TH E W E W (.. H f L D 5 ^. 2.5;o 4J ■5^^ ,^t^ ^i X\^t ibcolo^ta/ ^ '•%: PRINCETON, N. J. % % Section -i.-Qx^S^. ^ / BIRTH OF CHRIST. "And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe L\^NG in a Manger." — Luke a : :6. CHRIST BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN. 'Suffer Little Children to come unto Me, and Forbid them not."— Mark lo: 14. ...THE NEW... CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE BIRTH, EARLY LIFE, PATHWAYS TRODDEN, SCENES VISITED, AND TRIALS ENDURED BY OUR LORD AND 5AVI0UR IN HIS EARTHLY PILGRIMAGE Told in Easy Language The Author of "Jessica's First Praver," Hesba Stretton Illuminated with Lithograph Plates, New Half=Tone Pictures and Numerous Text Illustrations S-«»»*9*»9i»»9i Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1901, by W. E. SCUXJj. in the ofticc of the Librarian of Congre&&, at Wa&bington. ^»i ■gtj'feaiaafreia&fefeSiaai'gai *9«a-9««^-a-3-9iS9^.^S1?** f THE WONDERFUL LIFE OF CHRIST. ^ /^ HE following slight and brief sketch is merely ^^,^ the sfory of the life and death of our Lord. It ■ ' ''p has been written for those who have not the i leisure, or the books, needed for threading together the fragmentary and scattered incidents recorded in the Four Gospels, Of late years these records have been searched diligently "^'^ for the smallest links, which might serve to complete the chain of those years passed among us 1 , One who called himself the Son of man, and did not refuse to be called the Son of God. This little book is intended only to present the result of these close investigations, made by many learned men, in a plain, continuous narrative, suitable for unlearned reader.;. There is nothing new in it. It would be difficult to write anything new of that Life, which has been studied and sifted or nearly nineteen hundred years. The great mystery that surrounds Christ is left untouched Neither love nor thought of ours can reach the heart of it, whilst still we see him as through a glass darkly. When we beiiold him as he is, face to face, then, and only then, shall we know fully what he was, and what he did for us. Whilst wf stram our eyes to catch the mysterious vision, but dimly visible, we are in danger of becoming blind to that human, simple, homely lilt spent among us as the pattern of our days. " If any mar thmk that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love God, the same is known of him." Happy they who are content with being known of God. gono^eint:"©. BOOK I.— th:^ garprntj^r. I. The Holy Land, ii II. Jerusalem and Bethlehem 15 III. In the Temple 23 IV. The Wise Men, 27 V. Nazareth, 33 VI . The First Passover 3(7 BOOK II.— THE. PROPHE.T. IX. At Nain, . , 95 X. Mighty Work 98 XI. A Holiday in Galilee, 104 XII. In the North, no XIII. At Home Once More 116 XIV. The Last Autumn, 122 XV. Lazarus 131 XVI. The Last Sabbath 136 I. John the Baptist, 45 II. Cana of Galilee, 49 III. The First Summer, 56 IV. Samaria, 60 V. The First Sabbath Miracle, . . 69 VI. His Old Home 74 VII. Capernaum, 78 VIII. Foes from Jerusalem, 87 BOOK III.— VIGTIM AND VIGTOR. I. The Son of David 143 II. The Traitor, .150 III. The Paschal Supper, 155 IV, Gethsemane, 163 V. The High Priest's Palace, ... 167 VI. Pilate's Judgment Hall, .... 170 VII. Calvary .178 VIII. In the Grave, 184 IX. The Sepulchre 189 X. Emmaus, 198 XI. It is the Lord, 204 XII. His Friends, 208 XIII. His Foes, 211 THE WONDERFUL LIFE. BOOK I. THB CARPENTBR CHAPTER I.— THE HOLY LAND. VERY far away from our own country lies the land where Jesus Christ was J born. More than five thousand miles stretch between us and it, and those who wish to visit it must journey over sea and land to reach its shores. It rests in the very heart and centre of the Old World, with Asia, Europe, and Africa encircling it. A little land it is, only about two hundred miles in length, and but fifty miles broad from the Great sea, or the Mediterranean, on the west, to the river Jordan, on the east. But its hills and valleys, its dusty roads and green pastures, its vineyards and oliveyards, and its village streets have been trodden by the feet of our Lord ; and for us, as well as for the Jews, to whom God gave it, it is the Holy Land. The country lies high, and forms a table-land, on which there are mountains of considerable height. Moses describes it as "a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring SHRINE OF ANNUNCIATION. IS CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates ; a land of oil olive, and honey ; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness. A land which the Lord thy God careth for : the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year." The sky is cloudless, except in the end of autumn and in winter, and no moisture collects but in the form of dew. In former times vineyards and orchards climbed up the slopes of every hill, and the plains were covered with wheat and barley. It was densely peopled, far more so than our own country is now, and over all the land villages and towns were built, with farm-houses scattered between them. Herds of sheep and goats were pastured in the valleys, and on the barren mountains, where the vines and olives could not grow. There are 'two lakes in Palestine, one in the northwest, the other southwest, with the river Jordan flowing between them, through a deep valley, sixty miles long. The southern lake is the Dead Sea, or Sea of Death. No living creature can exist in its salt waters. The palm-trees carried down by the floods of Jordan are cast up again by the waves on the marshy shore, and lie strewn about it, bare and bleached, and crusted over with salt Naked rocks close in the sea, with no verdure upon them ; rarely is a bird seen to fly across it, whilst at the southern end, where there is a mountain, and pillars of rock- salt, white as snow, there always hangs a veil of mist, like smoke ascending up forever and ever into the blue sky above. As the brown and rapid stream of Jordan flows into it on the north, the waters will not mingle, but the salt waves foam against the fresh, sweet rurrent of the river, as if to oppose its effort to bring some life into Its desolate and barren depths. The northern lake is called the Sea of Galilee. Like the Dead Sea, it lies in a deep basin, surrounded by hills ; but this depth gives to it so warm and fertilizing a climate, that the shores are covered with a thick jungle of shrubs, especially of the oleander, with its rose-colored blossoms. Grassy slopes here and there lead up to the feet of the mountains. The deep blue waters are sweet, clear, and transparent, THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 1 3 and in some places the waves ebb and flow over beds of flowers, which have crept down to the very margin of the lake. Flocks of birds build among the jungle, and water-fowl skim across the surface of the lake in myriads, for the water teems with fish. All the early hours of the morning the lark sings there merrily, and throughout the live-long day the moaning of the dove is heard. In former times, when the shores of the lake were crowded with villages, hundreds of boats and 'ittle ships with white sails sailed upon it, and all sorts of fruit and orn were cultivated on the western plain. The Holy Land, in the time of our Lord, was divided into three provinces, almost into three countries, as distinct as England, Scotland, and Wales. In the south was Judaea, with the capital, Jerusalem, the Holy City, where the temple of the Jews was built, and where their king dwelt. The people of Judaea were more courtly and polished, and, perhaps, more educated than the other Jews, for they lived nearer Jerusalem, where all the greatest and wisest men of the nation had their homes. Up in the north lay Galilee, inhabited by stronger and rougher men, whose work was harder and whose speech was harsher than their southern brethren, but whose spirit was more independent, and more ready to rebel against tyranny. Between those two districts, occupied by Jews, lay an unfriendly country, called Samaria, whose people were of a mixed race, descended from a colony of heathen who had been settled in the country seven hundred years before, and who had so largely intermarried with the Jews that they had often sought to become united with them as one nation. The Jews had steadily resisted this union, and now a feeling of bitter enmity existed between them, so that Galilee was shut off from Judaea by an alien country. The great prosperity of the Jewish nation had passed away lon^ '•efore our Lord was born. An unpopular king, Herod, who did not belong to the royal house of David, was reigning ; but he held his throne only upon sufferance from the great emperor of Rome, whose people had then subdued all the known world. As yet there were no Roman tax-gatherers in the land, but Herod paid tribute to Augustus, md this was raised by heavy taxes upon the people. All the country- was full of murmuring, and discontent, and dread. But a secret hope <4 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. was running deep down in every Jewish heart, helping them to bear their present burdens. The time was well-nigh fulfilled when, accord- mg to the prophets, a King of the house of David, greater than David m battle, and more glorious than Solomon in all his glory, should be born to the nation. Far away in Galilee, in the little villages among the hills, and the busy towns by the lake, and down in southern ludsea, in the beautiful capital, Jerusalem, and in the sacred cities of the priests, a whisper passed from one drooping spirit to anothc " Patience I the kingdom of Messiah is at hand." As the land of our Lord lies many hundreds of miles from us, S' his life on this earth was passed hundreds of years ago. There are mnumerable questions we long to ask, but there is no one to answer Four little books, each one called a gospel, or the good tidings of Jesus Christ, are all we have to tell us of that most beautiful and most wondrous life. But whenever we name the date of the present year we are counting from the time when he was born. In reality, he was born three or four years earlier. BETHLEHEM. CHAPTER II.— JERUSALEM AND BETHLEHEM. ERUSALEM was a city beautiful for situation, built on two ridges of rocky ground, with a deep valley between them. It was full of splendid palaces and towers, with aqueducts and bridges, and massive walls, the stones of which are still a marvel for their size. Upon the ridge of Mount Zion stood the marble palaces of the king, his noblemen, and the high-priest; on the t -ii^ ' V opposite and lower hill rose the temple, built f^''^^y\ of snow-white marble, with cedar roofs, and parapets of gold, which, glistening in the bright sunshine and pure moonlight, could be seen from afar off in the clear, dry atmosphere of that eastern land. From ridge to ridge a magnificent viaduct was built, connecting the temple mount with Mount Zion and its streets of palaces. Every Jew had a far more fervent and loyal affection for the temple than for the palace of the king. It was in fact the palace of their true King, Jehovah. Three times a year their law ordained a solemn feast to be held there, grander than the festivities of any earthly king. Troops of Jews came up to them from all parts of the country, even from northern Galilee, which was three or four days' journey distant, and from foreign lands, where emigrants had settled. It was a joyous crowd, and they were joyous times. Friends who had been long parted met once more together, and went up in glad companies to the house of their God. It has been reckoned that at the great feast, that of the Passover, nearly three millions of Jews thronged the streets and suburbs of the Holy City, most of whom had offerings and sacri- fices to present in the temple ; for nowhere else under the blue sky could any sacrifice be offered to the true God. Even a beloved king held no place in the heart of the Jew<: heside 1 8 . THE WONDERFUL LIFE I heir temple. But Herod, who was then reigning, was hateful to the people, though he had rebuilt the temple for them with extraordinary splendor. He was cruel, revengeful, and cowardly, terribly jealous, and suspicious of all about him, so far as to have put to death his own wife and three of his sons. The crowds who came to the feasts carried the story of his tyranny to the remotest corners of his king- dom. He even offended his patron, the emperor of Rome ; and the emperor had written to him a very sharp letter, saying that he had hitherto treated him as a friend, but now he should deal with him as an eivemy. Augustus ordered that a tax should be levied on the Jews, as in other conquered countries, and required from Herod a return of all his subjects who would be liable to the tax. This command of the Roman emperor threw the whole nation into disturbance. The return was allowed to be made by Herod, not by the Romans themselves, and he proceeded to do it in the usual Jewish fashion. The registers of the Jews were carefully kept in the cities of their families, but the people were scattered throughout the country. It was therefore necessary to order every man to go to the city of his own family, there to answer to the register of his name and age, and to give in an account of the property he possessed. Besides this, he was required to take an oath to Caesar and the king, — a bitter trial to the Jews, who boasted, years afterward, under a Roman governor, " We are a free people, and were never in bondage to any man." There must have been so much natural discontent felt at this requirement that it is not likely the winter season would be chosen for carrying it out. The best, because the least busy, time of the year ^yould be after the olives and grapes were gathered, and before the season for sowing the corn came, which was in November, The Feast of Tabernacles was held at the close of the vintage, and fell about the end of September or beginning of October. It was the most joyous of all the feasts, and as the great national Day of Atonement immediately preceded it, it was probably very largely attended by the nation ; and perhaps the gladness of the season might in some measure tend to counteract the discontent of the people. But whether at the Feast of the Tabernacles, or later in the year, the CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. '9 whole Jewish nation was astir, marching to and fro to the cities of their families. At this very time a singular event befell a company of shepherds, who were watching their flocks by night in the open plain stretching some miles eastward from Bethlehem, a small village about six miles from Jerusalem. Bethlehem was the city of the house of David, and all the descendants of that beloved king were assem- bled to answer to their names on the register, and to be enrolled as Roman subjects. The shepherds had not yet brought in their flocks for the winter, and they were watching them with more than usual care, it may be, because of the unsettled state of the country, and the gathering together of so many strangers, not for a religious, but for a political purpose,^ which would include the lowest classes of the people, as well as the law-loving and law-abiding Jews. No doubt this threatened taxing and compulsory oath of subjection had intensified the desire of the nation for the coming of the Messiah. Every man desires to be delivered from degradation and taxes, if he cares nothing about being saved from his sins. It was not safe to speak openly of the expected Messiah ; but out on the wide plains, with the darkness shutting them in, the shepherds could while away the long chilly hours with talking of the events of the passing times, and of that promised king who, so their teachers said in secret, was soon, very soon to appear, to crush their enemies. But as the night wore on, when some of them were growing drowsy, and the talk had fallen into a few slow sentences spoken from time to time, a light, above the brightness of the sun, which had sunk jbelow the horizon hours ago, shone all about them with a strange splendor. As soon as their dazzled eyes could bear the light, they saw within it a form as of an angel. Sore afraid they were as they caught sight of each other's faces in this terrible, unknown glory. But quickly the angel spoke to them, lest their terror should grow too great for them to hear aright. " Fear not," he said, " for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord And this shall 20 . THE WONDERFUL IJFE. be a sign unto you : Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." Suddenly, as the angel ended his message, the shepherds saw standing with him in the glorious light, a great multitude of the blessed hosts that people heaven, who were singing a new song undei the silent stars, which shone dimly in the far-off sky. Once before " the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" because God had created a world. Now, at the birth of a child, in the little village close by, where many an angry Jew had lain down to a troubled sleep, they sang, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." The sign given to the shepherds served as a guide to them. They were to find the new-born babe cradled in the manger, with no softer bed than the fodder of the cattle. Surely, the poorest mother in the humblest home in Bethlehem could provide better for her child. They must, then, seek the Messiah, just proclaimed to them, among the strangers who were sleeping in the village inn. All day long had parties of travelers been crossing the plain, and the shepherds would know very well that the little inn, which was built at the eastern part of the village, merely as a shelter for such chance passers-by, would be quite full. It was not a large building; for Bethlehem was too near to Jerusalem for many persons to tarry there for the night, intead of pressing forward to the Holy City. It was only on such an occasion as this that the inn was likely to be over-full. But as the shepherds drew near the eastern gate, they probably saw the glimmering of a lamp near the inn. It is a very old tradition that our Lord was born in a cave ; and this is quite probable. If the inn were built near to a cave, it would naturally be used by the trav- elers for storing away their food from the heavy night dews, although their mules and asses might stay out in the open air. A light in the cave would attract the shepherds to it, and there they found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. A plain working man, like themselves, his wife, and a helpless new-born child ; how strangely this sight must have struck them, after the glory and mystery of the vision of angels they had just witnessed ' How different was Mar>'f THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.-Matt. 2: 11. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.-Matt. 2: 13. CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST 21 tow, hushed voice as she pointed out the child born since the sun went down, from that chorus of glad song, when all the heavenly host sang praises to God. A strange story they had to tell Mary of the vision they had jus- seen. She was feeling the first great gladness and joy of every mother over her child born into the world, but in Mary's case this joy was brightened beyond that of all other women, yet shadowed by the mystery of being the chosen mother of the Messiah. The shepherds' statement increased her gladness, and lifted her above the natural feeling of dishonor done to her child by the poor and lowly circum- stances of his birth ; whilst they, satisfied with the testimony of their own senses, having seen and heard for themselves, went away, and made known these singular and mysterious events. All who heard these things wondered at them ; but as the shepherds were men of no account, and Joseph and Mary were poor strangers in the place, we may be sure there would be {^w to care about such a babe, in those days of vexation and tumult. Had the Messiah been born in a palace, and the vision of the heavenly host been witnessed by a company of the priests, the whole nation would have centred their hopes and expectations upon the child ; and unless a whole series of miracles had been worked for his preservation the Roman conquerors would have destroyed both him and them. No miracle was wrought for the infant Christ, save that constant ministry of angels, sent forth to min- ister unto Him who was the Captain of salvation, even as they are sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. CHAPTER III.— IN THE TEMPLE. dally to God. OSEPH and Mary did not remain in the cave longer than could be helped. As soon as the unusual crowd of strangers was gone, they found some other dwelling-place, though not in the inn, which was intended for no more than a ^ shelter for passing travelers. They had forty ' '^ days to wait before Mary could go up to the temple to offer her sacrifice after the birth of her child, when also Joseph would present him to the Lord, according to the ancient law that every first-born child, which was a son, belonged espe- Joseph could not afford to live in idleness for six weeks ; and as he had known beforehand that they must be detained in Bethlehem so long, he probably had carried with him his carpen- ter's tools, and now set about looking for work. It is likely that both he and Mary thought it best to bring up Jesus in Bethlehem, where he was born ; for they must have known the prophecy that out of Bethlehem should come the Messiah. It was near to Jerusalem, and from his earliest years the child would become familiar with the temple, and its services and priests. It was not far from the hill country, where Zacharias and Elizabeth were living, whose son, born jin their old age, was still only an infant of six months, but whose future mission was to be the forerunner of the Messiah. For every reason it would seem best to return no more to Nazareth, the obscure village in Galilee, but to settle in Bethlehem itself At the end of forty days, Mary went up to Jerusalem to offer her sacrifice, and Joseph to present the child, and pay the ransom of five shekels for him, without which the priests might claim him as a ser- vant to do the menial work of the temple. They must have passed by the tomb of Rachel, who so many centuries before had died in 23 CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE. "And all that heard Him were AstuNished at His UN'DERSTANDiNn." — Lulic 2 : 47. 'GET THEE HENCE, SATAN."— Matt. 4: 10. THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 27 giving birth to her son ; and Mary, whose heart pondered over such things, may have whispered to herself as she clasped her child closer to her, " In Rama was a voice heard ; lamentation and weeping, and great mourning ; Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." She did not know the full meaning of those words yet ; but, amid her own wonderful happiness, she would sigh over Rachel's sorrow, little thinking that the prophecy linked it with the baby she was carrying in her arms. At this time the temple was being rebuilt by Herod, in the most costly and magnificent manner, but we will keep the description of it until twelve years later, when Jesus came to his first passover. Mary's offering of two turtle-doves, instead of a lamb and a turtle-dove, proves the poverty of Joseph, for only poor persons were allowed to substitute another turtle-dove or young pigeon for a lamb. These birds abound in the Holy Land, and were consequently of very small value. After she had made her offering, and before Joseph presented the child to the Lord, an old man, dwelling in Jerusalem, came into the temple. It had been revealed to him that he should not see death before his eyes had beheld the blessed vision of the Lord's Christ, for whom he had waited through many long years. Now, seeing this little child, he took him into his arms, and blessed God, saying, " Lord^ now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." Whilst Joseph and Mary wondered at these words, Simeon blessed them, and speaking to Mary alone, he continued; ' i3ehold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel ; and for a ''■'^n which shall be spoken against ; (yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many 'Hearts may be revealed." This was the first word of sorrow that had fallen upon Mary's ears since the angel had appeared to her, more than ten months before, in her lowly home in Nazareth. Hitherto, the great mystery that set her apart from all other women had been full of rapture only. Her song had been one of triumphant gladness, with not a single note of sorrow mingling with it. Her soul had magnified the Lord, because he had regarded her low estate ; she was hungry', and he had filled 28 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. her with good things. She had heard through the countless ages of the future all generations calling her blessed. A new, mysterious, tender life had been breathed through her, and she had been over- shadowed by the Highest, whose shadow is brighter than all earthly joys and glories. Now, for forty days she had nursed the Holy Child, and no dimness had come across her rapture. Yet, when she brings the child to his Father's house, the first word of sorrow is spoken, and the first faint thrill of a mother's ready fears crept coldl) into her heart. So as they walked home in the cool of the day to Bethlehem, and passed again the tomb of Rachel, Mary would probably be pondering over the words of Simeon, and wondering what the sword was that would pierce her own soul The first prick of that sharp anguish was soon to make itself felt. Besides Simeon, Anna, a very aged prophetess, had seen the child, and both spoke of him to them that looked for redemption or deliv- erance in Jerusalem. Quietly, and in trusted circles, would this event be spoken of; for all knew the extreme danger of calling the attention of Herod to such a matter. They were too familiar with the cowardice and cruelty of their king to let any rumor reach him of the birth of the Messiah. It does not appear, moreover, that either Simeon or Anna knew where he was to be found. But a remarkable circum- stance, which came to pass soon after, exposed the child of Bethlehem to the very peril they prudently sought to shield him from, and destroyed the hopes of those who did not know that he escaped the danger. CHAPTER IV.— THE WISE MEN. MONG the many travelers who visited Jerusalem, which was the most magnificent city of the East there came at this time a party of distinguished strangers, who had journeyed from the far East They were soon known to be both wise and wealthy ; men who had given up their lives to learned and scientific studies, especially that of astronomy. They said they had seen, in their close ,- , . and ceaseless scrutiny of the sky, a new star, which, for ^. f some reason not known to us, they connected with the ^^ distant land of Judsea, and called it the star of the King of the Jews. There was an idea spread throughout all countries at that time that a personage of vast wisdom and power, a Deliverer, was about to be born among the Jews. These wise men at once "^et off for the capital of Judaea ; for where else could the King of the Jews be born ? Possibly they may have expected to find all the city astir with rejoicings ; but they could not even get an answer to their question, "Where is he?" Those who had heard of him had kept the £;ecret faithfully. But before long Herod was told of these extraordinary strangers, and their search for a new-born King, who was no child of his. He was an old man, nearly seventy, and in a wretched state, both of body and mind ; tormented by his conscience, yet not guided by it, and ready for any measure of cunning and cruelty. All Jeru- , salem was troubled with him, for not the shrewdest man in Jerusalem could guess what Herod would do in any moment of rage. Herod immediately sent for all the chief priests and scribes, who came together in much fear and consternation, and demanded of them where the Messiah should be born. They did not attempt to hesitate, or conceal the birth-place. If any of them had heard of the child of 29 30 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. Bethlehem, and Simeon's and Anna's statement concerning him, their dread of Herod was too powerful for them to risk their own lives in an attempt to shield him. " In Bethlehem," they answered promptly Right gl?d would they be when Herod, satisfied with this information, dismissed theux, and they went their way safe and sound to theii houses. Thus at the outset the chief priests and scribes proved themselves unwilling to suffer anything for the Messiah, whose office it was to bring to them glory and dominion. Privately, but courteously, Herod then sent for the wise men, and inquired of them diligently how long it was since the star appeared ; and bade them seek the child in Bethlehem, and when they had found him to bring him word, that he might go and do homage to him also. There was nothing in the king's manner or words to arouse their suspicions of his real purpose, and no doubt they set out for Bethlehem with the intention of returning to Jerusalem. Still it appeared likely that there would be some difficulty in dis- covering the child, of whom they knew nothing certainly, except that they were to search, and to search diligently, for him in Bethlehem. They rejoiced with exceeding great joy, therefore, when, as they left the walls of Jerusalem behind them in the evening dusk, they saw the star again hanging in the southern sky, and going before them on their way. No need now for guides, no need to wander up and down the streets, asking for the new-born King. The star, or meteor, stood over the humble house where the young child was, and, entering in, they saw him, with Mary, his mother, and fell down, doing him homage as the King whose star was even now shining above the lowly roof that sheltered him. There was no palace, no train of serv^ants, no ^uard, save the poor carpenter, whose day's work was done, and who was watching over the young child ; but they could not be mistaken. The future glorious King of the Jews was here. They had not come from their distant country to seek a king empty- handed. Royal presents they had prepared and brought with them ; and now they opened their treasures, and offered costly gifts to him, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh, such as they would have presented, had they found the child in Herod's own palace in Jerusalem. Then, THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 31 taking their leave, they were about to return to Herod, when a warning dream, which they could not mistake or misinterpret, directed them to depart into their country another way. The hour was at hand when the costly gifts of the wise men would DC necessary for the preservation of the poor little family, not yet settled and at home in its new quarters. Even as a babe the Son o\ man had not where to lay his head ; and no spot on earth was a resting-place for him. After the wise men were gone, the angel of th€ Lord came to Joseph in a dream, saying, " Arise, 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." Mary's chilly fears then were being realized, and she felt the first prick of the sword that should pierce her soul. The visit of the wise men from the far East had been another hour of exultation and another testimony to the claims of her Son. Possibly they may have told her that the king himself wished to come down from Jerusalem, and worship him ; and dreams of splendor, of kingly and priestly protection for the infant Messiah might well fill her mind. But now she learned that Herod was seeking the child's life, to destroy him. They could not escape too quickly; there was no time to be lost. The angels words were urgent, " Arise, at once." It was night ; a winter's night, but there must be no delay, fsy daybreak the villagers would be astir, and they could not get awav unseen. Before the gray streak of light was dawning in the east, they ought to be some miles on the road. Mary must carry the child shielding him as best she could from the chilly dampness of the night and Joseph must load himself with the wise men's gifts. Little had she thought, when those rich foreigners were falling down before her child in homage, that only a night or two later she would be stealing with him through the dark and silent streets, as if she was a criminal not the happy mother of the glorious Messiah. And they were to flee out of the Holy Land itself, into Egypt, the old land of bondage ! Unseen, unnoticed, the flight from Bethlehem was made. They were but strangers there ; and very few, if any, of the inhabitants would niss the strangers from Nazareth, who had settled among them so 32 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. lately, and who had now gone away again with as little observation as they came. Herod very soon came to the conclusion that the wise men, for some reason or other unknown to him, did not intend to obey his orders. They could very well have made the journey to Bethlehem in a day, and when he found that they did not return to him, he was exceeding wroth; for kings do not often meet with those who disregard their invitations. He quickly make up his mind what to do. If the wise men had brought him word where the child was, he would have been content to slay only him , now he must destroy all the infants under two years of age, to make sure of crushing that life which threatened his crown. There was ample margm in the two years for any mistake on his own part, or that of the wise men. The child must perish if he put to death all the little ones of the unhappy village. We wonder if the news reached Mary in her place of refuge and safety in Egypt. Whilst she went about the streets of Bethlehem she must have seen many of those little children in their mothers' arms ; their laughter and their cries had rung in her ears ; and with her newjy-opened mother's eyes she had compared them with her own blessed child, and loved them dearly for his sake. Now she would know the dire meaning of these words, " In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and v/eeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not " A mystery of grief began to mingle itself with the mystery of her Son's life. In her heart, which was forever pondering over the strange events that had already befallen him and herself, there must always have been a very sad memory of the children who had perished on his account ; and it may be that one of the first stories her lips uttered to the little Son at her knee was the story of their winter's flight into Egypt, and the slaying of all the children under two years of age who lived in Bethlehem, the place where he was born. CHAPTER v.— NAZARETH. \/\ EROD died a shocking death, after terrible suffer- ■/^^ '^^, ing both of mind and body. Once even, in his >f" *'' ' ; extreme misery, he attempted to put an end to ^'>, , himself, but was prevented by his attendants. ['^.. ' '' A few days only before he died he put to "d Ik^' ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^'^ Antipater, and appointed his son ^ >'#-, ^'^^ . Archelaus to succeed him as king in Judaea; .3^ but he separated Galilee from the kingdom, i , i' and left it to another son, Herod Antipas. He jij J ~ was in his seventieth year when he died, after -//'.. reigning thirty-seven years; one of the most wicked and most wretched of kings. It was now safe for Joseph and Mary to bring the child back to their native land. They seem to have had the idea of settling in Judaea again, instead of taking Jesus to the despised province of Galilee; but when they reached Judaea they heard that Archelaus reigned in the room of his father, Herod, and that during the pass- over week he had ordered his guards to march into the temple amid the throng of worshippers, where they had massacred three thousand of the Jews. Such news naturally filled them with terror, and they might have sought safety again in Egypt ; but Joseph wa§ warned in a dream to go on into the land of Galilee. He was left to choose the exact place where he would settle down, and he returned to Nazareth, his and Mary's early home, where their kinsfolk lived. There was every reason why they should go back to Nazareth, since Jesus could not be brought up in his own city, the mournful little village of Beth- lehem, where no child of his own age was now alive. Here, in Nazareth, they were at home again ; and long years of the most quiet blessedness lay before the mother of Jrsus, though the trifling daily cares of life may have fretted it a Tittle f'^om too perfect 33 34 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. a bliss for this world. The little child who played about her feet, who prattled beside her as she went down to the fountain for water, who listened with uplifted eyes to every word she spoke, never gave her a moment's pain, or made her heart ache by one careless or unkind word. Never once had the mothers voice to chancre its tone of tenderness into one of anger. Never had a frown to come across her loving and peaceful face when it was turned toward him. As he grew in wisdom and favor with God and man, she could rest upon that vvisdom and grace, never to be disappointed, never to be thrown back upon herself The most blessed years ever lived by woman were those of Mary, in the humble home in Nazareth. It lay in the heart of the mountains, at the end of a little valley hardly a mile long, and not more than half a mile broad, with the barren slopes of hills shutting it in on every side. The valley was as green and fertile as a garden ; and the village clung to the side of one of the mountains, half nestling at its foot. From the brow of the hills rising behind the village a splendid landscape was to be seen — westward to the glistening waters of the Mediterranean, with Mount Carmel stretching into them ; northward as far as the snowy peaks of Hermon ; and southward over the great plain of Jezreel, rich in corn- fiel'ds ; all the country being dotted over with villages and towns. The landscape is there still, and the deep blue sky hanging over all, and the clear atmosphere through which distant objects seem near, and the sighing of the wind across the plains, and the hum of insects, and the songs of birds ; all is as it was when Jesus Christ climbed the mountains, as he loved to do, and sat on the summit, with a heart and spirit in full harmony with the loveliness around him, and with no secret sadness of the conscience to make him feel that he was not worthy to be there. It was no lonely life that Jesus led. We read again and again of his brethren and sisters ; and though it is not generally thought that these could have been Mary's children,* but the children of her * I agree in this opinion, chiefly for the reason that when Jesus died he committed Mary to the care of hij young disciple John, which would seem unnatural to any tender-hearted, good mother, ^ --.> MAKE NOT MY FATHER'S HOUSE AN HOUSE OF MERCHANDISE."-John 2: 16. CHRIST AND NICODEMUS. 'Except a Man be Born Again, he cannot See the Kingdom or Goii." — John 3: 3. THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 37 sister, they were so associated with him that all his life long they acted as his own brethren and sisters. With them he would go to school and learn to read and write, for all Jews were carefully educated in these two branches The books he had to study we know and posses- in the Old Testament. Very probably he would own one of them though they would be so costly as to be almost beyond his means, or those of his supposed father. We should like to know that he had the Book of Psalms, those psalms which Mary knew so well and had sung to him so often ; or the prophecy of Isaiah, in which his young, undimmed eyes, that had hardly looked upon sorrow yet, and had never smarted with tears of penitence, would read and read again the warning words of the Messiah's sufferings, "a man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief" When he was alone yonder on the breezy sum- mit of the mountain, did he ever sing, "The Lord is my Shepherd?" And did he never whisper to himself the awful words, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Besides his cousins there were his neighbors all about him, quite commonplace people, who could not see how innocent and beautiful his life was. They were a passionate, rough race, notorious through- out the country, so that it had become almost a proverb, " Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Jesus dwelt among them as one of them ; Joseph the carpenter's son. He could not yet heal the sick; but is there no help and comfort in tender compassion for those who suffer ? The widow's son at Nain was not the first he had seen carried out for burial. The man born blind was not the only one groping about in darkness who felt his hand, and heard the pitying tones of his troubled voice. We may be sure that among his neighbors in Nazareth Jesus saw many a form of suffering, and his heart always echoed to a cry, if it were but the cry of an animal in pain. In one other way Jesus shared the common lot of boys. He had to take to a trade which was not likely to have been his choice Whether as the eldest son of a large family, or the only son of a who had at least four other sons and two daughters living. Our Lord would hardly throw so much discredit upon such relationships. 38 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. woman left a widow, he had to learn the trade of his supposed father. The little workshop, where neighbors could always drop in with their trifling gossip, or at work in their own houses, where they could grumble and find fault ; this must have been irksome to him. The long, monotonous hours, the insignificant labor, the ceaseless buzz of chattering about him — we can understand how weary and worn his spirit must have felt, as well as his body. If he could have been a shepherd, like Moses, the great lawgiver, and David, his own kingl}* ancestor, how far more fittinQ^ that would have seemed ! How his courage and tenderness toward his flock would have been a type of what he would be in after-life ! The solitude would have been sweet to him, and the changing aspects of the seasons from year to year. In after-life he often compared himself to a shepherd, but never once is there any reference to his uncongenial calling in the hot workshop of Nazareth, where the only advantage was that it did not separate him from his mother. Does a blameless life win favor among any people ? There was one man in Galilee, one only in the wide world, who never needed to go up to Jerusalem to offer any sacrifice for sin. Neither sin-offering nor trespass-offering had this man to bring to the altar of God. The peace-offering he could eat in the courts of the temple as a type of happy communion with the unseen God, and of a complete surrender of himself to his will. But, let the people scan his conduct as closely as village neighbors can do, not one among them could say that Jesus, the son of Joseph, had need to carry up to Jerusalem an offering for any trespass. Did they love him the better for this ? Did he find honor among them ? Nay, not even in his father's house. CHAPTER VI.— THE FIRST PASSOVER. -^ '^ HERE is one incident, and only one, given to us of the early life of our Lord. It was 'the custom of his parents to go up to Jerusalem once a year, to the feast of the pass- over. For the Jews living in Galilee it was a long journey; but the feast came at the finest time of the year for traveling, after the rains of winter, and before the dry heat of summer. It was a great yearly pilgrimage, in which troops from every village and town on the road came to swell the numbers as the pilgrims marched southward. Past the cornfields, where the grain was already forming in the ear ; under the mountain slopes, clothed with silvery olive trees and the young green of the vines ; across the babbling brooks, not yet dried by heat; through groves of sycamores and oak trees fresh in leaf, the long procession passed from town to town ; sleeping safely in the open air by night, and journeying by pleasant stages in the day, until they reached Judaea ; and, weary with the dusty road from Jericho to Jerusalem, shouted with joy when they turned a curve of the Mount of Olives, and saw the Holy City lying before them. Jesus was twelve years old when, probably, he first made this long yet joyous march up to Jerusalem. We can fancy the eager boy 'going on before them," as he did so many years later when he went up to his last passover ; hastening forward for that first glorious view of Jerusalem, which met his eye from Olivet, the mount which was to be so closely associated with his after-life. There stood the Holy City, with its marble palaces crowning the heights of Zion ; and the still more magnificent temple on its own mount, bathed in the brilliant light of the spring sunshine. The white, wondrous beauty of his Father's house, with the trembling columns of smoke ever rising from' 39 40 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. its altars through the clear air to the blue heavens above, rose opposite ro him We know the hymn that his tremulous, joyous lips would smg, and that would be echoed by the procession following" hmi a-- they too caught sight of the house of God "How amiable are ths tabernacles. O Lord of Hosts ' My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth tor the courts of the Lord . my heart and my flesh cry out for, ti^e living God ! " Thousands upon thousands of pilgrims had chanted that psalm, before him ; but never one like that boy of twelve, when his Father's house was first seen by his happy eyes. Perhaps there was no hour of perfect happiness like that to Jesus again. Joseph M'as still alive, caring for him and protecting him. His mother, who could not but recall the strange events that had accompanied his birth, kept him at her side as they entered the temple, pointing out to him the splendor and the sacred symbols of the place The silvery music of the temple service ; the thunder of the aniens of the vast congregations ; the faint scent of incense wafted toward him ; all fell upon the vivid, delicate senses of youth. And below these visible signs there was breaking upon him their deep, invisible, spiritual meaning; though not yet darkened with the shadow of thai awful burden to be laid upon himself, when he, as the Lamb of God, was to take away the sins of the world. This was the time, perhaps, when " he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows " more than at any other season of his life. The temple had been rebuilt by Herod in the vain hope of winning popularity among his people. The outer walls formed a square of a thousand feet, with double or treble rows of aisles between ranks of marble pillars. These colonnades surrounded the first court, that of the Gentiles, into which foreigners might enter, though they were for- bidden to go further upon pain of death. A flight of fifteen steps led from this court into that of the women, a large space where the whole congregation of worshippers assembled, but beyond which women were not allowed to go, unless they had a sacrifice to offer. The next court had a small space railed off, called the Court of Israel ; but the whole bore the name of the Court of the Priests, in which stood a great altar of unhewn stones forty-eight feet square, upon which three THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 41 fires were kept burning continually, for the purpose of consuming the sacrifices. Beyond these courts stood the actual temple, containing the Holy Place, which was entered by none but a few priests, who were chosen by lot daily; and the Holiest of Holies, open only to the high-priest himself, and to him but once a year, on the great Day of Atonement. It was here, in the temple, that Jesus loved to be during his sojourn in Jerusalem ; but the feast was soon ended, and his parents started homeward with the returning band of pilgrims. Probably Jesus set off with them from the place where they had lodged ; and they, sup- posing him to be with some of his young companions, with his cousins perhaps, went a day's journey from Jerusalem. But when the night fell, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance, he was nowhere to be found. A terrible night would that be for both of them, but especially for Mary, whose fears for him had been slumbering during the quiet years at Nazareth, but were not dead. Was it possible that any one could have discovered their cherished secret, that this was the child whom the wise men had come so far to see, and for whom Herod had slain so many infants in Bethlehem ? They turned back to Jerusalem, seeking him in sorrow. It was the third day before they found him. Where he lived those three days we do not know. Why not " where the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself? " It was in the temple that Joseph and Mary found him ; in one of the public rooms or halls opening out of the court of the Gentiles, where the rabbis and those learned in the law were wont to assemble for teaching or argument. Jesus was in the midst of them asking questions, and answering those put to him by the astonished rabbis, who had not expected much under- standing from this boy from Galilee. His parents themselves were amazed when they saw him there ; and Mary, who seems to have had no difficulty in approaching him, spoke to him chidingly. " Son," she said, " why hast thou dealt thus with us ? behold, thy father and I have sougrht thee sorrowinsf." The question fell upon him as the first dimness upon the glory and dadness of his soiourn in the temple. The poor home at Nazareth. 42 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. his father Joseph, the carpenter's shop, the daily work, pressed back upon him in the place of the temple music, the prayer, the daily sacrifice. There they stood, his supposed father, weary with the long search, and his mother looking at him with sorrowful, reproaching eyes. He was ready to go back with them, but he could not go without a pang. "How is it that ye sought me?" he asked, sadly; "did you not know that I must be in my Father's house ? " But he had not come to this earth to dwell in his Father's house ; and he must leave it now, only to revisit it from time to time. " He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them : but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart." Eighteen more years, years of monotonous labor, did Jesus live in Nazareth. Changes came to his home as well as to others. Joseph died, and left his mother altogether dependent upon him. Galilee was still governed by Herod Antipas ; but in Judaea the King Archelaus had been dethroned, and the country was made a province of Rome, under Roman governors. This had happened whilst Jesus was a boy, and a rebellion had been attempted under a leader callea Judas of Galilee, which had caused great excitement. Though it had been put down by the Romans, there still remained a party, secretly popular, who used every effort to free their country from the Roman yoke. So strong had grown the longing for the Messiah, that a number of the people were ready to embrace the cause of any leader who would claim that title, and lead them against their enemies and masters. There was a numerous class of his fellow-countrymen to whom Jesus must have been naturally drawn during his youth, and to whom he may have attached himself for a time. This was the sect of the Pharisees, noble and patriotic as our Puritans were, in the beginning; and at all times living a frugal and devout life, in fair contrast with the Sadducees, who were wealthy, luxurious, and indifferent. The Pharisees were mostly of the middle classes; and their ceaseless devotion to religion gave them great authority among the common people. To the child Jesus they must have appeared nearer to Gcx^ THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 43 than any other class. There were among thenri two parties; one following a rabbi of the name of Hillel, who was a gentle, cautious, tolerant man, averse to making enemies, and of a most merciful and forgiving disposition. Some say that he began to teach only thirty /ears before the birth of Christ; and it is certainly among his disciples that Jesus found some friends and followers. The second party was that of Shammai, who differed from the other in numberless ways. They were well known for their fierceness and jealousy, for stirring up the people against any one they hated, and for shrinking from no bloodshed in furthering their religious views. They were scrupulous about the fulfilment of the most trivial laws which had come down to them through tradition. These had grown so numerous through the lapse of centuries, that it was scarcely possible to live for an hour without breaking some commandment. Yet among the Pharisees there were many right-minded and noble men, to whom Jesus must have been attracted "The only true Pharisee," said the Talmud, that collection of traditions which they held to be of equal authority with the Scriptures — " the only true Pharisee is he who does the will of his Father which is in heaven because he loves him." Such Pharisees, when he met with them, as he did meet with them, won his love and approbation. It was the •• Scribes and Pharisees, hypocritesl' whom he hated. "FOLLOW ME." BOOK II. THE PROPHBT, CHAPTER I.— JOHN THE BAPTIST. ESUS was about thirty years of age when a rumor reached Nazareth of a prophet who had appeared in Judaea. It was more than four hundred years since a prophet had arisen ; but it was well known that Elias must come before Messiah, as his fore- runner. Such a prophet was now baptizing in Jordan; and all Judaea and Jerusalem itself were sending multitudes to be baptized by him, / '' " * l^^V Before long his name was known : it was John, K _ / ^' the son of Elizabeth, Mary's cousin, whose birth had taken place six months before that of Jesus. We have no reason to suppose that any person living at this time, except Mary, knew Jesus to be the Son of God. Those who had known it were Joseph, Zacharias, and Elizabeth ; and all these were dead. John, to whom we might suppose his parents would tell the mysterious secret, says expressly that he did not know him to be the Messiah until it was revealed to him from heaven. He was familiar with his cousin Jesus, and felt himself, with all his stern, rigid life in the wilderness, to be unworthy to stoop down and unloose the latchet of his sandals ; although he was a priest, who was known throughout the land as a prophet, and Jesus was merely a village carpenter, whose life had been a common life of toil amidst his comrades, Mary alone 45 46 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. knew her son to be the promised Messiah ; and though the long years may somewhat have dulled her hopes, they flamed up again suddenly when the news came that John the forerunner had begun to preach "The kingdom of God is at hand," and that multitudes, even of the Pharisees, were flocking to his baptism, so to enlist themselves as subjects of the new kingdom. But this news did not make any change in our Lord. There was not less tenderness and pity in his heart when he lived among his neighbors in Nazareth than when he healed the sick who came to him from every quarter. Neither was there any more ambition in his spirit when he passed from town to town, amid a throng of followers, than when he climbed up into the loneliness of the mountains about his village home. How could he be touched by any earthly ambition, who knew himself to be not only a Son of God, but the only-begotten Son of the Father ? He had been waiting through these quiet, homely years for the call to come, and now he was ready to quit all, with the words in his heart, " Lo, I come : in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God ! " It may well be that Mary went with him a little way on his road toward Jordan, on that wintry morning, when he quitted his work- shop, and the familiar streets of Nazareth, to dwell in them no more. There was no surprise to her in what had come to pass ; but there must have been a thrill of exultation mingled with fear. He had been her son all these years, but now he was to belong, not to her, but to the nation. What sorrow and triumph must have been in her heart when at last he bade her farewell, and she watched him as long as he was in sight, clad in the robe she had woven for him without seam, like the robe of a priest. Was he not a priest and a king already to her ? It was winter, and although not cold in the valley of the Jordan, the heavy and continuous rains must have dispersed the multitudes that had gone out to John, leaving him almost in solitude once more. There could have been no crowd of spectators when Jesus was baptized. Yet even in January there are mild and sunny days when he and John might have gone down into the river for the signifi- THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 4? cant rite which was to mark the beginning of his new career. But John would not at first consent to baptize his cousin Jesus, declaring that it would be more fit for himself to be baptized by one whose life had been holier and happier than his own. The rich and powerful and pious Pharisees John had sent away with rebukes, yet when Jesus, came from Galilee, he forbade him. But Jesus would not take his refusal. For some months John hac 'AND WAS WITH THE WILD BEASTS."— Mark i, i: been waiting for a sign promised to him from heaven, which shouk point out to him the true Messiah ; and the people of the land looked to him to show them the Christ, whose kingdom he was proclaiming. Now, after he had baptized his cousin in the waters of the Jordan, already troubled with the rains from the mountains, and they were coming up again out of the river, he saw the pale wintry sky above them opening, and the Spirit of God descending, visible to his eyes in 48 • CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. the form of a dove, which lighted upon Jesus, whilst a voice came from heaven, speaking to him, and saying, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." What passed between them further, the Messiah and his forerunner, we are not told. Jesus did not stay with John the Baptist, for immediately he left him and the place where he had been baptized, and went away into the wilderness, far from the busy haunts of ordinary men, such as he had dwelt among until now His commonplace, everyday life was ended, and had fallen from hin forever. A dense cloud of mystery, which no one has been able to pierce through, surrounds the forty days in which he was alone in the wilderness, suffering the first pangs of the grief with which he was bruised and smitten for our iniquities, being fiercely assailed of the devil, that he might himself suffer being tempted, and so able to succor ill those who are tempted. The compassion and fellow-feeling he had before had for sufferers he was henceforth to feci for sinners. There was to be no gulf between him and the sinners he was about to call to repentance ; he was to be their friend, their companion, and it was his part to know the stress and strain of temptation which had overcome them Sinners were to feel, when they drew near to him, that he knew all about them and their sins, and needed not that any man should tell him. He had been in all points tempted as they had been. 'WHOSOEVER DRINKETH OF THE WATER THAT I SHALL GIVE HIM SHALL NEVER THIRST."-John 4: 14. 5f -, ^ CHRIST HEALING THE SICK. •■He Laid His Hands on Every One of Them, and Healed Them." — Luke 4 : 40. CHAPTER II.— CANA OF GALILEE. HEN Jesus returned to Jordan the short winter of Palestine was over, and already an eager crowd had gathered again about John. On the day of his return a depu- tation from the Pharisees had come from «jg, ^ „ ^. , Jerusalem to question John as to his v\\¥\ i " fer'"''L authority for thus baptizing the people. They were the religious rulers of the nation, and felt themselves bound to inquire into any new religious rite, and to ask for the credentials of any would-be These priests who had come to see John knew him to be a priest, and were, probably, inclined to take -(IS part, if they could do so in safety. They asked him, eagerly, Art thou Christ?" "Art thou Elias?" "Art thou that prophet?" .A.nd when he answered, " No," they ask again, " Who art thou ? What sayest thou of thyself?" The crowd was listening, and Jesus, standing amongst them, was also listening for his reply. "I am a voice," he said, " the voice spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the ways of the Lord." The priests were disappointed with this answer, and asked, " Why baptizest thou then ? " They had not given him authority to appear as a prophet, yet here he was drawing great multitudes about him, and publicly reproving the most religious sect of the nation, calling them a generation of vipers, and bidding them bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. From that time they began to throw discredit upon the preaching of John the Baptist, and spoke despitefully against him, saying, " He hath a devil." Nothing is easier than to fling a bad name at those who are not of our own way of thinking. Two days after this, John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to two of 49 50 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. his disciples as the Messiah whose corning he had foretold. These two, Andrew and a young man named John, immediately followed Jesus, and being invited by him to the place where he was staying, they remained the rest of the day with him ; probably took their first meal with him, their hearts burning within them as he opened the Scriptures to their understanding. The next morning Andrew met with his brother Simon, and said, " We have found the Messiah," and brought him to Jesus. The day following, Jesus was about to start home again to Galilee, and seeing Philip, who already knew him, he said to nim, "Follow me!" Simon and Andrew, who were Philip's townsmen, were at that time with Jesus ; Philip was ready to obey, but he first found Nathanael, and said to him, "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, is he of whom Moses and the prophets did write I " " Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " cried Nathanael, doubtingly; but he went to Jesus and was so satisfied by the few words he spoke to him, that he exclaimed, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou art the King of Israel ! " With these five followers Jesus turned his steps homeward, after an absence of nearly two months. All of them lived in Galilee ; and Simon Peter and Andrew, who had a house in Capernaum, at the head of the lake of Galilee, appear to have turned off and left the little company at the point where their nearest way home crossed the route taken by the others. Jesus went on with the other three: Philip, whom he had distinctly called to follow him ; Nathanael, whose home in Cana of Galilee lay directly north of Nazareth; and John, who was hardly more than a youth, and as yet free from the ties and duties of manhood. A pleasant march must that have been along the valleys lying south of Mount Tabor, with the spring sun shining overhead, and all the green sward bedecked with flowers, and the birds singing in the cool, fragrant air of morning and evening. But they did not find Mary at Nazareth. She was gone with the cousins of Jesus to a marriage at Cana in Galilee, the town of Nathanael, where he had a home, to which he gladly urged his new- found rabbi to go. He could not have foreseen this pleasure; buf THE WONDERFUL LIFE 51 now, as they went on northward to Cana, the Messiah was his guest, and, with Philip and John, was to enter into his house. But no sooner was it known that they were come into the village than Jesus was called with his friends, one of whom was an old neighbor of the bridegroom, to join the marriage feast. There was very much that Mary longed to hear from her son after this long absence-; but the circumstances could not have been favor- able for it. In his beloved face, worn and pale with his forty days of temptation and fasting in the wilderness, her eyes saw a change which told plainly that his new life had begun in suffering. He looked as if he had passed through a trial which set him apart. Perhaps he found time to tell her of his hunger in the desert, and the temptation which came to him to use his miraculous powers in order to turn stones into bread for himself. It seems that, in some way or other, she knew that, like Elijah and Elisha, the great prophets of olden times, he could and would work miracles as a sign to the people that he came from God ; and she felt all a mother's eagerness that he should at once manifest his glory. So when there was no more wine she turned to him, hoping for some open proof to the friends about her that he possessed this wonder-working power. Besides, she had been accustomed to turn to him in every trouble, in any trifling household difficulty ; casting all her cares upon him, because she knew he cared for her. So she said to him quietly, yet significantly, " They have no wine." Some of Elisha's miracles had been even more homely; he had made the poisoned pottage fit for food, and had fed a company of people with but a scanty supply of barley-cakes. Why should not Jesus gladden the feast and save his friends from shame, by making the wine last out to the end? ' A few days before our Lord had been in the desert, amid the wild beasts, with the devil tempting him. Now he, who was to be in all things one with us, was sitting at a marriage feast among his friends ; his mother and kinsfolk there, with his new followers; every face about him glad and happy. It was not the first marriage he had been at, for his sisters, no doubt, were married, and living at Nazareth ; and 52 THE WONDERFUL LIFE. he knew what the mortification would be if the social mirth came too suddenly to an end. He cared for these little pleasures and little innocent enjoyments, and would not have them spoiled. The miracle he refused to work to satisfy his own severe hunger he wrought for the innocent pleasure of the friends who were rejoicing around him. There were six water-pots of stone standing by for the use of the guests in washing their hands before sitting down to the table, and he bade the servants first to fill them up again with water to the brim, and then to draw out, and bear to the ruler of the feast. Upon tasting it he cried out to the bridegroom, " Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine ; but thou has kept the good wine until now." So Christ changes water into wine, tears into gladness, the waves and floods of sorrow into a crystal sea, whereon the harpers stand, having the harps of God. But he can work this miracle only for his friends ; none but those who loved him drank of that wine. It was no grand miracle of giving sight to eyes born blind, or raising to life a widow's son. Yet there is a special fitness in it. He had long known what poverty, and straitness, and household cares were, and he must show that these common troubles were not beneath his notice ; no, nor the little secret pangs of anxiety and disappointment which we so often hide from those about us. We are not all called to bear extraordinary sorrows, but most of us know what trifling cares are ; and it was one of these small household difficulties the Son of man met by his first miracle. After this, Jesus, with his mother, and brethren, and disciples, went down to Capernaum for a few days, until it was time to go on their yearly pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to the feast of the passover, which was near at hand. Peter and Andrew were living there, and might join them in their journey to Judaea ; though- they do not seem to have stayed with our Lord, but probably returned after the passover to their own home until he considered it a fit time to call them to leave all and follow him. WEDDING FEAST AT CANA. S3 CHAPTER 111.— THE FIRST SUMMEK. OR the first time Jesus went up to Jerusalem with his little band of followers, who knew him to be the Messiah ; and his cousins, who did not yet believe in him, but were apparently willing to do so if he would act as they expected the Messiah to act. If he would repeat his miracle on a large scale, and so convince the mass of the people, they were ready enough to proclaim p-^«m »"^. him as the Messiah. \ , ^'*' Would not John the Baptist be there too? He as a priest, and as a prophet, would no doubt be looked for, as Jesus afterwards was, at the feast of the passover. He must have had a strong, impetuous yearning to see him who had been pointed out to him as the Lamb of God that should take away the sin of the world. Maybe he ate the paschal supper with Jesus and his disciples. We fancy we see him, the well-known hermit-prophet from the wilderness, in his robe of camel's hair, with its leathern girdle, and his long, shaggy hair, and weather-beaten face, following closely the steps of Jesus, through the streets, and about the courts of the temple, listening to his words with thirsty ears, and calling himself "the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoicing greatly because of the bride- groom's voice." It was the last passover John the Baptist would ever celebrate ; though that he could not know. Upon going up into the temple, Jesus found the court of the Gentiles thronged with sheep, and oxen, and doves, animals needed for the sacrifices, but disturbing the congregation, which assembled in the court of the women, by their incessant lowing and cooing. Money-changers were sitting there also ; for Roman coins were now in common use insteai of the Jewish money, which alone was lawful 55 56 THE WONDERFUL LIFE. for payment in the temple. No doubt there was a good deal of loud ind angry debate round the tables of the money-changers ; and a disgraceful confusion and disorder prevailed. Jesus took up a scourge of small cords, and drove out of the temple the noisy oxen and sheep, bidding the sellers of the doves to carry them away. The tables ol the money-changers he overturned ; and no one opposed him, but conscious of the scandal they had brought upon the temple, they retreated before him " Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise," he said To him it was always his "Father's house;" and before he could manifest forth his glory, his Father must first be glorified. The disciples, looking upon his face, remembered that it had been written, "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." But the priests and Levites of the temple, to whom this traffic brought much profit, were not so easily conscience-pricked as the merchants had been. They could not defend the wrong practices, but they came together to question the authority of this young stranger from Galilee. If John the Baptist had done it, probably they would not have ventured to speak, for all the people counted him a prophet. But this was a new man from Galilee ! The Jews held the Galileans in scorn, as only little better than the Samaritans " What sign shewest thou," they ask, " seeing that thou doest such things ? " The things were signs themselves — the mighty, prevailing anger of the Lord, and the smitten consciences of the merchants — if they had not been too blind to see them. Jesus gave them a mysterious answer, which none could understand "Destroy this temple," he said, "and in three days I will raise it up." What I were they to pull down all they most prided in, and trusted in : their temple, which had been forty and six years in building I They left him, but they treasured up his words in then memories. The disciples also remembered them, and believed them when the mysterious sign was fulfilled. But Jesus did not seek to convince the people without signs, and signs which they could understand. He worked certain miracles in Jerusalem during the week of the feast, which won a degree of faith from many. But their faith was not strong and true enough for him to trust to it, and he held himself aloof from them What they loc ked ^ ^ "BUT A CERTAIN SAMARITAN HAD COMPASSION ON H1M."-Luke 10: 33. YOUNG MAN, 1 SAY UNTO THEE, ARISE."— Luke 7: 14. CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. 5/ for was an earthly king, who should plot and conspire for the throne; and the Roman soldiers, who garrisoned the strong fortress which overlooked the temple, would not have borne the rumor of such ^ king. There was at all times great danger of these expectatiori reaching the ears of Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, who was noi a man to shrink from needless bloodshed. For the sake of the people themselves Jesus did not commit himself unto them. Amongst those who heard of the miracles he had wrought was one of the Pharisees, a member of the great religious committee among them called the Sanhedrim. His name was Nicodemus, and he came to our Lord by night, to inquire more particularly what he was teaching. Jesus told him more distinctly than he had yet done what his new message to the Jews and to the whole world was : " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-beg-otten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Nicodemus went away strongly impressed with the new doctrine, though not prepared to give up all for its sake, and not yet called upon to do so. But from that time Jesus had a firm friend in the very midst of the Pharisees, who used his powerful influence to protect him ; and the feast passed by without any further jealous interference from the priests. But it was not quite safe or suitable to remain in Jerusalem ; and after the greater number of their friends and kinsmen had returned home, Jesus, with two or three of his disciples, sought the banks of the Jordan, whither John the Baptist had already returned. The harvest was beginning, for it was near the end of April, and bands of harvesters passed to and fro from uplands to lowlands until all the corn was gathered in by the end of June. Down in the valley of the Jordan the summer is very hot ; and the wants of life are few They could sleep in the open air, or in some hut of branches rudely woven together ; and their food, like John the Baptist's, cost little or nothing. There was to be no settled home henceforth for any one of them. The disciples had left all to follow the Son of man, and he had not where to lay his head. Crowds of eager and curious followers came to- Jesus, as the year before they had flocked to John the Baptist, who had now moved 4 58 THE WONDERFUL LIFE. some miles further up the river, and was still preaching " The kingdom of God is at hand." But John did no miracle, and the crowds that followed Jesus were greater than those who followed him. In the eyes of the Pharisees it must have seemed that the two prophets were in rivalry ; and many a jest and a sneer would be heard in the temple courts and in the streets of Jerusalem as they talked of those " two- fanatics " on the banks of the Jordan. Even John the Baptist's disciples fancied that a wrong was done their rabbi by this new teacher, who had been with him for a while, and so learned his manner of arousing and teaching the people. They went to John, and said, " Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come unto him." FRUIT OF PALESTINE. Now was Johns opportunity to manifest a wonderful humility and devotion. " I am of the earth, earthy, and speak of the earth," he ' >aid ; " he that cometh from heaven is above all. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hands. I am but the friend of the bridegroom ; I stand and hear him, and rejoice greatly because of his voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled." Did he hear that voice often, and rejoice in it ? There were not many miles separating them, and both of them were hardy and used to long marches. It may well be that during those summer months' they met often on the banks of the river — the happiest season ol John's life. For he had been a lonely, unloved man, living a wild life CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. 59 in the wilderness, strange to social and homelike ways ; nis father and mother long since dead, with neither brother nor sister, he would find in Jesus all the missing relationships, and pour out to him the richest treasures of a heart that no loving trust had opened until now. So the summer passed away, and the autumn with its vintage ; then the rainy months drew near. Bands of harvestmen and bands of pilgrims had gone by, tarrying for a few hours to learn truths they had never heard before, even in the temple. Many of them were baptized by the disciples, though Jesus baptized not. The new prophet had become more popular than the old prophet, and John's words were fulfilled, " He must increase, but I must decrease." CHAPTER IV.— SAMARIA. HERE were several reasons why our Lord should leave the banks of the Jordan, besides that of the rainy season coming on. The Pharisees were beginning to take more special notice of him, having heard that he had made more dis- ciples even than John, whom they barely toler- ated. Moreover, this friend and forerunner of his had been seized by Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, and cast into a dreary prison on the east of the Dead Sea. This violent measure was likely to excite a disturbance among the people; and Jesus, whose aim was in no way to come into collision with the govern- ment, could not prudently remain in a neighborhood too near the fortress where John was imprisoned. He therefore withdrew from the Jordan, in the month of December or January, having been in Judaea since the feast of the passover in the spring. One way to his old home, the place where his relatives were still living, lay through Samaria, a country he had probably never crossed, as the inhabitants were uncivil and churlish toward all Jewish travel- 6o THE WONDERFUL LIFR. crs, especially if their faces were toward Jerusalem. But Jesus was journeying to Galilee, and did not expect them to be actively hostile to him and his little band of companions. It was an interesting road, and led him through Shechem, one of the oldest cities in the world lying between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, in a vale so narrow ai the eastern end, that when the priests stood on these mountains to pronounce the blessings and the curses in the ears of all the children of Israel, there was no difficulty for the people standing in the valley to hear distinctly. Two miles away was a very deep well, the waters of which were cool in the hottest summer; a well dug by the patriarch Jacob upon the same parcel of a field where he built his first altar to the God of Israel. Here too were buried the bones of Joseph, which had been carried for forty years through the wilderness to the land his father Jacob had given to him and to his children specially. Shiloh also lay along the route ; and Jesus, who possessed every innocent and refined taste, must have enjoyed passing through these ancient places, so intimately connected with the early history of his nation. Shechem lay about eighteen or twenty miles distant from the fords of Jordan, near which we suppose Jesus to have been dwelling. By the time he and his disciples reached Jacob's well, after this long morning's march, it was noonday, and he was wearied, more wearied than the rest, who appear always to have been stronger than he was. They left him sitting by the side of the well, whilst they went on into the city to buy food for their mid-day meal. Their Master was thirsty, but the well was deep, and they had nothing to draw up the water They hastened on, therefore, eager to return with food for him whorr. they loved to minister to. Not long after a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and was much astonished when this Jew asked her to give him some to drink. She was probably less churlish than a man would have been, though she was barely civil. But as Jesus spoke with her she made the discovery that he was a prophet ; and immediately referred to him the most vexing question which separated the Jews from the Samaritans. The latter had a temple upon Mount Gerizim, which had been rebuilt THE Wise and the foolish virgins. THE WONDERFUL LIFE. ' 63 by Herod, as the temple at Jerusalem had been ; and she asked which is the place where men ought to worship ? Here, or at Jerusalem ? She could only expect one answer from a Jew ; an answer to excuse her anger, and send her away from the well without satisfying his thirst. But Jesus had now forgotten both thirst and weariness. He knew that many a sorrowful heart had prayed to God as truly from Mount Gerizim as from the temple at Jerusalem. There is no specia' place, he answered, for in every place men may worship the Father the true worshippers worship him in spirit and in truth, for God is £ Spirit. This was no such answer as the woman looked for ; and her next words were spoken in a different temper. " We are looking for the Messiah, as well as the Jews," she said, " and when he is come, he will tell us all things that we do not yet know." Jesus had already told her the circumstances of her own life, and she was looking at him wistfully, with this thought of the Messiah in her mind, when he said to her more plainly, more distinctly, perhaps, than he had ever done before to any one, " I that speak to thee am he." By this time the disciples had come back, and were much astonished to find him talking to the woman. If they heard these last words they would marvel still more, for Jesus generally left men to discover his claims to the Messiahship. The wrong impression prevailing among the Jews concerning the Messiah was not shared by the Samaritans. The latter kept closely to the plain and simple law of Moses, without receiving the traditions which the Pharisees held of equal importance with the law, and were thus more ready to understand the claims and work of Christ. The woman therefore hurried back to the city, leaving her water-pot, and called together the men of the place to come out and see if this man were not the Christ. They besought him to stay with them in their ancient city under the Mount of Blessing; and, no doubt very much to the amazement of his disciples, he consented, and abode there two days, spending the time in teaching them his doctrine, the very inner meaning of which he had already laid open to the woman. " God is a Spirit; he is the Father, whom every true worshipper may worship in the recesses of his own spirit." Many of them believed, 64 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. and said to the woman, " We have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, f/ie Saviour of the worlds Wonderful words, which filled the heart of Christ with rejoicing. Not his own nation, not his own disciples, not even his own kinsmen, had learned so much of his mission as these Samaritans ; ever afterward he spoke of them with tenderness, and when he would take a type to himself in ihe parable of the man fallen among thieves, he chose not a Jew, but 1 despised Samaritan. From Sychar Jesus passed through one of the long deep valleys vvhich lead to the plain of Esdraelon, where he was once more in Galilee. It was winter, and the snow was glistening on the lowei mountains, as well as upon the distant range of Lebanon. The heavy rains had swollen the brooks into floods ; and all the great plain before him, which in four months' time would be ripe for harvest, a -ea of golden grain, scarcely rippled by a gust of wind, was now lying n wintry brownness and desolation, and swept by the storms of hail ind rain. He seems to have passed by Nazareth, staying, if he stayed at all, for a few hours only, and to have gone on with Nathanael to his home in Cana, where Jesus had many friends, especially the bride- groom whose marriage-feast in the spring he had made glad with no common gladness. He had not been long in Cana before the streets of the little village witnessed the arrival of a great nobleman from Capernaum, who had heard of the fame of Jesus in Judasa, and the miracles he had wrought there. Until now, with the exception of Nicodemus, it would seero that none but people of his own class had sought him, or brought their sick to be healed by him. But this nobleman had a son, whose ife all the skill of the Jewish physicians could not save ; and his last lope lay with Jesus. His faith could not grasp more than the idea hat if Jesus came, like any other physician, to see and touch the child, ne would have the power to heal him. " Sir, come down," he cried, ' before my son is dead." " Go thy way," Jesus answered ; " thy son iiveth." What was there in his voice and glance which filled the father's heart with perfect trust and peace ? The nobleman did not hurry away, though there was time for him to reach home before night- NINETY AND NINF" CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. ^7 fall. But the next day, as he was going down to Capernaum, he met his servants, who had been sent after him with the good news that the fever had left his son yesterday at the seventh hour ; that same hour when Jesus had said to him, " Thy son Hveth." Now he had a friend and disciple among the wealthiest and highest classes in Capernaum, as he had one among the Sanhedrim at Jeru- salem. Both protected him as much as it lay in their power ; and it is supposed by many that the mother of the child thus healed was the same as Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, who, with other women, attended our Lord during the last year of his life, and min- istered to him of their substance. Thus, on every hand, Jesus was making friends and enemies. A year had scarcely passed since he quitted his humble home in Nazareth; but his name was already known throughout Judaea, Galilee, and Samaria ; and everywhere people were ranging themselves into two parties, for and against him. Among the common people he had few enemies ; among the wealthy and religious classes he had few friends. He felt the peculiar diffi- culty these latter classes had in following him ; and expressed it in two sayings, " I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repent- ance," and "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." CHAPTER v.— THE FIRST SABBATH MIRACLE. FTER staying a short time in Cana, Jesus went once more to Jerusalem, about the middle of March, a month or so before the passover. At this time there was a feast of the Jews, not a religious, but rather a national feast, in celebra- tion of the deliverance of their race in the days of Esther. It drew together many of the poorer and lower classes, among whom our Lord's work specially lay, and so offered to him, perhaps, unusual opportunities for mingling with the common people, living near Jerusalem. For we do not suppose that the Galileans went up to this feast; only the country-folks dwelling in Judaea, within a few miles of their chief city, w'ho could make a holiday at that time of the year. Either upon the feast-day itself, or the Sabbath day nearest to it, Jesus walked down to the sheep- ..^ate of the city, near which was a pool, possessing the singular property, so it was believed, of healing the first person who could get into it after there had been seen a certam troubling of the water A great crowd of impotent folk, of halt, blind and withered, lay about waiting for this movement of the surface of the pool. There was no spot in Jerusalem where we could sooner expect to find our L^rd, with his wondrous power of healing all manner of diseases. Not ^-ven his Father's house was more likely to be trodden by his feel dian this Bethesda, or house of mercy. Probably there was a greater throng than usual, because of the feast, which would offer an opportunity to many to come out of the country. Jesus passed by until he singled out one man, apparently because he knew he had now been crippled for thirty-eight years, and had been so friendless that during all that time he had no man to help him to get down first to the water. The cripple was hopeless, but still lingered 68 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHttlST. 69 there, as if to watch others win the blessing which he could nevet reach. Upon this miserable man Jesus looked down with his pitying eyes and said, as though speaking to one who would not hesitate to obe) him, " Rise, take up thy bed, and walk" It seems as though Jesus passed on, and was lost in the crowd ; but the cripple felt a strange strength throbbing through his withered iimbs. He was made whole, and he took up his bed, to return home, if he had any home, or at least to escape from that suffering multitude. Then did the Pharisees behold the terrible spectacle of a man carrying his bed through the streets of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day I They cried to him hastily, " It is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed on the Sabbath day," He answered them by telling the story of his miracu- lous cure, though he did not know who the stranger was, for Jesus was gone away. No doubt he put his burden down at the bidding of the Pharisees, but he did not lose the new strength that had given him power to take it up. The same day Jesus found him in the temple, whither he had gone in his gladness Once more those pitying, searching eyes were fixed upon him, and the voice that had spoken to him in the morning sounded again in his ears» " Behold," said Jesus, " thou art made whole ; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." The man departed and told the Pharisees who it was that had made him whole, thinking, no doubt, to bring praise and glory to his deliverer. Possibly until now the presence of Jesus at this feast had not been known to the Pharisees, The last time he was in Jerusalem he had solemnly and emphatically claimed the temple as his Father's house and had indirectly reproved them by assuming the authority to rid it of the scandals they had allowed to creep into it. Now they found him deliberately setting aside one of their most binding rules for keeping the Sabbath. John the Baptist, though both priest and prophet, had never ventured so far Their religion of rites and cere- monies, of traditions, of shows and shams, was in dansren With their religion, they firmly believed their place and nation would go, and Jerusalem and Judasa would become like the heathen cities and coun- 70 THE WONDERFUL UFR tries about them. It was time to put a stop to it John the Baptist was in prison. What if Jesus of Nazareth could be slain quietly, so as not to disturb the common people, who heard him gladly ? • Jesus then, forewarned, it may be, by a friend, found himself com- pelled to quit Jerusalem hastily, instead of sojourning there till the coming passover. He was now too well known in the streets of the city to escape notice. More than this, if he stayed until the Galileans came up to the feast, there would be constant danger of his followers coming into collision with the Pharisees. Riots in Jerusalem at the time of the feasts were not uncommon, and often ended in bloodshed. Not long before, Pilate had slain eighteen Galileans in some tumult in the temple courts ; and there was every probability that some such calamity might occur again should any provocation arise. Jesus, therefore, retreated from Jerusalem with a few friends who were with him. He had not yet chosen his band of twelve apostles, but John, the youngest and dearest of them all, was with him, for it is he alone who has given us this record of the first year of our Lord's ministry. Philip, also, we suppose to have been his disciple from the first, in obedience to the call, "Follow me;" for Jesus seems to have been particularly grieved with his dulness of mind, when he says to him, " Have I been so long time with you, Philip, and yet hast thou not known me?" Moreover, when Jesus was next at Jerusalem for the passover, those Greeks who wished to see him came and spoke to Philip as being best known as the attendant of our Lord. Whether there were other disciples with him, or who they were, we do not know. It was a little company that had lived together through eleven months, most of which had been spent on the banks of the Jordan, in a peaceful and happy seclusion, save for the multitudes that came to be taught the new doctrine, or to be healed of their afflictions. Now they were to be persecuted, to have spies lurking about them, to be asked treacherous questions, to have perjured witnesses ready to swear anything against them, and to feel from day to day that their enemies were powerful and irreconcilable. With a sad foresight of what must be the end, our Lord left Jerusalem and returned into Galilee. CHAPTER VI.— HIS OLD HOME. ESUS came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. His aunt, Mary Cleophas, was still living there with her children, if his mother was not. The old familiar home was the same, and the steep, narrow streets of the village in which he had played and worked. Coming down to it from the unfriendly city of Jerusalem, it seemed like a little nest of safety, lying among its r - pleasant hills. Here, at least, so his disciples K might think, they would find repose and friend- ship ; and the soreness of heart that must have followed the knowledge that the Jews sought to slay their Master would here be healed and forgotten. The Sabbath had come round again ; a week since he had given strength to the cripple. It was his custom to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath ; and the congregation w^hich met there had been familiar with him from his childhood, when he went with his supposed father, Joseph. The rabbi, or ruler, could not but have known him well. These rulers of the synagogue had a certain power of both trying and scourging heretics in the place itself They could also excommunicate them, and lay a curse upon them ; and Jesus knew that they would ' lot be averse to exercising their power. But now he went to his iccustomed place, looking round wath a tender yearning of his heart toward them all ; from those who sat conspicuously in the chief seats, to the hesitating, inquisitive villager, seldom seen in the congregation, who crept in at the door to see what was going on. For all the people of Nazareth must have been filled wath curiosity that day. Their townsman had become famous ; and they longed to see him, and to witness some miracle wrought by him. Almost al- had spoken to him at one time or another ; many had been brought 71 72 THE WONDERFUL' LIFE. up with him, and had been taught by the same schoolmaster. They lad never thought of him as being different from themselves, except perhaps that no man could bring an evil word against him ; a stupen- dous difference indeed, but not one that would win him much favor ^et here he was among them again, after a year's absence or so, and throughout all the land, even in Jerusalem itself, he was everywhere known as the Prophet of Nazareth. When the time came for the Scriptures to be read, Jesus, either called by the minister, or rising of his own accord, stood up to read. It must have been what all the congregation wished for. The low platform near the middle of the building was the best place for all to see him ; their eyes were fastened upon him, and their satisfaction was still greater when he sat down to teach them from the words he had just read. They were astonished at the graciousness of his words and manner, and before he could say more than, " This day is this Scripture fulfilled " they began whispering to one another, " Is not this Joseph's son ?" There is nothing strange or unnatural in this conduct, nor indeed anything very blamable. It is precisely what would take place among ourselves now under the same circumstances. Jesus was grieved, though we cannot suppose him to have been disappointed. He knew they wanted to see him do something like what he had done in Caper- naum. His sinless life had been neither a sign nor a wonder to them ; so blind were they, and so hard of heart. But if he would do some astonishing work they would believe in him. " No prophet is ac- cepted in his own country," he said, and leaving the verses he was about to explain to them, he went on to remind them that both Elijah and Elisha, their wonder-working prophets of olden times, had passed over Jewish sufferers to bestow their help on Gentiles. They could not miss seeing the application. If they rejected him, he would turn to the Gentiles. A sudden and violent fury seized upon all who were in the syna- gogue. This threat came from the carpenter's son ! They rose up with one accord to thrust him out of the village. As they passed along the streets the whole population would join them, and their 73 THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 75 madness growing stronger, they hurried him toward a precipice near the town, that they might cast him down headlong. But his brethren and disciples were there, and surely among the people of Nazareth he had some friends who would protect him from so shocking a death at the hands of his townsmen. He passed through the angry crowd, and went his way over the green hills, which not long before had seemed to promise him rest and shelter from his bitter foes. He had been accused of breaking the Sabbath seven days ago ; who was breaking the Sabbath now ? The full time was come for all this for- malism of worship to be swept away, and for Christ to proclaim him- self Lord also of the Sabbath. Did Jesus linger on the brow of that eastern hill looking down upon the village which nestled at the foot of the cliff? So quiet it lay there, as if no tumult could ever enter into it. The little valley, green and fresh in the cool spring-time, was bright with flowers, like a garden amid the mountains. He had loved this narrow glen as only children can love the spot where they first grow conscious of the beauty of the world around them. Here his small hands had plucked his first lilies, more gorgeously appareled than Solomon in all his glory. Here he had seen for the first time the red flush in the morning sky, and the rain-clouds rising out of the west, and had felt the south wind blow upon his face. Upon yonder housetops he had watched the sparrows building; and upon these mountains he had considered the ravens. The difference between now and then pressed heavily upon him ; and as he wept over Jerusalem, he may have wept over Nazareth. No place on earth could be the same to him ; and when he lost sight of it behind the brow of the hill, he went on sadly and sorrowfully toward Capernaum. CHAPTER VII.— CAPERNAUM. HOUGH Galilee was somewhat larger than Judaea, It was in reality but a small province, not more than seventy miles in length, or thirty in breadth. This again was divided into Upper and Lower Galilee ; the latter called Galilee of the Gentiles. The district in which Jesus worked most of his miracles, and went preaching from town to town, was very small indeed, a circuit of a few miles tending south and west of Capernaum, which for a short time now became his home. This part of Galilee is a lovely country, abounding in flowers and birds ; and at his time it was thickly populated, with small towns or villages lying near one another, and farm-houses occupying every favorable situation. The lake or sea of Galilee is about thirteen miles long, six broad, and all the western shore was fringed with villages and hamlets. Nowhere could Jesus have met with a more busy stir of life. Not only Jews dwelt in this region, but many Gentiles of all nations, especially the Roman and Greek. His ministry in Judaea, it the Pharisees had suffered him to remain in Judaea, would not have been so widely beneficial as in this province, where the people were less in bondage to Jewish customs and ritualism. It is at this point that Matthew, Mark, and Luke alike begin tho history of our Lord's work. What we have so far read has been re 4 corded for us in John's gospel alone, with the exception of the visit to Nazareth, which we learn from Luke. Jesus had already some friends and believers in Capernaum. There was the nobleman whose son he had healed several weeks before. There were Andrew and Peter, to whom he had been pointed out by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God. It was quickly noised abroad that Jesus of Nazareth was come to the town, and multitudes flocked together, though it was no holy 76 THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 77 day, to hear the words he had to teach them from God They found him upon the shore of the lake, and in order that al) might see and hear him, he entered into a boat belonging to Peter, and asked him to push out a little from the bank It was early in the morning of the day after he had been thrust out of his own village ; and now, sitting in the boat with a great multitude of eager listeners pressing down to the water's edge, he spoke to them the gracious words which the people of Nazareth would not hear. The sermon was soon over, for the listeners were working men, and had their trades to follow. Jesus then bade Peter to put out into the deep waters, and let down his net for a draught. Peter, who must have heard of the miracles that Jesus wrought, though he had never seen one, seems to have obeyed without expecting much success But the net enclosed so many fishes that it began to break, and his own boat, as well as that belonging to his partners, John and James, became dangerously full No sooner had Peter reached the shore, where Jesus was still standing, than, terrified at his supernatural power, he fell at his feet, crying, " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." "Follow me," answered Jesus, "and I will make you fishers of men," Andrew and Peter immediately forsook all to attach themselves closely to Jesus; and the same morning John and James left their father Zebedee for the same purpose. The next Sabbath day, which was probably not a weekly but a legal Sabbath, coming earlier than the end of the week, Jesus entered the synagogue at Capernaum with his band of followers, four of whom were well known in the town. The synagogue here was a much larger and more imposing place than the one at Nazareth ; and no doubt it would be filled with a congregation as crowded and attentive Whilst Jesus was teaching them, an unlooked-for interruption came, not this time from the fury of his listeners, but from the outcry of a poor man possessed of a devil, who had come in with the congregation Jesus rebuked the evil spirit, and the man was cast down in the midst of the synagogue in convulsions, with the people crowding round to help. But when the devil had come out of him the man himself was uninjured and in his right mind. Such a miracle, in such a place, 78 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. spread far and wide, and with great swiftness, for all who had seen it wrought would be eager to speak of it. At noon Jesus went with Peter to his house for the usual mid-day meal. Here he healed the mother of Peter's wife of a great fever so thoroughly that, feeling neither languor nor weakness, she arose and waited upon them. In the afternoon probably he went to the syna- gogue service again, to be listened to more eagerly than ever. We can imagine the stir there would be throughout Capernaum thai afternoon. Fevers were very prevalent in the spring and autumn, and it is not likely that Peter's mother was the only sufferer There was no one there as yet to cavil at miracles being worked on the Sabbath-day ; still the people waited until the sun was set, and then in the brief twi- light a long procession threaded the streets to the house v/here Jesus was known to be, until all the city was gathered about the door. And as the light faded in the clear sky, a number of little twinkling lamps would be kindled in the narrow street, lighting up the pale sickly faces of the patients who were waiting for the great Physician to come by We see him passing from one group to another, missing not one of the sufferers, and surely saying some words of comfort or warning to each one on whom he laid his healing hand — words that would dwell in their memories forever. All had faith in him, and all were cured of whatsoever disease they had. It must have been late before this was over, and the crowd dispersed to their homes. It seems as though our Lord, after this busy day of active ministry and untiring sympathy, was unable to sleep; for, rising a great while before the dawn, he sought the freshness of the cool night air and the quiet of a lonely place, where he could pray, or rather speak to his Father unseen and unheard. He trod softly through the silent streets, lately so full of stir, and made his way tc- some quiet spot on the shore of the lake, pondering, it may be, ovei the strange contrasts in his life, his rejection by the Nazarenes, and the enthusiastic reception of him by the city of Capernaum. As soon as it was day, however, the grateful people, discovering that he was not in Peter's house, urged his disciples to lead them to the place where he had found a brief repose. The disciples would prob- THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 79 ably require little urging, for this was the homage they expected their Master to receive. They came in multitudes, beseeching him to tarry with them ; for, like Nicodemus, they knew him to be a teacher from God, by the miracles he had done. This host of friends crowding about him to prevent him from departing from them must have given him a moment of great gladness. But he could not stay with them, for he must go to preach the kingdom of God in other cities also, and if he found faith there, to perform the same wonderful and tender miracles he had wrought in Capernaum. For the next few days Jesus, with five or six disciples, passed from village to village on the western coast of the lake, and in the plain of Gennesaret, a lovely and fertile tract of land, six or seven miles long, and five wide, surrounded by the mountains which fall back from the shore of the lake to encircle it. It was thickly covered with small towns and villages, lying so near to one another that the rumor of his arrival brought the inhabitants of all the cities to any central point where they heard that he was staying. Herod had built a city at the south of the plain and called it Tiberias, after the Roman emperor ; but probably our Lord never entered its streets, though all who desired to see and hear him could readily find an opportunity in the neighboring villages. It was in one of these places that a leper, hope- less as his case seemed, determined to cast himself upon the com- passion of this mighty prophet. No leper had been healed since the days of Naaman the Syrian ; yet so wonderful were the miracles wrought by Jesus, so well known, and so well authenticated, that the man did not doubt his power. " If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean," he cried. He soon discovered that Christ's tenderness was as great as his power. He touched him ; and imixiediately the sufferer was cleansed. The leper noised it abroad so much, that Jesus was compelled to hold himself somewhat aloof from the town, and keep nearer to the wild and barren mountains, where the plain was less densely peopled, until a day or two before the Sabbath he returned to Capernaum, at the northern extremity of the plain. During those few days his journeyings had been confined to a very limited space, the beautiful but small plain of Gennesaret, with its thick population and 8o CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. numerous villages, where he could teach many people, and perform riany miracles with no loss of time in taking long journeys. During the week Capernaum had been in a fever of excitement. It was quite practicable for many of the inhabitants to go out three or four miles, to the spot where Jesus was, for the day, and return at night with the story of what he was doing. The excitement had not been lessened by the arrival of a party of Pharisees from Jerusalem itself •«ho were openly unfriendly to the Galilean prophet and his new I octrines. The Galileans naturally looked up to the priesthood at LEPERS OUTSIDE THE GATE. Jerusalem, especially to the Sanhedrim, as the great authorities upon religious points. There were, moreover, plenty of Pharisees in Caper- naum, as in every Jewish town, who readily took up the opinions of these Pharisees from Judaea, and joined them eagerly in forming a party against Jesus and his innovations. No doubt they discussed the miracle wrought in their own synagogue on the first Sabbath day that Jesus was there ; and were the more zealous to condemn him, because none of them had seen the sin of it before it was pointed out by their keener and more orthodox brethren from Jerusalem. THE WONDERFUL LIFE, «i No sooner, then, was Jesus known to be in the house at Caper naun-i than there collected such a crowd that there was no room to receive them ; no, not so much as about the door. But some of the Pharisees had made good their entrance, and were sitting by caviling and criticising in the midst of his disciples. At this time the friends of a paralytic man who were not able to bring him into the presence of Jesus, carried him to the flat roof of a neighboring house, and so reaching the place where he sat to teach all who could get within hearing, they took up the loose boards of the roof and let down their friend before him. Jesus, pausing in his discourse, said first to him, "Thy sins are forgiven thee!" words that filled the Pharisees with horror, yet with secret satisfaction. " Who is this ? " they say to one another; "who can forgive sins but God alone?" "You cannot see that his sins are forgiven," answered Jesus, " but I will give you a sign which you can see. It is easy to say, Thy sins be forgiven; but I say unto thee, O man, arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house." Even the Pharisees, the less bitter Pharisees of Galilee a1 least, were silenced by this, and were for once touched with fear of this Son of man, who had power on earth to forgive sins. They glorified God, saying, " We have seen strange things to-day." But the day was not ended. Jesus, as his custom was, went down to the shore, where he could teach greater numbers than in the narrow streets. As he was passing along he saw a tax-collector sitting in his booth gathering tolls for the hated Roman conquerors. Such a person was singularly offensive to all Jews, but especially so to the Pharisees, who looked upon publicans as the most vicious and de- graded of men. Mark tells us this man was the son of Alpheus, or Cleophas, the uncle of Jesus by his marriage with Mary, his mother's sister. If so, he was a reprobate son, probably disowned by all his family, to whom he was a sorrow and disgrace. The presence of Jesus and his brethren in Capernaum must have been a trial to him, bringing back to mind the days of their happy boyhood together in Nazareth, and making him feel keenly the misery and ignominy of the present. But now Jesus stands opposite his booth, looks him in the face, not angrily, but tenderly, and he hears him «2 THE WONDERFUL LIFE. say, " Levi, follow me I " And immediately he arose, left all, and followed him. The same evening, Levi, or Matthew as he was afterwards called, gave a supper at his own house to Jesus and his disciples; and, no doubt with our Lord's permission, invited many publicans like him- self to come and meet him and hear his teaching. The Pharisees could not let such a circumstance pass uncriticized. For their part, their religion forbade them eating even with the common people, and here was the prophet eating with publicans and sinners. This was a fresh offence; and Jesus answered only by saying, "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." No defence was offered, and no excuse made. But there was a sad sarcasm in his reply which must have stung the consciences of some of them. Were they the righteous, whom he could not call into the kingdom of God ? CHAPTER VIII.— FOES FROM JERUSALEM. S spectators at Matthew's feast were two of John's disciples, who had been sent by their master with a strange question, "Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" John had now been imprisoned for some time in a gloomy dungeon on the desolate shores of the Dead sea His disciples, who were inclined to be somewhat jealous of the younger prophet, had brought him , j^ word of the miracles wrought by Jesus, but wroughiT ^^ Y upon the Sabbath day in direct antagonism to the Phari- r^' sees, and, as it seemed, to the law of Moses. The very first miracle at Cana of Galilee was altogether opposed to the austere habits of John, who had never tasted wine. There was something perplexing and painful to him in these reports ; and he had nothing else to do in his prison than brood over them. Was it possible that he LOWERING THE SICK MAN THROUGH THE ROOF. R3 84 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. could have made any mistake — could have fallen under any delusion in proclaiming his cousin Jesus as the promised Messiah ? Had he truly heard a voice from heaven ? Could this be indeed the Son of God, who mingled with common people at their feasts, and visited Samaritans ? He, who all his life long had lived in the open air, free from^ even social restraints, was becoming morbid in his captivity. It grew necessary to him at last to send his disciples to Jesus for some comforting and reassuring message. JEWS SITTING AT MEAT. When John's disciples came to Jesus, they seem to have found him Toasting with the publicans — a circumstance utterly foreign to their master's custom. They felt themselves more akin to the Pharisees, and asked him, " Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but thy dis- ciples fast not ? " Jesus answered them that he was the bridegroom of whom John himself had spoken, and that as long as the bridegroom was with them they could not mourn. But the days would come when he should be taken away, and then they would fast. He would have no pretence at mourning or fasting, to be seen of men. He THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 85 would have no acting. These were days of joy, and it was meet tc make merry and be glad when a brother who had been lost was found. Matthew was their brother, and he was restored to them how could they mourn ? But Jesus kept John's disciples with him for a short time, that the)- might see how miracles were his everyday work, not merely a wondei performed in the synagogues on a Sabbath day, before sending them back to the poor prisoner in Herod's fortress. The next day was a Sabbath. The Pharisees kept closely beside Jesus, following him even when he and his disciples v/ere walking through the fields of standing corn, possibly after the synagogue service, but before the Sabbath was ended. It was the second week of April, and the grain was growing heavy in the ear ; perhaps a few ears of it were ripe, for in the lowlands about Capernaum it ripened earlier than in the uplands of Galilee. The disciples plucked the ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands with the careless ease of men who thought it no harm, and who had forgotten the captious Pharisees beside them. The latter accused them sharply of breaking the law, and aroused Jesus to defend them by giving them instances from their own Scriptures and observances of the law of Moses being broken without blame. Then, pausing to give more weight to his last words, he added, " The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." He did not acknowledge their authority to make laws for the Sabbath. Nay, more, he claimed to be Lord of it himself. Without doubt this answer deepened the enmity and opposition of the Pharisees ; nor can we wonder at it. There was now no middle course they could take. If they acknowledged Jesus to be a prophet sent from God, they must own him as Christ, the Messiah, with a Divine authority over their laws and traditions. He was setting these at defiance, asserting himself to be Lord of the temple and Lord of the Sabbath, John had made no such claims, though it was well known that his birth had been foretold by the angel Gabriel to Zacha- rias, his father, when he was ministering in the Holy Place. But John's career was at an end ; and if Jesus was not taken out of the way he would turn the world upside down, and the Romans would 86 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. \xmg them into utter subjection. Both religion and patriotism de- manded that they should seek his death. A day or two after this weekly Sabbath came a legal Sabbath, one of the holy days among the Jews. Jesus was in the synagogue ; and there also, probably in a conspicuous place as if to catch his eye, sat a man with a withered hand. It seems almost as though he had been found and posted there in order to test Jesus. The Pharisees were growing eager to multiply accusations against him before they re- turned to Jerusalem for the approaching feast of the passover. Even they might feel that the sin of plucking ears of corn was not a very grave one. Here was a man for Jesus to heal. The case was not an urgent one ; to-morrow would do as well as to-day for restoring the withered hand. But Jesus will show to them that any act of love and mercy is lawful on the Sabbath day, is, in fact, the most lawful thing to do. God causes his sun to shine, and his rain to fall, on that day as on any other. He looked round upon them all with their hard faces set against him; and he was grieved in his heart. Then, with the authority of a prophet, he bade the man stand up and stand forward in the midst of them. If they had been secretly plotting against him in bringing the man there, he was not afraid to face them openly. " Is it lawful on the Sabbath day to do good or to do evil ? to save life or to destroy it ? " he asked. But the Pharisees from Jerusalem could not answer the question ; and when he healed the man in the sight of all the people, they were filled with madness. Possibly they had reckoned upon the miracle failing, for by this time It was understood that only those who believed in the power of Jesus could be healed, and they had not expected this man to have faith in him. It seems that they left the synagogue at once, and though it was a Sabbath day they held a council against him how they might destroy him. They even entered into an alliance with the Herodians, their own opponents. For the Herodians favored the adoption of Roman laws and customs, against which the Pharisees had formed themselves into a distinct sect But they were now ready to join any party, or follow any party, so that they might destroy this common enemy. THE WONDERFUL LIFE 87 It became impossible for Jesus to remain in Capernaum, and he left it immediately, probably the same evening, withdrawing to some mountain near the lake, where he continued all night in prayer to God. To a nature like his this bitter and pitiless enmity, aroused by acts of goodness only, must have been a terrible burden. They were his own people, not the heathen, who were hunting him to death — men who all their lives long had heard and read of God, his heavenly Father, who offered sacrifices to him, and gave tithes to his temple of all that they possessed. They knew, or ought to have known, what they were doing. There was no excuse of ignorance for them. All night he prayed, with the bright stars glittering above him in the blue sky, and the fresh breeze from the lake and the mountain, laden with the scent of flowers, breathing softly on his face. No sounds near him save the quiet sounds of night on the mountain side, and the wail of the curlew over the lake. This was better than sleep to him ; and as the day dawned he was ready once more to meet his disciples, and to face the numerous duties coming with the sunrise. His first act was to call his disciples to him, and from them he chose twelve to form for the future a group of attached followers and friends, who would go with him wherever he went and learn his message, so as to carry it to other lands when his own voice was silenced. Him his foes might and would destroy ; but his message from God must not perish with him. Philip was one of them, he who had been with hirri from the first ; and John, the youngest and most loved, who sat nearest to him at meal times, and who treasured up every word that fell from his lips, so that, when he came to write the history of his Lord, so many memories crowded to his brain of things Jesus had said and done, that he cried in loving despair, " All the world could not contain the books that might be written I " Two at least, if not three, of our Lord's own family were among the chosen twelve : James, his cousin, of whom it is said he was so like Jesus as sometimes to be mistaken for him ; and Judas, not Iscariot, who, like the other kinsmen of Christ, asked him, even on the last night that he lived, " Why wilt thou manifest thyself to us, and not unto the world ? " Levi, if he was the son of Alpheus, was a third 88 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. cousin, and each one wrote for us a portion of the New Testament How much might these three have told us of his early life in Nazareth if no restraint had been laid upon them I Then there was Peter, always the leader among the apostles impatient and daring, so eager that he must always meet his Lord, and not wait for him to come to him ; walking upon the sea, or casting himself into it to reach more quickly the shore where Jesus stood, exclaiming rapturously at one time, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," and at another, with oaths and curses, repeating, " I know not the man." Of the rest we know little, save one dark name, read amidst the blackest shadows of the past Why did Jesus call Judas Iscariot ? Why did he make him a familiar friend, in whom he trusted ? They went up together into the house of God, and took sweet counsel together. He gave and received from Jesus the kiss of friendship. To him was intrusted the wealth of the little band, and every trifling want of his Master's he had to supply, an office that brought him into the closest intimacy with him. Why was he chosen for this service? Was he the eldest amid this company of young men ? a wise, shrewd man, cautious and prudent, where others might have been rash or forgetful ? We do not know; but whilst Peter, James, and John followed their Lord into the chamber of Jairus's little daughter and up to the Mount of Transfiguration, Judas had the bag, and bore what was put thereirL CHAPTER IX.— AT NAIN. T was broad daylight now, no time for secret assassi- nation, and, surrounded by his twelve devoted friends, Jesus returned to Capernaum, where his mother would probably be -waiting in a state of anxious restlessness. As soon as it was known that he was entering the town, some of the rulers of the synagogue came to meet him, beseeching him to work a miracle in favor of a Roman centurion, whose servant was likely to die,. The most bigoted among them could not deny that Jesus of Nazareth did many mighty works ; and they could not decline to offer this petition to him when the centurion, who had built them a synagogue, commissioned them with it. The servant was healed without Jesus going to the house, the centurion sending to say that he was not worthy that the Lord should enter under his roof Even Jesus marveled at the man's faith, and though he had just chosen twelve of his most trustworthy disciples, he cried, "I have not found so great a faith; no, not in Israel." The next day, Jesus, followed by many disciples, both men and women, went out to visit the towns and villages lying westward of the hills which enclose the plain of Gennesaret. As he passed along his company grew in numbers, for everywhere had men heard of him, and those who had sick friends brought them out to the roadside that they might be healed. This day his journey was a long one, and he could not tarry by the way, except to work some such loving miracle. He was to rest in the little village of Nain that night; a place he knew quite well, for it was only five miles from Nazareth, and probably he had some friends there. Much people had gathered around him when he trod the steep path up to Nain; but before they reached the gate another multitude 6 89 90 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. appeared coming out as if to meet them, yet there was no shout of welcome; instead there were cries and wailings for one whom they were carrying forth to the tombs outside the village. Possibly Jesus knew both the young man who was dead and his mother. He hastened to her side, and said, " Weep not." Then he touched the bier, and those who were carrying it stood still. What was the prophet about to do? He could heal any kind of sickness, but this was death, not sickness. It was a corpse bound up, and swathed with grave-clothes; the eyes forever blinded to the light, and the ears too deaf to be unloosed. An awful silence must have fallen upon the crowd ; and they heard a calm, quiet voice saying, "Young man, I say unto thee. Arise!" He spoke simply, in a few words only ; but the quiet voice pierced through all the sealed deafness of death, and the dead sat up, and began to speak. Then Jesus, perhaps with his own hands freeing him from the grave-clothes, gave him back to his mother. A thrill of fear ran through all the crowd, and as they thronged into Nain some said, "A great prophet is risen up among us," and others, "God has visited his people." It has been thought that here, at Nain, dwelt Simon the Pharisee, who now invited Jesus to his house to eat meat with him. He was not one of our Lord's enemies from Jerusalem, but merely a member of the sect, which was numerous throughout all Judea and Galilee. He probably regarded Jesus as a workingman from the neighboring village of Nazareth, though now considered a prophet by the people ; and he did not offer to him the courteous attentions he would have t-hown to a more honored guest. After his long and dusty walk Jesus sat down to Simon's table without the usual refreshment of having his feet washed, and his head anointed with oil. But this slight, passed over by Jesus, was more than atoned for by a woman, who, coming in to see the supper with other townspeople, stood behind him at his feet, and began to wash them with her tears, and to wipe them with her long hair, kissing them again and again. Caring little who was watching her in her passion of repentance and love, she brought an alabaster box of precious ointment and poured THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 91 the costly contents upon the feet she had washed and kissed. Yef the prophet seemed to take no notice of her and her touch. But Simon, the host, said to himself, " 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." The sinful woman's unheeded touch was more conclusive against him than all his miracles were for him. Simon did not have her thrust from his house, but there was a secret satisfaction in his heart at finding that Joseph's son, after all, was not prophet enough to know who she was. Did not Jesus know ? Had he not felt eveiy tear that had fallen upon his feet, and the touch of the trembling lips which dared not speak to him? He spoke a short, simple parable to Simon, and asked him a question, the answer to which condemned the self- righteous Pharisee. And then, turning to the weeping woman, he said, " Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven ; thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." Those who sat about him began then with their old murmur, " Who is this that forgiveth sins also ? " But he gave them no sign this time. No sign could be greater than the miracle wrought that day. As Jesus himself said in one of his parables, "They will not be persuaded, no, not if one rise from the dead." CHAPTER X.~MIGHTY WORKS. HAVING Nain, Jesus, with a large number of followers, including the apostles, and certain women who ministered to them of their prop- erty, passed through all the villages of that neighborhood, gradually working their way back to Capernaum. It was some time during this week that Jesus dismissed the disciples of John the Baptist, bidding them tell him all they had seen and heard, and adding to his message a gentle reproof, " Blessed is he who- soever shall not be offended in me." He knew how many were already offended ; and how the cause of offence must take deeper and deeper root, until the scandal of the cross came to eclipse every dream of glory in his followers. The message thus sent to John in his prison, with the marvelous tidings of the signs and wonders wrought, and the report of the new doctrines, must have greatly strengthened and comforted the prophet diiring the short time that remained to him of life. The circuit from Nain to Capernaum, though short, was one of great exertion and fatigue ; yet when they reached the latter town, and were in need of rest, so great a multitude came together again immediately, that they could not so much as eat bread. Jesus could not attend to his own needs, whilst others were crying to him for help, or crowding round him for instruction. His meat was to do the will of him that sent him, and to finish his work; and the bitter enmity of the Pharisees warned him that what he had to do must be done quickly. But his relations thought it was quite time to interfere with this self-forgettul zeal, and they sought to take hold of him, saying, " He is beside himself" They did not yet believe in him, for they could not get over the impression made 92 ^^*> ^-^ CHRIST AND PETER. 'O Thou of Little Faith, wherefore didst Thou Doubt?' -Matt. 14 : 31. JESUS IN THE HOUSE OF MARY AND MARTHA.— Luke lO : 38. THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 95 upon them by his homely simple life among them, when he worked at a trade like themselves, apparently unconscious of being different from them. Probably their words only meant that he was carried into extremes by his burning enthusiasm. But the Pharisees from Jerusalem, who were still hanging about him, caught up the hasty words and bitterly exaggerated them. " He hath Beelzebub," they cried, "and by the prince of the devils he casteth out devils." .^Jesus then called them to him, bidding the crowd make way. It was an extraordinary scene. There stood the powerful enemies from the chief city and the chief priests of the nation, strong in their reputation for religion and for righteousness, face to face with the young but well-known prophet of Nazareth, who boldly and solemnly in the hearing of all the people warned them of the sin they were committing — blasphemy against the Holy Ghost — and declared that if it was persisted in there was no forgiveness for it. In the meantime his mother, whose, spirit could not be as brave for her son as his was for God, came to the outskirts of the throng with some of his cousins, and sent a message to him, which reached his ears as he finished his warning to the Pharisees. "Behold," they said, " thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee." It was no moment for such a message to come. His kinsmen, thous^h we cannot think his mother could have taken a part in it, had given occasion to the Pharisees to say that he hact a devil ; and it was necessary that all should know that he owned no authority in them, and could not submit to any interference. Dearly as he loved his mother, even she must cease to look upon him as a son whom she might command. Solemnly and emphati- -cally he pointed to his apostles, and to the women who had come into the city weary and hungry as himself " Behold my mother and my brethren," he said, " for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." The remainder of the day was one of ceaseless activities. So many persons came in from other towns that Jesus, as his custom was, led them down to some convenient spot on the shore, and there entered into a boat, so as to be seen and heard by all. He taught them by 96 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. parables, by many parables, and by nothing else than parables; a charming and fascinating mode of teaching to these imaginative eastern people, who carried them home in their minds to ponder over, and find out their hidden meaning. There was no need for them to be learned in the law ; the common occupations of every day served as lessons for them ; sowing their seed, or mixing their meal with yeast, was the symbol of the kingdom of heaven which had come among them. At last the sun sank behind the western hills, and evening closed in. The disciples sent away the crowds from their exhausted Master. One of his hearers, a scribe even, for he had won some friends among the ranks of his foes, came to him, saying, " Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest." Jesus was weary in body, and depressed in spirit. Capernaum lay there close by, but it was no safe place for him to spend the night in. He had already decided that it was better to cross over the lake to the eastern side, where his enemies might not care to follow him ; and he answered the scribe in those mournful and most memorable words, " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests ; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head." The sky was darkening, and the stillness of night coming on ; the birds were sing-inQ: their last sonsjs ; and the wild beasts were creeping forth out of their dens which had sheltered them all day. But for him there was no place of rest, save the deck of the boat ; no bed, except a pillow, on which his aching head could lie. Yet perhaps the scribe followed him for a little fleet of fishermen's boats sailed out after him into the gathering darkness, following the bark, in which the Master was soon sleeping, for very weariness, near the helmsman who was steering for the eastern shores. The lake of Galilee, like all inland lakes, is subject to sudden storms of wind, which sweep down the ravines between the mountains with great force. Such a gale came on this night, with so much fury that even those disciples who, as fishermen, were quite at home on the water, were filled with terror. The eager followers in the other boats must have been still more alarmed as the waves beat over them, and filled their small vessels. No one but Jesus could have been asleep^ THE WONDERFUL LIFE 57 but he slept soundly ; and it was not till they called him that he awoke. "Master," they cried, "carest thou not that we perish?" Yes, he cared. He cared even for their fears; and though there was no danger of their perishing whilst he was with them in the boat, he arose, and rebuked the wind and the sea, and immediately there was a great calm. Probably he fell asleep again; but all the crews of that little company of boats were exceedingly afraid, asking one another, "What manner of man is this; hungry and thirsty, and worn out with weariness like ourselves, yet even the wind and the sea obey him?" The early morning found them on the eastern shore near Gergasa, which was in the tretrarchy of Philip, a just and moderate prince, very different from his brother Herod, who ruled over Galilee. Here, at least, Jesus might expect to find shelter and rest. But no sooner had he landed than a terrible demoniac, whose dwelling was among the tombs near the town, rushed down to the shore to meet him. So fierce and violent was he that no man dare pass that way, and always, day and night, the unhappy wretch was cr)-ing and cutting himself with stones. Jesus at once commanded the legion of evil spirits to come out of the man ; but gave them permission to enter into a herd of swine that were feeding near at hand ; upon which the whole herd, in number about two thousand, ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked in the waters. Those who kept them fled into Gergasa, and the inhabitants immediately came out to see who it was that had done this mischief But upon finding their fierce and powerful countryman clothed, and in his right mind, they were afraid ; and learning by what miracle he had been restored, they confined their resentment at their loss to beseeching Jesus to quit their coast. Wet and hungry as he was, Jesus returned to the boat, bidding the poor man, who wished to follow him, rather to go home to his friends and tell them what great things the Lord had done for hijiL Though the Gergascnes would not receive him, he would leave them a witness to tell of his love and power. And now, driven ^way from that inhospitable coast, he returned toward Capernaum, 98 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. giving up the hope of a few days' rest, far away from his knot of enemies, and his thoughtless crowd of followers. No sooner was it known that his boat was on the shore than one of the rulers of the synagogue hastened down to him. His little daugh- ter was lying at the point of death, and there remained no hope but in Jesus. He went at once with the father; yet he paused on the way to heal a poor woman who touched in secret the hem of his garment as he passed by. She had been suffering as many years as the child had lived, and Jesus could not neglect her for a ruler's daughter, though he should gain a powerful friend by it. There was a great tumult about the house when they reached it; the child was just dead, had died while Jesus lingered on the way to heal this poor woman, who had spent all that she had on physicians. "She is not dead, but sleepeth," he said ; and they laughed him to scorn, knowing she was dead. Into her chamber he passed, suffering no one to go in but her father and mother, and his three most favored disciples ; and taking the girl's hand into his own, he called to her, and her spirit came back again over the mysterious threshold it had just crossed. But Jesus charged her parents that they should tell no man what was done; he charged them straitly. He would not have this young and happy life burdened with the weight of such a mystery ; if possi- ble the girl herself was not to know it. The widow's son at Nain might bear the burden, and meet the curious eye bent upon him, and answer as he could the eager questions asked about that other life of which he had caught a glimpse. But this child, just on the verge of happy girlhood, must be spared it all. "She is not dead, but sleepeth," he said, and he called her back to her place on earth as one who had only been wrapt in a deeper slumber than is natural. SHE TOUCHED THE HEM OF HIS GARMENT.' 99 CHAPTER XI.— A HOLIDAY IN GALILEE ESUS seems only to have entered Capernaum foi the sake of Jairus ; for he did not stay there ; but going away immediately, he went once more to Nazareth, where some of his cousins were still living. Very probably he knew from them that his townsfolk were now ashamed of their savage assault upon him three weeks before. Since then they had heard of his wisdom and his mighty works, especially of that one at Nain, a village within sight of their own town. They were even hoping to have their own curiosity gratified by some wonder performed among them; but they could not get over the fact that he had been a carpenter in Nazareth, and that all his relations were known by them, poor undistinguished people, who were considered of no account. Jesus himself marveled at their unbelief, surpassing any he had yet contended against ; and he could not do any mighty work, save that he healed a few sick folk, probably poor people, who knew him better than the wiser and richer m^n. From Nazareth he sent out his apostles by two and two to make a short circuit of the towns lying about before meeting him again on an appointed day near Capernaum ; for it was safer to be close upon the shores of the lake, whence at any time he could seek refuge in the dominions of Philip, rather than in any of the country places from which theif. could be no speedy way of escape from his enemies. He himself went round the villages teaching. The district traveled over thus was a small one, and by the separation of the apostles into six parties, every village would be quickly visited. These little places lay close together, and only a central spot would be needed for the gather- I02 THE WONDERFUL LIFE. ing of congregations ; the Galileans seeming to be always ready to flock together at the first hint of any excitement. The first news that reached Jesus, when he returned to the neighbor- hood of Capernaum, was that of the cruel death of his cousin, friend and forerunner, John the Baptist, whose disciples were come to bring him the tidings. The murder of their prophet must have stirred the people to deep indignation, and wounded the tender heart of Christ most keenly. But at the same time his apostles met him, full of triumph at the wonders they had themselves performed during their short separation from him. To some of them John the Baptist had been almost as dear as Jesus was now; and thus two currents of strong agitation ran counter to one another, Jesus himself felt in need of some hours of quietness in which to mourn over his loss, and to hear from his apostles what they had done and taught. But so long as they remained on the western shore of the lake there was no hope of gaining any such leisure time ; and he entered into a boat with his disciples and passed over to the other side. They landed in a solitary spot on the north of the lake, not more than three or four miles east of Capernaum, where the hills shut in a small plot of tall green grass, not yet dried up by the summer's heat. But the multitudes of people from whom they had intended to escape for a little while, seeing them depart, set out on foot along the shore, and keeping the boat in sight, with its sails fluttering over the glistening water, they outwent it in speed. It was probably the day before the passover supper, which was kept at Jerusalem ; a day on which no work was done in Galilee : and thus the people gathered from every village and farm-house, and from every fishing hamlet on the shore, until when Jesus reached the desert place near Bethsaida, one of the largest crowds that could ever have collected about him, numbering five thousand men, besides women and children, were waiting to receive him. He was filled with compassion for them, for they were as sheep having no shepherd. No doubt the tidings of John's murder in prison was fresh among them ; and our Lord knew how deeply their hearts felt the loss of such a teacher. He began to teach them in ASCENSION OF CHRIST. 'Whilk He Blessed Them. He was Parted from Them, and Carried up into Heaven." — Luke 24 : 51. WHERE TWO OR THREE ARE GATHERED TOGETHER IN MY NAME, THERE AM I IN THE MIDST OF THEM."— Matt. 18: 20. THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 105 THE WONDERFUL LIFR 107 this little temple with the clear blue sky above them ; and was not weary of teaching, nor they of listening, until late in the afternoon, when his disciples asked him to send them away before nightfall. There was a lad in the crowd who had brought with him five barley loaves and two small fishes, most likely in the hope of selling them among so many persons, and pushing himself forward in the crowd, as lads are apt to do. Jesus bade the disciples bring them to him; Judas, perhaps, grudging the money he was called upon to spend for such a purpose. Then he told them to make the company sit down in fifties, the tall, green grass forming couches for them on which they could rest, as in the Paschal supper they were enjoined to " sit down leaning," not standing, as if they were slaves. The command of our Lord was well understood by them ; they sat down leaning upon these natural couches, as their brethren up in Jerusalem would so rest, when in a few hours they would eat the Paschal supper. It was a suitable ending for the holiday. The sun was still shining in the west, nor when it went down was there any fear of the crowd missing the way to their homesteads, for the full moon was ready to rise beyond the eastern hills, flooding every mountain track, and every narrow village street, with its silver light, The season was the most delicious of all the year, and the cool air from the lake was sweet and fresh, not chilly or damp. Children were there, some stealing up to the Master's feet, and maybe getting a piece of bread from his hand; their laughter and their voices mingling with the graver hum of older people. What a surprise, too, for the disciples as they began to understand their Master's purpose! This was such a miracle as the Messiah was expected to perform. A table furnished in the wilderness, as in the times of Moses, when he gave them bread from heaven to eat What was giving sight to a few blind folk, or even raising from the dead a widow's son in a distant village, compared to this large, public, kingly miracle of feeding thousands of his followers with so small a store of provisions? There was but one happier hour for them in the future, when they loS CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. followed their Master in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, a yeai 1 iter. But now as they went about among the companies, they spread the story of the wonder then being wrought, until the enthusiasm of the people outgrew all bounds They resolved to lake him by force and make him a king, sure that thousands would now flock from all quarters to hail him as the Messiah. This was the very danger Jesus had sought carefully to avert, as it would bring him and his party into collision with the Roman Government, whose soldiers were garrisoned in many parts of the country. He constrained his disciples, who were unwilling to lose this hour of promised greatness, to set sail, and go on before him, whilst he sent the multitude away When t/iey were gone, whose wishes and plans were so different from his own, he dismissed the crowds, who obeyed him the more readily as now the night was at hand, and many of them had far to go on foot At last, then, Jesus was alone, and, in need of rest more than ever, in need of a moment or two in which he could mourn over his friend, in need of close communion with his Father, he went up into the mountain, at the foot of which he had been laboring all day. The Easter moon shone down upon him full and clear out of the cloudless sky, and lighted up the waters of the lake in which his disciples were rowing hard against the wind to reach the point of the shore he had directed them to steer for. He saw them driven out of their course by the wind into the midst of the lake ; but still he lingered on the mountain side hour after hour. Is it possible that, bowed down by the death of John, a foretaste of his agony in Geth- semane made this season of solitude one of bitterness and sorrow ■^ Was his soul exceeding sorrowful within as he watched his iaithful followers toiling on the lake apart from him ? When the next passover came, the eternal parting would come, when they must sail out into the fierce storm of life alone, without him in the ship; living by the faith of which they yet showed so little sign. Next passover! Where would they be? What loss would they have to bear then ? How would they bear it? Still he saw them tossing about on the rough moon-lit sea, until, THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 109 A'hen the fourth watch of the morning was near, he resolved to give them a proof of his power, which, in after years, every moonlight night, and every fresh burst of life's storm, would bring to their minds. They, looking across the stormy waves, beheld him walking toward them on the sea ; and they cried aloud with fear and trouble, for their Lord was coming to them strangely, in no familiar manner. Peter, bolder than the rest, attempted to go to meet him, but his courasfe failed, and he would have sunk but for the outstretched hand of his Master. When they entered into the boat, the wind ceased, and they, not considering the miracle of the loaves and fishes, were sore amazed within themselves, beyond measure. Their Master, possessing this marvelous power, still refused to be made a kingi Their hearts, too hard yet to understand, could not perceive why he steadily opposed all such ambition. ' They landed on the plain of Gennesaret, and walked northward to Capernaum, where they were met by numbers of those who had been fed in the desert the day before. It was the first day of the passover, a solemn Sabbath, and Jesus taught in the synagogue openly, and without any opposition, except the murmurs of those who were disappointed by his steady rejection of their desire to proclaim him king. His most hostile enemies, the Pharisees, were necessarily absent at the passover in Jerusalem. But from that day many of his disciples in Galilee left him, not being able to hear or rather to under- stand the hard sayings, and the reproaches with which he met them. " Ye seek me," he said, " because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." Their love for him was too earthy to bear the test he proposed to them, so they went back, and walked no more with him. "Will ye also go away?" asked Jesus, sadly, of his twelve apostles. " Lord, to whom should we go ? " cried Peter ; " thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God." " Not all," he answered ; " have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil ? " Already he could point out the traitor in his little camp. Probably Judas had made himself unusually busy the day before in urging on the crowd to make him king by force. They all longed for him to assert his claims ; his no CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. brethren were constantly urging him to manifest himself; John anH James asked him to promise them the chief places in his kingdom but Judas looked forward to be the treasurer of all the wealth of the Messiah King of Judaea, and no voice had been louder the day before and no disciple so reluctant to obey, when he constrained them to set sail and leave him alone with the multitude. " Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil ? " Judas was to live in close fellowship with him for a whole year longer; but even Christ could not cast out of him this demon of covetousness, whilst he was cherishing it in his secret heart CHAPTER XII.— IN THE NORTH. URING this quiet week, with his enemies away, Jesus was busily occupied in the plain of Genes- aret and the region lying about, where, as he passed along the roads or through the streets, sick people were laid, that they might touch if it were but the hein of his garment. But this undisturbed, unopposed course of kindly healing i .^' ^ jjl^ ^"^^ of teaching ended as soon as the Pharisees v_'«;^ j^^ hastened back from Jerusalem, not willing to remain at home until they had got him into their power They began by accusing him of setting aside the tradi- tion of the elders — an accusation he did not deny. But he answered them sternly, calling them hypocrites, and pointing out how they set aside the commandments of God. He deeply offended them by this reply, and the old danger of dwelling in Capernaum revived in greater force. Besides this, it was well known that Herod, the murderer of John, had a great desire to see Jesus ; Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward, probably warning him of this danger. Herod's city, Tiberias, was on the western coast of the lake, south of the plain THE WONDERFUL LIFE m of Gennesaret, where Jesus had lately been journeying. It was not more than ten miles from Capernaum ; and our Lord must often have been very near it, though it does not seem that he ever entered it. It was only a few weeks since Jesus had been compelled to quit Jerusalem and Judaea; and now he found it needful to withdraw from the busy, crowded coasts of the lake of Galilee, and to seek the west of Galilee, where he was less known, and where he could quietly instruct his apostles, who as yet knew little of the message they were to teach when he was gone. He went further north than he had ever traveled, to the very confines of the Holy Land, and to the shores of the Mediterranean sea, so vast and limitless, compared with the little lake of Galilee. But even here he could not be hid ; for a certain woman, no Jewess, but a Gentile, who had already become acquainted with his name, no sooner heard of him than she came, and, falling at his feet, besought him to heal her daughter, who was possessed by a devil. Jesus did so, as a recompense of her own faith, praising it, as he had done the faith of the Roman centurion, no doubt to the bewilderment of his disciples, who did not yet know, what the Samaritans had known, that he was the Saviour of the world. From this northwestern limit Jesus and his disciples, probably never staying long in the same place, made their way gradually back to the eastern shore of the lake of Galilee, where they were in the tetrarchy of Philip. The country through which they passed was more beautiful than the more southern parts of Galilee. They journeyed under the range of Hermon, and passed the high hill of Bashan, with the upper Jordan and the waters of Merom on their left hand, in the month of May, whilst the harvest was going on. A time of rest and possible happiness. Who was there besides the chosen twelve we do not know. Where they tarried and lodged, what route they took, we do not know. But at length they reached that inhospitable coast, where once before the inhabitants had besought the Lord not to sojourn with them. But the fierce demoniac, whom Jesus had left to bear witness of him, had changed the minds of the people with regard to a second visit from, this mighty prophet. They wera now willing to receive 112 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. him, and they brought to him a man who was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech. He led him away from the crowd, who in this country must have been half of them heathen, with no motive influencing their coming to him save that of curiosity. For th same reason, probably, to avoid the danger and distraction of a number of curious followers, he bade the man and his friends to tell no one of his cure ; but they, not at all undc'^tanding his motive, proclaimed the miracle about all that region. Great multitudes in consequence came unto him, having with them lame, the blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and he healed them all, even though many of them were heathen, as if now he would teach his disciples that the blessings he brought to earth were not to be confined to the Jewish nation. And the people glorified the God of Israel. Three days this mixed multitude remained with Jesus. He appears to have been dwelling upon one of the mountains on the shore of the lake, sleeping in the open air, as they must have done, for it was now the early summer, and the nights were warm. On the third day, when their provisions were exhausted, he said to his disciples, " I have compassion on this multitude, and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint by the way," We often wonder how the disciples could have been so dull as to answer in the manner they did, after the feeding of the five thousand on the passover eve. But we must remember that in the former case the crowd consisted only of Jews, to whom they considered the Messiah sent; in this the multitude was more than half heathen, of the same race as those who had rejected Christ when he first landed on their shores. The disciples were jealous of these heathen followers, who brought discredit upon their Master among his own nation. They probably thought it impolitic for him to eat as he did with publicans and sinners, though they were at least sons of Abraham, whilst these were Gentiles, who had no part in the Messiah. More willing would even Judas have been to exhaust their little purse in buying bread than see him feed them as he had fed his own people. But Jesus could not be influenced by any such reasons. These, like the Jews, were also as sheep without a shepherd. He repeated THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 113 his miracle for them, spreading a table for them in the wilderness, as he had done for his fellow-countrymen, noticing the women and children, who were won to him by his tenderness, giving thanks to the Father of all, as though all there were his children, as well as the descendants of Abraham, his ancient friend. There seems to have been no excitement among them as there had been among the Galileans, who had wished to make him a king by force. The disciples themselves did not seek to fan any such excitement. The crowd separated at his bidding, and he passed over the lake into the near neighborhood of Magdala, a village within two miles of Tiberias, Herod's chief city. We know he had friends in Herod's household ; and during the three days he had been staying on the opposite shore he might easily have received tidings that there was no immediate danger in thus venturing into the close neighborhood of Tiberias. But though we cannot suppose that the Pharisees from Jerusalem had remained so long in Galilee, other Pharisees, whose hostility they had aroused against Jesus, very soon discovered his return among them, and came to him with the old demand for some sign from heaven. Some Sadducees were now joined with them, a sect with still greater political power than themselves, as the high priests and their families and most of the aristocracy were at this time belonging to it, though it possessed very much less religious influence over the nation. This union of political with religious power made the danger still greater to Jesus ; and once more he was compelled to leave the western shores and seek safety in the comparatively friendly country of Philip, the tetrarch of Iturea. On the eastern banks of the upper Jordan, close upon its fall into the lake of Galilee, still in Philip's dominions, stood Bethsaida; and our Lord, who was now retracing his steps to the north, where he had before spent some time afar from his enemies, came to this place on his way. A blind man was brought to him, and he took him by the hand and led him out of the town to restore to him his sight; then bade him neither to go back to the town, nor to tell it to any of the townsfolk. He wished to avoid, if possible, any stir in this place, where he was so well known ; for it was not more 114 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. than an hour's walk to Capernaum, which he had not visited since the Pharisees had returned to it, after the passover. Almost as a fugitive now he was pass- ing through a town where he had done many of his mighty works, and many of whose inhabitant- had eaten of tiu- food he had multi- pHed by miracle in the wilderness. Al- ready his heart was heavy with the woe he afterwards pro- nounced against it. Here he must hide his miracle of restor- ing sight to one blind man, where hun- dreds had been wit- nesses of greater works than this. Heavy-hearted, his disciples follow- ing him with be- wildered spirits and disappointed hopes, Jesus went on north- ward to the vil- lages near Csesarea Philippi, a summer city, which Philip the tetrarch had built among the hills of Hermon, close to the easternmost source of the Jordan, where a number of rivulets form first a small pool of water and then a stream, rushing 'HE TOOK THE BLIND MAN BY THE HAND, AND LED HIM OUT OF THE TOWN."— Mark vni, 23. THE WONDERFUL LIFE 115 through the thickets on the hill-side. It was the loveliest spot whithei the wanderings of Jesus had led him. The sultry heat of the lake of Galilee was here exchanged for the cool shadows of groves of trees, and its sandy shores for a carpet of turf. Numberless brooks wound through the fields, scarcely to be dried up by the summer sun ; for far above them rose the snowy peak of Hermon, glistening against the burning sky. It was such a place as he must have delighted in, if his heart had been less wounded by enmity, and his spirit less clouded by the sure end which he saw coming nearer and nearer upon him. He did not here hide himself, as he had done near Capernaum. He called the people about him — the summer crowds, who had probably come north from the hotter atmosphere of the lower lands — and asked them, among other teaching, " What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? " a solemn question for these holiday-makers to consider. It was here that Peter declared emphatically that he believed his Master to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God, in spite of all his own disappointment, and the mysterious deeds and sayings of his Lord. But when Jesus proceeded to speak niore plainly to his apostles of the certain death which must be the end of the enmity which he excited, Peter could not bear it. He knew that as the Messiah his Lord had power to subdue his foes ; nay, the prophecies declared that so should the Messiah act. It seemed to him so extraordinary a contradiction, not only of his own hopes, but of all the prophets had said concerning it, that he began to rebuke his Lord. Jesus so answered him that never more did any of his disciples interfere by remonstrance or objection to anything their Master did. " Let us go also, that we may die with him," was aJ) they could say, when he seemed to run into needless danger. CHAPTER XII!.— AT HOME ONCE MORE. UT though Jesus had rebuked Peter, he knew well the condition of mind that had made him speak so rashly. Six days after he took him with John and James into one of the high, solitary peaks of the range of Hermon, under which they had been sojourning. The ascent was a long one, and all the stillness of the mountains gathered round them as they climbed higher and higher into the purer kir. They could see stretching southward their own land, which offered no sure resting place to their Master. The white snows glistened above them, and all the solemn influences of silence, and loneliness, and separation, wrapped them round. They forgot the sorrows of the past weeks as the Lord prayed with them on the mountain- height, lifted far above all the cares and ambitions of the earth beneath. Then, as Jesus prayed, a glory shone about him, which transfigured his beloved face, and made his raiment white and glistening as the snow, which dazzled them in the sunshine. And whilst, with dazzled eyes, they gazed upon him, two forms of Moses and Elias, the greatest of the prophets, appeared to them, talking with Jesus. Their wondering ears heard them talk, not of the triumphs and conquests of Messiah's kingdom, but of the death which they shrank from thinking of How long they listened to this heavenly discourse we do not know ; but at length, sore afraid as they were, Peter spoke, not knowing what to say. " Master," he said, " it is good for us to be here ; and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." Never would he choose to go down to the earth and common life again, if this heavenly vision would but remain. Even then, as he finished speak- ing, a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice was heard to come ovi Ii6 THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 117 of the cloud, " This is my beloved Son ; hear him." And suddenly all had vanished, and there was no man any more, save Jesus only, with themselves. It seems as if they stayed all night in the solemn stillness of the mountain, listening to much their Master had to tell them, and asking him such questions as came first to their minds. He told them that he should rise again the third day after the chief priests and Pharisees had slain him ; but they kept that saying with themselves, questioning what it meant, and not venturing to ask him for his meaning. When the morning came they began their long descent to the valley below, at every lingering step drawing nearer to the stir and tumult of life, which they had desired to escape from, and which seemed so much poorer and more paltry than it had ever done before. As they drew near to the valley they saw a great multitude of people surrounding the rest of the disciples; but as soon as they themselves were in sight, all the crowd, beholding Jesus, were greatly amazed, and, running to him, saluted him. It would seem as though some gleam of the indescribable glory still lingered in his face, as the face of Moses shone when he had been speaking with the Lord in Mount Sinai. Some scribes were there who had been questioning the nine apostles, and Jesus asked them what they had wanted. One of the crowd replied that he had brought his son, who was possessed with a devil, and as the Master was away, he had asked his disciples to cast him out, and they could not. Very probably they had attempted to do so, and had failed, so arousing a great excitement among the bys,tanders. The poor father's hope had been crushed, and his faith weakened, if not destroyed. " O faithless generation I " cried Jesus, " how long shall I be with you ? hovv^ long shall I suffer you ? oring him unto me." Then, speaking to the father, he said, " If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." He, looking into the divine face before him, cried out with tears, " Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief." That was enough; his son was restored to him, and Jesus, passing on, went into the house where he and his disciples were sojourning, worn out with the exhausting events ol" the last twenty-four hours. 1 18 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. After this Jesus returned quietly through Galilee, wishing no man to know it. Some of his disciples, on this journey, disputed among themselves as to which should be the greatest, so little prepared were they for the end which he foresaw so plainly. He taught them what that end must be, but they did not understand him, and were afraid to ask him. But we must remember that the nine had not heard of the solemn transfiguration on the mount ; for Jesus had straitly charged the three that they should tell no man. As they approached Capernaum they found that at last it was safe to enter it, after their wanderings, and to be at home once more. The hottest months of the year were come, when there was almost a burning heat in the valley of the Jordan, and on the shores of the lake of Galilee ; and very likely the wealthiest and most influential persons of the towns on the lake were gone away, or, at least, were less inclined to active exertions. Neither do any crowds seem to gather about Jesus, who indeed kept himself aloof from any public display. He spent his time in teaching his disciples and such persons as came to him, trying to prepare their minds for what was to come, and to fit them for their future work. A peaceful, happy few weeks for Mary, who had her Son again beside her for a little while ; yet her heart would sink often as she heard his sayings, and began to see with a mother's fearful eye that no throne awaited him in the city of David. It seems to have been his last sojourn in Capernaum, a quiet breathing time, in which he could taste once more the peace and rest of a home. Children were about him ; and besides his mother, the women who were his friends and disciples, and whose greatest gladness was to minister to him. We may suppose that some of the apostles would resume for the time their fishing on the lake, and that James and John would dwell again under their father's roof When they gathered together in the cool of the evening Jesus taught them the mysteries of the kingdom of God, not in parables, as he taught others. Now he put into precept and commandment that which he had set before them by his example. They were to tread in his steps, CO go about doing good ; to find it more blessed to give than to receive ; to forgive their enemies ; to be perfect even as their Father in THE WONDERFUL LIFE 119 Hard lessons I Yet the seed fell upon hidden there for some months, finally brought good forth heaven was perfect ground, and fruit a hundred-fold. Before long, however, the peace of this short truce with his foes was disturbed by the approach of the autumnal Feast of Tabernacles. It was that joyous feast, after harvest and before the rains of winter, which attracted so many of the country folks up to Jerusalem, to dwell m booths for a week; when each worshipper carried to tht temple branches of citron and myrtle, willow and palm, in his hands , and each day a glad procession attended a priest to fetch water from the pool of Siloam in a golden pitcher, to be afterwards poureu at the base of the altar. Even the nights were made jubilant with services in the temple, the lights in which lit up the housetops of Jerusalem, with their booths of thick branches, and shone afar off in the darkness ' whilst the sound of song, and the music of harps and lutes, cymbals and trumpets, echoed far and near in the stillness of the night. _ --—^ The cousins of our Lord, who would naturally be more impatient even than his other disciples for a public assertion of his claims, now began to urge him to go up to the feast, which they were about to attend. We cannot suppose that they did not believe in him at all ; they knew him to be mighty in works and in words ; and they desired ambitiously that he should display his power to his disciples in Judaea, though they could not have been ignorant of the dangei"^ he must run. But as yet they did not believe him to be the Son of God. They could not understand his conduct, in claiming so much^ yet refusing to be made a king, or at least the leader of a popular party against the Romans. Possibly they may have thought that if Jesus joined the caravan of pilgrims starting for the feast, he would not be able to withdraw himself from their enthusiasm, and would be ON THE HOUSETOP. I20 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. carried forward to Jerusalem as their Messiah, when multitudes, who hated the Roman yoke, would rise to join him, and he would be forced to assume the position they wished for him to take. But Jesus, discerning their motives, bade them go up to the feast alone ; whilst he remained behind in Galilee, until after the caravan, with its ever-increasing band of enthusiastic pilgrims, had gone on. Then, with his own little band of faithful friends, he set out for Jerusalem through Samaria, the nearest and least frequented route. In fact, no other pilgrims were likely to choose this way ; for when Jesus himself sent forward some messengers to a village in Samaria, to make ready for them, the inhabitants would not supply them with any necessaries, would not even receive them into the village, because their journey was toward Jerusalem. But when James and John asked if they should not copy the example of Elijah, and call down fire from heaven to consume them, Jesus rebuked them, uttering one of the sayings which all his life through had been his motto, "The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." And they went to another village less bigoted, where, perhaps, he was known as the prophet who had passed by that way early in the year. At the feast there was a good deal of argument and discussion about Jesus. He was sought for in the temple, amid the worshippers with their palm branches, but he was not to be found. Quietly all the people were talking about him, some saying, " He is a good man ; " others, " Nay, but he deceiveth the people." The Pharisees had already widely spread their opinion that he was an impostor, and his miracles deceptions, by which the people were misled. But no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Sanhedrim, who possessed the dreaded power of casting an offender out of the synagogue, a punish- ment similar to that of excommunication. In the midst of the feast, however, Jesus appeared in the temple, not quietly either, but openly in his office as teacher and prophet. The people were amazed at his boldness, and equally amazed at the inactivity of the Sanhedrim, who seemed reluctant to interfere with him at the first. They were in truth privately planning how to take him ; but the feasts were so often the occasion of riot and confusion THE WONDERFUL LIFE. lar that they sought rather to lay hands on him in secret, so as to avoid any open disturbance. This the constant presence of his disciples and friends from Galilee made impossible during the week of the feast On the last day, that great day of the feast, when the priests marched seven times round the altar, singing Hosannah, and the leaves were shaken off the willow boughs in the hands of the worshippers, and the water from Siloam was poured for the last time on the altar, then Jesus stood forth, before the crowded congregation, and cried, " If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." Many of the people upon hearing this saying, and feeling the awful courage of any prophet standing thus in their midst, and cr}ang aloud words of such meaning, could not but believe that he was of a truth the Christ. Others asked, " Shall Christ come out of Galilee ? " And there was a division among them, some being even willing to take him ; but no man laid hands on him. The temple officers, who had been sent by the Sanhedrim to arrest him and bring him before them, were so impressed by his words and manner of speaking, that they dared not touch him, but chose rather to return to their masters, and own that never man spake like him. The Pharisees answered sharply that they, too, were deceived, though none of the rulers or Pharisees had believed on him ; none but the common people, who were too ignorant to know the law. Nicodemus, who was his disciple, though secretly, now ventured to remonstrate, but met with a sharp and sneering reply. After which every man went home ; and Nicodemus probably took care that Jesus should be w^arned of the plots of the Pharisees. CHAPTER XIV.— THE LAST AUTUMN. ROM that time Jesus appears to have spent his nights out of Jerusalem, only venturing to appear there in the daytime, when his friends were about him. On the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives, about two miles from Jerusalem, was a small village called Bethany. This low mountain was henceforth to be his favorite haunt, and this village his most frequent home. There lived in it a family of friends whom he loved dearly, with a marked and special friendship. They were t^' ' people of some importance, and were well known in Jerusalem ; and it was now, probably, that they often received him into their house as their beloved guest. Early on the first Sabbath day, after the feast of Tabernacles, Jesus came to the temple, and sat down to teach in the treasury, which was a colonnade surrounding the court for women, the usual place for v/orship. Here, of course, most of the congregation could both see and hear him ; and especially those who paused to cast in their gifts into the trumpet-shaped chests which stood against the wall. His teaching was interrupted by the questions and remarks of the Pharisees, who grew more and more malicious, until, at length, after -ailing him a Samaritan, and telling him he had a devil, they madly gathered up the stones which were lying by to be used in repairing part of the building, and would have stoned him to death in the courts of the temple itself, had he not hid himself from them, and passed by through their midst. No riot ensued, for, now the feast was over, the great mass of people were dispersed ; and this, probably, gave them the courage to attack him thus suddenly and openly. But no danger to himself could hinder him from a Avork of mercy, A_s he was passing from the temple his disciples called his attention LAZARUS. 124 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. to a blind man, who was, perhaps, begging at the gate by which they left the temple. From this gate, which was at the northwest of the temple enclosure, there ran a causeway down into the lower city, where the poorer classes, to whom the blind beggar belonged, had their shops and houses. The disciples asked him which had sinned, the man or his parents, that he should be born blind. Jesus answered them this blindness was no effect of sin either in himself or his parents ; and, repeating the words with which he had begun his sermon in the temple, " I am the light of the world," he anointed the poor man's eyes with clay, and bade him go to wash in the pool of Siloam. Siloam lay south of the temple mount, and many a joyous procession had gone down to it for water during the feast. The blind beggar had to make his way through the busiest streets of the lower city, his eyes smeared with the clay. He must have been very well known in this poor neighborhood, and when he came back from Siloam, with his sight restored, there was a great excitement. Some among them disputed whether he was the blind beggar or no. They gathered about him, asking how his eyes had been opened, and he told them frankly all he knew. This Jesus, who was spoken of as one of those impostors who deceived the people of Galilee by false miracles, was he who had restored sight to him, although he had been born blind. The escape of Jesus from their sudden attack must have left the Pharisees in a state of irritated disappointment; and their vexation was certainly not lessened when a throng of people from the lower city brought to them a man upon whom such a wonderful miracle had been wrought at the very moment of his escape. They had been carefully fostering the opinion that Jesus was an impostor, and here was direct proof to the contrary. They could seize only upon the one point which might be made to bear an evil aspect — " This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day." But some of the Pharisees themselves objected to this, asking, " How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles ? " There was a division among them. They even referred to the beggar, asking him what he said of THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 125 the man who had opened his eyes. "He is a prophet," he answered, unhesitatingly. Upon this they professed not to beheve that the man had been bhnd, and they sent for his parents, both father and mother. The\ were timid people, poor, of course, in circumstances, and therefore the more afraid of being turned out of the synagogue, and so of losing their livelihood. They could not afford to be bold in behalf of their son. " He is of age," said the poor, trembling parents; "we know he is our son, and that he was born blind, but we do not know anything else. He shall speak for himself" It may have been, it probably was, the first time the man's eyes had seen his father and mother ; he knew their voices, but their faces he now looked upon with his new power of sight, marveling, no doubt, at the strange world at ince opened to him, and unable to read as we do the expression of those about us. The frowns of the Pharisees, the downcast timidity of his parents, the eager gaze of his old neighbors, were a strange language to him. The Pharisees questioned and cross-questioned the poor beggar, but he was a man of shrewd common sense, and of great courage, perhaps the courage of ignorance. He maintained firmly, that one thing he did know, whereas he was blind, now, he could see. The blue heavens above, the splendor of the temple, the smoke rising from the altar, all those things of which he had heard so often, he could now see. At length, after being badgered into what seemed an outbreak of insolence from so mean a person, he cried, "Why, herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners : but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing." Not long before the Pharisees had said to Jesus, " Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil ! " These last words of the beggar so exasperated them that they immediately pronounced against him the sentence of excommunication, w^hich, besides depriving him of his right as a Jew, would make him an alien 126 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. and outcast in his father's house, among those kinsmen whose faces he had never yet beheld, but who would now turn away from him with shame and terror. Better for him if he had been left a blind beggar sitting at the gate of the temple. But Jesus, who had bestowed upon him this blessing, now turned by the bigotry of the Pharisees into a curse, no sooner heard that he had been cast out of his synagogue, than he sought for him in his loneliness and misery. The blind man had boldly maintained that Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet come from God, in the face of those who were striving to put him to death. So when Jesus found him, stripped of love and religious rights, without father or mother in the world, and shut out from the temple and its sacrifices for sin, he revealed himself to the wretched man as being not a prophet merely, but the Son of God, that God from whom the sentence of excommuni- cation seemed to cut him off There was no need of the temple and the sacrifices for him, if he would but believe in the Son of God, who was greater than the temple. " Lord, I believe ! " cried the man, as he worshipped him who had opened his eyes. And now, probably, as he was cast out of all other fellowship, he would be admitted into the circle of the disciples, who were willing to brave any penalties threatened by the Pharisees, and who already formed a little society of their own. From among the disciples who had been with him at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus had chosen seventy, and sent them by two and two on a similar missionary tour to that short journey of the twelve apostles, which had been made in Galilee in the spring. The ^Jewish tradition was that God had ordained seventy nations to inhabit the earth, and Jesus may have chosen this number to indicate that his mission was not to the Jews only, but to all the world. The seventy were directed to visit certain villages, whither Christ intended to go himself, chiefly in Judaea, where he appears to have remained until about the middle of December. Judaea had little of the beauty which made Galilee so dear to Jesus: and it possessed none of those early associations, which make all men ding to the place of their early childhood. The hills of Judaea are THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 127 bleak and bare; the season was that of the sad and waning autumn, when the drought of summer was not repaired by the winter's rains. The people, though more poHshed, were less trustworthy and less independent than the Galileans. Society was more corrupt and artificial ; and Jesus mournfully likened the religious leaders to whited sepulchres, full of dead men's bones, and declared that they made their proselytes tenfold more the children of hell than themselves. The political condition of the country was even worse than in Galilee, where there was at least a Jewish tetrarch. Judaea was under a Roman ruler, and its fortresses were filled with Roman soldiers. Riots against Pontius Pilate were frequent. Robbers infested the roads ; and even between Jerusalem and Jericho, a highway between two chief cities, it was no uncommon occurrence to fall among thieves. How Jesus avoided the snare of his enemies during these two months we are not told. But we must recollect they had no legal power to put him to death; they had failed in crushing him by a sudden outbreak in the temple; and the number and faithfulness of his followers preserved him from secret assassination. He passed from village to village, always dogged by the Pharisees, who hoped to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him to Pilate, who, thoug^h he did not trouble himself to interfere with a Jewish prophet, would speedily put an end to any political agitator. There was constantly some danger of Jesus appearing to him in this character, from the innumerable multitudes which gathered about him wherever he appeared ; always a perilous sign when a country is ripe, as Judaea was, for rebellion. It was during this time that Jesus probably made that visit to Bethany, when Martha is first mentioned as receiving him into her house, and being so much cumbered about much serving as to speak somewhat sharplv <"o him, though he was both her Lord and her guest. " Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone?" she asked. " Bid her therefore that she help me." No doubt he had seen all this house-pride and hospitable impatience before, when his cousins in Nazareth had made feasts for their friends ; and we can i2,S CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. fancy him smiling at the hurried and weary woman. "Martha, Martha," he answered, gently, " thou art careful and troubled about many things ; but one thing is needful : and Mary hath chosen that better part, which shall not be taken away from her." Once again, during these two months, the old blasphemy revived, that he was casting out devils by the prince of devils. The old accusation of breaking the Sabbath was also renewed. He was in some village synagogue, where he saw a poor woman bowed together so that she could not lift up herself He did not wait for her to ask ^or help, but called her to him, and laid his hands upon her, and ANIMALS USED FOR SACRIFICE. immediately she was made straight. The ruler of the synagogue was very indignant, and addressing the people forbade them to come tct be healed on the Sabbath day. " Hypocrite ! " cried the Lord ; " doth not each of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering ? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day ? " For once all his adversaries were ashamed ; and all the people rejoiced for the glorious things that he had done. The winter was now come, and with it the feast of the Dedication :# CHRIST RAISING LAZARUS. "Lazarus, Come Forth."— John ii : 43. CHRIST ENTERING JERUSALEM. 'HosANNA, Blessed is He that Comeih in the Name of the Lord." — Mark 11:9. THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 131 of the Temple. This feast, Hke that of Purim, was not one appointed by the law of Moses, and therefore it was not generally kept by the Galileans, or the Jews living far from Jerusalem. It was celebrated in honor of the reconsecration of the temple after a terrible and shameful pollution of it a hundred and sixty-six years before Christ. Comparatively a modern festival, it was however a time 'of great mirth and gladness ; and it was called the Feast of Lights, from the custom of illuminating the city during its celetjration. Once more Jesus resolved to show himself openly amidst his deadliest foes. There was a colonnade running round the court of the Gentiles, called Solomon's porch, which afforded shelter from the cold winds of winter. Here he chose to walk to and fro, teachinq-, as was his custom, those who crowded about him to learn. The Pharisees surrounded him in this place, asking him to say plainly if he were the Christ, or Messiah, probably with the hope that he would claim this kingly title, and so lay himself open to an accusation before Pilate. The Lord's reply afforded them no such ground, but he uttered -words which excited their fiercest anger. Again they took up stones to stone him ; but he escaped out of their hands, and left Jerusalem to enter it but once more. Jesus now withdrew altogether from Judasa, into the place beyond Jordan, where John had at first baptized. It was in the same valley, beside the same river, where he had spent the first summer of his THE LOST SHEET 132 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. public life, whilst John was still alive, and teaching and baptizing not far from him. Only twelve months had passed since he had left that quiet retreat, to enter upon a career full of change, of wanderings, of increasing difficulties and dangers. His enemies had laid wait for him ; had never wearied of hunting him from place to place ; had three times attempted his life at the feasts. His own kinsmen did not fully believe in him ; his numerous friends were bewildered and dissatisfied; and his disciples, though still faithful to him, were disappointed, and looked anxiously into the future. It was wintry weather; the sky was heavy with clouds, and storms swept across the land The summer seemed also to have faded out of his life ; all that gladness with which his God had crowned him above his fellows. Poor, homeless, and an exile ; rich only in the friendship of a few fishermen and peasants who made themselves homeless and exiles for his sake ; with a traitor always at his side, and a host of deadly foes conspiring against him thus Jesus passed the last winter of his life Whilst he was in Perea many people came to him, who remembered what John the Baptist had said of him John had not yet been dead twelve months, and the anger of the people against Herod had not died away Many of them believed on Jesus, as he went about, according to his custom, from village to village, teaching, in homely parables, which took firm hold of the minds and memories of his hearers. Very possibly the Pharisees sought to get Herod to arrest him ; but this he dared not do, so unpopular had he become by the murder of John. They tried, therefore, to frighten Jesus back into Judaea, and they came to him with a warning " " Get thee out, and depart hence," they said, "for Herod will kill thee." But Jesus had certain work to do in that country, and he was not to be driven from it by their cunning or Herod's. One of the miracles he wrought at this time in Perea was in the house of one of the chief Pharisees of that neighborhood, where he had been invited, that they might watch him. It was the Sabbath day, and a man \\as set before him afflicted with dropsy As usual, Jesus did not hesitate to heal him, the lawyers and Pharisees finding nothing to say against his doing so, After this he gave both to the guests and to his host certain rules THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 133 concerning feasts, which were very different from those usually observed. To this period also belong the parables of the Great Supper, the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, the Prodigal Son, the Uniust Steward, and the Rich Man and Lazarus. CHAPTER XV.— LAZARUS. jti §^ AZARUS, that name which Jesus had given to the poor beggar carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, was also the name of a friend whom he loved dearly, and of whom his mind was at this moment full. About the same time that the Pharisees had come to A> s? him with their cunning stratagem to drive him ^ into Judaea, there had reached him a message '"W from the home in Bethany: "Lord, behold, he ■ . , whom thou lovest is sick." Martha and Mary, ^'' the sisters of Lazarus, did not, because they could not, urge their Lord to come to them. The peril was great. Nay, if he had gone at once he would have fallen into the very snare his enemies had laid for him. He stayed, therefore, two days where he was, teaching the people as usual, and betraying no design of leaving that place. But on the third day, when the danger was somewhat passed by, though his disciples still remonstrated with him for venturing again to Judaea, he set out for Bethany. Thomas, the most timid and doubtful of the disciples, said to his companions, in a despair which proves the strength of his attachment to his Master, " Let us also go, that we may die with him." It was a toilsome journey, hurriedly and secretly taken. The disciples, like other men in a country of foes, must have been anxious and uneasy, not altogether seeing the necessity of this new peril. The Lord himself was probably troubled and sorrowful, 134 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. for he knew that Lazarus was dead, and he sympathized with the griet of his sisters. On the fourth day after his death he reached the village, but did not enter it, only sending a message to the sisters that he had come. The house was filled with Jews from Jerusalem, which was only two miles away, and Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was near, rose up, and went out to meet him, lest he should be unaware of the risk he was running. But Mary was too deeply sunk in sorrow even to hear that he who loved them was so close at hand. It was not until he sent Martha to her, who told her secretly, " The Master is come, and calleth for thee," that she knew he was there. Mary did not possess Martha's characteristic caution and prudence. She rose up quickly, and hurried to seek Jesus outside the town where he was staying, without attempting to conceal her movements. A number of the Jews followed her, thinking she was going to her brother's grave to weep there. The whole company, weeping and mourning, came to the place where Jesus was waiting for Mary, in the midst of his anxious disciples. But the grief of the two sisters, and his own tears, saved him at this moment. They even wept with them, and exclaimed, " Behold, how he loved him I " In a sacred brotherhood of grief they led him to the cave where his friend had been lying for four days. Some of them, who had known of the miracle performed on the blind beggar, asked among themselves if he could not have saved Lazarus from dying. But it was too late now. Here was the grave, with the stone laid upon it, beneath which the dead body had been decaying these four days. Even Martha objected to having the stone taken away. It may be that some among them had heard how the widow's son, at Nain, had appeared to come to life again when he was about to be buried ; but how different that was to the case of a man so well known, who had been dead so long 1 Close by Jerusalem, too, where the rulers were seeking to put Jesus to death as an impostor! But the stone was taken away, and all stood silent, looking on with awe. Did Jesus wish to see once again the form of his friend, now conquered by the last enemy, Death ? He did not enter into the cave, THE WONDERFUL LIFE 13, but crying with a loud voice, which rang through the silence of the crowd and the stillness of the grave, he said, " Lazarus, come forth I " How every heart must have throbbed I Was it possible that the dead ear could catch the sound, and the dead form move ? Did they press round the cave, or shrink away in fear ? We cannot tell ; but the moment of suspense was short. They could hear a stir and mov^ement within the sepulchre ; and Lazarus, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and his face hidden from them by a napkin, appeared in the doorway on which all eyes were fastened. The deathly pallor of his face had vanished, and his eyes were bright again with life, before they could take away the cloth that hid it; and the limbs that had been bound in grave-clothes for four days were strong enough to carry him home to his house, across whose door-sill they had borne him in the stillness and helplessness of death. Many of the people from Jerusalem who saw this miracle believed in Jesus. We may confidently suppose that for this night at least hf was secure from all attempts to arrest him ; and that he could safel) stay with the friends he had so marvelously blessed. But some of the bystanders went their way at once to the Pharisees to tell therr^ what had been done. The time was at last come when the chief priests began to take a more active interest in crushing this propheJ from Nazareth. They were mostly Sadducees i Caiaphas the high priest, and Annas, his father-in-law, a most powerful man, being at the head of the Sadducees. Hitherto they had regarded Jesus with contempt, as one beneath their notice. But one of their leading tenets was the denial of the resurrection ; and this strange story from Bethany could not but be exceedingly repulsive and alarming to them They took counsel together with the Pharisees to put him to death , and as they, the aristocracy of the temple, had much more politicas power than the middle-class Pharisees, their, antagonism greatly increased the peril of Jesus. Caiaphas, the high-priest, was exceed- ingly emphatic upon the necessity of destroying him, saying sharply to the council, "Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not" 136 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. Jesus had two friends among these counsellors thus plotting his death, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea ; and possibly they gave him instant warning of his increasing danger, for he left Bethany immediately, and that home which he had made so happy, to withdraw to Ephraim, a town on the borders of Samaria, where at any hour he could cross the frontier and place himself beyond the reach of both Sadducees and Pharisees. He stayed there not many weeks, and then began his last farewell circuit through Samaria and Galilee, as it would seem rather for the purpose of visiting these places once more, than of teaching or healing. It was now the early spring, and the corn-fields of Samaria and Galilee would be already springing into life under the ripening sun ; half-opened leaf-buds were green upon the trees ; and the grassy turf was strewn with daisies, and lilies, and anemones of all colors. Probably he crossed the plain of Esdraelon, over which he had so often gazed from the hills of Nazareth. But we do not find that he ventured into any of the familiar villages ; but rather, like one hunted as a partridge upon the mountains, the wandering Son of man turned aside out of Galilee, and descending into the deep valley of the Jordan, waited on the eastern bank of the river for his hour to come ; that hour which was very soon to strike. But even here he was not left alone in peace with his disciples. The spies, with whom he was always surrounded, came to him as usual with perplexing and difficult questions. " Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?" they asked. Herod, as we know, had put away his wife to marry Herodias, much to the displeasure of his people, who regarded it as a scandalous act. This question of divorce was one angrily disputed among the people, and especially among the Pharisees. It could scarcely be answered without giving deep offence to large numbers of persons. For once Jesus took the side of the bitter and bigoted Pharisees of the school of Shammai ; and by so doing gave occasion to his own disciples to venture upon a remonstrance to him, saying the case of the man was hard. But the women, who were the real sufferers under the law, were greatly pleased ; and immediately upon his answer, so wise and just, becoming known, they brought to him their THE WONDERFUL LIFE. m little children, both girls and boys, that he might pray for them. The disciples somewhat bitterly rebuked their enthusiasm, and would have sent them away, had not Jesus interfered, being much displeased. He had come to raise woman to her proper position, and to make little children the care of all who would enter the kingdom of God. He ordered them, therefore, to be brought to him, and having laid his hands upon their heads, and blessed them, he left the place ; probably lest the enthusiasm of the women should create too great a commotion. Not long afterthis there came to him a rich young man, a ruler of asynagogue, who had kept the law from his youth up, and wanted some good thing yet to do. Quickly, Jesus put him to the test. " If thou wilt be perfect," he answered, "go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and come, follow me." He was exceedingly grieved at this reply, and went away sorrowful Jesus, who, when he saw him, loved him, exclaimed mournfully, " How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God I " Upon that, Peter began to contrast himself and his fellow-disciples with this rich ruler, saying, "Lo, we have left all to follow thee!" It CHRIST BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN. 138 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. was true; and Jesus must have felt deeply the faithfulness of his simple-minded followers. He promised them that they should receive the reward the young ruler had been seeking to obtain, even eternal life. But, as though he must check the vain hopes always at work in their hearts, he told them many that were first should be last, and the last first. CHAPTER XVI.— THE LAST SABBATH. INGERING on the eastern banks of Jordan till a few days before the passover, Jesus was there no doubt joined by his mother, his kins- men, and the women from Galilee, who had so often ministered to him, as they went up to Jerusalem for the feast. Numbers of pilgrims had already gone up before the feast-day to purify themselves ; and both the chief priests and Pharisees had given commandment that if any man knew where he was, he should tell it. They wished to take him quietly, before the great masses of the people were gathered together in the Holy City; but they began to fear that he would stay away, as he had done the year before. They asked one another in the temple, "What think ye, that he will not come to the feast ? " Already Jesus was on his way, and was pressing onward, his face set toward Jerusalem. He went before his bewildered and troubled disciples, as though eager to get to his journey's end. The disciples were often depressed by his incomprehensible warnings, but still oftener they seem to have been dazzled by visions of some approach- ing splendor. Among the women who had joined them from Galilee was Salome, the mother of James and John. She came to beg a boon from him — that her sons might sit on his right hand and on his left in his kingdom. Though the rest were much displeased with CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE. "This Poor Widow hath Cast in More than they All." -Luke 21 ! 3. "HE THAT IS WITHOUT SIN AMONG YOU, LET HIM FIRST CAST A STONE AT HER-"-John 8: 7. THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 141 James and John because of this petition, they had frequently dis- cussed among themselves which should be the greatest ; and possibly Judas, who kept the common purse, felt himself of more importance than the others, and at least certain of being treasurer in the coming kingdom. Jesus called them to him, and after telling them that who- soever amonef them would be the chiefest must be the servant of all, he added the beautiful saying, " For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." But what did his mother think of this kingdom of her son's ? We do not know. She was now once more with him, treading the familiar, yearly pilgrimage which they had taken together for so many happy spring-tides. Probably, she partook more fully of the mood and spirit of Christ than his other friends ; and though now and then there might be a flutter of timid hope in her mother's heart, his grave, sad face, and solemn warnings, must have prepared her for the darkness, not the splendor, of the coming hour. The city of Jericho was a few miles from the Jordan, on the way to Jerusalem, standing in a magnificent grove of palm-trees, and amid gardens of balsam. Jesus was passing through the city, surrounded by a multitude of followers and curious spectators, when the chief of the tax-gatherers, a rich man, who was desirous to see him, ran before, and climbed into a tree ; for he was little of stature, and, in spite of his wealth, possessed no favor or influence with his fellow-countrymen, that they should make way for him in the press. Jesus, coming t.. me place, looked up, and called him by name. " Zaccheus, make haste, and come down," he said ; " for to-day I must abide at thy house." Joyfully he descended from among the branches, and led the way to his dwelling-place. But at this all who saw it murmured. The man was a notorious sinner, one who had enriched himself by unfair means, besides engaging in an infamous trade. But Jesus had not called him without knowing his nature, and what influence he could exercise over him. A day or two before, when the rich young ruler had come to ask what more good things he should do, having kept the law from his youth up, Jesus had proposed to him as a test that he should sell alJ 142 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. that he had, and give to the poor. We know how he shrank from giving up his riches. This very test Zaccheus adopted of his own choice. He stood up in the midst of his accusing fellow-citizens, and said, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." If the cheating of Zaccheus in his tax-gathering had been on any large scale, this restitution would leave him a poor man indeed, Jesus, knowing how hard it was for a rich man to enter into the king- dom of heaven, said to him, " This day is salvation come to this house, forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham;" and he finished by perhaps his most beautiful and characteristic saying, " For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Probably Jesus stayed that night in the house of Zaccheus, and set out the next morning for Bethany. A numerous body of friends and pilgrims as usual gathered around him to accompany him up the steep and rocky road which led to the mount of Olives, under the brow of which stood the little village where Lazarus lived. The day before, as he entered into Jericho, a blind man had heard him passing by, and asked who it was coming thus surrounded by a crowd. Now this blind man, with a comrade in the same plight, sat by the wayside, waiting for his approach. No sooner did they hear that Jesus of Nazareth was nigh, than they began to cry out to him, a shrill, piercing cry, which reached his ear, even amid the babble of the crowd. It was a strange crj' in Judaea. "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on us I " " Son of David I " All who heard it knew what it meant ; and many among them must have been offended. They rebuked the blind men, and charged them to hold their peace. One of them was a well-known beggar, blind Bartimeus ; but he was the loudest in his petition, cry- ing out a great deal the more in spite of their displeasure, " Son of David, have mercy on me ! " Jesus stood still, and called the blind men to him, having compassion on them ; and they, receiving their sight, followed him up the steep ascent to Bethany, glorifying God, It was probably Friday when Jesus entered Bethany ; and one quiet Sabbath day he spent there with his friends, Lazarus and his sisters. No doubt they had been forewarned of his arrival, and Martha, as once THE WONDERFUL LIFE. . 143 before, had been cumbered with household cares in his honor. For they made him a feast, in the house of Simon, a leper who had been restored to health by the Lord ; and Martha served at this supper. It was only a few weeks since Lazarus had been called back from the grave ; and this was the first opportunity they had had of giving him public honor and thanksgiving. The Sabbath was always a day of feasting and rejoicing among the Jews ; and no doubt a large company was invited on this occasion — so large, perhaps, that Simon "s house was chosen as being more commodious than their own. It is specially noticed that Lazarus sat at the table with Jesus ; and that much people of the Jews knew that the Lord was there, and came out to see not him only, but Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. Mary, wishful to show her love and devotion as well as Martha, who was waiting upon their Master, and counting nothing too costly to be spent for such a purpose, brought an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and breaking the box, anointed both his head and his feet with it, caring not to save a drop of the rare perfume for any other use. The fragrance of it filled the whole house where they were assembled. Some of the disciples, specially Judas Iscariot, felt indignant at this extravagance. For they were poor men, unaccustomed to luxury, and naturally intolerant of expensive whims, such as this act of Mary's seemed to them. " Why was this waste of ointment made ? " they asked. Judas calcu- lated how much it was worth, and said it might have been sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor. These murmurs troubled Mary, who had thought of nothing but how she could best show her love to the Master. " Let her alone," said Jesus ; " against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you, but me ye have not always." They were mournful words for Mary to hear. Was she indeed anointing her Lord beforehand, as if already death had laid its hand secretly upon him ? Was it for this she had saved her precious ointment ? She had kept it carefully to be used on some rare occasion, and now that she had poured it all without stint upon his head and feet, he said it was for his burial ! But to take away if possible the sting of his sad words, Jesus said tenderly, " Wheresoever the gospel 144 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. shall be preached in the whole world, this shall be told as a memorial -ii her." This feast, given so publicly to Jesus, aroused the anger of the chief priests against Lazarus. The miracle had been so manifest, and so difficult, if not impossible, to gainsay, that by reason of him many of the people in Jerusalem believed in Jesus. That Lazarus also must be put to death was the decision arrived at by the chief priests ; though the Pharisees do not seem to have had anything to do with this resolve. He was too well known at Jerusalem for him to be left as a witness to the miraculous powers of Jesus of Nazareth. EASTERN HEAD-DRESS. BOOK III. VICTIM AND VICTOR. CHAPTER I.— THE SON OF DAVID. HE pilgrims who had left Jesus at Bethany, and gone on to Jerusalem, carried with them the news of his arrival, and excited considerable interest in the city. On the next day many people, hearing that he was on the road from Bethany, went out to meet him, and as they passed through the cool groves and gardens of Olivet, they plucked branches of palms and olives, and wove them together as they climbed the hill. Soon they saw h'm coming round the brow of the mountain, along the road thronged by the bands of pilgrims, among a crowd of them, though easily discerned, as he was no longer on foot, but riding on the colt of an ass, upon which the disciples had cast their garments. At the sight of him they broke into a shout, which might readily have been heard in the temple courts. They shouted " Hosanna 1 " and the cry was taken up by the crowd surrounding Jesus, and echoed far in the clear atmosphere. " Hosanna to the Son of David ! Blessed is the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord ! " The road was quickly strewn with mats of palm branches, and with the garments of the excited throng. The disciples, hearing the shout of the Messiah, the battle-cry of the nation, must have felt that at last the kingdom was truly nigh at hand, and that their Master was about to take to 9 US 146 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. himself his throne and sceptre, and to fulfil his promise to them that they should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. But neither joy nor triumph was seen on the face of Jesus. As they wound slowly round the mount, a sudden turn of the road brought them in sight of Jerusalem, with its palaces and temple in all their glory of marble and gold. It was a city worthy of being the capital of a great nation, beautiful for situation, the perfection of beauty in Jewish eyes ; but when he beheld it thus lying before him, he wept over it. He foresaw the Roman legions casting a trench about it, besieging it straitly, and leaving not one stone upon another, and the day of salvation was passed, the things which belonged to its peace were now hidden. His mother, and those nearest him, heard the lamentation he uttered, and saw his tears falling, but the great crowd swept on, shouting and singing, down into the valley, and up again to the gate of Jerusalem. All the city was by this time in a stir, asking, " Who is this ? " The Galileans, proud of their prophet, were the most eager in their reply. " This is Jesus, the Prophet of Nazareth in Galilee," they answered, as the procession threaded the narrow streets, and thousands of people gazed down upon it from the house-tops, whilst the question ran along from house to house, " Who is this that cometh ? " No marvel that shortly afterwards we find Greeks going to Philip, and saying to him, " Sir, we would see Jesus." Soon the temple courts were flooded by the crowd. The children, always difficult to silence, did not cease to shout for any dread of the priests, or awe of the sacred place. They continued to cry, " Hosanna to the Son of David ! " Some of the Pharisees had asked him to rebuke his disciples on their way from Bethany, but now the powerful chief priests and scribes of the temple came to him in sore displeasure, " Hearest thou what these say ? " they asked. " Yea " answered Christ, " have ye never read. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise ? " He would neither forbid them, nor refuse to receive the title of Son of David, that cry which displeased his enemies so greatly. But as evening was near, and it was not safe for him to THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 147 stay in the city during the night, he left the temple and returned to Bethany. Probably, to avoid a repetition of these exciting occurrences, Jesus returned to the city very early the next morning. He had never omitted any opportunity of warning his disciples against hypocrisy ; and this day, by a singular and symbolic act, he impressed his lessons on their memory. Being hungry on the way, and seeing a fig-tree in leaf, he turned aside to see if there were figs upon it ; for the fruit of this tree precedes the opening of the leaf. There was nothing but leaves only — a fit emblem of the nation which, alone among all nations, professed the service of the one true God. " Let no fruit grow upon thee from henceforth forever I " he cried ; and the next time they passed by, the disciples saw the fig-tree withered away. Upon reaching the temple, once again he drove out the merchants and money-changers from the outer court. He had done this the last time he had come to the passover, two years before, saying, " Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." Now, in bolder language, he told them that they were making it a den of thieves. By the time the court was cleared, it was known throughout the city that Jesus was in the temple, and the blind and the lame came to him to be healed in the sight of those deadly foes who represented him as an imposter. It was 'n vain they sought to seize him. The multitudes ever about him ma.'ie it impossible to take him openly and by day. The chief priests were as much baffled as the less powerful Pharisees, for an uproar in the temple would inevitably bring down the Roman garrison dwelling in the tower of Antonia close by. At night they did not know where to find him ; and soon it became plain that they must seek for a traitor among his most trusted followers. The next day (Tuesday) Jesus again appeared very early in the temple ; the people also hastened thither, eager and very attentive to hear him. He began to teach them, but he was soon interrupted by a party from the Great Sanhedrim, the highest legal and religious court of the nation, demanding by what authority he did such things, and who gave him this authority. Jesus replied, " I will also ask 148 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. you a question. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men ? " It was their special province to decide such a matter, but they dared not answer according to their judgment, for they feared the people, who held John as a prophet. When they said, " We cannot tell," Jesus declined to answer their question concerning his authority. But in their hearing he uttered the terrible parable of the wicked husbandman, and the parable of the marriage of the king's son. They knew that he spoke of them, and their enmity grew, if possible, more vehement. But they stayed to listen no longer. They could not cope with such a speaker: his wisdom and skill in weaving parables turned the scale against them. The mass of the people might not catch the deeper meaning of his words, but there were many there who could not fail to see how keenly they were driven home against him. The Pharisees, upon this discomfiture of the Sanhedrim, took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. They sent some spies, feigning themselves to be honest, anxious-minded men, troubled with a scruple of conscience. Ought they to pay tribute to the Roman emperor ? Jesus, who cared for no man, but taught the way of God truly, should decide for them. It was a clever, cunning question. Many really devout Jews were not easy in their minds about this paying of taxes to a foreign power. The Galileans especially, among whom were his supporters, had risen again and again in rebellion on this very point. The kinsmen of those Galileans who had perished in these insurrections were at that moment among his hearers, ready to take fire at any judgment adverse to their martyred friends. The disciples themselves must have been listening eagerly for his reply All, except Judas Iscariot, belonged to Galilee ; and one of them, Simon the Zealot, appears to have once belonged to a fierce and cruel party, sworn both to slay and to die in defence of the law. Was it lawful to pay tribute to a foreign king? Jesus himself was in a singular position. He had permitted the Galileans to carry him in triumph into Jerusalem, amid the significant shouts of " Hosanna to the Son of David I " He had spent two long days openly in the temple, teaching and working miracles in the face THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 149 of his powerful enemies, who appeared paralyzed in their efforts to check or arrest him. His followers could not fail to see in these things that at last he claimed the Messiahship. Had he then resolved to gird his sword upon his thigh, and ride forth prosperously, with sharp arrows in the hearts of his adversaries ? Was that right hand, which had been laid upon so many sufferers with a tender touch, about to learn terrible things ? They dared not yet answer " Yes " to these questions, but they longed to do so. Yet the escape every evening from the city and their Master's solemn prophecies answered " No." Now he was asked, in the presence of foes, friends, and followers, " Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar?" His reply disappointed them all, and served to diminish his popularity, though not to any dangerous extent. No uproar followed it. He bade them bring to him the tribute money, and they showed him a Roman coin, which was in common use in the country; a sign of their subjection to a foreign power. This subjection had been permitted by their king, Jehovah, who was still ruling them, as well as all the nations upon earth. If they had been more careful to render iinto God the things that were God's, they might not now have to pay tribute to Caesar. It had become their duty to render unto Caesar the things that belonged to Caesar. There was nothing in this answer which could be made a ground of complaint to Pilate, The Pharisees and Herodians found them- selves baffled. But now the courtly and polished Sadducees came forward, seeking to put into an absurd light the doctrine of the resurrection, one of the points upon which he most insisted. Very likely Lazarus was standing near Jesus, the object of much interest and curiosity. The Sadducees, with the tact of men of the world, knew that nothing damages a cause as ridicule does. Jesus answered them solemnly, unveiling a little the mystery that enshrouds the state of the dead. They can die no more, neither marry. But they are equal to the angels, and are the children of God. Then referring them to their own scriptures, and their lawgiver, Moses, whose authority they were bound to receive, he pointed out that when God spoke to him from the burning bush, he said, "I am the God of I50 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. Abraham." " He is not a God of the dead," added Jesus, "but of the living: for all live unto him." The multitude were astonished at this answer; and certain of the scribes, who were standing by, whose lives had been spent in poring over the sacred books, cried out, " Master, thou hast well said ! " The Pharisees enjoyed hearing the Sadducees thus silenced ; and one of them, a scribe, thought this a good opportunity for asking Jesus a question vehemently disputed among them: which was the chief commandment ? " All the law and the prophets hang on two commandments," replied Jesus, " and these two are alike." ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind ; and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The scribe listened to this answer with the approval of an honest man ; and the Lord said to him, " Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." It is probable that it was on this day that a party of Pharisees dragged before him in the temple a miserable woman, detected in adultery. They set her in the midst, and called upon him to pass judgment on her. The law of Moses commanded that she should be stoned ; but this law had fallen into complete disuse, and to revive it would shock the whole nation. Yet if he, as a prophet, set himself against Moses, they would have some ground for accusing him. He seems to have been filled with shame at the way this case was brought before him ; and stooping down, he wrote with his finger upon the ground, giving no answer until they continued asking him. Then, lifting up himself for a moment, he said, " He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." The hardened consciences of these men, even of the eldest, convicted them so poignantly of sin, that they stole away one by one, leaving the unhappy woman alone with him. When in the silence he lifted up himself a second time, he said to her, " Woman, where are those thine accusers ? Hath no man condemned thee ? " " No man. Lord," she answered. " Neither do I condemn thee," he added, " go and sin no more." This was the last effort of his enemies to tempt him; and they THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 151 durst ask him no more questions. Jesus, some time during this day, put a question to them, which must have made his followers' hearts beat high. " What think ye of Christ ? " he asked. " Whose Son is he.-*" An extraordinary question ! He knew very well that by all, except a few, he was looked upon as the Son of Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth. His question drew attention to one of the most striking flaws in his own claim to the title of Messiah. " The Son of David," answered the Pharisees promptly. Surely Mary, and those who knew the mystery of his birth, now expect him to proclaim it. Simeon and Anna were dead ; but there might still be persons about the temple, who would bear testimony to their prophecies when the child Jesus was brought to be presented to the Lord. But no ; this was not the point Jesus had in view. He showed the scribes how David in the spirit called Christ his Lord, and intimated that there was some meaning in the words which they had not fathomed. He said no more ; and they could not answer him ; but the common people heard him gladly. At length, moved to the utmost indignation against the Pharisees, who, as the most religious class, ruled over and deceived the nation, he broke out into a vehement and unrestrained rebuke of their hypocrisy in the hearing of all the people. It was in the temple itself; and the day was far spent. Presently he was about to quit it, to seek shelter and safety out of the city, and he was never again to visit his Father's house. He rebuked them passionately, and ended his protest by lamenting once more over Jerusalem. " Behold, your house " — no longer calling it his Father's house — " is left unto you desolate ! For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." And now Jesus departed from the temple, never more to tread its courts. As he went out, his disciples, who were all amazed at hearing him say that house should be made desolate, pointed out to him the goodly stones and gifts, and enormously strong masonry of the walls. It was, in fact, a fortress all but impregnable ; the defence of the city on the eastern side, where it stood on the brow of a precipitous rock. The stones of which the fortifications v/ere built were of an extra- 152 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. ordinary size. " Look, Master," they cried, " what manner of stones, and wliat buildings are here I" "Seest thou these great buildings ?" he answered, mournfully, "There shall not be left one stone upon anotlier that shall not be cast down." CHAPTER II.— THE TRAITOR. -v^^ UITTING the city, Jesus went up the slope of ^ the Mount of Olives, and sat down there over against the temple, looking across upon its marble walls and golden pinnacles. It was evening, and the setting sun touched it with level rays, whilst the valley beneath lay in deep shadow and the murder must be committed afterward. \ . ^\_ , As soon, however, as the feast was over, the temple guards hurried to their task. Probably Judas may have discovered before they started that Jesus had left the city already, and it became necessary to procure a detachment of Roman soldiers from the tower of Antonia, overlooking the temple. The plea that they were about to arrest a dangerous leader, popular with the multitude, who must be taken by night, readily secured their aid. As the soldiers and the temple guard passed through the streets, a number of fanatical Pharisees, armed with swords and staves, joined them ; a few even of the chief priests and elders were there. Judas probably counselled them to carry also torches and lanterns ; for, though the moon was at the full, there were dark and gloomy shades in the garden, where Jesus might escape from their search. In the meanwhile Jesus, having left most of his disciples in the open part of the garden, had taken with him Peter, and James, and John, and withdrawn into the more distant and darker glades, as Judas had foreseen. "Tarry ye here," he said to his favorite friends, "whilst I go and pray yonder." It was no solitary mountain by the lake of Galilee, such as had been his place of prayer the last passover night. But he must be alone ; no one must be too near to him in that hour of agony. A mysterious anguish, a sorrow like no other lo i6i l62 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. sorrow, was crushing him down. A degrading and painful doom was at hand; but first his soul must be poured out unto death. He had been despised and rejected of men: but now he was to be bruised for the iniquities of the world, wounded for its transgressions, put to grief, by God, Even he began to be sore amazed at the profound gloom spreading over his soul. " My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," he said to his disciples. Withdrawing from them about a stone's cast, he fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, this hour might pass from him. " Abba, Father," he cried, " all things are possible to thee ; take away __ this cup from me ; never- theless, not what I will, but what thou wilt." But, restless in his great an- guish, Jesus returned to his three friends, whom he had left sitting under the trees, and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, "Simon, sleepest thou ? couldst thou not watch with me one hour?" Then he added gently, "The spirit in- deed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Back into the solitude and gloom he went again to suffer alone the unutterable agony. None could help him to bear that burden. He prayed more earnestly. " Oh, my Father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." Then, returning to seek some sympathy with his disciples, he found them again asleep, and they knew not what to say, except that their eyes were heavy. Now utterly alone, conscious that these, his dearest friends, could take no part in his sorrow, he went away the third time, and prayed, saying the same words. At last one angel, one alone of all the heavenly host that sang at his birth, appeared to him, strengthening him to endure that anguish worse than death. GETHSEMAXE. THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 163 Strong enough now to meet the bitter end, Jesus came the last time to his sleeping disciples. Waking them, he said, " The hour is come. Lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand." Even as he spoke, before they had time to shake off their drowsiness and bewilderment, they heard the tramp of many feet coming near, and saw the glimmering of torches among the trees. Jesus went forward to meet the band of soldiers, asking, "Whom seek ye?" "Jesus of Nazareth," they answered. " I am he," he said calmly. There was something in his manner which so overawed them that they shrank back from him, and recoiling upon the crowd that pressed behind, cast some of them to the ground. But as they recovered themselves Judas came to the front, and too familiar to be swayed as they had been by the hidden majesty and the sacred dignity of great sorrow in his Lord, he stepped forth and kissed him, saying, " Master, Master 1 " It was the sign he had given to those who were come to arrest Jesus. " Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he : hold him fast, and take him away safely." "Judas," asked his Master, marveling at the depth of his villany, " betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss ? " Still the temple guards hesitated to seize him. They had heard his teachings, and seen his miracles in the temple, and possibly they were afraid lest he should work by his miraculous power against them. There was something terrible about a man who could make the dead obey, or could convey himself away unseen amid a throng of foes. They were reluctant to lay hands upon Jesus, though the traitor, who had kissed him, still stood before them unhurt. " Whom seek ye ? " he asked, again. "Jesus of Nazareth," they repeated. " I have told you that I am he," he answered ; " if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way." His three disciples were probably hemmed in by the multitude, and the rest were looking on, terrified, from behind. Peter, with reckless desperation, drew a sword, and striking wildly, smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear. Jesus rebuked him, and healed the man ; his last miracle, wrought upon an enemy at the moment he was betrayed into their hands. He was yet free to do good : but now the captain and the temple guard laid hold of him and bound him. "Are ye come out as against a thief?" he asked, 164 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. indignantly, yet patiently. " I was daily with you in the temple, and ye took me not. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness." Seeing that he suffered himself to be bound, and that no legion of angels came to deliver him, all the disciples, evea Peter, ev^en John, forsook him, and fled. None of his twelve apostles remained near to him but Judas. Scattered were the disciples, every man fleeing where his fears led' him. Some, perhaps, sought a secret and safe retreat among the farm-houses on Olivet; some returned to the city, tremblingly, to convey the bitter news to the other friends of Christ. Mary, his mother, with her sister, and many other women from Galilee, were lodging in Jerusalem during the feast, and would quickly hear what had come to pass. His cousins, who had been so long in believing on him ; his secret disciples, such as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea ; all must have felt that no common danger, no slight catastrophe, was at hand. There was one hope still in his favor. The Jews had not the power to put him to death legally ; and even if they had, their traditions laid it down as a law, that whenever a criminal was condemned to die, he should not be executed on the same day as that when the verdict was passed, and that the judgment should be reconsidered by the great Sanhedrim on the day following. Jesus could not in any case be put to death before the first day of the week : and in the meantime heaven and earth must be moved to deliver him out of the hands of his adversaries. He had a powerful party in his favor ; and it was never difficult to stir up a popular agitation during the feasts. The dark hours of the night passed by too rapidly as they consulted together concerning what must be done. CHRIST IN THE GARDEN. ■'And He went Forward a Little, and Feil on the Ground, and Prayed." — Luke 14 : 35 BEHOLD THE MAN."-John 19: 5. CHAPTER v.— THE HIGH PRIEST'S PALACE. LONE, save for Judas, bound, followed by a rabble of scoffing partisans of the chief priests and elders, Jesus was led away from the Garden of Gethsemane. The guards took him first to the house of Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest, a haughty and powerful man. The chief offices of the temple were filled by members of his family, who were all Sadducees, and had not been vehemently opposed to Christ until his influence with the people began to threaten their own, and to endanger the revenues of the temple, from which they drew their wealth. Annas, who was an old man, probably did not trouble himself to see the prisoner at that hour of the night, but sent him on to the palace of Caiaphas, the high priest, where the Great Sanhedrim would assemble as soon as they could be summoned from their various homes. By this time Peter and John had fallen in with one another; and recovering somewhat from the panic that had seized them, they followed their Master to the high priest's house. John knew Caiaphas so well as to find easy admittance into his palace, and he went in with Jesus, as near to him as he could get, that he might see that his beloved disciple had not altogether forsaken him. But Peter had been unable to get in, and after a while John went and spoke for him to the woman who kept the door, and brought him into the open court of the palace. The chief priests and elders, who had gone out to Gethsemane with officers and soldiers, now formed themselves into a preliminary council to examine Jesus, before the Great Sanhedrim could meet. Caiaphas was at the head of it, and asked him of his disciples and doctrine. As to his disciples Jesus said nothing, but about his doctrine he answered, 167 168 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. " I spoke openly to the world ; I ever taught in the synagogue and the temple, whither the Jews always resort ; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me ? ask them which heard me." Most of those who were present had heard him in the temple ; the guards had once said, " Never man spake like this man." But now one of them struck him for answering the high priest so. It was yet an hour or two before daybreak, at which time the Sanhedrim was to assemble, and it would seem that Caiaphas at this time left Christ to the wicked cruelties of his servants Probably they led him from the hall, where this brief examination had taken place, into the open court, when they blindfolded him, and striking him on the face cried mockingly, " Prophesy, who is it that smote thee ?" Other insults they heaped upon him, with the rude brutality of men who knew that they should not offend their masters by such misconduct. It was a chilly night, and the servants had kindled a fire in the court, Peter standing with them to warm himself Before his Master was brought out to be mocked and insulted, one of the maids of the high priest, looking at him, said, " Thou also wert with Jesus of Nazareth." He was instantly and naturally filled with fear, and denied it-at once, saying, " I do not understand what thou sayest. I am not one of his disciples." He felt it to be wisest to withdraw from the circle round the fire, and retreated into the darkness of the porch. It was already drawing near to daybreak, for a cock crew as he stood in the gateway. Then the woman who kept the door asked him again, " Art thou not one of this man's disciples?" "I am not," he replied shortly. Once more feeling nowhere safe, yet reluctant to quit the palace, he returned into the court, where, it may be, his Lord was now standing, bearing in silence the cruelties of the servants. A kinsman of Malchus, whose ear he had cut off in Gethsemane, soon asked him, " Did I not see thee in the garden with him ? " They that stood by said confidently, " Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech betrayeth thee." Then Peter began to curse and to swear, " I know not this man of whom ye speak." His Lord, who heard his oaths, turned and looked upon him, and he remembered the word he had spoken, "Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice." He had not believed THE WONDERFUL UFR 169 himself so cowardly and disloyal. Even now he dared not stand forth and own himself a disciple of the mocked and despised prophet of Nazareth ; but creeping away from the palace, with that last look of his Master haunting him, he went out into the dawning of the day, and wept bitterly. Worse than the insults of the servants must have been the vehement denials of his disciple, and Peter could not fail to remember the awful saying, " Whosoever shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." By daybreak the Sanhedrim were assembled, and Jesus was brought before them. They had all been seeking witnesses against him, but none could be found whose witness agreed. It was necessary that at least two should agree. After a while there came forward two men, one of whom testified he had heard him say, " I will destroy this temple, that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands," The accusation took a more doubtful form with the other witness, " I am able to destroy this temple of God, and to build it in three days." Even this testimony did not agree sufficiently. Neither the high priest, nor the Sanhedrim, eager as they were to convict him, could be satisfied to do so on such paltry evi- dence. Jesus was standing before them, questioning nothing, answer- ing nothing; giving them no chance of fastening upon any indiscreet words. The scene altogether must have been unutterably painful to him, apart from his own position. The great religious body of the nation, the most learned in the law, the most irreproachable in char- acter, the men presumed to be the wisest and best of the nation, were shamelessly seeking evidence by which they might condemn to death a prophet, of whom no man knew any evil. At last Caiaphas stood up in the midst, in his office as high priest, and adjured Christ, by the living God, to tell them whether he was the Messiah, the Son of God. " I am," he replied ; " and ye shall see the Son of man on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." There was no further need of perjured witnesses. All had heard the awful words. Caiaphas rent his clothes, crying, " He hath 170 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST.' ' spoken blasphemy! What think ye?" With one voice they all declared him to be worthy of death. Jesus knew when he uttered these words that he was pronouncing his own sentence. Until that question was asked him he had b^en dumb, opening not his mouth. But the form in which the question was put left him no-choice but to answer. The moment. in which he most distinctly claimed to be the Christ, the Son of God, was the moment when such a claim, was his death-knell. Until now he had left his works to speak for him. Even with his disciples he had seldom insisted on being the Messiah ; he had never held himself aloof from them in kingly state. With them he was the Son of man, their brother; before the Sanhedrim he called himself the Son of God, their Judge. CHAPTER VI.— PILATE'S JUDGMENT HALL. - TRAIGHTWAY, in the light of the rising sun, : the whole multitude of them arose, and led ^ Jesus away to Pilate's judgment hail. It was early, and the city would hardly be astir after the feast last night. The friends of Jesus were still buoyed up with the thought that, at the earliest, the crime of his death could not be committed until after the Sabbath was ended. The haste of the Sanhedrim was not only indecent, but it was illegal, according to their own traditions. They had taken no time to reconsider their verdict. The judges had not fasted for a whole day, as they were bound to do after sentencing a man to death before he was led away to execution. The death of Christ was a judicial murder of the blackest dye. But at the threshold of Pilate's judgment hall a difficulty presented itself. If they entered it they would be defiled, and could not partake of the feast of that day. On this day the Chagigah was offered, which THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 171 was strictly a peace-offering, and symbolized their unbroken and un- dimmed communion with God. A portion of the offering was buini upon the altar, and a portion eaten as a feast in the temple itself, or, at least, within the walls of Jerusalem. Probably the Great Sanhedrim kept this feast in some stately chamber of the temple ; for did not they stand nearer to God than any other of the people ? But if they went into Pilate's judgment hall with their prisoner they would be defiled, lid rendered unfit for its celebration. Pilate had had many a serious conflict with the Jews on subjects of their religion, which he despised and misunderstood ; yet he now yielded so far as to go out to these wealthy and noble citizens. "What accusation bring ye against this man ? " he asked. They did not wish to make any definite accusation, and they answered sharply, that if he had not been an evil-doer, they would not have taken the trouble to deliver him up to him. "Take him yourselves," said Pilate, "and judge him according to your law." " It is not lawful for us to put any man to death," they said. No doubt Pilate knew already something of Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth, who had entered the city in what appeared to him a mock triumph only five days before. This reply of the Sanhedrim showed him at once what they wanted. The prophet must be put to death, and he must bear the blame of it. But upon what grounds was he to crucify this man ? The Sanhedrim were not at a loss, though they could say nothing here of the charge of blasphemy. " We found him," said these religious rulers of the country, "we found this fellow preverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he is Christ, a king." All there must have known how Jesus had disappointed his followers by bidding them render unto Caesar the things that were Caesar's. Pilate returned to the judgment hall, and looked upon the weary frame and worn face of him who all night long had been passing through agony after agony. He still wore the festive robes in which he had eaten of the Paschal supper; but even these were only the clothing of a poor man, a man of the people, not those of any kingly pretender. " Art thou the King of the Jews ? " h« asked li^- ■--■4^* PREACHING TO THE MULTITUDE.— Luke 21: 9. TK^. ".'."^Tis aW^ ^' *? t :l<"-^ >s. ■I & i *■■.. _,,-^^ ^j^yg^txattT^ "THIS IS MY BLOOD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, WHICH IS SHED FOR MANY."-Matt. 26: 28. THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 177 power at all against him, unless it had been permitted ; and that his sin was small compared with that of the Sanhedrim. Again Pilate sought to release him. But the people cried out " If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend : whoso<^vc iriaketh himself a king, speaketh against Caesar." This cry at onct sealed the doom of Christ. Pilate ordered his judgment seat to be set on the pavement before the judgment hall. When Jesus came forth again, he said, " Behold your King I " A wilder shout than evei rang in the ears of Christ: the shouts of those for whom he had spent his life. "What, shall I crucify your King?" asked Pilate " We have no king but Caesar," answered the chief priests. Then fearing, and seeing that he could not prevail against fanatics who could utter such an answer, Pilate took water, and washed his hands before the multitude. " I am innocent of the blood of this just person," he said ; " see ye to it." *' His blood be on us, and on our children," answered all the people PILATE WASHING HIS HANDS. CHAPTER VII.— CALVARY. O TIME was lost between the passing of the verdict and the execution of it. The cross was ready ; and two thieves were only waiting for this trial to close before they met their punishment. Calvary was not far from Pilate's palace ; it was only just beyond the city walls, near the highway leading from one of the gates. Christ was the hands of the Roman soldiers ; but the chief priests and elders could not trust them to do their work unwatched. The cross was laid upon him, but he was too feeble and worn-out to bear it; and when he sank under it, the soldiers seized upon a man, coming in from the country, and him they compelled to carry the cross to Calvary. Whether the man was a disciple or not, we are not told ; but no doubt there were many disciples by this time mingling with the crowd, who would willingly have borne the cross after Jesus. There were many women among the people, who bewailed and lamented him openly ; daughters of Jerusalem, who had not turned against him as the fickle mob had done. Possibly it was when he sank under the weight of his cross that their lamentation broke out most loudly; and Jesus turned to them, and said, " Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children." The fate of the guilty city was heavier to him than his cross. It was still early in the day; about the hour when the morning sacrifice was offered. He was nailed upon the cross; and as it was lifted and let fall into the hole prepared for it, a moment of extreme torture, he cried, " Father, forgive them ; they know not what they do." After this was done, the four soldiers, whose duty it was to watch under the cross until the person upon it was dead, began their usual custom of dividing the clothing among them. A title also 178 THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 179 was brought to be put over the head of the criminal, giving his name and crime. Pilate had sent for the cross of Christ, written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin, so that all should be able to read it, this title, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." It irritated and offended the chief priests ; but Pilate would not have it altered into "He said, I am the King of the Jews." The haste with which the trial and the execution had been hurried on makes it probable that not many of the Galileans knew of the arrest of their prophet Some of them possibly knew nothing of it until they heard that he was dead. But as the terrible tidings ran through the city, those who heard it would speed to Calvary with despair in their hearts, to find him whom they loved and trusted in hanging upon a cross between two thieves, with a circle of enemies around him, even of chief priests and elders, mocking at him and jibing him. The soldiers at the foot casting lots over that priestly robe of his, which his mother had woven without seam ; and the title over his head, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews:" the unclouded sun, growing hotter and hotter every minute, shining down upon all the fearful scene, as it was shining on their own beloved lake and hills of Galilee. John had been near him all the time. Now three women forced their way through the circle of mocking priests ; Mary, his mother, Mary Cleophas, her sister, and Mary of Magdalene. Other women from Galilee stood afar off, watching through the weary hours. Peter, perhaps, was somewhere on the outskirts of the crowd, seeing, though not danng to go near, him whom he had denied thrice. Possibly Judas himself was drawn thither, against his will, to look once more on him whom he had betrayed with a kiss. The sun shone hot and clear. When they brought Jesus to the place of execution, they had offered to him a drugged draught, which was given to criminals to dull their sense of pain ; but having tasted thereof, he would not drink. He could see, and hear, and feel as keenly as when he had been in his quiet home in Nazareth. The mocking faces of the chief priests ; the unconcerned faces of the soldiers ; the soul-stricken face of his mother ; his eyes rested upon, i8o CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. as they looked up to him from below. His ears heard the jeering of the people as they went to and fro along the highway, reviling him, and saying, " Ah ! thou that destroyest the temple ! " Now and then the blast of the silver trumpets and the voice of song from the temple reached him. After a while the first pangs of bodily pain had dulled a little ; and he could again show his compassion and tenderness for others. The thieves hanging, where James and John had wished to sit, the ore on his right hand, the other on his left, had reviled him as well as his enemies. " If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us," they cried. But one of them, lifting up his dim eyes to the face of Christ, and to the title above his head, saw that it was Jesus of Naza- reth who was suffering death with them. " Dost thou not fear God?" he cried to his fellow- thief, " seeing thou art in the same condemnation. And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss." Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews ! There was one, even here, ready to own him King. " Lord," said the dying thief, " remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." "Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise," answered Jesus, Before the sun, which was now beating upon the shameful crosses where they hung, had gone down into the western sea, both of them would be in Paradise ! His mother heard him say it as she stood beneath his cross. But Jesus knew his worst anguish was yet to come, worse than the pain he felt in his body, or the bitterness of the contempt poured upon him, and he would not have his mother witness it. She had borne much, and perhaps could not bear more, and live. We can well believe no other being on earth was so dear to him. None had shared his whole life as she had done; none could understand him. and his purpose so well. Did he not remember their home in Naza- reth, where the peaceful, monotonous days followed one another so quietly that she had almost forgotten whose son he was ? All was over between them now: there was but on& more duty for him to discharge : one more look for her to take >f her son Jesus. John stood near tr' her: his youngest and bjst beioved disciple. Looking down upon them, with his matchless tenderness, he said to her, THE WONDERFUL LIFE. i8i "Woman, behold thy son." "Behold thy mother!" he said to John. She looked up to him, as his failing, loving voice fell upon her ear: and she understood him, and his love, better than she had ever done before. The look that passed between them was their farewell. John led her away from the cross to his own dwelling-place ; and the last earthly care was gone from the heart of Jesus. About noon a strange gloom spread over those skies, usually so blue and cloudless. There was darkness over all the land until the hour for the evening sacrifice. Probably the crowd melted away in fear of a coming tempest, or in dread of the inexplicable obscurity ; and we do not find that the chief priests lingered longer on Calvary. An extraordinary anguish, a mysterious darkness, as of despair, filled the heart and mind of Christ. His soul, which in Gethsemane had been sorrowful even unto death, was now poured out unto death. He had borne the mockery of the people, had seen them stare upon him with cruel eyes, and heard their roaring against him. But now God seemed to hide his face from him, and to hearken no longer to his cry. This he could not bear ; his heart was breaking under this sorrow. He cried with a loud voice, which rang mournfully through the darkness, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " There were still about the cross some Jews who could make jest of this awful cry. They knew Elias was to come to prepare the way for the Messiah, and they said, " Behold, he calleth Elias ! " Jesus, whose last moment was at hand, and whose throat was parched, cried, " I thirst." One of them, touched with pity, ran and took a sponge, and, filling it with vinegar, lifted it to his mouth on a reed. But the rest cried, " Let him be ; let us see whether Elias will come to save him, and to take him down." It was now the hour of the evening sacrifice. Once again Christ was heard to say, " It is finished." Then with a loud voice, he cried, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." He bowed his head and died. He gave up his spirit, bruised and tormented, and poured out unto death, into his Father's hands. CHAPTER VIII.— IN THE GRAVE. last T THE third hour, when Jesus was dying on Calvary, the priest was offering up incense in the holy place of the temple. All the congrega- tion, and the sacrificing priest in the outer court, were waiting for him to reappear. Suddenly an earthquake shook both the temple mount and the whole city of Jerusalem. The veil, which separated the holy place from the holiest of holies, was rent in two, from the top to the bottom, laying open the sacred spot, which none ever entered except the high priest on the Day of Atonement. On Calvary, those who had gathered to see the sight were at terrified, and returned to the city, smiting, upon their breasts. The centurion in command of the Roman soldiers, who had probably watched and listened to the dying prophet with interest, was struck with fear, and said, "Truly this was the Son of God 1" But before sunset, the Pharisees, always very scrupulous not to break the law, came to Pilate, and besought him that all three of those who were being crucified should be put to death at once, because the next day was a Sabbath, and their bodies ought not to be hanging on the crosses on the Sabbath day. The soldiers were ordered to despatch the dying men by breaking their legs ; but when they came to Jesus, and found that he was dead already, they refrained from mutilating his body; yet, lest any spark of life lingered which might be fanned into a flame, one of t-liem pierced his side with a spear. Thus they made sure that he was dead. In the meantime another applicant had gone to Pilate. This was Joseph of Arimathea, a well-known man, rich, honorable, and good one of the Sanhedrim itself, though he had not consented to the death of Christ. He was a timid man, and a secret disciple; but shocked THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 183 by the deeds of his fellow-councillors, he went boldly in to Pilate, and begged that he might take away the body of Jesus. Pilate marvelled whether he were yet dead, and called the centurion to ask him if it were so. He then willingly granted the body to Joseph, who had already provided himself with fine linen for the entombment. When he returned to Calvary, Nicodemus accompanied ^^^Sl him, bringing a large quan- tity of spices. The women from Galilee were lingering about the place ; and now, in the cool and gloom of the evening, they took the body down from the cross, and wrapped it, with the spices scattered amid the folds, in the linen cloth. Close by was a garden belonging to Joseph, and in it a new tomb, which he had hewn for himself in the midst of his garden. No man had ever lain in it. No taint of death polluted it. Here they buried their Lord hastily, for the Sabbath was near. Mary Cleophas and Mary Magdalene sat close by, watching, but perhaps too overcome with grief to give any active assistance. The women from Galilee also saw the sepulchre, and how his body was lain. Then all of them returned to the city, to prepare spices and ointments for the embalming of the corpse as soon as the Sabbath was over. • The enemies of Christ had not been prepared for this honorable THE VEIL OF THE TEMPLE RENT. CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. burial of their victim. If Joseph of Arimathea had not interfered, his body would have been carried away from Calvary, with those of the THE DESCEXT EKuAl THE CROSS. thieves, and carelessly laid in a common grave, where criminals, who had died a shameful death, were flung together. The followers of Jc^us, poor obscure Galileans, coukl not ha\'e had influence enough THE WONDERFUL LIFE 1S5 to save the corpse from this degrading fate. But the Sanhedrim found that two of their own chief men, startled by their fierceness and injustice into open discipleship, had interposed promptly to claim the body of their Lord, and to lay it in the new tomb of a rich man, amidst the cool and quiet fragrance of a garden, where those who loved him might visit his resting-place unnoticed and unmolested. The Sabbath was come ; a high day. The Sabbath of the passover was no doubt the most important of all the weekly Sabbaths in the year. The immense multitudes that thronged Jerusalem, and dwelt even in tents outside the walls, because there was not room enough in the city, filled the temple courts, and crowded into the synagogues. Sabbath days were especially days of feasting and rejoicing with the Jews ; friends met together ; no work at all was done ; both men and women were dressed in their best apparel, and desired to see and to be seen. Probably, too, this Sabbath fell upon the day for waving the first-fruits before Jehovah. At the hour when Christ was buried, a sheaf of standing corn had been reaped, with special rites for the purpose, in a field near Jerusalem; and possibly this ceremony had been one reason why Joseph and Nicodemus had been left undisturbed in their burial of the body. How the friends of Jesus passed this mournful day we can only faintly imagine. Whether there was any brighter hope, or more perfect understanding, in Mary's mind of what was to follow, we do not know. But the rest were insensible to every consolation ; they forgot altogether the words Jesus had spoken to them about rising again. They had so long refused to believe that he would give himself up to death that now they were too stunned to remember that he had promised to return to them. But Christ's enemies did not forget this. Toward the close of the Sabbath the chief priests and leading Pharisees came together to Pilate. One tremor had seized upon them in their hour of triumph. " Sir, we remember," they said, " that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive. After three days I will rise again. Command, therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night and steal him away, and say unto the people. He is risen i86 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. from the dead : so the last error shall be worse than the first." Pilate cared little for any error, but he could not afford to offend the chief priests. " Ye have a watch," he answered, " go your way, make it as sure as ye can." The watch consisted of Roman soldiers, not of the temple guard, who, as Jews, could not touch a sepulchre without being defiled. The soldiers made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone ; and when the watch was set, the priests and Pharisees went their way, satisfied that no second error could arise to deceive the people. It was the Sabbath, and therefore it was unlawful to touch the dead, or they might have removed the body to the common grave of executed criminals. No doubt there must have been much discussion that day through- out Jerusalem. None of these things which had come to pass were done in a corner, in some remote place in Galilee, but in the holy city itself, during the passover week. Jesus was well known as a prophet of the most blameless life. Every one had heard before, or heard then, of Lazarus, who was probably hiding from the malice of the chief priests and Pharisees. Rumors would run along, from one to another, of the indecent haste with which the execution had been hurried on. The bargain with the traitor would be whispered about; the midnight arrest in Gethsemane ; the meeting of the Sanhedrim, not in the temple, but in the high-priest's palace : the early and hasty trial before Pilate, and the swift execution of the sentence : all these would be discussed passionately in favor of, or against Christ, during the leisure of that Sabbath. Thousands among them were disap- pointed. Those who were not the professed followers of Jesus had been ready to follow him, if he would but make himself intelligible to them. They were longing for a Messiah ; and if he had been such a Messiah as they expected, and could understand, they would have joyfully flocked under his banner, and fought for his kingdom. But he, who might have been dwelling in regal splendor under the roof of the royal palace, had been hung upon a shameful cross between two thieves. They had seen the end of Jesus of Nazareth — a bitter, ignominious death. Was he not, then, what the chief rulers of the people called him, a deceiver ? CHAPTER IX.— THE SEPULCHRE. N FRIDAY evening, while Joseph and Nico- demus were laying the body of the Lord in the grave, his aunt, Mary Cleophas, and Mary of Magdala were sitting over against the sepulchre, watching. The other women from Galilee also saw the place where he was laid. Probably they all returned to the city together, to buy spices and ointments for the embalming ; and before they separated made arrangements for meeting again early, after the Sabbath was ended. As nothing could be done before daybreak, we may easily conjecture that they agreed to meet soon after the dawn, either in the garden itself, or by the city gate nearest to it. But upon Sunday morning, whilst it was yet dark, over-early or before the appointed time, Mary Magdalene and Mary Cleophas, restless in their sorrow, started off to see the sepulchre beforehand. On their way they were joined by Salome, the mother of John, who was probably staying in the same house as Mary, the mother of Jesus. They had bought sweet spices, but the other women were to bring them to the sepulchre. No light yet shone in the sky, except the first faint gray of the morning in the east. But possibly they may have seen a sudden light gleaming in the direction of the garden, and felt the shock of an earthquake, like that which had rent the rocks on Friday. If so, they would naturally pause foi a while, terrified ; yet, when all was calm again, and the quiet dawn grew stronger, waking up the birds, whose twittering was the only sound to be heard, they would go on, though troubled and trembling, to the sepulchre. But what had caused the shock of earthquake ? The Roman guard, possibly the same that had watched under the cross, and 1S7 1 88 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. divided the Lord's garments among them, were aheady looking forward to being relieved from their watch, when they saw an angel, whose face was like lightning, descend from the dark heavens above them, and they felt the earth quake and tremble beneath their feet. He rolled back the stone from the sepulchre they were guarding: and for fear of him they became as dead men. They saw nothing else than the bright, awful face and the glistening whiteness of the form that sat on the stone near them. They did not see Christ quit his tomb. By the time the two Marys and Salome reached the garden, the dawn was light enough for them to see objects at some distance. They do not seem to have known of the guard being set to watch the grave ; for their talk was only of the difficulty of removing the large stone which filled the opening of the cave. Probably their special purpose in coming to view the sepulchre was to ascertain whether the woman alone could roll it away, and effect an entrance without aid. On Friday evening, in the twilight, and overwhelmed as they were with grief, they had not sufficiently noticed this difficulty. Now, as they drew near, what was their amazement and dismay to see the stone already removed, and the cave open ! Their fears sprang to one conclusion, and only one. The beloved body of their Lord had been violently taken away — stolen by his implacable enemies — during the night. It had been still further degraded and dishonored by being cast into the common grave of criminals. Mary Magdalene, leaving the other Mary and Salome, fled back into the city to seek Peter and John, and arouse them to help, if help were not too late. Very probably these two disciples were lodging in the same house; for at the time of the feasts every dwelling in Jerusalem was crowded with guests. " They have taken away the Lord," cried Mary, when she found them, " and we know not where they have laid him." In the meantime Mary Cleophas and Salome went on to the sepulchre. They v/ere women past middle life, with the calmness and passiveness of years and sorrows, and they did not shrink from entering into the sepulchre. They had set out, indeed, with the Pi f '1 rt ' I. '.I I, ... I .il'..ll. ' " m CHR(ST BEARING HIS CROSS. •And He Bearing His Cross went Forth into a Place called the Place of a Skull." — John 19 : 17. CHRIST CRUCIFIED. "And Jesus said. Father, forgive Them ; for They Know not what They no." — I-uVe 23 : 34. THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 189 intention of preparing the body for a second burial. But there was no lifeless corpse there. They were affrighted, however, by seeing an angel, clothed in white, sitting on the right side. " Fear not," he said to them, "for I know that ye seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he is arisen. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples and Peter that he is risen from the dead; and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee ; there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. Lo, I have told you." Salome and Mary Cleophas fled from the sepulchre trembling and amazed; and probably passing by John and Peter in their bewilderment, they said nothing to them about what they had seen, but went on into the city, in fear and great joy, to bring the disciples word- Now, when they were going, some, but not all, of the Roman guard hastened to the chief priests, and told them what had come to pass. A council was immediately summoned ; and, after much discussion, they seem to have persuaded themselves that the soldiers had been sleeping, and that, as they slept, the disciples had stolen away the body. The guard owned to having been like dead men from fright; and none of them professed to have seen Jesus leave the grave. The council gave them large sums of money to spread about this report, which they did so successfully, that those who thought better of the testimony of two or three heathen soldiers than of that of hundreds of their own countrymen, who had nothing to gain but everything to lose by their testimony, believed the saying, and commonly reported it as a fact. Very shortly after Salome and Mary Cleophas left the grave, John and Peter reached it. John had outrun Peter, but with the sensitive shrinking of a young nature, unused to death, he did not go in. Stooping down, he saw the linen clothes, that fine linen Joseph had prepared, lying on the floor of the cave. It was quite evident his Master was not there. But Peter, coming up, stepped at once into the sepulchre, to look round it. There was no sign of haste or violence, as there must have been if a band of rough foes had trampled in to steal away the body. The fair linen cloth was unsoiled, and the napkin that had been bound about the worn and I go CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. anguished face had been wrapped together, as if his mother's gentle hands had folded it up tenderly, and laid it aside by itself There was nothing terrifying about the quiet, empty tomb ; and John, with all his sensitive love for his Lord, might enter and feel no shock. He also went in, and looking round, felt a gleam of faith, like the dawn of a new and splendid day, breaking upon him. But they could not linger in the empty grave. Mary, the mother of Jesus, ought to hear these strange tidings ; and they went away to tell her. Now, Mary Magdalene stood without, at the door of the cave, weeping. Like John, she did not venture to go in. She was alone ; Peter and John were gone, and the other women were not yet come. The garden was a solitude. Nothing had occurred to deliver her from her agonizing fears. To her it was her Lord, not his body merely, that they had taken away. The hurried departure of Peter and John, and the absence of Salome and Mary Cleophas, must have confirmed her suspicions. She stooped down, as John had done, to look at the place where he had lain. There was the spot where his thorn-crowned head had been pillowed, and his pierced feet had rested. But the grave was no longer empty. At the feet, and the head, where the body of Jesus had lain, sat two angels, bending over the place, as if still watching him, just as she would have sat and watched him if she might but have stayed beside him, even in the sepulchre. The angels neither astonished nor affrighted her; she was too engrossed in her sorrow. " Woman, why weepest thou ? " they asked. She answered them without fear — the only human being who has spoken to angels with no tremor — " Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him." She even turned away from them, as from those who could sfive her no comfort, while her Lord was lost Dimly through her tears she saw some one standing near her, and heard the same question, " Woman, why weepest thou ? Whom seekest thou ? " These last words gave her the idea that it must be the gardener, who would know all that had taken place in the garden under his care. " Sir," she cried, " if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, that I may take him away." She had but one thought in her mind : where was her Lord ? THE WONDERFUL LIFE. 19 1 " Mary," said the voice behind her — a familiar voice ; and she turned quickly, crying gladly, passionately, " Rabboni ! " He called her from the abyss of despair to a rapture of joy beyond words. She sprang toward him to touch him, to make sure that it was he himself whom she had seen die upon the cross. In a moment she was back again to the happy hours in Galilee, when she had ministered unto him, before all this agony came. As before, one thought alone possessed her soul. Here was her Master, he who had saved her in the old bad days. But Christ was not the same. A solemn change had passed ovei him, which must alter all his relations with his old friends. She was too excited to feel this ; but his first words arrested her. " Touch me not," he said ; possibly meaning, " Stay not to touch me now, for I am not yet ascending unto my Father ; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father ; unto my God, and your God." He was their elder brother, who could remain with them but a little while, and then they would see him no more, but he would represent them in the Father's house, where he was going to prepare a place for them. Mary knew she also should see him again ; and when he vanished out of her sight, she stayed not a moment longer at the sepulchre, but went to tell them she had seen the Lord. All these circumstances had followed one another rapidly ; and it may be that the women who were to bring the spices and ointments had been delayed, or perhaps had waited some little time for Salome and the two Marys at the appointed place of meeting. Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward, was the chief person among them, as the woman of greatest wealth and rank. They were not at all surprised at finding the stone rolled back from the door of the sepulchre, supposing'* that it had been done on purpose for them. But they found the body they had come to embalm taken away. This very much perplexed them ; though they were not afraid until they saw two men standing by them, in shining garments. So terrified were they, that they bowed their faces to the earth before them. The angels said to them, as if marvelling at these repeated visits to the grave, "Why seek ye the ig2 CHILD'S LIFE OF CHRIST. living svmong the dead ? He is not here, but is risen ; remember how he spal e unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, ' The Son of man m ast be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified^ and th( third day rise again.*" Then the women remembered these words, wondering at their own forgetfulness. They returned at onct to the city ; and as they were not likely to single out Peter or John, as Mary Magdalene had done, to be the first hearers of their tidings, they went quickly to some common place of meeting among the disciples, and shere found a large party assembled, which had been probably tailed together by Peter, to hear that the body of the Lord was gone, no one knew whither. The women told the vision they had seen ; but the disciples could not believe them, and their words seemed as idle tales. Peter, however, hearing of the appearance of angels, arose, and ran again to the sepulchre for the second time ; but stooping down, he saw no such vision, only the linen clothes laid as he had seen them before. He returned to the assembly of the disciples, full of wonder at what had come to pass. It is natural to suppose that Mary Magdalene, who had hastened to John's house when she knew the grave was open, would also go there after she had seen Christ. Mary, his mother, would thus hear first of the appearance of her Son. Finding there that Peter and John had left to call together the disciples at some appointed place, Mary Magdalene followed them; and soon after Joanna and the women from Galilee had told of their vision of angels, she entered to relate the appearance of the Lord himself to her in the garden. She had even a message to deliver to them. But the incredulous and bewildered disciples could not believe her, and probably said among themselves that grief had distracted her mind. When Peter returned from the sepulchre, having seen nothing, this conviction would naturally be deepened. But presently Mary Cleophas and Salome, the aunt of Jesus, and the mother of James and John, women not likely to be deceived, or to mistake a stranger for their Lord, came in with another account of having seen him, and of receiving a message from him for his brethren. But still the incredulous disciples refused to believe THE WONDERFUL LIFE 193 Mar>' Magdalene owned that she had not touched Jesus, had indeed een forbidden to touch him ; but these two women declared that they ^ad not only met him, but that when they heard his greeting, they had alien down to worship him, being afraid, and had held him by h' 'eet. " Be not afraid," he had said, " go, tell my brethren that they g^. nto Galilee, and there shall they see me." There was this excuse for the unbelief of his disciples that as yet the only manifestations, either of angels or of the Lord himself, had been to women, who are always more excited, and more open to superstitious fancies, in hours of sorrow, than men are The simple facts, as known to the disciples, were, that the sepulchre was open at iaybreak, and the body of their Master missing Who had broken ?pen the grave they could not tell ; but their suspicion must have i.-.een that some enemy had done it The news spread rapidly throughout Jerusalem, and no doubt crowds of curious spectators flocked to the garden to see the open tomb Among them the partisans of the Sanhedrim diligently spread the report that the body was stolen away by the disciples, while the guard slept. It would be no longer prudent for the veil-known followers of Jesus to be seen near Calvary and Geth -emane, but those who were less marked among his friends probabl) Timgled with the throng, and from time to time brought tidings to ihe assembly of disciples of what was going on The hours wort away, and still they were in perplexity and unbelief Three women only had seen him ; one of these had not touched him, and the othe? two had been so bewildered and amazed, as to have kept the: interview with him to themselves, until after Mary Magdalene ha eiven her account. CHAPTER X— EMMAUS. HEN the disciples were first called together by Peter and John, there were among them two friends, one of whom was named ■ Clecphas, not the husband of Mary, but probably a native of Emmaus, a village about nine miles from the city They were present when the party of Galilean women, with Joanna, came to tell of seeing two angels in the sepulchre. Possibly they ^ went with Peter, when he ran a second time to the grave ; but they did not return with him, as they did not hear the statement of Maiy Magdalene, or of Salome and Mary Cleophas, Very likely they lingered about the garden among the crowd, listening to the various guesses and rumors concerning the strange event, until it was time to start on their long walk homeward. Calvary lay north or northeast of the city walls, and Emmaus to the east ; there was no need therefore for them to return through the busy streets, where they might have heard that their risen Lord had appeared to, not one, but three of the women, who had loved him so faithfully, and tiinistered to him so long^. Sad, thouQ-h it was a feast time, when joyousness was a duty, these men might well be. It is a toilsome road, and the afternoon sun beat hot upon them But they heeded neither the heat of the sun nor the roughness of the road. They were reasoning and pondering over the events that had followed quickly upon one another, since they had entered Jerusalem to eat the feast of the passover. There had been the betrayal, the arrest the mock trial before the Sanhedrim, the real trial before Pilate, the lives, but to save them." And they went to another village We might multiply these instances, which illustrate the narrow and sordid views which, at times, gained the ascendancy over the minds of the twelve disciples, and James and John nearly as much as the others, up to the very day of the ascension ; but what we have already adduced are sufficient to show that, notwithstanding all the preaching and teaching of Christ, notwithstanding their daily personal inter- course with him for three years, and the powerful influence he exerted over them, they were still under the bondage of Jewish prejudices, of personal and unhallowed ambition, and of a zeal not according to knowledge. They were not as yet wholly sanctified nor consecrated for the work in which they were to engage. Our Lord knew this, and hence he commanded them to remain at Jerusalem, until they should receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost They obeyed, and after ten days of earnest prayer, the promised descent of the Holy Spirit came, and they were fitted to enter upon their great work. A wondrous change had come upon them ail They were in the city of Jerusalem, and it was the feast of Pentecost, one of the great Jewish feasts, when, from all parts of the Roman empire the Jews of the dispersion came up to Jerusalem, and presented themselves at the temple. Fifty days before, these eleven apostles, and the believers who were now with them, had fled affrighted, at the arrest of their Master; far from attempting any resistance or rescue, they had concealed themselves, and met but stealthily, with barred and bolted doors, lest they also should suffer arrest. Their Master had been crucified by Roman authority, at the urgent solicitation of the Jewish Sanhedrim ; and their hopes had fallen to the dust. But he had risen from the dead, and though he had not, as of old, led them through the streets of Jerusalem and the villages of Galilee, showing himself openly to the multitudes, his resurrection and his ascension had put new faith and courage into their hearts, and this mysterious but all powerful influence which they now experienced had consecrated them to their work, and they were ready for any labor, any sacrifice, which might be required of them. 238 ST. JOHN, THE BELOVED DISCIPLE. The most timid of the apostolic band was now ready to face the Sanhedrim, or the Roman authorities, charge upon them the murder of Jesus, and defy their power. To the multitudes who thronged the Jewish capital, they preached boldly the crucified and risen Christ, and urged them to repent and believe on him. And if this change had come upon all the disciples, it was especially marked in the case of Peter and John Peter was, as before the crucifixion, the leader, but his boastful spirit was gone ; he was meel< and humble, yet full of zeal, courage and energy, and henceforth his chosen associate was John ; together the two preached unto the people, administered baptism to the new converts, performed miracles in the name of Jesus Christ, charged home upon the rulers their responsi- bility for the death of Christ, stood undaunted before the Sanhedrim, endured their threatenings without alarm, and without yielding for a moment to their demands ; suffered imprisonment, and were beaten with rods, but rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame- in and for the Master's name. Meanwhile, the church, which they, in accordance with their Master's command, had founded at Jerusalem, had grown so rapidly that it numbered many thousands of joyful believers ; it was fully organized, and had been consecrated by the blood of its first martyr, and a violent persecution had scattered many of its prominent members ; but Peter and John remained at Jerusalem, and cared for the remainder of the flock. Now came one of those questions which tested the completeness of the change wrought in them. Philip, one of the seven deacons (not the apostle), had left Jerusalem in consequence of the persecution, and gone to Samaria where he had preached Christ with great success, — the recollection o.' the Saviour's visit there undoubtedly rendering the people mor : ready to receive the gospel. He had baptized great numbers, am was in need of assistance Thereupon, the church at Jerusalem sent their two chief pastors to aid Philip in his work. Peter and John hastened on this mission of love, received the Samaritans warmly as brethren in Christ, and ere they returned preached the gospel in many of the Samaritan villages. And yet this same John, only six years THE APOSTLES OF JESUS. 239 before, had desired to call down fire from heaven on one of these Samaritan villages for a real or fancied slight. Other events, following thick and fast, gave evidence of the great change which had come upon these two apostles ; Saul the persecutor had become Paul the apostle, and was received lovingly by John and Peter and James ; Peter had had his vision of the beasts let down from heaven, and its fulfilment, in the conversion and admission into the church of Cornelius, the Roman centurion ; Herod Agrippa had seized and put to death James, the brother of John, and had then seized Peter, intending to kill him also, and martyrdom seemed to await John and the other apostles ; but, unmoved by his personal danger, he and the whole church wrestled in prayer for Peter's deliverance, and it came. Peter left Jerusalem for a time, but John remained at his post, and the persecutor soon died. For the next fifteen or twenty years we have but very slight record of the labors of John ; he was not, probably, at the council at Jerusalem, which decided the important question of the relations between the Gentile churches and those composed of converted Jews, or we should have heard from him as well as from Peter ; but, before their departure from Jerusalem, Paul speaks of John as having given the hand of fellowship to Barnabas and himself John remained at Jerusalem, it is supposed, with occasional visits to other parts of the great field of labor before him, until perhaps a. d. 64, when the evidences of the speedy destruction of Jerusalem led the Christians there to obey the Saviour's command and flee to the mountains. Many of these, and probably the apostle among the number, took refuge in Pclla, a mountain fastness on the east side of the Jordan, about eighteen miles south of the sea of Galilee. His stay here could not have been long, and having learned that, by the imprisonment of Paul, and possibly of Timothy also, the great church of Ephesus, as well as the other churches of the province of Asia, was left without a chief pastor, he departed for that city, sailing probably from Caesarea some time in the year a. d. 65. Soon after his arrival at Ephesus he was, by the orders of Nero, banished to the little rocky islet of Patmos, about 240 ST. JOHN, THE BELOVED DISCIPLE. sixty miles southwest of Ephesus * His banishment lasted probably three or four years, terminating with the death of Nero, It was during his exile on this island that he wrote the Book of Revelation, in which, after detailing the view he had of his now glorified Master, a view far more sublime and overwhelming than that which he had witnessed on Mount Hermon at the transfiguration, though one in which he recognized at once his adorable Lord, he gives the messages received from him to the seven principal churches of the province of Asia, messages of warning, reproof, exhortation, and encouragement In his subsequent visions he was permitted to see the glories of heaven, and to see and hear the events and judgments which were tc come on the earth ; before his eyes was unrolled the vision of the future progress of the church militant; the rise, growth, progress, and final destruction of the papal power; before him the judgment was set, and the books were opened ; the dead, small and great, were raised from their graves, and the terrors of that fearful day were all portrayed ; the names written in the Lamb's book of life were rehearsed in his hearing ; the first resurrection, the millennial glories, the final destruction of the wicked, and the unspeakable and indescrib- able beauty of the new Jerusalem, illumined by the radiance which proceeded from the throne of God, whose walls were of precious stones, whose gates were pearls, and whose streets were of pure gold, were shown to his eager eyes. The river of the water of life, pure as crystal, its banks shaded by the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded its fruit every month, the whole illuminated by the divine Light, ana needing no temple, since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were the only objects of worship were also presented to his enraptured vision- Little need we wonder that the rough and rocky island of Patmos lost all its roughness and discomfort to him in these visions, which ♦This date accords with one tradition, though another makes the banishment to Patmos the restjll of some local persecution, and to have occurred several years later, and possibly in the time cf Domitian. The date of the banishment really turns upon the question whether the Apocalypse oi Revelation was written before or after the fall of Jerusalem. The weight of evidence seenas to faver the idea that it was written before that event. THE APOSTLES OF JESUS. 241 rransformed it into the very gate of heaven ; nor that, when recalled to his apostolic work at Ephesus, he should have left with reluctance sts rugged cliffs. But there was yet much for him to do. Paul and Peter, his owr orother James, and James, the Lord's brother, that James the Just who lad so long and ably presided as the chief pastor of the church ai Jerusalem, had all gone, through the martyrs chariot of fire, to theii tiome above. To him there was given a longer service, more abundant trials, but at last a peaceful and quiet death. He probably returned to Ephesus about the beginning of the year a. d THE RIVER 01- THE WATER OF LIFE. 69, and though not far from sixty-eight years of age, " his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated." Vigorous and active, he visited in turn the fifteen or twenty churches of the province of Asia, counselled their pastors, and very possibly extended his apostolic labors to Crete, to Cenchrea, to Athens, to Corinth, and to the churches of Macedonia. The destruction of Jerusalem, and the wide dispersion of the Judaean Christians, many of whom migrated to Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece, must have greatly increased his labors, since to most of them he was personally known. There seems to be good reason to believe the testimony of the early fathers, some of whom were in direct communication with the U-i. ST. JOHN, THE BELOVED DISCIPLE. now venerable apostle, that his gospel was written about a. d. 85 01 86, at the request of the elders of the church at Ephesus, who, though possessing the other gospels, desired to preserve his recollec- tions of his beloved Master, and to obtain from him also those particulars which had not been recorded by the others. His own purpose in writing it seems to have been, not so much to supplement the other gospels, though he does this incidentally, as to prove, in this life of Jesus, that he was the Christ, the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh. Having this object in view, he divides his gospel into two parts : the first, extending from the first to the thirteenth chapter, consists of a series of proofs or signs that Jesus was the predicted Messiah, the appointed Saviour of the world ; or, in other words, it is a record of what Jesus made known of himself to convince the unbelieving; the second part, extending from chapter thirteenth to the end of the book, consists of evidence that Jesus is the Saviour of the world, derived from his intercourse and discourses in private with his chosen friends, and especially as seen in the great sacrifice offered by him, and its acceptance for the salvation of the world. When we consider that this gospel must have been written when he was eighty-five or eighty-six years old, and possibly nearer ninety; that its detail of these conversations and discourses of Christ is very clear and minute, and not marred in the slightest degree by the garrulity of old age, and that the style of its composition is superior, even, to that of the accomplished and learned Paul, while the Greek, in which it is written, is as pure as that of the best classic Greek writers ; we can come to no other conclusions than these : that John was intellectually a man of remarkable genius and extensive culture, and that he was especially inspired of the Holy Spirit to write this and the othei books which he contributed to the New Testament. The Gospel of John is, indeed, so far as any book or document can be, one of the main pillars of the Christian system. More than any other of the books of the New Testament it is devoted to the doctrines of the divinity of Jesus Christ and of the Trinity in unity, and hence it has been the citadel against which infidelity and rationalism have made their most vigorous and determined assaults; THE APOSTLES OF JESUS. 243 but they have assailed it in vain : it stands to-day unharmed, as it has stood through all the Christian ages, and as it shall continue to stand, until the last foe shall have hurled his last missile against it. But, though already past the allotted age of man, John had still work to do for the Master he loved, and for the church of God. He was, it is supposed, past his ninetieth year when he wrote the three epistles which bear his name. They show on their pages evidence of advanced age, but not of senility or weakened mental powers. The theme of the first epistle is fellowship, the union of believers with God and his Son Jesus Christ, and their union with one another. Like all of John's writings, it is thoroughly systematic. He treats first of the nature of fellowship, in both its aspects ; second, of its fruit, holiness ; third, of its law, truth ; fourth, of its life, love ; fifth, of its root, faith. In reading it we are often reminded, by the vigor and almost explosive force of its language, that this old man, whose head has been whitened by the snows of almost a hundred winters, has not yet wholly lost that fiery zeal which gave him, in his youth, the title of Boanerges, a "son of thunder." His heart, great and loving as it is, has been sorely wounded by the professions of false disciples, who claim to be the children of God, and to be perfect and sinless, while their lives are impure and their hearts full of malice, bitterness and hate ; and he denounces them in such terms as these : " If we say that we have fellowship with him,, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. . . If we say that we have no sin, we deceive our- selves, and the truth is not in us. . . If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. . . He that >aith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and ihe truth is nt^t in him. . . Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son, . . He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer ; and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." The honor of his blessed Lord was assailed, and this loving and gentle disciple was roused to wrath and denunciation, as he was in his youth, when a word was said against him whom he loved. And yet, in other portions of this epistle, 244 ST. JOHN, THE BELOVED DISCIPLE. iiow tender and sweet is his spirit! "Herein is love, not that we oved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation ■or our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love on*- mother." . . ♦' There is no fear in love , but perfect love castetf out fear; because fear hath torment He that feareth is not mad'* perfect in love." The second and third epistles are short, and addressed to individual disciples. They were probably written at a date still later than the first, but breathe the same spirit. The exact date of the death of the loving and venerable apostle is unknown ; different authorities differing more than twenty years in their dates ; but the most probable conjecture seems to be that he died at Ephesus, in the third or fourth year of Trajan, and after passing his hundredth year. Jerome relates that when, in extreme old age, he was too weak to walk into the church, he was still borne thither; and unable to delivei a long discourse, he would lift his trembling hands and simply say, "Little children, love one another;" and repeat these words again and again. When asked why he constantly repeated this expression, hi.s answer was, " Because this is the command of the Lord, and nothing is done unless this thing be done." So passed away the last and most Christ-like of the apostles From the day of his Lord's ascension to that in which he too joined the assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in the book of life, there is no stain or blemish on his character. His life, for that period of more than seventy years, was as pure and spotless as any recorded in the Scriptures, except only that of th«: Blessed One, to whom through life he clung in adoring love Innumerable are the legends which have come down to us concerning this holy servant of God ; some of them are absurd and puerile, and unworthy to be recorded, as they are totally at variance with his character. These are probably the inventions of idle monks, who, in the fifth and sixth centuries of our era, spent their abundant leisure in the concoction of all manner of legends concerning the apostles, and even concerning Christ himself. A few are deserving of notice THE APOSTLES OF JESUS. 245 becau5e of their apparent harmony with the spirit of the apostle, and because, from their earher date, there is a stronger possibiHty of their truth. Whether true or not, they are not inconsistent with his character The tradition of his shipwreck on his first voyage to Ephesus, when near that port, is not improbable, for the ^gean sea was often a tempestuous one, and its many rocky islands, and its harbors and roadsteads so liable to be filled up with silt from the mountain streams, made shipwrecks there very frequent. The legend that he was taken to Rome, and, by the orders of Nero, or some other Roman tyrant, plunged in a caldron of boiling oil, from which he emerged entirely uninjured, rests only on the doubtful authority of Tertullian, and is believed by many of the most careful critics to be a misinterpretation of the words of some earlier writer. One of the most beautiful, as it is one of the most probable of these traditions, is that which relates that, as he was visiting the church at Pergamos, he saw a young man in the congregation to whom he was powerfully drawn, and that, turning to the pastor of the church, he said, " I commit this young man to you, before Christ and the congregation." The minister accepted the charge, took the youth home, instructed, and finally baptized him. Subsequently he fell into bad company, led a profligate life, and at last, renouncing all his religious professions, joined a band of robbers, and became their captain. After some years John again visited Pergamos, and while there, made inquiry of the pastor concerning the young man whom he had committed to his charge. The minister sighed heavily, and his tears flowed, as he replied, " He is dead." " Dead I " said John ; " in what way did he die ? " " He is dead to God," answered the pastor , "he became godless, and finally a robber, and is now with his companions in the fastnesses of the mountains." The venerable apostle, hearing this, started at once, and saying, " I must go after this lost sheep," procured a horse and guide, and went to the mountain in which was the robbers' haunt. Being seized, as he had expected, by the band, he demanded to be carried into the presence of their captain The outlaw chief reco;^ni/.ing John as he 246 ST. JOHN, THE BELOVED DISCIPLE approached, attempted to fly; but John hastened after him, crying, "Why do you flee from me? Stop! stop! Do not be afraid. If need be, I will lay down my life for you, as Christ laid down his life for us. Believe, Christ hath sent me to you." The robber stopped, threw away his arms, and began to tremble and weep bitterly. John finally let him back to the church, of which he subsequently became one of the pillars, demonstrating the genuineness of his penitence and conversion by his holy life and earnest zeal. It remains that we should seek to ascertain what are the lessons to be drawn from the character and example of this beloved and eminently holy servant of Christ. We have seen that, though possessed of rare gifts and of a tender and loving nature, he was in his youth impulsive, full of strong prejudices, and ambitious. Yet withal, there must have been some- thing very attractive in him, some winning charm in his ways, which, with his strong affections and his pure and truthful disposition, drew the human heart of Jesus to him in a love which many waters could not quench. He was the most loyal to Jesus of all the disciples, and he gives this grand reason for his loyalty: "We love him because he hath first loved us." His fidelity to his Lord was unquestioned and unquestionable. No doubts of the perfect and abiding love which existed between them ever caused a shadow upon his brow, or for a moment beclouded his spirit. And yet it required three years of instruction and training by the divine Master, and the death, resurrection, and ascension of that Master, to rid him of his expectations of the temporal reign of the Messiah, to overcome his narrow and bitter prejudices, and to control his vehement and passionate nature. But when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, had come, and imparted its sanctifying and elevating influences to his soul, he was created anew in Christ Jesus. He was no longer a Boanerges, a "son of thunder," but "a son of consolation." He had power with God and prevailed. Where miracles were needed for the confirmation of the truth, they were wrought in the name of his Master ; but to those with whom he was brought in contact his pure and holy life was greater THE APOSTLES OF JESUS. 247 than any miracle. Both Peter and John had been with yesus, as the Sanhedrim perceived (Acts iv, 13), and from him they had learned far better than the Jewish rabbis could have taught them, to rebuke sin, but to love and labor for the sinner; and by a pure and holy example .0 enforce the truths they preached. We cannot suppose that any man, except our adorable Redeemer, has ever trod our earth who was perfectly free from sin, but it is worthy of notice that the inspired writers, who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, noticed so freely the errors and shortcomings of even the purest and holiest, and were most severe of all upon their own sins, nowhere, after the day of our Lord's ascension, pass a word of censure upon John. Peter, the great apostle of the circumcision, was led astray in his course in regard to the Jewish and Gentile disciples at Antioch; and even Paul, with his zealous and fervent spirit and his overcoming faith, was not wholly exempt from those infirmities of the flesh, which at times led him to cry out, " Oh ! wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " But John dwelt perpetually in that higher atmosphere of the divine love. No cloud obscured the Sun of Righteousness from his vision ; and cheered by its blessed rays, toil for his Lord was a delight, pain was a pleasure, and he could say with the poet — " E'en sorrow, touched by thee, grows bright With more than rapture's ray; As darkness shows us worlds of light We never saw by day." Nor can we doubt that the visions of God which were set before him in Patmos were among the minor rewards, the " hundred-fold in this life," which were given to him for his unfaltering faith and his undying love for his Redeemer. To L.'ti, as to Daniel, the message might have come, " O man, greatly beloved, fear not." And when this " disciple whom Jesus loved " was at last received into the mansion prepared for him above, does it transcend the grace of our blessed Lord to suppose that the position which he ignorantly sought on earth, in the days of his early ambition, was reserved for him in the heavenly kingdom ? That, having drank of the cup of 248 THE APOSTLES OF JESUS. . Christ's earthly sufferings, and having undergone his baptism of sor- rows, this saint of God, so greatly beloved, was called, not as a matter of right, nor because of any claim he could bring, but of the free grace of the Redeemer, to sit at his right hand as one of the prime ministers of the now glorified and reigning Messiah ? If such is his blessed lot, no seraph of the heavenly host will utter with more melodious notes the new song, or with a more reverent and adoring spirit will ascribe "blessing, and honor, and glory, and power unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." The lessons of this beautiful life, then, are briefly these : That, however pure and amiable are our natural dispositions, we need to be taught of Christ, and to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, before we can do our Master's work effectively. That, since Christ hath loved us and given himself for us, the only measure of our love for him should be his love for us ; and that the nearer we attain to a perfect and all-absorbing love for him, the fewer will be the clouds and doubts over our pathway, and the more perfect and complete our peace and joy. That it is only to those who, by long and constant trust in Christ, have won this peace which passeth all understanding, that the heavens are opened and they are permitted to know the blessedness of the redeemed in glory, while they are still within this earthly tabernacle. That if we would have an open and abundant entrance administered to us into the New Jerusalem above, we must imitate the example of the obedient, faithful, loving, and holy John, and, like him, be known to all around us as the disciples whom Jesus loves. God has prom- ised, " He that overcometh shall inherit all things ; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son." May God give to each of the readers of this book grace thus to overcome. 249 JDate Due