty is to
rise into eminence. With Jesus, the very reverse was
true. To keep upon the level of humanity was his
task, and to rise into a common and familiar use of
absolute power was his danger.
This view is not exhaustively satisfactory. No view
is. Whichever theory one takes in explaining the
Temptation, he must take it with its painful perplex-
ities. That which is important to any proj)er con-
sideration of the obscure sublimity of this mystery
is, that it shall be a temptation of the Devil as an
actual personal spirit; that it shall be a real temp-
tation, or one that put the faculties of Christ's soul
to task, and required a resistance of his whole nature,
as other temptations do of human nature. It is on
this account that we have regarded the Temptation
as of two parts or series, — the first, a jjersonal and
private conflict running through forty solitary days
of fasting in the wilderness ; and the second, a min-
132 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
isterial trial, represented by the symbolism of the
bread, the Temple, and the mountain-top.
It is not because we think the literal history open
to many of the objections urged that we prefer the
theory of a symbolic vision. The difficulty sometimes
alleged, that the Scripture narrative clothes Satan
with transcendent power, is not a valid objection,
unless the whole spirit of the New Testament on this
point be false and misleading. He is a prince of
power. Neither is it an objection that Christ seemed
to submit to his dictation. For Jesus had humbled
himself; he had put himself under the dominion of
natural law, of civil rulers, of ecclesiastical require-
ments ; and why should we hesitate to accept this
experience of the domineering arm of the Tempter?
Nor should we hesitate, if they were all, at the
feeble questions, " How could he be conveyed to the
Temple's summit?" and, "How would it be possi-
ble from any mountain-top to see the whole world,
or any considerable part of it?" If the temptation
in such a literal manner was needful and appropri-
ate, there can be no doubt that there was miraculous
power to produce its conditions.
But we disincline to the literal because it renders
Satan a wretched, puerile creature, shallow, flippant,
and contemptible. It makes it impossible that Christ
should have been tempted. Such bald suggestions
would scarcely have power to move a child. They
would be to Christ what a fool's bauble would be
to a statesman like Cecil, what a court jester's frib-
bles would have been to Bacon or to Sully. The
very possibility of tempting such a one as Jesus re-
quires that Satan should be a person of some gran-
THE TEMPTATION. 133
deiir of nature, one whose suggestions should indicate
a knowledge of the springs of the human heart, and
some wisdom in actmg upon them.
The practical benefit of this mysterious and obscure
passage in the life of Jesus does not depend upon
our ability to reduce it by. analysis to some equiv-
alent in human experience. It is enough that the
fact stands clear, that he who was henceforth to be
the spiritual leader of the race came to his power
among men by means of trial and suffering. The
experience of loneliness, of hunger, and of weariness
for forty days, of inward strife against selfishness,
pride, and the glittering falsities of vanity, brought
him into sympathy with the trials through which must
pass every man who seeks to rise out of animal con-
ditions into a true manhood. Suffering has slain myr-
iads ; yet, of all who have reached a true moral great-
ness, not one but has been nourished by suffering.
Perfection and suffering seem, in this sphere, insep-
arably joined as effect and cause.
Here too, in this strange retirement, we behold the
New Man refusing the inferior weapons of common
secular life, determined to conquer by " things that
are not," by the "invincible might of weakness," by ^/
the uplifting force of humility, by the secret energy
of disinterested love, and by that sublime insight.
Faith, not altogether unkno'wn before, but which
thereafter was to become the great spiritual force of
history.
134 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
CHAPTER VII.
JESUS, HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE.
No man will ever succeed in so reproducing an age
long past that it shall seem to the beholder as it did
to those who lived in it. Even if one is in possession
of all the facts, and has skill to draw a perfect picture,
he cannot prevent our looking upon a past age with
modern eyes, and with feelings and associations that
will put into the picture the coloring of our own time.
But we can approach the times and spirit of Roman
hfe, or of life in Athens in the days of Socrates, far
more readily and easily than we can the Jewish life
in the time of Christ. He was of the Shemitic race ;
we are of the Japhetic. The orderliness of our
thought, the regulated perceptions, the logical ar-
rangements, the rigorous subordination of feeling to
volition, the supremacy of reason over sentiment and
imagination, which characterize our day, make it al-
most impossible for us to be in full sympathy with
people who had little genius for abstractions, and whose
thought moved in such association with feeling and
imagination that to the methodical man of the West
much of Oriental literature which is most esteemed in
its home seems like a glittering dream or a gorgeous
fantasy.
But the attempt to reproduce the person and mind
of Jesus, aside from the transcendent elevation of the
1. EAJILIKST KNOWN, F!lO^[ CATACOMBS
OF ST, CALIXTUS.
2. FROM KMERALD INTAGLIO OF
FMPEIlOll TIEEUIUS.
4. AFTEll ALRllECIIT DUUEI!
5. AFTER PAUL DE LA ROCHE.
EIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 135
subject, meets with a serious obstacle in our uncon-
scious preconceptions. We cannot see him in GaUlee,
nor in Judsea, just as he was. "We look back upon
him through a blaze of light. The utmost care will
not wholly prevent our beholding Jesus through the
medimn of subsequent history. It is not the Jesus
who suffered in Palestine that we behold, but the Christ
that has since filled the world with his name. It is
difficult to put back into the simple mechanic citizen
Him whom ages have exalted to Divinity. Even
if we could strain out the color of history, we could
not stop the beatings of the heart, nor disenchant the
imagination, nor forget those personal struggles and
deep experiences which have connected our lives in
so strange a manner with his. We cannot lay aside
our faith like a garment, nor change at will our
yearning and affection for Christ, so as not to see
him in the light of our own hearts. His very name
is a love-name, and kindles in tender and grateful
natures a kind of poetry of feeling. As at evening
we see the sun through an atmosphere which the sun
itself has filled with' vapor, and by which its color
and dimensions are changed to the eye, so we see
in Jesus the qualities which he has inspired in us.
Such a state of mind inclines one to devotion,
rather than to philosophical accuracy. The exalted
idea which we hold of Jesus, and our implicit and rev-
erential view of his Divinity, still tend, as they have
tended hitherto, to give an ideal color to his person
and to his actual appearance among men in the times
in which he lived. It is unconsciously assumed that
the inward Divinity manifested itself in his form and
mien. We see liim in imagination, not as they saw
136 THE LIFE OF JESUS, TEE CHRIST.
him who companied with him from the beginning, but
under the dazzhng reflection of two thousand years of
adoration. To men of his own times he was simply a
citizen. He came to earth to be a man, and succeeded
so perfectly that he seemed to his own age and to his
followers to be only a man. That he was remarkable
for purity and for power of an extraordinary kind, that
he was a great prophet, and lived in the enjoyment
of peculiar favor with God, and in the exercise of pre-
rogatives not vouchsafed to mere men, was fully ad-
mitted ; but until after his resurrection, none even of
his disciples, and still less any in the circle beyond,
seem to have held that view of his person which
we are prone to form when in imagination we go
back to Palestine, carrying with us the ideas, the
pictures, the worship, which long years of training
have bred in us.
There is one conversation recorded which bears
directly on this very point, namely, the impression
which Jesus made upon his own time and country-
men. It was near the end of his first year of min-
istry. He was in the neighborhood of Cassarea Phi-
lippi, north of Galilee, where he had been engaged
in wayside prayer with his disciples. By combining
the narratives in the synoptic Gospels we have the
following striking conversation.
"Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"
And the disciples answered and said : " Some say
that thou art John the Baptist ; but some say Elijah,
and others say Jeremiah, or that one of the old proph-
ets is risen again."
And Jesus saith unto them: "But whom say ye
that I am?"
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 13 7
Simon Peter ansAvered and said unto him: "Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
This, it is true, is an explicit avowal of the speak-
er's belief that Jesus was the Messiah. But how im-
perfect the reigning expectation of even the most
intelligent Jews must have been, in regard to that
long-expected personage, need not be set forth. That
the disciples themselves had but the most vague
and unsatisfying notion is shown, not alone by
their whole career until after the Lord's ascension,
but by the instruction which Jesus proceeded to
give them in immediate connection with this con-
versation. He began to make known to them what
should befall him at Jerusalem, his sufferings, his
death and resurrection ; whereat Peter rebuked him,
and was himself reproved for the. unworthiness of his
conceptions.
There is absolutely nothing to determine the per-
sonal appearance of Jesus. Some ideas of his bear-
ing, and many of his habits, may be gathered from
incidental elements recorded in the Gospels. But to
his form, his height, the character of his face, or of
any single feature of it, there is not the slightest al-
lusion. Had Jesus lived in Greece, we should have
had a very close portraiture of his person and counte-
nance. Of the great men of Greece — of Socrates, of
Demosthenes, of Pericles, and of many others — we
have more or less accurate details of personal appear-
ance. Coins and statues reveal the features of the
Roman contemporaries of Jesus; but of Him, the one
historic personage of whose form and face the whole
world most desires some knowledge, there is not a
trace or a hint. The disciples were neither literary
138 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
nor artistic men. It is doubtful whether the genius
of the race to which they belonged ever inclined
them to personal descriptions or delineations.
The religion and the patriotism of the Greek incited
him to fill his temples with statues of gods, and with
the busts of heroes and of patriots. The Greek artist
was scrupulously trained to the study of the human
form, with special reference to its representation in
art. But the Jew was forbidden to make any image
or likeness or symbol of Divinity. The jorohibition,
though primarily confined to Deity, could not but
affect the whole education in art; and it is not sur-
prising that there was no Jewish art, — that paintings
and statues were unknown, — that Solomon's Temple
was the single specimen of pure Jewish architecture
of which there is any history. Probably even that
was Phoenician, or^ as some think, Persian.
But when men have not formed the habit of rep-
resenting external things from an artistic point of
view, they do not observe them closely. We cannot,
therefore, wonder that there is nothing which was at
any time said by the common people, or by their
teachers and rulers, and that nothing fell out upon
his trial, among Roman spectators, and nothing in the
subsequent history, which throws a ray of light upon
the personal appearance of Jesus of Nazareth.
We know not whether he was of moderate height
or tall, whether his hair was dark or light, whether
his eyes were blue, or gray, or piercing black. We
have no hint of mouth or brow, of j)Osture, gesture,
or of those personal peculiarities which give to every
man his individual look. All is blank, although four
separate accounts of him were written within fifty
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 139
years of his earthly hfe. He is to us a personal
power without a form, a name of wonder without por-
traiture. It is true that there is a conventional head
of Christ, which has come down to us through the
schools of art, but it is of no direct historic value.
The early Fathers were divided in opinion, whether
our Lord had that dignity and beauty which became
so exalted a person, or whether he was uncomely
and insignificant in appearance. Both views appealed
to the j^TOphecies of the Old Testament respecting
the Messiah: "Thou art fairer than the children of
men ; grace is poured into thy lips ; therefore God
hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon thy
thigh, 0 most Mighty, with thy glory and thy ma-
jesty." (Psalm xlv. 2, 3.)
On the other hand : " Who hath believed our re-
port ? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed ?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant,
and as a root out of a dry ground; he hath no form
nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is
no beauty that we should desire him." (Isaiah hii.
1, 2.)
As men adhered to the one or the other of these
and like passages, they formed their theory of Christ's
personal appearance. During the persecutions of the
second and third centuries, the poor and despised
Christian found it pleasant to believe that his Master
was, though very God, yet as insignificant outwardly,
and as wretched, as the most vulgar of his disciples.
But when Christianity began to triumph, and to
hold the scej)tre of government, it was very natural
that its votaries should desire to give to its founder
a more regal aspect. St. Jerome inveighed against
140 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
the earlier view, contending that, had our Lord not
carried a truly Divine countenance, his disciples would
not so implicitly have obeyed and followed him at his
first call. It was not far, probably, from the begin-
ning of the fourth century that the famous letter
was forged, purporting to have been written by
Publius Lentulus, a friend of Pilate, and a contem-
porary of Jesus, of which we shall soon speak.
Portraits of Christ began to appear about the same
time, each one having a legend which carried it back
to the original; and by the sixth century every prin-
cipal city and Christian community had some image,
picture, cameo, or other representation of Christ, of
which hardly any two were alike. The absurdity
became so offensive that the Seventh General Coun-
cil, held in Constantinople in 754, condemned all pic-
tures whatsoever which pretended to have come
direct from Christ or his Apostles.^
Such a letter as the fictitious epistle of Publius
Lentulus, had one been written by a Greek or
Roman contemporary of the Lord, would be of un-
speakable interest. But, aside from the rare beauty
of its description, this famous letter is of interest
only as showing what were the received opinions of
Christians in the fourth century respecting our Lord's
personal appearance. We append the letter.^
^ An excellent summary of tlie history of the ideas concernino; our Lord's
appearance may be found in the Introduction to the first volume of the
Life of our Lord as exemplified in Works of Art, &c., &c., begun by Mrs.
Jameson, and continued by Lady Eastlakc.
* " In this time appeared a man, who lives till now, — a man endowed with
great powers. Men call him a great prophet ; his own disciples term him
the Son of God. His name is Jesus Christ. He restores the dead to life,
and cures the sick of all manner of diseases.
" This man is of noble and well-proportioned stature, with a flicc full of
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 141
Altlioiigli the sacred Scriptures furnish not a single
hint of his mien, and although the negative evidence is
strong that there was nothing remarkable in his coim-
tenance on ordinary occasions, it is not improbable
that his disciples, as they everywhere narrated the
principal events of his life, would be inquired of as
to their Master's looks. Nor is it unlikely that they
recalled what they could of his countenance, for the
gratification of a curiosity inspired by love and rever-
ence. The letter of Publius Lentulus may therefore
be supposed to give a clear view of the countenance
which art had already adopted, and which afterward
served virtually as the type of all the heads of Christ
by the great Italian masters, and by almost all mod-
ern artists. It is not a little remarkable that this
typical head of Christ is not a Jewish head. The
first portraits of Christ were made by Greek artists,
in the degenerate days of Grecian art. They could
hardly helj) bringing unconsciously to their work the
kindness and yet firmness, so that tlie beliolders botli love liim and fear
liim. His hair is the color of wine, and golden at the root, — straight, and
without lustre, — but from the level of the ears curling and glossy, and di-
vided down the centre after the fashion of the Nazarenes (i. e. Nazarites).
His forehead is even and smooth, his face without blemish, and enhanced
by a tempered bloom. His countenance ingenuous and kind. Nose and
mouth are in no way faulty. His beard is full, of the same color as his hair,
and forked in form ; his eyes blue, and extremely brilliant.
" In reproof and rebuke he is formidable ; in exhortation and teaching,
gentle and amiable of tongue. None have seen him to laugh ; but many,
on the contrary, to weep. His person is tall; his hands beautiful and
straight. In speaking he is deliberate and grave, and little given to lo-
quacity. In beauty surpassing most men."
There is another description of Jesus found in the writings of St. John of
Damascus, who lived in the eighth centuiy, and which is taken, without doubt,
from earlier writers. He says that " Jesus was of stately growth, with eye-
brows that joined together, beautiful eyes, curly hair, in the prime of life,
with black beard, and with a yellow complexion and long fingers like his
mother."
142 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
feelings and ideas inspired by the splendid represen-
tations which had been made, by the renowned ar-
tists of their country, of the figures and heads of the
mythologic deities, and especially of Zeus, — to them
not only the chief of gods, but the highest reahza-
tion of majesty and authority.
But now is to be seen the modifying influence of
the Christian ideas in respect to the expression of
Divinity. The Christian artists all attempted to ex-
press in our Lord's face a feeling of spiritual eleva-
tion and of sympathy, which was wholly unknown
to classic Grecian art. Although there is in the early
heads of Christ the form of a Greek ideal philoso-
pher's face, or of a god's, the sentiment which it ex-
presses removes it from the sphere of Greek ideas.
Still less is the historic art-head of Christ of the
Roman type. The round Roman head, the hard lines
of fiice, the harsh energy of expression, form a strik-
ing contrast with the gentle, thoughtful, sympathetic
countenance which comes down to us from the fourth
century. As Christ spiritually united in himself all
nationalities, so in art his head has a certain uni-
versality. All races find in it something of their race
features. The head of Christ, as it comes to us from
the great Italian masters, is to art what the heart of
Christ has been to the human race.
But how unsatisfying is all art, even in its noblest
achievements, when by the presentation of a human
face it undertakes to meet the conceptions which we
• have of the glory of Divinity! When art sets itself
to represent a Divine face in Christ, it aims not only
at that which is intrinsically impossible, but at an
unhistorical fact. It was not to show his royalty
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 143
that Christ came into the world. He took upon him-
self the form of a man. He looked like a man. He
lived and acted as a man. The very miracles which
he wrought served to show, by contrast, the profound
agreement of his general life with the great lower
realm of nature into which he had descended.
The attempt to kindle his face to such ethereal
glow that it shall seem lost in light, must carry the
artist away from the distinctive fact of the life of
Jesus. He was not a man striving to rise to the
Deity. He was God in the flesh, seeking to restrain
his Divinity within such bounds as should identify
him with his brethren, and keep him within the range
of their personal sympathy.
No one view of the head of Jesus can satisfy the
desires of a devout spectator. It is impossible for
art to combine majesty and meekness, suflering and
joy, indignation and love, sternness and tenderness,
grief and triumph, in the same face at one time.
Yet some special representations may come much
nearer to satisfying us than others. The Christ of
Michael Angelo, in his renowned picture of the Last
Judgment, is repulsive. The head and ftxce of Christ
by Leonardo da Vinci, in the Last Supper, even in
its present wasted condition, produces an impression
upon a sensitive nature which it will never forget,
nor wish to forget. But few of all the representations
of Christ which have become famous in art are at all
helpful, either in bringing us toward any adequate
conception of the facts of history, or in giving help
to our devout feelings by furnishing them an out-
ward expression. The great crowd of pictorial eflbrts
neither aid devotion, represent history, nor dignify
144 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
art Made without reverence, as professional exer-
cises, they lower the tone of our thoughts and mis-
lead our imagination. Taking all time together, it
may well be doubted whether religion has not lost
more than it has gained by the pictorial represen-
tation of Jesus. The old Hebrew example was far
grander. The Hebrew taught men spirituality, when
he forbade art to paint or to carve an image of the
formless Deity ; and although Jesus of Nazareth was
"God manifest in the flesh," and in so far not to be
reckoned rigidly as within the old Hebrew rule, yet
even in this case art can touch only the humiliation
of Divinity, and not its glory.
We could aiford to lose the physical portraiture of
Jesus, if in its stead we could obtain such an idea of
his personal bearing and carriage as should place him
before our eyes with that impressive individuality
which he must have had in the sight of his contempo-
raries. Fortunately there are glimjoses of his j^er-
sonal bearing. As soon as men cease to divide the
life of Christ, and apportion one part to the man and
the other to the God, as soon as they accept his
whole life and being in its imity, — God manifest in
the flesh, — events become more significant. They
are not the actions of a human soul in some strange
connection with a Divine nature ; they are the out-
working of the Divine nature placed in human circum-
stances. Their value, as interpreters of the Divine
feelings, dispositions, and will, is thus manifestly
augmented.
Every system, whether of philosophy or of re-
ligion, that was ever propounded, before Christianity,
might be received without any knowledge, in the dis-
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. I45
ciple, of the person of its teacher. The Parsee and
the Buddhist beheve in a system more than in a
person. What Plato taught is more important than
what Plato himself was. One may accept all of Soc-
rates's teaching without caring for Socrates himself.
Even Paul's development of Christian ideas does not
require that one should accept Paul.
Not so Christianity. Christianity is faith in Christ.
The vital union of our souls with his was the sum of
his teaching, the means by which our nature was to
be carried up to God's ; and all other doctrines were
auxiliary to this union, or a guide to the life which
should spring from it. To live in him, to have him
dwelling in us, to lose our personal identity in his,
and to have it return to us purified and ennobled, —
this is the very marrow of his teaching. " I in them,
and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in
one." The Apostle summarized Christianity as " Christ
in ?/on, the hope of glory."
The very genius of Christianity, then, requires a
distinct conception, not of Christ's person, but of his
personality. This may account for the structure of
the Gospels. They are neither journals nor itinera-
ries ; still less are they orderly expositions of doc-
trine. The Gospels are the collective reminiscences
of Christ by the most impressible of his disciples.
Their memories would retain the most characteristic
transactions which took place during their intercourse
with the Master, while mere incidental things, the
prosaic and unpictorial portions of his life, would fade
out. We find, therefore, as might be expected, in
all the Gospels, pictures of Christ which represent
the social and spiritual elements of his life, rather
10
146 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
than the corporeal. If these biographies be compared
with the physical portraiture of heroes and gods
which classic literature has furnished, the contrast
will be striking. The Gospels give a portrait, not
of attitudes or of features, but of the disposition and
of the soul.
Most men, it may be suspected, think of Jesus as
one above the ordinary level of human existence,
looking pitifully down upon the gay and innocent
pursuits of common hfe, — abstract, ethereal, wise,
and good, but living apart from men, and descend-
ing to their level only to give them rebuke or in-
struction.
But we shall miss the free companionship of Christ,
if we thus put him out of the flimihar sympathies
of every-day hfe. He was not a pulseless being,
feeding on meditations, but a man in every honorable
trait of manhood, and participating in the whole
range of industries, trials, joys, sorrows, and tempta-
tions of human kind. During at least twenty years
of his life, if we subtract his childhood, he was a
common laborer. There are incidental evidences that
he did not attract attention to himself more than any
other mechanic. Whatever experience hard-laboring
men pass through, of toil poorly requited, of insig-
nificance in the sight of the rich and the powerful,
of poverty with its cutting bonds and its hard limita-
tions, Jesus had proved through many patient years.
And when he began his ministry, he did not stand
aloof like an ambassador from a foreign court, watch-
ing the development of citizen manners as a mere
spectator. He entered into the society of his times,
and was an integral part of it. He belonged to the
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. I47
nation, was reared under its laws and customs, par-
took of its liabilities, had the ardor of elevated patri-
otism, and performed all the appropriate duties of a
citizen. John says, "He dwelt among us."
And yet it is difficult to conceive of him as spe-
cialized, either to any nation or to any class or pro-
fession. He was universal. Although he had the
sanctity of the priest, he was more than priest.
Though he had a philosopher's wisdom, he had a
royal sympathy with all of human life, quite foreign
to the philosophic temper. He was more than a
prophet, more than a Jew. He touched human life
on every side, though chiefly in its spiritual ele-
ments. He moved alike among men of every kind,
and was at home with each. Among the poor he
was as if poor, among the rich as if bred to wealth.
Among children he was a familiar companion ; among
doctors of theology an unmatched disj)utant. Sympa-
thy, Versatility, and Universality are the terms which
may with justice be applied to him.
He loved active society, and yet he was fond of
solitude ; he loved assemblies \ he loved wayside con-
versations with all sorts of men and women. To-day
he roamed the highway, living upon the alms of lov-
ing friends, and sleeping at night where he chanced
to find a bed; to-morrow we shall find him at the
feasts of rich men, both courted and feared. That
he did not sit at the table a mere spectator of social
joy is plain from the fact which he himself mentions,
that by his participation in feasts he brought upon
himself the reputation of being a reveller! (Matthew
xi. 19.) The "beginning of miracles" at Cana was
one which was designed to prolong the festivities of
148 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
a marriage feast. There is not the record of a single
reprehension of social festivity, not a severe speech,
not a disapproving sentence uttered against the pur-
suits and enjoyments of common life. He was neither
an Ascetic nor a Stoic. The feasts of which he jDar-
took, and which so often form the basis of his para-
bles, glowed with the warmth and color of innocent
enjoyment. It is plain, both that he loved to see
men happy, and that he was himself, in his ordinary
moods, both genial and cheerful, or he could not
have glided so harmoniously from day to day into
the domestic and business life of his countrymen.
It was only in their public relations, and upon ques-
tions of morality and spirituality, that he ever came
into earnest collision with men.
It should be noticed, also, that there was a peculiar
kindness in his bearing which drew him close to
men's persons, — the natural language of affection
and sympathy. He touched the eyes of the blind; he
put his finger in the ears of the deaf; he laid his
hands upon the sick. The incidental phrases, almost
unnoticed in the Gospels, show this yearning per-
sonal fiimiliarity with men: "And he could there do
no mighty work, save that he laid his hand tijwn a few
sick folk and healed them." ^ " Now when the sun
was setthig, all they that had any sick with divers
diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his
hands on every one of them, and healed them."^ "He
called her to him, .... and he laid his hands on her :
and immediately she was made straight."^
The whole narrative of the blind man given by
Mark (viii. 22-25) is full of this tender and nursing
'Markvi. 5. = Luke i v. 40. » Luke xiii. 12, 13.
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 149
personal intercourse : " And he cometh to Bethsaida ;
and they bring a bhnd man unto him, and besought
him to touch him. And he took the bhnd man ht/
the hand and led him out of the town; and when he
had spit on his eyes, and jt??;^ his hands upon him, he
asked him if he saw aught. And he looked up,
and said, I see men as trees walking. After that,
he j)ut his hands again upon his eyes, and made
him look up : and he was restored, and saw every
man clearly." When the leper pleaded that he
might be healed, " Jesus jt^zf^f forth his hand, and touched
him, .... and immediately his leprosy was cleansed."
(Matthew viii. 3, 4.) When the centurion asked him
to heal his servant, expecting him only to send the
word of power to his distant couch, Jesus replied, "I
will come and heal him." Peter's mother-in-law being
sick, "he took her hfj the hand, and immediately the
fever left her." And so the Gospels are full of
phrases that imply a manner of great personal fa-
miliarity. "And he came and touched the bier: and
they that bare him stood still." "And he touched
their eyes." "And touched his tongue." "But Jesus
took him by the hand, and lifted him up!'
In no other place is his loving and caressing man-
ner more strikingly set forth than in the account of
his reception of little children. "And he took them
up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed
them." These are bosom words, full of love-pressure.
And in another instance, when enforcing the truth
of disinterestedness, it was not enough to illustrate
it by mentioning childhood, but "he tooJc a child, and
set him in the midst of them : and when he had taken
him in his arms, he said unto them. Whosoever shall
150 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
receive one of such children in my name, receiveth
me." (Mark ix. 36, 37.)
Nor should we fail to notice the interview with
Mary, after his resurrection, in the garden. "Touch
me not" reveals her spontaneous imjDulse, and casts
back a light upon that sacred household life and love
which he had prized so much at Bethany.
But we are not to sujDpose, because Jesus moved
among the common people as a man among men,
that he was regarded by his disciples or by the peo-
ple as a common man. On the contrary, there was
a mysterious awe, as well as a profound curiosity,
concerning him. He was manifestly superior to all
about him, not in stature nor in conscious authority,
but in those qualities which indicate spiritual power
and comprehensiveness. His disciples looked upon
him both with love and fear. Familiarity and awe
alternated. Sometimes they treated him as a com-
panion. They expostulated and complained. They
disputed his word and rebuked him. At other times
they Avhispered among themselves, and dared not even
ask him questions. It is plain that Jesus had moods
of lofty abstraction. There were hidden depths. The
sublimest exhibition of this took place at his trans-
figuration on the mount, but glimpses of the same
experience seem to have flashed forth from time to
time. His nature was not unfluctuating. It had pe-
riods of overflow and of subsidence.
But these clouded or outshining hours did not pro-
duce fear so much as veneration. The general effect
upon his disciples of intimacy with him was love.
Those who were capable of understanding him best
loved him most. Jesus too was a lover, not alone in
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 151
the sense of general benevolence, but in the habit of
concentrated affection for particular persons. "Then
Jesus, beholding him, loved him." " He whom thou
lovcst is sick." "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her
sister, and Lazarus." "Then said the Jews, Behold
how he loved him." Surely it was not for the first
time at the supper following the washing of the disci-
ples' feet, that it could be said of John, " He, leaning
thus back on Jesus' breast," — for such is the force
of the original, in the latest corrected text.^ That
must be a loving and demonstrative nature with which
such familiarity could be even possible.
Mark, more than any other Evangelist, records
the power which Christ had in his look. His eye at
times seemed to pierce with irresistible power. Only
on such a supposition can we account for the dis-
may of those sent to arrest him. The crowd came
rushing upon him, led on by Judas. Jesus said,
" Whom seek ye ? They answered him, Jesus of Naz-
areth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he As
soon then as he had said unto them I am he, they
went backward, and fell to the ground."
When Peter had thrice denied him, "The Lord
turned, and looked upon Peter." "And Peter went
out and wept bitterly." Such cases will serve to ex-
plain instances hke that of the healing of the man
' The " leaning on Jesus' bosom," in the twenty-third verse (John xiii.),
simply indicates that John, reclining at table according to the custom prev-
alent since the captivity, came next below Jesus, and his head would there-
fore come near to his Master's breast. But in the twenty-fifth verse a differ-
ent action is indicated. The language implies, that, in asking the question
about the betrayal, he leaned back so as to i^est his head upon his Lord's
bosom. The reading " leaning hack on Jesus' breast," instead of " He then
lyhif/ on Jesus' breast," is approved by Tischendorf, Green, Alford, and
Tregelles.
152 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
with a withered hand. And he " loo/ced round about
on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness
of their hearts." On another occasion he is thus rep-
resented : " Who touched me ? And he looked round
about to see her that had done this tiling. But the
woman, fearing and trembhng, .... came and fell
down before him."
It is jDlain, from a comparison of passages, that his
gentle and attractive manners, which made him acces-
sible to the poor, the outcast, and the despised, were
accompanied by an unperial manner which none
ever presumed ujDon. Indeed, we have incidental
mention of the awe which he inspired, even in those
who had the right to intimate familiarity. "And
none of the disciples durst ask him. Who art thou?
knowing that it was the Lord." All three of the
synoptical Gospels mention the effect produced by
his bearing and by his answers to vexatious ques-
tions. "And after that, they durst not ask liim any
question at all."
Mark mentions a very striking incident in a man-
ner so modest that its significance is likely to escape
us. "And they were in the way, going up to Jerusa-
lem ; and Jesus went before them ; and they were
amazed ; and as they followed, they were afraid. And
he took again the twelve, and began to tell them
what things should happen unto him." (Mark x. 32.)
It seems that he was so absorbed in the contempla-
tion of those great events which already overhung
him, and toward which he was quickening his steps,
that he got before them and walked alone. As
they looked upon him, a change came over his
person. Once before, on the mountain, some of them
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 153
had been bewildered by his changed look. Yet it
was not now an effulgent light, but rather sternness
and grandeur, as if his soul by anticipation was in
conflict mth the powers of darkness, and his Avhole
figure lifted up as in the act of " despising the shame "
of the near and ignominious trial.
Our Lord's great power as a sjoeaker depended
essentially upon the profound truths which he uttered,
upon the singular skill with which they were adapted
to the peculiar circmnstances which called them forth,
and to the faculty which he had of uttering in simple
and vernacular phrase the most abstruse ideas. But
there was besides all this a singular impressiveness of
manner which it is probable was never surpassed. His
attitude, the extraordinary influence of his eye, his
very silence, were elements of j)ower of which the
Evangehsts do not leave us in doubt.
There is in Mark's account (x. 23) a use of words
that indicates a peculiar, long, and penetrating action
of the eye, — a lingering deliberation. "And Jesus
looked round about, and saith unto his disciples. How
hardly shall they that have riches enter into the
kingdom of God!" When the disciples, amazed with
the impressiveness of his word and action, asked,
"Who, then, can be saved?" he apparently did not
reply instantly, but, with the same long gaze, his eye
spoke in advance of his tongue. " Jesus, looJcing upon
them, saith. With men it is impossible, but not with
God." In the account given by Mark (viii. 33) one
can see how large an element of impressiveness was
derived from Christ's manner and expression, before
he spoke a word. "But when he had turned about,
and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying,
Get thee behmd me, Satan!"
154 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
There were times when Jesus did not employ words
at all. Most impressive effects were derived from
his manner alone. "And Jesus entered into Jerusa-
lem, and into the temple; and when he had looked
round about ujoon all things, and now the even-tide
was come, he went out unto Bethany." This scene
would not have lingered in the mind of the specta-
tors, and been recorded in the Gospel, if his air and
manner had not been exceedmgly striking. It was
a picture that could not fade from the memory of
those who had seen it, yet it was a scene of perfect
silence !
There is a poor kind of dignity, that never allows
itself to be excited, that is guarded agamst all sur-
prises, that restrains the expression of sudden interest,
that holds on its cold and careful way as if superior
to the evanescent moods of common men. Such was
not Christ's dignity. No one seemed more a man
among men in all the inflections of human moods
than did Jesus. With the utmost simplicity he suf-
fered the events of life to throw their lights and
shadows upon his soul. He was "grieved," he was
" angry," he was " surprised," he " marvelled." In
short, his soul moved through aU the moods of hu-
man experience ; and while he rose to sublime com-
munion with God, he was also a man among men;
while he rebuked self-indulgence and frivolity, he
cheerfully partook of innocent enjoyments; while he
denounced the insincerity or burdensome teachings
of the Pharisees, he did not separate himself from
their society or from their social life, but even ac-
cepted their hospitahty, and his dinner discourses
contain some of his most pungent teachings.
HIS PERSONAL APPEARANCE. 155
We have purjoosely omitted those views of Christ
which, through the unfolding process of liis life and
teaching, developed at length, in the Apostles' minds,
to the full and clear revelation of Divinity. We have
sketched him as he must have appeared during his
ministry, when men were gazing upon him in won-
der, thinking that he was " that prophet," or " Elijah,"
or that Messiah "that should come."
We must not, then, take with us, in following out
the life of Jesus, the conception of a formidable
being, terrible in holiness. We must clothe him in
our imagination with traits that made little children
run to him; that made mothers long to have him
touch their babes ; that won to him the poor and suf-
fering ; that made the rich and influential throw wide
open the doors of their houses to him; that brought
around him a company of noble women, who trav-
elled with him, attended to his wants, and supplied
his necessities from their own wealth ; that irresistibly
attracted those other women, in whom vice had not
yet destroyed all longing for a better life ; that ex-
cited among the learned a vehement curiosity of dis-
putation, while the unlettered declared that he spake
as one having authority. He was the great Master
of nature, observing its laws, laying all his plans in
consonance with the fixed order of things even in his
miracles ; seeming to violate nature, only because he
knew that nature is not only and alone that small
circle which touches and includes physical matter,
but a larger province, enclosing the great spiritual
world, including God himself therein.
156 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
CHAPTEK VIII.
THE OUTLOOK.
"Thixk not that I am come to destroy the law,
or the prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to
fulfil." Jesus would reform the world, not by destroy-
ing, but by developing the germs of truth already
existing. He accepted whatever truth and goodness
had ripened through thousands of years. He would
join his own work to that already accomplished, bring-
ing to view the yet higher truths of the spiritual realm.
But the design of all his teaching, whether of morality
or of spirituality, was to open the human spirit to the
direct influence of the Divine nature. Out of such a
union would proceed by spiritual laws and tendencies
all that man ne^ds.
The reconciliation of the human soul mth the Divine
is also the harmonization of the two great spheres,
the material and the spiritual. Men will then be no
longer under the exclusive dominion of natural law
in the plane of matter. They will come under the in-
fluence of another and a higher form of natural law,
that of the spirit. Nature is not confined to matter.
To us it begins there ; but nature includes the earth
and the heaven, the visible and the invisible, all mat-
ter and all spirit. That portion of natural law which
regulates physical things is nearest to our knowl-
edge, but is not the typical or universal. As seen
THE OUTLOOK. 157
from above, doubtless, it is the lowest form of law.
Natm^e is the universe. Nature as men's physical
senses discern it is poor and meagre compared with
its expansion in the mvisible realm where God dwell-
eth. Natural laws run through God's dominion in
harmonious subordination, those of the spiritual world
having pre-eminence and control.
We discern in Jesus the demeanor of one who was
conscious of the universe, and who knew that this
earthly globe is but its least part, — normal, indeed,
and serviceable, but subject, auxiliary, and subordinate
to higher elements. He acted as one who recognized
the uses of this life, but who by a heavenly experience
knew its vast relative inferiority. By no word did
Jesus undervalue civil laws, governments, the indus-
tries of men, and their accumulated wealth ; yet not a
syllable of instruction did he let fall on these topics,
nor did 4ie employ them to any considerable degree in
his ministry. To us, husbandry, navigation, the per-
fection of mechanic arts, and the discovery of hew
forces or the invention of new combinations, seem of
transcendent importance. Men have asked whether
he who threw no light upon physiology, who made
known no laws of health and no antidotes or remedies
for wasting sicknesses, who left the world as poor in
economic resources as he found it, could be Divine.
But to one cognizant of the spiritual universe all
these things w^ould seem initial, subordinate, and in-
ferior ; while the truths of the soul and of the spirit,
the science of holiness, would take precedence of all
secular wealth and wisdom.
Physical elements might be safely left to unfold
through that natural law of development which is
158 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
carrying the world steadily forward; but "the spirit
is weak." To bring the soul of man into the pres-
ence of God, to open his heart to the Divine influ-
ence, was a need far greater than that of any sensuous
help. We shall find that Jesus differed from ordinary
men, not by living above natural laws, but by living
in a larger sphere of natural laws. He harmonized
in his life the laws of spirit and of matter. In all
that pertained to earthly life, he lived just as men
hve. In that which pertained to the spirit, he lived
with the air and manner of one who came from
heaven. In his miracles he but exhibited the su-
premacy of the higher over the lower, of the spiritual
over the material. A miracle is not the setting aside
of a law of nature, it is but the exhibition of the su-
premacy of a higher law of nature in a sphere where
men have been accustomed to see the operation of
the lower natural laws alone. No man is surprised
at the obedience of matter to his own will. Our
control of our bodies, and, generally, of the organ-
ized matter of the globe, increases in the ratio of
the growth of our mental strength. Jesus declared
that, if the soul were opened up to the Divine pres-
ence, this power would be greatly augmented; that
man's higher spiritual elements had a natural au-
thority over the physical conditions of this world ;
and that faith, prayer, divine communion, in a fer-
vent state, would enable his followers to perform the
miracles that he himself performed. It was this latent
power of man's spiritual nature that Christ sought to
develop. He strove to lift men one sphere higher,
and, without taking them away from the senses, to
break open, as it were, and reveal a realm where the
THE OUTLOOK. 159
spirit would dominate matter, as in this world matter
governs the spirit.
It is this supremacy of the spiritual over the physi-
cal in the great order of a universe-nature, rather than
of the earth-nature, that must be borne in mind, both
in Christ's own conduct and in his discourses and his
promises to those who truly entered his kingdom ; and
that is the rational explanation also of the extraor-
dinary phenomena which accompanied the Apostle's
preaching. (1 Cor. xii. 4-30.)
Christ was a Jew, and did not refuse to love his
country, nor was he without enthusiasm for the his-
toric elements wrought out so nobly by the great
men of the Hebrew nation. And yet no one can fail
to perceive that above all these patriotic enthusiasms,
and far beyond them, he bore a nature which allied
him to universal man without regard to race or j)e-
riod, and that his being reached higher than that of
common hmnanity, and brooded in the mysterious
realms of the spirit land, beyond all human sight or
knowledge.
We may presume, therefore, that in his ministry
there will be found a close adhesion to nature ; that
as the Son of Man he will follow the methods of ordi-
nary physical nature, while as the Son of God he
will conform to the laws of spiritual nature. And it
may be presupposed that, to those not instructed, one
part of such observance of natural law may seem to
conflict with another part, whereas both are alike
conformable to nature, if by nature is meant God's
uniyerse.
When Jesus began his mission in Palestine, it
160 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
swarmed with a population so mixed with foreign
elements that it might almost be said to represent ev-
ery people of the then civilized world. No great war
seemed able to leave Palestine untouched ; whether
it was Egypt, or Assyria, or Greece, or Rome that
was at war, Palestine was sure to be swept by the
inundation. Every retiring wave, too, left behind it a
sediment. The physical conformation of the country
made the northern part of Palestine a commercial
thoroughfare for Eastern and Western nations, while
Judaea, lying off from the grand routes, and not
favorably situated for commerce, was less traversed
by merchants, adventurers, or emigrant hordes. And
so it happened that Galilee and Samaria were largely
adulterated, while Judoaa maintained the old Jewish
stock with but little foreign mixture.
The Judaean Jews were proud of this superiority.
They looked upon Galilee as half given over to bar-
barism. It was styled " Galilee of the Gentiles,"
since thither had drifted a mixed population in which
almost every nation had some representatives. No
one would suspect from the dreary and impoverished
condition of Palestine to-day how populous it Avas in
the time of Christ. The ruins of villages, towns, and
cities, which abound both on the east and the west
of the Jordan, confirm the explicit testimony of Jose-
phus to the extraordinary populousness of Palestine
during our Lord's life and ministry. Samaria, the
great middle section of Palestine, besides its large
infusion of foreigners, had an adulterated home popu-
lation. It was on this account that the puritan Jews
of Jerusalem and Judcea abhorred the Samaritans, and
refused to have any dealings with them.
THE OUTLOOK. \Q\
Galilee, the most populous section/ was also tlie most
intermixed with pagan elements. The Roman armies,
made up largely of Italian officers, but of soldiers
drawn from conquered Oriental nations, brought to
all the large towns, and left in them, a detritus of
the outside world. Already the Greek, a universal
rover, the merchant of that age as the Jew has been
the trader of subsequent ages, was largely spread
through the province. Syria and Phoenicia also con-
tributed of their people. Thus, in every part of Pal-
estine, north and south, a foreign population swarmed
around the Jewish stock without changing it, and
without being itself much changed.
The inequahty of condition which separated the
various classes of Jews was unfavorable to ]3rosperity.
While the northern province was given to commerce,
the great plain of Esdraelon serving as a roadway be-
tween the shores of the Mediterranean and the great
Syrian interior and the countries skirting the Lower
Jordan and the Dead Sea, yet the bulk of the popu-
lation depended for a precarious subsistence upon
agriculture and the humbler forms of mechanic art.
That affecting petition in the Lord's Prayer, " Give us
this day our daily bread," is an historic disclosure of
local want, as well as an element of universal devotion.
It is the prayer prescribed for men to whom it was
said, " Take no [anxious] thought what ye shall eat,
what ye shall drink, or wherewithal ye shall be
clothed." But commerce had made a portion of the
people rich. Extortion had swollen the affluence of
others. The greatest injustice prevailed. Small pro-
tection was given to the weak. The Jews were a
' The population of Galilee was about three millions.
11
162 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
subject race, but not subdued. Little able to govern
themselves, they were still less fitted to be governed
by another nation. Their religious training had built
up in them a character of great strength. They were
proud, fierce, and careless of life to an extraordinary
degree, whether it was their own life or that of others.
Political subjection was peculiarly irksome, because,
as they interpreted their prophets, the Jews were
God's favored people. They believed that the family
of David, now obscure and dishonored, was yet to
hold the sceptre of universal monarchy. They had
not only a right to be free, but God had specially
promised that they should rule all other nations, if
only they kept his statutes. To keep his command-
ments was their one excessive anxiety. They scruti-
nized every particular, added duty to duty, multiplied
and magnified particulars, lest something should be
omitted. They gloried in the Law, and devoted them-
selves to it night and day with engrossing assiduity.
Where, then, was their reward ? Why was not the Di-
vine promise kept ? Instead of governing others, they
were themselves overwhelmed, subdued, oppressed.
Was this the reward for their unexampled fidelity?
The Pharisee had kept his blood pure from all taint;
not a drop of foreign blood polluted the veins of the
Hebrew of the Hebrews. When Hellenism threatened
with self-indulgent philosophy to destroy the fiitli of
their ftithers, the Pharisees had resisted, overwhelmed,
and driven it out. Josephus, himself a Pharisee, says
of them : " In their own idea they are the flower of the
nation and the most accurate observers of the Law."
And yet how had God neglected them ! His conduct
was inexplicable and sadly mysterious. It was not
THE OUTLOOK. 163
in their power to keep their soil, nor even the holy
Temple, from the hated intrusion of the idolater's foot.
Their priesthood had been converted to the uses of
the detestable Romans. The high-priest, once ven-
erated, had become tiie creature of Idumcean Herod.
For many hundreds of years before Herod's reign the
Jews had seen but one high-priest deposed. But from
the conquest of Jerusalem by Herod to its destruc-
tion under Titus, a period of one hundred and eight
years, twenty-eight high-priests had been nominated,
making an average term of but four years to each.
Rulers were filled with worldly ambition, and scribes
and priests were continually intriguing and quarrelling
among themselves. Only so much of the disthictive
Jewish economy was left free as could be controlled
by unscrupulous politicians for the furtherance of their
own selfish ends. Pride and avarice were genuine;
benevolence and devotion were simulated or openly
disowned.
It will be well to consider with some particularity
the three forms of religious development which existed
in the time of our Lord, — Ritualism, Rationalism, and
Asceticism, — as represented respectively by the Phari-
see, the Sadducee, and the Essene ; and it will be
especially necessary to be acquainted with the Phari-
sees, who were our Lord's chief and constant antago-
nists, whose habits furnished continual themes for his
discourses, and whose malign activity at length was
the chief cause of his death.
In no such sense as that term conveys to us were
the Pharisees an organized sect.^ They represented
^ " It is the custom to contrast the Pharisees with the Sadducees, as if
they were two opposite sects existing in the midst of the Jewish nation
164 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
a tendency, and answered nearly to our phrase of
" High Church " among the Episcopalians, by which we
do not mean a separate organization within that sect,
but only a mode or direction of thought and adminis-
tration.
In their origin and early functions the Pharisees
deserved well of their countrymen, and not so ill of
posterity as it has fared with them. When the Jews
were carried to Babylon, so dependent had they al-
ways been upon the Temple and the organized priest-
hood, that, in the absence of these, their chief re-
ligious supports fell to the ground. The people, left
without teachers, exiled, surrounded by idolatrous
practices which tempted the passions of men with
peculiar fascination, were likely to forget the worship
of their fathers, and not only to lapse into idolatry,
but by intermarriages to be absorbed and to lose their
very nationality. It was therefore a generous and
patriotic impulse which inspired many of the more
earnestly religious Jews to separate themselves from
aU foreign influences, and to keep alive the Jemsh
and separated fi-om the body of the Jews. But neither the Sadducees nor
the Pharisees were sects in the common acceptation of the word, least of all
the latter. Taken at bottom, the nation was for the most part Pharisai-
cally minded ; in other words, the Pharisees were only the more important
and religiously inclined men of the nation, who gave the most decided
expression to the prevailing belief, and strove to establish and enforce it by
a definite system of teaching and interpretation of the sacred books. All
the priests who were not mere blunt, senseless instruments clung to the
Pharisaical belief. All the Sephorim, or Scribes, were at the same time
Pharisees; and where they are spoken of side by side as two different
classes, by the latter (Pharisees) must be understood those who, without
belonging Ijy calling or position to the body of the learned, were yet zealous
in setting forth its principles, teachings, and practices, and surpassed others
in the example they gave of the most exact observance of the law." —
DoUinger's The Gentile and the Jew, (London, 1862,) Vol. II. pp. 304, 305.
THE OUTLOOK. 165
spirit among their poor, oppressed countrymen. The
name Pharisee, in the Hebrew, signifies one ivlio is sepa-
rated. When first apphed, it meant a Jew who, accord-
ing to the Levitical Law, in captivity kept himself scru-
pulously separate from all defilements. Unfortunately,
the Pharisee sought worthy ends by an almost purely
external course. In this respect he is in contrast with
the English Puritan of the sixteenth century. Both
of them were intensely patriotic ; both set themselves
vigorously against the seductive refinements and artful
blandishments of their times. The English Puritan,
with a clear perception of moral truth, and with utter
faith in the power of inward and spiritual disposi-
tions, was inclined to sacrifice forms, ceremonies, and
symbols, as helps liable too easily to become hin-
drances, fixing the senses upon an externality, and
leading men away from simple spiritual truth. But
the early Jewish Puritan had nothing to work with
except the old Mosaic Law. He sought to put that be-
tween his countrymen and idolatry. By inciting them
to reverence and to pride in their own Law he saved
them from apostasy, and kept alive in their memories
the history of their fathers and the love for their na-
tive land. And so far the labor of the Pharisee de-
served praise. But the Levitical Law required, in
the great change of circumstances induced by the Cap-
tivity, a re-adaptation, and, as new exigencies arose,
new interpretations. Gradually the Pharisees became
expounders of the Law. They grew minute, technical,
literal. They sought for religion neither in the imme-
diate inspiration of God nor in nature, but in the books
of Moses and of the Prophets. They were zealous
for tradition and ceremony. The old landmarks were
166 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
sacred to them. Yet they overlaid the simplicity of
the ancient Hebrew faith with an enormous mass of
pedantic, pragmatical details, that smothered the heart
and tormented the conscience of the devotee. Their
moral sense was drilled upon mere conventional quali-
ties. It had no intuition and no liberty. It became
the slave of the senses.
Little by little the work grew upon their hands.
Cases multiplied. Nice distinctions, exceptions, di-
visions, and subdivisions increased with an enormous
fecundity. The commentary smothered the text. The
interpreters were in thorough earnest ; but their con-
science ran to leaf and not to fruit. That befell the
Pharisees which sooner or later befalls all ritualists, —
they fell into the idolatry of symbolism. The sym-
bol erelong absorbs into itself the idea which it was
sent to convey. The artificial sign grows fairer to the
senses than is the truth to the soul. Like manna,
symbols must be gathered fresh every day. The
Pharisee could not resist the inevitable tendency.
He heaped upon life such a mass of helps and guides,
such an endless profusion of minute duties, that no
sensitive conscience could endure the thrall. One class
of minds went into torment and bondage, of which
Paul gives an inimitable picture in the seventh chapter
of the Epistle to the Romans. Another class, harder
and more self-confident, conceived themselves obedient
to the whole round of duty, and became conceited and
vaing^lorious
The Pharisees were sincere, but sincere in a way
that must destroy tenderness, devoutness, and benevo-
lence, and that must minister to conceit, hardness
of heart, and intolerant arrogance. No religion can
THE OUTLOOK. 167
be true, and no worship can be useful, that does not
educate the understanding, kindle the aspirations, give
to the spiritual part a mastery over the senses, and
make man stronger, nobler, freer, and purer than it
found him. Religion proves its divinity by augment-
ing the power and contents of manhood. If it de-
stroys strength under the pretence of regulation, it
becomes a superstition and a tyranny.
The Pharisees had not escaped the influence of the
prevalent philosophies. Although they were w^orking
away from the Hellenistic influence, they were indi-
rectly moulded by it. It was essentially in the re-
fining spirit of Greek philosophy that they interpreted
the old Hebrew statutes. Not that they desired them
to be less Jewish. They sought to make them more
intensely national. The Greek spirit wrought in the
Jew to make him more intensely Jewish.
But Grecian influence had raised up another school,
that of the Sadducees. They were the Epicureans of
JudoBa. It is probable that, unlike the Pharisees, the
Sadducees recognized the Grecian philosophy, and ap-
plied it to the interpretation of the Mosaic statutes.
They accepted the chief doctrine of the Epicurean
philosophy. They admitted the agency of God in
creation. They taught that things had a nature of
their own, and that, after being once created and set
going, they had need of no Divine interference in
the way of providential government. Every man had
his fate in his own hands. Having organized the sys-
tem of nature, God withdrew himself, leaving men to-
their own absolute freedom. Man was his own master-
He was the author of his own good and of nis own
evil, and both the good and the evil they believed
168 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
to be confined to this life. Death ended the history.
There was to be no new life, no resurrection.
We are not to suppose that the Sadducees abandoned
the Jewish Scriptures for any form of Grecian philoso-
phy. They rejected all the modern interpretations and
additions of the old Hebrew institutes. They pro-
fessed to hold to the literal construction and inter-
pretation of the sacred Scri23tures. They rejected all
tenets that were not found in Moses and the j)rophets.
This principle forced them to assume a negative phi-
losophy. They stuck to the letter of the Law, that
they might shake off the vast accumulations which it
had received at the hands of the Pharisees. But in
doing this they rendered themselves infidel to the
deepest moral convictions of their age. The spirit of
denial is essentially infidel. Belief is indispensable to
moral health, even if the tenets believed be artificial.
There is no reason to think that the Sadducees had
a deep religious life, or any positive convictions which
redeemed them from the danger attending a system of
negation. They were a priestly class, sceptical of the
truths which the best men of their age cherished.
Thus, while they were strict in their construction of
the text, they were liberal in doctrine. It was through
literalism that they sought liberalism. If their refusal
of the Pharisaic traditions and glosses had been for
the sake of introducing a larger spiritual element,
they would have deserved better of their countrymen.
As it was, they were not popular. They were not
the leaders of the masses, nor the representatives of
the popular belief, nor in sympathy with the common
people. We can hardly regard them in any other
light than that of self-indulgent and ambitious men,
THE OUTLOOK. 169
using the national religion rather as a defence against
the charge of want of patriotism than from any moral
convictions. In short, they were thoroughly worldly,
selfish, and unlovely.
Although the name " Essene " does not occur in the
New Testament, yet the sect existed in the time of
Christ, and probably exercised a considerable influence
upon the thought of many devout Jews. The Es-
senes observed the law of Moses with a rigor surpass-
ing that of any of their countrymen. They, however,
rejected animal sacrifices. There seems to have been
among them an element of worship derived from the
Persians. They addressed petitions each morning to
the sun. They felt bound to refrain in word or act
from anything which could profane that luminary.
They kept the Sabbath even more rigorously than
the Pharisees. They prepared all their food the day
before. Not only would they kindle no fires on the
Sabbath, but they would suffer no vessel to be moved
from its place, nor would they satisfy on that day
any of their natural and necessary desires. They
lived in communities, very much apart from general
society ; but this does not seem to have arisen so
much from an ascetic spirit as from the excessively
restrictive notions which they cherished on the matter
of legal purity. To the contaminations established
by the Mosaic code, and all the additional ceremo-
nial impurities Avhich the ritual zeal of the Pharisee
rendered imminent, they added others even more se-
vere. To touch any one not of his own order defiled
an Essene. Even an Essene, if of a lower grade,
could not be touched without defilement. Such par-
ticularity could scarcely fail to work social seclusion.
170 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Their meals were strictly sacrificial, and looked upon
as religious actions. Every one washed his whole
body before eating, and put on a clean linen gar-
ment, which was laid aside at the end of the meal.
The baker and the cook placed before each his mess,
and the priest then blessed the food, before which
none dared to taste a morsel.
They held their property in common; so that the
temporary community of goods by the Christians, after
the Pentecostal day, was not a new or uncommon
act anion o; the Jews. Marriao;e was forbidden. No
buying or selling was permitted among themselves.
They disallowed both slavery and war, neither would
they suffer any of their sect to forge warlike arms for
others. They were under the strictest subordination
to their own superiors, and implicit obedience was a
prime virtue. They maintained perfect silence in their
assemblies and during their repasts. Only adults were
taken into the brotherhood, and these were required
to undergo a probation of a year, and they then
entered but the lowest grade. Two years more were
required for full membership. The Essenes abhorred
pleasure. They were temperate in all things, — in
food, in the indulgence of . their passions, and in en-
joyments of every kind. In many respects they seem
to have resembled the modern Shakers.
The Sadducees, being a priestly and aristocratic class,
were not disposed to take any office which would
impose trouble or care, and looked with indifference
or contempt upon the greater part of that which
passed for religion among the people. The Essenes
were small in numbers, their habits of life were se-
cluded, and they do not seem to have made any effort
THE OUTLOOK. 171
at influencing the mind of the people at large. Only
the Pharisees took pains to instruct the people. And
we shall not understand the atmosphere which sur-
rounded our Lord, if we do not take into consideration
the kind of teaching given by them, and the national
feeling which it had produced.
We are not to undervalue the real excellence of the
Mosaic institutes on account of the burdensome and
frivolous additions made to them during a long series
of interpretations and commentaries. The institutes
of Moses inculcated a sound morality, a kind and
benevolent spirit, obedience to God, and reverence
for divine things. But as it was interpreted by ihe
Pharisees it disproportionately directed the attention
to external acts. The state of the heart was not
wholly neglected. Many excellent distinctions were
drawn, and wise maxims were given respecting purity
of thought and rectitude of motive. But the influ-
ence of a system depends, not upon few or many
truths scattered up and down in it, but upon the
accent and emphasis which is given to its different
parts. Paul bears witness that his countrymen had
a "zeal of God, but not according to knowledge."
Like men in a wrong road, the longer they toiled
the farther they were from the end sought. Yet
they did not regard themselves as in the wrong. God
had given them the Law. The most signal promises
followed obedience to that Law. They should over-
come all their enemies. They should become the
governors of those who now oppressed them. There-
fore to that obedience they addressed themselves with
all their zeal and conscience. Lest they should fail un-
wittingly, it was a maxim with them that they should
172 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
do even more than the Law required. And such was
the scrupulosity of the Pharisee, that he came to feel
that he did perfectly keep the Law, and therefore wait-
ed impatiently for the fulfilment of the Divine prom-
ises. It was a distinct bargain. They were all looking
and waiting for the Messiah. When he should come,
he would give to the nation the long-needed leader.
All would unite in him. He would march at the head
of the whole population to expel the Romans, to re-
deem Jerusalem, to purify the Temple, to extend the
sway of the Jewish religion. They brooded over these
joyful prospects. Thus, they had their tests of Mes-
siahship. He must hate idolaters. He must have
the gift of leadership. He must represent the in-
tensest spirit of Jewish patriotism. He must aim to
make Israel the head and benefactor of all the nations
on earth.
It is plain that Jesus could not meet such ex-
pectations. He must have known from the begin-
ning what reception his countrymen would give him,
should he at once announce himself as the Messiah;
and this will explain his silence, or the guarded pri-
vate utterance, in the beginning, as to his nature and
claims.
Unfavorable as was the religious aspect, the political
condition of Palestine was even worse. The nation
was in the stage preceding dissolution, — subdued by
the Romans, farmed out to court favorites, governed
by them with remorseless cruelty and avarice. The
fiery and fanatical patriotism of the Jew was continu-
ally bursting out into bloody insurrection. Without
great leaders, without any consistent and wise plan of
operations, these frequent and convulsive spasms of
THE OUTLOOK. 2*j3
misery were instantly repressed by the Romans with
incredible slaughter.
Even if it had been a part of the design of Je-
sus to rescue the Jewish nation and perpetuate it, he
came too late. These frequent convulsions were the
expiring struggles of a doomed people. Already the
prophecies hung low over the city. Death was in
the very air. The remnant of the people was to be
scattered up and down in the earth, as the wind chases
autumnal leaves. Jesus stood alone. He was ap-
parently but a peasant mechanic. That which was
dearest to his heart men cared nothing for ; that which
all men were eagerly pursuing was nothing to him.
He had no party, he could conciliate no interest. The
serpent of hatred was coiled and waiting ; and, though
it delayed to strike, the fang was there, ready and
venomous, as soon as his foot should tread upon it.
The rich were luxurious and self-indulgent. The
learned were not wise ; they were vain of an im-
mense acquisition of infinitesimal fribbles. The igno-
rant people were besotted, the educated class was
corrupt, the government was foreign, the Temple was
in the hands of factious priests playing a game of
worldly ambition. Who was on his side? At what
point should he begin his mission, and how? Should
he stand in Jerusalem and preach? Should he enter
the Temple, and announce to the grand council his
true character?
It was not the purpose of Jesus to present him-
self to the nation with sudden or dramatic outburst.
There was to be a gradual unfolding of his claims, of
the truth, and of his whole nature. In this respect he
174 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
conformed to the law of that world in which he was
infixed, and of that race with whose nature and con-
dition he had identified himself. We shall find him,
in the beginning, joining his ministry on to that of
John : we shall next see him taking up the religious
truths of the Old Testament which were common to
him and to the people, but cleansing them of their
grosser interpretations, and giving to them a spiritual
meaning not before susj^ected : then we shall find a
silent change of manner, the language and the bearing
of one who knows himself to be Divine : and finally,
toward the close of his work, we shall see the full
disclosure of the truth, his equality with the Father,
his sacrificial relations to the Jews and to all the world ;
and in connection with this last fact we shall hear the
annunciation of that truth most repugnant to a Jew, a
svffcring Messiah.
Not only shall we find this law of progressive de-
velopment exemplified in a general way, but we shall
see it in each minor element. His own nature and
claims, implied rather than asserted at first, he taught
with an increasing emphasis and fulness of disclosure
to the end of his ministry. His doctrine of spiritual
life, as unfolded in the private discourses with his dis-
ciples just before his Passion, and recorded in the five
chapters beginning with the twelfth of John's Gospel,
are remarkable, not alone for their spiritual depth
and fervor, but as showing how fixr his teachings had
by that time gone beyond the Sermon on the Mount.
The earlier and later teachings are in contrast, not in
respect to relative perfection, but in the order of de-
velopment. Both are perfect, but one as a germ and
the other as its blossom. Jesus observed in all his
THE OUTLOOK. 175
ministry that law of growth which he affirmed in re-
spect to the kingdom of Heaven. It is a seed, said he,
the smallest of all seeds when sown, but when it is
gro^vn it is a tree. At another time he distinguished
the very stages of growth : " First the blade, then
the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." (Mark
iv. 28.)
We are then to look for this unfolding process in
the teachings of Jesus. We shall find him gathering
up the threads of morality, already partly woven into
the moral consciousness of his time ; we shall see how
in his hands morality assumed a higher type, and was
made to spring from nobler motives. Then we shall
find the intimations of an interior and spiritual life
expanding and filling a larger sphere of thought, until
in the full radiance of his later teachings it dazzles
the eyes of his disciples and transcends their spiritual
capacity.
In like manner the divinity of Christ's own nature
and office was not made prominent at first ; but gradu-
ally it grew into notice, until during the last half-year
it assumed the air of sovereignty. In nothing is this
so strikingly shown as in the teaching of his own
personal relations to all true spiritual life in every
individual. It is sublime when God declares himself
to be the fountain of life. It would be insufferable
arrogance in a mere man. But by every form of as-
sertion, with incessant repetition, Jesus taught with
growing intensity as his death drew near, that in
him, and only in him, were the sources of spiritual
life. " Come unto me," " Learn of me," " Abide in
me," " Without me ye can do nothing." And yet, in
the midst of such incessant assertions of himself, he
176 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
declared, and all the world has conceded it, "I am
meek and lowly m heart."
There was a corresponding development in his criti-
cism of the prevailing religious life, and in the attacks
which he made upon the ruling classes. His miracles,
too, assumed a higher type from period to period;
and, although we cannot draw a line at the precise
periods of transition, yet no one can fail to mark how
much deeper was the moral significance of the mira-
cles wrought in the last few months of his life, than
that of those in the opening of his career. We are
not to look, then, for a ministry blazing forth at the
beginning in its full effulgence. "We are to see Jesus,
without signals or ostentation, taking up John's teach-
ing, and beginning to preach, " Repent, for the king-
dom of heaven is at hand " ; we are to wait for further
disclosures issuing naturally and gradually, in an as-
cending series. The whole life of Jesus was a true
and normal growth. His ministry did not come like
an orb, round and shining, perfect and full, at the
first: it was a regular and symmetrical development.
True, it differed from all other and ordinary human
growths, in that no part of his teaching was false or
crude. It was partial, but never erroneous. The first
enunciations were as absolutely true as the last ; but
he unfolded rudimentary truths in an order and in
forms suitable for their propagation upon the human
understanding.
It is in these views that we shall find a solution of
the seeming want of plan in the life of Jesus. There
is no element in it which answers to our ordinary
idea of a prearranged campaign. He knew that he
was a sower of seed, and not the reaper. It was of
THE OUTLOOK. 177
more importance that he should produce a powerful
spiritual impression, than that he should give an or-
ganized form to his followers. It was better that he
should develojD the germs of a Divine spiritual life,
than that he should work any immediate change in
the forms of society.
The Mosaic institutes had aimed at a spiritual
life in man by building up around him restrainmg
influences, acting thus upon the soul from the out-
side. Jesus transferred the seat of action to the
soul itself, and rendered it capable of self-control.
Others had sought to overcome and put down the ap-
petites and passions ; Jesus, by developing new forces
in the soul and giving Divine excitement to the spir-
itual nature, regulated the passions and harmonized
them with the moral ends of life. When once the
soul derived its highest stimulus from God, it might
safely be trusted to develop all its lower forces, which,
by subordination, became auxiliary. Jesus sought to
develop a whole and perfect manhood, nothing lost,
nothing in excess. He neither repelled nor underval-
ued secular thrift, social morality, civil order, nor the
fruits of an intellectual and aesthetic culture ; he did
not labor directly for these, but struck farther back at
a potential but as yet undisclosed nature in man, which
if aroused and brought into a normal and vital relation
with the Divine soul would give to all the earlier de-
veloped and lower elements of man's nature a more
complete control than had ever before been found, and
would so fertilize and fructify the whole nature that
the outward life would have no need of special pat-
terns. Children act from rules. Men act from prin-
ciples. A time will come when they will act from
12
178 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
intuitions, and right and wrong in the familiar matters
of life will be determined by the agreement or dis-
agreement of things with the moral sensibility, as
music and beauty in art already are first felt, and
afterwards reasoned upon and analyzed.
If this be a true rendering of Christ's method, it will
be ajoparent that all theories which imply that any out-
ward forms of society, or special elements of art and
industry, or the organization of a church, or the purifi-
cation of the household, or any other special and de-
tenninate external act or order of events or institu-
tions, were parts of his plan, will fail in appreciating
the one grand distinctive fact, namely, that it was
a psychological kingdom that he came to found. He
aimed not to construct a new system of morals or
of philosophy, but a new soul, with new capabilities,
under new spiritual influences. Of course an outward
life and form would be developed from this inspiration.
Men would still need governments, institutions, cus-
toms. But with a regulated and reinforced nature
they could be safely left to evolve these from their
own reason and experience. As much as ever, there
would be need of states, churches, schools. But for
none of these need any pattern be given. They were
left to be developed freely, as experience should
dictate. Government is inevitable. It is a univer-
sal constitutional necessity in man. There was no
more need of providing for that, than of providing
for sleep or for breathing. Life, if fully developed
and left free to choose, will find its way to all neces-
sary outward forms, in government, in society, and in
industry.
Therefore they utterly misconceive the genius of
THE OUTLOOK. 179
Christ's work who suppose that he aimed at the estab-
lishment of an organized church. Beyond the inci-
dental commands to his disciples to draw together and
maintain intimate social life, there is no special or dis-
tinctive provision for church organization. That was
left to itself As after events have shown, the tendency
to organize was already too strong. Religion has been
imprisoned in its own institutions. Perhaps the most
extraordinary contrast ever known to history is that
which exists between the genius of the Gospels and the
pompous claims of church hierarchies. Christians made
haste to repeat the mistakes of the Hebrews. Religion
ran rank to outwardness. The fruit, hidden by the
enormous growth of leaves, could not ripen. Spiritu-
ality died of ecclesiasticism. If the Church has been
the nurse, it has also been often the destroyer of
religion.
If Jesus came to found a church, never were actions
so at variance with purposes. There are no recorded
instructions to this end. He remained in the full com-
munion of the Jewish Church to the last. Nor did his
disciples or apostles dream of leaving the church of
their fathers. They went up with their countrymen,
at the great festivals, to Jerusalem. They resorted to
the Temple for worshij). They attempted to develop
their new life within the old forms. Little by httle,
and slowly, they learned by exjDerience that new wine
could not be kept in old bottles. The new life re-
quired and found better conditions, a freer conscience,
fewer rules, more liberty. For a short period the en-
franchised soul, in its new promised land, shone forth
with great glory ; but then, like the fathers of old,
believers fell back from liberty to superstition, and
180 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
for a thousand years have been in captivity to spir-
itual Babylon.
The captivity is drawing to a close. The Jerusa-
lem of the Spirit is descending, adorned as a bride
for the bridegroom. The new life in God is gath-
ering disciples. They are finding each other. Not
disdaining outward helps, they are learning that the
Spirit alone is essential. All creeds, churches, institu-
tions, customs, ordinances, are but steps upon which
the Christian plants his foot, that they may help him
to ascend to the perfect liberty in Christ Jesus.
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. Igl
CHAPTER IX.
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE.
If one considers that, after his experience in the
wilderness, Jesus seems for a period of some months
to have returned to private life, — that he neither went
to the Temple in Jerusalem, nor appeared before the
religious teachers of his people, nor even apparently
entered the Holy City, but abruptly dejDarted to Gali-
lee, — it may seem as if he had no plan of pro-
cedure, but waited until events should open the way
into his ministry.
But what if it was his purpose to refuse all public
life in our sense of that term ? What if he meant to
remain a private citizen, working as one friend would
with another, eschewing the roads of influence already
laid out, and going back to that simple personal power
which one heart has upon another in genial and friend-
ly contact ?
His power was to be, not with whole communities,
but with the individual, — from man to man ; and it
was to spring, not from any machinery of institution
wielded by man, nor from official position, but from
his own personal nature, and from the intrinsic force
of truth to be uttered. At the very beginning, and
through his whole career, we shall find Jesus clinging
to private life, or to jDublic life only in its transient
and spontaneous developments out of private life. He
182 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
taiio:lit from house to house. He never went amono-
crowds. They gathered about him, and dissolved
again after he had passed on. The pubhc roadside,
the synagogues, the princely mansion, the Temple, the
boat by the sea-shore, the poor man's cottage, were all
alike mere incidents, the accidents of time and place,
and not in any manner things to be depended upon
for influence. He was not an elder or a ruler in the
synagogue, nor a scribe or a priest, but strictly a
private citizen. He was in liis own simple self the
whole power.
The first step of Jesus in his ministry is a return
home to his mother. This is not to be looked at mere-
ly as a matter of sentiment ; it is characteristic of the
new dispensation which he came to inaugurate.
In the spiritual order that was now to be introduced
there were to be no ranks and classes, no public and
official life as distinguished from private and personal.
The Church was to be a household ; men were to be
brethren, " members one of another." God was made
known as the Father, magisterial in love.
Had Jesus separated himself from the common life,
even by assuming the garb and place of an authorized
teacher, had he affiliated with the Temple officers, had
he been in any way connected with a hierarchy, his
course would have been at variance with one aim of his
mission. It was the private life of the world to which
he came. His own personal life, his home life, his famil-
iar association with men, his social intercourse, formed
his true public career. He was not to break in upon
the world with the boisterous energy of warriors, —
" He shall not strive nor cry " ; nor was he to seek,
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 183
after the manner of ambitious orators, to dazzle the
people, — " His voice shall not be heard in the streets."
Without pressing unduly this prophecy of the Messiah,
it may be said that it discriminates between an ambi-
tious and noisy career, and a ministry that was to move
among men with gentleness, affability, sympathy, and
loving humility.
AVe shall lose an essential characteristic of both his
disposition and his djsjDensation, if we accustom our-
selves to think of Jesus as a public man, in our sense
of official eminence. We are to look for him among
the common scenes of daily life, not distinguished in
any way from the people about him, except in supe-
rior wisdom and goodness. It is true that he often
stood in public places, but only as any other Jew
might have done. He was never set apart in an"
manner after the usages of the priesthood. He cf, .le
back from artificial arrangements to nature. There is
great significance in the title by which he almost inva-
riably spoke of himself, — "the Son of Man." By this
title he emphasized his mission. He had descended
from God. He was born of woman, had joined himself
to the human family, and meant to cleave fast to his
kindred. To one conscious of his own Divinity, the
title "Son of Man" becomes very significant of the
value which he placed upon his union with mankind.
His personal and intimate connection with the great
body of the people, beginning with his early years,
was continued to the end.
It is not strange, then, that Jesus began his active
ministry with a return from the scene of his temptation
to his former home. He did not pause at Nazareth, but
either went with his mother or followed her to Cana,
184 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CUEIST.
where a wedding was to take place. There were two
Canas, — one now called Kefr Kenna, a small village
about four miles and a half northeast of Nazareth, and
Kana-el-JcUl, about nine miles north of Nazareth ; and
the best authorities leave it still uncertain in which
the first miracle of our Lord was performed. It may
be interesting, but it is not important, to detemune the
question.
The appearance of Jesus at the wedding, and his ac-
tive participation in the festivities, are full of meaning.
It is highly improbable that John the Baptist could
have been persuaded to appear at such a service.
For he lived apart from the scenes of common hfe, was
solitary, and even severe. His followers would have
been strongly inclined to fall in with the philosophy
nd practices of the Essenes. If so, the simple pleas-
Ui 3 and the ordinary occupations of common life would
be regarded as inconsistent with religion. Jesus had
just returned from John's presence. He had passed
through the ordeal of solitude and the temptation of
the wilderness. He had gathered three or four dis-
ciples, and was taking the first steps in his early career.
That the very first act should be an attendance, with
his disciples, by invitation, at a Jewish wedding, which
was seldom less than three and usually of seven days'
duration, and was conducted with most joyful fes-
tivities, cannot but be regarded as a significant tes-
timony.
The Hebrews were led by their religious institutions
to the cultivation of social and joyous habits. Their
great religious feasts were celebrated ^vith some days
of solemnity, but with more of festivity such as would
seem to our colder manners almost like dissipation.
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 185
In all nations the wedding of young people calls forth
sympathy. Among the Hebrews, from the earliest
times, nuptial occasions were celebrated with rejoicings,
in which the whole community took some part.
The scene comes before us clearly. The bride-
groom's house, or his father's, is the centre of festivity.
The bride and groom spend the day separately in se-
clusion, in confession of sin and rites of purgation. As
evening draws near, the friends and relatives of the
bride bring her forth from her parents' house in full
bridal apparel, with myrtle vines and garlands of flowers
about her head. Torches precede the company ; music
breaks out on every side. Besides the instruments
provided for the processions, songs greet them along the
way; for the street is lined with virgins, who yield to
the fair candidate that honor which they hope in time
for themselves. They cast flowers before her, and little
cakes and roasted ears of wheat. The street resounds
with gayety ; and as the band draws near the appointed
dwelling, the bridegroom and his friends come forth
to meet the bride and to conduct her into the house.
After some legal settlements have been perfected, and
the marriage service has been performed, a sumptuous
feast is provided, and the utmost joy and merriment
reign. Nor do the festivities terminate with the im-
mediate feast. A whole week is devoted to rejoicing
and gayety.
It must not be imagined, however, that such pro-
longed social enjoyment degenerated into dissipation.
In luxurious cities, and especially after commerce and
wealth had brought in foreign manners, the grossest
excesses came to prevail at great feasts; but the
common people among the old Hebrews were, in the
186 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
main, temperate and abstinent. That almost epidemic
drunkenness wliicli in modern times has prevailed
among Teutonic races, in cold climates, was unknown
to the great body of the Hebrew nation.
The sobriety and vigorous industry of the society
in which we have been educated indisposes us to sym-
pathize with such expenditure of time for social pur-
poses as was connnon among the Hebrews. We spare
a single day at long intervals, and then hasten back
to our tasks as if escaping from an evil. Weddhigs
among the poorest Jews, as we have said, seldom ab-
sorbed less than three days. , The ordinary term of
conviviality was seven days. Among men of wealth or
eminent station, the genial service not unfrequently
extended to fourteen days. During this time, neigh-
bors came and went. Those from a distance tarried
both day and night. The time was fdlod up with
entertainments suitable to the condition of the various
classes. The young employed the cool hours with
dances. The aged quietly looked on, or held tranquil
converse apart from the crowd. Nor was intellectual
provision wanting. Readings and addresses were then
miknown. In a land where philosopliy was as yet only
a collection of striking proverbs or ingenious enigmas,
it was deemed an intellectual exercise to propound
riddles and " dark sayings," and to call forth the exer-
cise of the imagination in giving solutions. These oc-
casions were not devoted, then, to a mere riot of merry-
making. They were the meetings of long-dispersed
friends, the gathering-points of connected families ; in
the absence of facilities for frequent intercourse, the
seven (lays of a weddiuijc feast Avould serve as a means
of intercommunion and the renewal of friendships ; and
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 187
it was peculiarly after the genius of the Hebrew people
that both religion and social intercourse should take
place with the accompaniments of abundant eating and
drinking. The table was loaded with provisions, the
best that the means of the parties could supply ; nor
was it unusual for the guests also to contribute to the
common stock.
There is no reason to presume that the wedding at
Cana was of less duration than the common period of
seven days; and it may be assumed, in the absence
of evidence to the contrary, that Jesus remained to the
end. It has been surmised that it was a near connec-
tion of his mother who was the host upon this occasion.
HoAvever that may be, she was actively engaged in the
management of the feast, kept herself informed of the
state of the provisions, sought to replenish them when
they were expended, and assumed familiar authority
over the servants, who appear to have obeyed her
implicitly.
Nothing could well be a greater violation of the
spirit of his people, and less worthy of him, than
the supposition that Jesus walked among the joyous
guests with a cold or disapproving eye, or that he held
himself aloof and was wrapped in his own meditations.
His whole life shows that his soul went out in sym-
pathy with the human life around him. His manners
were so agreeable and attractive that all classes of men
instinctively drew near to him. It needs not that we
imagine him breaking forth into effulgent gayety ; but
that he looked upon the happiness around him with
smiles it would be wrong to doubt. There are some
whose very smile carries benediction, and whose eye
sheds perpetual happiness.
188 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
But Jesus was not simply a genial guest. He had
chosen the occasion for the display of his first miracle.
It would seem that more guests had come to the wed-
ding than had been provided for, drawn, perhaps, from
day to day, in increasing numbers, by the presence of
Jesus. The wine gave out. The scene as recorded
by John is not without its remarkable features. The
air of Mary in applying to her son seems to point
either to some previous conversation, or to the knowl-
edge on her part that he possessed extraordinary
powers, and that he might be expected to exercise
them.
" They have no [more] wine."
Jesus said unto her, " Woman, what have I to do
with thee ? mine hour is not yet come."
Interpreted according to the impression which such
language would make were it employed thus abruptly
in our day, this reply must be admitted to be not only
a refusal of his mother's request, but a rebuke as well,
and in language hardly less than harsh. But inter-
preted through the imjDression which it produced upon
his mother, it was neither a refusal nor a rebuke ; for
she acted as one who had asked and obtained a favor.
She turned at once to the servants, with the command,
" Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." This is not
the lanoruao-e of one who felt rebuked, but of one
DO -'
whose request had been granted.
In houses of any pretension it was customary to
make provision for the numerous washings, both of
the person and of vessels, which the Pharisaic usages
required. (Mark vii. 4.) In this instance there were
six large water-vessels, holding two or three frJcins
apiece. The six " water-pots of stone," therefore, had
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 189
a capacity of about one himclred and twenty-six gal-
lons.^
These vessels were filled with water, and at the will
of the Lord the water became wine. When the master
of the feast tasted it, it proved so much superior to the
former supply as to call forth his commendation. The
quantity of wine has excited some criticism ; but it
should be borne in mind that in Palestine, where light
wines were so generally a part of the common drink,
four barrels of wine would not seem a supply so ex-
traordinary as it does to people in non-wine-growing
countries, who have been accustomed to see fiery wines,
in small quantities and at high prices. It must also be
remembered that the company was large, or else the
provision would not have given out, and that it was
without doubt to be yet larger from day to day, the
miracle itself tending to bring together all the neigh-
borhood. It is to be considered also that wine, unlike
bread, is not perishable, but grows better with age ; so
that, had the quantity been far greater than their pres-
ent need, it would not be wasted. On the other hand,
^ The term " firkin," in our English version, is the Greek metretes, corre-
sponding, according to Josephus, to the Hebrew bath. The Attic metretes
held 8 gallons and 7.4 pints. The water-vessels are said in the Gospel to
have held between two and three fii'kins, or metretes, apiece, which would
be somewhere between 17 and 25 gallons. Calling it 21 gallons, six of them
would be 126 gallons. The writer in Smith's Bible Dictionary places the
quantity at 110 gallons; but Wordsworth gives 136. The lowest estimate
which we have seen puts it at 60 gallons, but the weight of authority places
it as in the text.
It has been remarked, that the fact that these vessels were exclusively
appropriated to water, and never used for holding wine, will prevent the
slipping over this miracle by saying that wine was already in the vessels,
and that water was only added to it. The quantity, too, made it impos-
sible that it should have been wrought in an underhanded and collusive
manner. It is the very first of a long series of nuracles, and one of the most
indisputable.
190 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
there were reasons why the supply should be gen-
erous. The wine had once given out. The strange
supply said to every one, There can be no second fail-
ure. Abundance goes with power wherever the Divine
hand works.
That the wine created by our Lord answered to the
fermented wine of the country would never have been
doubted, if the exigencies of a modern and most benefi-
cent reformation had not created a strong but unwise
disposition to do away with the imdoubted example of
our Lord. But though the motive was good, and the
effort most ingeniously and plausibly carried out, the
result has failed to satisfy the best scholars ; and it is
the almost universal conviction of those competent to
form a judgment, that our Lord did both make and
use wines which answer to the fermented wines of the
present day in Palestine.^
^ The editors of the Congregational Review, No. 54, pp. 398, 399, in a
review of Comrmmion Wine and Bible Temperance, by Kev. William M.
Thayer, pubUshed by the National Temperance Society, 18G9, use the
following language : —
" We respect the zeal of Mr. Thayer, and do not question his .sincerity.
But we have gone over the arguments he has reproduced ; we have con-
sidered his so-called evidence, which has so often done duty in its narrow
range ; we have pondered the discussions of Lees, Nott, Ritchie, and Duf-
field, before him ; what is more, we have gone over the Greek and Hebrew
Scrijjtures carefully for ourselves ; have sifted the testimony of travellers
who knew, and those Avho did not know ; have corresponded with mission-
aries and conferred with Jewish Rabbis on this subject; and if there is any-
thing in Biblical literature on which we can speak confidently, we have no
doubt that Dr. Laurie is right and that Rev. Mr. Thayer is wrong." (Mr.
Thayer's book is an attempt to show that there are two kinds of wine
spoken of in the Bible, one of which is intoxicating and the other not.)
" In these views we are thoroughly supported. If we mistake not, the
Biblical scholarship of Andovcr, Pi-inceton, Newton, Chicago, and New
Haven, as well as Smith's Bible Dictionary and Kitto's Biblical Cyclopcedia,
is with us. One of the most learned and devout scholars of the country
recently said to us : ' None but a third-rate scholar adopts the view that
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 191
Drunkenness has prevailed in all ages and in all
countries, but it has been the vice of particular races
far more than of others. In the earlier periods of
the world, all moral remedial influences were rela-
tively weak. With the progressive development of
man we have learned to throw off evils by ways
which were scarcely practicable in early days. So it
has been with the sin of drunkenness. Christian men
proposed, some half a century ago, voluntarily to ab-
stain from the use, as a diet or as a luxury, of all
that can intoxicate. A revolution of public sentiment
gradually followed in respect to the drinking usages of
society. This abstinence has been urged upon various
grounds. Upon the intrinsic nature of all alcoholic
stimulants temperance men have been divided in opin-
ion, some taking the extreme ground that alcohol is
a poison, no less when developed by fermentation and
remaining in chemical combination than when by dis-
tillation it exists in separation and concentration, — a
statement in which some physiologists of note have
concurred. But these views have never won favor with
the great body of physiologists, and the more recent in-
vestigators are farther from admitting them than their
predecessors. Yet it is certain that the discussions and
investigations have destroyed, it may be hoped forever,
the extravagant notions which have prevailed in all
countries as to the benefits of wine and strong drinks.
It is admitted that they are always injurious to many
constitutions, that they are medically useful in far less
tlie Bible describes two kinds of wine.' The National Temperance So-
ciety lias done its best to create a different popular belief, if not to cast
odium on those who do not accept its error. We regret it, for the tem-
perance cause can be carried on by sound arguments and fair means, and
all false methods must recoil at last."
192 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
degrees and in fewer instances than hitherto has been
supposed, and that to ordinary persons in good health
they are not needful, adding neither any strength nor
any vitality which could not be far better attained by
wholesome food and suitable rest.
A certain advantage would be gained in the advo-
cacy of total abstinence if it could be shown that any
use of wine is a sin against one's own nature. But
the moral power of example is immeasurably greater
if those who hold that wine and its colleagues are not
unwholesome when used sjDaringly shall yet, as a free-
will offering to the weak, cheerfully refrain from their
use. To relinquish a wrong is praiseworthy ; but to
yield up a personal right for benevolent purposes is
far more admirable.
There have not been many spectacles of equal moral
impressiveness, since the coming of Christ, than the
example of millions of Christian men, in both hemi-
spheres, cheerfully and enthusiastically giving up the
use of intoxicating drink, that by their example they
might restrain or win those wdio were in danger of
ruinous temptation. If in any age or nation the evil
of intemperance is not general nor urgent, the entire
abstinence from wine may be wise for peculiar individ-
uals, but it can have no general moral influence, since
the conditions would be wanting which called for self-
sacrifice.
Had Jesus, living in our time, beheld the wide waste
and wretchedness arising from inordinate appetites,
can any one doubt on which side he would be found ?
"Was not his whole life a superlative giving up of his
own rights for the benefit of the fliUen ? Did he not
teach that customs, institutions, and laws must yield to
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 193
the inherent sacreclness of man ? In his own age he
ate and drank as his countrymen did, judging it to
be safe to do so. But this is not a condemnation of
the course of those who, in other lands and under
different circumstances, wholly abstain from wine and
strong drink, for their own good and for the good of
others. The same action has a different moral sig-
nificance in different periods and circumstances. Jesus
followed the harmless custom of his country ; when,
in another age and country, the same custom had be-
come mischievous, would he have allowed it? "All
things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expe-
dient." (1 Cor. vi. 12.) "It is good neither to eat
flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy
brother .... is made weak." (Rom. xiv. 21.)
The example of Christ beyond all question settles
the doctrine, that, if abstinence from wine is practised,
it must be a voluntary act, a cheerful surrender of a
thing not necessarily in itself harmful, for the sake of a
true benevolence to others. But if it be an extreme
to wrest the example of Christ in favor of the total-
abstinence theories of modern society, it is a yet more
dangerous one to employ his example as a shield and
justification of the drinking usages which have proved
the greatest curse ever known to man. Nor can we
doubt that a voluntary abstinence from all that intoxi-
cates, as a diet or a luxury, by all persons in health,
for moral reasons, is in accordance with the very spirit
of the gospel. The extraordinary benefits which have
accompanied and followed the temperance refonnation
mark it as one of the great victories of Christianity.
The scenes at Cana are especially grateful to us as
13
194 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
disclosing the inward feeling of Jesus respecting social
life, as well as the peculiar genius of Christianity.
He began his mission to others by going home to his
mother. The household was his first temple : the
opening of a wedded life engaged his first sympathy,
and the promotion of social and domestic happiness
was the inspiration of his first miracle. We are espe-
cially struck with his direct production of enjoyment.
In marked contrast with the spirit of many of the
reigning moral philosophers, who despised pleasure,
Christ sought it as a thing essentially good. Recog-
nizing the truth that goodness and virtue are the
sources of continuous happiness, Jesus taught that
gladness is one of the factors of virtue, and none the
less so because sorrow is another, each of them play-
ing around the forms and events of practical life as do
light and shadow in a picture. Far more important
than we are apt to consider among the secondary in-
fluences which have maintained Christianity itself in
this world, in spite of the corruption of its doctrines
and the horrible cruelty of its advocates, has been its
subtile and indestructible sympathy both with sufier-
ing and with joy. It sounds the depths of the one, and
rises to the height of the other. Its power has never
lain in its intellectual elements, but in its command of
that nature which lies back of all j^hilosophy or volun-
tary activity. It breathes the breath of the Almighty
upon the elements of the soul, and again order and life
spring from darkness and chaos.
Through the household, as through a gate, Jesus en-
tered upon his ministry of love. Ever since, the Chris-
tian home has been the refuo-e of true relisrion. Here
it has had its purest altars, its best teachers, and a life
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 195
of self-denying love in all gladness, which is consti-
tuted a perpetual memorial of the nourishing love of
God, and a symhol of the great mystery of sacrifice by
which love perpetually lays down its life for others.
The religion of the Synagogue, of the Temple, and of
the Church would have perished long ago but for the
ministry of the household. It was fit that a ministry
of love should begin at home. It was fit, too, that love
should develop joy. Joyful love inspires self-denial,
and keeps sorrow wholesome. Love civilizes conscience,
refines the passions, and restrains them. The bright
and joyful opening of Christ's ministry has been gen-
erally lost sight of The darkness of the last great
tragedy has thrown back its shadow upon the morning
hour of his life. His course was rounded out, like a
perfect day. It began with the calmness and dewiness
of a morning, it came to its noon with fervor nnd
labor, it ended in twilight and darkness, but rose again
without cloud, unsetting and immortal.
For two years Jesus pursued his ministry in his own
Galilee, among scenes fiimiliar to his childhood, every-
where performing the most joyful work which is pos-
sible to this world, — that of bringing men out of
trouble, of inspiring hunger for truth and righteous-
ness, of cheering the hopeless and desj)onding, be-
sides works of mercy, almost without number, directed
to the relief of the physical condition of the poor and
neglected.
The few disciples who had accompanied Jesus, and
were with him at the marriage, were drawn to him by
that miracle with renewed admiration. The bands that
at first held them to their Master must have been slight.
Being rude, unlettered men, accustomed to live by
196 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
their senses only, they were not jQi quahfied to go
without important external adjuvants. As there was
no organization, no school or party, no separate religious
forms, but only this one peasant prophet, lately a me-
chanic, whose words and bearing had greatly fascinated
them, it was to be expected that they would soon de-
spond and doubt if something tangible were not given
them ; and this miracle answered their need. The effect
produced on their minds was thought worthy of record :
" And his disciples believed on him." Of all the re-
maining crowd of guests, of the host and his household,
of the bridal pair and their gay companions, nothing
is said. Probably the miracle was the wonder of the
hour, and then passed with the compliments and con-
gratulations of the occasion into the happy haze of
iiiemory, in which particulars are lost, and only a pleas-
ing mist overhangs the too soon receding past.
But it seems certain that all of the immediate
household of Jesus were brought for a time under
his influence. For when, soon after these events, he
went down to Capernaum, upon the northwestern coast
of the Sea of Galilee, all went with him^ — "he, and
his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples." (John
ii. 12.) Nothing is disclosed of the object of this
visit, or of his occupation while there. It is not
improbable, though it is but a supposition, that he
had formerly plied his trade in Capernaum, while
he was yet living by manual labor. After he was
rejected and treated with brutal ignominy by his
own townsmen of Nazareth, he made Capernaum his
home. It is probable that his mother, sister, and
brethren removed thither, and had there a house to
which Jesus resorted as to a home when he was in
THE HOUSEHOLD GATE. 197
Capernaum.^ It is believed that it was a city of con-
siderable population and importance. It was always
called a " city/' had its synagogue, in which Jesus often
taught, was a Roman garrison town and a customs sta-
tion. It is probable that it was on the lake shore, near
the city, that Jesus saw and called Simon Peter and his
brother Andrew, while they were "mending their nets."
Matthew — who resided there, was a publican, and was
summoned by the Lord from this odious occupation to
discipleship — says, with perhaps a little pride, speak-
ing of Capernaum : " And he entered into a ship, and
passed over, and came into Jiis own cityT Here too he
healed the demoniac (Mark i. 21-28), cured the cen-
turion's servant (Luke vii. 1), the paralytic (Mark ii. 3),
and the man with an unclean devil (Mark i. 23, Luke
iv. 33), and raised Jairus's daughter (Mark v. 22). It
was here that the nobleman's son lay when in Cana
the healing word went forth which restored him. It
was at Capernaum that, when tribute was demanded
of him, he sent Peter to find in a fish's mouth the piece
of money required (Matt. xvii. 24). Here he healed
Peter's wife's mother, who "lay sick of a fever" ; and
Tristram, in arguing for the site of Capernamn at the
"Round Fountain," remarks that fevers are prevalent
there to this day. It was in or near this city that
many of our Lord's most striking parables were ut-
tered,— "the sower," "the tares," "the goodly pearls,"
" the net cast into the sea," and, notably, " the Sermon
on the Mount." It was in Capernaum that he dis-
coursed on fasting (Matt. ix. 10), and exposed the
^ Grove says, in Smith's Bible Dictionary, that the phrase in Mark ii. 1,
" in the house," has in the Greek the force of " at home." So, in modern
languages, the French a la maison, the German zu Hause, the Italian alia
casa, etc.
198 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
frivolous customs and vain traditions of the Pharisees
(Matt. XV. 1, etc.). Here also occurred the remarkable
discussion recorded by John only (John vi. 22-71),
and the discourse upon humility, with a "little child"
for the text (Mark ix. 33-50).
Jerusalem is more intimately associated with the
solemn close of Christ's hfe, but no place seems to
have had so much of his time, discourse, and mira-
cles as Capernaum. And yet nowhere was he less
successful in winning the people to a S23iritual life,
or even to any considerable attention, save the tran-
sient enthusiasm excited by a miracle. The intense
cry of sorrow uttered by Jesus over Jerusalem has its
counterpart in his righteous indignation over the city
by the sea : " And thou, Capernaum, which art ex-
alted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell ; for
if the mighty works which have been done in thee had
been done in Sodom, it would have remained until
this day It shall be more tolerable for the land
of Sodom, in the day of judgment, than for thee."
(Matt. xi. 23, 24.) Even if Jesus wrought miracles at
this first visit to Capernaum, immediately after the
wedding scene at Cana, no record or notice of them
appears in the narrative, except that, afterward, when
he was in Nazareth, he heard, doubtless, the whisper-
mgs and taunts of his impudent townsmen, and re-
plied : " Ye will surely say unto me this proverb,
Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard
done in Capernaum do also here in thy country." We
may infer, then, that the whole country was full of
the rumor of his miracles during his brief stay on this
his earliest visit to Capernaum.
Although the woes denounced against "his own
T3E HOUSEHOLD GATE. 199
city" were designed to reach its citizens rather than
the streets and dwelhngs of the city itself, yet they
seem to have overflowed and fallen with crushing
weight upon the very stones of the town. The plain
of Genesareth and the Sea of Galilee are still there,
as when Christ made them familiar by his daily foot-
steps along their border. But the cities, — they are
utterly j^erished ! Among several heaps of shapeless
stones upon the northeast coast of the Sea of Gahlee,
for hundreds of years, geographers and antiquaries
have groped and dug in vain. Which was Bethesda,
which Chorazin or Capernaum, no one can tell to this
day. Not Sodom, under the waters of the Dead Sea,
is more lost to sight than the guilty cities of that other
plain, Genesareth.
"And they continued there not many days." The
Passover being at hand, Jesus went to Jerusalem, and
there next we must see him and hear his voice.
200 THE LIFE OF JESUS. THE CHRIST.
CHAPTER X.
THE FIRST JUDiEAN MINISTRY.
Twelve tribes settled Palestine and a narrow strip
of territory east of the river Jordan. The tribid spirit
was strong. Had there been no j)rovision for keeping
up a common national Hfe, the Israelites would have
been liable to all the evils of a narrow and obstinate
provincial spirit. There were neither schools to pro-
mote intellio-ence nor books to feed it. Modern na-
tions, through the newspapers and swift tracts, keep
their people conversant with the same ideas at the
same time. Every week sees the millions of this con-
tinent thinkino- and talkino; of the same events, and
discussing the same policies or interests. But no such
provision for a common popular education was pos-
sible in Palestine.
The same result, however, was sought by the great
Lawgiver of the Desert by means of a circulation of
the people themselves. Three times in each year
every male inhabitant of the land who was not legally
impure, or hindered by infirmity or sickness, was com-
manded to appear in Jerusalem, and for a week to
engage in the solemn or joyful services of the Tem-
ple. The great occasions were the Passover, the
Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. It is proba-
ble that the first and last of these were borrowed
from celebrations already existing among other nations
THE FIRST JUD^AN MINISTRY. 201
of antiquity, and primarily had reference to the course
of nature. The seasons of seed-sowing and harvesting
would naturally furnish points for religious and social
festivals. We still retain a vestige of these festivals
in the melancholy Fast-day of New England and in the
Thanksgiving-day of the nation ; so that these simple
primitive observances of the vernal and autumnal posi-
tions of the sun seem likely to outlive all more elab-
orate institutions. But if Moses borrowed festivals
already in vogue, it is certain that he gave new asso-
ciations to them by making them commemorate cer-
tain great events in the history of the Israelites.
The feast of the Passover was kept in remembrance
of the safety of the Jews on that awful night when
Jehovah smote the first-born of every family in Egypt,
but passed over the dwellings of his own people, and
forbade the angel of death to strike any of their
households. The event itself marked an epoch in Jew-
ish history. The secondary benefits of its celebration,
however, were primary in moral importance. To be
taken away from home and sordid, cares ; to be thrown
into a mighty stream of pilgrims that moved on from
every quarter to Jerusalem; to see one's own country-
men from every part of Palestine, and Avitli them to
offer the same sacrifices, in the same place, by a
common ministration ; to utter the same psalms, and
mingle in the same festivities, — could not but pro-
duce a civilizing influence far stronger than would re-
sult from such a course in modern times, when society
has so much better means of educating its people.
It was not far from the time of the Passover that
Jesus went to Capernaum, and his stay there was ap-
parently shortened by his desire to be in Jerusalem
202 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
at this solemn festival. Already lie beheld among his
countrymen joreparations for the journey. Pilgrims
were passing through Capernaum. The great road
along the western shore of the Lake of Genesareth
was filled with groups of men going toward Jerusalem.
Probably Jesus joined himself to the company; nor can
any one who has noticed his cheerful and affectionate
disjDOsition doubt that he exerted upon his chance com-
panions that winning influence which so generally
brought men about him in admiring familiarity.
K he pursued the route east of the Jordan, crossing
again near the scene of his baptism, and ascending by
tKe way of Jericho and Bethany, he approached Jeru-
salem from the east. From this quarter Jerusalem
breaks upon the eye with a beauty which it has not
when seen from any other direction. At this time,
too, he would behold swarming with people, not the
city only, but all its neighborhood. Although it was
the custom of all jDious Jews to entertain their country-
men at the great feasts, yet no city could hold the
numbers. The fields were white with tents. The hills
round about were covered as with an encamped army.
Josephus says that at the Passover A. d. 65, there were
three million Jews in attendance, and that in the reign
of Nero there were on one occasion two million seven
himdred thousand ; and even greater numbers have
been recorded. But if the half of these were present,
it is plain that the whole region around Jerusalem,
together with near villages, must have been over full.
Eight before him, as he came over the Mount of
Olives, shone forth the Temple, whose foundations rose
sheer from the precipitous rocks on the eastern side
of Jerusalem, and whose white marble summits gUt-
THE FIRST JUD^AN MINISTRY. 203
tered in the sun higher than the highest objects in
the city itself.
We should dismiss from our minds all preconcep-
tions of the appearance of the renowned Temple,
whether based upon classic temples or upon modern
cathedrals or churches. It resembled none of them,
but stood by itself, without parallel or likeness either
in structure or method, as it certainly stood alone
among all temples in its wonderful uses. It was
not so much a building as a system of structures ; one
quadrangle within another, the second standing upon
higher ground than the outermost, and the Temple
proper upon a position highest of all, and forming the
architectural climax of beauty, as it certainly stood
highest in moral sacredness. The TemjDle of Solomon
was originally built upon the rocky heights on the east
side of Jerusalem, and was separated from the city by a
deep ravine. The heights not affording sufficient room
for all the outbuildings, the royal architect built up
a wall from the valley below and filled in the enclosed
S]Dace with earth. Other additions continued to be
made, until, when Herod had finished the last Temple,
— that one which shone out upon Jesus and the pil-
grims coming over the Mount of Olives, — the whole
space, including the tower of Antonia, occupied about
nineteen acres. The Temple, then, was not a single
building, like the Grecian temples or like modern
cathedrals, but a system of concentric enclosures or
courts, — a kind of sacerdotal citadel, of which the
Temple j^roper, though the most splendid part of it,
and lifted high above all the rest, was in space and
bulk but a small part. In approaching the sacred
mount, the Jew first entered the outer court, called
204 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
the Court of the Gentiles, not because it was set apart
for them, but because Gentiles, rigorously excluded
from every other portion of the Temple enclosures,
were permitted, with all others, to enter there. This
outer quadrangle, taken separately from the residue
of the Temple system, was remarkable for its magni-
tude, its magnificence, and the variety of its uses.
Although its walls were elevated, yet, standing upon
a lower level, they did not hide the interior courts,
with their walls, gates, and adornments. On the in-
ner side of the walls of this outer court extended
porticos or cloisters with double rows of white marble
Corinthian columns. The ceiling was flat, finished
with cedar, and nearly forty feet in height above the
floor. But these cloisters were quite eclipsed by the
magnificence of the Stoa Basilica, or Royal Porch, on
the south side. It consisted of a nave and two aisles,
six hundred feet in length, formed by four rows of
white marble columns, forty columns in each row.
The breadth of the central space was forty-five feet,
and its height one hundred. The side spaces were
thirty feet wide and fifty in height. This impressive
building was unlike any other, in that it was wholly
open on the side toward the Temple ; it was connected
with the city and the king's palace by a bridge thrown
across the ravine. This vast arcade was a grand resort
for all persons of leisure who repaired to the Temple,
a kind of ecclesiastical Exchano-e, somewhat analoo:ous
to the Grecian Agora or the Roman Forum ; a place
of general resort for public, literary, or professional
business. Some parts of it were appropriated to syna-
gogical purposes. It was here that Jesus was accus-
tomed to teach the people and to hold discourse with
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THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 305
CHAPTER XIV.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. — THE BEATITUDES.
The customs of his country would naturally lead
Jesus to be much abroad, and he seems to have had
a peculiar love for the open fields. His journeys, his
habits of teaching by the way, his frequent resorting
to the sea-side and to the solitude of the hills, impress
one with the belief that he loved the open air far
more than the house or the street. It is certain that
while at Capernaum he had sought out places of se-
clusion, and had his own familiar haunts. These were
not simply for rest to the body, but also for medita-
tion and for communion with his Father. Wherever
he went, Jesus found out these natural sanctuaries ;
while for the benefit of others he often taught in
synagogues and in the Temple, for his own refresh-
ment he loved better the wilderness, the lake-shore,
the hill-top, the shaded ravine, or the twilight of the
olive-groves.
Such a resort he found on the summit of Mount
Hattin, a hill rising from the plain about seven miles
southwesterly from Capernaum. It was more an up-
land than a mountain. The two horns, or summits,
rise only sixty feet above the table-lands which con-
stitute the base, and the whole elevation is but about
a thousand feet above the level of the sea. From the
summit toward the east one may look over the Sea of
20
806 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Galilee, and northward, along the broken ranges, to the
snow-clad peaks of Lebanon.^
Returning from a preaching tour, Jesus, and with him
the immense and motley throng that now everywhere
pressed upon him, reached this neighborhood at even-
ing. Not waiting for his voluntary blessings, the mul-
titudes sought to touch his very garments, that they
might receive benefit from that virtue which seemed
to emanate from his person. Gliding from among
them as the shadows fell, he hid himself from their
importunity in some part of the mountain. Here he
spent the night in prayer.
There is no part of the history of Jesus that
' " This mountain, or bill, — for it only rises sixty feet above the plain, —
is that known to pilgrims as the Mount of tbe Beatitudes, the supposed
scene of tbe Sermon on the Mount. Tbe tradition cannot lay claim to
any early date ; it was in all probability suggested first to tbe Crusaders by
its remarkable situation. But that situation so strikingly coincides with the
intimations of tbe Gospel narrative as .almost to force the inference that in
this instance the eyes of those who selected the spot were for once rightly
directed. It is the only height seen in this direction from tbe shores of the
Lake of Genesareth. The plain on which it stands is easily accessible
from the lake, and from that plain to the summit is but a few minutes' walk.
The platform at the top is evidently suitable for the collection of a multi-
tude, and corresponds precisely to the ' level place ' (Luke vi. 1 7, mis-
translated ' plain ') to which he would ' come down ' as from one of its
higher horns to address the people. Its situation is central both to the
peasants of the Galilean bills and the fishermen of the Galilean lake, be-
tween which it stands, and would therefore be a natural resort both to
Jesus and bis disciples (Matthew iv. 25 — v. 1) when they retired for
solitude from tbe shores of tbe sea, and also to the crowds who assembled
' from Galilee, from Dccapolis, from Jerusalem, from Juda2a, and from be-
yond Jordan.' None of the other mountains in the neighborhood could
answer equally well to this description, inasmuch as they are merged into
the uniform barrier of hills round the lake, whereas this stands separate, —
' the mountain,' — which alone could lay claim to a distinct name, with the
exception o^ the one height of Tabor, which is too distant to answer the
requirements." — Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, pp. 360, 361 (2d ed.
368, 369).
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 307
stirs the imagination more profoundly than these sol-
itary nights, in lonely places, spent in prayer. It
surely was not a service of mere recitation, nor such
implorations as the soul, wounded by sin, full of fear
and remorse, pours out before God. We must con-
ceive of it as a holy conference with God. He who
came down from heaven again returns to its com-
munion. Weighed down and impaired by evil, the
soul of man sometimes rises above the consciousness
of its bodily condition, and rejoices in an almost ac-
complished liberty. Much more may we suppose that
in these hours of retirement the sinless soul of the
Saviour, loosed from all consciousness of physical fa-
tigue, hunger, or slumberous languor, rejoined its noble
companions, tasted again its former liberty, and walked
with God. But we can hardly suppose that in these
exalted hours he forgot those who all day long tasked
his sympathy. Did not he who on the cross prayed
for his enemies, on the mountain pray for his friends ?
Did not he who now " ever liveth to make interces-
sion " for his followers intercede often, when he was
with them, for the throng of ignorant, impoverished,
bewildered people that swarmed about his footsteps ?
Neither Mark nor John mentions the Sermon on the
Mount, which was delivered on the morninsr followins:
this retirement. Luke gives a condensed report of it,
adding, however, the woes which correspond to the
Beatitudes. Matthew gives by far the fullest recital
of it. Luke says that he stood upon the plain (or,
a level place), but Matthew, that he went up out of
the plain to the mountain, and there delivered the
discourse. When, after a night of prayer, Jesus came
down to the lower parts of the hill, he found there the
308 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
great crowds which the day before had attended hnn.
Nor is it unlikely that he addressed to them words
of instruction. Then, withdrawing higher up the hill,
accoinj)anied by the Apostles and by numbers of his
general disciples, he sat down, as was the manner of
Jewish instructors, and delivered the discourse record-
ed by Matthew. Luke, not having been a witness
of the scene, and manifestly giving but a partial and
general account of it, naturally speaks of the sermon
as delivered on the plain, because the multitude was
there, and because Jesus came down and began his
instructions there. Matthew, who was present as one
of the recently selected Apostles, gives the main dis-
course of the day, and states also, that, on account of
the multitude, Jesus retired farther up the mountain
before delivering it. But though addressed to his
more immediate disciples, it is not to be supposed
that they alone heard the discourse. It was natural
that many of the throng should follow them. This
would be especially the case with those in whose
hearts the word had begun to excite a spiritual hun-
ger, and who, though not ready to call themselves
disciples, lost no opportunity of increasing their
knowledge.
The opinion that Matthew collected from his Mas-
ter's various teachings at different times the ele-
ments of the Sermon on the Mount, and arranged
them into one discourse, although formerly hold by
many, and by one of no less repute than Calvin, has
lost ground, and is now taught by only a few. The
fact that portions of the matter of this sermon ap-
pear in the other Gospels as spoken under different
circumstances may make it probable that Jesus re-
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 309
peated important truths or striking illustrations to
different audiences.^ It is not, therefore, unlikely that
portions of the Sermon on the Mount were thus de-
livered elsewhere and under other circumstances.
That contrast between the Sermon on the Mount
and the giving of the law on Sinai, which from an
early day it has been the delight of commentators to
suggest, has in fact more reason than one is likely
at first to suppose. No contrast could be greater
than the gaunt and barren wilderness of Sinai and
the luxuriant fields of Galilee about the Sea of Ge-
nesareth ; nor could the blighted peaks of Sinai well
have a more absolute contrast than in the fruitful
slopes of Hattin, which in successive ledges declined
toward the lake, at every step beautiful with diver-
sified vegetation and redolent with the odors of fruits
and blossoms. If the more ancient assembly were
taking the first steps from a servile existence to a
national life of independence, so the multitudes that
thronged to hear the Sermon on the Mount were about
to be inducted into a new spiritual life. The law given
from Sinai was a law of morality, and chiefly concerned
the outward conduct. The Sermon on the Mount is
likewise a discourse of .morality, but transcendently
higher than that which was written upon the tables of
stone. The root of morality is always the same, but
at different stages of its growth it puts forth different
developments. In the early and rude state of nations
it concerns itself with outward affairs, rigorously guards
the laws by which alone society can exist, and pre-
' Compare Matthew v. 18, and Luke xii. 58; Matthew vi. 19-21, and
Luke xii. 33 ; Matthew vi. 24, and Luke xvi. 13 ; Matthew vii. 13, and Luke
xiii. 24 ; Matthew vii. 22, and Luke xiii. 25-27.
310 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
serves the life, the person, and the jDroperty of the citi-
zen. As civiKzation refines men's nature, and brino-s
into power more of reason and of moral sentiment,
morality, still guarding external things, adds to its
charge the interior qualities of the disposition, and
holds men responsible, not only for actions, but for the
motives of action. It extends its sway over the realm
of thought, emotion, and the will. Thus it adds prov-
ince to province, until the boundary between morality
and the purest spiritual religion is indistinguishable ;
and men at length see that morality, in the ordinary
sense of the term, is rehgion applied to human con-
duct, while religion is but morality acting in the
sphere of the sj^iritual sentiments.
Jesus came to bring a new growth to the old roots,
to bring into bloom that which had only shown leaves,
and into fruit that which had hitherto only blossomed.
All the superstitions and burdensome ceremonials
which overlaid the simplicity of the original statutes
of Moses were to be rescinded, and the machinery of
the Mosaic Law itself, not the moral element of it, was
to be abrogated. But that great law of universal love
which w\as to bind men to each other, and all of them
to God, Jesus declared to be p.t the foundation of the
Jewish religion. The whole civil and ceremonial sys-
tem of the Hebrews aimed at the production of uni-
versal love.
One would scarcely know from the Sermon on the
Mount whether the Jews had altar or temple, priests or
ritual. The pure wheat is here garnered ; the straw and
chaff, so needful for its growth, but now in its ripe-
ness so useless, and even pernicious, were cleared away.
It is a discourse of the past for the sake of the future.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 311
To interpret the Sermon on the Mount as the
charter of Christianity, is to misconceive not only this
discourse, but the very nature of Christianity itself,
which is not a system of new truths, but a higher
development of existing forces.
The fulness of time had come. Man was to be lifted
to a higher plane, and made accessible to more power-
ful influences than could be exerted through the old
dispensation. Out of that grand renewal of human
nature there would spring up truths innumerable, the
products of Christianity. But Christianity itself was
not a system of truths, nor the result of a system of
truths, but a name for living forces. It was a new
dispensation of power, an efflux of the Divine Spirit,
developing the latent sjDiritual forces in man. It
was the kingdom of God among men. It was like
the diffusion of a new and more fervid climate over
a whole continent. A development and perfection
would follow, never before known, and impossible to
a lower temperature. The one silver thread which
runs through the Gospels and the Epistles, and binds
them into unity, is the indwelling of the Divine Spirit
in the human soul, and the enlarged scope and power
of human life by reason of it.
John saw the radiant kingdom descending when he
cried, " There cometh one mightier than I after me,
.... he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost."
And when Jesus came, the same truth was thrown
forward in advance of all others : " The kingdom
of heaven is at hand. Cast out all evil ! Lay open
your souls to the Divine coming ! " Repentance and
forgiveness were not the gospel. The kingdom of
God among men, an exaltation of the race by the
312 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Divine union with it, the wisdom of God and the
power of God unto salvation, — this was the good
news.
But the Sermon on the Mount is deficient in pre-
cisely these elements. It has in it no annunciation
of a new dispensation. That flame of fire, the Spirit
of God, is not mentioned. Jesus does not there claim
for himself any vital relation to the human soul;
that faith which so largely filled his subsequent
teachings is not alluded to. He does not even claim
the Messiahship. There is no word of his suffer-
ings and death, nor of his future mediation, nor of
the doctrine of repentance and the new birth. Can
that be an epitome of Christianity which leaves out
the great themes w^hich filled the later teaching of
Je?us ?
The Sermon on the Mount gathers up the sum of all
that had been gained under the Jewish dispensation, —
distinguishes between the original and genuine ele-
ments of truth in the Jewish belief, and the modern
and perverse inculcations of the Rabbis, — and, above
all, gives to familiar things a new spiritual force and
authority.
At the threshold of the new life it was wise to ascer-
tain what was real and what fictitious in the belief of
the people. A repudiation of the Law and the prophets
would have bewildered their moral sense -, but the
truth of their fathers, cleansed from glosses, pure
and simple, would become the instrument for work-
ing that very repentance which would prepare them
for the new life of God in the soul.
Men are fond of speaking of the originality of the
Sermon on the Mount; but originality would have
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 313
defeated its very aim. All growth must sprout from
roots pre-existing in the soul. There can be no new,
except by the heljD of some old. To have spread out a
novel field of unfamiliar truth before the people might
have led them to speculation, but could not have
aroused their conscience, nor rebuked the degradation
of their natures and the sordidness of their lives. It
was the very aim of the Sermon on the Mount to place
before the Jews, in the clearest light, the great truths
out of which sprung their Law and their prophets, as a
preparation for the new and higher developments that
would come afterwards. In so doing Jesus put him-
self into the confidence of his own people. To the
sober-minded among his countrymen he never seemed
a subverter of Hebrew customs, or an innovator upon
the national religion. He was recognized ever3''w^ere
by the common people, and by all earnest natures not
wrought into the Pharisaic party, as a genuine Hebrew
prophet, standing on the very ground of the' fathers,
and enunciating old and familiar truths, but giving to
them a scope and a spiritual elevation which, though
new, was neither strange nor unnatural.
The Sermon on the Mount, then, being in the nature
of an historical review, could not be original. It was a
criticism of the received doctrine. Every part of it
brings down to us the odor and flavor of the best days
and the ripest things of the Old Testament dispensa-
tion. It was the mount from which men looked over
into the promised land of the spirit. Even the Beati-
tudes, an exquisite prelude, which seems like a solemn
hymn sung before a service, are but a collection and
better ordering of maxims or aphorisms which existed
in the Old Testament.
314 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Already Isaiah had heard God saying, " I dwell in
the high and holy place, with him also that is of a
contrite and humble spirit." And the Psalmist had
said, " A broken and a contrite heart, 0 God, thou wilt
not despise." Already the prophet had promised
" Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and
the garment of jDraise for the spirit of heaviness " ;
and the wise man had said, " Sorrow is better than
laughter." From the Psalmist were taken almost the
words of benediction to the meek : " The meek shall
inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the
abundance of peace." Where is there a hunger and
thirst of the soul, if it be not recorded in the forty-
second Psalm? This Psalm is broken into two, the
forty-second and forty-third, and three times the re-
frain comes in, " I shall yet praise him who is the help
of my countenance." There are abundant blessings
pronounced upon the merciful, upon the pure in heart,
upon the persecuted for righteousness' sake ; and even
in the old warlike age peace was not uncelebrated.
If there be no distinct blessing for peacemakers, there
are numberless woes denounced against those who stir
up strife and cruel war.
The Beatitudes, then, were not new principles ; the
truth in them had been recognized before. They were
truths hidden in the very nature of the soul, and, in
the best sense, natural. But formerly they lay scat-
tered as pearls not detached from the parent shell, or
as rough diamonds unground. Here they first appear
in brilliant setting. They are no longer happy say-
ings, but sovereign principles. They always spoke
with instructlvencss, but now with authority, as if they
wore crowns upon their heads.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 315
There was a noble strangeness in them. The whole
world was acting in a spirit contrary to them. They
conflicted with every sentiment and maxim of common
life. On a lonely hill-top sat one known to have been
reared as a mechanic, pronouncing to a group of peas-
ants, fishermen, mechanics, and foreigners the sublime
truths of the higher and interior life of the soul, which
have since by universal consent been deemed the no-
blest utterances of earth. The traveller may to-day
stand in Antwerp, near the old cathedral, hearing all
the clatter of business, a thousand feet tramping close
up to the walls and buttresses against which lean
the booths, a thousand tongues rattling the language
of traffic, when, as the hour strikes from above, a
shower of notes seems to descend from the spire, —
bell notes, fine, sweet, small as a bird's warble, the
whole air full of crisp tinklings, underlaid by the
deeper and sonorous tones of large bells, but all of
them in fit sequences pouring forth a melody that
seems unearthly, and the more because in such con-
trast with the scenes of vulgar life beneath. In some
such way must these words have fallen upon the mul-
titude.
Whether the audience felt tire sweetness and ex-
quisite beauty of Christ's opening sentences we can-
not know. They are the choicest truths of the old
dispensation set to the spirit of the new. But not
until, like bells, they were thus set in chimes and
rung in the spirit and melody of the spiritual age,
could one have dreamed how noble they were. And
what blessings ! When before did such a company
of ills and misfortunes find themselves mustered and
renamed ? No word of commendation for wealth, or
316 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
favor, or high estate, or j)ower, or pleasure. For all
that the world was striving after with incessant indus-
try there was no benediction. Congratulations were
reserved for the evils which all men dreaded, — pov-
erty, sorrow, persecution, and the hatred of men, — or
for qualities which men thought to be the signs of
weakness. Could his disciples understand such para-
doxes? We know that they did not until after the
descent upon them of the Holy Spirit, at a later day.
Still less would the rude multitude comprehend such
mysterious sayings, so profoundly true, but true in
relation to conditions of soul of which they had no
conception. The real man was invisible to their eyes.
Only the outward life was known to them, the life of
the body, and of the mind only as the ready minister
to bodily enjoyments !
" Blessed are the poor in spirit."
Not poverty of thought, nor of courage, nor of
emotion, — not empty-mindedness, nor any idea im-
plying a real lack of strength, variety, and richness of
nature, — was here intended. It was to be a con-
sciousness of moral incompleteness. As the sense
of poverty in this world's goods inspires men to en-
terprise, so the consciousness of a poverty of man-
liness might be expected to lead to earnest endeav-
ors for moral growth. This first sentence was aimed
full at that supreme self-complacency which so gener-
ally resulted from the school of the Pharisee. Paul's
interpretation of his own experience illustrates the
predominant spirit. He once had no higher idea of
character than that inculcated in the Law of Moses,
and he wrote of his attainments : " Touching the right-
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 317
eousness which is in the law, blameless." (Phil. iii. 6.)
He was a perfect man !
The land was full of " perfect men." Groups of
them were to be found in every synagogue. To be
sure they were worldly, selfish, ambitious, vindictive,
but without the consciousness of being the worse
for all that. Rigorous exactitude in a visible routine
gave them the right to thank God that they were not
as other men were. For such men, in such moods,
there could be no spiritual kingdom. They could
never sympathize with that new life which was com-
ing upon the world, in which the treasures were
"love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance." (Gal. v. 22, 23.) But
those who painfully felt the poverty of their inward
nature in all these excellences might rise to the bless-
ings of the new kingdom, " in which dwelleth right-
eousness."
In a world so full of trouble a thousand modes of
consolation have been sought, a thousand ways of joy.
But Jesus, still looking upon the invisible manhood,
next points out the Divine road to happiness.
"Blessed are they that mouen."
For perfect beings sorrow is not needed ; but to
creatures like men, seeking to escape the thrall and
burden of animal life, sorrow is helpful. As frosts
unlock the hard shells of seeds and help the germ to
get free, so trouble develops in men the germs of
force, patience, and ingenuity, and in noble natures
"works the peaceable fruits of righteousness." A gen-
tle schoolmaster it is to those who are " exercised
thereby." Tears, like raindrops, have a thousand
318 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
times fallen to the ground and come ujd in flowers.
All the good in this world which has risen above the
line of material comfort has been born from some
one's sorrow. We all march under a Captain "who
was made perfect through sufferings " ; and we are
to find peace only as we learn of him in the school
of patience.
Not less astonishing than the value put upon pov-
erty of spirit and mourning must have seemed the
next promise and prediction : —
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
THE earth."
Each part of a man's mind has its peculiar and dis-
tinctive excitement. The passions and appetites give
forth a turbulent and exhausting experience. The full
activity of the domestic and social emotions produces
excitement less harsh and violent, but yet tumultuous.
The highest conditions of the soul's activity are serene
and tranquil. It is to this superior calm of a soul that is
living in the continuous activity of its highest sj)iritual
sentiments that the term meekness should be applied.
It designates the whole temper of the soul in the range
of its moral and sjDiritij^fcl faculties. The appetites and
passions produce a boisterous agitation too coarse and
rude for real pleasure. The affections develop pleas-
ure, but with too near an alliance to our lower na-
ture for tranquillity. The sjoiritual portion of the soul
is at once luminous and peaceful. The strength of
man lies in those faculties which are farthest removed
from his animal conditions. It is in the spiritual
nature that manhood resides. The action of these
higher sentiments is so different in result from the
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 319
violent agitations of the appetites and passions, that
man may well speak of himself as a duality, a union
of two distinct persons, not only of different, but of
opposite and contradictory experiences. At the bot-
tom of man's nature lie rude strength, coarse excite-
ments, violent fluctuations, exhausting impulses. At
the top of man's nature the soul puts forth continuous
life almost without fatigue, is tranquil under intense
activities, and is full of the light of moral intuitions.
Meekness is generally thought to be a sweet benig-
nity under provocation. But provocation only dis-
closes, and does not create it. It exists as a generic
mood or condition of soul, independent of those causes
which may bring it to light. In this state, power and
peace are harmonized, — activity aiid tranquillity, joy
and calmness, all-seeingness without violence of desire.
From these nobler fountains chiefly are to flow those
influences which shall control the world.
Man the animal has hitherto possessed the globe.
Man the divine is yet to take it. The struggle is
going on. But in every cycle more and more does
the world feel the superior authority of truth, purity,
justice, kindness, love, and faith. They shall yet pos-
sess the earth. In these three opening sentences how
deep are the insights given! The soul beholds its
meagreness and poverty, it longs with unutterable de-
sire to be enriched, it beholds the ideal state luminous
with peace and full of power.
But now the discourse rises from these interior
states to more active elements. Amidst the conflict-
ing elements of life no man can gain any important
moral victories by mere longing, or by rare impulses,
or by feeble purposes. If one would reach the true
320 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
manhood, the spiritual life, of the new kingdom, it
must be by continuous energy during his entire career.
In the whole routine of daily life, in the treatment of
all cares, temptations, strifes, and experiences of every
kind, the one predominant purpose must be the per-
fection of manhood in ourselves.
"Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst
AFTER righteousness, FOR THEY SHALL BE FILLED."
The life of the body, its strength and skill, are
every day built up by the food which hunger craves.
And as hunger is not a rational faculty, and does not
depend upon any of the rational faculties for its action,
but follows the internal condition of the body, and is
an automatic sign and signal of the waste or repair
going on within; so the longing for uprightness and
goodness must be a deep-seated and incessant impor-
tunity of the soul's very substance, as it were, acting,
not upon suggestion or special excitement, but self-
aroused and continuous. To such a desire the whole
world becomes a ministering servant. All this is
strangely in contrast with the life of man. The fierce
conflict, the exacting enterprise, are felt, but they ex-
pend themselves upon externals. They seek to build
up the estate, to augment the power, to multiply
physical pleasures. In the new life the strife and
enterprise are to be none the less, but will be directed
toward inward qualities.
These four Beatitudes not only revealed the Divine
conception of the new spiritual life, but the}^ stood in
striking contrast with the ideas held by the leaders of
the Jews. The Pharisees were also expecting a king-
dom, and great advantage and delight. They had no
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 321
idea of the joy there is in spiritual sorrow. They
knew nothing of the sweet tranquillity of meekness,
and to them nothing seemed so little likely to inherit
the earth. Energetic power, invincible zeal, and a
courage that did not fear disaster or death, — these
would win, if anything could. The Beatitudes, thus
far, must have been profoundly unintelligible to
Christ's hearers. What wonder ? They are even yet
unii^telligible to mankind.
\
"Blessed aee the mekciful, for they shall
obtain mercy."
To an undeveloped race, struggling ignorantly for-
ward rather than upward, jostling, contending, quar-
relling, — each man selfish, but demanding that others
should be kind, — each one unjust, but clamoring
against others for their injustice, — each one exact-
ing, severe, or cruel, but requiring that others should
be lenient, — comes the word. Blessed are the merciful.
No one thing does human life more need than a kind
consideration of men's faults. Every one sins. Every
one needs forbearance. Their own imperfections should
teach men to be merciful. God is merciful because he
is perfect. Mercy is an attribute of high moral char-
acter. As men grow toward the Divine, they become
gentle, forgiving, compassionate. The absence of a
merciful spirit is evidence of the want of true hohness.
A soul that has really entered into the life of Christ
carries in itself a store of nourishment and a cordial
for helpless souls around it. Whoever makes his own
rigorous life, or his formal propriety, or his exacting
conscience, an argument for a condemnatory spirit
toward others, is not of the household of faith. Mer-
21
322 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
ciless observers of men's faults, who delight in find-
ing out the evil that is in their neighbors, who rejoice
in exposing the sins of evil-doers, or who find a
pleasure in commenting upon, or ridiculing the mis-
takes of others, show themselves to be ignorant of
the first element of the Christian religion.
" Blessed ake the puke in heakt, foe they shall
SEE God."
Precisely what is meant by ^^ purity" has called
forth much speculation. But it should be remem-
bered that the whole discourse contains either a latent
or an avowed criticism upon the prevailing notions
of the Jews as to true religion. On no point were
the Pharisees more scrupulous than that of Levitical
purity. This had no direct relation in their minds
to the inward dispositions and purposes. Impurity
was contracted by some bodily act, and was removed
by some corresponding external ceremony. There
were some seventy specific cases of uncleanness de-
scribed by Jewish writers, and others were possible.
A conscientious man found his action limited on every
hand by fear of impurity, or by the rites of purifica-
tion which were required in case of defilement. A
ceremony designed to inspire a moral idea by a physi-
cal act suffered the almost inevitable fate of symbols,
and ended by withdrawing the mind from moral states
and fixing it superstitiously upon external deeds. The
benediction of Jesus was upon purity of Jicart, as dis-
tinguished from legal and ceremonial purity. A state
of heart in which all its parts and faculties should
be morally as free from the contamination of passion,
selfishness, injustice, and insincerity as the body and
THE SERMON ON TEE MOUNT. 323
its members might be from Levitical defilement, was,
without doubt, the state upon which the blessing was
meant to rest. But the promise here given, " they shall
see God," assumes a wider view and a more profound
philosophy. There can be no knowledge of God in
any degree moral and spiritual, which does not come
to man throuo-h some form of moral intuition. To
understand justice, one must have some experience of
justice. There could arise no idea of love in a soul
that had never loved, or of pity in one who had
never experienced compassion. Our knowledge of
the moral attributes of God must take its rise in
some likeness, or germ of resemblance, in us to that
which we conceive is the Divine nature. In propor-
tion as we become like him, the elements of under-
standing increase. The soul becomes an interpreter
through its own experiences. They only can under-
stand God who have in themselves some moral resem-
blance to him ; and they will enter most largely into
knowledge who are most in sympathy with the Divine
life.
"Blessed are the peacemakees, for they shall
be called the children" of god."
Peace is not a negative state, a mere interval be-
tween two excitements. In its highest meaning it is
that serenity which joy assumes, not only when single
faculties are excited, but when the whole soul is in
harmony with itself and full of wholesome activity.
An original disposition which dwells in peace by the
fulness and the inspiration of all its parts is a rare
gift. One whose nature unconsciously diffuses peace
is very near to God. Jesus himself never seemed
324 TEE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
SO divine as when, on the eve of his arrest, with the
cloud ah^eady casting its shadow upon him, and every
hour brmging him consciously nearer to the great
agony, he said to his humble followers : " Peace I leave
with you. My peace I give unto you." There is no
other sign of Divinity more eminent than that of a
nature which can breathe upon men an atmosphere of
peace. They who can do this, even imperfectly, have
the lineaments of their Parent upon them. They are
the children of God.
Far out from the centre of creative power, among
the elements of nature, there is wild turbulence, and
immense energies grapple in conflict. As the uni-
verse rises, circle above circle, each successive sj^here
loses something of strife and develops some tendency
to harmony. All perfection tends toward peace. In
that innermost circle, where the God dwells in very
person, peace eternally reigns. The energy which
creates, the universal will which governs, and the in-
conceivable intellect that watches and thinks of all
the realm, have their highest expression in a perfect
peace. Thus, though the lower stages of being are
full of agitations, the higher stages are tranquil. The
miiverse grows sweet as it grows ripe. "The God of
peace " is the highest expression of j)erfect being.
Whatever distm-bance is raging in his remote creation,
He dwells in eternal peace, waiting for the consum-
mation of all things. There is, then, evident reason
why peacemakers "shall be called the children of
God."
In a lower way, but yet in close sjTiipathy with this
supreme disposition of a soul in harmony with God,
are to be included all voluntary efforts for the sup-
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 325
pression of riotous mischief and for the promotion of
kindness, agreement, concord, and peace among men
and between nations. While malign dispositions stir
np strife, a benevolent nature seeks to allay irritation,
to quiet the fierceness of temper, and to subdue all
harsh and cruel souls to the law of kindness. A pacifi-
cator will make himself the benefactor of any neigh-
borhood.
It is true that peace is sometimes so hindered by
means of corrupt passions or selfish interests that
there must be a struggle before peace can exist. " I
came not to send peace, but a sword," was our Lord's
annunciation of this fact. A conflict between the spirit
and the flesh takes place in every individual and in
every community that is growing better. It is, how-
ever, but transient and auxiliary. Out of it comes a
higher life. With that come harmony and peace. One
may sacrifice peace by neglecting to struggle, and one
may seek peace by instituting conflicts. Love must
overcome selfishness, even if the demon in departing
casts down its victim upon the ground and leaves him
as one dead.
"Blessed are they which aee persecuted for
righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven."
All the elements of human society were originally
organized by the force of reason acting in its lowest
plane, — selfishly. Little by little the animal gave way
to the social, the material to the spiritual, and room
began to be found in the secular for the eternal. It
has been a long conflict. It is a conflict still, and will
continue to be for ages. A just man at every step
326 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
finds some one whose interests turn upon injustice.
One cannot make the truth clear and stimulating with-
out disturbing some drowsy error, which flies out of its
cave and would extinguish the Hght. Not only have
pride and vanity their unlawful sway, but every pas-
sion has in human life some vested interest which
truth and love will either altogether destroy, or great-
ly restrain and regulate.
Now, although the truth when presented in its own
sjrmmetry is beautiful, and although men, unless greatly
perverted, recognize the beauty of righteousness, yet
their selfish interests in the processes of Hfe, the profit
or pleasure which they derive from unrighteousness,
sweep away their feeble admiration, and in its place
come anger and opposition. All potential goodness is
a disturbing force. Benevolent men are the friends
of even the selfish, but selfish men feel that benevo-
lence is the enemy of selfishness. The silent example
of a good man judges and condemns the conduct of
bad men. Even passive goodness stands in the way
of active selfishness. But when, as was to be the case
in the new spiritual kingdom heralded by Christ, good
men acting in sympathy should seek to spread the
sway of moral principles, the time would speedily
arrive when their spirit would come in conflict with
the whole kingdom of darkness. Then would arise the
bitterest opposition. Since the world began, it has not
been permitted to any one to rise within himself from
a lower to a higher moral state, without an angry con-
flict on the part of his inferior faculties. No part of
human society has been allowed to develop into a
higher form without bitter persecutions. If this had
been so up to that era, when the stages were tentative
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 327
and preparatory, how much more was it to be so now,
when the Mness of time had come, and the followers
of Christ were to found a kingdom in which the moral
and spiritual elements were to predominate over every
other !
But persecution which is caused by true goodness
drives men more entirely from the resources of the
animal and secular hfe, and develops in them to
greater strength and intensity their truly spiritual or
divine part ; and in that state their joys increase in
elevation, in conscious purity, in peacefulness. They
hve in another realm. They are not dependent for
their enjoyment upon outward circumstances, nor upon
the remunerations of social life. They are lifted into
the very vicinage of heaven. They hold communion
with God. A new realm, invisible but potential,
springs up around them. Dispossessed of common
pleasures, they find themselves filled with other joys,
unspeakable and full of glory. "Theirs is the king-
dom of heaven."
Here the Beatitudes end. They raise in the mind
an exalted conception of the spiritual manhood. In
the new kingdom manhood was to be clothed with
new power. It had broken up through to the realm
above, and was clothed with Divine elements. In this
state, the grand instrument of success in the subjuga-
tion of the world was to be the simple force of this
new human nature, acting directly upon living men.
Until that time religion had, in the weakness of the
race, needed to employ rules, laws, and institutions, and
to maintain its authority by force borrowed from the
physical nature of man. But the new kingdom was
to rely sovereignly upon a new force, — the living soul
328 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
acting upon living sonls. Therefore Jesus, having
revealed by these few profound elements what was
the true S23iritual strength of man, declares to his dis-
ciples their mission. They were to be the preservative
element of life. They were to become sons of God,
not alone for their own sake, but as spiritual forces in
subduing the world to goodness. While Pharisees
were intensely concerned to maintain their own sup-
posed blameless state, and Essenes were withdrawing
from human life more and more, and various religion-
ists were playing hermit, shunning a world which
they could not resist or overcome, the disciples of
the new kingdom of the spirit, inspired by a Divine
influence, and living in an atmosphere uncontaminated
by the lower passions, were to go boldly forth into
life, taking hold of human affairs, seeking to purify the
household, to reclaim the selfishness and the sordidness
of material life, to infuse a spirit of justice and of
goodness into laws and magistrates, and to make the
power of their new life felt in every fibre of human
society. " Ye are the salt of the earth ! " " Ye are
the light of the world ! "
The opening portion of the Sermon on the Mount
must not have the canons of modern philosophy ap-
plied to it. Its organic relations with the rest of the
discourse must not be pressed too far. It depicts the
moral qualities which are to give character to the new
Hfe, but does not include all the elements of it, nor
even the most important ones. Hope, faith, and
love are not mentioned. It is plain, therefore, that
the principle of selection was largely an external one.
Jesus was about to criticise the national religion. He
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 329
fixed his eye upon tlie living officers and exemplars
of that religion, and emphasized with his benediction
those qualities which most needed to be made promi-
nent, and which were signally lacking in the spirit of
the Pharisee.
Just as httle should we attempt to exhibit in the
Beatitudes a natural progression, or philosophic order
of qualities. There is no reason why the second Be-
atitude should not stand first, nor why the fifth, sixth,
and seventh might not be interchanged. The fourth
might without impropriety have begun the series.
The order in which they stand does not represent
the order of the actual evolution of moral qualities.
On the contrary, we perceive that the spirit of God
develops the new life in the human soul in no fixed
order. Men who have gone far in overt wickedness
may find their first moral impulse to spring from a
condemning conscience ; but others are more affected
by the sweetness and beauty of moral qualities as seen
in some goodly life. Sometimes hope, sometimes
sympathy, sometimes fear, and sometimes even the
imitativeness that becomes contagious in social life,
is the initiatory motive. For the human soul is like
a city of many gates ; and a conqueror does not
always enter by the same gate, but by that one which
chances to lie open. It is true that a general sense
of sinfulness precedes all effort after a higher life.
But a clear discrimination of evil, and an exquisite
sensibility to it, such as are implied in the first two
Beatitudes, do not belong to an untrained conscience
first aroused to duty, but are the fruits of later stages
of Christian experience.
The Beatitudes constitute a beautiful sketch of the
330 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
ideal state, when the glowing passions, which in the
day of Christ controlled even the religious leaders,
and still so largely rule the world, shall be supplanted
by the highest moral sentiments. The ostentatious
wealth and arrogant pride of this sensuous life shall
be replaced in the new life by a profound humihty.
The conceit and base content of a sordid prosperity
shall give way to ingenuous spiritual aspiration. Men
shall long for goodness more than the hungry do for
food. They shall no longer live by the force of their
animal life, but by the serene sweetness of the moral
sentiments. Meekness shall be stronger than force.
The spirit of peacemaking shall take the place of irri-
tation and quarrelsomeness. But as we can come to
the mildness and serenity of spring only through the
blustering winds and boisterous days of March, so this
new kingdom must enter through a period of resist-
ance and of persecution ; and all who, taking part in
its early establishment, have to accept persecution,
must learn to find joy in it as the witness that they
are exalted to a superior realm of experience, to the
companionship of the noblest heroes of the projohetic
age, and to fellowship with God.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 331
CHAPTER XV.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. — (Continued.)
After pronouncing the Beatitudes, and before en-
tering upon his criticism of the current religious ideas,
Jesus put his disciples on their guard lest they should
suppose that he meant to overturn the religion of their
fathers. Thmk not that I am come to destroy the Laiv or
the Prophets. If men's moral beliefs were the result
of a purely logical process, their religious faith might
be changed upon mere argument, and with as little
detriment to their moral constitution as an astronomer
experiences when, upon the recalculation of a prob-
lem, he corrects an error. But men's moral convic-
tions spring largely from their feehngs. The intellect
but gives expression to the heart.- The creed and
worship, however they may begin in philosophy, are
soon covered all over with the associations of the
household ; they are perfumed with domestic love ;
they convey with them the hopes and the fears of life,
the childhood fancies, and the imaginations of man-
hood. To change a man's religious system is to recon-
struct the whole man himself. Such change is full of
peril. Only the strongest moral natures can survive
the shock of doubt which dispossesses them of all that
they have trusted from childhood. There are few
stron(»- moral natures. The mass of men are creatures
of dependent habits and of unreasoning faith. Once
332 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
cut loo'se from what they have always deemed sacred,
they find it impossible to renew their reverence for
new things, and sink either into moral indifference or
into careless scepticism. Men must, if possible, see
in the new a preservation of all that was valuable in
the old, made still more fruitful and beautiful. It is
the old in the new that preserves it from doing harm
to untaught natures.
The recognition of this truth is nowhere more re-
markable than in the progress of Christianity under the
ministration of Jesus and of his Apostles. Although
surrounded by a people whose hatred of foreign re-
ligions was inordinate and fanatical, the Jews did not
hear from the lips of Jesus even an allusion to hear
thenism. If the narratives of the Gospel are fair speci-
mens of his manner, there was not a word that fell
from him which could have wounded an honest hea-
then ;-^ and, afterwards, his A^DOstles sought to find some
ground of common moral consciousness from which to
reason with the idolatrous peoj)le among whom they
came. We are not to suppose that Jesus made an ab-
rupt transition from the religious institutions of Moses
to his own spiritual system. He said no word to
unsettle the minds of his countrymen in the faith of
their fathers. He was careful of the religious preju-
dices of his times. The very blows directed against
the glosses and perversions of the Pharisees derived
their force from the love which Jesus showed for the
Law and the Prophets. He pierced through the outr
ward forms to the central principle of Mosaism, and
made his new dispensation to be an evolution of the old.
^ Tlie word " heathen," Matt. vi. 7, and xviii. 1 7, is used rather as a
designation than as a criticism.
THE SERMON ON TEE MOUNT. 333
T/iink not that I am come to destroy the Laiv or the
Prophets : I am not come to destroy, hid to fulfil.
Here is the law of development announced by an
inspired Hebrew to a peasant and mechanic crowd in
obscure Galilee, ages before the philosophy of evolu-
tion was suspected or the laws of progress were found
out. Jesus did not come to destroy old faiths, but to
carry them forward by growth to the higher forms
and the better fruit that were contained within them.
This tenderness for all the good that there was in
the past of the Jewish nation is in striking contrast
with the bitter spirit of hatred against the Jews which
afterwards grew up in the Christian Church. No man
can be in sympathy with Jesus who has no affection
for the Jew and no reverence for the oracles of the
old Hebrew dispensation.
It was peculiarly appropriate, at the beginning of
a discourse designed to search the received interpre-
tations of the Law with the most severe criticism, that
Jesus should caution his disciples against a tendency,
often developed in times of transition, to give up and
abandon all the convictions and traditions of the past.
Jesus therefore amplified the thought. The central
truths of Hebraism were fundamental and organic.
The ceremonies and institutions which surrounded
them might change, but the enshrined principles were
permanent. Heaven and earth should pass away be-
fore one jot or tittle of them should perish. No man
must seek notoriety by a crusade against his father's
religion. He who should break one of the least com-
mandments, or should inspire others to do so, should
be least in the kingdom of heaven. The temper of
the new life was not to be destructive, but construe-
334 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
tive. Even that part of the old religion which was
to pass away must not be destroyed by attack, but
be left to dry up and fall by the natural develop-
ment of the higher elements of spiritual life contained
within it. And that should not be till the old was
" fulfilled " in the new : the blossom should be dis-
placed only by the fruit.
Jesus was now prepared to pass under review the
ethical mistakes which his countrymen had made in
interpreting the Law of Moses. He began by declar-
ing that the reigning religious spirit was totally insuf-
ficient. No one under its insj)iration could rise into
that higher life which was opening upon the world.
^zcept your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enier into the
Jcingdom of heaven.
This may be called the theme of the whole sermon
following. From this text Jesus now developed his
view of the ethics of the neiu life. He furnished the
ideals towards which men must strive, setting forth
the morality of the teleologic state of mankind. For
this purpose he selected a series of cases in which
the great laws of purity and of love were the most
violated in the practical life of his times, and ap-
plied to them the ethics of the final and perfect
state of manhood. This he did, not as a legislator,
nor as a priest. He was not attempting to regulate
civil society, nor the church, by minute regulations,
but by inspiring the soul with those nobler emotions
from which just rules spring, and which themselves
need no laws. He spoke from conscious divinity in
himself to the moral consciousness in man. He was
not framing principles into human laws or institutions.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 335
He held up ideals of disposition for the attainment
of which all men were to strive. They are not the
less true because men in the lower stages of devel-
opment are unable to attain to their level. They are
the true basis of all social and civil procedure, even
though nations are not yet civilized enough to prac-
tise them.
There are nine topics successively treated, all of
them relating to the state of man's heart, namely :
1. Murder ; 2. Adultery ; 3. Divorce ; 4. Oaths ; 6. Re-
taliation ; 6. Disinterested Benevolence ; 7. Almsgiv-
ing; 8. Prayer; 9. Fasting. Following the enuncia-
tion of principles in regard to these tojDics are a series
of cases relating to the outward life, or economico-
ethical instructions. The spiritual ethics which Jesus
laid down with the quiet authority of conscious divin-
ity not only antagonized with the private passions of
men and the customs of society, but directly contested
the popular interpretation of the Law of Moses.
1. Murder. — Christ teaches that the true life is that
of the thoughts and emotions ; that the highest au-
thority and government is that which is within the
soul, and not alone that which breaks out into ac-
tive civil law and takes cognizance of acts. Spiritual
law takes hold of the sources of all acts. Now the
Pharisee sought to restrain evil by a microscopic con-
sideration of externals. Jesus went back to the foun-
tain, and would purify all the issues by cleansing it.
Ye have heard that it was said ly them of old time, Thou
shalt not Jdll ; and ivhosoever shall Idll shall he in danger of
the judgment : hut I sag unto gou, That tuhosoevcr is angry
with his hrother luithoiit a cause shall he in danger of the
judgment : and whosoever ishail mg to hts hroiher, Haca, shall
336 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
he in danger of the council: hut whosoever shall say, Thou
fool, shall he in danger of hell fire.
What is murder ? The law of the land answered in
its way. Jesus rejDlied, The voluntary indulgence of
any feeling that would naturally lead to the act, — that
is murder. The crime is first committed in the shad-
owy realm of thought and feeling. Many a murder
is unperformed outwardly, while all that constitutes
its guilt is enacted in the heart. A legahst would
regard himself as innocent if only he did not act as
he felt. But in the kingdom of the Spirit feelings
are acts. A murderous temper is murder. John says,
" Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer."
This does not forbid all anger. There may be a
just indignation which carries in it no malice, which
springs from affronted benevolence. This is implied in
the phrase, " Whoso is angry with his brother ivithout
a cause," i. e. a just cause, a cause springing from high
moral considerations, as where indignation is aroused
at the sight of one who is committing a great cruelty.
Not alone anger which leads to violence, but even
that degree of anger which leads one to abuse another
by the use of opprobrious epithets, is forbidden. Yet
more severely condemned is such a transport of anger
93 leads one, imder the influence of merciless pas-
sions, as it were, to tread out all sense of another's
manhood and to annihilate him.
Not only are we to carry kind thoughts ourselves,
but we are bound, by every means within our power,
to prevent unkind thoughts in others. If we know
that another " hath aught against us," the removal of
that unkind feeling is more important before God than
any act of worship. Leave the altar, remove the un-
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 337
kindness, then return to tliy prayers. First humanity,
then devotion.
2. Adulterfj. — The same general principle is applied
to the passion of lust.
But I say unto you, That wJiosoever looJcdh on a woman
to lust after her hath committed adultery ivith her already in
his heart.
Not only is he guilty who suffers desire to run its
full length and consummate itself in action, but he
also who nourishes the desire which he cannot or dare
not consummate. And though the temptation require
the uttermost strength of resistance, it must be van-
quished. As a soldier fights though wounded, and is
triumphantly received though his victory has lost him
an arm or an eye, so at every sacrifice and with all
perseverance must the true man maintain chastity in
his feelings, in his thoughts, and in his imagination.
If thy right eye of end thee, pluck it out. If thy right hand
of end thee, cut it of.
8. Divorce. — In the kingdom of the Spirit the new
man shall no longer be suffered to consult his own
mere pleasure in the disposal of his wife. In the
Orient and among the Jews polygamy was permitted ;
the husband might take as many wives as he could
support, and he was at liberty to dismiss any one of
them upon the most trivial cause. Woman was help-
less, a slave of man's convenience, without redress
when wronged. She could demand a legal document
of her husband if he put her away, and that probably
was equivalent to a general certificate of respectable
character, such as employers give to servants when
for any reason they wish no longer to retain them.
Under Oriental laws, to this day, women are little
22
338 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
better than slaves. The husband has despotic power
over them. Among the Hebrews, the condition of
woman was far better, and her privileges were greater,
than in other Eastern nations ; yet the husband could
dispossess her of her marriage rights almost at his own
will. He had uncontrolled jurisdiction. There was
no necessity for obtaining permission from a civil or
religious tribunal to put away his wife. It was a
household affair, with which the public had nothing to
do. Her stay in the house was purely a matter of her
lord's will. He could send her forth for the most
trivial fault, or from the merest caprice. The doctrine
of Jesus sheared off at one stroke all these unnatural
privileges from the husband, and made the wife's
position firm and permanent, unless she forfeited it
by crime. By limiting the grounds of separation
to the single crime of adultery, Jesus revolutionized
the Oriental household, and lifted w^oman far up on
the scale of natural rights. Considered in its histor-
ical relations, this action of our Lord was j)rimarily a
restriction upon the stronger and directly in the in-
terest of the weaker party.
This theme and our Lord's teaching upon it will be
resumed where we come to treat of a later period in
his ministry, when he more fully disclosed his doctrine
upon the subject. But it is clear that our Lord be-
lono-ed to neither of the two schools which existed
among the Jews, — the lax school of Hillel, or the
rigid school of Shammai. He rose higher than either.
He made the outward relation permanent, on account
of the true spiritual nature of marriage, it being the
fusion or real unity of two hearts. Having once
been outwardly united, they must abide together, and
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 339
even when they found themselves in conflict must
learn to be one in spirit by the discipline of living
together. If they enter the wedded state unprepared,
the household is the school in which they are to learn
the neglected lesson.
4. Oaths. — If men loved the truth always, there
would be no need of an oath ; but so prone are
they to deceit, that in cases of public interest they
must be incited to speak truly by a lively fear acting
upon an aroused conscience. By an oath men swear
to God, and not to man, of the truth of facts. A day
shall come when men will speak the truth in the love
of truth. Then all judicial oaths will be needless.
The perfect state will have no need of them, and they
will be done away.
The casuists among the Jews had corrupted the
oath. Men were not bound by it, unless it was an oath
directly to God. They might win confidence by giving
to their solemn affirmations the appearance of an
oath. They might swear by heaven, by the earth, by
Jerusalem, by one's head ; but it was held that from
these oaths they might draw back without dishonor.
Jesus exposed the deception and impiety of such oaths.
He laid down for all time the canon, that the true
man shall declare facts with the utmost simplicity. It
must be yea, yea, or nay, nay ; nothing more. This
certainly forbids the use of all trivial oaths, and re-
duces judicial oaths to the position of expedients,
tolerated only on account of the weakness of men, and
to be abolished in the era of true manhood. Oaths
will be dispensed with just as soon as men can be
believed without an oath.
5. Retaliation. — Jesus passed next to a consideration
340 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
of the law of retaliation. The lower down u^^on the
moral scale men live, the more nearly must they be
governed wholly by fear and force. Under the laws
of nature, disobedience brings pain. Men learn the
same government, and inflict pain upon those who
offend. Civil government methodizes this economy of
pain. It is, however, the method peculiar to unde-
veloped manhood. Force is the lowest, j)^iii is the
next, and fear the nextj but all of them are methods
of dealmg with creatures not yet brought up to their
true selves. They are therefore expedients of educa-
tion, and, like all instruments of training, they cease
as soon as they have carried their subjects to a higher
plane. In the coming kingdom of love, the full man
in Christ Jesus will no longer repay evil with evil,
pain with pain. Evil-doing will be corrected by the
spirit of goodness, and love will take the place of force
and pain and fear.
Even if it be yet impossible to develop among men
this future and ideal government, it can be held up as
the aim toward which progress should be directed.
This Jesus did. I sai/ unto you, That ye resist not evil ;
hut tvhosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him
the other also. Nay, more ; he who acts in the full
spirit of love, so far from revenging an injustice, will
yield more than is demanded. It was a time of in-
justice and of tyrannical exactions ; but the command
of Jesus was. If the law, wickedly administered, should
take your property, rather than quarrel give more
than is asked ; if impressed in your property and per-
son into the public service, exceed the task laid upon
you ; if solicited, lend and give freely. As society is
constituted, and in the low and animal condition of
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. . 341
mankind, it may be that these commands could not
be fulfilled literally ; but they furnish an ideal toward
which every one must strive.
' 6. Disinterested Benevolence. — Having developed the
genius of the new kingdom of love negatively, it was
natural that Jesus should next disclose the positive
forms of love and its duties. He laid down the funda-
mental principle that love must spring forth, not from
the admirableness of any object of regard, but from
the richness of one's own nature in true benevolence.
Like the sun, love sends forth from itself that color
which makes beautiful whatever it shines upon ; there-
fore love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them that
despitefully use you. The new men of the future
must not derive their notions of perfection from be-
neath them, — in that direction lies the animal, — but
from above. Seek for that kind of perfection which
God desires, — the perfection of a disinterested love.
The sun and the seasons interpret that. They pour
life and bounty over the whole race, whether deserv-
ing or not. In spite of the pains and penalties of
which nature is full, over all the earth are the sym-
bols that God's greater government is one of good-
ness. He must be a bad man who does not love that
which is lovely. Even selfishness can honor and serve
that which will redound to its benefit. The worst
men in society will please those who will return like
service.
This, too, like the teaching upon the other topics, is
to be accepted as the ideal of the new kingdom. It
can be but imperfectly carried out as yet. But it
is that spirit which every man is to recognize as
3-42 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
the standard, and to carry out "as much as in him
lies."
7. Almsgiving. — Jesus now cautions his disciples
agamst doing right things from wrong motives. They
must give ahns, not for the sake of reputation, not for
their own interests, but out of a simple benevolence.
The love of praise may go with benevolence, but must
not take the place of it. It is hypocrisy to act from
selfish motives, while obtaining credit for disinterested
ones. This passing off of our baser feelings for our
noblest is a species of moral counterfeiting as preva-
lent now as in the times of our Lord.
8. Prayer. — Men should pray from a sincere feeling
of devotion, and not from vanity or mere custom. And,
as both Jewish and heathen prayers had become filled
with superstitious and cumbersome repetitions, Jesus
enjoins simplicity and privacy, rather as the cure of
ostentation than as absolute excellences. God does
not need instruction in our wants. He knows better
than we what we need. Neither does he need per-
suasion. He is more ready to give good gifts than
parents are to bestow good things on their children.
It is probable that the sermon of Christ on the
mount was delivered in the most fiimiliar and inter-
locutory manner. It seems to have been reported in
outline, rather than in full, and between one portion
and another there would doubtless be questions asked
and answered. In this way we can interpret the succes-
sion of topics which have no internal relation to each
other, but which might be drawn out of the speaker
by some interposed question or explanation. Luke
gives us a clew to one such scene.
" And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a
THE SERMON ON TEE MOUNT. 343
certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said
unto hiin, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught
his disciples." (xi. 1.)
Many of John's disciples, after the imprisonment of
their master, attached themselves to Jesus. The tran-
sition was natural and easy. Jesus must have seemed
to them like a second John, greater in miracles, but
far less in sanctity. John was wholly a reformer.
He did not take upon him the duties and burdens of
common citizenship, but stood apart as a judge and
censor of morals. He had that severe mood of sanc-
tity which always impresses the imagination of the
ignorant and the superstitious. Jesus was a citizen.
He knew the fatigues of labor, the trials which beset
poverty, the temptations arising from the practical
conduct of business. He lived amono- men in all the
innocent experiences of society life, a cheerful, com-
panionable, and most winning nature. There was no
gayety in his demeanor, but much cheerfulness. He
did not assume the professional sanctity that was
much in esteem. He was familiar, natural, unpreten-
tious, loving that which was homely and natural in
men, rather than that which was artificial and preten-
tious.
But John's disciples must have felt the difference
in the teaching of the two masters. Especially must
they have observed the devotional spirit of Jesus.
And on the occasion mentioned, when he had spent in
prayer the night preceding the Sermon on the Mount,
some of them asked Jesus to teach them how to pray,
" as John also taught his disciples."
Prayer was no new thing to the Jews. Synagogues
abounded, and their liturgical service was rich in
344 TEE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
prayers, which in general were scriptural and emi-
nently devotional. But their very number was bur-
densome, and their repetition confusing. Liturgies
furnish prayers for men in groups and societies. This
meets but one side of human want. Man needs to
draw himself out from among his fellows, and to pray
alone and individually. New wine disdains old bot-
tles. Intense feeling will not accept old formulas, but
bursts out into prayer of its own shaping. Yet it
was hardly this last want that led the disciples to ask
Jesus to teach them how to pray. It was more prob-
ably a request that he would, out of the multitude of
prayers already prepared, either select for them or
frame some prayer that should be in s_)Tnpathy with
the spiritual instruction which he was giving them.
Now, in the Sermon on the Mount, as given by Mat-
thew, Jesus had just been reprehending the practice of
repetition in prayer, so striking in the devotions of
the heathen, wdio frequently for a half-hour together
vociferate a single sentence, or word even. The dis-
ciples of John very naturally asked him to give them
such a prayer as he would aj^prove. Jesus gave them
what has become known as " the Lord's Prayer." It
may be used liturgically, or it may serve as a model
for private prayer, as shaU seem most profitable.
One knows not which most to admire in this form,
— its loftiness of spirit, its comprehensiveness, its
brevity, its simplicity, or its union of human and divine
elements. Our admiration of it is not disturbed by
that criticism which questions its originality and finds
it to be made up, in part, of prayers already existing.
Is the diamond less princely among stones because its
constituent elements can be shown in other combi-
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 345
nations ? The brilliant contrast between the inor-
ganic elements and their crystalline form is a sufficient
answer. All prayer may be said to have crystallized
in this prayer. The Church has worn it for hundreds
of years upon her bosom, as the brightest gem of
devotion.
The opening phrase, Our Father, is the key to
Christianity. God is father; government is personal.
All the tenderness which now is stored up in the
word " mother " was of old included in the name
"father." The household was governed by law, and
yet it was small enough to enable the father to make
himself the exponent of love and law.
In the household, strength and weakness are
bound together by the mysterious tie of love. The
superior serves the inferior, and yet subordination is
not lost. Children learn obedience through their affec-
tions, and fear supplements higher motives. In this
the family differs from all civil institutions. The father
is in contact with his children, and governs them by
personal influence. The magistrate cannot know or
be known to the bulk of his subjects. Love in the
household is a living influence, in the state it is an
abstraction. In a family where love and law are
commensurate, the father's will is the most perfect
government.
Civil government is an extension of the family only
in name. Kings are not fathers, and national gov-
ernments cannot be paternal because they cannot be
personal. It is a question of the utmost importance,
then, whether we shall form our idea of the Divine
moral government from the famdy or from the state ;
whether we shall conceive of God as Father or as
346 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
King, and his government as one of abstract laws or
of personal influences. " Oue Father " is itself a
whole theology. We are prone to transfer to the
moral administration of God those peculiarities of
civil government which really spring from men's lim-
itation and weakness, and are therefore the worst pos-
sible analogies or symbols of Divine things. The im-
personality of magistrates and the abstractions of law
are necessary in human government, because men are
too weak to reach a higher model. The Divine gov-
ernment, administered by means of universal laws,
still leaves the Supreme Father free to exercise his
personal feelings. If God be only a magistrate, the
charm is gone. He governs no longer by the influ-
ence of his heart, but by a law, which, as projected
from himself, is conceived of by men as a thing sepa-
rate from Divine will, though at first springing from it.
At once justice becomes something inflexible, severe,
relentless. A king is weak in moral power in pro-
portion as he relies upon the law of force. His hand
for matter, his heart for men.
A father on earth, though dear and venerated, is
yet human and imperfect; but a "Father in heaven"
exalts the imagination. The Celestial Father dis-
charges all those duties and offices of love and au-
thority which the earthly parent but hints at and
imperfectly fulfils. It is the ideal of perfection in
fatherhood. It enhances our conception of the ideal
home, in " the house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens." As children in an earthly family come
to a parent, so with all the privileges of children our
spirits ascend to the spiritual Father in heaven.
With a child's love and admiration mingles not only
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 347
a sense of tlie superiority of its parent, but an affec-
tionate desire for his honor and dignity. Halloived he
ihy name is the expression of the desire that God may
be held in universal reverence. Experiencing the
blessedness of veneration, the soul would clothe the
object of its adoration with the love and admiration
which it deserves. It is not a supplication for one's
self, but an affectionate and holy desire for the wel-
fare of another. There is in it no servile adulation,
no abject awe. It springs from the highest spiritual
affection, and is rational and ennobling.
In the next jDctitipn the soul yearns for that per-
fect state toward which men have always been look-
ing forward. However imperfect the conceptions may
be, men have always conceived of the joresent as a sin-
gle step in one long advance toward an ideally perfect
state. Somewhere in the future the spirit of man is to
be elevated, purified, perfected. The discords and mis-
rule and wretchedness of the present are not to con-
tinue. From afar off, advancing surely though slowly
through the ages, comes that kingdom "in which
dwelleth righteousness." Every good man longs for it,
and his thoughts frequently take shelter in it. Thy
Jcingdom come is the petition of every one who loves
God and his fellow-man.
The next is like unto it : Thy ivill he done in earth,
as it is in heaven.
All natural laws are the emanations of the Divine
will. Those fundamental principles of right, upon
which all human laws are founded, are derived from
the Divine will. That will represents order, progress,
and government. God's will is universal harmony.
On earth, men are largely ignorant of this regulative
348 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
will, and are irregular in their obedience to that which
is known, or are wholly disobedient and rebellious.
But in heaven perfect obedience follows knowledge.
The will of God is unobstructed. Men are here in the
uproar of an untuned orchestra, each instrument at
discord with its fellows; but in heaven the chorus
will flow forever in harmonious sweetness. In desir-
ing our own spiritual good, we must come into sym-
pathy with the work of God in the whole race, and
seek ardently the consummation of the Divine will
in all the earth and through all time.
Thus far, in the Lord's Prayer, men are taught to
express love, reverence, and the aspiration of earnest
benevolence. They are to put forth their first desires,
and their strongest, in behalf of the Divine glory and
of the welfare of the whole kingdom. Then, as single
individuals in that kingdom, they may make supplica-
tion for their own personal wants. Give its this day
our daily hrcad.
' Bread may be regarded as the symbol of all that
support which the body needs. To pray for daily
bread is to pray for all necessary support. It is to in-
voke the protection of Divine Providence, and in its
spirit it includes whatever is needed for the comfort of
our physical life. Thus, however favored of wealth
and its fruits, all men have conscious needs which are
touched by the spirit of this cry for bread. But they
to whom it was first spoken knew the pangs of hun-
ger. Their daily bread was by no means sure. It
was the one want that never left them. Nor is it to
be forgotten that the great mass of men "on the globe
to-day are living in such abject condition as to make
the question of food a matter of anxiety for every
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 349
single day. The prayer for bread unites more voices
on earth than any other.
The next petition is for the forgiveness of sins ; and
it is couj)led with a reminder of "man's duty of for-
giveness toward his fellow-men. Forgive its our debts,
as tve fargive our dehtors. No other offence seems to
have been regarded as so fatal to true manhood as a
cruel and harm-bearing disposition. Even indifference
to another's welfare aroused the Master's rebuke ; but
a wilful animosity, or an infliction of unnecessary pain,
was regarded with the severest condemnation.^ No
other sin is more common or more culjDable. The only
comment of our Lord upon this prayer touches tliis
malign trait in a manner of peculiar solemnity. For
if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father
tvill also forgive you : hut if ye forgive not men their tres-
passes, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
The next petition. Lead us not into temptation, is not
inconsistent with the expression of joy when men fall
into divers temptations.^ Men often rejoice in a con-
flict, after it is past, which they dreaded in anticipa-
tion. Looking forth into the future, a soul conscious
of its weakness dreads being put under severe temp-
tation. Those who have seen the most of active life
will most deeply feel the need of this petition. No
one can tell beforehand how he will be affected by
persistent, insidious, and vehement temptations. If it
is a duty to avoid evil, it is surely permissible to
solicit Divine help thereto.
But when under Divine Providence it is necessary
that men should pass through a conflict with evil, that
* See Matt. vi. 14, 15 ; Luke vi. 37 ; Matt, xviii. 35.
* James i. 2.
350 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
very consciousness of their own weakness which led
them to pray that they might not be tempted now
causes them to turn to God for strength to resist and
overcome the evil. In like manner the Saviour prayed
in Gethsemane that the cup might pass ; but then,
since that might not be, he conformed himseif to the
will of God. All deep feelings grow into paradoxes.
Fear and courage may coexist. One may dread to be
tempted, and yet rejoice in being tried.^
9. Fasting. — We have seen that Jesus was in the
midst of a criticism upon pretentious almsgiving and
ostentatious prayer, when asked to give an example
of prayer. Having complied, he now resumes the in-
terrupted theme, and warns them against fasting in a
spirit of vanity. Religious fasting had long prevailed
among the devout Jews. It had been perverted by
ascetics on the one hand, and by the Pharisees on the
^ The doxoiogy, " For tliine is the kingdom," etc., is admirably accordant
■with the spirit of the Lord's Prayer, but not with its object. It was not
included in the prayer as originally recorded by Matthew, and in Luke it
does not appear even now. In the Jewish religious synagogical services, to
which the early Christians had been trained, the doxoiogy was of frequent
occurrence, and in using the Lord's Prayer it was natural that it should
be appended to this as to all other prayers. It is not strange that at
length it should creep into the text of early versions, without the design
of improper interpolation, simply because in oral use it had so long been as-
sociated with the prayer itself The most ancient and authoritative manu-
scripts are unanimous in omitting it.
Called forth by the request of a discijile, the prayer was given, as we see
by Matthew's Gospel, as a model of brevity, in contrast with the senseless
repetitions of the heathen prayers. It is an extraordinary fact, that the
Lord's Prayer has been made the agent of that very repetition which it was
meant to correct. Tholuck says : " That prayer which He gave as an anti-
dote to those repetitions is the very one which has been most abused by
vain repetitions. According to the rosary, the Pater NoMer (Patrilociuia,
as it is called) is [in certain of the church services] prayed fifteen times (or
seven or five times), and the Ave Maria one hundred and fifty times
(or fifty or sixty-three times)."
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 351
other. Jesus certainly uttered nc word which tended
to increase the respect of men for this practice. His
example was regarded as lowering the value of fasting,
and he was on one occasion expostulated with, and
John's example contrasted with his more cheerful
conduct. But he did not come to found a reli2:ion
of the cave or the cloister, but a religion which should
develop every side of manhood, and which, while
deep and earnest, should yet be sweet and cheerful.
In such a religion nothing could be more offensive
than insincere devotion, pretentious humility, and
hypocritical self-denial.
Thus far the discourse had borne upon the popular
notions of religious worship. Jesus now subjects to
the spiritual standard of the new life those economic
opinions which then ruled the world, as they still do.
Next after the glory of military power, the imagina-
tion of the world has always been infatuated with
riches. They command so many sources of enjoy-
ment, and redeem men from so many of the humilia-
tions which poverty inflicts, that the Jew, to whose
fathers wealth was promised as a reward of obedience,
a token of Divine favor, would naturally put a very
high estimate upon it. In fact, the pursuit of Avealth
was one of the master passions of that age. Every-
thing else was made subordinate to it. It usurped
the place of religion itself, and drew men after it
with a kind of fanaticism. Against this over-valuation
and inordinate pursuit of wealth our Lord protested.
Za^ not up for 7/oiirselves treasures upon earth, . ... hut lay
up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Here moral excel-
lence is put in contrast with physical treasure. Men
are to seek nobility of character^, riches of feeling.
352 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
strength of manhood, and not perishable wealth. Nor
can they divide their hearts between virtue and riches
when these stand in opposition. The soul's estate
must be the supreme ambition. Unity and sim-
plicity of moral purpose is indispensable to good-
ness and happiness. The reconciliation of avarice
with devotion, of self-indulgence in luxury with su-
preme love to God, is utterly impossible. One may
serve two masters, if the two are of one mind ; one
may serve two alternately, even if they differ. But
where two masters represent opposite qualities and
wills, and each demands the whole service, it is im-
possible to serve both. Ye cannot serve God and mam-
mon. The absolute supremacy of man's moral nature
over every part of secular life is nowhere taught with
such emphasis and solemnity as in Christ's treatment
of riches. The ardor and force of his declarations
might almost lead one to suppose that he forbade
his followers all participation in riches, as will more
plainly appear when we shall give a summary view of
all his utterances on that topic.
Not only did Jesus reprobate the spirit of avarice,
but the vulgar form of it which exists among the
j)oor came under his criticism. All grinding anxiety
for the common necessaries of life he declared to be
both unwise and impious : unwise, because it did no
good ; impious, because it reflected upon God's kind
providence. He referred to that economy in nature
by which everything is provided for in the simple
exercise of its common organs or faculties ; the grass,
the lily, the sparrow, had but to put forth their re-
spective powers, and nature yielded all their needs.
Let man, a higher being, put forth his nobler faculties.
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 353
— reason and the moral sentiments, — and a life guid-
ed by these would be sure to draw in its train, not
only virtue and happiness, but whatever of temporal
good is necessary.
There is no worldly wisdom like that which springs
from the moral sentiments. On the great scale. Piety
and Plenty go hand in hand. He that secures God
secures his favoring providence. Man is governed
by laws which reward morality. Piety itself is the
highest morality. Seek ye first the Idngdom of God and
Ms righteousness, and all these things shall he added unto
you. The sordid anxieties of the poor and the ava-
rice of the rich spring from the same source, and
are alike culpable. Faith in Divine Providence should
forestall and prevent fretting cares and depressing
fears.
This matchless discourse closes with a series of moral
truths that are clustered together more like a chapter
from the Book of Proverbs than like the flowing
sentences of an ordinary discourse. Censorious judg-
ments of our fellow-men are forbidden. Men who be-
lieve themselves to hold the whole truth, and pride
themselves on knowledge and purity, are very apt to
look with suspicion and contempt on all that are not
orthodox according to their standard. Harsh judg-
ments in religious matters seem inseparable from a
state in which conscience is strono-er than love. Leni-
ency and forgiveness are commanded 5 blindness to our
own faults and sensitiveness to the failings of others
are pointed out. Caution is enjoined in speaking of
eminent truths in the hearing of the base. The fa-
therhood of God, far nobler and kinder than any
23
354 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
earthly fatherhood, is made the ground of confident
supplication. The Golden Rule is set forth. Religion
is declared not to be an indolent luxury, but a vehe-
ment strife, taxing men's resources to the uttermost.
His disciples are cautioned against false teachers,
against specious morality, against a boastful famil-
iarity with Divine things while the life is carnal and
secular ; and, finally, his hearers are urged to a prac-
tical use of the whole discourse by a striking pic-
ture of houses built upon the sand or u|)on the rock,
and their respective powers of endurance.
1. In this sermon of Jesus there is a full and con-
tinual disclosure of a Divine consciousness which did
not leave him to the end of his career. His method
was that of simple declaration, and not of reasoning or
of proof The simjDle sentences of the Sermon fell
from him as ripe fruit from the bough in a still day.
Although they reached out far beyond the attain-
ments of his age, and developed an ideal style of
character and a sphere of morality which addressed
itself to the heroic elements in man, his teachings
were not labored nor elaborate, but had the complete-
ness and brevity of thoughts most familiar to him.
He unfolded the old national faith to its innermost
nature. In his hands it glowed as if it were de-
scended from heaven ; and yet he spoke of the relig-
ion of the Jews' with the authority of a god, and not
with the submissiveness of a man. He stood in the
road along which travelled a thousand traditions and
evil glosses, and turned them aside by his simple, im-
perial, " I say unto you " !
There was no inequality or unharmony in the
whole discourse. The pitch at the beginning was
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 355
taken far above the line of any doctrine then in prac-
tice, and to the end the elevation was sustained. It
was the teaching of one who saw men as men had
never yet been. The possible manhood, never yet
developed, was familiar to Jesus, and upon that ideal
he fashioned every precept. Not a note fell from the
pitch. Every single thought was brought up to a man-
hood far transcending that of his own age. It is this
that gives to the Sermon on the Mount an air of im-
possibility. Men look upon its requisitions as exceed-
ing the power of man. But none of them were
lowered in accommodation to the moral tone of his
times, every one of them chording with the key-
note, — Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteous-
ness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter
irdo the kingdom of heaven.
2. In its spirit and secret tendency the Sermon on
the Mount may be regarded as a charter of personal
LIBERTY. It does uot formally proclaim man's freedom,
but no one can follow it without that result. It places
moral life upon grounds which imply and promote
moral sovereignty in the individual. This it does by
removing the emphasis of authority derived from all
external rules, and placing it in man's own moral con-
sciousness. It is an appeal from rules to principles.
Rules are mere methods by which principles are specifi-
cally applied. Feeble and undeveloped natures need
at each step a formula of action. They are not wise
enough to apply a principle to the changing circum-
stances of experience. But rules that help the weak
to follow principle should tend to educate them to
follow principle without such help. Instead of that,
rulers, teachers, and hierarchs, finding them convenient
356 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
instruments of authority, multiply tliem, clothe them
with the sanctity of principles, and hold men in a
bondage of superstition to customs, rites, and arbitrary
regulations.
The appeal in the Sermon on the Mount is always
to the natural grounds of right, and never to the tra-
ditional, the historical, and the artificial. In no single
case did Jesus institute a method, or external law.
Every existing custom or practice which he touched
he resolved back to some natural faculty or principle.
By shifting the legislative power from the external to
the internal, from rules to principles, from synagogues
and Sanhedrim to the living moral consciousness of
men, the way was prepared for great expansion of
reason and freedom of conscience. The most striking
example of philosophic generalization in history is that
by which Jesus reduced the whole Mosaic system and
the whole substance of Jewish literature into the
simple principle of love. " Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thy-
self. On these two commandments hang all the Laiv and the
Prophets^
This discourse recognizes the soul as the man. The
body is only a passive instrument. Action is but the
evidence of what is going on within ; it has no moral
character, good or bad, except that which is impressed
upon it by the faculties which inspire it. A man's
thoughts and cherished feelings determine his char-
acter. He may be a murderer, who never slays his
enemy ; an adulterer, who never fulfils the wishes of
illicit love ; an irreligious man, who spends his life in
offices of devotion ; a selfish creature, whose vanity in-
spu-es charitable gifts. It is the soul that determines
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 357
manhood. Only God and man's self can control these.
Man is the love-servant of God, and sovereign of him-
self The highest personal Hberty consists in the
ability and willingness of man to do right from inward
choice, and not from external influences.
3. In this inward and spiritual element we have
the solution of difficulties which to many have be-
set what may be called the political and economic
themes of this discourse. Jesus disclosed to his dis-
ciples a kingdom in which no man should employ
physical force in self-defence ; and yet this would
seem to give unobstructed dominion to selfish strength.
No man may resist the unlawful demands of govern-
ment, — let him rather do cheerfully far more than is
wrongfully required, — and to every aspect of physi-
cal force he would have his disciples oppose only the
calmness and kindness of benevolence ; yet this would
seem to make wicked governments secure. The his-
tory of civilization certainly shows that society can
redeem itself from barbarism only by enterprise, by
painstaking industry, by sagacious foresight and rea-
sonable care ; but Jesus refers his disciples to the
flowers and birds as exemplars of freedom from care ;
forbids men to lay up treasure on earth, or to live in
regard to earthly things more than by the single day,
and declares that they must implicitly trust the pa-
ternal care of God for all their wants. Nay, if they
are possessed of some wealth, they are not to hus-
band it, but give to him that asketh thee, and from him
that would horrow of thee turn not thou away.
It is certain that a literal interpretation of these
precepts respecting giving, lending, resistance of evil,
forethought, acquisition of property and its tenure in
358 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
common, would bring Christianity into conflict with
every approved doctrine of pohtical economy, and
would seem to comjDel man to spend his earthly life
in little more than meditation, — a conception which
might suit the natural ease, not to say indolence, of
an Oriental life in a genial tropical climate, but which
would seem utterly ruinous to the prosperity of a
vigorous and enterprising race in the cold zones and
upon a penurious soil. To insist upon a literal ful-
filment of miy economic precepts would violate the
spirit of the discourse, whose very genius it is to re-
lease men from bondage to the letter and bring them
into the liberty of the spirit.
It is very certain that an earnest attempt to make
the spirit of these precepts the rule of life will bring
out in men a moral force of transcendent value, and
that among primitive Christians, and in modern days
in the small company of Friends, a remarkable degree
of prosperity even in worldly things has followed a
more rigorous interpretation of these commands than
is generally practised. On the other hand, the at-
tempt to make property the common and equal pos-
session of all has led to some of the worst social evils.
The partial success which has attended the experi-
ment, in small bodies, has been at the expense of a
general development of the individuals. But whether
an immediate and literal obedience to Christ's teach-
ings upon the subject of property and industry would
be beneficial, or would be jDOssible in nations not
placed as the Jews were, — whether the weight of
society and all the accumulations of that very civili-
zation which Christianity has produced could be sus-
tained upon such foundations, — hardly admits of
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 359
debate. If his precepts were meant ever to be taken
literally, it must have been in a condition of society in
the future, of which there was yet no pattern among
men.
It is certain that every step which human hfe has
ever taken toward a full reahzation of the general
morality of the Sermon on the Mount has developed
an unsuspected and wonderful prosperity, moral and
social.
We must believe, then, that Jesus gave this grand
picture of the new life for immediate and practical
use, but that it was to be interpreted, not by the
narrowness of the letter, but by the largeness of the
spirit. He seemed to foresee what has so often ap-
peared, the barren admiration of men who praise this
discourse as a power, as a merely ideal justice, as a
beautiful but impracticable scheme of ethics; for he
turns upon such, at the close, with a striking para-
ble designed to enforce the immediate application of
his teachings. And why call ye me Lord, Lord, and
do not the things which I say ? Therefore whosoever
cometh to me, and heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like : he
is like a wise man which built his house and digged
deep, and laid the foundation on a rock; and when
the rain descended, and the floods came, and the
winds blew, and the storm beat violently upon that
house and could not shake it, it fell not, for it was
founded on a rock. But every one that heareth these
sayings of mine, and doeth them not, is like a fool-
ish man, which built his house without a foundation
upon the sand ; and the rain descended, and the floods
came, and the winds blew, and the storm did beat
360 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
vehemently upon that house, and immediately it fell,
and great was the fall of it.
4, The hold which the Sermon on the Mount has
had, and continues to have, upon men of diverse tem-
peraments and beliefs, is not to be accounted for by
an inventory of its ethical points. It reached to the
very centre of rectitude, and gave to human conduct
inspirations that will never diminish. All this might
have been done in unsympathetic severity, leaving
the Sermon like a mountain barrier between right
and wrong, so rugged, barren, and solitary that men
would not love to ascend or frequent it. But Jesus
breathed over the whole an air of genial tranquillity
that wins men to it as to a garden. The precepts
grow like flowers, and are fragrant. The cautions
and condemnations lie like sunny hedges or walls
covered with moss or vmes. In no part can it be
called dreamy, yet it is pervaded by an element of
sweetness and peace, which charms us none the less
because it eludes analysis. Like a mild day in early
June, the sky, the earth, the air, the birds and herbage,
things near and things far off, seem under some
heavenly influence. The heavens unfold, and in place
of dreadful deities we behold " Our Father." His
personal care is over all the affairs of life. The trials
of this mortal sphere go on for a purpose of good, and
our fears, our burdens, and our sufferings are neither
accidents nor vengeful punishments, but a discipline
of education. The end of life is a glorified manhood.
At every step Jesus invokes the nobler motives of the
human soul. There is nothing of the repulsiveness of
morbid anatomy. Where the knife cut to the very
nerve, it was a clean and wholesome blade, that carried
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 361
no poison. The whole discourse lifts one out of the
lower life, and sets in motion those higher impulses
from which the soul derives its strength and happiness.
While it has neither the rhythm nor the form of
poetry, yet an ideal element in it produces all the
charms of poetry. Portions of the Sermon might be
chanted in low tones, as one sings cheering songs in
his solitude. It is full of light, full of cheer, full of
faith in Divine love and of the certainty of possible
goodness in man. The immeasurable distance between
the flesh and the spirit, between the animal and man,
is nowhere more clearly revealed than in this beautiful
discourse. Thus the Son of God stood among men,
talking with them face to face as a brother, and giving
to them, in his own spirit, glimpses of that heavenly
rest for which all the world, at times, doth sigh.
The Sermon on the Mount drew a line which left
the great body of the influential men of his country
on one side, and Jesus and his few disciples on the
other. If it were to be merely a discourse, and nothing
else, it might be tolerated. But if it was a policy, to
be followed up by active measures, it was scarcely less
than an open declaration of war. The Pharisees were
held up by name to the severest criticism. Their
philosophy and their most sacred religious customs
were mercilessly denounced, and men were warned
against their tendencies. The influence of the criti-
cisms upon fasting, prayer, and almsgiving was not
limited to these special topics, but must have been
regarded as an attack upon the whole method of wor-
ship by means of cumbersome rituals. Ritualism was
not expressly forbidden ; but if the invisible was to be
362 TEE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
SO highly esteemed, if simplicity, heart purity, spirit-
uality, and absolute privacy of spiritual life, were to be
accepted as the governing ideals of worship, all author-
itative and obligatory ritualism would wither and drop
away from the ripened grain as so much chaff, — with-
out prejudice, however, to the spontaneous use of such
material forms in worship as may be found by any
one to be specially helpful to him. Neither in this
sermon nor in any after discourse did Jesus encourage
the use of symbols, if we except Baptism and the
Lord's Supper. He never rebuked men for neglect of
forms, nor put one new interpretation to them, nor
added a line of attractive color. The whole land was
fidl of ritual customs. The days were all marked.
The very hours were numbered. Every emotion had
its channel and course pointed out. Men were drilled
to religious methods, until all sj)ontaneity and personal
liberty had wellnigh become extinct. In the midst
of such artificial ways, Christ stands up as an emanci-
pator. He appeals directly to the reason and to the
conscience of men. He founds nothing upon the old
authority. He even confronts the " common law " of
his nation with his own personal authority, as if his
words would touch a responsive feeling in every heart.
" Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time,"
— But I say unto you. This was an appeal from all
the past to the living consciousness of the present. It
was so understood. There was an unmistakable and
imperial force in that phrase, "I say unto you"; and
when the last sentence had been heard, there was a
stir, and the universal feeling broke out in the expres-
sion, " He teaches as one having authority, and not as
the Scribes."
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 363
Whatever may have kept the Pharisees silent, there
can be no doubt that this discourse was regarded by
them as an end of peace. Henceforth their only
thought was how to compass the downfall of a dan-
gerous man, who threatened to alienate the people
from their religious control. Every day Jesus would
now be more closely watched. His enemies were all
the while in secret counsel. Step by step they fol-
lowed him, from the slopes of Mount Hattin to the
summit of Calvary !
364 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE BEGrNNING OF CONFLICT.
The crowd did not disperse or open to let Jesus
pass through, but closed about him and thronged his
steps, as he returned home to Capernaum. His dis-
courses seem to have fascinated the people almost as
much as his wonderful deeds astonished them. We do
not imagine that the walk was a silent one. There
must have been much conversation by the way, much
discussion, and doubtless many replies of wisdom and
beneficence from Jesus not less striking than the sen-
tences of the sermon. From this time forth the life
of Jesus is crowded with dramatic incidents. No-
where else do we find so many events of great moral
significance painted with unconscious skill by so few
strokes. Their number perplexes our attention. Like
stars in a rich cluster in the heavens, they run to-
gether into a haze of brightness, to be resolved into
their separate elements only by the strongest glass.
Each incident, if drawn apart and studied separately,
affords food for both the imagination and the heart.
By one occurrence a striking insight is given into
the relations which sometimes subsisted between the
Jews and their conquerors. Not a few Romans, it may
be believed, were won to the Jewish religion. The
centurion of Capernaum, without doubt, was a convert.
We cannot conceive otherwise that he should have built
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 365
the Jews a synagogue, and that he should be on such
intimate terms with the rulers of it as to make them
his messengers to Jesus. This Roman, like so many
other subjects of the Gospel record, has come down
to us without a name, and, except a single scene, with-
out a history.
Soon after the return of Jesus to Capernaum, he was
met (where, it is not said) by the rulers of the syna-
gogue, bearing an earnest request from the centurion
that he would heal a favorite slave, who lay sick and
at the point of death. The honorable men who bore
the message must have been well known to Jesus, and
their importunity revealed their own interest in their
errand. " They besought him instantly, saying that
he was worthy for whom he should do this." Nor
should we fiiil to notice this appeal made to the patri-
otism of Jesus, which, coming from men who were
familiar with his life and teachings, indicates a marked
quality of his disposition. " He loveth our nation, and
he hath built us a synagogue." That the heart of
Jesus was touched is shown in that he required no tests
of faith, but with prompt sympathy said, " I will come
and heal him." And, suiting the action to the word, he
went with them at once to the centurion's house.
Learning that Jesus was drawing near, the centu-
rion sent another deputation, whose message, both for
courtesy and for humility, in one born to command,
was striking, — "Lord, trouble not thyself; for I am
not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:
wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come
imto thee ; but speak the woi'^i <5i^lj? ^^^ my servant
shall be healed." Then, alluding to his own command
over his followers, he implies that Jesus has but to
366 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
make known his will, and all diseases, and life, and
death itself, would obey as promptly as soldiers the
word of command. The whole scene filled Jesus with
pleasurable astonishment. He loved the sight of a
noble nature. And yet the contrast between the
hardness of his unbelieving countrymen and the art-
less dignity of faith manifested by this heathen for-
eigner brought grief to his heart. It suggested the
rejection of Israel and the ingathering of the Gentiles.
Many shall come from the east and west, and shall
sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the
kingdom of heaven; but the children of the king-
dom shall be cast out into outer darkness. Then
turning to the messenger he said, "Go thy way; and
as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee." The
servant was instantly healed.
The severity of tone with which Jesus spoke of the
unbelief of the leaders of his people, and of his re-
jection by them, is only one among many indications
of the rising intensity of his feelings at this period.
Every day seemed to develop in him a higher energy.
His calmness did not forsake him, but the sovereignty
of his nature was every hour more apparent. He
was now more than ever to grapple with demonic in-
fluences, and to overcome them. He was about to
make his power felt in the realms of death, and
bring back to life those who had passed from it. The
conduct of his family and the criticisms of the jealous
Pharisees, as we shall soon see, plainly enough indi-
cate that this elevation of spirit manifested itself in
his whole carriage, and many even believed that he
was insane, or else under infernal influences.
On the day following the healing of the centurion's
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 367
servant, Jesus, on one of the short excursions which
he was wont to make from Capernaum, came to the
village of Nain, on the slope of Little Hermon and
nearly south of Nazareth, on the edge of the great
plain of Esdraelon. In the rocky sides of the hill
near by were hewn the burial-chambers of the vil-
lage, and toward them, as Jesus drew near, was slowly
proceeding a funeral train. It was a widowed mother
bearing her only son to the sepulchre. She was well
known, and the circumstances of her great loss had
touched the sympathies of her townsfolk, " and much
people of the city was with her." His first word was
one of courage to the disconsolate mourner, — "Weep
not!" He then laid his hand upon the bier. Such
was his countenance and commanding attitude that
the procession halted. There was to be no deluding
ceremony, no necromancy. " Young man, I say unto
thee. Arise ! " The blood again beat from his heart,
the light dawned upon his eyes, and his breathing lips
spake !
There is no grief like a mother's grief. No one who
has the heart of a son can see a great nature given
up to inconsolable sorrow without sympathy. It was
not the mission of Jesus to stay the hand of death, nor
did he often choose to bring back the spirit that had
once fled ; but there seem to have been two motives
here for his interposition. The overwhelming grief of
the widowed mother wrought strongly upon his sym-
pathy, and there were special reasons why he should
just now make a supreme manifestation of his Divine
power. Every day the leaven of opposition to him
was working. Openly or insidiously, he was resisted
and vilified. His own spirit evidently was roused to
368 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
intensity, and began to develop an elevation and force
wliicli far surpassed any hitherto put forth. At such
a time, the restoration to life of a dead man, in the
presence of so vast a throng, could not but produce
a deep impression. It was an act of sovereignty
which would render powerless the efforts of the emis-
saries from Jerusalem to wean the common people
from his influence. This end seems to have been
gained. The people were electrified, and cried out,
"A great prophet is risen up among us!" others said,
" God hath visited his people." The tidings of this
act ran through the nation; not only in "the region
round about," but " the rumor of him went forth
throughout all Judoea."
The battle now begins. Everjrwhere he carried with
him the enthusiastic multitude. Everywhere the Tem-
ple party, lurking about his steps, grew more deter-
mined to resist the reformation and to destroy the
reformer. We are not to suppose that the presence
and the miracles of Jesus produced the same effect
upon the multitudes present with him that they do
■upon devout and believing souls now. Our Avhole life
has been educated by the discourses of this Divine Man.
We do violence to our nature, to all our associations
and sympathies, if we do not believe. But in the
crowds which surrounded Jesus in his lifetime there
was every conceivable diversity of disposition; and
though curiosity and wonder and a general social ex-
hilaration were common to all, these were not valuable
in the eyes of Jesus. The insatiable hunger of Ori-
entals for signs and wonders was even a hindrance to
his designs of instruction. In every way he repressed
this vague and fruitless excitement. The deeper moral
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 369
emotions which he most esteemed were produced in
very imperfect forms and in but comparatively few
persons. Cautious men held their convictions in sus-
pense. Many favored him and followed him without
really committing themselves to his cause.
There will always be men who will show favor to
the hero of the hour. Such a one was Simon the
Pharisee, who probably dwelt in Nain or in its neigh-
borhood, for at that time this whole region was pop-
ulous and prosperous. It had not then been given
over to the incursions of the Bedouins, who for cen-
turies have by continual ravages kept this beautiful
territory in almost complete desolation.
Invited to the house of Simon to dine, Jesus re-
paired thither with his disciples. There went with
him, also, unbidden guests. Not the widowed mother
alone had felt the sympathy of his nature. While he
w^as bringing back to life her son, there was in the
crowd one who felt the need of a resurrection from
the dead even more than if her body, rather than her
honor, had died. In the presence of Jesus the sense
of her degradation became unendurable. In him she
beheld a benefactor who misfht rescue her. All men
despised her. Her reputation, like a brazen wall,
stood between her and reformation. For her there
were no helpers. Bad men were friendly only for
evil. Moral men shut up their sympathies from one
who was an outcast. The gratitude of the mother for
her child restored must have been like incense to the
sensitive soul of Jesus. But it is doubtful whether he
did not more profoundly rejoice in the remorse, the
absorbing grief, the hope struggling against despair,
that filled the bosom of this unknown Magdalen.
2-1
370 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
As Jesiis reclined at dinner, according to the Ori-
ental custom, this penitent woman, coming behind,
without word or permission, wept at the feet of Jesus
unrebuked. So copiously flowed her tears that his feet
were wet, and with her dishevelled locks she sought to
remove the sacred tears of penitence. The very per-
fumes which had been provided for her own person she
lavished upon this stranger's feet. That she was not
spurned was to her trembling heart a sign of grace and
favor. When the Pharisee beheld, without sympathy,
the forbearance of Jesus, it stirred up his heart against
his guest. Like many others he had been in suspense
as to the true character of the man. Now the decis-
ion was unfavorable. It was clear that he was not a
prophet of God. " This man, if he were a prophet,"
he said within himself, " would have known who and
what manner of woman this is that toucheth him : for
she is a sinner." He could not conceive of a divinity
of compassion. God, to his imagination, was only an
enlarged Pharisee, careful of his own safety, and care-
less of those made wretched by their own sins. These
thoughts were interpreted upon his countenance by a
look of displeasure and contempt. He did not expect
to be humbled in the sight of all his guests by an
exposition of his own inhospitality ; for it seems that
while he had invited Jesus to dine, it was more from
curiosity than respect, and he seems to have consid-
ered that the favor which he thus conferred released
him from those rites which belong to Oriental hospi-
tality. In a parable, Jesus propounded to him a ques-
tion. If a creditor generously forgives two debtors,
one of fifty pence and the other of five hundred,
which will experience the most gratitude ? The an-
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 371
swer was obvious, " I suppose that he to whom he
forgave most." " Thou hast rightly judged." Then,
in simple phrase, but with terrible emphasis, he con-
trasted the conduct of this fallen woman with the
insincere hospitality of the host. "Seest thou this
woman ? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me
no water for my feet : but she hath washed my feet
with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss : but this woman since the
time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My
head with oil thou didst not anoint : but this woman
hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I
say unto thee. Her sins, which are many, are forgiven ;
for she loved much : but to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little." With ineffable grace, Jesus
turns from the Pharisee, silent under this rebuke, to
the woman : " Thy sins are forgiven." The effect
produced upon the company shows that these words
were no mere pious phrases, but were uttered with
an authority which a mere man had no right to
assume. "Who is this that forgive th sins also?"
Truly, who can forgive sins but God only ? Jesus did
not deign an explanation. In the same lofty mood
of sovereignty he dismissed the ransomed soul : " Thy
fliitli hath saved thee ; go in peace." But such a gra-
cious sentence was the strongest possible confirmation
of their judgment that he had assumed to perform the
functions of a Divine Being.
We shall hereafter find many a brief controversy in
which a parable, or a simple question touching the
marrow of things, puts his adversaries to silence, con-
victing them even when they would not be convinced.
Upon this day there had been two deaths, and the
372 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
living death the most piteous and least pitied among
men : two resurrections, and the less marvellous of
the two was the more wondered at : two proofs of
Divinity, — one to the senses, and impressive to the
lowest and highest alike; the other transcendently
brighter, but perceived only by those whose moral
sensibilities gave them spiritual eyesight. The fur-
ther history of the widow's son is not recorded. For
a moment he stands forth with singular distinctness,
and then sinks back into forgetfulness, without name
or memorial.
At about this time the figure of John comes for a
moment to the light. He had probably lain for six
months in his prison at Machasrus. Although in his
youth he had been trained in solitude, it was the soli-
tude of freedom and of the wilderness. There is evi-
dence that his long confinement in prison began to
wear upon his spirits. It is true that he was not
wholly cut off from the companionship of men. As
John's offence was political only in pretence, Herod
did not guard his prisoner so but that his disciples had
access to him. Can we doubt what was the one theme
of the Baptist's inquiry ? The work Avhich he had
begun, which Jesus was to take up, — how fared it ?
Why was there no overwhelming disclosure of the
new kingdom ? Of what use were discourses and won-
derful works so long as the nation stood unmoved ? A
long time had elapsed since Christ's baptisin. He had
not openly proclaimed even his Messiahship. He had
rot gathered his followers either into a church or an
army. He gave no signs of lifting that banner which
was to lead Israel to universal supremacy. He was
spending his days in Galilee, far from Jerusalem, the
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 373
proper capital of the new kingdom as of the old, and
among a largely foreign population. Nor was he de-
nouncing the wickedness of his times as John did, nor
keeping the reserve of a lofty sanctity, but was teach-
ing in villages like a prophet-schoolmaster, receiving
the frequent hospitality of the rich, and even partaking
of social festivities and public banquets. Many of
John's disciples, as we know, were with Jesus during
several of his journeys, attentive listeners and observ-
ers. Many openly adhered to the new leader, and all
seemed friendly. But it is natural that a few should
be jealous for their old master, and that they should
prefer the downright impetuosity of John to the calmer
and gentler method of Jesus. They would naturally
carry back to the solitary man in prison accounts col-
ored by their feelings. To all this shoidd be added
that depression of spirits which settles upon an ener-
getic nature when no longer connected with actual
affairs. Much of hope and courage springs from sym-
pathy and contact with society. We grow uncertain
of things which we can no longer see.
Whatever may have been John's mood and its
causes, it is certain that the message which he now
sent to Jesus implied distressing doubts, which Avere
reprehended by the closing sentence of Jesus's replj^.
Blessed is he, tvhosoever shall not he offended in me. John
was in danger of losing faith in Jesus, and there is
an almost piteous tone of entreaty in the inquiry
which he sent his disciples to make : " Art thou he
that should come ? or look we for another ? " Of
what use would be an asseveration in words, or an
apologetic explanation ? There was a more cogent
reply. It would seem that Jesus delayed his answer,
374 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
and went on with his teaching and miracles in the
presence of John's waiting disciples. " In that same
hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues,
and of evil spirits ; and unto many that were blind
he gave sight." It is j)ossible that these messengers
had been with Jesus at Nain and beheld the rais-
ing of the widow's son, since he mentions the raising
of the dead as one of the acts of power which they
had witnessed, and the widow's son was the first in-
stance recorded. During his ministry only three cases
of this kind are mentioned, namely, the young man at
Nain, the daughter of Jairus, and Lazarus, the brother
of Mary and Martha. Yet it by no means follows
that these were the only instances.
These wonderful deeds, enacted before their eyes,
were the answer which they were to carry back. It
implies the essential nobility of John's nature, as if he
only needed to be brought into sympathy with such
living work to recognize the Divine power. " Go, ....
tell John these things which ye have seen and heard :
how that the blind receive their sight, and the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the
dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel
preached unto them."
It was not the rumor of wonderful works that
John's messengers were to carry back, but the testi-
mony of what they themselves had "seen and heard."
No rumor could surpass the reality ; none of all the
special deeds performed would be likely to satisfy the
mind of John so much as the greatest marvel of all,
— that one had appeared to whom the poor were an
object of solicitude ! Not the healing of the sick, nor
even the raising of the dead, was so surprising as
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 375
that a person clothed with Divine power, able to draw
to him the homage of the rich and of the influential,
should address himself specially to the poor. Wonders
and miracles might be counterfeited ; but a sympathy
with suffering and helplessness so tender, so laborious,
and so long continued, was not likely to be simulated.
Such humanity was unworldly and divine.
Ample provision was made among the Jews for the
instruction of all the families of the nation, but the
great disasters which had befallen that people had in-
terrupted the action of this benevolent j)olity. Sifted
in among the native Jews, especially in Galilee, were
thousands of foreigners, many of them extremely ig-
norant, debased, and poor, who were objects of re-
ligious prejudice and aversion. The Mosaic institutes
breathed a spirit of singular humanity toward the
poor. No nation of antiquity can show such benevo-
lent enactments ; nor can Christian nations boast of
any advance in the temper or polity by which the
evils of poverty are alleviated and the weak preserved
from the oppression of the strong. It was promised
to the ancient Jew, at least by implication, that, if he
maintained the Divine economy established by Moses,
"there shall be no poor among you" (Deut. xv. 4, 5).
In the palmy days of Israel there were no beggars ;
and there is no Hebrew word for begging.^ But in
' Professor T. J. Conant, of Brooklyn, for many years engaged in the
translation and revision of the Scriptures for the American Bible Union,
a friend to whom I am indebted for many valuable suggestions in matters
of scholarly research, writes me, in reference to this, as follows : —
" There is no word in Hebrew that speciBcally means to beg. Three
verbs, h^V in Kal to ask, Piel to ask importunately, typa to seek, and Iffyi
to search for, to seek, are strained from their natural sense to express beg-
ging, for lack of a proper expression of it ; and this in only four passages.
"The first, h^v; (compare Judges v. 25, 'he asked water'), Kal form,
376 THE LIFE OF JESUS, TEE CHRIST.
the distemper of those later times all regard for the
poor had wellnigh perished. Jesus renewed the old
national feeling in a nobler form. Himself poor, the
child of the poor, he devoted himself to the welfare of
the needy; and though he associated freely with all
ranks and classes of people, his sympathy for the poor
never waned, and his ministrations continued to the
very end to be chiefly among them.
John's disciples depart. The great excitable and
fickle crowd remain. How easily they had let go of
John ! How eagerly they had taken up Jesus ! How
quickly would they rush after the next novelty ! Like
the tides, this changeable people were always coming
and going, under influences which they could neither
control nor understand. It did not please Jesus to see
them the sport of every fantastic creation that could
dazzle them with pretentious novelties.
What went ye out into the wilderness for to see ?
A reed shaJccn tvith the loind? It was as if he had said,
Now it is a mountebank, shrewd and shifty, that sends
you roaming into some gathering-place, hoping for de-
liverance from the oppressor at the hands of one who
is used in Proverbs xx. 4, 'shall beg in harvest,' — properly, sluill ask help ;
Piel (intensive), Psalm cix. 10, 'let his children be vagabonds and beg,' —
properly, ask imporlunatehj.
"The second, i:/p3 (participle), is used in Psalm xxxvii. 25, 'nor his
seed begging bread,' — properly, seeking bread, as it is translated in Lamen-
tations i. 19, ' they sought their meat.'
" The third, t^l, is used in Psalm cix. 10, 2d member, Eng. V., ' let them
seek (their bread).' Gesenius needlessly gives it (here only) the sense
to hecj. The meaning is, let them seek (help), he seekers, far from their
ruined homes.
"The word ' beggar,' in 1 Samuel ii. 8, is a mistranslation of pox, needy,
poor.
" I think it entirely safe to say, as you have done, that ' there is no He-
brew word for begging.' "
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 377
only plays on your credulity for his own benefit, and
is himself swayed hither and thither by the breath of
self-interest, like a reed quivering in the wind !
Turning to others, he said : But what went ye out
for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Did you
expect deliverance would come to Israel from rich and
luxurious men, pleasure-loving courtiers ? Look for
such men only in courts and mansions. They will
never task themselves for this people, but will bask in
sumptuous palaces.
Turning again to others, Jesus said : But what
went ye out for to see ? A 'prophet ? A great re-
former, flaming with indignation at evil, and vehement
in rebuke ? John was indeed a prophet, eminent alcove
the great brotherhood of former days. No other
prophet was ever like him; and yet even John can
never bring in that kingdom which God has promised
to his people. The kingdom of the spirit is not phy-
sical nor forceful. It dwells in the heart. It is the
empire within the soul, pure, spontaneous, benevolent.
Even the least member of this kingdom of the spirit
is greater than the greatest proj)het of the old and
external dispensation.
This was the language of criticism and rebuke. It
contrasted the eagerness which many among his hear-
ers had shown to rush after any sign of empire that
had the tokens of external movement and force, and
the disappointment which they could not conceal that
Jesus should, with all his wonderful power, do noth-
ing except to instruct people and to relieve the suf-
ferings of the unfortunate. If this is all, said they, if
marvel and discourse are not leading on to organized
revolt and to victorious onset, what is the use of
378 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
them ? Truth and purity of motive and self-denying
kindness may be all very well, but will they dispossess
foreign armies and reinstate the Jewish rulers ? Thus
the real excellence of the new kingdom was turned
against it as a weakness.
The teaching and miracles of Jesus were doing lit-
tle good, and seemed to quicken that flital tendency
toAvard pride and self-indulgence which had already
prevented the development of moral sensibility. It
was not personal but political changes that men
wanted. Neither John nor Jesus fed their insatiable
ambition, and each in turn was rejected on a mere
pretence. John is a recluse, abstinent, rigorously se-
vere. He is possessed by the demon of the wilder-
ness ! Jesus dwells among his people, adopts the
social customs of his times, disowns all pretentious
fasting and all acerb morality. He eats and drinks
like other men : to-day he breaks bread among the
poor ; to-morrow some ostentatious rich man will have
him at his table ; — it makes no difference. A couch
or the hard plank of a ship, the banquet or the crust
of bread, are alike to him. But this universal social
sympathy is charged against him by his censorious
critics : He is a dissipated fellow, a comj^anion of
grossly wicked men ! For John the Baptid came neither
eating hread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a
devil. The Son of Man is come eating and drinking ; and
ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a ivinelihher, a friend
of indjlicans and sinners I
To such unfriendly thoughts Jesus replies by point-
ing out a group of peevish children that had gath-
ered in the public square. Their companions cry,
"Let us play funeral." No, they will not ^\^y at
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 379
that ; it is too solemn. "Well, then, play wedding !
No, they do not like pij^es and dancing ! Nothing
will suit them. The severity of John and the gentle-
ness of Jesus were alike unpalatable to men who
wanted riches, power, and obsequious flatteries. This
impenetrable worldliness aj)pears to have affected the
spirits of Jesus in an unusual degree. He was sad-
dened that so little of promise had resulted from his
labors.
In the full sovereignty of his nature, he called to
judgment the cities hi which he had wrought the most
striking miracles in the greatest numbers with the
least possible efiects. "Woe unto thee, Bethsaida," —
it was a soliloquy probably, low-voiced, and heard only
by his disciples, — "woe unto thee, Chorazin ! for if
the mighty works which were done in you had been
done in Tyre and Sidon [heathen cities], they woidd
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes." In
this solemn hour, Capernaum, his home after his re-
jection by the people of Nazareth, rose before him
as guiltiest of all. Nowhere else had he taught so
assiduously, or performed so many beneficent works.
He dwelt there, and was there well known. Yet in
no other place was there so little change for good.
"Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven,
shalt be brought down to hell ; .... it shall be more
tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of judg-
ment, than for thee." Jesus did not undervalue the
guilt of the cities of the plain. He left bestial vices
as odious as the moral sense of the world had ranked
them. But he raised the estimate of the guilt of
selfish and sordid sins. Sodom was not less, but
Capernaum was more, guilty than men judged. The
380 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
sentence of Jesus does not change the emphasis of
condemnation, but its relative distribution.
Throughout this scene of reproach, and the follow-
ing passages of conflict with the cold and selfish re-
ligionists, the character of Jesus assumes a new ap-
pearance. It loses nothing of benevolence, but it
reveals how terrible benevolence may become when
arrayed against evil. The guilt of sin is that it
destroys happiness in its very sources. Regarding
the law of right as the law of happiness, the viola-
tion of right is the destruction of happiness. A dis-
position of disobedience is malign. It reaches out
against universal well-being. Divine benevolence, as
a part of the very exercise of kindness, sternly re-
sists every active malign tendency. In a pure soul,
indignation at evil is not an alternative or mere ac-
companiment of benevolence, but is benevolence itself
acting for the preservation of happiness. It seems
impossible that one should be good, and not abhor
that which destroys goodness.
In all the reproofs of Jesus there is an exaltation
and calmness which renders them more terrible than if
they were an outburst of sudden passion. It is not
angered ambition, but repulsed kindness, that speaks.
There is sadness in the severity. The very denun-
ciations seem to mourn.
After his distress had given itself voice in those
severe words, he seems to have let go the trouble, and
to have arisen in prayer to the bosom of his God. The
gloom is breaking ! He sees an infinite wisdom in that
love which hides from the proud and vain the ineffable
truths of religion, and which reveals them to the humble
and the heart-broken. The vision of God brings i^eace
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 381
to him. He turns again to the people, every cloud
gone from his face and the sternness from his words.
Full of pity and of tenderness, in sentences that have
in them the charm of music, he invites the troubled
and unhappy around him to that rest of the heart
which will keep in perfect peace him whose soul is
stayed on God : —
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
I tvill give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall
find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my
hurden is light.
John's message of doubt and wavering came to Jesus
while he was in full conflict with the emissaries from
Jerusalem, who were sowing distrust, and who, as we
shall see, had even stirred up his own family connec-
tions against him. The whole tone of Jesus's reply,
the progression of thought, is that of one thoroughly
aroused and indignant at the exhibitions of moral
meanness around him. His words were warrior words.
Though in prison, saddened, and about to perish, John
was gently but faithfully rebuked. " Blessed is he,
whosoever shall not be offended in me." If even
John was culpable, how much more the malignant
enemies around him ! Still more the cities which had
been the focal points of his ministration ! Thus step
by step his soul manifests its noble repugnance to evil,
till it breaks forth in prayer before God, and returns,
full of pity and of yearning, to beseech once more the
liberty of doing good to ungrateful enemies. Noth-
ing can justify the royal tone of Jesus in this whole
scene but the reality of his Divinity. That a man
should make himself the fountain of cleansing in-
382 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
fluence, and summon all his fellows to be healed by
his spirit, would exhibit an arrogance of pride which
to their minds could be palhated only on the supposi-
tion of insanity.
His family connections do not seem to have been
greatly in sympathy with Jesus at any time. We
know that at a much later period his brethren reject-
ed his claims of Messiahship. Of course they must
have watched his career, and listened to all that was
said of him by those to whom they had been ac-
customed to look for right opinions in matters of re-
ligion. The increased activity of Jesus, the resolute
front which he opposed to the constituted teachers of
his people, the increasing opposition which he stirred
up, the visible effect of all this upon his o^vn spirit,
the loftiness both of carriage and of language with
which he confronted his opponents, together with his
frequent retirements and his deep reveries, suggested
to his friends the notion of insanity. Without doubt
this was at first a hinted criticism, a shaking of the
head and a whispering of one with another.
His life must have seemed strange, if they looked
upon Jesus without faith in his Divine mission, or sym-
pathy with it, and applied to him such practical rules
as regulated their own conduct. The intensity of his
spirit, the ajDparent restlessness which compelled him
to go throughout every village and city, " preaching
and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God,"
must have seemed unaccountable. Then, his company
was extraordinary. His twelve disciples were now his
constant attendants. But besides these a singular
band of women went with him, and largely provided
for his support. First mentioned is Mary Mngdalene,
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 383
who, whatever doubts may rest upon her history or
the origin of her name, ckmg to Jesus with a fidehty
that could not be surpassed, an affection which seems
to have grown more earnest and fearless with dan-
ger, and which, during his crucifixion and after his
burial, places her even before his own mother in in-
tensity of self-devotion. Chusa, the wife of Herod's
steward, was another ; and Susanna, whose name only
remains to us, was also conspicuous. But it is said
by Luke that there were "many others." He also
states that "they ministered to him of their sub-
stance." This was an extraordinary procession for a
teacher to make. His kindred felt that they had a
right to interfere, and it was not long before they
had the opportunity. Indeed, there seem to have
been two separate efforts to withdraw him to the
privacy of his home, — or, rather, two stages of the
one search and attempted interference. On one oc-
casion the enthusiasm of the people rose to an uncon-
trollable height. Jesus appears to have been utterly
swallowed up by the crowd. He and his disciples
" could not so much as eat bread." Then it was that
his friends, when they heard of it, " went out to lay
hands upon him ; for they said, He is beside himself"
But the work went on. The Pharisees beheld his
growing power with the people, especially after his
mastery of a case of demoniacal possession of a pecu-
liarly malignant and obstinate character. The easy res-
toration of the victim filled the multitude, even though
they had almost grown familiar with his miracles of
mercy, with wonder and amazement. They cried out
in spontaneous enthusiasm, "Is not this the son of
David ? " By that title was the long-desired Messiah
384 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
familiarly known. This homage of the people stirred
the Scribes. Taking hint from the impression of his
friends that he was insane, they added to the charge
that it was an insanity of demoniacal possession !
That he cast out demons could not be denied ; but
they said that did not argue his Divinity, for he was
himself a dupe or an accomplice, working under the
power conferred by Satan -, in short, a magician, a nec-
romancer, one who had made a league with the devil !
The emissaries from Jerusalem and their confeder-
ates in Galilee were blind to all the excellences of
Jesus. If he was to thrive outside of their party, and
raise up an influence antagonistic to it, then, the better
he was, the more dangerous to them. How unscrupu-
lous and malignant their conversation became is re-
vealed by the epithets employed : he was a drunkard ;
he was a glutton ; he was a companion of knaves
and courtesans ; he was a sabbath-breaker, a blas-
phemer, a charlatan, a necromancer, an unclean fel-
low. (Mark iii. 30.) His power could not be gain-
said ; but its moral significance might be blurred,
nay, it might be made to witness against him, if
they coukl persuade the people that the devil sent
him among them, and that under the guise of kind-
ness he was really weaving infernal snares for their
easy credulity !
The reply of Jesus to this last aspersion was con-
clusive, if judged from their point of view. " You
believe that Satan is carrying forward his work by me.
"Would he begin, then, by acting against himself?
Will Beelzebub cast out Beelzebub ? Satan fight
Satan ? Is not this a house divided against itself, and
sure to faU ? But why charge me with acting from
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 385
infernal power, when you believe that evil spirits are
cast out by your own disciples and by lawful methods ?
When your pupils employ the exorcisms which you
prescribe, and men are relieved, do you admit that it
was the devil that wrought with them? On the con-
trary, you believe it to be a Divine power that helps
your children. Their example condemns your argu-
ments against me."
If the carefulness of the Lord's reply seems strange,
it is only because the exceeding gravity and danger-
ousness of this attack upon him is not appreciated.
Beelzebub was a heathen god, and to charge Jesus
with acting as his emissary was to suggest the most
insidious form of idolatry. To the common people
Jesus was the very model of a Jew. He revived and
represented the heroic national character. His whole
career a23pealed to the patriotic element. His use of
their Scriptures, his teaching in their synagogues, his
conformity to all Jewish rites and usages in worship,
the historical basis of his teachings, and the very at-
tempt to bring back the old Jewish life by reforming
the abuses of the school of the Pharisee, all gave to
him a high repute with the common people as a rep-
resentative national man with the stamjD of the old
prophets.
If his enemies could destroy this impression, and
excite a suspicion that, after all, he was in sympathy
with foreign nations and was really an emissary of an
idolatrous system, they would easily destroy his in-
fluence. For on no other point was the Jewish mind
so inflammable as against idolatrous foreign influences.
Beelzebub was the chief of foreign heathen deities.
To charge Jesus with acting under his inspiration was
25
386 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
an appeal to the national fanaticism. The vigor of
Christ's reply manifests his sense of the danger of
snch an imputation, and explains also the solemn and
judicial severity with which he immediately turned
upon his assailants. For the lines were drawn. All
hope of accommodation was past. Between him and
the Pharisees the gulf had been opened that could never
be closed. Hitherto he had entered into controversy
with them as a Rabbi would dispute with any one in
his school who dissented from his teaching. In his
Sermon on the Mount he had clearly taken ground
against the whole ethics and religious philosophy of
this school. But now the hour had come when he
distinctly assailed them as a corrupt party. There
could be no more friendliness between them. No one
could be on both sides, or be indifferent. All must
choose. Pointing to his antagonists, he declared, " He
that is not with me is against me. He that gathereth
not with me scattereth abroad." He now asserts his
Divinity as he had never done before, not by assum-
ing to himself Divine titles, but by identifying their
resistance to him as a direct and conscious resistance
to the Holy Ghost.
The scene at this point is extraordinary. Jesus had
hitherto stood upon the defensive. But there was
something in the spirit of his antagonists which roused
in him the latent royalty to a most august disclosure.
He no longer explains or defends. He brings home to
the conspiring Pharisees the terrible charge of blas-
phemy. He expressly excludes the idea that this was
done simply because they had opposed him. Whoso-
ever speaJccth a ivord agahist the Son of Man, it shall be for-
given him. Jesus accepted his place among men, and
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 387
did not demand any exemption from the criticisms
and argmnents with which men contested all the phi-
losophies or religious teachings of the Rabbis. He did
not hold his antagonists guilty because they had op-
posed his claims or his doctrines. It was their own
highest nature, in its state of Divine illumination, that
they had deliberately violated. His works and his
expositions had not failed ; there was among these
men an hour of full conviction that this work and
this doctrine was of God. But pride and malign sel-
fishness rose up against the light. For the sake of
sinister interests, they dishonored the noblest intu-
itions of their souls.
There are hours in which men are lifted out of the
dominion of sensuous fact, and come up into the full
blaze of spiritual truths. They are consciously in the
very presence of God. The Divine influence is so per-
sonal and pervasive, that in their own consciousness
they think, feel, and will, as it were, face to face with
God. These are the hours of the soul's sovereignty,
and its choices are final, since they are made when
every advantage is concentrated ujoon them. If they
are right, they are eternally right j if wrong, they are
wrong forever.
In such a supreme mood the Pharisees had not only
dishonored their own luminous convictions of the
truth, but, transported with the anger of mortified
vanity, had poured contempt and ridicule upon them.
The sentence of Mark is very significant, — " Because
they said, He hath an unclean spirit." What unclean
spirit was meant, is shown by Matthew : " This fellow
doth not cast out devils but by Beelzebub." Beelze-
bub was to the Jews the heathen god of nastiness,
388 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
god of the dunghill, of universal excrement ! ^ The
vulgarity of the abuse must be left to the imagi-
nation.
Affairs had reached a crisis. It is well, therefore, at
this point, to look somewhat closely into the precise
relations subsisting between the party of the Temple,
the common people, and Jesus.
The Scribes and Pharisees were neither better nor
worse than men usually are who hold power in their
hands, and are determined, at all hazards, to main-
tain it. If Jesus could have been made to work un-
der their general direction, and so to contribute to the
stability of the Temple influence, they would have
suffered him to utter almost any sentiment, and to
execute rigorous popular reformations. Every word
and every act was scrutinized from one point of view,
— its relations to the influence of the dominant
school.
In the progressive conflict with Jesus, which ended
with his death, the Scribes acted within the familiar
^ See Smith's Bible Dictionary (American edition, Hurd and Houghton),
Art. " Beelzebul."
Moreover, on this point Professor Conant writes ; " To the heathen
themselves Beelzebub was not the ' god of nastiness,' but a very respectable
sort of a divinity, with an honorable vocation, according to their notions.
'■'■ Beelzebub (313T '7i''3), with final 5, occurs only once, in 2 Kings i. 2,
as a god of the Philistines at Ekron, to whom Ahaziah sent messengers to
inquire whether he should recover from his disease. He was then, it seems,
a god of good repute even in Israel.
" From the etymology, Gesenius explains the name as 'fty-Baal, fly-
destroyer, like the Zds 'ATro/xutoy of Elis, .... and the Mi/lagrus deus of
the Romans.' Fiirst, under D-1DT, compares the 'epithets of Hercules,
InoKTovos (vermin-killer) and Kopponiuiv (locust-killer).'
" The Jews, with their propensity to sarcastic punning, pronounced the
name Beelzebul (S31 Si^S), 'god of the dunghill,' dunghill-god.
" There can be no reasonable doubt that the view you give in the text
is the true one."
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 389
sphere of ordinary political immorality. They were not
monsters, but simply unscrupulous politicians. At first
they contented themselves with observing Jesus, and
would evidently have been willing to conciliate, had a
chance been given them. They then followed him,
watching for some mistake which would bring down on
him the grasp of a jealous foreign government. This
was by far the most poUtic method of dealing with
him. A dangerous man would thus be removed by an
odious foreign despotism, without prejudice to the Jew-
ish rulers. But Jesus was fully conscious of this peril.
So cautious was he in discourse, that from the records
of his teaching one would scarcely know that there
was an mtrusive government in Palestine. He used
his authority to keep down popular excitement ; and
when the enthusiasm could not be controlled, he
frequently withdrew from sight, and sometimes hid
himself absolutely. The wisdom of his course Avas
justified. The Roman officials, after a while, seem to
have dismissed his movements from their thoughts;
and even at the crisis of his death they appear to
have cared but little for the matter, and to have
been pushed on by the resolute fury of the Jewish
leaders.
If the Temple party could not check the career of
Jesus by direct political interference, the next obvi-
ous step of policy would be to embroil him with his
own countrymen. This would seem not difficult. The
Jewish people were inordinately sensitive to secta-
rian and national prejudices. It seemed likely that
a bold reformer like Jesus would first or last strike
some blow that would rouse up the whole wrath of
a bigoted people, and that he would be sacrificed in
390 ^^^ LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
some popular tumult. Tliis line of policy ^vas skil-
fully followed by them. It was not wise to shock
the enthusiasm of the people, or to stand cold and
unmoved amid so much pojDular feeling. It was
better to go wdth the crowd as friends, but as con-
servative friends. They listened, but in a gentle and
resjDCctful way sought to entangle him in his teach-
ings. The ill success of this course little by little
increased their zeal. But they were politic. They
could not break with Jesus so long as the mass of
the people were with him. They therefore still main-
tained outward amicable relations, but watched and
waited, whispering, suggesting, criticising ; — yet all
in vain. The current would not be turned by these
puffs of wind that ran across its surface.
Jesus seems to have been perfectly aw^are of all
this, and of the dangers which threatened. His tran-
quil avoidance of their snares disclosed how skilful
may be the highest moral endowments. It was diffi-
cult to oppose the whole religious teaching of his
times without appearing to set aside the Jewish fliith,
and bringing upon himself the charge of infidelity, —
always a facile and effective weapon. It was diffi-
cult to resist the authority of the representative men
of his nation, without violating the fanatical sense of
patriotism among the people. The consciousness of
such peril w^ould render a weak nature cautious, would
limit his sphere of remark, and enfeeble his criti-
cisms of evil. Nothing is more striking than the
attitude of Jesus in the face of this danger. His
teachings did not flag. His words became more pow-
erful. The sphere of topics every day enlarged. Like
a skilful surgeon, confident of his hand, he i^lunged
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 391
the probe down, amid nerves and arteries, with un-
failing and unsparing fidehty. At times his adver-
saries could not forbear admiration of his tact and
skin. He never struck wrong, nor ever missed a
stroke. They beheld him every day less in peril of
the court, less likely to lose his hold upon the com-
mon people, and more clearly endangering their own
" name and place."
Tt was at this point of affairs that the cry was first
heard, Is not this the son of David? By that jDhrase
was meant Messiahship ! The spark had fallen. The
fire was kindled. The Scribes seemed thrown off
their guard by the extremity of danger. Then it
was, as we have seen, that they blindly charged him
with being a minion of infernal influences, the evil
victim of a foreign god of filthy and detestable attri-
butes. And it was to this open declaration of war
that Jesus opposed as openly the terrific denuncia-
tions which consigned them to a doom not to be
reversed in this world nor in the world to come.
The Scribes at once saw their blunder. They had
not carried the people with them. They had aroused
in Jesus a spirit of sovereignty before which they
quailed. They had thrown the javelin, but it had
missed, and they stood disarmed.
They then attempted to recover their position. It
is quite likely that the Scribes, who had led the onset,
gave place to others, who put on a face of kindness as a
mask to their real feelings. They came to him with an
affectation of reasonableness and of devotion : — Mas-
ter, we wish that we might only see a sign from thee.
He was not to be deceived by this sudden complai-
sance. With even increasing elevation of spirit and
392 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
of manner he denounced them as an "evil and adul-
terous generation." No sign should be wrought for
their purposes. But a sign they should have. What
Jonah was to Nineveh, that should the Son of Man
be to Jerusalem. So far from softening his words or
abating his authority he takes a bolder step, and de-
clares himself superior to Jonah, an eminent prophet,
and to Solomon, the most renowned philosopher and
the most brilliant king of the Hebrew race. That
such arrogation of rank did not offend the people is
a testimony to the hold which Jesus had gained up-
on their veneration.
This plausible attempt of the Pharisees to return to
amicable relations with him did not for a moment im-
pose upon Jesus. He signified his judgment of the
value of their mood by a parable, which, however, did
not expend its force upon them, but, after the method of
the prophecies, had a kind of moral ricochet and struck
successive periods. Their pretended reformations were
but a getting ready for renewed wickedness.
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walJceth
through dry 'places, seeldng rest, and findeth none. Then he
saith, I ivill return into my house from ivhence I came out ;
and tvhen he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Then goeth he, and taJceth with himself seven other spii^^s
more tvicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there :
and the last state of that man is tvorse than the first. Even
so shall it he also unto this ivichcd generation.
In his adversaries, the discourses of Jesus produced
anger, and at times rage. The people generally felt
admiration and enthusiasm for them, some being ca-
pable of appreciating their spiritual excellence and
entering profoundly into sympathy with him. Thus,
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 393
while he was unfolding the truth, a woman in the
crowd, quite borne away by the admirableness of
his teaching, cried out with a true mother's feeling,
" Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps
which thou hast sucked ! " This was the very pride of
motherhood breaking into rapture of worship. It is
not likely that she knew Mary. There certainly is
no unconscious blessing pronounced upon the Virgin
Mother; it was upon Christ that her heart rested.
She struck an unimagined chord in the heart of Jesus.
There is sadness in his reply, Yea, rather, Messed are ilwj
that hear the word of God, and keep it. And reason there
was for this sadness. At that very moment his mother,
with other members of the family, were hovering on
the outskirts of the excessive crowd, seeking him. By
Mark (iii. 20, 21, 31-35) we see what her errand was.
Driven by maternal solicitude, she had become more
anxious for his personal safety than for the develop-
ment of the kingdom of heaven. Her love for him as
her own son was stronger than her love for him as the
Son of God. She might not have believed that he was
"beside himself;" she might naturally have felt that
by excessive zeal he was putting his life in peril. Fol-
lowing in the wake of the crowd, she would gather up
into her anxious heart all the angry ■ speeches and
significant threats of his enemies. Why should we
imagine that Mary was made perfect without suffering,
without mistakes, without that training which every
one of the disciples passed through, and without need
of those tender rebukes from the Master which all
experienced ? If even the unflinching and sturdy
John faltered, can we wonder that a mother should
dread the storm which she saw gathering around her
beloved son ?
394 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
It was while the cry of sympathy from a nameless
woman hi the crowd was in his ear, that word was
brought to Jesus, " Behold thy mother and thy brethren
stand without, desiring to speak with thee." This is
the sequel of that previous statement, " When his
friends (kinsmen) heard of it, they went out to lay
hold of him ; for they said. He is beside himself."
Were it not for this history, it would be hard to
redeem the reply of Jesus to the messenger of his
mother from the imputation of severity, bordering on
harshness. Who is my mother ? and tvho are my brethren ?
Is this the language of a child's love, in whose ear his
mother's name is music ? Is this the honored recep-
tion, before all the people, which a mother had a right
to expect from such a son ?
Then it was that he seems to have drawn himself up
and looked round upon the crowd with an eye of love
veiled by sorrow. There must have been something
striking in his manner of speaking, that should lead
the Evangelists always to describe his personal ap-
pearance in that act. They were not anatomists, nor
close students of details; they mentioned that which
struck them forcibly. It was not a glance, a flash, but
a long and piercing gaze : " he looked round about on
them which sat about him " ; and then, stretching
forth his hand toward his disciples, he said, " Behold
my mother and my brethren ! Whosoever shall do
the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same
is my brother, and my sister, and my mother ! " ^
' President Woolsey, of Yale College, holds the following language : —
" However we explain INIary's i)articipation in the design of her kinsmen,
she is included in what is a virtual censure on the part of our Lord. He
neither goes out to meet her and her companions, nor admits them into his
presence. He exclaims that his nearest of kin arc the children of God,
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 395
"While this was unquestionably a rebuke to his
mother and brethren for want of moral sympathy with
him, it presents an admirable illustration of the way
in which Jesus looked upon all the social relationships
of life. As much in domestic as in religious matters
the exterior is but the veil, the interior is the sub-
stance and reality. As manhood is not made up by
the members of the body, but by the soul, so re-
lationship is not simply by blood, but by affinities of
character. The household which is grouped around
natural parents, with all its blessedness, does not limit
within itself one's real kindred. All that are good
belong to each other. All, in every nation, who call
God Father, have a right to call each other brother,
sister, mother ! Thus around the visible home there
extends an invisible household of the heart, and men
of faith and aspiration are rich in noble relationships.
This scene between Jesus and his mother was a
mere episode in the sharp conflict which, under one
form and another, was going on between Jesus and the
emissaries from the Temple, together with their con-
federates in the provinces. But it was not all an open
conflict. It would seem as if, while some plied him
with opposition, others tried the arts of kindness, and
the seductions of hospitality. For these invitations
and asks, ' Who is my mother and my brethren ? ' It is thus remarkable
that in the only two instances, until the crucifixion, where Mary figures in
the Gospel, — the marriage at Cana and the passage before us, — she ap-
pears in order to be reproved by the Saviour, and to bo placed, as far as
the mere matPrnal relation is concerned, below obedient servants of God.
These passages must be regarded as protests laid up in store against the
heathenish eminence which the Roman Church assigns to IMary, and espe-
cially against that newly established dogma, of her being without sin from
her birth, which they so signally contradict." — Reliriion of the Present and
oj the Future, p. 4G. New York : Charles Scribner & Co. 1871.
396 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
which brought him to feasts in the houses of dis-
tinguished Pharisees, as the whole carriage of Jesus
showed, were not always acts of simple kindness. No
doubt they were inspired to some extent by curiosity,
mingled with vanity at having possession of one
who was stirring the whole community. But they
evidently had in them also an element of seduction.
He might be flattered by attentions. He might be
softened by social blandishments. He might, in the
confidence of honorable hospitality, be thrown off his
guard and led to incautious speeches, by which after-
wards he might be entangled.
Soon after this interview with his mother, a Pharisee
urged him to dine. No sooner had they sat down
than the latent design of this hospitality began to
appear. Jesus had neglected to wash his hands offi-
cially, after the custom of the strict among the Jews,
and he was at once questioned about it. It seems that
there was present a large company of lawyers and
doctors of the law, and that all were sharpened for
conflict, and this will sufficiently account for the
character of the most extraordinary after-dinner speech
that was ever recorded. Jesus was not for a moment
deceived by their pretensions and formal courtesies.
He knew what their politeness meant. He replied to
the inward reality, and not to the outward seeming.
It was a fearful analysis and exposure of the hollow-
heartedness of the men who were seeking his downfall.
The manner of this speech seems to have been thus :
One after another would question him, and upon his
replies still other criticisms would be made, followed
again by taunts and contemptuous questions. Luke
gives us an insight into the method and spirit of this
THE BEGINNING OF CONFLICT. 397
remarkable dialogue: "As he said these things unto
them, the Scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him
vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many
things ; laying wait for him, and seeking to catch
something out of his mouth, that they might accuse
him." The speech as given in the text may be regard-
ed as a condensed record of the substance of his
replies, the interpolated questions and disputatious
passages being left out. It is this interlocutory char-
acter of the Lord's discourses, both here and elsewhere,
that must supply us with a clew to the succession of
topics, which otherwise will seem forced.
And the Lord said unto him, JSfow do ye Pharisees maJce
clean the outside of the cup and the platter ; hid your inward
part is full of ravening and luicJcedness. Ye fools, did not
he that made that ivhich is tviihout maJce that which is uithin
also ? But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and,
behold, all things are clean unto you. But ivoe unto you,
Pharisees ! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of
herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God : these
ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Woe
unto you, Pharisees ! for ye love the uppermost seats in the
synagogues, and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you,
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites I for ye are as graves ivhich
appear not, and the men that ivalJc over them are not aivare
of them. Then anstvered one of the laivyers, and said unto
Mm, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. And he
said. Woe unto you also, ye lavycrs^ ! for ye lade men uith
burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the
burdens ivith one of your fingers. Woe unto you ! for ye
build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed
them. Truly ye bear uitncss that ye allow the deeds of your
fathers : for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepul-
398 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
chres. Therefore also said the tvisdom of God, I tvill send
them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay
and persecute : that the hlood of all the prophets, lohich ivas
shed from the foundation of the tvorld, may he required of
this generation, from the hlood of Mel unto the hlood of
Zacharias, whicti perished hetween the altar and the temple :
verily I say unto you. It shall he required of this generation.
Woe unto you, lawyers ! for ye have taken away the hey of
Jcnou'lcdge : ye entered not in yourselves, and them that tvere
entering in ye hindered.
The kindled flame was to be noiirislied by new
fuel every day. The courage and boldness of Jesus
were equalled only by the bitterness and cunning of
the Scribes. He knew the issue. " I am come to send
fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already
kindled?"
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 399
CHAPTER XVII.
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE.
The discourses of Jesus grew deeper and richer
from the beginning of his ministry to the end. But
the transitions were never formal or abrupt. Nor can
we anywhere lay our finger upon a precise moment or
occasion when the deepening or widening took place.
His teaching was like the flow of a river, whose depth
and breadth continually increase, but nowhere sud-
denly. From the first he had preached the Idngdom of
heaven, but at this time he seems to have made that
theme the special subject of discourse. Indeed, just
before he sent out his twelve disciples to teach, there
was a crisis in his ministry and a change in his style
which proceeded from profound reasons that deserve
careful consideration.
Whatever spiritual benefit had been derived by
single persons from his ministry, it was plain that in
general his teaching had fallen only upon the outward
ear, and that his beneficent works had stirred up the
worldly side of men more than the spiritual. They
were glad to have their sicknesses healed, to know
that the kingdom of heaven (interpreted according
to Jewish expectations) was advancing. His family
friends were plying him with prudential considerations.
His adversaries were organizing a powerful, though
as yet cautious and crafty, opposition. He stood in
400 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
an excited circle of "worldly men ; and whether they
were for him or against him, they were for the most
part seeking a material and secular interest. It was
important that he should, if possible, break through
this carnal view, and kindle in their minds some idea
of that spiritual kingdom which he sought to establish.
On no other subject did he concentrate so many
parables as upon this. Eight of them in succession,
and apparently at about the same time, evince his
earnestness, and his estimate of the importance of the
topic. The Sower, the Tares, the Growth of Seed, the
Grain of Mustard-seed, the Leaven, the Treasure-field,
the Pearl, the Net, — each one of these expounded
some view of his kingdom. In reading them, one is
struck with the w^holly spiritual and unworldly charac-
ter of that kingdom. There is no intimation of a so-
ciety or of organization.
These parables are evidently the fragments of dis-
course. The disciples remembered and recorded them
as brief and striking pictures; but it is not likely
that Jesus put them forth one after the other, without
any filling up or exposition. We know, in regard
to some, that they were parts of interlocutory dis-
course, and that they gave rise to questions and to an-
swers. It is highly probable that all of them were
preceded and followed by expository matter, on which
the parables were wrought like the figures upon lace.
The sudden addiction of Christ to parables is the sign
of a serious change in his relations to that part of the
people who were now secretly banding together in
opposition to his influence. We have already seen the
feeling which this conduct produced in his bosom.
Although his personal relations were apparently not
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 401
affected, and he moved among the Pharisees as he had
always done, he regarded portions of them as being
so dangerous that it was prudent to forestall their
efforts to catch something out of his mouth, that they might
accuse him.
A parable — or a moral truth thrown into the form
of an imaginary history, a germ drama — was pecu-
liarly fitted for the double office which in his hands it
had to perform. It was an instructive form of speech,
addressing the imagination, and clinging tenaciously to
the memory. It was admirably suited to the intelli-
gence of the common people. It had also this advan-
tage, that throughout the East it was a familiar style
of instruction, and the people were both used to it and
fond of it. On the other hand, its polemic advantages
were eminent. By parables Jesus could advance his
views with the utmost boldness, and yet give to his
enemies but little chance of perverting his words. It
was necessary to baffle their devices, without restrict-
ing the scope of his teaching or abating his activity.
We have already glanced at the methods by which
the Scribes sought an end to this reformer, as soon
as they became satisfied that he could not be used
as a tool for their own advantage. The topic will
bear unfolding still further. They first attempted to
excite against him the fears of the government, and
to cause his arrest as one politically dangerous. This
would seem beforehand to promise the surest and
speediest results. Herod was suspicious, jealous of
his power, and cruel in vindicating it. The great
excitement which kindled around Jesus, and the ex-
cessive throngs which followed him, gave color to
unfavorable representations. The general conduct of
26
402 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Jesus must have been very circumspect. Indeed, we
are struck, not only with the absence of pohtical
topics from his teachings, but with the unworldly
treatment of common secular duties. M)/ kingdom is
not of this toorld was as plainly indicated by the Ser-
mon on the Mount as by his final declaration. Poli-
ticians were shrewd enough to see that Jesus had
no purpose of publicly or secretly organizing the peo-
ple. Every political jDarty has one or two sensitive
tests. If a man is sound or harmless in respect to
them, he is regarded as safe. In ecclesiastical admin-
istration these tests are apt to be doctrinal or ritual.
In political management they are more likely to re-
late to practical polic}^ Judged by political tests, it
must have seemed to disinterested spectators that Jesus
was simply a very benevolent man, with great power
of personal fascination, who indulged in impracticable
dreams of an ideal future ; that he neglected the
most admirable opportunities for forming a party, and
squandered his influence for lack of organization.
The people again and again came at his call, but dis-
solved and sunk away without bringing to him any
advantage. His doctrine passed over the surface of
society as the shadows of white clouds high up in the
heavens pass over fields and forests, making transient
pictures, but changing nothing in root, leaf, or fruit.
There was far less to fear in such a man than in the
narrower, but more immediately practical, John the
Baptist. Besides, it may be presumed that there were
in Herod's household friends of Jesus, who had the
ear of the king or of his advisers. We know that the
wife of Herod's steward was a devoted friend to the
prophet of Galilee. The fate of men and of policies
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 403
often depends upon the soft whisper, in an hour of lei-
sure, of one whom the public neither sees nor knows,
whose very obscurity lends to his influence by disarm-
ing jealousy or the fear of selfish counsel.
Political influences failing, the next obvious method
of destroying Jesus would be to embroil him with
the people. The Pharisees, representing the patri-
otic feeling of the nation, were very popular with
the masses. The people were apt upon the slightest
provocation to burst out into uncontrollable fanati-
cism. How easy it would be to sweep away this man
of Nazareth in some wild outbreak ! But Jesus, a
man of the common people, living day by day among
them, familiar with all their prejudices, their thoughts,
their wants, and ministering to their necessities by
almost daily acts of beneficence, could not easily be
withdrawn from the sympathies of the poor. The
crowds of grateful creatures that surrounded him
might be ignorant of his real doctrines, and take little
profit from his spirit; but they j)roved a stronger bar-
rier between him and his enemies of the synagogue
and the Temple than an imperial army would have
been. , They were unconsciously his body-guard.
The only other method of putting Jesus out of the
way was by the exercise of the power of discipline
in the hands of the Jewish Sanhedrim. But a trial for
heresy required material. It was not easy to procure
it. Jesus was in disagreement with the religious
leaders of his people, but he was historically in accord
with Moses and the Prophets. He was really more
orthodox than the Rabbis.
It was for the sake of bringing him to trial before
the religious tribunal of his people for some form of
404 TSE LIFE OF JESUS, TEE CHRIST.
error, that lie was now watched with indefatigable
vigilance ; and the change in his method of teaching-
may be attributed greatly to that. For a marked
change took place in the style of his teaching soon
after the calling and sending forth of his disciples.
In expounding to them the parable of the Sower, as we
shall see, Jesus expressly gave as a reason for using
the parabolic form in teaching, that it would baffle his
enemies. It would convey the truth ; and yet, as the
vehicle was a fiction, his adversaries would be unable
to catch him in his words. There is no instance in
which his parables were alleged as an offence. The
Pharisees knew at whom they were aimed; yet so
w^isely did Jesus frame them, that nothing contrary
to the law or to national customs could be made out
of them.
But the larger use of the parable in his teachings
is not the only change to be noticed at this period.
"We shall find an impetus to his discourses, an attack-
ing force, which shows that he designed to put his
adversaries on the defensive. Instead of watching
him, they found themselves impelled to study their
own defence. Many came as if conscious of great
superiority, and as pompous patrons. But they were
handled as if they were very poorly instructed pupils.
These considerations of the state of the conflict Avill
not only illustrate the general prudence of Jesus's
course, but will give significance to many incidents
which otherwise woulS lose their real bearings.
It was in the face and under the influence of this
crafty conspiracy against him that he pronounced the
words recorded by Luke, which not only informed
them explicitly that he divined their plans, but in-
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE 405
structed his disciples that both they and their master
were under the care of a Divine Providence which
watches over the minutest elements of creation. Con-
sidered as the utterance of one standing amidst shrewd
and venomous enemies, this tranquillizing and com-
forting spirit is truly divine.
" In the mean time, when there were gathered to-
gether an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch
that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto
his disciples first of all. Beware ye of the leaven of the
Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing
covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that
shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have
spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light ; and that
which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be
proclaimed upon the house-tops. And I say unto you
my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body,
and after that have no more that they can do. But I
will forewarn you whom ye shall fear : Fear him which,
after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell ; yea,
I say unto you. Fear him. Are not five sparrows sold
for two farthings? and not one of them is forgotten
before God : but even the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. Fear not, therefore : ye are of more
value than many sparrows. Also I say unto you,
Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the
Son of Man also confess before the angels of God :
but he that denieth me before men shall be denied
before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak
a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven
him ; but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy
Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring
you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates and
406 TUE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CnRIST.
powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye
shall answer, or what ye shall say : for the Holy
Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye
ought to say."
An incident occurred about this time which deserves
more than a passing notice. A young man appealed
to Jesus against his brother, in the matter of dividing
some property that had been left to them. " Master,
speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance
with me." One who was smarting under a wrong
would naturally appeal to a great teacher of morals
for advice and influence. The reply of Jesus surprises
us by an apparent severity for which at first we can-
not account, — " Man, who made me a judge or a
divider over you?" But if the cunning Scribes had
whisj^ered this young man on, hojDing to induce Jesus
through his symj)athies to assume judicial functions
and to step into a snare, we can understand that the
severity of his abrupt refusal was meant more for the
Pharisees than for their dupe. Yet, though he could
not assume the authority of courts and distribute prop-
erty, he could fasten the attention upon the most lofty
views respecting the ends of life. Beware of covetous-
ness : for a man's Ufe consisteth not in the abundance of the
tilings tvJiich he possesseth. One may be happy in riches ;
but there is a higher enjoyment than any which wealth
can bestow. This view was not left as a mere apo-
thegm. He framed it into a picture which no one
could ever forget. For the memory of things received
through the imagination is ineradicable.
In a dozen lines he gives a perfect drama. Avarice,
made good-natured by prosperity, comisels with itself
and fills the future with visions of self-indulgence.
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 407
Then from out the great reahn above comes a voice
pronouncing eternal bankruptcy to the presumptuous
dreamer !
" And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The
ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully :
and he thought within himself, saying. What shall I do,
because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?
And he said. This will I do : I will pull down my barns,
and build greater; and there will I bestow all my
fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul. Soul,
thou hast much goods laid up for many years ; take
thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said
unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be re-
quired of thee : then whose shall those things be
which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up
treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
This is the contrast that evermore exists, in ten
thousand forms, between the visible and the invisi-
ble. Just beyond inordinate mirth lie gloom and
sadness. Through the tears of desponding sorrow
rises on the background beyond a tender rainbow.
When the sun is setting, the human form projects a
grotesque and monstrous shadow far along the ground ;
and so character casts forward a shadow into the future,
whether fair or hideous, in prodigious disproportion to
the seeming magnitude of the living reality.
The parables of Jesus, as we find them in the Gos-
pels, are like pearls cast into a jewel-case, without
order or selection. The thread that connected them
is lost. But we often find an inward congruity be-
tween the parable and the events just then happen-
ing, that creates a probability as to the order. Thus
the two parables respecting the unminence of death
408 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
would seem naturally to have followed the parable
of the rich fool. There are two; one in Hght, the
other in shadow. Could anything be more radiant
and original, contrasted with the frightful pagan ideas
of death, or with the dismal ideas of the primitive
Jewish nations, than the figure of Death as a bride-
groom returning from wedding festivities to his house-
hold? Yet, in exhorting his disciples to be in con-
stant preparation for the event of death, Jesus urges
them to be vigilant and cheerful watchers, " like unto
men that wait for their lord, when he will return from
the wedding." Their lord shall cause them to sit
down to a banquet, and he himself, in love, shall honor
and serve them. This watching must run through the
series of hours, whether he come in the second watch
or in the third watch. It is to be an all-night fidelity.
There is a fine vein of poetry in the implication that
this life is a night, and death the breaking of the
morning, the awaking from sleep. But the mention
of the night watches suggests a new illustration, and
the parable changes. It is a householder now, secure,
asleep, dreaming happily. But hovering near is the
artful thief He steals noiselessly to the window. He
enters without discovery and despoils the house of
treasure in the very face of its owner, too fast asleep
to know the mischief that is going on. When the
man awakes and discerns the state of things, no doubt
he will bestir himself But too late ! The thief is
gone, and with him the goods ! ^
Peter now interposes a question as to whether the
parables referred to the disciples only, or also to the
whole multitude. The reply is not recorded ; but the
» Luke xii. 35-40.
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 409
new parable which followed it indicates the nature
of the reply, — that he was speaking to all alike.
In a few words Jesus depicts the interior of some
princely household; the master is absent, and not
soon expected home ; the faithless steward, assuming
airs of superiority, betakes himself to inordinate fes-
tivities, and in his drunken revelling plays the petty
tyrant, abusing the servants with words and blows.
In the midst of the shameful debauch, the master sud-
denly appears. In an instant all is changed. The
unfaithful servant is convicted, dispossessed, and cast
forth. There could be no doubt in Peter's mind
whether he spoke " to all " or not. By such a picture,
the materials of which were too abundant in that age
and country, Jesus would fix in the memory of a
curious crowd, subject to evanescent excitements, the
great danger of giving way to their passions in this
life without regard to that great After-Life, which,
though silent, is certain and near at hand, and whose
happiness dej^ends upon the results of the moral edu-
cation evolved in this visible world.
The picture was not only likely to abide in the
memory, teaching its own lesson, but it was made to
carry with it certain short sentences, whose truths lie
at the foundation of responsible moral government.
The servant that knew his lord's will, and did it not,
shall be beaten with many stripes ; but he that knew
not, with few stripes. The severity of punishment is
to be graded by the deliberation with which the law
of duty is broken. Under a government of physical
laws, the motive of the transgressor has no influence
upon the penalty. The ignorant and the intelligent,
those who disobey wilfully and those who do it un-
410 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
knowingly, suffer alike. But under a moral govern-
ment the penalty is graded according to the deliber-
ation and wilfulness with which disobedience takes
place. The very essence of moral government consists
in its administration, not by an implacable law, but by
an intelligent ruler, who can shape rewards and penal-
ties to the moral character of a subject's conduct. It
is plain that Jesus was speaking of the future hfe, and
of the effect of men's conduct here upon their con-
dition hereafter. Indeed, we shall presently see that
in this respect he stood in extraordinary contrast to
the great teachers of the Old Testament dispensation,
who, whatever may have been their private hopes,
never derived motives or sanctions from the great
truth of an after life, but wholly from the relations of
conduct to this present existence. Jesus, on the con-
trary, scarcely noticing the effect of human actions on
men's secular welfare, almost invariably points to the
future world as the sphere in which the nature and
consequences of men's actions will be disclosed.
The doctrine of immortality in a world to come has
not in the teachings of Jesus the appearance of a
fresh philosophical theory or of a new truth, kindluig
in him a constant surprise and intensity. It seems
rather like unconscious knowledge. He speaks of
the great invisible world as if it had always lain be-
fore him, and as familiarly as to us stretches out the
landscape which we have seen since our birth. The
assertion of a future state is scarcely to be met with in
his teachings : the assumption of it pervades them.
This familiarity with another world, and the calm
sense of its transcendent value over this life, must be
kept in mind if we would fully appreciate his instruc-
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. i\\
tions. Men seemed to him, as laborious triflers, toiling
for perishable things^ and indifferent to things momen-
tous and eternal. That silent contrast between the
sjDiritual sphere and the world of matter seems never
to have been absent from his mind. Out of this
atmosphere came parable, criticism, judgment, and
rebuke, and their force and spirit cannot be under-
stood unless we enter fully into this conception.
To one before whom dwelt the eternal calm and joy
of a higher life, how foolish must have seemed the
frivolous zeal, the intense absorption in trifles, the
thoroughly sensuous life, of the Pharisees ! Their
sacred heats were like a rash upon the skin. They
thought themselves superlatively wise. They prided
themselves upon their tact in managing men, their
sagacity in planning and skill in executing their petty
schemes of party and personal ambition. And yet
in their very midst stood the greatest person that
had ever appeared on earth, teaching sublime wisdom,
almost unheard ; and the Pharisees could see nothina-
in him but a dangerous zealot ! " Ye can discern
the face of the sky," said Jesus to them, " and of the
earth, but how is it that ye do not discern this time ?
Why even of yourselves do ye not judge what is
right?" They were going on blindly to eternity,
there to meet an unlooked-for doom. Jesus likened
them to debtors in the hands of a rigorous creditor :
When thou gocst tvith thine adversary to the magistrate, as
thou art in the wag, give diligence that thou magcst he deliv-
ered from him ; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge
deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.
I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the
very last mite.
412 THE LIFE OF JESUS, TEE CHRIST.
And yet there was hope even for Pharisees. God
was waiting with long patience, and bringing to bear
upon them the most extraordinary moral influences.
For a little time this would continue. Then would
come the irremediable end. All this he set forth in
the parable of the fig-tree : — He sjjaTce also {ids jKirable :
A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard ; and he
came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said
he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years
I come seeldng fruit on this fig-tree, and find none : cut it
doum ; zvhg cumber eth it the ground? And he answering
said unto him. Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig
about it, and dung it : and if it hear fruit, well: and if not,
then after that thou shall cut it down.
While he was thus teaching, some one from the
crowd — with that familiarity which strikingly reveals
the footing on which Jesus stood with the people, and
which led them to bring to his notice the news, the
rumors, and the questions of the day, that they might
hear what he had to say — told him of the slaughter
by Herod, in the Temple at Jerusalem, of certain j^eo-
ple of his own province of Galilee.
It is probable that this was one of those minor in-
surrections which were continually taking place among
the Jews, one which was not of sufficient importance
to be noticed in any history. The informants of Jesus
appear to have thought that the cruel death of these
men indicated their great sinfulness. No. The prov-
idential dealings of God with men do not proceed
upon grounds of moral desert. He maketh the sun
to rise and the rain to fall upon the good and bad
alike.
There u'cre pi^esent at that season some that told him of the
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 413
Galileans, vjJiose hlood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus ansivering said unto them, Suppose ye that these
Galileans ivere sinners above all the Galileans, because they
silvered such things? I tell yon, Nay : hut, except ye repent,
ye shall all likeivise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom
the toiver in Siloam fell, and sleiv them, think ye that they
ivere sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? I tell
you. Nay : bid, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish.
By this declaration Jesns put himself in direct an-
tagonism to the philosophy of his nation, and to the
belief which had prevailed through the whole period
of the Old Testament dispensation. The old Hebrew
approached very near to the modern doctrine of ma-
terial laws ; only, he attributed directly to the Divine
will the effects which we refer to "natural laws."
But he believed, with the modern, that good or evil
results from obedience or disobedience. By a natural
inference he supposed that one upon whom a great
evil came was suffering the punishment of sin. Al-
though the doctrine of a future life and of rewards
and punishments after death was already familiar to
the Jewish mind, yet the old notion that misfortune
is an evidence of criminality had not been weeded
out, and Jesus plainly told them that those who had
been slain by Herod, and those crushed by the falling
tower in Siloam, were not sinful more than others.
God's judgments are spiritual, and they overhang all
men alike who continue in worldly and selfish courses.
In the incessant conflict of opinion that now at-
tended Jesus, he was obliged to assume a vigorous
defence, or to make pimgent criticism. To easy and
indolent natures, that do not so much love peace as
414 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
dislike laborious exertion, it is more than likely that
Jesus seemed an unnecessary disturber. Why is it
needful, they would say, to dispute with the authori-
ties of the synagogue ? Of what use will be so much
reprehension ? Is the Messiah's kingdom to be ad-
vanced by such intestine turmoil and conflict? Is
not the coming Prince to be meek and gentle among
his own people, and terrible only to the heathen ?
And his kingdom, is it not to bring j)eace ? Human
nature must have undergone a great change since
then, if many of his auditors did not suggest to him
such considerations.
But far different w^as the Messiah's kingdom! It
was to have no external form and no national history.
No one could see it coming, as he could view the ad-
vance of an army, or witness the development and
growth of a secular nation. When men should have
their passions in perfect control, when benevolence
should have expelled selfishness, when purity and
truth should pervade society where deceit and vul-
gar appetite held sway, then the kingdom of the
Messiah would dawn. But how long and severe a
struggle ! The corruption of human nature would
not be purged out without pain. There doubtless
rose before the mind of Jesus those ages of conflict
through which Christian civilization has sought to
expel the animal passions from the control of human
society. Suppose ye, he cried, that I am come to
give peace' on earth? I tell you nay, but rather di-
vision ! And it shall not be simply a division created
by selfishness, or the collisions of self-will and pride.
Conscience also shall disturb men. Renewed and ex-
alted sensibilities shall make the selfish ways of life
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 415
seem hateful, and a zeal for purity and goodness shall
burn as a fire. My kingdom shall separate closest
friends. It shall divide the household. The fiither
shall be divided against the son, and the son against
the father ; the mother against the daughter, and the
daughter against the mother.
We must not imagine all these things as said on
a single occasion, or before the same audience. The
record is but an epitome of the labors of days and
weeks, — in Capernaum, by the sea-shore, in the fields,
along the wayside, in towns and villages. The sun
rose and set between many of the lines of the record.
Between verse and verse miracles were performed.
Much that was said and done is left out. Jesus was
more active than appears on the face of the Gospel
narratives ; rich as they are in his words, he was far
more fruitful than they represent. John, with the
first three Gospels before him, closes his own his-
tory of the life of Jesus with a declaration whose ex-
travagance fitly attests his sense of the fruitfulness of
Jesus's life. And there are also many other things which
Jesus did, the tvhich, if they should he ivritten every one, I
suppose that even the world itself could not contain the loolcs
that shoidd be written.
The period of which we are now treating was the
very height of the Lord's activity, and we may easily
imagine that the unrecorded part of his labors far ex-
ceeded those portions which were afterwards written
down. Jesus did not live all the time in the excite-
ment of the throng. At noonday he retired from the
open air to the shelter of his Capernaum house.
When the heat diminished, and the shadows began to
fall upon the lake, " went Jesus out of the house and
416 TUE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
sat by the seaside." The Sea of Gahlee would hardly
have been heard of had it deiDended for fame ujdoii
its scenery alone. A hundred lakes surpass it in pic-
turesque beauty. But no other lake o^ earth fires the
imagination and fills the heart with such emotion as
this strip of water a little over twelve miles long, and
in its widest part not quite seven broad. Although it
is between six and seven hundred feet below the level
of the Mediterranean Sea, the descent to it is not pre-
cipitous, and at but few points is the shore line steep,
or overhung with cHfis of any considerable height.
The west shore, especially, is bounded by slopes of
rounded hills, and in some places edged with small
plains, — notably the little plain of Genesareth, whose
fertility and beauty seem to have excited the enthu-
siasm of Josephus.
The public life of Jesus may be said to have had
its centre and chief development around the Sea of
Galilee. Nothing can excel or equal in intensity of
interest the few closing weeks of his life in Jerusalem ;
but, these apart, the Sea of Galilee witnessed the
chief part of his ministrations. This he was himself
conscious of He taught everywhere, through UiDper
and Lower Galilee ; but only against the cities on
the shores of the lake did he utter maledictions for
their obduracy. Upon them he had bestowed a
long-continued and fruitful activity without a parallel.
But little of his time seems to have been given to the
southern portions of the lake-shore population. He
dwelt upon the northern border, and the most mem-
orable events of his Galilean ministry took place at
the upper end of the lake ; and with a few striking
exceptions, such as the feeding of the multitude and
AROUND TBE SEA OF GALILEE. 417
the casting out of demons from the man of the tombs,
his deeds and teachings belong chiefly to the north-
west portion. \
It was but a short distance from Capernaum to the
plain of Genesareth. Part of the beach is made up
of fragments of basalt, but in many places it is com-
posed of fine white sand, pebbles, and shells. Without
doubt it was far more pleasant for passage in that day,
when the commerce of a swarming population re-
quired such a roadway as the shore would make, than
it now is, after the neglect of ages. The traveller
then would find many a sward of green grass kindled
with brilliant flowers. It is doubtful if, in the time of
our history, the borders of the lake were edged with
trees to the degree that we are accustomed to see
around the lakes in temperate Northern lands. But
they doubtless flourished to an extent which one could
hardly imagine who now looks upon the barren hills
and shore from which vandal hands have stripped
wellnigh every tree. There must have been places
within easy reach of his house in Capernaum where
cool rocks were overshadowed by dense foliage. Mac-
gregor, who explored the Sea of Galilee in a canoe,
found near to Bethsaida " great rocks projecting from
the shore into the waves, while verdure most pro-
fuse teems over them, and long streamers of ' maiden's-
hair,' and richest grasses and ferns and briers and
moss, wave pendent in the breeze, or trail upon the
water." Along the shore, in favored spots, grew reeds
and rushes, and the far-famed papyrus ; the olive, the
fig, and the palm at that time abounded. Nor can
we doubt that oaks, walnuts, and terebinths cast down
dense and grateful shade on many a point along the
418 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
shore. The thorn-trees, in thickets, and luxuriant
clumps of oleander, glowing with rosy and pink blos-
soms hke a burning bush, added to the charms of the
scene.
The solitary walks of Jesus must often have been
along this level beach, which, with slight obstructions
here and there, ran around the whole lake. He must
often have seen the morning mists rise as the sun
advanced, and heard the cry of the fishermen return-
ing shoreward from their early work. Before his eyes
rose the high and scarped hills of Bashan on the east
of the lake. The mouth of the upper Jordan, coming
into the lake from the north, was but two or three
miles distant, probably not then green with reeds as
in our day, but edged Avith the houses of cities now
perished. That Jesus was observant of nature, at least
when associated with human industry, is shown by
his parables ; and it is none the less striking because
his eye discerned the moral uses, rather than the
purely sesthetical relations of things. No one could
be conversant with the Hebrew prophets, or with the
singers of Israel, and be indifferent to the aspects of
the natural world. The moral suggestions, the sub-
limity and beauty of mountains and hills, of rivers
and the sea, of trees and vines, of flowers and grass,
of clouds and storms, of birds and beasts, as they are
felt by poetic and devout natures in our day, were
imknown to the people of antiquity, with the single
exception of the Hebrew nation. Jesus was truly a
Hebrew. He loved solitude, as the great prophets
always did. He "discerned the face of the sky," and
the clothing of the hills, and the mystery of the sea,
as well as the processes of husbandry and the ways
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 419
of the city. His resort to the shore was not merely
for purposes of lonely meditation. The sea was the
centre of active commerce. All along its shore busy
towns plied their industry. The fisheries were a
source of great profit. The surface of the lake was
dotted at morning and evening with fleets of boats
busy in fishing ; others darted hither and thither,
transporting passengers from side to side of the lake.
On its peaceful bosom, too, had raged naval battles
between Roman and Jewish galleys.
Now the sea is almost deserted. Tiberias yet exists;
but the long belt of proud and busy towns that en-
compassed this inland lake is gone, and men from
distant lands grope among the thorns or overgrown
heaps of stone, disputing the position of one and
another city which in the days of Jesus seemed too
strong to be ever wasted. Both around the sea and
in all the country far away on each side of it, the
cities and towns have utterly perished. Temples and
synagogues are gone. Walls of towns and marble
palaces are in heaps. The architectural ambition of
Herod, the city-building aspirations of the Greeks, the
engineering achievements of the Romans, all alike
have hopelessly perished. The Lake of Genesareth is
without a boat. Its fish swarm immolested. The soil
adjacent runs rankly to thorns and briers. Only a few
Arabs hover about its edges. But one thing remains;
it is the memory of Jesus. The sky, the surround-
ing hills, and the water have but one story to tell the
educated traveller. Jesus still wanders slowly along
these deserted shores. His spirit yet walks upon these
waters; and the very name of this plain and solitary
lake sends a thrill through every one who hears it!
420 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
Toward evening, after a day of great labor, Jesus
resorted to the shore of the lake. The shadows were
falling from the west, and coolness was coming on with
night. Across the lake the light was playing on the
hills, and kindling them with colors rarely seen in
any other locality. If Jesus sought solitude for medi-
tation or the refreshment of a walk, he was disappoint-
ed. Such was the intense interest now felt in all his
doings that the sight of him gathered a crowd. We
have seen before how at tinias the multitude so
thronged him that he had no leisure so much as to eat,
that his family could not by any effort press through to
his side, aJ|d that the people absolutely trod upon one
another ; aM now so great was the throjig upon the
sea-shore tliM he took refuge in a boat, and, pushing
out a little, flight them from this novel seat. If
we suppose thax the boat had been drawn up in some
inlet, then the audience might line either side, and,
from the rise of the ground, stand on successive levels,
as in a natural amphitheatre ; so that the "great mul-
titudes" "come to him out of every city" could easily
be within speaking distance. We are to remember,
also, that the region of this lake is famed for the
propagation of sound.-'
As soon as he had gained a favorable position for his
floating pulpit, he began to instruct the people, who
seem never to have wearied of hearing his words, and
' Macgrcgor, iu coasting along the sea in the famed canoe Rob Roy,
gives an account of a running conversation with an Arab travelling on shore
■while the Rob Roy was paddling at a distance of three hundred yards from
him. "It was very remarkable how distinctly every word was heard, even
at three hundred yards ofl"; and it was very easy to comprehend how in
this clear air a preacher sitting in a boat could easily be heard by a vast
multitude standing upon the shore." — The Rob Roy on the Jordan, p. 328.
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 421
seldom to have obeyed them. There was the eager,
fickle multitude, rapt in attention, stirred to their souls
while he was speaking. Yet their consciousness moved
with his. How beautiful, while he spoke, was the
holiness of the kingdom of God ! How noble to
break away from evil and rise to the serene moods of
virtue ! But how transient the impression on their
minds ! Before the darkness fell upon the sea, forget-
fulness would descend upon most of his hearers. A
few would for some days carry a heart of thoughtful
purpose ; but secular cares would soon change the cur-
rent, and they would relapse into indifference. Only
here and there a single one would receive from Jesus
the permanent impulse to a higher life. This wasting
away of moral impressions was the very theme of his
discourse. Right before his eyes and theirs were the
materials of the parable which pictured the truth.
" Hearken : Behold, there went out a sower to sow
his seed : and it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell
by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls
of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell
on stony ground where it had not much earth ; and
immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of
earth : but as soon as it was sprung up, when the sun
was up, it was scorched ; and because it lacked moisture
and had no root it withered away. And some fell
among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it, and
choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on
good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and
increased ; and brought forth, some an hundred-fold,
some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold."
The grain-fields were not, as in our farming districts,
near the farmers' dwellings, but remote from them, so
422 TUB LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
that the sower indeed " went out " to sow ; there were
only paths, narrow and often rocky, and no wide
roads with fields of soil on either side. Patches of
thistles and jungles of thorns sprang up in spots, and
defied extermination ; while the ledges of rock that
broke through to the surface, or were covered by a
mere film of soil, furnished another element of this
rural picture.
Although truths illustrated by this parable are of
continuous efficacy and of universal application in the
propagation of moral forces among men, yet it is
easy to see why Jesus should have felt called to an-
nounce such truth at that particular time. Brilliant
in many respects as his ministry was, what, after all,
had been gained? The expectation of a new king-
dom was not a poetic notion among thinking Jews, but
a deep and earnest faith, and at times an agonizing
wish. It was not a matter to be trifled with. He who
claimed, or allowed his followers to believe, that he was
the longed-for One, and that the kingdom of heaven
was at hand, touched the heart of the nation to the
quick. He who excited hopes that verged upon fanat-
icism must not expect to escape, if he did nothing to
justify anticipations which he had aroused. It is evi-
dent that a spirit of impatience was springing up. The
message of John from his prison is one indication of
it ; another is the impression of Jesus's own relatives,
that he was an enthusiast, acting without a rational
aim. The same feeling broke out a little later, when
his brethren again interfered with him : " Go into
Juda)a, that thy disciples also may see the works that
thou doest. For there is no man that doetli any-
thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 423
openly. If thou do these things " (i. e. if there is no
deceit in these miracles, and they are what they
seem to be), " show thyself to the world." (John
vii. 3, 4.)
That a feeling of secret and growing dissatisfaction
existed, there can hardly be a doubt. Nor are we to
leave out of consideration the working of another
thing, the failure of Jesus to convince or win the
educated and religious portion of the community. It
would be said, and felt far more often than said, "This
man has the art of stirring up the ignorant crowd;
but what does it all amount to ? They gather to-day,
and are gone to-morrow. He comes down on the
people like a gust of wind upon yonder sea. The
waves roll, the whole sea is alive ; but in an hour the
wind is down, and the lake is just as it was before.
It is only a momentary excitement among ignorant
men. He makes no head with those who are intelli-
gent. Why don't he convince those whose business
it is to study the truth ? "
To meet this mood, Jesus expounds in the parable
of the sower the nature of moral teaching. Imme-
diate results are no test of the reality of the truth.
The new kingdom is to come by growth, and not by
miracle. Truth, like seed, is to be sown, subject to aU
the conditions of human nature. The worldly cares,
the sordid passions, have, as it were, beaten hard paths
along the life of men. The Divine truth falls upon
these ways of selfishness, or of avarice, or of hatred ;
but there is nothing in them to grasp it. It lies
like seed in a trodden path ; and as birds devour such
seed, uncovered, exposed, before it can hide its roots
or send up a stem, so truth, falling on uncongenial
424 "THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
minds, rolls off, or is dispersed and consumed by gad-
ding and hungry world-thoughts. Or, it may be in
the crowd that swarms around the teachers are many
whose hearts are more kindly, but they lack force.
The truth is readily accepted, but there is no deep
moral nature into which its roots may penetrate. In-
tense feeling and vivid imagination flourish for a day,
and then languish, perish, and disappear. In the case
of other natures, the truth finds a bed in which to be
planted, but one where weeds also have found root ;
and as in nature that which spends its strength in
fruit or grain has not strength to cope with that
which gives little to its fruit, and spends all on its
robust leaves and stem, the rank growth chokes the
tender grain. A few hearts only are like good soil,
well tended, capable of developing the truth-germ to
its full form.
Thus the moral teacher finds himself limited by
hard natures that will not receive truth at all, by
vivacious and fickle natures that retain no impressions
long, and by strong natures preoccupied with worldly
interests; while he finds only a few which are in
condition to understand, entertain, and deal fairly with
the truth. Hardness, shallowness, and preoccupation
are perpetual hindrances.
This parable of the sower was an illustration of an
important fact respecting the progress of moral truth ;
but it was also an answer to those who expected Jesus
to bring in the new kingdom by the exertion of super-
natural forces. It gave the clew to the reason why no
larger results followed so great an excitement. Taken
in connection with the abundance of his miracles, it
has peculiar significance. Jesus wrought no miracle
'. AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 425
upon the human soul. He distinctly marked the line
between the physical realm and the spiritual. Upon
matter he laid a hand of power ; for that was to treat
it according to its own nature. The human soul he
left to its own freedom, approaching it only by moral
influences ; that was to treat the soul according to its
nature.
In no instance did he seek to secure moral results
by direct power. By his will he changed water to
wine, but never pride to humility. He multiplied a
few loaves into great abundance of bread, but never
converted the slender stores of ignorance into the
riches of knowledge. The fury of the sea he allayed
by a word, but the storms of human passion he never
controlled by his irresistible will. During his whole
career, there is not an instance in which the two
realms of matter and of mind were confounded, or their
respective laws disregarded. His miracles were natu-
ral, and his teaching was natural. The former man-
aged physical nature according to its genius, and the
latter reached out to the human soul according to
its peculiar constitution ; and both of them are ad-
mirable illustrations of a conformity to nature, in a
sense far more intensive and radical than is usually
attached to that phrase.
It is for those who regard the Gospels as the gradual
unfolding of myths, having perhaps a germ of fact, to
explain how, in early ages, and among ignorant and
superstitious men, this nice distinction between the
two great realms of creation should have been invari-
ably maintained. If the Gospels are not a true his-
tory of a real Jesus, written by the men whose names
they bear, but are the product of superstition gradu-
426 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
ally acting through a long period, how is it that so
fine an abstinence from miracles upon the human soul
should have been observed by men who evidently
had an eager appetite for wonders, and who filled
their history with marvels without number, but al-
ways miracles wrought upon matter, and never once
upon the spirit of man ?
It is true that Jesus made way for his spiritual teach-
ing by the exercise of power upon the infirmities of
the body. But that was only a preparation for instruc-
tion, as ploughing is for seed-sowing. The furrow was
opened, but the seed was left to germinate by its own
nature and laws. This remarkable subordination of
physical force to moral influence pervaded his whole
Hfe and ministry. He exercised his authority to for-
give sins, but never his power to reform the sinner.
Diseases of the body were ^peremptorily cured; but
the sores and fevers of the soul could not be arbitra-
rily healed. By his coercive power he often cast out
demons; but evil dispositions, never. Between the
teaching of Jesus and that of rabbi or jDhilosopher the
difference was that of substance, not merely of method.
He addressed truth to the understanding, motives to
the will, and feeling to the emotions. Not only was
he patient with the tardy results, but, in all his min-
istry, he acted as one who left his cause to the evolu-
tion of the ages.
If one will compare the Sermon on the Mount with
the teaching in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, he
will see a reason why the disciples should be struck
with his altered method, and why they should inquire
from Jesus the reason of so large a use of the parable.
The spirit of the reply will be better understood, if
AROUND TEE SEA OF GALILEE. 4,2'J
we consider it as a statement of his reasons for not
employing an open didactic method. The parable was,
under the circumstances, more likely to inspire curi-
osity and to lead perhaps, by and by, to some knowl-
edge of the truth. His disciples were within the new
kingdom, by virtue of their sensibility to moral ideas.
They who from conceit or lack of feeling rejected
spiritual truth were " without." To them there could
be no instruction, because there was no susceptibility
to moral truth. Words fell upon such as seed upon a
beaten path. As there is something in the eye waiting
for the light, and in the ear prepared for sound, and in
the body ready to digest and assimilate food, so there
must be in the soul some pre-existing fitness for truth.
Where the universal moral sense is kept clear and
practical, the soul will increase in moral excellence.
But when it is abused, it will lose sensibility and waste
away. " He answered and said unto them, Because it
is given unto you to know the mysteries of the king-
dom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For who-
soever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have
more abundance : but whosoever hath not, from him
shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore
speak I to them in parables : because they seeing see
not ; and hearing they hear not, neither do they
understand."
In illustration of this view, Jesus quotes from Isaiah
(vi. 9) a passage which, judged from its face alone,
would seem to say that Jesus taught in j^arables for
the purpose of actively blinding those who were
"without," and securing their destruction by hiding the
saving truth from their minds. But this is abhorrent
to every sentiment of honor or justice, utterly irrecon-
428 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
cilable with the very errand of Jesus into the world,
and the direct opposite of that disposition of pity and
love which he not only taught, but manifested all his
life long. The true heart of Jesus was expressed at a
later period in these words : " How often would I have
gathered thy children .... but ye would not."
A parable was adapted to arouse the curiosity of
even the hardened, and to excite reflection in men's
minds, arid so ultimately bring them to the truth bet-
ter than would didactic instruction. Men will remem-
ber an illustration when they would forget a principle.
The parable, so far from being an instrument for
blinding, was better adapted to give light than would
be the unillustrated statement of spiritual things. At
the same time, it put the truth in such a form that
those who were lying in wait to catch Jesus in his
words would find nothing upon which to lay hold.
The discourse of Jesus was not delivered to a mere
peasant audience. There were those present capable
of acute criticism. They had kept up with the cur-
rent of Jewish thought. They would be likely to say,
" This kingdom, — this new notion of a kingdom that
no one can see, that has no outward show, — pray, how
shall one know whether it is present or absent ? "
And he said, So is the Jdngdom of God, as if a jnan
shoidd cast seed into the (/round ; and shoidd sleep, and rise
night and day, and the seed shoidd spring and groiv up, he
knoweth not hoiv. For the earth lyringcth forth fruit of her-
self, first the blade, then the ear, after that thefidl corn in the
ear. But zvhcn the fruit is brought forth, immediately he put-
teth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.
The realm of the disposition or heart, of which Paul
says, "The kingdom of God is not meat and drink,
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 429
but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost," does not march in as armies do, but develops
by stages of evolution, as do plants. "Yet surely,"
they would say, "there should be some beginning to it!
Is there no starting-point to this mysterious kingdom ?
It is to be a vast, earth-filling kingdom, — where are
its elements? Are there no materials which show a
preparation ? " In reply to such queries,
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying., The king-
dom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, ivhich a man
took, and soived in his field : which indeed is the least of all
seeds : hut ivhen it is grown, it is the greatest among herhs,
and hecomdh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
lodge in the branches thereof
" Ah, it is an influence then," they said. " But
where is the working of that influence ? "
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, tvhich a tvoman
took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the ivhole tvas
leavened.
It is silent influence. It works within the heart.
The woman neither sees nor hears what is going on
in the dough ; yet in the morning it is leavened.
Thus the Divine influence is silently working in the
souls of men.
"This motley crowd, is this your kingdom? Are
these all good men ? Ragged, squalid, mean, mixed
of all nations, running after you from curiosity, or in
hope of some gain, or for an interested purpose, —
do you pretend that God's kingdom is made up of
such?"
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that tvas cast
into the sea, and gathered of every kind : ivhich, when it
was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the
430 T^^ ^^^^ ^^ JESUS, THE CHRIST.
good into vessels, hut cast the lad away. So shall it be at the
end of the tvorld : the angels shall come forth, and sever the
wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the fur-
nace of fire : there shall he ivailing and gnashing of teeth.
" At the end of the world ? That is a long time to
wait ! Why do you not select and enroll your follow-
ers ? Why not at once cast away from you all unwor-
thy persons, and register the clearly good ? "
To this Jesus replies that the thing cannot be done.
The church will always have unworthy members, the
kingdom of God on earth will always be represented
by rude and imperfect materials : —
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The Jcing-
dom of heaven is likened unto a man ivhich sowed good seed in
his field : hut while men slept, Ms enemy came and sotved tares
among the wheat, and ivent his ivay. But ivhen the blade was
sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares
also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto
him, Sir, didst not thou, soiv good seed in thy field? from
whence then hath it tares ? He said unto them. An enemy
hath done this. The servants said unto him. Wilt thou then
that tve go and gather them up ? But he said. Nay ; lest
zvhile ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with
them. Let both groiv together until the harvest : and in the
time of harvest I tvill say to the reapers. Gather ye together
first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them : but
gather the ivheat into my barn.
While all things are imperfect, the separation of
good and bad is impossible. When all things are ripe,
there will be no difficulty in securing the wheat.
Insignificant and valueless as a share in this in-
visible new kingdom might seem to men greedy of
gain or inflamed with ambition, there was nothing in
AROUND THE SEA OF GALILEE. 431
life to compare with it. One miglit well give all his
time, his influence, and his means, to be possessed
ofit: —
The kingdom of heaven is like imio treasure hid in a field;
the which lohen a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy
thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and huyeth thai
field.
What are houses, lands, and money worth to a
heart stirred up with discontent? A heart at peace,
or overflowing with joy, can better be without world-
ly goods, than have riches without heart happiness !
Many a man, outwardly hard and rugged as the oyster-
shell, carries within him a pearl of exceeding worth : —
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant-man seeking
goodly inarls : tvho, ivhen he had found one pearl of great
2orice, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
It is likely that not a single j)erson of his audience
gained a clear idea of God's spirit-kingdom, but it is
still less probable that any left the shore of Galilee
that day without the beginnings of new thoughts,
which from that time forth began to leaven their
minds.
It is a difficult task even now, after so many hun-
dred years of experience, to expound to unknowing
hearts the meaning of the kingdom of heaven, so that
they shall comprehend it. It was yet more difficult
in the days of the Son of Man. But, with all our
progress in knowledge, we still go back to these para-
bles of Jesus as the easiest and clearest exj)ositions
of his kingdom that can be received, — not through
the hearing of the ear, but only by the understanding
heart.
432 THE LIFE OF JESUS, THE CHRIST.
The Voice ceased. The crowd disappeared. The
light that had sparkled along the waters and fired the
distant hills went out. Twilight came on ; the even-
ing winds whispered among the rustling reeds, and the
ripples gurgling upon the beach answered them in
liquid echoes. The boom of the solitary bittern came
over the waters, and now and then, as darkness fell
upon the lake, the call of the fishermen, at their night-
toil. The crowd dispersed. The world received its
own again. With the darkness came forgetfulness,
leaving but a faint memory of the Voice or of its
teachings, as of a wind whispering among the fickle
reeds. The enthusiasm of the throng, like the last
rays of the sun, died out; and their hearts, like the
sea, again sent incessant desires murmuring and com-
plaining to the shore
APPENDIX.
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
UsTTEODUCTIOE".
Luke i. 1-4. Ij ^OEASMUCH as many have taken in hand to set
J- forth in order a declaration of those things which
are most surely believed among us, even as they deliv-
ered them unto us, which from the beginning were eye-
witnesses, and ministers of the word ; it seemed good
to me also, having had perfect understanding of all
things from the very first, to write unto thee in order,
most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know
the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been
instructed.^
PEEFACE.
npHE object of this compilation has been to consolidate the matter
-*- of the four Gospels so as to form it into one continuous narra-
tive, and at the same time to enable the reader to ascertain with
facility the source from which each part has been derived.
In the construction of this narrative, every word of each Gospel
has been incorporated, except where the same words are found con-
currently in more than one Gospel, or where the forms of concurrent
expressions are such as not to admit of their coalescing : in the lat-
ter case the words not incorporated in the text are noted in the
margin. In this way every word of all the four Gospels will be
found either in the text or in the margin.
It has been necessary to add certain words, and been thought
advisable to substitute others, in order to preserve the sense, or the
grammatical construction: the words added and substituted are,
however, carefully noted, and distinguished from those taken from
the Gospels.
The nature of the compilation has made crudeness and tautology,
in many places, unavoidable ; but these defects of style have been
thought of less moment than that loss of authenticity which would
necessarily have resulted from an extensive modification of the text.
The verbal accuracy of the authorized version of the Gospels is
assumed, and no criticism or comment is attempted.
The main endeavor has been, by placing the Gospel narrative
before the reader in the form in which other narratives are now
usually written, to enable him, unconsciously as it were, to receive
436 PREFACE.
all the information fumislied by the four Gospels combined, without
the labor and distraction of consulting the several Gospels ; and, at
the same time, to facilitate reference to the Gospels themselves for
verification of the text.
The arbitrary division of the Scriptures into chapters and verses
makes a greater demand upon the attention of the reader than does
a narrative in the usual form ; and the comparison of different par-
allel accounts, even with the assistance of a Harmony, involves such
additional concentrated attention as can be looked for only in the
earnest biblical student. This compilation, it is hoped, -will enable
even a casual reader to follow out the thread of the Gospel history,
without effort or distraction.
An explanation of the system of arrangement adopted is subjoined,
and a reference table is added, by which it can be ascertained in
what part of the work the chapters and verses of the different Gos-
pels are incorporated.
A full Index to the Gospel history is also appended.*
F. T. H.
South Hampstead, 1869.
* It has been thought best to quote the compiler's prefatory explanation en-
tire, but the Reference Table and Index mentioned are not included in the pres-
ent Appendix to " The Life of Jesus, the Christ."
EXPLAE'ATIOI^.
THE fionre 0 in the text indicates that the portion preceding it has been
taken from St. Matthew's Gospel. In like manner the figures 0, C), and
O indicate the, Gospel from which the portions preceding them are taken,
0 indicating St. Mark's, f) St. Luke's, and C) St. John's Gospel.
The fi^'-ures C), 0, C), and (*) after the words in the margin indicate m hke man-
ner the (Gospels in which such words are found, in lieu of the words to
which the notes of reference are appended.
The figure C) indicates that the words preceding it are not found in any of the
four Gospels, but have been either introduced or substituted.
The chapters and verses quoted in the margin show what portions of each Gos-
pel are incorporated in each particular page.
EXAMPLE.
CHAPTER XXII.
Parables — the Sower — the Tares and the Wheat — the Grow- Marki^^i.io. '
ij^g Seed — the Grain of Mustard Seed — the Leaven— Luke7ui_4-9.
the Hid Treasure — the Pearl of Great Price — the Net
and Fishes.
THE same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat
by the seaside,! ^^^ te began again to teach.^ And" l^^^^^'^'^
great multitudes were^ gathered together unto him,i and S'^^^^^^'^jJ^J^f;- "
were come to him out of every city,^ so that he went" into wre.3 ^
a ship, and sat^ in the sea;" and the whole multitude stood ^waTby the sea
on the shore.-^ And he spake many things unto them,i ^ on^the^iaud.^a
and^ tauo-ht them" in parables," saying ^Z unto them in his by a parable, s
^ /and said. 2
doctrine,"
The figure C) in the second Hne indicates that aU that precedes is taken from
St, Matthew.
438 EXPLANATION.
The figure 0 in the same line indicates that the words " and he began again
to teach " are taken from St. Mark.
The figure Q) in the third hne indicates that the words "And great multitudes
were gathered together unto him " are taken fi-om St. Matthew.
The figure f) in the fourth line indicates that the words " and were come to him
out of every city " are taken from St. Luke.
In the same way it wiU be understood that the words,
" so that he went into a ship, and sat " are from St. Matthew.
"in the sea"; " St. Mark.
" and the whole multitude stood on ^
the shore. And he spake many V " St. Matthew.
things unto them " )
"taught them" » St. Mark.
" in parables, saying " " St. Matthew.
" unto them in his doctrine," " St. Mark.
The figure 0 in the seventh line indicates that the word " and "is not to be
found in either Gospel, but has been introduced.
"Matt. xiii. 1-10. -j^ ,.
Mark iv 1-10 ( -'-^"^^^te that these portions of those particular Gospels are
T , ••• i r. n C incorporated in that pao-e.
Luke vui. 4-9. ; ^ °
Note a, indicates that in St. Luke the words "And when " occur instead of the
word " And."
" h, that in St. Mark the words " there was a great multitude," and that in
St. Luke the words "much people were," occur instead of the words
" great multitudes were."
" c, that in St. Mark the word " entered " occurs instead of the word " went."
" d, that in St. Mark the words " was by the sea on the land " occur instead
of the words "stood on the shore."
" e, that in St. Mark the words " by parables," and in St. Luke the words
" by a parable," occur instead of the words " in parables."
" /, that in St. Mark the words " and said," occur instead of the word "say-
TABLE OF OOI^TES"TS.
Pagb
Chapter . .^
I. The Divinity of Jesus Christ ^^
II. The Birth of John the Baptist and the Birth of Jesus foretold,
and the Meeting of Mary and Elisabeth 442
III. Birth and Circumcision of John the Baptist .... 445
IV. Birth and Circumcision of Jesus Christ 446
V. The Genealogies of Jesus Cln:ist 449
VI. The Infancy of Jesus Christ 452
VII. The Preaching of John the Baptist 455
VIII. The Baptism of Jesus Cln-ist, and his Temptation . . . .457
IX. The Testunony of John the Baptist to Jesus, and the CaUing of the
first Disciples 459
X. The Marriage at Cana. — Journey to Jerusalem. — The Casting
out of the Traders from the Temple 461
XI. Jesus and Nicodemus. — Further Testimony of the Baptist . 463
XII. Imprisonment of John the Baptist. — Return of Jesus to Galilee.
— Interview with the Woman of Samaria .... 465
XIII. The Preaching of Jesus in Galilee. — Several Miracles. — Calling
of several Disciples 469
XIV. Healing of a Leper, and ot a Paralytic 474
XV. Healing of a Man on the Sabbath, and consequent Discussion . 476
XVI. Christ's Teaching as to the Sabbath. — The Ordination of the
Twelve Apostles 479
440 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
XVIL The Sermon on the Mount 482
XVIII. The Heahng of the Centurion's Servant, and the Eaismg of the
Widow's Son at ISTain 439
XIX. Jesus and the Disciples of John Baptist —Jesus' Testimony of
John Baptist, — his Condemnation of the unbeheving Cities.
— Jesus anointed by a Woman at a Pharisee's House . .491
XX. Another Circuit through Gahlee. — Denunciation of the Scribes
and Pharisees on the Occasion of a Devil being cast out, and
of a Dinner at a Pharisee's House 495
THE
GOSPEL HISTORY.
CHAPTEE I.
The Divinity of Jesus Chrisv.
THE beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son ^^^\ \ . „
of God.2 °14l 16-18.'
In the beginning was the "Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. The same was in the begin-
ning with God. All things were made by him ; and without
him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life ; and the life was the light of men. And the light
shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it
not.''
He^" was the true Light, which lighteth every man that oThat.*
Cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He
came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name :
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of
grace and truth.'* And of his fulness have all we received,
and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen
God at any time ; the only begotten Son, which is iu the
bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.^
442 TEE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED
CHAPTER ir.
The Birth of John the Baptist and the Birth of Jesus fore-
told, and the Meeting of Mary and Elisabeth.
Johni^sl'is. T^HERE was a man sent from God, whose name was
-L John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness
of the Light, that aU men through him might beheve. He
was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that
Light.* John bare witness of him, and cried, saying,
" This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me Is
preferred before me : for he was before me."*
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaa, a
certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia : and
his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was
Elisabeth. And they were both righteous before God,
walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the
Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that
Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken
in years.
And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's
office before God in the order of his course, according to the
custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense
when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole
multitude of the people were praying without at the time
of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the
Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell
upon him.
But the angel said imto him,
" Fear not, Zacharias : for thy prayer is heard ; and thy
wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his
name ' John.' And thou shalt have joy and gladness ; and
many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in
the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink ; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost,
even from his mother's womb. And many of the children
of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall^
ZA CHART AS. — GABRIEL. 443
go before him in the spirit and power of^ Ehjah,^" to turn I'Ukei. 17-32.
the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobe- "EUaa.s
dient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people
prepared for the Lord."
And Zacharias said unto the angel,
*' Whereby shall I know this 1 for I am an old man, and
my wife w^ell stricken in years."
And the angel answering said imto him,
" I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God ; and
am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad
tidings. And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to
speak, until the day that these things shall be performed,
because thou believest not my words, which shall be ful-
filled in their season."
And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that
he tarried so long in the temple. And when he came out,
he could not speak unto them : and they perceived that he
had seen a vision in the temple : for he beckoned unto
them, and remained speechless.
And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his
ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own
house.
And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and
hid herself five months, saying,
" Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein
he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men."
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from
God imto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin
espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of
David ; and the virgin's name was Mary.
And the angel came in unto her, and said,
" Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with
thee : blessed art thou among women."
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying,
and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this
should be.
And the angel said unto her,
" Fear not, Mary : for thou hast found favor with God.
And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring
forth a son, and shalt call his name ' Jesus.' He shall be '
444 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Luke i^-51. great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest : and the
Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father
David : and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever ;
and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
Then said Mary unto the angel,
" How shall this be, seeing I know not a man ? "
And the angel answered and said unto her,
" The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also that
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the
Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath
also conceived a son in her old age : and this is the sixth
month with her, who was called barren. For with God
nothing shall be impossible."
And Mary said,
" Behold the handmaid of the Lord ; be it unto me ac-
cording to thy word."
And the angel departed from her.
And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill
ajuda.8 country with haste, into a city of^ Judah ;^" and entered
into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth. And it
came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of
Mary, the babe leaped in her womb ; and Elisabeth was
filled with the Holy Ghost : and she spake out with a loud
voice, and said,
" Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother
of my Lord should come to mel for, lo, as soon as the
voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe
leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that
believed : for there shall be a performance of those things
■which were told her from the Lord."
And Mary said,
"My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath
rejoiced in God my Saviom*, For he hath regarded the low
estate of his handmaiden : for, behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty
hath done to me great things j and holy is his name. And
his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to
generation. He hath shewed strength with his ai-m ; he '
BIRTH OF JOHN. 445
hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. Lu^ei. 61-56.
He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted
them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good
things ; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath
holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy ; as
he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for-
ever."
And Mary abode with her about three months, and re-
turned to her own house.^
CHAPTER III.
Birth and Circumcision of John the Baptist.
'^KTO'W Elisabeth's full time came that she should be de- Luke i. 67-67.
-i-^ livered; and she brought forth a son. And her
neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had shewed
great mercy upon her ; and they rejoiced with her.
And it came to pass, that on the eighth day they came to
circumcise the child ; and they called him Zacharias, after
the name of his father.
And his mother answered and said,
" Not so ; but he shall be called ' John.' "
And they said unto her,
"There is none of thy kindred that is called by this
name."
And they made signs to his father, how he would have
him called. And he asked for a writing-table, and wrote,
saying,
" His name is John."
And they marvelled all. And his mouth was opened
immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and
praised God. And fear came on all that dwelt round about
them : and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout
all the hill country of Judeea. And all they that heard
them laid them up in their hearts, saying,
" What manner of child shall this be ! "
And the hand of the Lord was with* him.
And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost,
and prophesied, saying, ^
446 I'SE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Luke i. 68-80. « Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath visited
a an. 3 and redeemed his people, and hath raised up^ a^" horn of
salvation for us in the house of his servant David ; as he
spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been
since the world began : that we should be saved from our
enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us ; to perfonn
the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his
holy covenant ; the oath which he sware to our father Abra-
ham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered
out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without
fear, in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days
of our life.
"And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the
Highest : for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to
prepare his ways ; to give knowledge of salvation unto his
people by the remission of their sins, through the tender
mercy of our God ; whereby the dayspring from on high
hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way
of peace."
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was
in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.^
CHAPTER IV.
Birth and Circumcision of Jesus Christ.
Matt, i. 18-21. "VTOW the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise :
-i-N When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph,
before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man,
and not willing to make her a public example, was minded
to put her away privily. But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him
in a dream, saying,
"Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee
Maiy thy wife : for that which is conceived in her is of the
Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou
shalt call his name 'Jesus,' for he shall save his people
from their sins."^
BIRTH OF CHRIST. 447
Now all this was done, that it miorht be fulfilled which Matt. i. 22-^.
' ° Luke u. 1-15-
was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, —
" Behold, a virgin sliall be with child, and shall bring forth a son.
And they shall call his name Emmanuel," " (which being interpreted
• i,r\ ^ -1.1, >>\ a Isaiah vii 14.
IS "God with us. )
Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of
the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife : and
knew her not till she had brought forth her first-bom
son.-^
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a
decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be
taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was
governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one
into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee,
out of the city of Nazareth, into Judsea, imto the city of
David, which is called Bethlehem ; (because he was of
the house and lineage of David : ) to be taxed with Mary
his espoused wife, being great with child.
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were
accomplished that she should be delivered. And she
brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swad-
dling clothes, and laid him in a manger ; because there was
no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding
in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And,
lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory
of the Loi'd shone round about them : and they were sore
afraid. And the angel said unto them,
"Fear not : for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is bom
this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the
Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you ; Ye shall find
the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of
the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
** Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-
will toward men."
And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from
them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, ^
448 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Luke ii. 15-34. "Let US now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing
which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known
unto us."
And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph,
and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen
it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them
concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered
at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her
heart.
And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God
for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was
told unto them.
And when eight days were accomplished for the circum-
" Luid'^M^^ cising of the child, his name was called " " Jesus," which
iiame.i ^^g gQ j^amed of the angel before he was conceived in the
womb. And when the days of her purification according to
the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to
Jeinisalem, to present him to the Lord ; (as it is written in
the law of the Lord, " Every male that openeth the womb
shall be called holy to the Lord " ; ) and to offer a sacri-
fice according to that which is said in the law of the Loi'd,
*' A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."
And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name
was Simeon ; and the same man w'as just and devout,
Waiting for the consolation of Israel : aud the Holy Ghost
was upon him. And it w^as revealed unto him by the Holy
Ghost, that he should not see death, befoi-e he had seen the
Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple :
and when the pai'ents brought in the child Jesus, to do for
him after the custom of the law, then took he him up in
his arms, and blessed God, and said,
*' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,
according to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy salva-
tion, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people
Israel."
And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things
which were spoken of him.
And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother,'
SIMEON.— ANNA.— GENEALOGIES. 449
" Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of Lukcii. 34-39.
many in Israel ; and for a sign which shall be spoken
against ; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul
also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of
Phanuel, of the tribe of^ Asher :"^ she was of a great age, «Aser. 3
and had lived with ^ a * husband seven years from her vir- 6 ^n. 3
ginity ; and she was a widow of about fourscore and four
years, which departed not from the temple, but served God
with fastings and prayers night and day. And she coming
in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and
spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in
Jerusalem.
And ^ they ^ '^ performed all things according to the law '^ -J^"^ 'f^'^^ ^^^y
of the Lord.^
CHAPTER V.
The Genealogies of Jesus Christ.
T
HE book of the generation of Jesus Christ.* Matt. i. 1-7
The son of David.
The son of Abraham.
Abraham begat Isaac ; and
Isaac begat Jacob ; and
Jacob begat * Judah ^ ^ and his brethren ; and ^ rf judas. 1
Judah^** begat ^ Pharez^'^ and^ Zarah^/ of ^ Tamar i^s' ^^''^^^''^^^
and flThamar.i
Phares ® * begat ^ Hezron ; ^ * and ^ a Esrom, 1
Hezron ^ * begat -^ Ram ; ^ ' and ^ , Aram. 1
Ram ^ * begat -^ Amminadab ; ^ ^ and * ^ Aminadab, 1
Amminadab ^ * begat -^ Nahshon ; ^ ' and * J Naas^on. 1
Nahshon ^ ' begat Salmon ; and
Salmon begat ^ Boaz ^ "* of Rahab ; ^ " and * m booz. 1
Boaz 5 ^ begat Obed of Ruth ; and " ^"'''^- '
Obed begat Jesse ; and
Jesse begat David the king ; and
David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the
wife of^ Uriah ■,^° and oUrias.i
Solomon begat ^ Rehoboam ; ^p and * p Roboam. 1
29
450
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. i. 7-17.
Marki. 1.
Luke iii. 23, 24.
« Roboam. l
fc Abia. 1
c Josaphat.l
d Joram. l
e Ozias. 1
/ Joatham. 1
(; Achaz. i
'' Ezekias. 1
t Manasses. 1
^' Josias.i
I Jcchouias. i
'" Zorobabel. i
Rehoboam ^ " begat ■^ Abijah ; ^ ^ and ^
Abijali ^ * begat Asa ; and
Asa begat '^ Jehoshaphat ; ^ " and ^
Jehoshaphat ^ '-' begat ^ Jehoram ; ^ '^ and ^
Jehoram ^ '^ begat -^ Uzziah ; ^ ' and -^
Uzziali ^ ' begat ^ Jotham ; ^f and ^
Jotham ^f begat ^ Ahaz ; ^ ^ and ^
Ahaz ^ «■ begat ^ Hezekiah ; ^ ^ and ^
Hezekiah ^ * begat -^ Manasseh ; ^ * and ^
Manasseh ^ * begat Anion ; and
Amon begat -"^ Josiah ; ^ * and -^
Josiah ^ ^ begat ^ Jeconiali ^ ' and his bretbren,
About the time they were carried away to Babylon :
And after they were brought to Babylon, ^
Jeconiah ^ ^ begat Salathiel ; and
Salathiel begat ^ Zerubbabel ; ^ "■ and ^
Zerubbabel ^ "* begat Abiud ; and
Abiud begat Eliakim ; and
Eliakim begat Azor ; and
Azor begat Sadoc ; and
Sadoc begat Achini ; and
Achini begat Eliud; and
Eliud begat Eleazar ; and
Eleazar begat Matthan ; and
]\Iatthan begat Jacob ; and
Jacob begat
Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born
Jesus who is called Christ.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are four-
teen generations; and from David until the carrying away
into Babylon are fourteen generations ; and from the carry-
ing away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen genera-
tions.^
Jesus Christ the Son of GOD.^
Jesus ^ being (as was supposed) the son of
Joseph, which was the son of
Heli, which was the son of
Matthat, which was the son of
Levi, which was the son of
Melchi, which was the son, of*
GENEALOGIES. 451
1 . 1 ,1 p Luke iii. 24-82.
Janna, which was the son ot —
Joseph, which was the son of
Mattathias, which was the son of
Amos, which was the son of
Naum, which was the son of
Esli, which was the son of
Nagge, which was the son of
Maath, which was the son of
Mattathias, which was the son of
Semei, which was the son of
Joseph, which was the son of
Juda, which was the son of
Joanna, which was the son of
Ehesa, which was tlie son of ^
Zembbabel,^ " which was the son of o zorobabei. s
Salathiel, which was the son of
Neri, which was the son of
Melchi, which was the son of
Addi, which was the son of
Cosam, which was the son of
Ehnodam, which was the son of
Er, which was the son of
Jose, which was the son of
Eliezer, which was the son of
Joiira, which was the son of
Matthat, which was the son of
Levi, which was the son of
Simeon, which was the son of
Juda, which was the son of
Joseph, which was the son of
Jonan, which was the son of
Ehakim, which was the son of
Melea, which was the son of
Menan, which was the son of
Mattatha, which was the son of
Nathan, which was the son of
David, which was the son of
Jesse, which was the son of
Obed, which was the son of ^
Boaz,^' which was the son of ^ tBooz.s
452
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Lukeiii 32-38.
a Naasson.s
6 Aminadab. 3
e Aram. 3
rfEsrom.3
e Phares. 3
-^Juda.3
a Thara. 3
A Naclior. 3
I Saruch.3
i' Ragau. 3
I Phalec. 3
"1 Ueber. 3
n Sala. 3
oSem.3
J) Noe. 3
5Mathusala.3
r Maleleel. 3
Salmon, which was the son of ^
Nahshon/ " which was the son of ^
Amminadab,^ * which was the son of
Eam,^'' which was the son of
Hezron/'' which was the son of^
Pharez,^' which was the son of ^
Judah,^/ which was the son of
Jacob, which was the son of
Isaac, which was the son of
Abraham, which was the son of ^
Terah,^ s which was the son of ^
Nahor,^'^ which was the son of^
Serug,^ ' which was the son of ^
Eeu,^ ^ which was the son of ^
Peleg,^ ' which was the son of ^
Eber,^™ which was the son of^
Shelah,^ " which was the son of
Cainan, which was the son of
Ai-phaxad, which was the son of ^
Shem,^ " which was the son of ^
Noahj^-P which was the sou of
Lamech, which was the son of ^
Methuselah,^ ? which was the sou of
Enoch, which was the son of
Jared, which was the son of*
Mahalaleel,^ *■ which was the son of
Cainan, which was the son of
Enos, which was the son of
Seth, which was the son of
Adam, which was the son of
CHAPTER VI.
The Ivfanoj of Jesus Christ.
Matt. ii. 1,2. ""^T"^^^ when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judrca in
-L-^ the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise
men from the east to Jerusalem, sayiug,
"Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we*
TEE INFANCY OB' JESUS CHRIST. 453
have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship Matt, ii. 2 -is.
him."
When Herod the king had heard these things, he was
troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had
gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people to-
gether, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
And they said unto him,
" In Bethlehem of Judaea : for thus it is written by the
prophet,
'* 'And tliou Betlilehem, in the land of i Judah,^"
Art not the least among the princes of ^ Judah : ^ "
For out of thee shall come a Governor,
That shall rule my people Israel.' " ^ * Micah v. 2.
Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men,
inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.
And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said,
" Go and search diligently for the young child ; and
when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may
come and worship him also."
When they had heard the king, they departed ; and, lo,
the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till
it came and stood over where the young child was. When
they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.
And when they were come into the house, they saw the
young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and
worshipped him : and when they had opened their treas-
ures, they presented unto him gifts ; gold, and frankincense,
and myrrh. And being warned of God in a dream that
they should not return to Herod, they departed into their
own country another way.
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the
Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying,
"Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and
flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word :
for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him."
When he arose, he took the young child and his mother
by night, and departed into Egypt : and was there until
the death of Herod : that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
" Out of Egypt have I called my son." l "^ c Rosea xL 1.
454
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. ii. 16-23.
Luke ii. yy-iT.
a Jeremy. 1
6 Jer. xxsi. 15.
cheA
dto.3
e a city called. 1
/Is. liii. 2.
Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the
wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew
all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the
coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to
the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by ^ Jeremiah ^ "
the prophet, saying,
"In Eama was there a voice heard,
Lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be conaforted,
Because they are not." *
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord
appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,
" Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go
into the land of Israel : for they are dead which sought the
young child's life."
And he arose, and took the young child and his mother,
and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that
Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father
Herod, he was afraid to go thither : notwithstanding, being
warned of God in a dream,^ they^'' turned aside,^ and^
returned ^ into the parts of Galilee : and ^ they '^ " came and
dwelt in ^ '^ their own city ' Nazareth : ^ that it might be
fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, " He shall be
called a Nazarene." ^f
And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled
with wisdom : and the grace of God was upon him.
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every j'ear at the
feast of the passover. And when he was twelve years old,
they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.
And when they had fulfilled the days, as they i-eturned, the
child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem ; and Joseph and
his mother knew not of it. But thcj^, supposing him to
have been in the company, went a day's journey ; and they
sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And
when they found him not, they turned back again to Jeru-
salem, seeking him.
And it came to pass, that after three days they fomid
him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both
hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that ^
THE PREACHING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. 455
heard him -u^ere astonished at his understanding and Luke u. 47-52.
answei'S. And when they saw him, they were amazed : and
his mother said unto him,
" Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us % behold, thy
father and I have sought thee sorrowing."
And he said unto them,
" How is it that ye sought me'? wist ye not that I must
be about my Father's business % "
And they understood not the saying which he spake unto
them.
And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth,
and was subject unto them : but his mother kept all these
sayings in her heart.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor
with God and man.^
CHAPTER VII.
The Preaching of John the Baptist.
"VyOW in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Matt. Hi. 1,2.
-1-^ Caesar," Pontius Pilate being governor of Judtea, and LukeUi. i-4.
Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip « in those days. 1
tetrarch of Iturea and of the region of Trachonitis, and
Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas being
the high-priests, the word of God came imto John^ the
Baptist,^ the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he
came into all the country about Jordan,^ and ^ did baptize ^
in the wilderness of Judaea,' and preach^* the baj^tism of 6 preaching. 1 3
repentance for the remission of sins,^ saying," c and saying. 1
" Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." ^
As it is wi'itten in the prophets,
" Behold, I .send my messenger before thy face,
AVhich shall prepare thy way before thee : ^ '^ d Malachi iii. 1.
and ® in the book of the words of ^ Isaiah ^ ' the prophet, e Esaias. 3
saying,
" The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
Make his paths straight. ^
/And.
Oto.i
456 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Mark "'5^ ~ ^^' ^'''^^y "^'^^^^y ^^^^^^ ^>^ ^^^^^'
Luke iii. 5-15. And every mountain and hill shall be brought low ;
And the crooked shall be made straight,
And the rough ways shall be made smooth ;
n Isaiah xl. 3-5. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God." 3a
b Esaias.i For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet ^ Isaiah.^ &
' «ith.1°'^"^ And the same John had his raiment of« camel's hair, and
"I^skin.i^'"^^""^^ leathern girdle <^ about his loins; and his meat was'
e he did eat. 2 locusts and wild houey.^
Then V there went out unto s him all the land of Judcea,
and they of Jerusalem,^ and all the region round about
Jordan, and were ^ all baptized of him in the river of
Jordan, confessing their sins.^
Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be
Abut when. 1 baptized of him,^ when* he saw many of the Pharisees
' 'them "i ^^° ^^^ Sadducees come to his baptism,*
" 0 generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee
from the wrath to cornel Bring forth therefore fruits
umI.*^?'"' worthy of *^ repentance, and begin' not to say within your-
selves, ' We have Abraham to our father ' : for I say unto
you. That God is able of these stones to raise up children
unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the
root of the trees : every tree therefore which bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire."
And the peojile asked him, saying,
" What shall we do then 1 "
He answereth and saith imto them,
" He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that
hath none ; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise."
Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto
him,
" Master, what shall we do 1 "
And he said unto them,
" Exact no more than that which is appointed you."
And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying,
" And what shall we do 1 "
And he said unto them,
" Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely ; and
be content with your wages."
And as the peoj)le w^ere in expectation, and all men'
BAPTISM IN JORDAN. 457
mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, Matt, iii ii, 12.
' Mark i. 7, 8.
or not; John answered," saying vinto them all, Luke Hi. 15-18.
"I indeed baptize'' you with water ^ unto repentance: a and preached. ^
but ^ there cometh one " mightier than I after me,^ the ^ he^tharcometii
latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and ••'^•^
unloose t^*^ he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and ''bcar.i
with fire : whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly
purge his floor, and will gather the * wheat into his garner ; ^ ^'^- '
but the chaif he will bum ^ up * with fire unquenchable." ^
And many other things in his exhortation preached he
unto the people.^
CHAPTER VIII..
The BajJtism of Jesus Christ, and his Tem2)tatio7i.
n^rOW^/it came to pass in those days,^^- when all the Matt. in. 13-17.
-L\ people were baptized,^ that Jesus came ^ from Naza- ?^^'"'^!.-.^"^^^
^ ^ r J Luke 111. 21, 22.
reth of Galilee^ to Jordan unto John to be baptized of — '^i.^-
him. /And. 2
But John forbad him, saying, a cometh. i
" I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to
mel"
And Jesus answering said unto him,
" Suffer it to be so now : for thus it becometh us to fulfil
all righteousness."
Then he suffered him,^ and was baptized of John in
Jordan.^
And Jesus,^ praying,^ when he was*' baptized, went up ^ 'also being. 3^
straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were' niesawtheheav-
opened unto^ John,^™ and he saw the Spirit of God,Hhe thLMieaven \ya.s.^
Holy Ghost,^ descending^" in a bodily shape,^ like a dove, '"''""•'
, . J f ' ' n descended. '
and lighting upon him : and lo a voice ^ came ^ " from <> there came a
heaven,^ which said,^-? i^ saying. 12
"This is? my beloved Son, in whom'" T am well pleased."^ 7thouart.23
'' ' L r thee. 3
And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from
Jordan, and* was ^ immediately^ led up of the Spirit" into *^^,"'°'*
the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.^ "the Spirit driv-
eth liiin. '-
And he was "" there in the wilderness foi'ty days, tempted ^ ^ being. ^
458
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. iv. 2-11.
Mark i. 13.
Luke iii. 23.
— iv.2-13.
n the devil. 3
b when they were
ended.*
f .an. 1
il afterward hun-
gred. *
c this stone that
it. 3
/And. 8
a he. 1
and.
'i and said. 1
i Dcut. viii. 3.
i" And he.*
Zset.3
»n said. 3
n over. 3
cPs.xci. 11,12.
V said. 3
9 Deut. vi. 16.
r And. 3
s taking. 3
t shewed unto. 3
u said. 3
w if thou there-
fore wilt wor-
ship me, all
«h:ill be thine. '
ar And. 3
V saith. 1
2 behind me. 3
o Deut. vi. 13.
h then. 1
<• leavoth. i
'' the angels. 3
of Satan ; " and was with the wild beasts ; ^ and in those
days be did eat nothing.^
And when he bad fasted foi-ty days and forty nights,'' he
was afterward^ a^'^ bungred.'^
And when the tempter/ the devil,^ came to him, he said^
unto bim,^
" If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones*
be made bread."
But V Jesus §■ answered him, saying,^
" It is written, ' That man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word ^ that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God.'"^^
Then the devil ^^^ brought him to Jerusalem,^ and® taketh
him up into the holy city, and setteth ' him on a pinnacle
of the temple, and saith "* unto him,
" If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down ^ from
hence ; ^ for it is written, ' He shall give his angels charge
concerning " thee,^ to keep thee : and in their hands they
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot
against a stone.'""
And Jesus, answering, said unto him,^
"It is written again, ^ 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God.' " 1
Again,*" the devil taketh * him up into an exceeding high
mountain, and sheweth' him all the kingdoms of the
world, and the glory of them,^ in a moment of time ; ^ and ^
the devil ^ saith " unto him,
" All these things ^ and the glory of them,^ and ^ all this
power will I give thee,^ (for that is delivered unto mc ; and
to whomsoever I will I give it,)^ if thou wilt fall down and
worship me." "'
Then ^ " Jesus answered and said y unto him,^
" Get thee hencc,^ Satan : for it is written, ' Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt tliou
serve.' " ^ "
And when the devil had ended all the temptation, ^ he
departed from" him for a season.^ And, behold, angels''
came and ministered unto him.^
And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of
age.^
TESTIMONY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. 459
CHAPTER IX.
The Testimony of John the Baptist to Jesus, and the Call-
ing of the first Disciples.
AND this is the record of John, when the Jews sent John i. 19-
priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him,
" Who art thou % "
And he confessed, and denied not ; but confessed,
" I am not the Christ."
And they asked him,
" What then 1 Art thou ^ Elijah ? " ^ " a Biiaa. *
And he saith,
" I am not."
" Art thou that prophet ? "
And he answered,
" No."
Then said they unto him,
" Who art thou 1 that we may give an answer to them •
that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself? "
He said,
" I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ' Make
straight the way of the Lord,' * as said the prophet* ^ is xi. 3.
Isaiah." 5 "^ cEsaias.*
And they which were sent wei'e of the Pharisees. And
they asked him, and said unto him,
" Wliy baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ,
nor * Elijah,^ '^ neither that prophet V a EUas. *
John answered them, saying,
" I baptize with water : but there standeth one among
you, whom ye know not ; he it is, who coming after me is
preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy
to unloose."
These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan,
where John was baptizing.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith,
" Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
of the world. This is he of whom I said, 'After me*
460 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Johni. 30-45. cometh a man which is preferred before me' : for he was
before me. And I knew him not : but that he should be
made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with
w^ater."
And John bare record, saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and
it abode upon him. And I knew him not : but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto mc,
* Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and
remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the
Holy Ghost.' And I saw, and bare record that this is the
Son of God."
Again the next day after John stood, and two of his dis-
ciples ; and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith,
" Behold the Lamb of God ! "
And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed
Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and
saith unto them,
" What seek ye 1 "
They said unto him,
" Rabbi," (which is to say, being interpreted, " Master,")
" where dwellest thou % "
He saith unto them,
" Come and see."
They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him
that day : for it was about the tenth hour. One of the
two which heard John speak, and followed him, was An-
drew, Simon Peter's brother. He first fiudeth his own
brother Simon, and saith unto him,
"We have found the Messias," (which is, being inter-
preted, " the Christ,")
And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld
him, he said,
" Thou art Simon the son of Jona : thou shalt be called
* Cephas,' " (which is by interpretation, " A stone.")
The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and
findeth Philip, and saith unto him,
" Follow me."
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and
Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him,*
MARRIAGE AT CAN A. 461
"We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and John i. 45-51.
the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph."
And Nathanael said unto him,
" Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? "
PhiUp saith unto him,
" Come and see."
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him,
" Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile ! "
Nathanael saith unto him,
" Whence knowest thou me ?"
Jesus answered and saith unto him,
" Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under
the fig-tree, I saw thee."
Nathanael answered and saith unto him,
" Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou art the King of
Israel."
Jesus answered and said unto him,
" Because I said unto thee ' I saw thee under the fig-
tree,' believest thou] thou shalt see greater things than
these."
And he saith unto him,
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see
heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descend-
ing upon the Son of man." *
CHAPTER X.
The Marriage at Cana. — Journey to Jerxisalerft. — The cast-
ing out of the Traders from the Temple.
AND the third day there was a man*iage in Cana of John ii. 1-4.
Galilee ; and the mother of Jesus was there : and
both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith
unto him,
" They have no wine."
Jesus saith unto her,*
462 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
John ii. 4-18. '* Woman, what have I to do -with theel mine hour is
not yet come."
His mother saith unto the servants,
" Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it."
And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after
the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two
or three firkins apiece.
Jesus saith unto them,
" Fill the waterpots with water."
And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith im-
to them,
" Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast."
And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had
tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence
it was : (but the servants which drew the water knew ;)
the governor of the feast called the bridegTOom, and saitli
unto him,
"Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine ;
and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse :
but thou hast kept the good wine until now."
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee,
and manifested forth his glory ; and his disciples believed
on him.
After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his
mother, and his brethren, and his discij^les : and they con-
tinued there not many days.
And the Jews' passover was at baud, and Jesus went up
to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen
and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting :
and when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove
them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen ;
and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the
tables ; and said unto them that sold doves,
"Take these things hence; make not my Father's
" '1°- * house ^ a ^ " house of merchandise."
And his disciples remembered that it was WTitten,
I. Psalm isix. 9. " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." '
Then answered the Jews and said unto him,
"What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou
doest these things ] " ^
NICODEMUS. 463
Jesus answered and said unto them, John n. 19 -22.
" Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up."
Then said the Jews,
" Forty and six years was this temple in building, and
wilt thou rear it up in three days ] "
But he spake of the temple of his body. When there-
fore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered
that he had said this vmto them ; and they believed the
scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.^
CHAPTER XI.
Jesus and Nicodemus. — Further Testimony of the Baptist.
""^yOW when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in John n. 23-25.
-L^ the feast day, many believed in his name, when they —
saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit
himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed
not that any should testify of man : for he knew what was
in man.*
There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a
ruler of the Jews : the same came to Jesus by night, and
said unto him,
" Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from
God : for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him."
Jesus answered and said unto him,
" Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be bom
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Nicodemus saith unto him,
" How can a man be born when he is old ? can he entef
the second time into his mother's womb, and be born 1 "
Jesus answered,
"■ Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the king-
dom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh ; and ^
464 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Johniii. 6-25. ^hat which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that
I said unto thee, * Ye must be born again.' The wind
bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound there-
of, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it
goeth : so is eveiy one that is boi'n of the Spirit."
Nicodemus answered and said unto him,
" How can these things be V
Jesus answered and said unto him,
" Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things 1 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we
do know, and testify that Ave have seen ; and ye receive not
our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye be-
lieve not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly
things % And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he
that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which
is in heaven. And as j\Ioses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up ; that
whosoever believcth in him should not perish, but have
eternal life.
" For God so loved the world, that he gave his only be-
gotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world ; but that the world
through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is
not condemned : but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every
one that docth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the
light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that docth
truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made
manifest, that they are wrought in God."
After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the
land of Judtca ; and there he tarried with them, and bap-
tized. And John also was baptizing in ^non near to
Salim, because there was much water there : and they
came, and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into
prison.
Then there arose a question between some of John's dis- *
HE ROD AND HERODIAS. 465
ciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John '"■25-36.
John, and said unto him,
" Eabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom
thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all
men come to him."
John answered and said,
" A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from
heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ' I am
not the Christ,' but that I am sent before him. He that
hath the bride is the bridegroom : but the friend of the
bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth
greatly because of the bridegroom's voice : this my joy
therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must de-
crease. He that cometh from above is above all : he that
is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth : he
that cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath
seen and heard, that he testifieth ; and no man receiveth
his testinaony. He that hath received his testimony hath
set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath
sent speaketh the words of God : for God giveth not the
Spirit by measure unto him."
The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things
into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath ever-
lasting life : and he that believeth not the Son shall not
see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him.*
CHAPTER XII.
Imprisonment of John the Baptist. — Return of Jesus to
Galilee. — Interview xoith the Woman of Samaria.
"^^rOW ^ « Herod the tetrarch ^ himself ^ sent * forth and Matt. iy. 12.
-1-^ laid'' hold upon'' John, and ^ bound him, and put Mark i. 14.
him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife;^ Luke m. 19,20.
Herod ^ being reproved by him for Herodias,^ (for he had «But.3 for. 12
married her,^) and for all the evils which ^ he^'^ had done, chad laid. 1
and ^ he ^ added yet this above all, that he shut up John '' °°- '
„ *' ' ^ e Herod. 3
m prison."
30
466 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. iv. 12. For John had said unto Herod,"
— XIV. 3-5. '
LukeTyW '^'^" " ^^ ^^ ^'^^ lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife." *
John jy. 1-12. Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would
a him. I have killed him ; but she could not : for Herod,^ "^ when he
6 her. i
c and. I would have put him to death, feared ^ the multitude, be-
e^^i^^^^ cause they counted him for' a prophet: and Herod also ^
/an. 2 feared John, knowing that he was a just man and ^ a ^/holy,
and observed him ; and when he heard him, he did many
things and heard him gladly,^
0 when, i Now after that John was put in prison,^ and s" Jesus had
A John. 1 heard that^ he ^* was cast into prison,^ and^ when* the
fore!* Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made
and baptized more disciples than John, (though Jesus him-
self baptized not, but his disciples,) he left Judaea, and de-
t came. 2 Jesus parted again ^ and ^ returned ^ in the power of the Spii'it
returned. 3 ^■^ -i
into Galilee/
And he must needs go through Samaria.
Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called
Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to
his sou Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus there-
fore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well :
and it was about the sixth hour.
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water : Jesus
saith unto her,
" Give me to drink."
(For his disciples were gone away imto the city to buy
meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him,
" How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me,
which am a woman of Samaria 1 for the Jews have no deal-
ings with the Samaritans."
Jesus answered aiid said unto her,
" If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that
saith to thee, ' Give me to drink ' ; thou wouldest have
asked of him, and he would have given thee living water."
The woman saith unto him,
"Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is
deep : from whence then hast thou that living water 1 Art
thou greater than our f\\thcr Jacob, which gave us the well,
and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cat-
tle 1 " ^
THE WOMAN OF SAMAELA. 467
Jcsns answered and said unto her, John i v. 13-23.
" Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again :
but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall give him shall
be in him a well of water springing vip into everlasting
life."
The woman saith imto him,
" Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come
hither to draw."
Jesus saith unto her,
" Go, call thy husband, and come hither."
The woman answered and said,
" I have no husband."
Jesus said unto her,
" Thou hast well said, ' I have no husband ' : for thou
hast had five husbands ; and he whom thou now hast is not
thy husband ; in that saidst thou truly."
The woman saith unto him,
" Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers
worshipped in this mountain ; and ye say, that in Jerusa-
lem is the place where men ought to worship."
Jesus saith unto her,
"Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall
neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the
Father. Ye worship ye know not what : we know what we
worship : for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour com-
eth, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth : for the Father seeketh
such to worship laim. God is a Spirit : and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
The. woman saith unto him,
" I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ :
when he is come, he will tell us all things."
Jesus saith unto her,
" I that speak unto thee am he."
And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he
talked with the woman : yet no man said, " What seekest
thou " or, "Why talkest thou with her?" The woman
then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and
saith to the men,*
468 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
johniv^9-45. " Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I
did : is not this the Christ 1 "
Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying,
" Master, eat."
But he said unto them,
" I have meat to eat that ye know not of."
Therefore said the disciples one to another,
" Hath any man brought him ought to eat ] "
Jesus saith unto them,
" My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to
finish his work. Say not ye, ' There are yet four months,
and then cometh harvest ] ' behold, I say unto you, Lift up
your eyes, and look on the fields ; for they are white
already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth wages,
and gathereth fruit unto life eternal : that both he that
soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. And
herein is that saying true, ' One soweth and another
reapeth.' I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no
labor : other men labored, and ye are entered into their
labors."
And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on
him for the saying of the woman, which testified, " He told
me all that ever I did." So when the Samaritans were
come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry
with them : and he abode there two days. And many
more believed because of his own word ; and said unto the
woman,
" Now we believe, not because of thy saying : for wo
have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the
Christ, the Saviour of the world."
Now after two days he departed thence, and went into
Galilee. For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath
no honor in his own country. Then when he was come
into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the
things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast : for they also
went unto the feast. ^
THE PREACHING OF JESUS IN GALILEE. 469
CHAPTER XIII.
The Preaching of Jesus in Galilee. — Several Miracles.
Calling of several Disciples.
F
c for. 1
d heaven. i
ROM that time Jesvis be^an to preach^" the gospel of Matt. iv. 17.
° ^ o J. Mark i. 14, 15
the kingdom of God,^ and to say,^*' Lukeiv.u-ie.
. , „ ^ , J . John iv. 46-54.
" The time is fulfilled, and " the kingdom of God ^ is at —
« preaching. 2
hand : repent ye, and believe the gospel. ^ 6 saying. 2
And there went out a fame of him through all the region
round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being
glorified of all.^
So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made
the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose
son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus
was come out of Judfca into Galilee, he went unto him, and
besought him that he would come down, and heal his son :
for he was at the point of death.
Then said Jesus unto him,
" Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe."
The nobleman saith unto him,
" Sir, come down ere my child die."
Jesus saith unto him,
" Go thy way ; thy son liveth."
And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken
unto him, and he went his way. And as he was now going
down, his servants met him, and told him, saying,
" Thy son hveth."
Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to
amend. And they said unto him,
" Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."
So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the
which Jesus said unto him, " Thy son liveth " : and himself
believed, and his whole house. This is again the second
miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judsea
into Galilee.'*
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought
up : and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on ^
470
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
b Isaiah Ixi. 1,2.
Matt. iv. 13. the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was
Luke IV. 16- al. •' ' -"^
deUvered unto him the book of the prophet® Isaiah.^"
And when he had opened the book, he found the place
where it was written,
" The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ;
He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted,
To preach deliverance to the captives,
And recovering of sight to the blind,
• To set at liberty them that are bruised,
To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." ^ *
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the
minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that
were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
And he began to say unto them,
" This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious
words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said,
" Is not this Joseph's son % "
And he said unto them,
" Ye will surely say nnto me this proverb, ' Physician,
heal th3^sclf' : 'Whatsoever we have heard done in Caper-
naum, do also here in thy country.' "
And he said,
" Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his
own country. But I tell jov. of a truth, many widows
were in Israel in the days oP Elijah,^ "= when the heaven
was shut up three years and six months, when great famine
was throughout all the land ; but unto none of them was ®
Elijah '^'^ sent, save unto® Zarcphath ° "^ a city of® Zidon,^ '
unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were
in Israel in the time of® Elisha^/ the prophet; and none
of them was cleansed, saving Naanian the Syrian."
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these
things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him
out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill
whereon their city was built, that they might cast him
down headlong. But he passing through the midst of
them went his way, aud ® leaviug Nazareth, he ^ came down
to® and dwelt in Capernaum,' a city of Galilee,® which is^
cElias.3
d Sarepta. 3
e Sidon. 3
/Eliseus.3
NAZARETH. — CAPERNA UM. 471
upon the sea-coast, in the borders of^ Zebuhin ^ " and ^ ^^'J^g'- '^- ^■^"^^'
Naphtali : ^ ^ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken ^^^^ ^- Y'- ^q
by 1 Isaiah ^ « the prophet, saying, „ zabui^i
6 Nephthalim. i
"The land of ^ Zebulim ^« c Esaiaa.i
And the land of ^ Naphtali 5 &
By the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, *
Galilee of the Gentiles ;
The people which sat in darkness saw great light ;
And to tlieni which sat in the region and shadow of death light is
, sprung up." '' '^ Isaiah ix. 1, 2.
e now as he
walked. '•^
And Jesus, walking ' by the sea of Galilee,/ saw ^ two
brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, -^^^^^ °^ Genne-
' saret. "
casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.-* And* she saw. 2
when^ they 5 A were gone out of* their ships,^* and were J '^J^'^*"™^°- '
washing their nets,* it came to pass that * the people
pressed upon him to hear the word of God.* And * as * he
stood by the lake,-^ and saw * the ^ two ships standing by
the lake,* he entered into one of* them,^*' which was ^ the ships. 3
Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little
from the land. And he sat down and taught the people
out of the ship.
Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon,
" Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a
draught."
And Simon answering said unto him,
" Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken
nothing : nevertheless at thy word I will let down the
net."
And when they had this done, they enclosed a great
multitude of fislies : and their net brake. And they beck-
oned ijnto their partners, which were in the other ship,
that they should come and help them. And they came,
and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees,
saying,
" Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord."
For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at
the draught of the fishes which they had taken : and so
was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were
partners with Simon.*
472 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
^-" viii. u":^' ^^^ Jesus said " unto « them,i *
Luke iv.^lf-fs. " ^^^^ "^""^ ' ' come ye after " me, and I will ^ from hence-
- v^.li. forth ^ make you to become fishers of <^ men." 2
rsimTn"^' And when they had brought their ships to land, they ^
c follow. 1 straightway ' forsook * all/ and followed him.^
catch! 3 ' And when he had gone a little further s thence,^ he saw
/the'irnets.12 ^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^'^ brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and
1/ going on from.i Johu his brother/ who also were in the ^ other ^ * ship with
Zebedee their father, mending their nets.^ And straight-
way he called them : and they ^ immediately left the ship
and their father ^ Zebedee in the ship with the hired ser-
t followed.! vants, and went after' him.^
And they went into Capernaum ; and straightway on the
nt!fghtthem.3 sa^^^-'^th^ days^-^ he entered into the synagogue and taught'
And they were astonished at his doctrine : for he taught
them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes,^ for
his word was with power.^
m the 3 And there was in their *" synagogue a man which had a
» with an unclean spirit of an uucleau devil ; ^ " and he cried out ^ with a loud
Bpirit. - • a •
voice,'' saymg,
" Let us alone ; what have we to do with thee, thou
Jesus of Nazareth ? Art thou come to destroy us 1 I
know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God."
And Jesus rebuked him, saying,
" Hold thy peace, and come out of him." -
o unclean spirit. 3 And when the devil " had ^ torn him,^ and ^ thrown him
in the midst,^ and cried with a loud voice, he came out of
him,2 and hurt him not.^
And they were all amazed, insomuch that they ques-
p spake. 3 tioned P among themselves, saying,
"What thing is this? What new doctrine is thisl^
And what a word is this! For with authority and power ^
commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey
him,^ and come out." ^
9 the fame of him. And immediately his fame' spread abroad throughout all
the region round about Galilee,^ and ^ went out into every
place of the countrj^ round about.^
And he arose out of the synagogue,^ and forthwith when
r.TesuBwasi they were ''come out of tlie svnati:oa:ue, thcv entered into
* Peter" .s house. 1 ,1 i /• .• 1 . ' ^
Simon's house. 3 the housc ol biiuou * aiid Andrew, with James and John.^
MIRACLES. 473
But" Simon's^ wife's mother ^ was taken with a great M^rk fsb^-Vg^'^'
fever, and^ lay sick,^" and anon they tell him of '^ her,^and Luke iv. 38-44.
besouo-ht him for lier.^ And he came "^ and stood over her,® «Aud. 3
and took her by the ' hand, and lifted her up,^ and rebuked cskkofafever.i
the fever ; ^ and immediately the fever/ left her, and she^ dhesaw.i
arose and ^ s ministered unto them. ^ touched her. 1
/it. 3
And at even,* when the sun did set,^ ' all they that had
And he shall sheAV judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not strive, nor cry ;
Neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed shall he not break,
And smoking flax shall he not quench,
Till he send forth judgment unto victory.
And in his name shall the Gentiles trust." ^ * 6 Isaiah xlii. 1-3.
And it came to pass in those days, that he went out '^ c goeth up.
into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer
to God. And when it was day, he called'' unto him * ^ caUeth. a
whom he would ^ of ® his disciples ; ^ and they came unto
him : ^ and of them he chose ^ and ^ ordained ^ twelve,
whom also he named apostles ; ® that they should be with
him, and that he might send them forth to preach, and to
have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils. '^
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these ; the
first,^' Simon, whom he also named,^/ and ^ who is called ^a^^.s
/sumamed. 2
Peter, and Andrew his brother ; and James the son of
Zebedee, and John the s brother of James ; and he sur- a his. i
named them Boanerges, which is " The sons of thunder " ; ^
and Philip and Bartholomew ; and Matthew ^ the publican ; ^
and Thomas, and James the son of Alpheus, and Judas'
or** Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus,^ the brother of^
31
4S2 TEE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Mark m. 18 19. J^^^es ; ^ and Simon the Canaamte,^ called Zelotes,^ and
Luke yj. 15-19. Judas Iscariot,^ who " also betrayed him.^*
a which. 2 ^j^j ]^q came down with them, and stood in the plain,
0 was the traitor.' '■
and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of
people out of all Judsea and Jerusalem, and from the sea-
coast of T}Te and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to
be healed of their diseases ; and they that were vexed with
unclean spirits : and they were healed. And the whole
multitude sought to touch him : for there went vktue out
of him, and healed them all.^
CHAPTER XVII.
The Sermon on, the 3£ount.
Matt. V. 1-12. A ND seeing the multitudes, he went up into a moun-
— ' -^^^ tain : and when he was set, his disciples came xmto
him.^ And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples,^ and ^
c said. 8 opened his mouth, and tavight them, saying,"
''iseye.a " Blcsscd are the'' poor in spirit: for theirs' is the
/God. 8 kingdom of heaven./
£/ye.3 "Blessed are theyS" that mourn ^'' now :^ for they^ shall
t laugh. 8 ^6 comforted.*
" Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit the earth.
^ ye. ' " Blessed are they * which ' do hunger and thirst after
righteousness -^ now : ^ for they ^ shall be filled.
'' Blessed are the merciful ; for they shall obtain mei'cy.
" Blessed are the pure in heart : for they shall see God.
" Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall be called
the children of God.
" Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake : for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
" Blessed are ye, when men shall ^ hate,^ revile,^ and per-
secute you, and when they shall separate you from their
company, and shall reproach you, and * say all manner of
m cast out your gyii as:ainst vou "» falsclv, for my" sake. Rejoice^ ve in
name as evil. 3 toJ ^' J '' n \
"the Son of that day, and leap for joy,^ and be exceeding glad: for'
«>theUke,8 behold,* great is your reward in heaven: for^ in like*"
SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 483
manner did their fathers unto " the prophets ^ which were ^^*- ^- ^|" ^■
before you !i ^ « so pe'^^^^uted
" But woe unto you that are rich ! for ye have received *^ey- '
yoTir consolation.
" Woe unto you that are full ! for ye shall hunger.
" Woe unto you that laugh now ! for ye shall mourn and
weep.
" Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you !
for so did their fathers to the false prophets.^
" Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt have lost
his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth
good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden
under foot of men.
'* Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on^
a^* hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, *aii.i
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick ; and it
giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light
so shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
" Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the
prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For
verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be
fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these
least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be
called the least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever
shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in
the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the
kingdom of heaven.
" Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time,
' Thou shalt not kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be in
danger of the judgment ' : but I say unto you. That whoso-
ever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in
danger of the judgment : and whosoever shall say to his
brother, ' Raca,' shall be in danger of the council : but
whosoever shall say, ' Thou fool,' shall be in danger of hell
fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and
there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against^
484
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. V. 24-40.
Luke vi. 27-29.
a unto him that
smitcth. 3
h the one. 3
c ofTer. 3
d him. 3
e that takcth.s
/cloke. 3
thee ; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ;
first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer
thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou
art in the way with him ; lest at any time the adversary
deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the
officer, and thon be cast into prison. Verily I say unto
thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou
hast paid the uttermost farthing.
" Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time,
' Thou shalt not commit adultery ' : but I say unto you,
That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart. And if
thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from
thee : for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members
should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast
into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off,
and cast it from thee : for it is profitable for thee that one
of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole
body should be cast into hell.
" It hath been said, * Whosoever shall put away his wife,
let him give her a writing of divorcement ' : but I say
unto you. That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving
for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adul-
tery : and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced com-
mitteth adultery.
" Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of
old time, ' Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt per-
form unto the Lord thine oaths ' : but I say unto you,
Swear not at all ; neither by heaven ; for it is God's throne :
nor by the earth ; for it is his footstool : neither by Jeru-
salem ; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt
thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one
hair white or black. But let your communication be ' Yea,'
'yea'; 'Nay,' 'nay'; for whatsoever is more than these
cometh of evil.
" Ye have heard that it hath been said, ' An eye for an
eye, and a tooth for a tooth ' : but I say unto you, That ye
resist not evil : but whosoever shall smite " thee on thy
right ' cheek, turn to him " the other also. And if any
man ^ will sue thee at the law, and take ' away thy coat,^/
SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 485
let him have" thy cloke^ also. And whosoever shall com- Matt. v. 40-^48.
pel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him "^ ^"^/J^-^^'^*^'
that asketh ^ of ^ thee, and from him that would borrow of ^ - — , ,
' a forbid not to
thee tm-n not thou away.^ And of him that taketh away take.*
1 1 • a b coat. 3
thy goods ask them not agam. c erery man. 3
" Ye have heard that it hath been said, * Thou shalt love
thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.' But I say unto
you ^ which hear, Love your enemies,^ bless them that
curse you, do good to them that ^ hate you, and pray for d which. 3
them which despitefully use you, and persecute you ; that
ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven :
for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye
love them which love you, what reward * have ye % ^ for sin- « thank. 3
ners also love those that love them.^ Do not even the
publicans the same 1 And if ye salute your brethren only,
what do ye more than others ? Do not even the publicans
so 1 ^ And if ye do good to them which do good to you,
what thank have ye 1 For sinners also do even the same.
And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what
thank have ye 1 For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive
as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good,
and lend, hoping for nothing again ; and your reward shall
be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest : for
he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye
therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.^ And ^
be ye ^ perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
pei'fect.
" Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be
seen of them : otherwise jq have no rewai'd of your Father
which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms,
do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in
the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have
glory of men. Verily I say unto you. They have their
reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand
know what thy right hand doeth : that thine alms may be
in secret : and thy Father which seeth in secret himself
shall reward thee openly.
" And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypo-
crites are : for they love to pray standing in the syna- ^
486 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt, vi^-23. gogues and in the comers of the streets, that they may be
seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their
reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy clos-
et, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father
which is in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain
repetitions, as the heathen do : for they think that they
shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye there-
fore like unto them : for your Father knoweth what things
ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner
therefore pray ye : —
" Our Father wliich art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from e\dl :
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.
" For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you : but if ye forgive not men
their trespasses, neither will your Father foi-give your tres-
passes.
" Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a
sad countenance : for they disfigure their faces, that they
may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you.
They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest,
anoint thine head, and w\ash thy face ; that thou appear not
unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret :
and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee
openly.
" Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where
moth and rust doth cornipt, and where thieves break through
and steal : but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves do not break through nor steal : for where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the
body is the eye : if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole
body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy
whole body shall bo full of darkness. If therefore the ^
SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 487
light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that dark- Matt •■^•.23-^34.
ness ! No man can serve two masters : for either he will Lu^evi. 37-40.
hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to
the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
mammon. Therefore I say unto you. Take no thought for
your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor
yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life
more than meat, and the body than raiment 1 Behold the
fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns ; yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. Are ye not much better than they ] Which of you
by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment 1 Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they
spin : and yet I say unto you. That even Solomon in aU
his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if
God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-
morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe
you, 0 ye of little faith 1 Therefore take no thought, say-
ing ' What shall we eat ? ' or, * What shall we drink 1 ' or,
' Wherewithal shall we be clothed 1 ' (for after all these
things do the Gentiles seek :) for your heavenly Father
knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek
ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and
all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore
no thought for the morrow : for the morrow shall take
thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is
the evil thereof.
"Judge not, and ye shall not be" judged.^ For with <» that ye be not.i
what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged :^ condemn
not, and ye shall not be condemned : forgive, and ye shall
be forgiven : give, and it shall be given unto you ; good
measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running
over, shall men give into your bosom. For * with the same ° '> ^^i- ^
• 1 1 • 1 n 1 1 c what. 1
measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you
again."
And he spake a parable unto them,
" Can the blind lead the blind 1 Shall they not both
fall into the ditch 1 The disciple is not above his master :
but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. And^
488
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. 711.3-20.
Lukevi. 31,41-
45.
a considerest. i
feOr.i
c wilt. 1
d out of. 1
« and, behold, a
beam, i
/cast. 1
g And as. 3
A also to them
likewise. 3
i For of thorns
men do not
gather figs. 3
<: nor of a bram-
ble bush gather
they grapes. 3
I bringeth not. 3
"' corrupt. 3
n doth. 3
why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but perceivest " not the beam that is in thine own eye 1
Either' how canst" thou say to thy brother, 'Brother, let
me pull out the mote that is in*^ thine eye,' when thou
thyself beholdest not the beam that « is in thine own eye ]
Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own
eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull/ out the mote
that is in ^ thy brother's eye.^
" Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast
ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under
their feet, and turn again and rend you.
" Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you : for every one that
asketh receiveth ; and he that seeketh findeth ; and to him
that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of
you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone 1
Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent 1 If ye then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto yom- chil-
dren, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven
give good things to them that ask him? Therefore all
things whatsoever s ye would that men should do to you, do
ye even so to them : * for this is the law and the prophets.
" Enter ye in at the strait gate : for wide is the gate, and
broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be which go in thereat : because strait is the gate,
and naiTOw is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few
there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are rav-
ening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.^ For
every tree is known by his own fruit.^ Do men gather
grapes of thorns,' or figs of thistles 1 *" Even so every good
tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree bringeth
forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring' forth evil"*
fruit, neither can " a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down,
and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall
know them.^ A good man out of the good treasure of his
heart bringeth forth that which is good ; and an evil man
out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth fortli that
which is evil : for of the abundance of the heart his mouth
speaketh.^
THE CENTURION. 489
" And why call ye me, * Lord, Lord,' and do not the things Luke ^'46- 49^"
which I say 1 ^ Not every one that saith unto me, ' Lord, —
Lord,' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but he that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many
will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name % and in thy name have cast out
devils 1 and in thy name done many wonderful works'?'
And then will I profess unto them, ' I never knew you :
depart from me, ye that work iniquity.'
" Thei-efore whosoever^ cometh to me, and^ heareth these
sayings of mine," and doeth them, I will ^ shew you to « my eayinga. 3
whom he is like: he is like^a^ wise man, which built ^likenhimunto.i
his" house,^ and digged deep, and laid the foundation on"^ a (^u^on.i
rock : and when the ^ rain descended, and the floods came,* ^ flood arose- 3
and the winds blew,^ and ^ the stream beat vehemently
■upon that house, and could not shake it : ^ it fell not, for it
was founded upon a rock.-^ But ^f every one ^ that heareth /And.i
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not,'- is like^* a a shau be likened
foolish man, which * built his ^ house,^ without a founda- ^ ^°z
tion,^ upon the sand:' and the rain descended, and the *;an.3
'- . « earth. 3
floods came, and the winds blew, and'"" the stream did beat m against which. 3
vehemently ^ upon that house ; and ' immediately it fell ; ^
and great was the fall " of it." "
And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings,
the people were astonished at his doctrine : for he taught
them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.^
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Healing of the CentnriorCs Servant, and the Raising of
the Widoiv's Son at Rain.
"AITOW when ^ Jesus ^ J' had ended all his sayings in the Matt. viii. 1, 5.
rV n 1 -' o Luke TU. 1-3.
-^^ audience of the people,^ and ^ was comedown from —
the mountain, great multitudes followed him,^ and' he? gwas.i
entered into Capernaum.
And a certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto
him, was sick and ready to die. And when he heard of*
n ruin. 3
o that house. '
490
TEE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. viii. 5-13.
Luke vii. 3 - 11.
« there came. 1
6 a centurion, i
c him. 1
d answered and
said. 1
ecome.i
/say in a. 3
g to this tnan 1
Ait.l
i to them. 1
thy.
Jesus, he sent " unto him the elders of the Jews,^ beseech-
ing him that he would come and heal his servant,® and
saying,
" Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy,
grievously tormented." ^
And when they came to Jesus, they besought him in-
stantly, saying, that he was worthy for whom he should do
this : " For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a
synagogue." ^
And Jesus saith unto ^ them,^ "
"■ I will come and heal him." *
Then Jesus went with them.
And when he was now not far from the house, the cen-
turion sent friends to him,*^ saying unto him,
" Lord, trouble not thyself : for I am not worthy that
thou shouldest enter* under my roof: wherefore neither
thought I myself worthy to come unto thee : but ® speak
the/ word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I
also am a man set under authority, having under me
soldiers, and I say unto one,^' ' Go,' and he goeth ; and to
another, ' Come,' and he cometh ; and to my servant, ' Do
this,' and he doeth it."
When Jesus heard these things,* he marvelled at him,
and turned him about, and said unto the people * that
followed him,^
" Verily I say unto you, I have not found so gi-eat faith,
no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, That many shall
come from the east and west, and shall sit down with
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into
outer darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth."
And Jesus said unto ^ them that were sent by ^ the
centurion,
" Go ^ youi* ^ * way ; and '^ say,^ ' As thou hast believed,
so be it done imto thee.' " ^
And his servant was healed in the self-same hour.^ And
they that were sent, returning to the house, found the ser-
vant whole that had been sick.
And it came to pass the day aftei', that ho went into a ^
NAIN. — JOHN BAPTIST. 491
city called Nain ; and many of his disciples went with him, Lnke-ni. 11-17.
and much people. Now when he came nigh to the gate of
the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the
only son of his mother, and she was a widow : and much
people of the city was with her.
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her,
and said unto hei'j,
" Weep not."
And he came and touched the bier : and they that bare
him stood still. And he said,
" Young man, I say unto thee. Arise."
And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And
he delivered him to his mother.
And there came a fear on all : and they glorified God,
saying, " That a great prophet is risen up among us " ; and,
"That God hath visited his people." And this rumor of
him went forth throughout all Judsea, and throughout all
the region round about.^
CHAPTER XIX.
Jesiis and the Disciples of John Bajjtist. — Jesus's Testimony/
of John Bajytist, — his Condemnation of the unbelieving
Cities. — Jesus anointed by a Woman at a Pharisee's
House.
"ATOW when John had heard in the prison the works of L^g^' I'g^.a.
-LN Christ,^ for ^ " the disciples of John shewed him of all „^^T~
these things,^ he,^ ' calling unto him two of his disciples, 6 and John. »
sent them to Jesus, saying ^ '= unto him,^ = and said, i
"Art thou he that should come? or look we'' for ''do we look, i
another 1 "
When the men were come unto him, they said,
" John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, ' Art thou
he that should come % or look we for another 1 ' "
And in the same hour he cured many of their infirmities
and plagues, and of evil spirits ; and unto many that were
blind he gave sight.^
492
THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
Matt. xi. 4-18.
Luke Tii. 22-33.
a answered and. 1
b shew, i
c what. 1
d do hear and
see. 1
e see. 3
/ to the poor the
gospel is
preached. ^
9 as.i
h they.i
the. 3
/c say.i
i multitudes, i
m 'which. 8
1 houses. 1
^Malachiiii. 1.
p them 1
9L3 not. 3
r but. 3
«God.3
' Eliaa. i
« But whereunto
«> thi.s. I
a; it is.l
V markets. 1
2 unto their fel-
lows, i
a to. 3
b lamented. ^
Then Jesus answering " said unto them,
*' Go your way, and tell * John ^ again those " things
which ye ^ have seen and heard : '^ how that ^ the blind
receive their sight,* and the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and
the poor have the gospel preached to them./ And blessed
is he whosoever shall not be offended in me." ^
And when s" the messengers of John * were departed,*
Jesus ^ * began to speak '' unto the people ' concerning
John,
" What went ye out into the wilderness for to see 1 A
reed shaken with the wind ] But what went ye out for to
see 1 A man clothed in soft raiment 1 Behold, they ^
that "* wear soft clothing ^ and ^ are gorgeously apparelled,
and live delicately, are in kings' courts." But what went
ye out for to see 1 A prophet 1 Yea, I say unto you, and
much more than a prophet.' For this is he, of whom it is
written,
" ' Behold, I send my messenger liefore thy face,
Which shall prepare thy way before thee.' ^^
For," verily ^ I say unto you. Among those p that are born
of women there ^ hath not risen 5 a greater ^ prophet ^ than
John the Baptist : notwithstanding ^ he that is least in the
kingdom of heaven * is greater than he. And from the
days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. For all
the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if
ye will receive it, this is ^ Elijah,^ ' which was for to come.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.^ And all the peo-
ple that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being
baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and
lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves,
being not baptized of him."
And the Lord said,
" "Wliereunto then" shall I liken the men of this" gen-
eration ] and to what are they like 1 They are ' like unto
children sitting in the market-place,^ and calling one to
another,' and saying, ' We have piped unto you, and ye
have not danced ; we have mourned ^ unto ' " you and ye
have not wept.' ' For John the Baptist came neither *
UNBELIEVING CITIES.— JESUS' FEET ANOINTED. 493
eating bread nor drinking wine ; and ye " say, 'He hath a Luke'^1' 33" £S
devil.' The Son of man is come ' eating and drinking : ,^ -;—
° ^ ' a they. 1
and ye " say, ' Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, &came.i
a friend of publicans and sinners ! ' But wisdom is justified
of all her children,"^
Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his
mighty works were done, because they repented not : "
" Woe unto thee, Chorazin ! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida !
for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been
done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago
in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you. It shall be
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment,
than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted
unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell : for if the
mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
But I say unto you. That it shall be more tolerable for the
land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee."
At that time Jesus answered and said,
" I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
because thou hast hid these things from the wise and pru-
dent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Fa-
ther : for so it seemed good in thy sight.
" All things are delivered unto me of my Father : and no
man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth
any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him.
" Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and
learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye
shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light." ^
And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat
with him. And he went into the Pharisee's house, and sat
down to meat. And, behold, a woman in the city, which
was a smner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the
Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and
stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his
feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head,
and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.^
494 THE GOSPELS CONSOLIDATED.
LukeTii^-50. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he
spake within himself, saying,
" This man, if he were a prophet, would have known
who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him :
for she is a sinner."
And Jesus answering said unto him,
" Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee."
And he saith,
" Master, say on."
*' There was a certain creditor which had two debtors :
the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And
when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them
both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him
most ? "
Simon answered and said,
" I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most."
And he said unto him,
" Thou hast rightly judged."
And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon,
" Seest thou this woman 1 I entered into thine house,
thou gavest me no water for my feet : but she hath washed
my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her
head. Thou gavest me no kiss : but this woman since the
time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head
with oil thou didst not anoint : but this woman hath anoint-
ed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee,
Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved
much : but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth
little."
And he said unto her,
" Thy sins are forgiven."
And they that sat at meat with him began to say within
themselves,
" Who is this that forgiveth sins also ? "
And he said to the woman,
" Thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace." '
ANOTHER CIRCUIT THROUGH GALILEE. 495
CHAPTER XX.
Another Circtdt through Galilee. — Denunciation of the
Scribes and Pharisees on the Occasion of a Devil being cast
out, and of a Dinner at a Pharisee^s House.
AND it came to pass afterward, that ^ Jesus®" went Matt. xii. 22-26.
. , .' , . ^ Mark iii. 19-26.
throughout every city and village, preaching and Luke vm. 1-3.
shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God : and the 17, 18. ' '
twelve were with him, and certain women, which had a he 3
been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called
Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the
wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many
others, which ministered unto him of their substance."
And they went into ^ a ^ ^ house. And the multitude ^ an. a
Cometh together again, so that they could not so much as
eat bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went
out to lay hold on him : for they said,
" He is beside himself." ^
Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil,^
and it was ^ blind and dumb : and he healed him," inso- " a^evlf 3^^ °^*
much that ^ "^ it came to pass, when the devil was gone out,^ ''■ ^'^'^- *
that ® the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all
the people ^ wondered," and ® were amazed, and said,
" Is not this the Son of David ?"
But when the Pharisees,^ and the scribes which came
down from Jerusalem ^ heard it,^ some of them * said, * they.i
"This fellow^/ hath Beelzebub, and^ doth not cast out -^He.ss
devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince s" of the devils,^ " '^^^^- ^
through " whom ® he casteth " them ® out." " * '^ he out devils, a
But"* Jesus,^/ knowing*^ their thoughts," called them 'And.ia
unto him, and said unto them m parables,
" How can Satan cast out Satan % ^ Every kingdom ' di- ' 7