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THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST. 
 
SKETCHES 
 
 JEWISH LIFE 
 
 FIRST CENTURY 
 
 MODEMS ; or, Scenes in the Days of Our Lord 
 GAMALIEL ; or, Scenes in the Times of Saint Paul 
 
 JAMES STRONG, S.T.D., LL.D. 
 
 Professor of Exegetical Theology in Drew Theological Seminary 
 
 JUN 8 1891 
 
 ^SHINGTON 
 
 NEW YORK: HUNT &> EA TON 
 
 CINCINNA TI : CRANSTON &= STOWE 
 
 1891. 
 
,0° 
 
 
 Copyright, 1891. by 
 HUNT & EATON, 
 
 New York. 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 The two narratives comprised in this vol- 
 ume are not necessarily connected with one 
 another, but the latter is substantially a sequel 
 to the former, and they therefore properly go 
 together. A few explanations may be allowed 
 concerning each, which will be found in their 
 Introductions. 
 
NICODEMUS; 
 
 SCENES IN THE DAYS OF OUR LORD. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 TN every land and age the aid of romance has been fieely in- 
 voked in order to add vividness to the reproduction of events 
 far distant in time and space. Why should piety be debarred 
 from the same privilege ? I am aware of the prejudice against 
 the employment of fiction in religious literature, and I am 
 frank to confess that the liberty has often been greatly abused. 
 Nevertheless the world's verdict is now more than' ever, if I 
 mistake not, that this form of composition has not only a 
 charm but a value, and this for the old as well as for the 
 young. I am not an advocate of novel-reading, especially 
 not of the perusal of the trash with which the modern pi-ess so 
 largely teems ; but I cannot ignore the fact that the human 
 mind, the sober in common with the gay, most eagerly craves, 
 and most readily digests, the narrative form of information, not 
 simply for present entertainment, but also for permanent in- 
 struction ; and where the details are lost from the record they 
 must be supplied by the imagination either of the reader or 
 the writer, in order to give completeness and distinctness to 
 the view. The picture may be substantially correct, though 
 the shading be somewhat fanciful, provided the outline be 
 from history and the colors from nature. A sketch, of course, 
 cannot pretend to the minuteness of a photograph, but it may, 
 notwithstanding, convey an accurate idea of the subject. 
 The prevailing vice of fictitious writing is that it aims at start- 
 ling and extraordinary impression, and too often is regardless 
 of probability or even possibility. Absolute verity is not 
 always attainable, but verisimilitude is. In the present 
 undertaking, fortunately for me, at least, intricacy of plot, 
 
1 IN TROD UC TION. 
 
 abrupt surprises, absorbing adventures, and all similar con- 
 trivances for creating and sustaining intense interest, would 
 have been out of place, because inconsistent both with truth- 
 fulness and with good taste. Mine is the less ambitious — I 
 might, perhaps, say the less meretricious — task of setting in a 
 fresh but not altogether novel aspect a well-known character of 
 sacred story, whose position is sufficiently central to afford me 
 an opportunity to weave around him the principal features of 
 the first era of Christianity, and yet is not so amply delineated 
 in actual records as to preclude the introduction of imaginary 
 particulars. 
 
 The only authentic facts known concerning Nicodemus are 
 contained in the three passages of the gospel by John, where 
 alone he is mentioned ; but the statements there made respect- 
 ing him are eminently characteristic and suggestive. There 
 are a few obscure notices in the Talmud of an individual who 
 is supposed to be the same person ; but these give us little if 
 any additional information beyond the fact of his eventual re- 
 duction from affluence to extreme destitution. My real hero, 
 however, is a far more illustrious Personage ; but him I have 
 dared merely to depict in side-views and by reflected light. 
 Inspiration has drawn his only perfect portrait. All that I 
 can hope here to accomplish will be to concentrate attention 
 upon the salient features of that delineation, and thus bring 
 them into bolder relief. I may at least illustrate the effect 
 which the principles newly propounded by the great Teacher 
 produced on his hearers, and especially on an honest but pre- 
 occupied inquirer. 
 
NICODEMUS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 SCENES IN THE DAYS OF OUR LORD. 
 
 " T T AST thou heard last night's news, 
 
 J- A Sarah ? " said a bright young man as 
 his sister entered the room where he had al- 
 ready finished his simple morning meal. 
 
 " Nay, Obed," she replied, calmly. " What 
 is it?" 
 
 "They say," rejoined he, "that a party of 
 shepherds, encamped in the plain east of the 
 village, had a vision of angels singing over- 
 head, and telling them to search for a child in 
 a manger as the new-born Messiah ? " 
 
 "Did they find the babe?" inquired she, 
 with interest. 
 
 " I believe they did," he answered, with in- 
 difference ; and then he added, " But it was in 
 the stable of the khan ; and it is not likely 
 that the Messiah will be revealed to such 
 
12 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 poor people and under such mean circum- 
 stances." 
 
 " I am not so sure of that," mildly returned 
 the sister ; " thou knowest David was once but 
 a simple shepherd-boy, and Jehovah often 
 deigned to show himself to very humble per- 
 sons ; for instance, to Manoah and his wife in 
 the field. Besides, dost thou not remember 
 that Isaiah describes the Messiah as a root out 
 of dry ground? " 
 
 " What dost thou know about the interpre- 
 tation of such difficult passages as that?" 
 scornfully retorted the brother. "All our rab- 
 -bins agree that we are to take the brilliant 
 prophecies of a conquering king for the true 
 description of Jehovah's Anointed." 
 
 " True," replied she ; " but we know that 
 the famous royal warrior David was a weak 
 babe at first ; and when a lad he was so un- 
 promising in appearance that his father did 
 not think it worth while to call him in with 
 his brothers before Samuel at the selection for 
 anointing." 
 
 " What a convenient way you women have 
 of deciding an argument ! " he said, doggedly ; 
 " the cases are not at all the same." 
 
NICODEMUS. 13 
 
 " Perhaps not altogether," said she ; " but 
 now I think I know the family in which this 
 remarkably heralded babe has been born. It 
 must be that young woman's child whom I 
 saw her aged husband so tenderly bringing 
 upon an ass into town a few days ago ; for I 
 remember they could not find accommodation 
 in the khan itself, but had to take lodging in 
 the stable. I was greatly struck at the time 
 with her sweet face and gentle manner." 
 
 " Girls like thee," he only deigned to re- 
 spond, " are always carried away with sympa- 
 thy for a baby." 
 
 " I think I know a girl," she archly retorted, 
 " who has independence enough for thee." 
 
 He blushed, but merely said, " I am glad 
 
 there is one that redeems the weakness of the 
 
 >> 
 sex. 
 
 She concluded the conversation by adding, 
 " I took the trouble to inquire about that 
 family, and found that they are of loyal line- 
 age, though now living in Nazareth." 
 
 This little- colloquy, which strikes the key- 
 note of the controversy destined to spread 
 from Judea through the world, is supposed to 
 have taken place in Bethlehem at the time of 
 
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NICODEMUS. 15 
 
 the advent of our Lord. The parties are na- 
 tives of that place, in easy circumstances, the 
 one betrothed to Nicodemus, a rising youth 
 of Jerusalem, the other in love with Rachel, 
 the sister of Joseph, a wealthy resident of 
 Arimathea. The Emperor Augustus, having 
 conceived an affront at some of King Herod's 
 arbitrary proceedings, had resolved to make 
 him feel his subjection ; and accordingly or- 
 dered that the census, now going on through- 
 out the Roman Empire as a basis of taxation, 
 should be extended to Palestine likewise, which 
 had hitherto enjoyed a nominal independence. 
 In the East, of course, such registrations pro- 
 ceed by pedigree, and Bethlehem was just 
 now crowded with the numerous descendants 
 of the Davidic family, among them Joseph, 
 of necessity, and Mary for the sake of her 
 husband's company and protection. It was 
 late in summer, and the parched and dusty 
 plains adjoining the town were dotted with 
 the black tents of some shepherds who had 
 wandered from their homes in search of the 
 pasture, at that season still to be found in 
 some of the rich glens of the neighborhood. 
 As they lay guarding their flocks in the open 
 
16 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 field the starlit air became vocal with a celes- 
 tial strain : 
 
 " To God be glory given 
 
 By angels high in heaven; 
 
 On earth be peace proclaimed — 
 Good-will to man redeemed ! " 
 
 Forty days thereafter a tiny procession 
 might have been seen slowly wending its way 
 from the northern gate of the little city of 
 Bethlehem, passing the well whence David is 
 said to have longed to slake his thirst at the 
 risk of the lives of his braves, thence winding 
 along the brow of the hills terraced with gar- 
 dens, along the central ridge of the country, 
 past the tomb of Rachel, across the plain of 
 the Rephaim, down into the gorge of Kinnom, 
 up the valley of the Kidron, and ascending to 
 the eastern wall of Jerusalem. The youthful 
 mother is seated upon the docile beast that 
 serves universally for female travel in the 
 Orient, and the venerable father walks beside 
 her, with one hand guiding the animal and 
 supporting his wife as she holds her first-born 
 in her arms, and in the other carrying the 
 birds intended as a sacrifice. A few friends 
 perhaps, attend, and possibly some interested 
 
IS SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 spectators follow. They enter the gate Shu- 
 shan ; she dismounts in the outer or Gentiles' 
 court of the temple ; and the little family 
 climb the steps, pass through the Beautiful 
 Gate into the women's court, and take their 
 position in the corner room allotted to the 
 purificatory ceremony. A priest is sum- 
 moned, and the simple rite is performed which 
 acknowledged Jehovah's claim to the male 
 first-fruit of every marriage. A few among 
 the cluster that have gathered about the par- 
 ents recognize a far higher significance on the 
 present occasion. The aged Simeon takes the 
 precious Babe in his trembling arms and in 
 ominous words pronounces his dying benedic- 
 tion upon both child and mother. The saintly 
 Anna joins in the glad homage with others 
 whom prophecy had taught to expect the 
 Saviour at this time. Two of the by-standers, 
 we fancy, are Xicodemus and Sarah, locked 
 hand in hand, as they gaze with surprised 
 seriousness upon the adoration offered by the 
 two pious pilgrims to the infantile new-comer. 
 The struggling convictions and confused emo- 
 tions of that hour did not find mature ex- 
 pression till many a day thereafter of " fall 
 
NICODEMUS. 10 
 
 and rising again in Israel." The maternal 
 heart alone instinctively comprehended the 
 scene, albeit in the fond gladness of the mo- 
 ment it scarce felt a premonition of the wound 
 which at length pierced its inmost core. How 
 many an exquisite joy and pang the faithful 
 bosom hides in its urn of memory ! 
 
 We pass over a year or more in the history, 
 and witness far more striking scenes in Jeru- 
 salem and Bethlehem. A band of magians, 
 of whom tradition presumes to give the num- 
 ber, name, and nationality, appear as pilgrims 
 in the Jewish capital, inquiring for its new- 
 born King. They have observed some astro- 
 nomical phenomenon in the far east, which 
 they interpret as betokening such a royal 
 birth. Probably they have descried the rays 
 of prophecy streaming eastward from the 
 days of Balaam, and they hasten, from what- 
 ever motive, to enroll themselves as satellites 
 of the new star of empire. The quick ear of 
 the jealous Herod starts at the thought of a 
 rival to the throne, and the whole city trem- 
 bles with apprehension of some fresh atrocity 
 of suppression. He has already murdered 
 nearly all his relatives on suspicion of trea- 
 
20 SKETCHES OE JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 son, and at this moment his two most noble 
 sons are lying in prison awaiting only permis- 
 sion from Rome for their execution. On 
 whom will his blind fury next alight ? But he 
 vaguely remembers that this great Unknown, 
 whom the populace are acclaiming through 
 the streets, is the subject of prophecy, and he 
 condescends to seek information through its 
 official expositor, a body which he has often 
 browbeaten before. He summons the Sanhe- 
 drim, and demands to know where their Mes- 
 siah is to appear. They promptly answer that 
 the Scriptures clearly point to Bethlehem as 
 the birthplace of that illustrious Personage. 
 The city breathes more freely as the dogs of 
 vengeance are turned on a different scent. In 
 order not to strike at random Herod at once 
 calls the magians, gives them the clew, and 
 charges them to return with an exact account 
 of the whereabouts of the new heir, pretend- 
 ing that he is as anxious as they to show him 
 proper respect. He will use them as tools to 
 divert the popular expectation and circum- 
 vent destiny itself. Guided by a return of the 
 preternatural light, they soon discover the In- 
 fant's abode, which the parents had taken 
 
NICODEIJUS. 21 
 
 after their return from Nazareth ; * and they 
 offer him royal homage in words and gifts. A 
 dream warns them not to return to Herod, 
 and they go home by a different route. A few 
 days' delay suffices to convince the tyrant that 
 he has been balked in his scheme, and with 
 characteristic blood-thirstiness and energy he 
 resolves upon an indiscriminate massacre 
 which shall be sure to include his intended 
 victim. The Slaughter of the Innocents has 
 been made the subject of many a painting by 
 great artists, but none of them can adequately 
 portray the horrors of the original scene. 
 However coolly and deliberately planned, it 
 must have been executed suddenly and vio- 
 lently. Peremptorily, perhaps at the dead 
 hour of midnight, every house was simulta- 
 neously invaded. No notice was given, so 
 that none might escape. Not even the silent 
 but foretold passing of the destroying angel 
 over the Egyptian homes presented so tragic 
 a spectacle. What bursting in of private 
 dwellings and inner apartments by the ruth- 
 less soldiery ! What resistance of frightened 
 servants and shrieks of frantic women and 
 * Luke says that they went thither direct from Jerusalem. 
 
22 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 battles of fierce men ! What parrying of mur- 
 derous blows by the defenseless hands of 
 mothers and by the determined weapons of 
 fathers ! What wails of the dying and curses 
 of the living ! What snatching of infants by 
 nurses, parents, and assailants ! What hurried 
 flights and rapid pursuits ! And at last what 
 dumb grief or frenzied sobs over the little 
 mangled corpses ! A whole city mourning in 
 wild agony over its rifled darlings ! Imagina- 
 tion itself sickens and reels at the attempt to 
 realize the shocking details. No wonder that 
 the Jewish historian of the time has covered 
 the ghastly scene with the pall of silence, 
 while the more faithful sacred chronicler has 
 given but a glimpse of its heart-rending terrors. 
 
 Obed and Sarah, let us suppose, were spared 
 this nightmare vision, having opportunely ac- 
 cepted an invitation at the time to visit their 
 friends at Arimathea. Their varied emotions, 
 reviews, and remarks upon the event when 
 it was reported to them next morning will 
 give a good idea of the difference of opinion 
 and feeling then prevalent among the better 
 class of Jews on public and religious topics. 
 
 Obed and Rachel thought that the account 
 
NICODEMUS. 23 
 
 which they first received must be greatly exag- 
 gerated ; and when the full particulars arrived 
 they still looked upon the occurrence as only 
 another of Herod's well-known bursts of spleen 
 against the common people. They did not see, 
 indeed, what other course he could have safely 
 pursued in order to guard his throne and suc- 
 cession effectually from the constant upstart 
 tendency of popular superstition. After all, it 
 was only a few children put out of the way, 
 and they were glad the matter was no worse. 
 At any rate, the affair was now ended, and it 
 was of no use to trouble themselves farther 
 about it. Luckily, none of their immediate 
 relatives had suffered. 
 
 Joseph and Sarah, on the contrary, were un- 
 able to look so indifferently upon the transac- 
 tion. To them it was a monstrous barbarity, 
 a selfish piece of high-handed tyranny, an out- 
 rage upon every law of God and man. They 
 sighed as they contrasted such brutal scenes 
 with the happy freedom of their forefathers, 
 and they longed more than ever for the coming 
 of the Prince of Peace. Had it been a case of 
 Roman oppression both sides would doubtless 
 have united in denouncing the foreign bond- 
 
24 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 age ; but as it was the direct act of a native 
 sovereign they could not avail themselves of 
 this convenient method of solving their national 
 troubles. Neither party thought of the one 
 Child on whose account the butchery had been 
 enacted, nor inquired whether he had escaped 
 the dreadful carnage. The heavenly Father's 
 eye alone was upon his dearly beloved, and the 
 earthly parents were warned in time to screen 
 their precious charge from danger. 
 
 When the excitement was over the Bethle- 
 hemite brother and sister returned to their 
 home and to their usual routine of affairs, leav- 
 ing Joseph to pursue his public labors of benev- 
 olence and Rachel to continue her round of 
 coquetry which had been somewhat checked by 
 her lover's presence. But the desolate hearth- 
 stones were still the seats of inconsolable 
 anguish, and, feeling uncomfortable through 
 sympathy for their neighbors' woes, Obed 
 went on a mercantile excursion to the Syrian 
 shore, while Sarah accompanied Nicodemus on 
 a winter trip up the Nile. 
 
 As they diverged one day to visit the ancient 
 city of Heliopolis Sarah saw a little group sitting 
 beneath a noble sycamore-fig by the roadside, 
 
NICODEMUS. 25 
 
 and at once recognized the pilgrims of Bethle- 
 hem in the now more matronly face which 
 bent over a beautiful boy, while the watchful 
 father still attended near, and some relatives, 
 at whose abode in the vicinity they had found 
 hospitality, gazed in fond satisfaction upon the 
 holy family. After a moment of rapt admira- 
 tion Sarah could not resist the womanly im- 
 pulse to speak a kindly word of praise and to 
 imprint a tender kiss upon the innocent lips. 
 Fairer than the sons of men shone that dimpled 
 but already expressive face. A divine light un- 
 consciously passed from those eyes of dove-like 
 softness to the inmost soul of the susceptible 
 beholder, and the artless maiden bore away 
 from that instant's contact with the immaculate 
 Babe the blessing of a " love better than wine." 
 It was the appreciation of the pure and the 
 noble, the apprehension of the heavenly and 
 the godlike ; and this remembrance sweetened 
 all her after experience with the perfume of a 
 holy aspiration. Nicodemus himself was not 
 unaffected by the touching interview; but his 
 sympathy was merely human, and it needed a 
 more searching and manly intercourse to reach 
 the closely guarded fountain of his inner life. 
 
26 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 'Still, the impression of that brief sight remained 
 as a seed slumbering in the soil, and under the 
 power of a stronger ray from the Sun of right- 
 eousness in his meridian splendor it was des- 
 tined to burst its earthly shackles and emerge, 
 though late, into full vegetation. No one ever 
 came within the immediate range of the God- 
 man's personal influence without being either 
 the better or the worse for it ; and none can now 
 live under the light and sound of the Gospel to 
 whom it does not prove either a savor of life or 
 of death. The drawings of the Spirit, in what- 
 ever form, if encouraged will surely lead the 
 heart to a celestial conformity; but if resisted 
 they will repel it to impenitent obstinacy. 
 What a double mercy it is that mortals have 
 repeated overtures of grace made to them, and 
 are not left to a single offer of salvation ! 
 
 Again we find a blank, this time of ten years, 
 in the sacred narrative, which we partly fill 
 with secular and domestic incidents. Herod 
 soon after died of a frightful disease which was 
 regarded by all as a special visitation of Prov- 
 idence. The elder of his two surviving sons 
 succeeded for a brief time to his dominions, 
 and they were then partitioned among his re- 
 
NICODEMUS. 27 
 
 maining heirs, his last son receiving Galilee, 
 while Judea reverted as a Roman province 
 under direct military government. 
 
 Meanwhile the holy family had returned to 
 their original seat at Nazareth and were appar- 
 ently absorbed in mechanical industry. Our 
 new acquaintances have prospered in their plans 
 and arrangements and are now settled in their 
 respective homes, Obed and Rachel at Bethle- 
 hem, and Nicodemus and Sarah at Jerusalem. 
 Joseph is likewise established in the latter 
 city, with a country villa at Arimathea, where 
 the three families often pass a few months of 
 the year together. The political and religious 
 tides seem to flow quietly, with only a ripple 
 of occasional outbreak or extortion to disturb 
 the public surface or the private margin. The 
 storms are held until the vials of retribution 
 overflow with the great national sin of the 
 Messiah's truculent rejection. The seventy 
 heptads have not yet reached their appropriate 
 terminus. 
 
 " I saw a remarkably precocious boy last 
 week," said Nicodemus, as the three house- 
 holds gathered on one of the above-mentioned 
 occasions, after the annual visit to the Passover. 
 
NICODEMUS. 29 
 
 "Who and where was he?" inquired they 
 all. 
 
 " He came alone and unbidden into the 
 school-room attached to the temple," replied 
 Nicodemus, " and he seemed to spend his 
 whole time there during the paschal festivities." 
 
 " He must have been a bold youth," re- 
 marked Obed. 
 
 44 Nay," rejoined Nicodemus, " he did not 
 seem unduly forward ; but he certainly asked 
 the most singular questions, for a child, at 
 least, that I ever heard. The teachers were 
 of course present in full force, and the pupils 
 among whom he ranged himself were very 
 numerous. I had to sit still, for I confess I 
 could not answer his inquiries. They were 
 very much to the point, however. Both Hillel 
 and Shammai, the aged doctors well known for 
 their opposite sentiments to each other, were 
 evidently puzzled by the rejoinders which he 
 made to their solutions of his difficulties. Ga- 
 maliel, 1 thought, was the only rabbi who in 
 any satisfactory degree met the points that he 
 raised. Yet the objections which the youth 
 made were not sophistical nor abstruse, but 
 eminently practical and devout." 
 
30 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 " Pray, who was he ? " inquired Sarah. 
 
 " I could not learn,'' answered her husband, 
 " for no one seemed to be acquainted with him, 
 and he did not speak of himself at all. He 
 constantly quoted the Scriptures, however, 
 with such exactness and pertinence as showed 
 he had been carefully instructed." 
 
 " Quite a prodigy, it would seem," remarked 
 Rachel. " I dare say he had learned by rote a 
 string of the casuistical knots which many of 
 our learned men are fond of tying in the law 
 and the prophets." 
 
 " Please give us a specimen of his questions 
 or problems," said Joseph. " They will doubt- 
 less be entertaining, and they may prove in- 
 structive." 
 
 "For example," replied Nicodemus, "the 
 class were reciting the One hundred and tenth 
 Psalm, and at the very first verse, 
 
 " 'Jehovah said to my Lord, 
 
 Sit at my right hand, 
 
 Till I make thine enemies thy footstool,' 
 
 the lad modestly inquired who was the author 
 of the psalm. ' David, of course,' replied the 
 presiding officer, ' as the very title of the psalm 
 shows.' The youth then asked again, 'And 
 
NICODEMUS. SI 
 
 whom does he mean by "my Lord " there?' 
 4 Doubtless the Messiah,' was the reply. Again 
 the boy asked, ' And in the parallel passage of 
 the first [now the second] psalm, 
 
 ' ' Jehovah has said to me, 
 My Son art thou," 
 
 who is the person referred to ? ' ' No doubt 
 the Messiah there likewise,' was once more the 
 reply. ' But how,' rejoined the lad, could Da- 
 vid call him both his son and his Lord ?' The 
 inquiry was so fair and so apt that the teachers 
 could not decline to meet it ; but it seemed 
 to me that they made miserable work in ex- 
 pounding the sense. Some explained it one 
 way and some another; but the by-standers 
 chuckled at the confusion of the whole bench 
 of doctors. I do earnestly wish," continued 
 Nicodemus, " that a more solid and natural 
 method of interpretation prevailed among our 
 scholars." 
 
 " Ah," said Joseph, " the Messiah himself 
 will soon come, and he will explain every 
 thing." 
 
 "Amen," responded Sarah, "may he come 
 quickly ! " 
 
32 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 Once more a gap of eighteen years occurs in 
 our narrative, and the characters and events 
 rapidly mature. Nicodemus is now an ac- 
 knowledged authority on religious questions, 
 and Joseph a pillar of the State. Obed is a 
 successful man of the world, and their house- 
 holds are among the most respectable in the 
 communities where they dwell. Offices, both 
 imperial and provincial, have changed hands, 
 but have only degenerated in reputation and 
 functions. One of the vilest debauchees 
 hitherto known occupies the throne at Rome, 
 and a coarse venal soldier is his highest repre- 
 sentative in Judea. Public and private morals 
 are at a confessedly low ebb every-where, and 
 in Jerusalem they stand in fearful contrast with 
 the Mosaic law. Suddenly a weird reformer 
 emerges from the deserts east of the city and 
 invites all penitents to wash away their sins in 
 the Jordan as a preparation for the immediate 
 coming of the Messiah. The whole air of the 
 man and of his message strikes the popular 
 fancy, and it immediately becomes fashionable 
 for saint and sinner to enroll themselves among 
 his followers. His pilgrim dress and diet, and 
 his thorough earnestness and sincerity, make a 
 
24 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 profound impression upon the whole vicinity, 
 and soldiers as well as civilians are treated by 
 him with the same impartial strain of exhorta- 
 tion. A woe is impending over the land for 
 its sins, and the Messiah is the only refuge 
 from ruin. Even the Pharisees and synagogue 
 teachers become concerned at the popular com- 
 motion, and after cautiously sounding his pre- 
 tentions they conclude to float with the tide 
 which they cannot stem. As the Baptist does 
 not seem to be ambitious, perhaps they may 
 lead, or at least take advantage of, the relig- 
 ious movement, since he requires such simple 
 terms of membership in what he is pleased 
 to style " the kingdom of heaven," But he 
 sarcastically rejects them as knaves, and it is 
 soon evident that they must fight the new 
 society, although they will proceed gently at 
 first, since it is so strong. At all events the 
 Sanhedrim and the ecclesiastics generally will 
 keep aloof from the popular enthusiasm and 
 watch from a safe distance their opportunity 
 to crush it. 
 
 The three related families of whose affairs 
 we have kept a brief record cannot fail to be 
 observant of the signs of the times, but their 
 
NICODEMUS. 35 
 
 comments and prognostications continue to be 
 as discordant as ever. Obed and Rachel de- 
 clare the Baptist to be an impostor, or at best 
 a mere enthusiast, and they avow their convic- 
 tion that the rabble whom he congregates will 
 soon dissipate of itself, like many other tem- 
 porary excitements. "For," say they, "it 
 evidently has no fundamental principle or plan 
 of concerted action, no bond of union or or- 
 ganization. So long as it does not interfere 
 with the government it is harmless enough ; 
 but doubtless, like all preceding popular move- 
 ments, it will soon come into collision with the 
 Roman power, and then its day will be over. 
 We shall have another terrible scene of carnage 
 and execution." Nicodemus, Joseph, and 
 Sarah, however, think that its deep religious 
 fervor, combined with its unobtrusive course, 
 will lead to permanent good ; especially as it 
 only aims to be a scaffolding upon which the 
 Messiah is to erect his empire. When he ap- 
 pears doubtless there will be stirring times. 
 They only hope and pray that the means and 
 measures under the administration to be ush- 
 ered in may be as calm and pacific as those 
 already inaugurated. They see no signs of war, 
 
36 SKE TCHES OF JE WISH LIFE. 
 
 and are resolved to judge fairly and to act pru- 
 dently. For the present they will not commit 
 themselves openly to the new enterprise, al- 
 though they are favorably inclined toward it. 
 The whole nation, in fact, is in suspense, and 
 they need be in no haste to declare themselves 
 decidedly. They are not much affected by the 
 vague reports of the sudden appearance of a 
 singular young man to whom the Baptist 
 seemed to pay unusual deference as he en- 
 rolled himself by the prescribed rite among 
 his followers, nor by the rumors that this new- 
 comer is himself gathering disciples, and even 
 professes to be able to work miracles, a thing 
 which his precursor has never attempted. They 
 presume this is but a piece of imitation and 
 improvement. 
 
 A few months subsequently, however, on 
 the occasion of the paschal ceremonies at Je- 
 rusalem, an incident occurred which aroused 
 general attention. A stranger, accompanied 
 only by half a dozen followers, entered the 
 outer court of the temple, and summarily ex- 
 pelled all the hucksters and money-brokers 
 from its precincts, claiming, in enigmatical lan- 
 guage, to have some sort of jurisdiction over 
 
NICODEMUS. 87 
 
 the premises. And then he supported this 
 high-handed procedure by several undoubted 
 miracles publicly wrought by him during the 
 day. This rendered him exceedingly popular, 
 notwithstanding his mysterious movements. 
 Nicodemus resolved to ascertain for himself 
 something definite about the new Teacher's 
 origin and purposes ; and in this determination 
 he was warmly seconded by Sarah, but as ear- 
 nestly opposed by the other members of his 
 family. He therefore thought it prudent to 
 seek a private interview with the remarkable 
 stranger; and, having ascertained his lodgings, 
 he visited him in the evening, when all parties 
 were at leisure, and when he was in no danger 
 of being observed by his jealous colleagues of 
 the Sanhedrim. We will give his own account 
 of the conversation as related to his wife on 
 his return : 
 
 " I began," said Nicodemus, " by addressing 
 him courteously with the title of Rabbi, and 
 assuring him that his miracles had convinced 
 me of his divine mission. But he stopped me 
 short, as I was about to make some inquiries 
 concerning himself and his principles, by tell- 
 ing me that the members of his fraternity must 
 
38 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 be * born over again.' * I was puzzled to know 
 the exact meaning of this phrase, especially its 
 application to a well-established religious char- 
 acter like myself; and I frankly expressed my 
 difficulty. He explained that he did not mean 
 a physical, but a spiritual regeneration, and 
 that water baptism is but its symbol. Of 
 course I am familiar with this process of pros- 
 elyte initiation, but I could not perceive its 
 pertinence or necessity under the present cir- 
 cumstances, as we are all native Jews. He 
 rather sharply reproved me for my dullness of 
 comprehension as a professed public teacher, 
 adding that if I were unwilling to accept this 
 his first and simplest lesson I could hardly 
 expect to be inducted into his deeper myste- 
 ries. Nevertheless he proceeded to deliver a 
 most extraordinary lecture, apparently con- 
 cerning himself and his errand, under the two- 
 fold title of ' the Son of man' and ' the Son of 
 
 * I need here only remark that however much more than 
 this may have been, and doubtless was, included in our Lord's 
 significant avutiev, "again" (literally, from above), yet the 
 reply of Nicodemus, and the explanation of Jesus, both make 
 it clear that the idea of a re-birth was the predominant, if not 
 the sole, one which Nicodemus received from it. With this, 
 or involved in it, to a Jewish mind, of course would.be the 
 ceremonial relations which such a change must involve. 
 
NICODEMUS. 39 
 
 God/ I gathered these thoughts as the sub- 
 stance of his doctrine: That men are in danger 
 of eternal ruin as a consequence of their sins ; 
 that the love of God has provided a rescue from 
 this fate ; and that faith in the present Teacher 
 himself is the one condition of this salvation." 
 
 " Is not that all plain enough ? " said Sarah, 
 whose less sophisticated understanding and 
 more chastened spirit drank in the truth with a 
 delighted yearning. " It seems to me," she 
 continued, " that if we can secure Jehovah's 
 favor on these simple terms we can afford to 
 accept the character of him who makes them 
 known without questioning its mystery. I am 
 sure they are far more reasonable than the tedi- 
 ous round of services required by the priests, 
 and especially the endless quibbles raised by 
 the lawyers about their due performance." 
 
 Nicodemus did not answer. Professional 
 pride and long prejudice could not at once re- 
 linquish their hold, but he forebore to disturb 
 the rest which Sarah's child-like heart found 
 on the bosom of the divine compassion. She 
 had long and deeply felt the weary burden of 
 her sins — soul-guilt, which the sacrifices could 
 not reach, which the Levitical law did not even 
 
40 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 name, and which the decalogue only implied 
 without pointing out a remedy ; and she now 
 saw in the simple trust in the forgiving mercy 
 of Jehovah, as she understood the new Teacher 
 to expound it, an avenue of deliverance, clear, 
 full, and instant. She gladly entered this way 
 of wisdom, and at once it proved to her a 
 " path of peace." 
 
 As time moved on the excitement at Jeru- 
 salem about the new Teacher subsided. It 
 was only said that he had taken the Baptist's 
 place on the Jordan, the latter having removed 
 his operations to a point higher up the river, 
 and subsequently being imprisoned by the 
 King of Galilee for some act of rudeness on his 
 part. Reports, it is true, occasionally reached 
 Judea concerning the wide-spread activity of 
 the new Teacher in the northern part of the 
 country, especially his travels and discourses 
 and miracles on the Lake of Gennesaret ; but 
 our friends at the Jewish capital were too much 
 engrossed in their own affairs to give much 
 heed to these distant matters. 
 
 Obed's visit to Tyre many years ago had led 
 to the formation of mercantile connections 
 there which had meanwhile become so ex- 
 
42 SKE TCIIES OF JE WISH LIFE. 
 
 tended as to warrant the establishment of a 
 warehouse at the new port of Cesarea. The 
 import duties were thus transferred to the 
 jurisdiction of the procurator of Judea, and 
 trouble had now arisen there from the extor- 
 tion of the Roman officials appointed by the 
 corrupt Pilate. Similar irregularities were 
 likewise practiced at the old port of Joppa, 
 within the same procuratorship, and the mer- 
 chants of both places deputed Obed to visit 
 Rome and lay their grievances before the im- 
 perial tribunal. He had, accordingly, taken 
 passage the preceding autumn in a coasting 
 vessel to Alexandria, and there been trans- 
 shipped into a larger merchantman bound with 
 a cargo of wheat for Rome. But the vessel 
 had been delayed by stopping at intermediate 
 ports, and on setting out from Crete was 
 caught in one of the Levanters frequent dur- 
 ing the winter months on the Mediterranean, 
 driven into the Syrtis Major on the African 
 coast, and there wrecked. It was supposed 
 that all on board had perished, except a few 
 who had floated ashore on a fragment of the 
 ship ; and as Obed was not among these his 
 family, after waiting in anxious suspense for 
 
NICODEMUS. 43 
 
 tidings from him after his departure, were now 
 plunged into inconsolable grief, when at length 
 the facts reached them by land-post from Nu- 
 midia. Rachel was seized with paroxysms of 
 delirium, and the kind-hearted Joseph, as being 
 the nearest of kin, was now charged with the 
 double burden of her rising family and of 
 his brother-in-law's extensive business. Meas- 
 ures were taken to settle the estate, but here 
 again the corrupt officials made increased delay 
 and expense. 
 
 The home of Nicodemus also was visited 
 with affliction, but of a somewhat different 
 character. The Egyptian friends whose hos- 
 pitality he had enjoyed long before when pass- 
 ing up the Nile had now, after many invita- 
 tions, repaid the visit during the summer 
 months, when Egypt is unhealthful and un- 
 pleasant from the inundation of the river. 
 But Jerusalem they found scarcely more salu- 
 brious at that season, and when autumn ar- 
 rived they were so infected with the Syrian 
 fever that they were unable to return home. 
 The ample mansion of Joseph, conveniently 
 and pleasantly located between the metropolis 
 and the sea-shore, was therefore thrown open 
 
44 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 as a hospital for the invalids of both fami- 
 lies, and many were the tender reunions expe- 
 rienced under its roof during the winter that 
 ensued. Sarah, although herself deeply affected 
 by the loss of her brother, vibrated like an an- 
 gel of comfort between the three domestic 
 establishments ; and many a gentle word of 
 spiritual cheer did she pour into the ear cf the 
 distracted Rachel, as well as minister to the 
 sick from Egypt, unconsciously suggested by 
 the evening's interview of her husband with 
 the unknown Teacher. 
 
 When the Passover festivities again recurred 
 the several families were measurably composed 
 in their separate homes, and Nicodemus once 
 more had the joy of his wife's exclusive com- 
 pany at Jerusalem. She hoped that the Gali- 
 lean would again revisit the city, and that 
 some further opportunity would be afforded of 
 learning his views on many points which she 
 had often revolved in her mind, but of which 
 the reserve of Oriental females forbade her 
 seeking a public solution. She had, therefore, 
 to depend upon her husband for information, 
 and he could only report what he casually 
 gathered in the street or learned from his fel- 
 
NICODEMUS. 45 
 
 lows of the hierarchy who were more on the 
 alert than himself in watching heretics. One 
 day he told her that the Teacher, whose name 
 he learned was Jesus, had instantly cured a 
 case of palsy of thirty-eight years' continu- 
 ance, at the pool near the sheep-gate, although 
 it was the Sabbath-day ; and a few days later 
 he ascertained that he had publicly defended 
 the propriety of this act on grounds of such 
 authority in himself as to provoke the mur- 
 derous fury of the Pharisees. The Teacher, 
 therefore, had probably left the place. They 
 afterward heard of his increasingly renewed 
 labors in Galilee ; .but for a year and a half he 
 was lost to their immediate knowledge. 
 
 Meantime Obed suddenly returned one day 
 to his enraptured family. He had a long story 
 to tell of his adventures. He was one of a 
 little party of passengers who had secretly low- 
 ered the skiff from the lee-side of the ship 
 during the gale, and, after being tossed about 
 and almost famished for days, had partly drifted 
 and partly rowed to the nearest coast of Sicily, 
 where they were kindly entertained by the 
 natives and forwarded to Syracuse. There he 
 made himself sufficiently known to Jewish 
 
46 SKETCHES OE JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 merchants to obtain means of returning home. 
 He would have prosecuted his embassy to 
 Rome, but, having lost his documents, he 
 would have appeared unaccredited before the 
 emperor. He found his own mercantile affairs 
 in a very confused state ; for, although Joseph 
 was competent, judicious, and faithful, he had 
 been proceeding upon the plan of winding up 
 the business ; and the procurator, who had 
 somehow got wind of Obed's errand to Rome, 
 managed to throw every legal impediment in 
 his way. Obed found it necessary to retreat 
 to Tyre, out of Pilate's jurisdiction, with the 
 wrecks of his property. There he felt safe, 
 for Herod was out of humor with the Roman 
 procurator, and would not care to molest a 
 private citizen in order to gratify him. Rachel 
 and the children, of course, accompanied him, 
 and thus one of the family ties of Sarah was 
 impaired by distance. This only served to 
 make her cherish still more warmly in her 
 bosom the germ of the glad tidings which the 
 Galilean Teacher had implanted in her heart 
 through her husband's report. Ah, how many 
 since have found the whole Gospel epitomized 
 in that single verse, " For God so loved the 
 

 NICODEMUS. 47 
 
 world that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life ! " 
 
 The succeeding Passover, as already inti- 
 mated, was not attended by Jesus of Naza- 
 reth — such was the designation by which the 
 new Teacher was now familiarly known 
 throughout the country. He came, however, 
 to the Feast of Tabernacles, but not at its be- 
 ginning, lest he should unnecessarily expose 
 himself to the hostility of the hierarchy. His 
 appearance was the signal for the renewal of 
 a double controversy, of which he was the 
 center. The populace were, divided in their 
 opinion, the majority appealing to his miracles 
 as proof of his philanthropy and Messiahship, 
 and others decrying him as an impostor. These 
 latter were evidently emissaries of the Phari- 
 saic party, who were, nevertheless, amazed at 
 the skill in teaching of one so little trained as 
 he in the schools. Jesus publicly defended 
 himself from their various aspersions till the 
 Sanhedrim, exasperated to find that he was 
 still gaining ground with the people, ordered 
 his arrest. But the officers sent for that pur- 
 pose were themselves disarmed by his elo- 
 
48 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 quence, and a novel scene took place on their 
 return empty-handed. " You are cowards and 
 traitors ! " shouted some of the council. " Is 
 it possible," said the Pharisaic members, " that 
 any one, except the cursed, ignorant rabble, 
 has faith in him ? " Nicodemus himself, net- 
 tled and alarmed at the insinuation, ventured 
 to remark that the accused had a legal right to 
 be heard before being condemned. But he 
 was silenced with the retort, " So thou hast 
 turned advocate for a Galilean prophet ! " 
 The meeting broke up in disorder, and Jesus 
 continued his debate in the temple until his 
 opponents at last took up stones to meet his 
 arguments. 
 
 4 ' What did he say for himself?" eagerly 
 asked Sarah, as her husband recounted these 
 incidents in the evening. 
 
 Nicodemus replied : 
 
 44 He calmly answered their vituperations by 
 asserting his divine origin and character, and 
 he challenged them to test his claims by 
 Scripture and by fact." 
 
 44 Could any thing be more fair than that?" 
 returned she. ' 4 But what didst thou under- 
 stand him to mean by his divinity?" 
 
NICODEMUS. 49 
 
 " It was evidently not merely official, but 
 personal," rejoined her husband ; " yet I could 
 not exactly make it out." 
 
 A few days afterward Nicodemus told his 
 wife that Jesus had publicly cured a man born 
 blind, and that the hierarchy had excommuni- 
 cated the poor fellow for boldly defending his 
 Benefactor. 
 
 " Did any thing further transpire concern- 
 ing the Teacher's own nature ? " inquired she ; 
 for she felt that on this central point was piv- 
 oted his whole work and doctrine. 
 
 " Nothing," replied her husband, " except 
 that, in a beautiful allegory of a sheep-fold, he 
 re-affirmed that God was his Father." 
 
 About three months later Nicodemus was 
 better able to satisfy his wife's curiosity by re- 
 porting that the hierarchy had pointedly ques- 
 tioned Jesus as to his Messiahship while he 
 was teaching in Solomon's Portico at the Fes- 
 tival of Dedication, and that he had explic- 
 itly avowed his unity and equality with God. 
 
 " How did that strike thee ? " asked she. 
 
 " His enemies tried to stone him for blas- 
 phemy," returned Nicodemus, " but he escaped 
 
 and has evaded their efforts to arrest him by 
 4 
 
SO SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 retreating to the scene of his former opera- 
 tions on the Jordan. The man is a riddle to 
 me still," he continued ; " and I must await 
 the issue of his career before I decide as to his 
 character." 
 
 Sarah did not press her husband to resolve 
 his intellectual doubts, but her woman's heart 
 reposed in serene confidence upon the Teach- 
 er's truthfulness, and half-divined the secret 
 of his double selfhood. There were other fe- 
 male disciples of Jesus whose perplexities were 
 far less than those of the favored twelve ; and 
 there was one whose maternal love was an an- 
 tidote for all tormenting fear. From the mo- 
 ment of the annunciation she had learned that 
 there may be a blending of the divine and the 
 human which the very subject of it may not 
 attempt to analyze ; and believers since have 
 ever felt a union which they cannot see. In- 
 carnation is a mystery in the creature ; how 
 much more in the Creator ! But duplexity is 
 not in itself a contradiction, although the ele- 
 ments be variant as mind from matter or as 
 both from God. The infinite may involve, 
 without absorbing, the finite, as it has evolved 
 it without eliminating aught from itself. The 
 
NICODEMUS. 51 
 
 philosopher, no less than the Christian, must 
 accept many facts and formulas which he does 
 not fully comprehend. 
 
 It is now high time that we return to the 
 fortunes of the family whom we left upon the 
 borders of Israel. Obed's affairs had not pros- 
 pered as he anticipated since his removal to 
 Tyre. The native merchants were rather 
 jealous of him as a comparative foreigner and 
 competitor, and as the trade of the place was 
 itself much more limited than in former times 
 there was little opportunity for a new-comer 
 to secure it. In the dullness of business he 
 had leisure for other pursuits, to which he 
 had not given close attention hitherto, but 
 which his subdued experience of late inclined 
 him to investigate. He became especially in- 
 terested in the affairs of his neighbors of Gali- 
 lee, at first through the exchange of commodi- 
 ties, the native products of corn and oil being 
 exported from Tyre, and the price returned in 
 manufactures and articles of luxury brought 
 from all parts of the world. Gradually he 
 learned to listen with attention to the reports 
 of the marvelous deeds of the new Teacher 
 from Nazareth, and insensibly his worldly 
 
52 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 mind began to sympathize with the brilliant 
 prospects of temporal power and personal 
 preferment which the many merely outward 
 partisans of the now famous Personage saw in 
 his future. Obed himself was not so sordid as 
 to wish to follow Jesus merely for the few 
 loaves and fishes which he at present distrib- 
 uted, nor merely for the relief from bodily 
 ailments which he so freely extended ; but he 
 fancied that he discovered in the growing 
 popularity, and still more in the remarkable 
 supernatural endowments, of the young Naza- 
 rene the prestige and the power which, if 
 rightly employed, might aggrandize all his re- 
 tainers. These hopes, however, were suddenly 
 dashed by the act of the Teacher himself, who 
 on one occasion abruptly quitted a company 
 on the lake that were intent on proclaiming 
 him king ; and when they still pursued him to 
 the synagogue of Capernaum he delivered to 
 them a severe lecture on the folly of earthly 
 ambition, which effectually convinced them 
 that they had mistaken their man. Still, 
 Obed's interest had been drawn to Jesus, and 
 his early prejudices arising from the obscure 
 origin of the prophet had been overcome ; he 
 
NICODEMUS. 53 
 
 was now satisfied that the new Teacher was 
 neither insignificant nor uninfluential, and his 
 mind was open to conviction as to his ultimate 
 aim and destiny. Rachel, too, in the facility 
 with which an affectionate wife falls into her 
 kind husband's way of thinking, began to have 
 respect for Jesus, and could no longer shut her 
 eyes nor close her heart against the obvious 
 beneficence of his pre-eminent character. 
 Neither of them had yet seen him nor felt 
 that subtle power which all confessed ema- 
 nated from his person, through every act and 
 word and look. A little incident presently oc- 
 curred in their immediate neighborhood which 
 brought them into close contact with his life 
 and teaching and gave a clear insight into his 
 spirit and character. 
 
 One of the favorite domestics in Obed's 
 family was a poor widow, who, being a native, 
 and therefore a Gentile, occupied a little apart- 
 ment in an adjoining building with her insane 
 daughter, and earned support for them both 
 by giving what time she could spare from the 
 invalid to the care of the linen and bedding of 
 the merchant's household. The maniac child 
 was an object of pity to all the neighbors, for 
 
54 SKE TCHES OF JE WISH LIFE. 
 
 in her paroxysms, which were often of a pe- 
 culiarly nervous character, she would some- 
 times endanger her own life and the safety of 
 the house itself by her strange freaks, not only 
 tearing her clothing and hair, but even casting 
 herself into the water or the fire if she got an 
 opportunity. Her contortions and shrieks 
 were fearful, and in her spasms she personated 
 a foul demon, with which she fancied she was 
 possessed ; nor was the notion wholly one of 
 Oriental superstition, for she acted as if really 
 under some such spell. The afflicted mother 
 had tried every remedy known to Gentile or 
 Jewish practice— medicine, exorcism, and what 
 not ; but all in vain. The disease, if such it 
 could be called, only increased with the growth 
 of the child, and the mother herself was almost 
 distracted about it. One day she heard that 
 the great Galilean Teacher, whose fame for 
 miracle-working had reached every corner and 
 hamlet and individual of that whole region, 
 was in the vicinity ; and in her desperation, 
 heathen, and unacquainted with him as she was, 
 she begged permission of Rachel to test his 
 skill and power in the case. She learned in 
 the city that he was the guest at a villa near 
 
56 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 the so-called tomb of Hiram, on the brow of 
 the hill overlooking the ruins of old Tyre, and, 
 running the whole way, she reaches the outer 
 line of the multitude who pressed to hear him 
 in spite of his efforts at privacy. With all her 
 remaining breath she cried, " O, sir, thou de- 
 scendant of David, the friend of Hiram, help 
 a poor Gentile, and cure my demoniac daugh- 
 ter ! " But he still continued his teaching, ap- 
 parently not hearing or not noticing her. She 
 repeated her request still more loudly, not- 
 withstanding the reproof of the by-standers for 
 her vociferation, until the Teacher's attendants 
 begged him to bid her begone as an intruder 
 and disturber. He merely said, " My errand 
 personally is with Israelites alone ; " but his 
 tone was gentle, though the words were se- 
 vere ; and the forlorn woman, gathering cour- 
 age from her woe, crowded through the throng 
 and cast herself at his feet with the entreaty, 
 " O, sir, do help me! " 
 
 He looked upon her, and there was com- 
 passion in his eye, albeit again his reply was 
 discouraging: " Gentile dogs may not eat the 
 children's food." 
 
 But she would not be repelled; she knew 
 
NICODEMUS. 57 
 
 he could restore her daughter, and she felt 
 that he was not altogether unwilling. With 
 the ingenuity of want and the ingenuousness 
 of humility, she pleaded, " True, sir, I deserve 
 nothing: but dogs may catch the crumbs 
 beneath the children's table." 
 
 He had tested, and he now rewarded, her 
 importunate earnestness. " Great is thy faith, 
 stranger that thou art ; be it to thee accord- 
 ingly/' was his gracious reply ; and it carried 
 to her consciousness the assurance of its own 
 verification. She hastened home and found 
 her daughter well. Jesus soon departed from 
 the neighborhood, and not long after he finally 
 quitted Galilee. 
 
 His exile from Jerusalem was barely long 
 enough to allow the heat of controversy to 
 slacken ; he was recalled by an incident which 
 revived it with redoubled fury. His abode 
 during his annual visits to the Jewish metrop- 
 olis had been with a humble family at Beth- 
 any, just across the Mount of Olives, consist- 
 ing of two unmarried sisters, the elder named 
 Martha and the younger Mary, who kept 
 house for their brother Lazarus. As Jesus 
 was teaching near the Jordan he received an 
 
58 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 urgent message to come immediately to Beth- 
 any, for Lazarus was suddenly taken very ill. 
 He did not go, however, till two days after- 
 ward, although aware that his friend had died 
 meanwhile, his design being to effect a still 
 greater miracle than his cure. Accordingly, he 
 assuaged the grief of the sisters by raising 
 their brother to life after he had lain several 
 days in the grave. The hierarchy were so 
 provoked by the popularity produced by the 
 resurrection of Lazarus that they were anxious 
 to kill him also ; and Jesus deemed it prudent 
 again to withdraw from the vicinity. He re- 
 turned, however, in order to celebrate the 
 coming Passover, and once more took up his 
 abode with his friends at Bethany. Nicode- 
 mus and Joseph were likewise at the festival, 
 and what may be regarded as an impartial ac- 
 count of the events of the week following may 
 be found in the letters which Sarah wrote on 
 the spot to her sister-in-law at Tyre. 
 
 " Jerusalem, i ith Nisan. 
 " My Dear Rachel : Our city is likely 
 soon to be the scene of some decisive public 
 collision between the Galilean Teacher and 
 
60 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 the Pharisaical authorities here. This morn- 
 ing he came into the temple, attended by 
 his twelve special disciples, and accompanied 
 by a crowd of villagers and towns-people, 
 who shouted as the procession passed down 
 the slope of Olivet and across the Kidron, 
 hailing him as the coming King of David's 
 line. It is true they were altogether common 
 sort of folks, and largely children; but their 
 enthusiasm was unbounded. It dreadfully an- 
 noyed the hierarchy, who tried to stop their 
 applause, but in vain. He was seated on their 
 coats thrown over the back of an ass, with her 
 foal by her side, and palm-branches had been 
 strown along the road as in a triumphal pro- 
 cession. I confess, as I looked out of the east 
 balcony window of our house on Ophel, it was 
 a pretty and rather imposing sight. The 
 Teacher himself, however, looked sad, and I 
 thought I saw tears in his eyes. O, it was a 
 sweet, melancholy face, full of manly dignity 
 and womanly tenderness. Somehow it strange- 
 ly reminded me of the Babe of Bethlehem 
 many years ago. It looked the very image 
 of that gentle pensive mother's ; the same 
 blond complexion, so unusual in our coun- 
 
NICODEMUS. 61 
 
 trymen ; and the hair parted in the same 
 way in the middle of the forehead, and 
 hanging in ringlets over the shoulders. My 
 husband says that as soon as Jesus came in- 
 side the Gentiles' court he turned out all the 
 traffickers, as he did three years ago, and that 
 he spent the day in the temple teaching and 
 working various cures, returning at night to 
 his friends' cottage at Bethany. They think 
 the world of him, and made him quite a sup- 
 per a few evenings since. I do not wonder, 
 for it certainly was a most remarkable thing, 
 his raising the brother from the dead. The 
 whole city is full of the report, and the Phari- 
 sees are more exasperated than ever. O, dear, 
 I hope they will not harm him, he is so kind 
 and noble! But I think he is abundantly able 
 to take care of himself, even without the aid 
 of the common people, who are devoted to 
 him. He is remarkably self-possessed and 
 judicious, although decided enough in rebuk- 
 ing sin, and stern especially toward the crafty 
 Pharisees. And then, he must have infinite 
 resources in his miraculous gifts, although I be- 
 lieve he has been never known to use them for 
 his own benefit. As my husband says, he is cer- 
 
62 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 tainly a unique person. If such a thing were 
 possible that Jehovah should come down in 
 human form, as he did when the angels visited 
 Abraham, I should think he must seem just 
 such a being. Didst thou ever think about 
 that singular prediction in Isaiah, where the 
 Messiah is called God with us ? I have of 
 late been reading the Scriptures more carefully 
 than ever before, especially with a view to 
 solving the mystery about this new Teacher. 
 He seems to me to fulfill the promises and de- 
 scriptions more perfectly than any one else I 
 can think of, although in a way somewhat 
 different from what I have been educated to 
 expect. I know thou art looking for a tem- 
 poral ruler and an earthly conqueror; but, 
 dear sister, I have begun to suspect that his 
 kingdom may be purely spiritual, and his realm 
 his followers' hearts. This may be only a 
 woman's notion, and my husband is ready to 
 laugh me out of it ; but I cannot think that 
 we as a nation or as individuals would gain 
 any thing by getting into a war with the Ro- 
 mans or with our neighbors, as this popular 
 idea of the Messiah implies. What I want 
 most of all is rest from sin and peace of mind ; 
 
NICODEMUS. 63 
 
 and these I get more in the repose of this 
 Galilean's blessed look and his soothing words, 
 so far as I have had them repeated to me, than 
 in any thing else. 
 
 " I shall watch the progress of matters here 
 very closely, and keep thee informed of all I 
 can learn. I hope thou wilt be interested 
 likewise, and that even my brother will not be 
 unconcerned. Thine, affectionately, 
 
 " Sarah." 
 
 " 13th Nlsan. 
 " Yesterday was quiet here in Jerusalem. 
 Jesus of Nazareth visited the city and taught 
 in the temple as before ; but there was no 
 popular demonstration, and therefore no spe- 
 cial opposition by his enemies. It is said only 
 that on his way early to the city, not having 
 had any breakfast, he went a little out of the 
 direct path from Bethany, expecting to get 
 some early figs on a tree of unusual forward- 
 ness for the season, but found it had expended 
 its strength in leaves only. Those who passed 
 by it since find that it has entirely withered 
 to the very roots. I presume this is one of his 
 miracle lessons, but what it means I cannot 
 
64 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 divine, unless to teach that profession is worth- 
 less without practice. Perhaps it is a sly- 
 thrust at the Pharisees, who boast loudly of 
 piety, but have very little genuine fruit. 
 
 " To-day the Teacher was very busy in the 
 temple lecturing and curing, especially in the 
 women's court, where I had myself the curiosity 
 to observe him. I cannot tell thee how delighted 
 I was. There was a poor widow who dropped a 
 few trifling coins into the contribution-box, and 
 he beautifully said that she had given propor- 
 tionately more than all the ostentatious weal- 
 thy ones. Some Gentiles called him into the 
 outer court for an interview, and as I was near 
 that side I heard him say some very ominous 
 things about a grain of wheat decaying in the 
 ground before it can bear fruit, and about his 
 being lifted up from the earth. He seems to 
 be very despondent about himself, and I am 
 afraid that mischief is brewing against him. I 
 noticed that the Pharisees caviled at his re- 
 marks in a very coarse way. But he paid all 
 parties back with interest when they flocked 
 about him to puzzle him with their hard 
 points. First, the Herodianscame to him with 
 the standing dispute about paying tribute to 
 
NICODEMUS. 65 
 
 the Romans; but he merely pointed to the 
 emperor's effigy on the coin in proof of ac- 
 knowledged jurisdiction. Next, the Sadducees 
 put to him a supposed case of a woman's 
 levirate marriage with seven brothers success- 
 ively, and asked him whose wife she would 
 be in the next world. But he simply told 
 them that there would be no such earthly rela- 
 tion there at all, and then deepened their con- 
 fusion by citing the title of Jehovah as still the 
 God of the patriarchs, who must therefore be 
 in some sense yet living. Lastly, the Pharisees 
 plied him with the famous problem of the most 
 important commandment, and he referred them 
 to the familiar passage of our phylacteries, 
 ' Thou shalt love Jehovah with all thy heart,' 
 as comprehending every divine duty. It is 
 wonderful how easily he met all their sophis- 
 tries and untied their cunning knots. He has 
 a most astonishing grasp and insight of the 
 Scriptures, for he added as the great fellow- 
 commandment, covering the second table of 
 the law, as the other did the first, that striking 
 prescription, so little heeded by us Jews, ' Thou 
 shalt love thy neighbor as thyself?' All par- 
 ties were obliged to confess how admirably he 
 
66 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 had cleared up every point propounded to him. 
 But, best of all, he finally turned the tables 
 upon all his opponents by putting to them the 
 identical question which thou rememberest 
 my husband years ago told us he heard asked 
 by the precocious lad in the temple school- 
 room, about David's Son and Lord. Can he 
 be the same person with that child ? Strange 
 that he should thus repeatedly recur in our 
 recollections ! I could have sat and listened 
 all day to such lovely and instructive parables 
 and teachings as he uttered ; but he suddenly 
 left with his disciples, and when I reached 
 home I saw them sitting in earnest conversa- 
 tion on the opposite side of Olivet. O, how I 
 envy those women who seem to be his com- 
 panions together with the twelve I I fancied 
 I saw in the calm and thoughtful but still 
 beautiful face of the oldest a resemblance to 
 his own features. Can it be his mother? Is 
 it the wan relic of the once bright girl of 
 Bethlehem? What scenes of heart experience 
 she must meanwhile have gone through ! 
 
 " Dear sister, thou canst not know how 
 deeply I am interested in that little circle, and 
 especially in Him who is its center. I think 
 
NI CO DEM US. 67 
 
 by day and by night of his teachings, his mys- 
 terious character, his perils. I feel as if my 
 future — I may almost say my eternal prospects 
 — are hinged upon his fate. If such goodness, 
 such purity, such philanthropy, come to grief 
 or end in naught, what is there worth living 
 for? What can be depended upon as valuable 
 and permanent? Sarah." 
 
 " 1 6th Nisan. 
 
 •'Yesterday was a day of horrors. I was 
 too much occupied and shocked to be able to 
 write ; and even to-day I am overwhelmed 
 with grief and amazement. I can hardly com- 
 pose my mind to tell thee what has happened; 
 but I will endeavor to calm myself sufficiently 
 to give thee some account of it. The great 
 Teacher has been put to death by his enemies! 
 That terrible fact blots out all my hopes, and 
 makes this Passover seem a funeral season to 
 me. Let me relate, as well as I can, how it 
 occurred. 
 
 " Day before yesterday, it seems, the chief 
 priests secretly bargained with one of his twelve 
 disciples to betray him into their hands on 
 the first safe opportunity, when the populace 
 
68 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 should be out of the way, who would have 
 rescued him had the attempt to seize him 
 been made in public. The traitor knew that 
 his Master was in the habit of stopping for 
 private prayer in an olive orchard on the way 
 from Jerusalem to Bethany, and he concerted 
 that the officials should meet him there at the 
 close of the paschal supper. It was late at 
 night when he arrived there, but they were on 
 hand, and at a preconcerted signal they seized, 
 bound, and carried him off. He made not the 
 slightest resistance, but merely stipulated for 
 the safety of his disciples. For convenience 
 he was conveyed first to Annas, the ex-high- 
 priest, whose authority he refused to recog- 
 nize ; and then, at early light, he was brought 
 before Caiaphas, the president of the Sanhe- 
 drim, who immediately assembled that body 
 and arraigned him as a prisoner before them. 
 The forms of trial were observed, but every 
 principle of justice was outraged. Finally, 
 they brought in two venal fellows who swore 
 that he had threatened to destroy the temple ; 
 but their testimony did not agree in the de- 
 tails, and so proved nothing. Determined to 
 convict him of some capital crime at all haz- 
 
73 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 ards, the high-priest now put Jesus himself 
 on his own oath as to his claims to the Mes- 
 siahship, and then made use of his forced an- 
 swer to convict him of blasphemy. My hus- 
 band learned all these particulars from one of 
 his colleagues afterward, for thou mayest be 
 sure he was not in their plans and was not 
 even notified of the meeting. The difficulty 
 now was how to get the prisoner executed. 
 The hierarchy dared not undertake it them- 
 selves, for fear of the people no less than of the 
 Roman authorities, especially on so great a 
 feast day, when the city was crowded with 
 visitors, and a disturbance would be likely to 
 take place. They at last resolved to get Pilate 
 himself to take the responsibility, knowing 
 that he cared very little for the life of a pri- 
 vate citizen. Accordingly, as soon as the proc- 
 urator had opened his tribunal they led Jesus 
 thither and asked him to confirm their own 
 sentence. Suspecting the ruse, he demanded 
 to know what offense the prisoner had com- 
 mitted, and they began vehemently to charge 
 him with various crimes, especially of claiming 
 to be the King of the Jews. ' A strange-look- 
 ing person to make such a claim,' said Pilate; 
 
NICODEMUS. 11 
 
 and so he took the prisoner aside, supposing 
 him to be some harmless enthusiast. A few 
 words of conversation satisfied him that Jesus 
 cherished at least no political aspirations, and 
 he told the accusers that he would merely 
 order a few lashes to be given the prisoner 
 by way of warning. The soldiers accordingly 
 took the liberty of treating Jesus with all 
 sorts of personal indignity, suggested by the 
 malice of the hierarchal minions, who had 
 previously done whatever they dared in the 
 same way in the high-priest's court. His per- 
 secutors, however, were not satisfied with this, 
 but clamored for his blood ; and when Pilate 
 proposed to release him, as is customary for 
 the procurator to do with some one Jewish 
 criminal on the paschal holiday, they asked 
 for the liberation of the notorious outlaw 
 Jesus Barabbas, and the crucifixion of Jesus 
 of Nazareth. ' I cannot legally put him to 
 death,' remonstrated Pilate, ' unless you specify 
 some more heinous crime than you have yet 
 showed him to have committed.' ' O,' shouted 
 the}', ' he is an arrant insurrectionist from 
 Galilee ! ' 'Aha ! ' said he, catching at the last 
 word, 'then he belongs to Herod's jurisdic- 
 
72 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 tion.' So he immediately dispatched him to 
 that prince, who chanced at the time to be on 
 a visit to the city, glad both to get rid of the 
 case himself and at the same time to do his 
 royal neighbor a courtesy. But Jesus de- 
 clined to answer any of Herod's curious ques- 
 tions, and so, being able to make nothing out 
 of him, the prince sent him back again to 
 Pilate, scornfully decked out with the mock 
 ensigns of royalty. ' See, there comes your 
 King! ' said Pilate to the Jews, as the soldiers 
 led him in. ' Xo ! ' cried the artful prosecutors, 
 eating their own words of the few days before, 
 'the emperor is our only sovereign.' Just 
 then the procurator's wife, Claudia Procula, 
 who had overheard the uproar from her bed- 
 room window, sent him word by no means to 
 condemn the innocent prisoner. I have often 
 talked with her about him, dear sister, and I 
 know that she thinks as I do in the matter. 
 The hierarchy, on the other hand, had now 
 mustered in full force, and they vociferated, 
 1 If thou let this seditious culprit go we will 
 see that the emperor hears of thy negligence.' 
 The fickle and corrupt governor hesitated. He 
 was convinced of the prisoner's innocence, and 
 
NICODEMUS. 73 
 
 would have saved him if he could safely and 
 conveniently have done so ; but this last sug- 
 gestion prevailed, and reluctantly he gave his 
 assent to the demands of the priesthood, feebly 
 protesting by formally washing his hands, as 
 if that could free his conscience from the re- 
 sponsibility. 
 
 " It was now near the middle of the forenoon, 
 and the execution of the terrible sentence after 
 the barbarous Roman fashion took place im- 
 mediately and in public. A rough cross was 
 hastily constructed and brought to the spot, 
 and the prisoner was compelled to walk with it 
 on his shoulder to the place of execution. A 
 motley crowd gathered along the street. The 
 priests gloated over their victim with evident 
 triumph ; but the populace looked on with 
 helpless sympathy. None of his immediate 
 disciples Avere present, except one who sup- 
 ported the trembling mother by the side of the 
 doomed. Numbers of Jewish women fell into 
 the mournful procession, and I could not my- 
 self resist the desire to mingle my tears with 
 theirs as soon as I learned what was going on. 
 How different the Teacher looked from his ap- 
 pearance when he first entered the city this 
 
VIA DOLOROSA, JERUSALEM. 
 
NICODEMUS. 75 
 
 week ! His face was haggard with last night's 
 sleeplessness and his recent scourging. His pale 
 brow was stained with bloody wounds. His 
 garments were disheveled and soiled with 
 dust. But the same majesty still hung about 
 his person, and composure reigned in his mien. 
 The look of placid sorrow was only deepened 
 by his fallen circumstances, and his words were 
 tender and thoughtful of others : ' Weep not 
 for me, daughters of Jerusalem, but for your- 
 selves and your children.' Surely our country , 
 must some day expiate this deed with fearful 
 retribution. I saw him faint under the fatigue 
 and degradation, and my husband carried me 
 senseless away. I could not bear to inquire 
 about the frightful details which I know must 
 have ensued. I only awoke myself to con- 
 sciousness about noon and found the whole 
 city wrapped in the darkness of an eclipse. 
 Was it Nature herself hiding her face from the 
 scene of guilt and woe ? I was told that the 
 veil of the temple was torn and that shocks of 
 an earthquake were felt. The hard Roman 
 centurion who superintended the execution 
 confessed that the dying agonies must be those 
 of the Son of God. 
 
73 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 "Toward evening my husband went out 
 with thy kind brother to look after the fate of 
 the poor sufferer. He found Jesus hanging 
 limp upon the cross, and the ruthless soldier 
 on guard thrust a spear into the corpse's side 
 to see if life were quite extinct. The two rob- 
 bers who were crucified on either side had been 
 dispatched by breaking their legs in order to 
 put them out of their misery before the Sab- 
 bath eve began. Pilate gave permission for the 
 removal of the bodies, and that of the great 
 Teacher was laid, after a hasty embalmment, in 
 thy brother's new vault close by. All was quiet 
 around. The crowd of spectators had departed, 
 and only the female friends of the Nazarene re- 
 mained to watch their dead. 
 
 " O, sister, what are we to think of all this ? 
 My head swims and my heart sinks with con- 
 fusion. I am struck dumb with disappoint- 
 ment and dismay. I feel as I did when I lost 
 my own darling boy years ago and dared not 
 look up to heaven lest I should murmur in 
 mistake. Yet I must still confide in God as 
 good and just and wise, and I cannot believe 
 the Galilean Teacher an impostor. I now see 
 the reason of his sad presentiment, and I am 
 
75 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 sure that he foresaw some retrieval from the 
 present catastrophe. Yet I cannot imagine 
 what it will be. His friends are heart-broken 
 and his enemies jubilant. All speak of him, 
 however, with bated breath. A hush, as of 
 some terrible calamity, rests on this bright Sab- 
 bath day, and every one seems to tread on tip- 
 toe, not so much in expectation as in the dread 
 of breaking the repose of the grave. Early 
 this morning soldiers were stationed to watch 
 the sepulcher ; for it seems the hierarchy them- 
 selves are not yet quite sure of success. Are 
 they afraid even of the dead body of their vic- 
 tim ? For myself, whatever may come about, 
 I am resolved to cherish his past teachings, 
 for my inmost heart assures me of their truth ; 
 and I will hold his memory dear as that of a 
 martyr, however unsuccessful. Alas ! that the 
 tallest tree should feel the lightning's greatest 
 shock, and the fairest of earth's blossoms so 
 quickly wither beneath the scorching breath of 
 envious malignity ! SARAH." 
 
 Such we may picture as the aspect of affairs 
 at this. crisis to a loving woman's mind. How 
 momentous it was in the world's history no 
 
N1C0DEMUS. 79 
 
 man at the time could possibly understand. 
 Angels, who gazed with breathless interest 
 upon the apparent consummation of the plot, 
 were not themselves able to conjecture what 
 would be its real issue. The mystery of re- 
 demption was a secret in the divine counsels, 
 to be revealed in due course of time. The 
 woman's Seed had received the predicted 
 wound in his human part ; but that heel was 
 yet to be uplifted and crush the serpent's head 
 with a fatal blow. 
 
 The first circumstance that roused Sarah 
 from the consternation and almost stupor into 
 which the tragedy of Calvary had thrown her 
 was the news of the sudden disappearance, 
 on the following morning, of the body of 
 the Galilean Teacher from the tomb where it 
 had been deposited. The Roman sentinels 
 had circulated the report that his disciples had 
 secretly conveyed it away while they slept 
 at their post. But every body at once asked, 
 " How, then, could they know this if they 
 were themselves asleep at the time?" Pilate 
 evidently did not believe the story, or he would 
 have punished them for their remissness in 
 duty. Besides, why should the disciples steal 
 
80 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 the body, and what would they do with it ? 
 How could they get it when it was so closely 
 guarded ? But it was certainly gone ; nobody 
 could doubt that. Gradually the truth began 
 to gain ground, whispered privately at first, 
 but soon confirmed by many circumstances, 
 especially his own predictions to that effect, 
 that he had spontaneously left the tomb. The 
 inner circle, of which Sarah was now recognized 
 as a quasi-member, plainly declared this after 
 a few days, and several of the disciples affirmed 
 that they had seen, touched, and conversed 
 with their Master alive on various occasions. 
 He suddenly and mysteriously came and van- 
 ished, showing a semi-angelic nature ; but he 
 looked and walked and, eventually, ate just 
 like his veritable self. He was seen in various 
 parts of the country, but had no fixed place 
 or visible mode of subsistence. A company 
 of more than five hundred of his friends met 
 him by appointment on a mountain in Galilee ; 
 and, finally, after more than a month of this 
 desultory sojourn on earth, he took his depart- 
 ure by ascending bodily into the sky in the 
 plain sight of his disciples, from the eastern 
 slope of Olivet. 
 
NICODEMUS. 81 
 
 All this was carefully ascertained by Sarah 
 and verified by the statements of numbers of 
 his followers who had no object in deceiving 
 her or in deluding themselves. The facts were 
 strange, but unquestionable. His friends had 
 mostly abandoned all their personal expecta- 
 tions and were barely keeping up a slight show 
 of association together by these casual inci- 
 dents ; but a few of them, including his apos- 
 tles, the Galilean women, and other special 
 votaries, like Sarah, clung closely to each other, 
 especially after his ascension, impelled by a 
 particular promise that he had given them of 
 a peculiar divine endowment which they should 
 soon experience collectively. In fact, they 
 held meetings for conference and prayer for 
 about ten days almost continuously, the num- 
 ber of persons being altogether more than one 
 hundred, assembled usually in the same upper 
 room where the Master had celebrated his last 
 Passover, and which belonged to one favorable 
 to the cause. Nicodemus and Joseph likewise 
 attended occasionally, for they were generally 
 regarded as adherents of the Nazarene ; and so 
 great soon became their attachment that Sarah 
 invited her brother and his wife, who had of 
 
82 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 late become more deeply interested than ever 
 in the fortunes of the Galilean prophet through 
 her representations, to spend the approaching 
 Pentecost in Jerusalem. 
 
 That day, celebrated as the anniversary of 
 the giving of the law on Sinai, the believers in 
 Jesus felt was likely to be signalized by an 
 event equally memorable to them. They were 
 all therefore duly assembled and engaged in 
 prayer and praise. Suddenly a loud noise, as 
 of a strong- wind, was heard throughout the 
 apartment; tongues like flame shot upward 
 from the head of each person ; and their exer- 
 cises were turned into ecstatic ejaculations and 
 rejoicings. The sound of their voices, though 
 in varied languages which many who uttered 
 them had never before known, was nevertheless 
 in concert ; and the strange scene soon at- 
 tracted even passers-by, who gazed and listened 
 with astonishment. The city was. full of for- 
 eigners from every section of the Roman 
 world, but all who crowded into the room rec- 
 ognized in the shouts and exhortations his own 
 mother-tongue. A few. of the spectators deemed 
 the apparent confusion the effect of intoxica- 
 tion, so excited were the speakers and so inco- 
 
NICODEMUS. S3 
 
 herent or unmeaning their language to those 
 who could not understand it ; but the majority 
 were compelled to own in it the power of 
 God. 
 
 The event produced a tremendous sensation, 
 leading multitudes who had hitherto been in- 
 different or even opposed to the Nazarene to 
 embrace his doctrines and enroll themselves 
 among his followers. Nor was the influence less 
 striking upon the believers themselves. It 
 roused their courage, animated their zeal, and 
 gave them fervor both in spirit and in utter- 
 ance. Their worldliness fell off, their listless- 
 ness disappeared, and spiritual views gave 
 new impulse and steadiness to their aims and 
 actions. It was the unction of the Holy Spirit 
 which now warmed their service with filial love 
 and consecration. The miraculous endowments 
 which attended this inner experience were but 
 the external symbols of a manifestation that 
 was designed to characterize a new dispensa- 
 tion. Peter, the foreman of the apostolic 
 panel, at once fired with a boldness in striking 
 contrast with his late defection, made a stirring 
 address to the auditors, charging home upon 
 the priests the murder of his Master and urging 
 
84 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 all to repentance and faith in the Nazarene. 
 This was the baptism from on high predicted 
 by the prophets of old, re-affirmed by John, 
 and promised by Jesus as a seal of the organi- 
 zation of the true members of the kingdom of 
 heaven. It became thenceforth their universal 
 privilege and their badge for all time ; but the 
 miraculous accompaniments were, after this 
 initial bestowment, to be conferred only by 
 the apostles' hands, and therefore were con- 
 fined to their own age. Greatly misappre- 
 hended, even by professed interpreters of 
 Scripture, it was, nevertheless, when properly 
 viewed in its relations and design, a beautiful 
 exemplification of the new life and liberty 
 of the Gospel. What a pity that Christians 
 should ever come to be inexperienced in its 
 blessedness ! How lamentable that any should 
 be skeptical of its reality, importance, or per- 
 manence ! 
 
 In that hour Nicodemus for the first time 
 truly understood his first lesson from the Mas- 
 ter's lips, Like many of the present day he, 
 with his relatives, had been lying at the pool 
 of regeneration, waiting for a revival impulse 
 to bear them into its cleansing and renewing 
 
NI CO DEM US. 85 
 
 water. With Sarah, as with the more intimate 
 acquaintances of the Teacher, the change 
 was less obvious, but none the less profound. 
 It absorbed her whole nature, penetrated 
 to her inmost soul, and made her heart a 
 perfect shrine of the indwelling Jehovah. 
 Jesus was thenceforth her one Lord. The 
 mystery of his divinity was fully and forever 
 solved for her. Even Obed and Rachel were 
 constrained to yield their remaining doubts 
 and cast in their lot with the new converts, 
 who before the close of the day numbered 
 three thousand. 
 
 The infant Church enjoyed after this a short 
 halcyon season of rest from outward opposi- 
 tion. The fury of the hierarchy had been 
 measurably appeased by the death of Jesus, 
 and his followers seemed yet too feeble to 
 attract special public consideration. Rapidly 
 they gained in numbers, however, and in pop- 
 ular favor, and the picture of their communal 
 mode of life is charming for its simplicity and 
 harmony. Among the converts our friends 
 soon became conspicuous for their whole-heart- 
 edness. Being of the wealthier class, they 
 cheerfully contributed their worldly means to- 
 
86 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 ward the support of the many poorer members, 
 most of whom were mere sojourners at Jeru- 
 salem far away from their usual resources, 
 while others were reduced to destitution by 
 the abandonment of their Jewish relatives.. 
 The miraculous cure of the cripple at the Beau- 
 tiful Gate raised, indeed, a ripple of priestly 
 persecution against them, which was swelled 
 into quite a wave by the bold preaching of the 
 apostles after their second release from prison ; 
 but the mild counsel of Gamaliel averted the 
 storm for the present, and it was not till about 
 a year subsequently to the crucifixion that a 
 fresh and resolute champion of Pharisaism 
 arose in the person of Saul of Tarsus, who, 
 beginning with the official arrest and execution 
 of the protomartyr Stephen, carried wholesale 
 desolation into the homes of the Christians 
 throughout the land. His hostile career was 
 suddenly stopped by the vision on the plain of 
 Damascus, and he became a flaming advocate 
 of the faith which he had before despised and 
 assailed. During the lull which followed, and 
 prior to his assumption of public labor as an 
 apostle, occurred a series of incidents in Pal- 
 estine in connection with which it will be con- 
 
NICODEMUS. 87 
 
 venient to terminate this account of Nicode- 
 mus and his kindred. 
 
 The signal fate of Ananias and Sapphira 
 induced still more of the Christian community 
 to relinquish the whole of their property for 
 the benefit of their less favored brethren, and 
 our friends, among the rest, determined to fol- 
 low the general example. The financial affairs 
 of Obed had not for years been in a very flour- 
 ishing condition, and he, therefore, had com- 
 paratively little to contribute to the common 
 stock. The wealth of Nicodemus, however, 
 was considerable, and that of Joseph still more 
 so ; but it was all gladly- consecrated to the 
 new cause, and from that time they mostly lost 
 their influence as Jews, among whom, not less 
 than in Gentile and modern society, money is 
 too often the passport to favor and the syn- 
 onym of worth. They had long since ceased 
 to be treated or regarded as members of the 
 Sanhedrim, or to be invited to any public coun- 
 cils of the country or city in which the Phar- 
 isaic and the Sadducaic factions had made 
 common cause against the new sect of the 
 Nazarenes. The children of the three fami- 
 lies, however, were now all comfortably settled 
 
8S SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 in life, and no provision was required to meet 
 the simple wants of our three friends and their 
 wives beyond what the social arrangements of 
 the Christian community afforded. Their time 
 was exclusively and delightfully spent in min- 
 istering to the necessities of the poor members, 
 who had now become quite an eleemosynary 
 institution, especially the home for the widows, 
 where Sarah and Rachel found congenial occu- 
 pation. The organization of the twelve dea- 
 cons did not supersede this pious task, espe- 
 cially as the outbreak of enmity in connection 
 with the death of Stephen scattered the offi- 
 cers of the young Church and left more for 
 less conspicuous members to do. Therefore, 
 while Philip was preaching in Samaria and 
 elsewhere, and Peter at Joppa and Cesarea, 
 and Barnabas at Antioch, the hands of these 
 aged saints were equally busy in tending the 
 fragments of the flock at Jerusalem. Contri- 
 butions, indeed, began to flow into the mother- 
 Church from the daughter outgrowth, especially 
 during the famine predicted by Agabus, and 
 the same benevolent practice was kept up 
 when the Gospel, much later, had spread to 
 the cities of Europe. How much of the sue- 
 
NICODEMUS. 89 
 
 cess of the Church in every age is due to such 
 lay labors, which, like Aaron and Hur, stay up 
 the arms of the captain of the Lord's work ! 
 
 Meantime Judea had reverted from Roman 
 procuratorship to the Herodian family, and 
 was ruled by a grandson, surnamed Agrippa, 
 in connection with the northern provinces, 
 which had remained as his patrimony. Hav- 
 ing established his head-quarters at Jerusalem 
 he was anxious to conciliate the priestly class 
 predominant there, and thus readily lent him- 
 self to the persecution of the Christians. The 
 apostles naturally became prominent marks for 
 the royal fury, and of the three remaining at 
 his capital James, the son of Zebedee, was soon 
 singled out for the sword on account of his 
 fiery zeal. The other James, being of a milder 
 disposition, long continued as the resident 
 bishop there. Impetuous Peter did not escape 
 attention. He was arrested by order of 
 Agrippa, and only awaited the coming holiday 
 as another victim to gratify the blood-thirsty 
 hierarchy. But prayer arose in his behalf from 
 every Christian circle, and late on Passover eve 
 one of these continued at the house of John 
 Mark's mother within the city walls. Sud- 
 
90 SKE TCHES OF JE WISH LIFE. 
 
 denly knocking was heard at the street door, 
 and Rhoda, the maid, ran through the alley to 
 listen, apprehensive of still further emissaries 
 from the king. She was so astonished to hear 
 Peter's voice outside that she ran back, forget- 
 ting even to unbar the door. He was soon 
 admitted, however, and in few words related 
 the manner of his release. A flaming angel 
 had loosened his manacles and opened the 
 prison door unperceived by the sentry on 
 guard and unknown even to the two soldiers 
 sleeping at the other ends of the chains upon 
 his wrists. The outer prison-gate was in like 
 manner passed, and then the great iron gate 
 of the inner city wall, which opened of itself. 
 He traversed the street and found his way to 
 the well-known abode of his friends. Before 
 morning he was safely out of the reach of his 
 enemies. Agrippa could only punish the sol- 
 diers for their failure to produce their prisoner, 
 but he was so vexed at the disappointment 
 that he removed his head-quarters to Cesarea. 
 Shortly afterward a deputation from Phenicia 
 waited upon him to patch up a quarrel which 
 he had got into about his jurisdiction there, 
 and he gave them a splendid reception. They 
 
NICODEMUS. 91 
 
 applauded the oration which he made them 
 from the throne as a piece of divine eloquence, 
 and from that instant the same disgusting dis- 
 ease which had carried off his grandfather at- 
 tacked him, and he soon died in frightful tor- 
 ments. Retribution overtook him speedily for 
 his cruelty and impiety. 
 
 The end approaches. With the good it is 
 always blessed. Sarah lay quietly on her 
 couch, her hand in the faithful clasp of her 
 husband, her eyes turned upward and her lips 
 gently parted in silent prayer. 
 
 " Dost thou remember," she faintly said, 
 " the saintly look of the aged Anna as we stood 
 with hands interlocked long years ago gazing 
 upon the presentation in the temple of the Babe 
 of Bethlehem ? " 
 
 " Aye, well I recall it," he answered softly, 
 " and the devout words of the venerable 
 Simeon, too, as he hailed the passport of re- 
 lease from earth." 
 
 A glow of heavenly joy passed over her pale 
 features; she murmured, " Come, Lord Jesus; 
 come quickly!" Her head fell back; her 
 fingers relaxed. She was gone to the better 
 land to behold the King in his beauty. Nico- 
 
92 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 demus tarried yet a few years this side the 
 river ; but his heart was already where his 
 treasure had long since been stored, and he 
 only looked for the summons to cross like- 
 wise. Without a misgiving or a regret he 
 stepped calmly at last down into the waves; 
 they parted at his touch, and, with words 
 of holy triumph, he passed to the heavenly 
 inheritance. Obed and Rachel too, in due 
 time, came to the brink of the same stream, 
 which all must cross, but where only the 
 pious can discern the stepping-stones planted 
 by earlier pilgrims in its bed. That little 
 river, once hallowed by the consecration of 
 the Son of God and mingled with the cur- 
 rent of sacred history, has borne many on to 
 the bitter waters of the sea of death ; and it 
 has bathed thousands from many lands in its 
 sweet but turbid waves. Thanks to divine 
 revelation, Ave think of it not merely as a 
 Lethean draught of oblivion from this world's 
 sorrows, but as a torrent rolling with the water 
 of life from the mount of God, its banks lined 
 with immortal verdure and dispensing gladness 
 evermore. 
 
GAMALIEL; 
 
 SCENES IN THE DAYS OF SAINT PAUL 
 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE principal facts in the life of the apostle to the Gentiles 
 are too well known to need recital in detail. In this 
 sketch I shall, therefore, presume upon a general familiarity 
 with them, and only refer to them briefly and incidentally. 
 My chief purpose is to bring out Paul's character and career 
 as a whole, if possible, with something like the vividness of 
 reality. In order to this it will be necessary to supply some 
 gaps in the record of his early history, and I will resort to 
 imaginary incidents and particulars in doing so, being care- 
 ful, however, to interweave in these whatever intimations, 
 direct or indirect, exist on the subject in the sacred narrative, 
 and to make them agreeable to the tenor of tradition likewise. 
 I trust that these liberties will be pardoned for the sake of 
 the design, especially as I have not trenched upon the mar- 
 velous or extravagant. Respecting Gamaliel too little is au- 
 thentically known to make his life the real theme, and I have 
 therefore introduced him only in occasional connection with 
 the better-understood figure who is central in the story. The 
 positive evidence that Paul was not a bachelor turns upon a 
 single word of his own. He says before Agrippa, referring, 
 doubtless, to the martyrdom of Stephen, that he gave his vote 
 (A. V., " voice ") against the Christians. This must have 
 been in the Sanhedrim, and none but fathers seem to have 
 been eligible to membership in that body. As a further con- 
 sideration we may observe that the apostle's apt and frequent 
 reference to the relations and duties of married life, in his 
 epistles, plainly bespeak a personal experience. His allusions 
 to his own solilary condition do not necessarily imply a state 
 of celibacy, but only that he had no family at the time. 
 
 7 
 
^ 
 
Gamaliel; 
 
 OR, 
 
 SCENES IN THE DAYS OF SAINT PAUL. 
 
 IT was a quiet summer afternoon in Tarsus. 
 The intense heat of the cloudless sun in 
 that semitropical region had driven the na- 
 tives within the covert of the houses, and all 
 classes except the lowest peasants and labor- 
 ers were waiting for the evening to enjoy their 
 principal meal and the recreation following. The 
 Roman soldiers almost nodded on their guard, 
 and the city seemed lulled into repose. In 
 one of the plain but respectable mansions of 
 the Jewish quarter the father was plying his 
 trade as a tent-maker, and his boy of ten years 
 was assisting him in the lighter portions of the 
 work. The position of the town rendered this 
 a profitable employment, for the goats of 
 Cilicia were famous for their long and thick 
 coat of strong hair, which was the universal 
 
100 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 material for tent canvas ; and the caravans 
 which transported the merchandise from the 
 shore of Asia Minor to the interior of the East 
 had necessarily to pass through the Cilician 
 gates, a notch in the Amanus range at the 
 north-eastern angle of the Mediterranean, not 
 very far from Tarsus. The son was a bright 
 fellow, and had mingled, to an unusual degree 
 for one of pure Hebrew blood, with Gentile 
 associations. He had attended the city school, 
 had learned the stirring history of the past, 
 especially the Greek reminiscences of the 
 place, and had visited the neighboring spots 
 where Alexander's great victories over the 
 Persian hosts had been achieved. His father 
 had received the honor of Roman citizenship 
 for some public service, and he encouraged his 
 son in these literary pursuits, which included 
 the perusal of the Hellenic poets. But most 
 of all the boy delighted in rabbinic studies, 
 and spent much of his leisure in the peculiar 
 lore of his nation. He had never yet seen 
 Jerusalem, and he longed for the prescribed 
 age to arrive when he should visit the capital 
 of his forefathers and there be inducted into 
 the full privileges of the Jewish Church. It 
 
GAMALIEL. 101 
 
 had been promised that if he were diligent in 
 his preparatory lessons he might spend sev- 
 eral years in completing his theological course 
 under the direction of one of the famous teach- 
 ers there ; and he was fired with the ambition 
 of becoming himself one day a rabbi of equal 
 renown. 
 
 " Father," asked he, in the midst of their 
 manual employment, " may I not begin my 
 studies at Jerusalem when I am twelve years 
 old ? I have pretty much finished all I can 
 learn here to advantage." 
 
 "Yes, Saul," replied the indulgent father; 
 " if thou art a good boy, and gettest on well 
 here, and completest thy knowledge of our 
 trade sufficiently, I think thy mother will con- 
 sent to thy staying over when we go up to 
 thy first Passover there." 
 
 It was soon settled accordingly, and the lit- 
 tle fellow's fingers plied the large sailor's nee- 
 dle the more deftly and nimbly for the encour- 
 aging thought. 
 
 No sooner had the sun set behind the tall 
 hills which skirt the city on the north-west 
 than the cool but short twilight began, and 
 the whole mass of the citizens sauntered forth 
 
102 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 and clustered in family groups to enjoy the 
 hour in refreshments and gossip. The school- 
 fellows reunited for play, and quoits and ball 
 for the more gentle, with running and wres- 
 tling for the more active, were rife on all sides, 
 amid boisterous shouts and merry whistling. 
 
 " Come on, Saul," said a cheery Greek lad. 
 " Jew as thou art we want thee to make up 
 our number at the game." 
 
 And our young friend soon proved that he 
 was as adept at sport as he was ready at work 
 or study. 
 
 He was rather small for his age, but remark- 
 ably quick and energetic ; and he more than 
 made up by tact and agility what he lacked 
 in weight and strength. His hearty spirit and 
 generous temper made him quite a favorite, 
 even with his Gentile acquaintances ; and he 
 had a happy faculty of availing himself of ex- 
 igencies, which wore off the edge of a certain 
 bluntness and persistency about him. All 
 spoke well of his sturdy integrity and strict 
 morality, however much they attributed these 
 traits to Jewish superstition and hereditary 
 punctilio. The lines of religious and social 
 distinction were not drawn so closely in his 
 
GAMALIEL. 103 
 
 native city as in more aristocratic localities of 
 the Roman Empire, and especially in Palestine ; 
 and prejudices on both sides were less strong 
 and pervading. Despite his parental training, 
 therefore, he grew up with a degree of liberal- 
 ity rare in a Hebrew youth ; yet his intense na- 
 tional pride showed itself whenever his faith 
 or traditions were made the object of criticism 
 or the butt of ridicule. He had already had 
 many a battle, not only of words, but of blows, 
 too, with boys older and bigger than himself, 
 on these points; and they had come to respect 
 his courage as well as his skill in these en- 
 counters. He was evidently capable of taking 
 care pretty well of himself, and his parents 
 felt the less anxiety on this account in trust- 
 ing him so far from home and so long as the 
 above plan contemplated. They had relatives 
 at Jerusalem, with whom he might remain 
 while there. 
 
 The interval passed quickly, and one spring 
 morning the father and the mother, accom- 
 panied by Saul and a couple of Hebrew servants, 
 started on asses for the long-expected journey 
 to the ancestral metropolis. 
 
 The route was familiar to the parents from 
 
104 SKETCHES OE JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 their frequent visits to the annual festivals, 
 but most of it was new to the boy, and he 
 kept up a constant chatter about its beauties. 
 
 After crossing the terminal spur of the Tau- 
 rus ridge the road lay through the gorges of 
 Upper Syria, and the party, swelled by their 
 compatriots bound on the same errand, halted 
 in the charming vale of Antioch, where a large 
 accession joined their number. Thence they 
 pursued their leisurely way through the rich 
 valley of Ccele-Syria, and so on through Gali- 
 lee and Samaria, receiving the ready hospital- 
 ity of the people, and often finding acquaint- 
 ances as they passed along. At length the 
 holy city appeared in the distance, and emo- 
 tions of sacred joy thrilled the breast of 
 the neophyte, who was there to be publicly 
 initiated into the commonwealth of Israel. 
 The ceremonies were simple, as are all the ex- 
 tra-Levitical ordinances of Judaism, but they 
 are none the less on that account impressive 
 to the thoughtful and pious mind. 
 
 Saul was delighted beyond measure with 
 the romantic manner in which the family par- 
 took of the paschal meal in their novel situa- 
 tion as sojourners. He spent every leisure 
 
GAMALIEL. 105 
 
 moment of the whole week in rambling over 
 the localities of the city, familiar to him al- 
 ready by name and association from Scripture, 
 from tradition and from domestic description. 
 He was just in that stage of development, half 
 boy and half man — -for he now felt himself 
 above childish toys andpu erile amusements — 
 to enjoy to the full the splendid ritual of the 
 temple and the magnificent sights of the Jew- 
 ish capital, then in its glory, and yet not to 
 be annoyed by care about himself or anxiety 
 for the future. All seemed bright and lovely. 
 
 The lad and his parents were not slow in 
 finding their way to the various schools of the 
 city, as his education was the main thing now 
 to be attended to. After a careful consulta- 
 tion they decided to put him in charge of 
 Gamaliel, who was specially recommended to 
 them by their most judicious friends, and 
 whose reputation was steadily rising amid the 
 conflict and rivalry of the chief rabbis. 
 
 Although comparatively young he was a 
 teacher of singular sobriety and moderation. 
 He had studied the Scriptures until he had 
 penetrated far beyond his fellows into their 
 intent and scope, and he discovered depths of 
 
106 SKETCHES OE JEWISH LIEE. 
 
 spiritual meaning and application in the pre- 
 scriptions of the law and the pictures of the 
 prophets which were hidden to the common 
 eye of the formal and technical expounder. 
 He was a thorough Jew, strict in his interpre- 
 tation and legalism ; but he sought a middle 
 path in doctrine between the extreme bigotry 
 of the Pharisees and the lax rationalism of the 
 Sadducees, and in practice between the rash 
 nationalism of the zealots and the complai- 
 sant worldliness of the Herodians. He insisted 
 upon principles rather than details, and he in- 
 stilled into his pupils a love of broad and far- 
 reaching views instead of temporary and per- 
 sonal expedience. 
 
 The young Saul soon became a favorite with 
 him from the youth's ingenuousness and ap- 
 plication, and the latter speedily conceived 
 the most profound enthusiasm for his teacher. 
 The impressions thus made were formative of 
 his character, and their effects appeared to 
 his dying day. 
 
 The allotted period of instruction passed 
 rapidly, and at the request of both teacher and 
 pupil it was prolonged considerably, so that 
 at its close Saul was pronounced by Gamaliel 
 
GAMALIEL. 107 
 
 to be one of the most proficient scholars for 
 his age whom he had ever seen. 
 
 The condition of Judea at this time was pe- 
 culiarly favorable for quiet study. Roman 
 jurisdiction was fully established, and the com- 
 paratively peaceful reigns of both Augustus 
 and Tiberius rendered the provinces as secure as 
 the more central portions of the empire. The 
 proconsuls and procurators, who had the joint 
 or alternate charge of Syria, including Jeru- 
 salem, had not yet reached that pitch of petty 
 tyranny which finally drove the Jewish nation 
 into rebellion ; and the remnants of native 
 sovereignty, in the persons of some members 
 of the Herodian family, who still held sway in 
 Galilee and the adjoining districts, gave a sem- 
 blance of independence, which went far to 
 reconcile the people to the foreign yoke. It 
 was not the policy of Rome to disturb the na- 
 tive customs and privileges of her subjects, 
 when these did not interfere with allegiance 
 in essential matters; and the Jews were there- 
 fore left to enjoy their peculiar faith and to 
 carry on their hereditary, and especially their 
 religious, pursuits unmolested. The pagan au- 
 thorities cared nothing" for the casuistic trifles 
 
108 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 about which the rabbinic doctors disputed, 
 and they were only too glad to have the 
 hierarchal heads of the populace divided 
 and diverted from more serious questions by 
 these abstrusities. The temporary excitement 
 which had been felt at the Jewish capital from 
 the visit of the magi had long since passed 
 away with the death of Herod himself, and 
 so slight an incident as the recent appearance 
 for a few days of a remarkable boy from Naz- 
 areth in the temple-school had left no per- 
 manent impression even on the minds of the 
 rabbis, who were then present, including Ga- 
 maliel himself. 
 
 Saul pursued his biblical and talmudical 
 studies, if we may so style them at this date, 
 unaffected by any outward influence, and 
 only felt regret when the time at last came 
 that he must quit these congenial and leisurely 
 engagements for the more earnest and secular 
 occupations of his home. He was now a young 
 man as Easterns reckon age ; of fine though 
 delicate personal appearance, polished and 
 high-minded, eager to distinguish himself in 
 whatever line duty might call or opportunity 
 open. His parents received him back with 
 
GAMALIEL. 109 
 
 joyful pride. For the present it was judged 
 best that he should occupy himself with the 
 commercial part of his father's trade, which 
 had grown to a lucrative business, and re- 
 quired considerable journeys to the neighbor- 
 ing marts for the disposal of his fabrics. 
 These would give the young man at once a 
 sight of the common world and practical tact 
 in dealing with men. Meanwhile he could 
 continue his course of reading during the inter- 
 vals of travel. It was naturally thought that 
 thus by the time that he should arrive at 
 thirty years — the conventional age for the 
 debut of a Jewish public man — he would be 
 well fitted to return to Jerusalem and there 
 assume some office or position due to his tal- 
 ents and acquirements. 
 
 The ten years of this interval were accord- 
 ingly filled with mercantile details mixed with 
 some literary matters, but they were also 
 marked by adventures of a more private and 
 romantic sort, the outcome of which affected 
 in a peculiar manner Saul's whole adult career. 
 In one of his business visits to the sea-coast 
 cities of the archipelago he made the acquaint- 
 ance of a Jewish family, among whose members 
 
110 SKE TCHES OF JE WISH LIFE. 
 
 was a daughter of great personal attractions. 
 The usual order of things followed, and, in ac- 
 cordance with the Oriental custom of early 
 marriage, the parents of both parties were 
 easily inclined to a match which promised so 
 well. The young couple were united, and 
 for a twelvemonth lived most happily to- 
 gether. But Providence had harder fields for 
 Saul than those of domestic bliss. A first-born 
 fora few days gladdened his eyes, and then both 
 mother and babe were laid together in an un- 
 timely grave. Saul's ardent and tender nature 
 was so deeply stunned by the double blow that 
 he was unable for a long time to give attention 
 to his ordinary affairs, and when he at length 
 recovered from his melancholy it was with 
 deepened, but different, resolves for future use- 
 fulness. He had from his earliest years pon- 
 dered much and often upon his interior relig- 
 ious state, and the teachings of Gamaliel had 
 probably given a penetration and sobriety to 
 these reflections unusual with a young man, 
 especially a Jew of regular ecclesiastical stand- 
 ing and irreproachable morality. But he now 
 experienced a solemnity and introspection 
 which no rabbinism could impart. The Holy 
 
GAMALIEL. Ill 
 
 Spirit was undoubtedly at work upon his mind 
 and heart, operating in its first stages through 
 his naturally sensitive conscience ; so true is it 
 that " the fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
 wisdom." But this is only the first lesson in the 
 school of righteousness. The love of the Lord, as 
 the Old Testament plainly teaches, is its high- 
 est attainment. At present, like the young 
 man in the gospels, Saul felt that he lacked 
 something essential yet. In the pungency and 
 thoroughness of his heart-searchings during this 
 season of bereavement and gloom he discovered 
 that, despite his outward conformity to the law 
 of God, his heart had many rebellions and re- 
 pinings which were far from compatible with 
 the spiritual reach and profound import of that 
 code. His experience was a sad, but luminous, 
 commentary upon the- decalogue. " Sin, tak- 
 ing occasion by the commandment, wrought in 
 him all manner of desire ;" he " saw another 
 law in his members warring against the law of 
 his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the 
 law of sin which was in his members." He 
 found himself " carnal, sold under sin ; " and 
 inwardly cried out, "O wretched man that I 
 am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this 
 
112 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 death ? " His very conscientiousness only added 
 to the intensity of his mental conflict. In de- 
 spair of any other mode of relief, he now de- 
 termined to renounce the world of pleasure, 
 which had so bitterly disappointed him, and to 
 consecrate himself to the cause of religion with 
 redoubled fervor and exclusiveness. He thus 
 hoped to satisfy his convictions of duty and 
 calm the tumult in his soul. His was but the 
 common mistake of asceticism as a remedy for 
 moral dyspepsia ^ The prescribed age of his 
 public majority had arrived, and, with the full 
 consent of his parents, who hoped in this way 
 to arouse him to activity again, he took leave 
 of Tarsus and presented himself at Jerusalem 
 as a candidate for ecclesiastical labor and re- 
 nown. He was not of the Aaronic or Levitical 
 lineage, and therefore could be of no use in the 
 temple services ; but his education and experi- 
 ence pointed him out as likely to be available 
 for the instruction of youth and other religious 
 work. Events had recently occurred at the 
 Jewish capital during his long absence which 
 called for his aid, and he was speedily elected 
 a member of the Sanhedrim and intrusted with 
 various commissions of an ecclesiastical char- 
 
GAMALIEL. 
 
 113 
 
 acter. His neophyte partisanship was espe- 
 cially enlisted against the new sect of the Naza- 
 renes, whose leader, he learned, had been 
 ignominiously executed as a political incendiary 
 a few months before, but which had lately 
 sprung up with renewed persistency under the 
 prestige of certain miraculous powers with 
 which his followers claimed to be endowed. 
 
 SANHEDRIM. 
 
 He determined that he would achieve dis- 
 tinction in rooting out this compound of insur- 
 rectionism and heresy, and he hoped that in 
 this task he should find rest for his troubled 
 conscience. He would work out his salvation, 
 and he fancied he saw his vocation in this dis- 
 interested labor. He was not the first nor the 
 
114 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 last to seek relief from the convictions of inward 
 sin in acts of external devotion. Surely it was 
 doing God service to suppress this vile im- 
 posture. He would even stifle the natural 
 emotions of pity and steel himself to any deed 
 of rigor necessary to accomplish the meritorious 
 purpose. Humanity were a fit sacrifice to di- 
 vinity. Ah, Saul ! as little dost thou know of 
 what spirit thou really art as the apostles whom 
 thou now persecutest did when they would call 
 down lightning from heaven upon schismatics. 
 Elijah might do this to ward off a military force, 
 but he was himself instructed that Deity dwelt 
 not in such consuming fire. Gamaliel was un- 
 fortunately absent at the time of our young 
 bigot's arrival in Jerusalem, and the milder 
 counsel which he had recently given with re- 
 gard to the treatment of the leaders of the new 
 movement had been forgotten in the blind fury 
 of ecclesiastical zeal. A perverted conscience 
 is the worst of all advisers, and there is scarcely 
 any crime that has not been committed under 
 pretense of saving the Church from danger. 
 
 An opportunity was soon afforded Saul to 
 exhibit his enthusiasm. The martyrdom of 
 Stephen brings him prominently into public 
 

 GAMALIEL. 115 
 
 view as first voting for the condemnation of 
 the prisoner before the bar of the Sanhedrim 
 and then rushing out with the mob and en- 
 couraging them in the execution of the sen- 
 tence. Like a tiger maddened with the first 
 taste of blood he followed up this fleshing of 
 his maiden sword with a wholesale determina- 
 tion of slaughter. After exhausting the list of 
 known abettors of the new faction in Jerusa- 
 lem and its vicinity he hies on a similar errand 
 to the largest city near the route to his own 
 home, not dreaming that he is pursuing a course 
 for which in the end he will never be able to 
 forgive himself. But God has mercy upon 
 many who act ignorantly through unbelief, 
 else none would find repentance ; and the same 
 love that prayed upon the cross for its mur- 
 derers arrested him in his headlong career. 
 The conversion of any one is a miracle of 
 grace, and that of Saul on the plain of Damas- 
 cus was only more striking in its outward cir- 
 cumstances. Strong natures require forceful 
 treatment, and minds constituted like his de- 
 mand direct evidence. He yielded to the first 
 clear presentation of the Saviour, and his sur- 
 render was as complete as it was sudden. The 
 
1 1 6 SKE TCHE S OF JE WISH LIFE. 
 
 crisis was sharp but decisive, and the transla- 
 tion from the kingdom of darkness to that of 
 God's dear Son was equally rapid and perma- 
 nent. We can, therefore, well understand how, 
 after the long-continued cry of legal despair, 
 "Who shall deliver me?" he should imme- 
 diately exclaim, upon the healing touch of 
 Ananias, with such abruptness, " I thank God 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." He had found 
 peace in believing on the crucified Nazarene. 
 Henceforth there was no doubt about his mis- 
 sion ; he was a chosen vessel to bear the name 
 of Jesus to the Gentile world, and for this all 
 his previous training had been providential. 
 
 Saul lost no time in beginning his work ; he 
 was already in a Gentile city, and with the 
 ardor of a young convert he proclaimed to all 
 the joy of his salvation. The Christians whom 
 he had come to destroy were now his delight, 
 and the Jewish synagogues, to which he bore 
 letters of introduction for a very different pur- 
 pose, were his field of preaching. Talented 
 and educated, enthusiastic and divinely called 
 though he was, yet he soon found a special 
 drill needful for his high commission. The 
 other apostles had enjoyed for three years the 
 
WMl 
 
 
 w 
 
 mm- 
 
118 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 benefit of their Master's personal instructions, 
 and it was proper that he who was destined to 
 be not a whit behind any of them should have 
 a similar season of direct revelation, which 
 should include the facts as well as the doctrines 
 of the Gospel. He would thus be prepared to 
 promulgate the truth on no second-hand au- 
 thority, and, although born out of due time, be 
 placed by miraculous communication on a level 
 with the original eye-witnesses. Accordingly, 
 in the silent wilds of Sinai, where Moses had 
 tended his sheep and whither Elijah had retired 
 for closer communion with Jehovah, Saul spent 
 his novitiate, pondering, like these representa- 
 tives of the law and the prophets, the deep 
 problems of God's dealings with his people, and 
 drawing inspiration from the pure air of heaven 
 and the unsophisticated scenes of nature. 
 There, where the decalogue had been given, 
 he thrice held alone his Pentecost as its anni- 
 versary in a fresh baptism of light and power 
 from on high as a champion of the dispensation 
 of the Spirit. Gamaliel's tuition was merged 
 in the lessons of the great Teacher to that 
 solitary disciple. He came forth at length, 
 with no parchments of earth ; to write his ere- 
 
GAMALIEL. 119 
 
 dentials with the divine finger, not on tables of 
 stone, but on human hearts. He returned 
 direct to Damascus and recommenced preach- 
 ing so earnestly and powerfully as to excite the 
 hostility of the Jews, who induced the Arab 
 sheik then temporarily occupying the city to 
 take measures for his apprehension. The gates 
 were watched and the town searched to discover 
 him ; but his Christian friends secreted him in 
 a house adjoining the city wall, and by night 
 he was lowered in a basket from a balcony win- 
 dow that projected outside. He repaired to 
 Jerusalem, where Peter and James the Less 
 were the only apostles resident at the time ; 
 and after Barnabas, who had learned the facts 
 of his conversion, had dissipated the suspicions 
 of the Christian society regarding him, he fear- 
 lessly proclaimed his newly found faith, espe- 
 cially to the foreign Jews. He still continued 
 his worship at the temple, however, and on one 
 occasion while there he fell into an ecstasy 
 which quite overcame his physical powers. In 
 his raptured swoon he seemed to be transported 
 to heaven, and experienced a vision of ineffable 
 delight, the glorified Jesus again appearing to 
 him and renewing his mission to the Gentiles. 
 
GAMALIEL. 121 
 
 His freshly fired zeal provoked his countrymen 
 to such violent opposition that his friends were 
 again compelled to convey him away for safety. 
 He took passage from Cesarea for Tarsus ; but 
 even there enmity awaited him. His relatives 
 refused to receive him, calling him an apostate 
 from Judaism, and heaped the most dreadful 
 curses on his head. He had incurred the loss 
 of all things temporal, but he counted it clear 
 gain for the sake of his Lord. It left him all 
 the more free for his sacred work. His trade 
 remained as a means of subsistence, and he 
 cheerfully, nay, joyfully, betook himself to 
 preaching gratuitously as the business of his 
 future life. Single-handed, he immediately en- 
 tered upon a series of evangelistic toils in his 
 native region, which for the next ten years ex- 
 posed him to the most severe privations and 
 the most fearful dangers. The elements of 
 nature and the malice and treachery of men 
 combined in vain to stop his progress and 
 damp his ardor. It is in this interval that we 
 must place his own formidable catalogue of 
 disasters, hardships, and persecutions, deduct- 
 ing only those which we know occurred else- 
 where. He was " in labors more abundant, in 
 
122 SKETCHES OE JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 stripes above measure, in prisons frequent, in 
 deaths oft. Of the Jews five times he received 
 forty stripes save one. Thrice was he beaten 
 with rods ; thrice he suffered shipwreck, a night 
 and a day he was in the deep." We might 
 work up quite a tale of adventure from these 
 and the associated items had we space. But 
 none of these trials and sufferings daunted him 
 for a moment ; they only served to attach him 
 more closely to the cause he had espoused and 
 to inure him to still more self-sacrificing exer- 
 tions in its behalf. He was assured that the 
 divine Ma'ster whom he served would carry him 
 triumphantly through to the end and enable 
 him to plant the cross in still more distant 
 lands. 
 
 We now approach the main portion of the 
 apostle's public career, where we have a con- 
 secutive narrative by an intelligent companion 
 to guide us, and we have, therefore, only to in- 
 terject the information supplied by his own 
 writings. Our special plan, nevertheless, would 
 not be so well subserved by a continuation of 
 his history directly and in full, which may be 
 found in every professed text-book on his life, 
 as by a side-view through some of his co- 
 
GAMALIEL. 123 
 
 laborers and spiritual children, one of the most 
 important of whom we will introduce for this 
 purpose as soon as he appears upon the stage 
 of action. 
 
 By sporadic labors such as we have just 
 reviewed Christianity had now become planted 
 in many of the prominent points along the 
 Syrian coast, but with the exception of Cesa- 
 rea and Samaria it had been confined to the 
 Jewish population. At Antioch, however, 
 which was a noted center of intercourse, some 
 of the converts from the extreme limits, such 
 as Cyrene and Cyprus, began to preach the 
 Gospel among the natives, or Gentiles, like- 
 wise, and with such success as to attract the 
 attention of the mother-Church at Jerusalem 
 to their unofficial proceedings. Barnabas was 
 accordingly dispatched to supervise these 
 operations, and he was so much gratified with 
 their genuineness that he sent for his friend 
 Saul from Tarsus to aid him in carrying them 
 forward, and for a year they labored together 
 in the revival there most harmoniously and 
 efficiently. The infant society thus formed at 
 Antioch was soon able to repay their obliga- 
 tions by a pecuniary contribution to their 
 
124 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 brethren in Judea, who were especially im- 
 poverished by a dearth at this time ; and Bar- 
 nabas and Saul, now publicly recognized as 
 colleagues of- the apostles, were the delegates 
 to convey it to Jerusalem. Not long after 
 their return they were formally consecrated as 
 missionaries at a solemn church meeting, and 
 started on their first tour. It was naturally 
 directed first to the large island of Cyprus ad- 
 jacent, of which Barnabas was a native, and 
 thence to the main-land of Asia Minor, oppo- 
 site. We pass over the incidents on the way, 
 and find them striking boldly up into the in- 
 terior, Saul taking the lead from his natural 
 energy, and being henceforth known as Paul, 
 a Roman name which he had probably borne 
 from boyhood among his Gentile acquaint- 
 ances. The missionaries at first availed them- 
 selves of the synagogue privileges to preach 
 to the Jewish congregations, but they soon 
 aroused opposition, which compelled them to 
 betake themselves to Gentile auditors, and 
 finally chased them with murderous fury from 
 town to town. 
 
 The great central plateau of Asia Minor 
 was occupied by heathen tribes, some of them 
 
■GAMALIEL, 125 
 
 natives, as in Phrygia, others immigrants from 
 distant quarters, as in Galatia, but all of them 
 tinctured with Greek habits and superstitions, 
 especially Lycaonia, a wild region, where 
 mythical tales of appearances of the gods in 
 human form were rife. At Lystra, a small 
 town of this last-named district, there was 
 living a family which strikingly illustrates the 
 mixed state of society. The father was a 
 pagan, but the mother had been carefully 
 trained in the Mosaic precepts by the pious 
 grandmother, and a son, of delicate constitu- 
 tion and gentle susceptibilities, had shared 
 these female instructions, but was not a mem- 
 ber of the Jewish Church. One day in the 
 autumn the youth heard loud huzzahs in the 
 street, and, running to the town gate, he found 
 a large procession headed by the priest of Ju- 
 piter, who was leading oxen garlanded for vic- 
 tims to the temple, and escorting two stran- 
 gers, whom the crowd were evidently honoring. 
 One was a venerable man of noble appearance, 
 whom they had mistaken for Jupiter himself, 
 and the other was younger, of slight form and 
 voluble manner, whom they were addressing 
 as Mercury, the messenger of their gods. The 
 
126 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 two, however, were protesting in foreign accent 
 against the whole proceeding, which the crowd 
 in the barbarous idiom of the country had 
 great difficulty in making intelligible to them. 
 Presently he saw a number of persons coming 
 -from a different direction, whom he easily rec- 
 ognized as Jews, and a violent altercation en- 
 sued between the three parties. Inquiring of 
 a by-stander what was the matter, he learned 
 that the two strangers had just cured a con- 
 firmed cripple instantly. In a few minutes 
 he saw the new-comers seize them, and, with 
 the aid of some of the populace, began to 
 throw stones at them, especially at the 
 younger of the two, who was soon knocked 
 senseless, and then dragged out of the town 
 for dead* The young man followed with ex- 
 cited interest and joined the little circle that 
 had gathered about the apparently lifeless 
 body as the crowd dispersed. The wounded 
 and bleeding stranger, however, suddenly 
 arose, seemingly well, and walked away. 
 Young Timothy's sympathies for the perse- 
 cuted Paul now deepened into reverence, and 
 he invited him to his own home. The visit 
 was that of an angel to the household, and 
 
GAMALIEL. 127 
 
 when the apostle departed the next day a 
 spiritual friendship had been formed between 
 the two which ever after led them to think 
 and speak of each other as father and son. 
 On the return of the missionaries a few days 
 later the youth's name was enrolled among 
 the members of the Christian brotherhood. 
 They departed by the same route homeward, 
 and he remained a pillar in that little Church. 
 
 About the same time the next year Paul 
 revisited the region in company with Silas, 
 who bore the canons of the first council at 
 Jerusalem, and the Christian societies of the 
 neighborhood were fully organized. Timothy, 
 young as he was, received an appointment as 
 the apostle's assistant, and was formally or- 
 dained as such by the hands of his senior 
 fellow-members, having first submitted to the 
 rite of circumcision out of respect to the 
 prejudices of the Jews. We will allow him to 
 tell a portion of the sequel in a supposed let- 
 ter to his friends at home : 
 
 " After leaving you we three traveled to- 
 gether northward and westward through Ga- 
 latia and Phrygia, establishing Christian com- 
 munities in the former province especially. I 
 
128 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 was enabled to be a great comfort to Paul, 
 who was for a time seriously indisposed. Our 
 desire was to pursue our way to the important 
 Greek cities on the coast of the ^Egean, but 
 on reaching Mysia we were prevented by an 
 impulse which we felt to be divine from turn- 
 ing- cither to the left or the right, and so 
 pushed on directly to the north-western shore, 
 where Troy anciently stood. Here Paul had 
 a vision in a dream, which explained these 
 singular leadings of Providence ; a man seemed 
 to him to stand on the opposite side of the 
 sea and beckon for help. We inferred that we 
 were to preach the Gospel in Europe, and ac- 
 cordingly took passage direct for Macedonia, 
 accompanied by the physician Luke, who had 
 now joined our party. Landing at Neapolis, 
 we proceeded to Philippi, the principal city 
 adjacent, which you will remember from the 
 days of the triumvirs as possessing Roman 
 privileges. As usual, we first sought out the 
 Jewish brethren, whom we found in a prayer- 
 chapel near the river, and a pious lady soon 
 opened her purple-dyeing factory for our ac- 
 commodation as a preaching-place. But a 
 crazy slave-girl used to meet us on our way to 
 
GAMALIEL. 129 
 
 the room, and one day Paul cured her in the 
 name of his Master. Her owners, who were 
 making a fortune out of her insane ravings as 
 Pythonic oracles, were greatly incensed, and, 
 seizing Paul and Silas as the principal parties, 
 charged them before the magistrates with 
 being incendiary innovators. A crowd soon 
 gathered, at whose suggestion the prisoners 
 were summarily beaten and then thrust into 
 the inner dungeon and their feet fastened in 
 the stocks. But a midnight earthquake set 
 them free and brought the jailer to his knees 
 for divine mercy. He was converted with all 
 his family ; and the officers who had illegally 
 beaten the prisoners were glad to treat them 
 civilly. The Gospel has triumphed. Paul and 
 Silas joyfully continued their journey through 
 Macedonia, leaving Luke and me to follow 
 leisurely and gather up the fruits of their 
 preaching. I joined them at Thessalonica, 
 where they had great success for three weeks, 
 until the Jews raised an uproar, and our host 
 had to go bail for our good behavior. At 
 Berea similar scenes were enacted, and Paul 
 concluded to sail away alone for Athens. 
 Silas remained to care for the new converts, 
 
GAMALIEL. 131 
 
 while I went back to Thessalonica to care for 
 those there. We all joined Paul here in Cor- 
 inth, where he had already made the acquaint- 
 ance of a devout Jew and his wife recently 
 from Rome. Paul preached first in the syna- 
 gogue and afterward in a private house adjoin- 
 ing, where many persons have been converted, 
 including some of influence, both Jews and 
 Gentiles. I send this by the bearer of an 
 epistle to the Church at Thessalonica, as I am 
 unable to leave yet." 
 
 At a subsequent date we may presume 
 Timothy to have written home from the same 
 place to the following effect : 
 
 " The Jews have made a disturbance here 
 also, but the Roman proconsul had too much 
 good sense to notice them, and he even allowed 
 the populace to beat the newly appointed syna- 
 gogue-ruler publicly in revenge. A large society 
 has now been gathered, although its elements 
 are rather incongruous, and some of the Gentile 
 members are not so well indoctrinated as could 
 be wished. We are shortly to sail for Ephesus 
 with our Roman friends, the Jew and Jewess, 
 and I expect to return home thence, while 
 Paul goes on to Jerusalem to attend the 
 
132 SKE TCHES OF JE WISH LIFE. 
 
 Pentecost festival. I send this by the bearer 
 of a second epistle to the Church at Thessa- 
 lonica." 
 
 A short stay at Antioch sufficed the un- 
 wearied Paul, and he then started on his long- 
 est and last recorded tour. The newly planted 
 churches in the interior of Asia Minor were 
 again his first care, and thence he took Timo- 
 thy along with him to complete the pro- 
 gramme which had been so remarkably pre- 
 vented on his preceding journey. Ephesus, 
 as the chief city of the proconsular or Greek 
 coast, was naturally his principal point, and he 
 found the work there singularly prepared for 
 his hand by one of the most notable, but 
 through his own modesty least noted, of the 
 early Christian evangelists. Apollos was an 
 eloquent and probably learned pupil of the 
 Jewish school at Alexandria, and had em- 
 braced the preliminary doctrines of the Bap- 
 tist, but knew no more of the Gospel. His 
 fervent zeal, however, led him to preach ear- 
 nestly as far as he knew, and he had gathered 
 a dozen disciples in Ephesus before the arrival 
 of the Roman Jew and Jewess who had ac- 
 companied Paul from Corinth. These two 
 
GAMALIEL. 133 
 
 SQon perceived his lack of acquaintance with 
 the deeper things of the Gospel, and with char- 
 acteristic candor he readily embraced the full 
 truth from their plain but experienced lips, as 
 they had themselves received it direct from 
 Paul. Apollos himself went on to Corinth, 
 and there re-enforced the work already begun 
 by the missionaries, leaving his own field at 
 Ephesus to be cultivated by his humble teach- 
 ers there. The coming of Paul with apostol- 
 ical gifts was the signal for a powerful revival, 
 which for three years required the incessant 
 labors of the apostle and his assistants, a 
 letter being sent back during this time 
 to the churches of Gaiatia, which showed 
 symptoms of apostatizing to Judaism under 
 the influence of false teachers who had fol- 
 lowed in Paul's wake. The uproar raised at 
 the Pan-Ionic festival of Diana compelled him 
 at length to sail across into Macedonia, whither 
 Timothy had already preceded him, on the 
 way to Corinth. The Church in this latter 
 place, notwithstanding, and, indeed, .to some 
 extent because of the visit of Apollos, had 
 during Paul's absence fallen into serious dis- 
 putes and even immoralities, and Titus was 
 
GAMALIEL. 135 
 
 dispatched from Ephesus as the bearer of an 
 apostolic letter in reply to one just now received 
 touching these and kindred points. Paul's lan- 
 guage was deservedly severe, but his tender 
 heart misgave him for the result, and he had 
 no peace until Titus, on his return, met him on 
 his arrival in Macedonia with the tidings of its 
 good effect, and he poured out his fatherly soul 
 in a second letter, which reveals at the same 
 time his playful simplicity. Timothy mean- 
 while had also rejoined him, and the whole 
 party proceeded leisurely, visiting the various 
 churches on their route and remaining three 
 months in Corinth. The letter to the Romans, 
 a masterpiece of theology too often misinter- 
 preted, is due to this interval, and discloses the 
 far-reaching plans of the apostle as to his fut- 
 ure labors. Jewish plots prevented his sailing 
 direct from Corinth for Syria, and he returned 
 by way of Macedonia with Timothy, and his 
 other associates, including Luke, who rejoined 
 them at Philippi, apparently having been de- 
 tailed on special errands in the long interim. 
 At Troas, Miletus, Tyre, and Cesarea touching 
 incidents occurred on the way, all ominous of 
 catastrophe awaiting Paul at Jerusalem ; but 
 
186 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 he went steadily on, carrying with him the 
 purse made up by the Gentile churches for the 
 poor saints at the metropolis of Judaism. The 
 romantic rather than tragic adventures which 
 there and in consequence befell him need not 
 here be recited. Had he not taken the pusil- 
 lanimous advice of his friends he would not 
 have exposed himself to arrest in the temple; 
 but his shrewdness in asserting his rights as a 
 Roman citizen saved him from scourging, and 
 finally gave him a free passage to the capital 
 which he had long wished to visit. The same 
 ready wit appears in his setting the Sanhedrim 
 by the ears when attempting to try him, and 
 in defeating the conspiracy for his assassina- 
 tion. The perfidy of man and the fury of the 
 elements were baffled, the greed of Felix and 
 the tyranny of Nero were eluded, and the 
 Gospel was planted in the center of the world, 
 and even in theim perial household, by the 
 solitary preaching of an obscure prisoner from 
 a foreign and despised land. The letters which 
 he there subscribed with a chained hand are an 
 invaluable legacy to the Church, and also dis- 
 play many fine touches of the apostle's life and 
 character. We pass over the exciting inci- 
 
GAMALIEL. 137 
 
 dents of his apprehension and detention and 
 the interesting particulars of his shipwreck, 
 which are told by Luke with the graphic 
 power of a skillful eye-witness. Paui survived 
 to carry out substantially the scheme of travel 
 which he had many years before marked out. 
 Let us gather together the scattered intima- 
 tions of his last labors and accompany him to 
 the fina*l scene. 
 
 It is evident that as soon as his case was 
 reached on the imperial docket on his first 
 imprisonment he was speedily released. The 
 writ of commitment was frivolous on its face, 
 and no prosecutors appeared. Nearly all his 
 companions had been dismissed. Luke seems 
 to have gone first, probably on some errand to 
 the churches of Macedonia, and to have re- 
 turned after a considerable interval. The fruit 
 of his journey may have been the substantial 
 gift in replenishment of Paul's straitened 
 means, sent from. Philippi through Epaphrodi- 
 tus, and acknowledged in a letter carried back 
 by the latter after he had recovered from a 
 severe attack of the Roman fever. Tychicus 
 had meanwhile been commissioned to carry to 
 the Ephesians a circular epistle, to be exchanged 
 
138 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 at Laodicea with cue of kindred contents, ad- 
 dressed to the Church at Colossae. Onesimus, 
 a runaway slave of Philemon in the latter place, 
 having been converted under Paul's preaching 
 in Rome, was sent back, perhaps in charge of 
 Tychicus, to his master with an apologetic 
 letter. Timothy had early joined his beloved 
 teacher, and had been detained for a long 
 time, probably as a witness ; but finally seems 
 to have been discharged as not needed for that 
 purpose, and to have been sent to Jerusalem 
 as the bearer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 which Luke most likely employed his leisure 
 hours in composing under the direction and 
 authority of the apostle. Mark, too, by some 
 means found his way to Rome, and perhaps 
 went back with Timothy to Asia Mine by 
 way of Jerusalem. Aristarchus, and possibly 
 some others, remained with Paul to the last. 
 The apostle's route, w r hen at length set at lib- 
 erty, is largely conjectural. Tradition affirms 
 that he fulfilled his purpose of visiting Spain 
 (some say, even Britain), and if so he probably 
 went on from Rome, as was most convenient, 
 and as he had long before expressed his desire 
 to do. In his letters last cited above, however, 
 
GAMALIEL. 139 
 
 he indicates an immediate intention of retrac- 
 ing his way to Jerusalem, and thence to the 
 churches of Asia Minor. We only know that 
 at some time lie returned to Macedonia by way 
 of Ephesus, leaving Timothy in charge of the 
 latter place, and that he visited Crete, probably 
 during this trip, planting churches there, which 
 he left in charge of Titus. Having spent the 
 following winter at Nicopolis in Macedonia, 
 he was there joined by Titus, Zenas, and Apol- 
 los. Tychicus had meantime rejoined him, 
 and had perhaps been sent to Crete in order to 
 relieve Titus prior to the apostle's letter to the 
 latter there. The last notices of Paul's travels 
 show that he probably went on to Corinth once 
 more, and returned byway of Troas and Mile- 
 tus. He was seized during the great Neronian 
 persecution as a prominent member of the pro- 
 scribed Christian sect, probably soon after 
 reaching Ephesus. His treatment this time 
 at Rome was rigorous, his trial speedy, and his 
 first hearing ominous of condemnation. Many 
 of his friends forsook him, such as Demas, 
 who had stood by him in his former imprison- 
 ment. Others had necessarily gone to various 
 fields of labor, as Crescens to Galatia, and 
 
140 SKETCHES OF JEWISH LIFE. 
 
 Titus to Dalmatia. Timothy was again left 
 in charge of Ephesus, and Tychicus was dis- 
 patched to him with the request to hasten to 
 the imprisoned apostle with Mark. Luke only 
 was Paul's companion, and his lonely cell was 
 cold and damp with the approach of winter. 
 Onesiphorus of Ephesus had cheered him with 
 substantial comforts in his dungeon, as he had 
 often done at home. If the place of the apos- 
 tle's incarceration were, as tradition reports, the 
 old Mamertine Prison, his physical condition 
 must have been doleful in the extreme. It is 
 a double pit or cistern, one below the other, dark 
 and accessible only by a narrow man-hole at the 
 top, through which food and drink were let 
 down to the inmate, if, indeed, like Jugurtha, 
 he were not left to perish by starvation. A 
 chain bound him to the naked stone wall ; and 
 thus we may imagine the aged Paul writing by 
 a wretched lamp or torch on the hard floor his 
 last letter to the beloved Timothy. He had 
 need, indeed, of portmanteau and parchments 
 to beguile the tedious hours ! 
 
 But he was neither sad nor complaining in his 
 dungeon. The light of the other world dawned 
 brightly upon his soul, and the crown of mar- 
 
GAMALIEL. 14 1 
 
 tyrdom was just above his head. His words 
 of triumph thrill us like the shout of a success- 
 ful runner or a victor on the battle-field: "I 
 have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
 race ! " For years he had lived with a desire 
 to depart, and now his highest hopes are about 
 to be gratified. Not in brief vision only, but 
 in perpetual verity, will he be with his glorified 
 Lord. His spirit kindles with intrepid joy at 
 the prospect of the descending ax ; he is 
 " ready to be offered." From the spots where 
 his severed head shall roll living springs will 
 gush to commemorate him to distant times 
 and peoples. The heart of the believer is 
 ever young ; it is immortal. The life-drops 
 may be spilled upon the earth, but they shall 
 quicken again in a harvest of beauty and bless- 
 edness. Sublime old man ! thy pen is a scep- 
 ter and thy stone bed a throne. Thou art 
 superior by divine strength to all human con- 
 tingencies ; for well art thou persuaded that 
 all things are thine. A momentary pang shall 
 soon introduce thee to an eternity of joy. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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