THE JAMES K. MOFFITT FUND. 
 
 LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 JAMES KENNEDY MOFFITT 
 
 OF THE CLASS OF '86. 
 
 Accession No. 
 
 Class No, 
 
A STUDY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT 
 
" How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and 
 with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were 
 oppressed of the devil ; for Gcd was with him." ACTS x. 38. 
 
A STUDY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT 
 
 OR 
 
 A PRESENT-DAY STUDY OF JESUS CHRIST 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDER ROBINSON, B.D. 
 
 FORMERLY MINISTER OF THE PARISH OF KILMUX, 
 ARGYLESHIRE 
 
 SECOND EDITION, REVISED FORM 
 
 WILLIAMS AND NORGATE 
 
 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON 
 
 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH; AND 
 
 7, BROAD STREET, OXFORD 
 
 1898 
 
 All Rights reserved 
 
LONPOK 
 NORMAX AND SOX, PRINTERS, KLCRAL V1KKET 
 
 mwn 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THIS work was published in a slightly different form 
 in October 1895. While there were not wanting 
 persons far from inconsiderable who sympathised 
 with its aims and appreciated its contents as of solid 
 value, its general reception was as unfavourable a one 
 as, perhaps, any book ever ordinarily meets with. 
 Especially, a serious offence was taken at it by the 
 Church of Scotland, of which I had been, at the time 
 of publication, an accredited preacher for between nine 
 and ten years. And it became the occasion of an ecclesi- 
 astical " Case," which lasted over a period of eighteen 
 months. It was condemned by the General Assembly 
 of 1896, and ordered to be withdrawn. The General 
 Assembly of 1897, again, put to me as the author the 
 question, whether I would " repudiate " its teaching, 
 and, having received a negative answer, cut me off 
 from the recognised ministry of the Established Church, 
 Meanwhile, the work as a publication had only had 
 a few months' life, having been withdrawn entirely 
 from sale, under legal advice, during the early judicial 
 proceedings, and later withdrawn in submission to the 
 Church's own command. 
 
 What was the cause of the offence being taken, and 
 of the " Case " ? There was nothing in the book that 
 was not both devotional and in support of the high 
 moral ideals which are associated with the name of 
 Christianity ; how, then, did it arouse such hostility ? 
 
VI THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 One cause of offence, doubtless, was the free criticism 
 of the New Testament documents. A sentiment 
 seemed generally to assert itself, which drew a dis- 
 tinction between the gospels and even the rest of 
 the Bible, regarding them as the one ground which 
 ought to be secured from any intrusion that might 
 disturb the mind of the ordinary worshipper. Another 
 matter, however, which plainly offended was the 
 attempting, however reverently, on the part of a minister 
 of the Church, to trace a development of human thought 
 and human purpose in Him to whom the Church had 
 for so many centuries ascribed the being of the Second 
 Person in the Godhead. In vain had I, in the preface 
 and the last chapter, claimed that the course of the 
 study was not opposed to the essentials of the Church's 
 doctrine, that the complete human nature of Jesus had 
 all along been asserted by the Church, and that the 
 conception of the Divinity of Jesus was not opposed to 
 but seen through the humanity of Jesus. In vain also 
 did I, when the Case commenced, seek opportunity for 
 a direct presentation and a separate estimation of the 
 plea on which I hoped to justify my action, namely 
 an appeal to the disavowal by the early Church of 
 such views as denied a complete human nature on the 
 part of Jesus. The course of procedure which was 
 required in the Case proved not to admit of such 
 a free and full investigation as I had hoped for. 
 Only at the second General Assembly was I successful 
 in presenting what I considered to be an untrammelled 
 defence of my position ; and this late defence, allowed 
 "ex gratia," was for technical reasons found not 
 admissible for consideration by my judges. The book 
 stood condemned by the General Assembly of 1896 as 
 subversive of the doctrine of the Church. Only some 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 thirty to forty in that assembly of several hundreds 
 had dissented from this judgment. 
 
 Anxious not to break with the Church which I had 
 loved to serve, until driven to such a course by honour 
 itself, and remembering my ordination promises of 
 subjection, I had in the first year strained other 
 considerations to render as great a submission as 
 conscience would allow ; and when the continued 
 withdrawal of the book from circulation was informally 
 proposed to me a day before the judgment was formally 
 pronounced, I had acquiesced thus far, being per- 
 suaded at the time that the corporation of which I 
 was a member had the right to demand the withdrawal 
 of a particular published form of my study. I had 
 done this also with the greater readiness in that, under 
 the handling of the book by its assailants, there had 
 come clearly to my notice certain faults of taste in 
 many of its expressions, due to strong feeling which 
 had not yet been chastened by experience of 
 publication. Especially a bitterness in controverting 
 the long popular ascendancy of the Fourth Gospel over 
 the other three gospels, and in defending as against 
 that gospel the far more sympathetic representation of 
 the Saviour's character which prevails in the other 
 three gospels, occasioned me a keen regret. The book 
 had been but a short time the subject of attack when 
 I realised that this bitterness not only was itself an 
 intemperance, but also suggested to the reader a slight- 
 ing of the Fourth Gospel's real value and importance. 
 Was it entirely without excuse ? When I think of the 
 eight chapter of John, and then think of the real Jesus, 
 told of in the Sermon on the Mount and the Parable of 
 the Prodigal Son, when I remember the crushing weight 
 of such a verse as John iii. 36, and then call up to 
 
Vlll THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 imagination the glories of the Divine Government as 
 the real Jesus disclosed it, I still must remain convinced 
 that the Fourth Evangelist has been a hard " school- 
 master," far from adequately representing his Master 
 and King. But nevertheless he deserved very serious 
 respect, as one who had both awakened the spirits of 
 many to the truth, and had made an inestimable 
 contribution to the construction of formal knowledge. 
 
 During the year that followed, however, I realised that 
 in the acquiescence which I had thus given I had yielded 
 too much too much by a hair's-breadth in the terms 
 I had consented to use, too much by a serious lapse as the 
 real significance of the engagement into which I was 
 understood to have entered was brought into clearness 
 by after reflection. I had intentionally consented to 
 make a difference, and had intentionally consented 
 though reluctantly to give such a submission to the 
 demands of the Church as involved a postponement of 
 all further action. But the experience of the following 
 year brought home to me rigorously that, in having at 
 a critical moment allowed these intentional acts to be 
 expressed by an unreserved acquiescence in a with- 
 drawal of the book from circulation, I had, first, left 
 my position before the public in an uncertainty which 
 could only be injurious, and, second, had virtually 
 done more than I had intended, namely signed away 
 to the Church that general power in relation to my 
 published book, which, as an individual, it was my 
 duty as well as my right to retain. I had, indeed, 
 made two slips. One of these was the failing to 
 emphasise the temporary character of my engagement, 
 the other was the failing to claim the liberty of a re-issue 
 which would preserve the identity of the book. On 
 realising this, I had it before me to try and recover 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 honourably the seemingly small but really consider- 
 able ground which I had lost ; and as the result of 
 much reflection I resolved, at all hazards, while pre- 
 serving my deferential attitude, to ask for a complete 
 end of all definite compact. Accordingly to the General 
 Assembly of 1897 I spoke as follows : " Now after 
 a year's thought the matter of withdrawal has pre- 
 sented itself to me somewhat differently, and I have 
 a more careful response to place before this Assembly. 
 It is this, While I do not wish the first published form 
 to be republished at any time, I respectfully ask that 
 no special compact whatever in this matter be under- 
 stood as continued ; and in asking this I appeal to the 
 delicate appreciation of individual responsibility, as 
 well as to the recognition of a Protestant individual 
 liberty, which both must be found in the minds of my 
 judges. The book being, in many copies, in the hands 
 of a certain public as an utterance of mine, which 
 utterance in its essentials I am unable to disown, I 
 neither dare nor will for any price barter away such 
 liberty as may from this moment be mine, of retaining 
 control as to what published form may bear my own 
 latest signature." 
 
 Though I thus claimed freedom from all continued 
 compact, I was willing to continue my attitude of 
 deference to the extent of a very thorough-going 
 revision even being agreeable to a change of title, if 
 the re-issue of the work under the same title might 
 be objected to by competent authorities within the 
 Church. And even though I have been, by the action 
 of the second General Assembly, set free from all 
 obligation to the Church as at present established, I 
 still wish to act in the spirit of my former deference 
 and submission. Accordingly I have subjected the 
 
X THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 work to the most careful revision, and, before re-issuing, 
 have let such time elapse as seemed to me becoming, 
 in the circumstances. 
 
 I now, however, let the book go freely into the hands 
 of the public again, in its revised form, desiring to do 
 justice, first, to certain inquirers interested in its sub- 
 ject and its treatment, to whom I have incurred some 
 responsibility through the issue of the first edition ; 
 second, to myself, as being so far, owing to the with- 
 drawal, judged by the public largely at second hand ; 
 and, third, to the great causes of Knowledge and 
 Religion, in regard to which causes such faults of 
 expression as have seemed to me to have been truly 
 found would be ill confessed if not publicly corrected, 
 and in behalf of which causes no man, I apprehend, 
 has the right to offer arrested and undone work if 
 the opportunity still remains to him to restore and 
 complete. In other words, I republish my book, 
 'considering it right to do so, with such corrections 
 and improvements as seem to me to be demanded, 
 partly with the wish to make equally accessible to all 
 and to rectify, where there may be necessity, an 
 already published utterance, and partly with my original 
 purpose, namely, to help in the advance of inquiry 
 and knowledge regarding the most important of all 
 subjects, therein also helping in the reconstruction for 
 modern times of our benign Christian faith. 
 
 For I do remain convinced of the importance of 
 the work to which this purpose is applied. The 
 modern movements which this book has tried to take 
 account of are there around us ; I cannot under- 
 stand a Protestant Christian position which does not 
 attempt to relate these movements to our historic faith. 
 Negative movements are there some among special 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 investigators, such as that, for example, which is 
 interpreting anew the origin of the Gospel of John, 
 and explaining anew the divergences of that work 
 from the other gospels, others among multitudes of 
 thoughtful persons outside as well as within the band 
 of special theological scholars, such as that, for 
 example, which is measuring anew the amount of 
 importance attributable to the reality of miracles, in 
 the prevalent sense of the word. Positive movements 
 are also there, notably the increased consideration of 
 men and women for the fate of their fellows, involving 
 a corporate instead of an individual cry for help, and, 
 combined with this, the increased estimate of the 
 importance of a faith in nothing less than a Divine 
 care for all. And how have these movements of both 
 kinds been dealt with, for the time, by those who 
 condemned this book ? Since the publication of the 
 earlier form, the comment of assailants regarding the 
 whole conception and general view of the book has 
 been largely in accordance with the words which I 
 quoted in my earlier preface from Michelet's life of 
 Luther, depicting the mistaken confidence with which 
 the original Protestant movement was viewed by the 
 Church. "Ever since the thirteenth century," says 
 Michelet speaking of the Papacy, " men had been 
 disputing with it, had been railing against it, but 
 apparently with no effect. The world, it imagined, 
 had been quietly and permanently lulled to sleep by 
 the dull and uniform clatter of the schools. It seemed 
 as though scarcely anything new remained to be said 
 about the matter."* Similarly now the complacent 
 comment is, All these things were said long ago by 
 the " Deists," the old " Rationalists," the " Tubingen 
 
 * Engl. Tr. p. 18, c. 2. 
 
Xll THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 School," and so forth, and they have long ago been 
 answered. But let it be that there is some little 
 grain of truth in such asseverations. It is a lifeless, 
 a deplorably somnolent, course to follow, this merely 
 " answering " discoveries and developments. The 
 " answers " may indeed render a service in moderating 
 the work of advance ; but the discoveries remain, and 
 the unfoldings of thought nourish and delight the few 
 who cultivate them. The sound method of preserving 
 the dear articles of our faith is not by " answering," 
 but by adapting the expressions of faith to the develop- 
 ments of thought and the discoveries in knowledge. 
 
 Especially mistaken, I must still maintain, was the 
 assault on the reverent study of the Saviour's human 
 nature. That assault was not in accordance with the 
 true genius of our religion. Indeed, meaning no shadow 
 of offence towards those who hastily joined in it, I cannot 
 but think it was an unconscious assertion of that reprc- 
 scntationist class of religion to which both the Jewish and 
 the Christian religions have in every fresh awakening 
 opposed themselves. The true Christian position is 
 recognition of the Eternal and Incomprehensible as 
 manifested in a human life that was entirely real.* 
 And with this it combines recognition of a human ideal 
 as embodied and figured in the same human life. Surely 
 if the real human nature of the historical Jesus were 
 more appreciatively comprehended the real human 
 nature, with the human anguish, the human endeavour, 
 and the human victory there would be also a better 
 comprehension of how there was more than the 
 human at work all through, and of how there is more 
 than the human still to trust in, and both the hope 
 in Jesus and the salvation of our race by Jesus would 
 
 * See Westminster Confession, viii. 2 elucidated by ii. i. 
 
PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 enter on a new stage of achievement more glorious than 
 any that had preceded it. 
 
 The work appears essentially the same as before. 
 Also the re-writing is merely in special places; and 
 those who appreciated the earlier form may find little 
 difference in the later. The slightness of the change, 
 however, is ascribable to the continued fixedness of my 
 views on the subject in general, and does not, I think 
 I may maintain, take away from the spirit of my 
 submission to the temporary and formal withdrawal- 
 While willing to revise, and to meet all reasonable 
 criticism, I have thought anything like a complete 
 recasting to be both uncalled for and in all respects 
 inadvisable. I have made alterations (i) in the way of 
 removing that mischievous element of bitterness which 
 I have mentioned, (2) in the way of giving expression 
 to a very few real changes of opinion on details, of 
 which a notable case is the interpretation of the 
 " bridegroom " sayings in the gospels, and (3) in the 
 direction of improving some of the expressions 
 especially of avoiding all unessential statement of the 
 kind which has proved itself to irritate and offend the 
 earnest of certain modes of thinking.* Instead of a 
 short introductory note and some short supplementary 
 explanations regarding the gospels, I have essayed a 
 critical introduction to the whole work. I have also 
 divided one chapter into two ; and two sets of material 
 I have enlarged so as to make two chapters which may 
 
 * I have pleasure in acknowledging obligation to many persons who, 
 both in public and in private, have criticised the details of expression 
 in the earlier form. While the censures of these have not all seemed 
 to me to be just, a number of them have prompted improvements 
 which I have made gladly. At the head of these critics stands my old 
 teacher, Professor Dickson, for whose discussion (adverse) I hereby 
 express indebtedness. 
 
XIV THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 be looked on as almost entirely new, namely "The 
 Bread of Life " and " The Divinity of Jesus." I wish 
 that from this time those few bitter expressions which 
 I have apologised for and eliminated be considered as 
 re-called, and, on their account, inasmuch as otherwise 
 this new publication is virtually the same book as the 
 earlier, I wish the earlier form of my book to be 
 considered as entirely superseded by this later. 
 
 Under the head of the third line of alteration which 
 I have just spoken of, comes the somewhat more 
 restrained expression on the subject of " miracle." 
 I should like to make clear, in regard to this subject, 
 two things ; first, that, my aim not being to unsettle 
 faith, but to promote faith, I do not wish to remove 
 from any one's thought any association which is really 
 helping faith ; second, that my antagonism is not 
 directed against the belief in miracles, but against the 
 belief that faith in God as revealed in Jesus Christ 
 requires the miracles of the past to prove it, and 
 against that wrong conception of miracles according to 
 which it is supposed that in miracles God interrupts, 
 as if by after-thought, His own government, or more 
 properly, His own overruling. Miracle is a relative 
 term, but a term expressing a sound conception. Its 
 value is truly estimated only as one adheres to and 
 does not go beyond its derivative meaning of a 
 wonderful thing. A miracle, properly speaking, is an 
 occurrence which, being beyond the knowledge of the 
 universe attained by a particular age or by particular 
 individuals, calls forth recognition and worship of the 
 Supreme Overruler. It may be partly explainable by 
 further knowledge ; but it was, none the less, a miracle 
 or wonderful thing for those who first regarded it, and 
 their consequent sentiment of worship was based on 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 no delusion, but on a sound and wise ascription 
 of everything which excites admiration and gratitude 
 to the Supreme as ultimate explanation. The most 
 ordinary class of miracles is that of answers to personal 
 prayer ; and such miracles it is both error and loss to 
 slight or disbelieve. The most extraordinary miracles 
 ever related are the New Testament miracles of visions 
 of the dead as risen ; and to explain, in some measure, 
 or to analyse these, is not to take away from their 
 trueness and importance. Particular miracle-narratives, 
 however, are to be considered in distinctness from 
 the general consideration of the term miracle. They 
 are ever coloured by the ways of thinking and by 
 the ways of communication of the particular age or 
 particular individuals that witnessed the miracle. 
 They thus are made up in part by the record of a 
 real event and in part by a natural upbuilding of local 
 and temporal thoughts. It is permissible for an after- 
 age to analyse these particular miracle-narratives, 
 subtract the local and temporal thoughts, and express 
 the original event through the help of thought more 
 cosmopolitan. 
 
 The title of the book is virtually the same as before. 
 The subject is Jesus Christ, called "the Saviour" by 
 all of us who seek to serve Him, both those within the 
 Churches and those without the Churches Jesus 
 Christ, the Saviour, viewed reverently by the aid of 
 " the newer light." By " the newer light " I mean the 
 illumination which during this century has brought a 
 better understanding of the Divine Nature than was 
 possessed in the earlier ages of our country's history 
 that illumination which has produced one kind of 
 awakening in the thoughts of our own Erskine, 
 Campbell, Maurice, Kingsley, Macdonald, and the rest,. 
 
XVI THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 another in the New Testament Criticism of Germany, 
 and still another, combining the natures of these other 
 two, in such works of both science and piety as the 
 great life of Jesus by Keim, and a lately born already 
 expanding class of works in our own country. If the 
 historical views stated in this book are even in the 
 main correct, we who gratefully receive the illumin- 
 ation of which I have just spoken are justified in the 
 conviction not only that that illumination has been 
 brought about in the growth of thought through the 
 overruling of an ever-kind Providence, but also that 
 its emergence even thus late can be traced back to the 
 earthly life and the historical personality which these 
 pages are seeking earnestly to bring before the under- 
 standing. The newer is better than the older not as 
 if there were nothing in common between the two, but 
 because the same historical power which first so far 
 opened to the eye the life that is beyond the surface of 
 things has in later times still steadily borne on that 
 life, so as to disclose its qualities the more clearly. 
 The newer light has shone not only on the unseen 
 life still around us, but also on the historical life of 
 Jesus and on the four gospels ; and it has disclosed 
 most important fresh phenomena in both. In the 
 former it has disclosed a far richer picture of heroic 
 and saintly human character, a strength of personality, 
 and a perfection of gentleness, purity, and compassion, 
 which all both awakens a new devotion and admiration 
 towards the Man Jesus, and also both strengthens and 
 increases the content of the theological doctrines 
 connected with Him. In the latter it has disclosed 
 the distinction between the representation and the 
 reality, between four literary and doctrinal accounts 
 and a Figure seen through them all and behind them 
 
PREFACE. XV11 
 
 all, so great, so sublime, that none of the representations 
 is adequate for it. This book is a study of the Saviour 
 in the newer light. 
 
 While the work is a direct study, based on the four 
 gospels themselves, I have to repeat my acknowledg- 
 ment of an indebtedness much beyond what is 
 indicated by the detailed references which I give in 
 the margin, to the great labourers in sacrifice and love 
 whose gifts for the traveller in the regions of Biblical 
 Study are like those of the inventors of the steam 
 engine and the railway line. Specially, without 
 presuming to interpret them, I mention my obligation 
 to Professor Holtzmann, to Keim, the illustrious 
 German historian of the life of Jesus, to Pfleiderer, 
 whose venerable voice was lately heard among our- 
 selves, and to Weizsacker, Wittichen, Weiss, Wendt, 
 Hausrath, and O. Holtzmann, along with others 
 nearer home, whose names, if I do not mention them, 
 I none the less cherish in gratefulness. 
 
 My little book will have a success more than worthy 
 of it, and compensating for much painful experience 
 in connection with its first attempts to live, if in ever 
 so few minds and ever so humble it even suggests 
 the healthfulness, the charm, and the beneficence of 
 that freer study of Theology which has arisen in our 
 time, and of its one special department, the reverent 
 but critical study of the Bible. Can it be that my 
 fellow-ministers, by so large a majority as appeared, 
 have no sympathetic response for my purpose ? Can 
 it be that a line of inquiry and discovery so pure 
 and elevating in subject matter, and so bright in hope 
 and promise for the dearest human interests, as that 
 which this book attempts to follow, will continue to be 
 regarded as menacing anything that in real experience 
 
 b 
 
XVlii THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 has been found sacred ? May one not, rather, entertain 
 a wish to see much increase, beyond even what of late 
 years has emerged, both of general interest and of 
 direct labour in relation to the field of thought with 
 which this book has to do ? There is surely desirable 
 an increase of activity which would involve many 
 distinct personal efforts, differing according to the 
 many kinds of talent, attainment, and points of view, 
 united in earnestness and in the belief that through 
 the Christian revelation the Most High has indeed 
 become rationally known and rationally knowable. 
 
 In conclusion, I trust that there will not be repeated 
 by any true Christian the allegation of this book being 
 an instrument in the service of unbelief. It is published 
 in the service of the gospel, whether it is really 
 rendering good service or ill-service. God forgive us 
 all, of one side and the other side, such errors as in our 
 endeavours we may stumble into ! The book is not 
 addressed to, and need not be read by, such persons as 
 are already satisfied with their enlightenment and 
 their attainments. But those who may love and 
 worship the Master while recognising the changes and 
 advances in modern thought, I respectfully ask, as 
 I did before, to accompany me in a pilgrimage of 
 thought, through the representations of intervening 
 years, towards the real earthly life of Him who in 
 these late days is still the source of light and the 
 centre for faith. 
 
 January, 1898. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION .... i 
 
 PART I 
 
 BEFORE THE MINISTRY 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. The hidden thirty years .... 29 
 II. The first movement towards the minis- 
 try A journey ..... 42 
 
 III. The second movement towards the 
 
 ministry A forced retreat ... 60 
 
 IV. The third movement towards the minis- 
 
 try A definite purpose ... 76 
 
 PART II 
 
 THE MINISTRY IN GALILEE 
 
 V. Good tidings of great joy to all people . 85 
 VI. The continued ministry of Jesus and the 
 
 resistance of the established teachers . 108 
 
 VII. The mountain scene .... 136 
 
 VIII. Some further teaching .... 150 
 
 IX. The extending of Jesus's ministry . . 162 
 
 X. The second retreat ..... 176 
 
 XI. The bread of life 186 
 
 XII. The divine resolution .... 196 
 
 XIII. The farewell to Galilee .... 207 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART III 
 
 THE LAST DAYS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XIV. The journey to Jerusalem . . . 221 
 XV. The beginning of Jesus's public appear- 
 ance in Jerusalem .... 236 
 
 XVI. The proclaiming of his own ideas in 
 
 Jerusalem ...... 247 
 
 XVII. Teaching suggested by incidents . . 259 
 
 XVIII. Self-defence and teaching in connection. 275 
 
 XIX. The last retreat and the last purpose . 289 
 
 XX. Last meditations 301 
 
 XXI. The Last Supper 3 T 3 
 
 XXII. The Translation 332 
 
 PART IV 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 XXIII. The character of Jesus .... 343 
 
 XXIV. The divinity of Jesus . . . -357 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 I. General Notes ..... 373 
 II. On FourthGospel compared with Synoptics 383 
 
 III. Outline of subjects in Fourth Evangelist's 
 
 own treatment 385 
 
 IV. Time and place notices in Fourth Gospel 386 
 V. A few difficult passages in Fourth Gospel 390 
 
 VI. An interesting habit of Fourth Evangelist 390 
 VII. Reminiscences of Jesus in the four great 
 
 Pauline epistles ..... 391 
 VIII. The other early Christian writings in 
 
 relation to the life of Jesus . . 392 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 KNOWLEDGE of the Saviour is based on the four 
 gospels. The four gospels have come down to us in 
 manuscripts of which the earliest dates from the fourth 
 Christian century. Both the previous history and the 
 origin of the works have to be determined by the nature 
 of their own contents, by such allusions to them as 
 may be found in other ancient writings, and by the 
 general estimate which may be arrived at after com- 
 parison of both these elements. 
 
 That the gospels are early writings can be easily 
 established from such sources of information. For 
 certainty on this point it is enough to appeal to the 
 gospels themselves, along with the indubitable evidence 
 which exists of their having been known and revered 
 in early Christian times. It has been proved beyond 
 question that so early as the second century the gospels Collective 
 were venerated much as they have been in the later in the 
 Christian ages ; and their language, manner of thought, westcott, 
 and points of view join with that consideration in ^ egelles> 
 placing them, broadly speaking, very near the time of 
 the events with which they deal. Also it can be very 
 well made out that there are few additions and few 
 blemishes in the forms in which we have them. But 
 for what is beyond this general position the evidence is, 
 at first sight, disappointing. Of evidence regarding 
 the particular origin of the gospels, from other works, 
 contemporary or immediately succeeding, modern 
 investigators have found but a meagre supply. Indeed, 
 
2 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 putting aside mere quotations and references that may 
 give indications in a general way, there is only one 
 piece of testimony which has in recent times been 
 much built upon. It is found in the Church History of 
 
 Died 340. Eusebius, written early in the fourth century, and con- 
 sists of a quotation from Papias, who was bishop of 
 Hierapolis in Asia in the early part of the second 
 century. It runs thus : " And the Elder (presbyteros, 
 
 EUS. Bk. previously alluded to as John) said this, Mark, being 
 the interpreter of Peter wrote accurately as many 
 things as he called to mind, not, however, in the order 
 in which they were either spoken or done by the 
 Christ (or the words may mean, not, however, in order, 
 being the things either spoken or done by the Christ). 
 For he neither heard the Lord nor followed him ; he 
 later followed Peter, as I have said, and the latter was 
 accustomed to form his teaching for particular needs, 
 not making a collection of the Lord's words (kuriakon 
 logon, or in another reading logion, sayings). So that 
 Mark did not do any wrong having thus written some 
 things as he called them back to mind. For of one 
 thing he took care, not to pass over anything of what 
 he heard, or to falsify anything in it." And of 
 Matthew, adds Eusebius, this was said by Papias, 
 " Matthew, then (oun), in the Hebrew dialect wrote 
 together the sayings (ta logia), and every one interpreted 
 them as he was able ". 
 
 Another passage, however, little less ancient, has an 
 
 Died 202, importance, though its direct evidential value must be 
 
 that time pronounced to be limited. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, 
 writing later in the second century, gives this account 
 of the four gospels : 
 
 " Matthew put forth a gospel scripture among the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 Hebrews in their own dialect, while Peter and Paul 
 were preaching at Rome and founding the Church. 
 
 " After the departure of these (apostles), Mark, again, 
 the disciple and interpreter of Peter, also himself 
 handed on to us through writing what had been 
 preached by Peter. 
 
 " Luke, again, the follower of Paul, set down in a 
 book the gospel preached by that (apostle). 
 
 " Then afterwards John, the disciple of the Lord, who Ir - on . 
 leaned on his bosom, also himself put forth the (or, m. i. 
 a) gospel while staying at Ephesus in Asia ". 
 
 Now while this passage does not, like. the extract 
 from Papias, name an authority more ancient than the 
 writer himself, and while, further, Irenaeus generally 
 speaking does not show the careful accuracy that 
 inspires great confidence, the passage has this import- 
 ance, that it must be looked at as in some way express- 
 ing the belief of the Church in Irenaeus's time. 
 
 The view thus expressed by Irenaeus, conjoined with 
 the belief in our received gospels being the four works 
 alluded to by him, remains to this day the view of 
 many Christians, including the learned and the pious 
 as well as the more careless. But among those who 
 have inquired earnestly into the special subject, at 
 least within Protestant Christianity, the view has been 
 in most cases greatly departed from. Soon after the 
 Sacred Books became the property of the public, there 
 began a rigorous scrutiny which, first appearing only 
 in isolated quarters as negative criticisms and rival 
 theories, has gradually been forming itself into certain 
 distinct scientific conclusions ; and these conclusions, 
 it seems not too much to say, are ever more and more 
 gaining acceptance. Even one of the most conserva- 
 
4 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Weiss, tive of recent Biblical scholars, speaking specially of the 
 
 jesu^i. relations between the fourth gospel and the other three, 
 
 p. 101. characterises the ancient way of dealing with the 
 
 matter as " nai've ". The modern mind has asked, 
 
 Do the gospels themselves, when seriously examined, 
 
 admit of that ancient view being taken of them ? 
 
 And the answer which, as may be affirmed, is ever 
 
 extending and ever growing more decided is at least 
 
 in part a negative one. 
 
 Two statements maybe hazarded as expressing what 
 may now be called preliminary scientific certainties, 
 namely : 
 
 (1) The likeness between the first three gospels is of 
 such a kind that one is forced to modify the idea of 
 their being entirely independent witnesses. 
 
 (2) The unlikeness between the fourth gospel and the 
 other three is of such a kind that one is forced to 
 modify the idea of its being a witness at all of the 
 history pure and simple. 
 
 An alarm, not unnatural, has arisen in many quarters 
 
 over these positions. And this alarm often gives way 
 
 to the contemptuous question, Could it be that, if such 
 
 things were true, Christendom would only now be 
 
 finding them out ? The question is easily answered by 
 
 English a proper understanding of the development of history. 
 
 works And the alarm may yet find a better refuge, namely in 
 
 various the discovery that all our dearest convictions and faiths 
 
 Woods in are not destroyed but the more securely built up by the 
 
 BibHca newer knowledge of the gospels. 
 
 Gould in of the two scientific positions just stated the first is 
 
 Interna- 
 tional based on these discoveries : 
 
 Ccm- al U) That the first three gospels, though written in a 
 mentary, different language from that which, almost beyond 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 question, was ordinarily spoken by the actors in the Campbell, 
 
 i r First 
 
 occurrences, are in large portions almost word tor Three 
 
 lx< 
 
 word the same as one another, 
 
 (B) That in their differences certain principles can 
 largely be detected, pointing to one original and explain- 
 
 ing the departures from the original, Ex. see 
 
 (C) That the choice of occurrences is very nearly the work^n"' 
 same, though there must have happened much more of ^ or &c 
 importance, and (Holtz- 
 
 (D) That the arrangement is greatly the same, though s j * ex 
 it is sometimes of an unusual kind. Mt. xiv. 
 
 and Mk. 
 
 The other position is based on such discoveries as vi. See also 
 
 , Mt. xvii. 
 
 these : and Mk. 
 
 (A) That in John the whole manner of thought and 
 the whole manner of expression ascribed to Jesus are 
 different from the case of the other gospels the 
 thought being in the one case ethical and religious, in 
 the other metaphysical, and the expression being in the 
 one case terse and imaginative, in the other argumenta- 
 tive and using the terms of a philosophy prevailing in 
 
 the period, exandrian 
 
 philo- 
 
 (B) That the subjects ordinarily handled by Jesus sophy. 
 are generically different in the one case the Divine Et^i. m 
 Presence, the Fatherhood of God, and the message to the works 
 
 ' of Tayler, 
 
 the unfortunate and the sinful, in the other the Person Davidson, 
 of the Son, the distinction between the elect and the Arnold, 
 world, and the message to the elect, alToT' 
 
 (C) That the opponents are differently viewed the German 
 Pharisees and Scribes being the opponents in the one speciall 
 case, with Herod as an ally, while in the other 
 
 case the Jews as a nation seem to stand opposed 
 
 to JeSUS, mann, 
 
 (D) That the character of Jesus on the human side is Keim (tr.)- 
 
6 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 also see different in the two cases it being at least difficult to 
 
 Schiirerin 
 
 "Contem- reconcile the figure in the eighth chapter of John with 
 view!" 6 the fig ure m the incidents of the earnest scribe and the 
 Sept. 1891. meeting with Zacchaeus, or with the speaker of the 
 
 Sermon on the Mount and the parable of the Prodigal 
 
 Son, 
 
 Ex.Mk.ii. (E) That while thought, expression, and subjects 
 i."i6?Mk! are different, the subjects of the other three gospels 
 vi 3 2 JI Mk appear largely in John as a kind of disregarded back- 
 viii. 29, m ground, and 
 
 68-69.' (F) That the narrative in John has details of time and 
 
 See above- place irreconcilable with those given by the others. 
 
 mentioned 
 
 works. All these considerations have to be taken along 
 
 with the broad result of comparison, that if a choice 
 must be made between the other three gospels and the 
 fourth in regard to historical credibility, both internal 
 and external evidence decide in giving the preference 
 The older to the other three gospels. 
 
 Fourth From these preliminary positions with their negative 
 
 defended cnaracter > a multitude of truth-seeking pilgrims have 
 notably advanced by many paths, the description of which could 
 
 DV Lilt" 
 
 hardt, fill many volumes, leading, as there is good reason 
 Weiss' now a l mos t to assert, in the direction of certain fixed 
 ? od f t> positive positions. 
 
 but these In defining these positive positions, it is necessary to 
 
 writers sa y at the outset that they hardly include the case of 
 
 important * ne Fourth Gospel. While there is ample evidence of 
 
 conces- a tendency to go beyond the negative conclusion above 
 
 stated, and find still a purely historical contribution in 
 
 the Fourth Gospel, there cannot be said to be unanimity 
 
 as to the way in which this further attainment is to be 
 
 reached. And so, many of the most competent critics 
 
 and scholars have been inclined to put the Fourth 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 Gospel quite aside for the historical question, and lay 
 the firmer hold on the data of the other three. We 
 shall be driven to enquire more closely into this matter 
 further on. Meanwhile it is enough to say that for 
 lovers of the Fourth Gospel this treatment loses its 
 offence when there is fully recognised the thought which 
 is in some degree common to all modern scholars, 
 namely, that that work is essentially a Christian Study, 
 that not historical facts but doctrines are its theme, 
 and that, if it does not give the exact words and actions 
 of the historical Jesus, still the majority of its ideas, 
 albeit expressed in a literary form of the evangelist's 
 own, have their origin in an inspiration from the Eternal 
 Life that in Jesus was specially manifested. 
 
 It is, however, in regard to the other three gospels, 
 called generally the SYNOPTIC gospels, that fixed positive 
 ground may with much justification be claimed to have 
 been reached. It may now be almost asserted that the 
 movement of Protestant Christian thought is towards 
 the acknowledgment, already come to by many most 
 accomplished and unwearied investigators, that, while 
 the first three gospels have not been quite independent 
 of one another in their origin, they represent two 
 original independent written sources. And the two 
 sources thus recognised are identified by many with 
 the two works alluded to in the extract already quoted 
 from the bishop Papias. So that the testimony of 
 Papias, unlike that of Irenaeus in his fuller statement, 
 is in this acknowledgment almost fully accepted, it 
 being only noticed that of the works he alludes to the 
 second is not our Matthew, but a Hebrew or Aramaic 
 work by the Apostle Matthew now lost, while the other 
 is either our Mark or a work which our Mark has very 
 closely followed. 
 
8 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 To sketch briefly how this view has been come to 
 the interdependence of the first three gospels being 
 started from, various hypotheses have been resorted to 
 in order to explain it. And while many of the most 
 illustrious modern scholars have defended one or other 
 of such hypotheses so strenuously as to seem to be of 
 irreconcilable difference of opinion, their united labour 
 has all been bringing to light certain facts on which 
 the view just stated is based by its supporters. 
 
 That we have in our Gospel according to St. Mark, 
 as it stands or very nearly as it stands, a very ancient 
 document made use of by the authors of the first gospel 
 and of the third, is a conclusion based on such facts as 
 these : 
 
 (A) That a natural development of events is seen 
 in Mark where Matthew and Luke are plainly more 
 artificial, 
 
 (B) That the human character of Jesus is much more 
 prominent in Mark than in either of the other two, 
 and 
 
 (C) That in many particular cases of likeness and 
 difference there can be shown, from comparison of the 
 text alone, and with a clearness hardly admitting the 
 possibility of mistake, an altering process on the side 
 of Matthew. 
 
 To bring these out in some small detail, 
 
 These (A) The special example of the natural development 
 
 tkms ldera ~ of events in Mark is the gradual assuming of the office 
 brought of the Messiah on the part of Jesus, with his forbidding 
 detail in the name to be applied at first, and the gradual 
 mentioned conviction on the part of the apostles. This may be 
 
 works. sajd t be absent from Luke, and by Matthew it is at 
 
 See also 
 
 Rush- least neglected, in his didactic setting forth of Jesus in 
 
INTRODUCTION. g 
 
 the character of the Messiah from the beginning. The brooke, 
 common order prevailing in Matthew and Mark is most ticon. 
 departed from in the earlier portion of the narrative, 
 And the difference there between the two gospels treatment 
 
 in Holtz- 
 becomes quite intelligible when it is supposed that the mann's 
 
 First Evangelist, in his aim of artistically setting forth t k> n and 
 
 Jesus as the Messiah, has neglected the gradual manner 
 
 in which he was recognised as such, and has made the 
 
 narrative as before him in Mark yield a little, first to 
 
 the presentation of the new law from the Mount, then 
 
 to an establishing in detail of the fact that Jesus raised 
 
 the dead, and restored the blind and the dumb, leading 
 
 up to the message of Jesus to John the Baptist, and 
 
 lastly to the ceremonious sending forth of apostles. 
 
 The state of matters that exists would not be so 
 
 intelligible were it supposed that Matthew was first, 
 
 and that Mark, following Matthew, had omitted the 
 
 Sermon on the Mount, had postponed the story of 
 
 Jairus's daughter, had omitted the message to John, 
 
 had broken up the sayings to disciples, and, having 
 
 done all this, had given a narrative still so spontaneous 
 
 and so true to ordinary laws of growth and advance as 
 
 that which meets us in the Second Gospel. And even 
 
 if it were at all admissible to resort to the idea that 
 
 Mark was so great a literary artist as himself to impart 
 
 the development to his narrative, this would be met by 
 
 the fact that the development appears also in Matthew, See Mk. 
 
 but there with interruptions, suggesting not a less 
 
 elaborated form, but a new form disregarding the point I5ff 1 [ 1 and 
 
 of development. All this, further, is supported by the xii. 23, 
 
 way in which Matthew resumes Mark's order after it 
 
 has been departed from, with the phrases " at that 
 
 time " and " when Jesus had ended these sayings " 28. 
 
10 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 strongly suggestive of a selection of material. The 
 
 general example of the natural development of events 
 See Mk. seen in Mark is to be found in the circumstantial 
 xi. 25, xiii. occurrence in Mark of sayings virtually the same as 
 
 some of those which in Matthew and Luke are set 
 
 within formal speeches. 
 
 For the (B) As regards the human character, while all three 
 Mt. xiv. 13 represent Jesus as having been moved by human 
 9" d but'for f een ng s > an d even as having been subjected to human 
 Mk.alone limitations, Mark brings in, where the others do not, 
 ill. 5, i. 12, that he was " moved with compassion," that he looked 
 M-'also 1 ' round "with anger," that the spirit " driveth " him, 
 v. 3 o and that he ''could not be hid," and that he received 
 
 X. 21. 
 
 See Welz- approval from the earnest scribe. These touches might 
 Unter' indeed be referred by some to a process of pictorial 
 such- finishing which has been ascribed to Mark in general ; 
 
 ungen, pp. . . . 
 
 51-62. Cp. but against such a way of explaining them are many 
 considerations. For one thing, the whole tendency of the 
 early literature can be seen to be towards emphasing 
 the Divine in Jesus, not the human ; and as this 
 tendency is by no means absent from the Gospel of 
 
 ? ee ^; Mark itself, one cannot well maintain the author to 
 
 IX. j, XV. 
 
 39. &c. have been an exception with respect to it. Besides, 
 these touches are so well supported by the spirit of 
 Jesus's sayings in all three gospels, as having been true 
 to the history, that it is far more natural to believe 
 them to have emerged with an original narrative than 
 to suppose them to have been added afterwards by ever 
 so clever a hand. 
 
 Mk. vi.2Q- (Q A special case under heading C is the end of the 
 
 12-13. account of the Baptist's death, with Jesus's learning of 
 it. Generally there fall to be noticed under this head, 
 
 (a) Mt. iii. (a) the quotations from the Old Testament, showing a 
 
Matthew, especially the shielding of apostles. A 3 g' 
 
 xiv. 19, 
 
 INTRODUCTION. TI 
 
 didactic purpose in Matthew, coming in more spon- 1-3, Mk. i. 
 taneously in Mark, (b) the abridgments in Matthew, xm. 13-17, 
 (c) the differences that suggest misunderstanding on the ^ k '/A v Mk 
 part of Matthew, and (d) the differences that suggest vi. 5, vi. 
 an advance of reflection and doctrine on the side of 14-29! x. 
 
 , Mt.xiii. 
 58 
 
 similar state of matters may be made out as between 
 Mark and Luke ; but it is hardly necessary to have Mt. iv.' 21- 
 recourse to textual comparison in the case of Mark and lg'. 20> and 
 Luke; for the posteriority of Luke is sufficiently proved ^g ial 
 by its doctrinal arrangement, and, posteriority being above; (d) 
 granted, the author's use of at least either Mark or xii.'as.Mt! 
 something very like Mark follows from the likeness x^ii'. 2 ^ ; 
 between the two gospels. ^Jk. lx - 
 
 38*4 2 
 
 It being, then, first recognised that Matthew and x. 35, xvi. 
 Luke have used either our Mark or a document which xv iii. 5-6, 
 our Mark has closely followed, it is a simple movement * x ' 2 2 ?^ cp ' 
 of thought which next recognises a second written xxviii. 7. 
 
 For IVIk 
 
 source besides Mark. Matthew and Luke have like- and Lk. 
 nesses not only where they follow Mark, but also where ^ Lk.iil. 
 they give material that Mark has not preserved. And \' 6 ^ k ^' 
 this state of things can be explained neither by the one 29. 
 having used the other nor by both having followed oral 
 tradition, as the independence of presentation in the See Mt - , 
 
 v.-vii. and 
 
 case of each author is too great for the former sup- Lk. vi., 
 position, and the fixedness of the material is too 
 decided for the latter. A common written source, 
 therefore, remains as the only explanation. Various 
 questions, indeed, have been discussed and differently See above 
 
 mentioned 
 
 answered in regard to this other source : Was it only works ; 
 known to the two authors in Aramaic, or was it a 
 Greek work or a Greek translation ? Did the two have 
 
 Weiz- 
 it in the same form, or had it already, before they sacker,&c. 
 
12 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 began their work, assumed different forms ? Did Mark 
 himself also use it, as well as the authors of Matthew 
 and Luke ? Did it contain only sayings of Jesus 
 ("logia"), or something of narrative also? While 
 these questions, except the last, are principally just 
 questions for scholars, and hardly affect the work of 
 this book, it is necessary to take up some position in 
 regard to them ; and so it comes to be said here, the 
 work of the following pages will proceed from this 
 basis : That the differences between Matthew and 
 Luke, though it is possible they are partly explainable 
 by the existence of different forms of the original work, 
 are mostly to be attributed to the distinct purpose 
 which guided the authors as they selected and wove 
 together from what was before them (this the course 
 of the book must itself bear out) ; that Mark had not 
 used the other source (this being a cumbersome idea, 
 and incompatible with Mark's omission of so much 
 important material) ; and that the original work was 
 of a fragmentary character, containing narrative as 
 well as sayings, though the latter was its main content 
 (this being demanded by the differences in many places; 
 for example, by the emphatic turns in Matthew, made 
 Mt. iv. 13, much of by Dr. Keim in arguing for the priority of 
 xvi'. 21'; Matthew). Also it will be here presupposed that Luke, 
 cp. Mk. i. besides the original document, had also before him our 
 andviii. Matthew (this being demanded by a comparison of the 
 Sermon on the Plain with the Sermon on the Mount, 
 the arrangement being evidently the First Evangelist's, 
 and the " Plain " as opposed to the " Mount " having, 
 as one is much persuaded to believe, an intentional 
 significance). 
 
 These two documents, the Gospel of Mark and the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 lost work by the Apostle Matthew, are sufficient to 
 have given origin to at least the substance of our first 
 three gospels. There arises, however, at this point 
 the further question : Are all the contents of these 
 gospels to be referred to the two sources now 
 considered ? To this it may be answered, first, as 
 specially regards Luke, it is a difficult question to 
 decide whether the author may not have possessed 
 also a third written source, from which has come the 
 important material which he presents in excess of the 
 other two. He may have had such a source. But 
 it is possible to account for his extra material without 
 this. A comparison between the three records of the 
 Trial and Sufferings of the Saviour very strikingly 
 suggests that in regard at least to that part of the See the 
 history the Third Evangelist preferred the Apostle columns in 
 Matthew source, whereas the First Evangelist pre- Reworks 
 ferred the account in Mark. And this further suggests Campbell 
 
 and Rush- 
 that it may have been the same all through, which brooke, 
 
 would again suggest that the Third Evangelist very men v _ 
 fully reproduced the Apostle Matthew source, whereas tloned - 
 the First Evangelist did so with more reserve. This 
 would account for the extra pieces in Luke, viewing 
 them as coming from the Apostle Matthew source. 
 And with this agrees the fact that many of the pieces C P- cer - 
 
 J tain con- 
 
 in question are very specially of a universalistic elusions 
 
 character, which, while making intelligible their having 7Q e 5 ' 
 been grasped at and preserved by the publican Matthew, Lehre DlG 
 also may well have made them unattractive to the First Jesus," 
 Evangelist, with his palpably legalistic purpose. NorHein- 
 is this inconsistent with the fact that it was the First ^3648, 
 Gospel, not the Third, which received from the Church * 2 5-37. 
 
 &c., as 
 
 the name of the Gospel according to Matthew; for passages 
 
14 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 showing a this name may have become affixed to it before the 
 
 preference . 
 
 on the Third Gospel was generally received, if not, indeed, 
 Lk for before it was written. Beyond the special case of 
 * Lu ke> further, there is no need to suppose any other 
 
 source written source than the two, except for the separate 
 
 birth accounts of Matthew and Luke, and for the 
 
 separate concluding portions of the resurrection 
 
 accounts in Matthew and Luke. It is, however, finally, 
 
 to be recognised that a general oral tradition not 
 
 See Weiz- only must have interposed between the apostolic tes- 
 
 spec^ timony and at least the Gospel of Mark, if it did not 
 
 also give special forms to the Apostle Matthew col- 
 
 lection, but must have been a concomitant factor, along 
 
 with these two earlier written sources, in the production 
 
 of the two later gospels besides. And this not prin- 
 
 cipally in a floating condition. The oral tradition, as 
 
 See spec. na s been pointed out by scholars, must have been 
 
 mann "and s P ec i a ^y crystallised in didactic forms used in the 
 
 Caspar!, services and assemblies of the Church. 
 
 See Acts 
 
 xxi. 8, What result, then, does all this lead to in regard to 
 
 fl p r ' the credibility of the gospels as indicating historical 
 events ? The first three gospels, we have seen, are 
 themselves very early works, and are based on two 
 works. Of these two works the one in all probability 
 rests on the testimony of the Apostle Peter, while the 
 other is directly the work of the Apostle Matthew ; at 
 any rate they reach to apostolic times. As, then, their 
 whole contents show the earnestness that asks for 
 credence, credibility may surely be admitted for them. 
 The interposing of the oral tradition, indeed, may 
 seem to weaken the position especially as there are 
 g roun ds f r maintaining that this tradition, in its 
 
 Es ec in 
 
 Mk. xiii. Church forms, actually interwove foreign material in 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 some cases. This, however, is met, as far as concerns and in Mt 
 the main facts of Jesus's life and the substance of *xy V ' 
 Jesus's teaching, by the undoubted earliness of the 
 works, which might be compatible with mistakes in 
 detail, but hardly with any serious error. And this is 
 greatly confirmed by the fact that, in spite of what has 
 above been acknowledged, we can still look upon the 
 three gospels as, for practical ends, three independent 
 witnesses. That the traditional idea of independence 
 has to be modified, we have seen. And it may appear 
 as if our three witnesses are resolved altogether into two 
 for the case of the teaching, and possibly even into one 
 for the case of the framework of events, inasmuch as it 
 may be maintained that the Apostle Matthew source 
 was a mere collection of sayings. It has been said 
 above, however, that in this work the latter opinion 
 will not be recognised; and the remark may beSeeHoltz- 
 hazarded that the prevailing scholarship and criticism Einlei- 
 are not likely to bear out that opinion. But further, 
 what is mainly to be noticed is that the earliness of 
 the works involves an independence on such important 
 matters as the substance of the teaching and the 
 framework of events. Indeed, in view of this, the very 
 fact of their community brings the independence on 
 such cardinal matters into relief. What we have is 
 a case of three writers, of whom two had the other's 
 work before them, which two freely departed from the 
 other's work in many respects and to a very consider- 
 able degree, but nevertheless acquiesced in regard to a 
 strongly marked substance of teaching and a general 
 framework of time, place, and order of occurrences. This 
 substance of teaching, thus, and this framework are, in 
 a way, more emphatically attested than if they had 
 
l6 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 appeared in three spontaneous writings ; for they have 
 stood the test of vigorous handling, and, where other 
 matters have been taken liberties with, have remained 
 fixed, under the hands of three men living at a time 
 when knowledge of them was still fresh. 
 
 It may be objected, indeed, to the last point that, as 
 regards the framework of time and place, the same 
 argument might be applied to the Fourth Gospel, 
 which is also an early work, and that, inasmuch as 
 it has broken down this framework, the testimony of 
 the other three is weakened. But this is, first, to be 
 answered confidently by pointing out that the Fourth 
 Evangelist, having a special end in view, shows a 
 complete carelessness on the subject of time and place, 
 quite different from the simplicity of narrative of the 
 other three, and putting him, as regards this question, 
 out of the list of witnesses. And further, the course of 
 the study will show that, recognising this carelessness, 
 one can detect the Synoptic framework in the Fourth 
 Gospel also. 
 
 So, many earnest workers have recently laboured to 
 present the picture of the Saviour's life and teaching 
 by means of reproducing the original documents, and 
 subtracting those elements which comparison and criti- 
 cism plainly declare to be the accretions of tradition or of 
 C. Witti- doctrinal purpose. And at least two of these workers 
 
 chen and 
 
 Prof. have, with unwearied labour and masterly ingenuity, 
 
 Wendt of . r . ,. . 
 
 Heidel- aimed at even a high measure of accuracy in this task. 
 
 t>erg. Now if the life of Jesus were a mere ordinary life, our 
 
 introductory survey might stop here. The state of 
 matters which we have had before us in regard to the 
 gospels, is enough for a very sure knowledge to be 
 based on it regarding a quite certain figure in the past. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 And such reproducing and corrective labour as has just 
 been alluded to, even if in many points possibly mis- 
 taken, is enough to present us both with a considerable 
 amount of information of virtually absolute certainty, 
 and also with much more that, if not quite sure, is 
 as certain as what is known regarding any other 
 historical figure so far removed from us in time. But 
 inasmuch as the life has not been an ordinary life 
 inasmuch as it been a power in the world such as no 
 other life has been, and has been accepted as indicative 
 of a circle of facts in the profounder regions of 
 reality, there arise, at this stage, the following critical 
 considerations : 
 
 (1) So far as we have come, certainty as to the 
 teaching that fell from the sacred lips and certainty as 
 to what was accomplished by the sacred will are 
 subjected to the decision of an intricate external 
 investigation ; and convincing in great degree as the 
 investigation has shown itself, its certainties remain 
 probable certainties, the mind leaping from received 
 documents to a lost document, and again from the lost 
 document itself to the audience of the Master. Such 
 a way of arriving at a fixed position does not satisfy 
 religious faith. And so, thus far modern knowledge, 
 while making away with the old standing ground of 
 verbal inspiration, does not provide us with a new rest 
 for the heart's devotion. 
 
 (2) The stage we have reached, with its purely 
 objective evidence, leaves least completely attested 
 precisely some of the sayings and actions of the 
 Saviour which have most appealed to our race, namely 
 those coming to us in single presentations in the 
 Gospel of Luke. 
 
 2 
 
l8 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 (3) The consigning of the Fourth Gospel to the 
 purely doctrinal sphere, while satisfactory and salutary 
 taking it as a whole, is not the end of the matter as 
 regards its details. The recognition of purely historical 
 information independently conveyed in it, cannot be 
 abandoned. 
 
 Now here there presents itself the very important 
 question, Are these defects to be made right by further 
 advance in objective investigation ? or, taking the three 
 considerations separately, may we hope that the first 
 want will yet be met by accumulation of identical 
 results and a strengthening of unanimity? may we 
 hope that the second will be met by the discovery of 
 further external testimony, or of further phenomena in 
 the testimony which we possess, bringing to all of the 
 important passages a similarly adequate quantity of 
 securities ? and may we hope, as regards the last 
 Most not- difficulty, that the work of certain mediating labourers 
 Wen'dt, w iU Y e * prevail in the case of the Fourth Gospel, and 
 
 Ei land ^ a ^ m ^ * an ^dependent source, tangible and 
 
 Arnold, fixed, will receive as willing a recognition as the Mark 
 Haweis ; 
 
 but the source and the Apostle Matthew source ? 
 
 vfewsfof Doubtless there is still much to be hoped for in the 
 
 these are advance of objective labour. And especially in regard 
 
 adopted to the Fourth Gospel question, it may be here stated 
 
 sequel. that this work, in this form as in its earlier form, will 
 
 recognise within the Fourth Gospel an independent 
 
 historical document, which the evangelist has enlarged 
 
 on as a text for his doctrinal presentation. A very 
 
 notable question in relation to the existence of such 
 
 an independent source, is the question whether the 
 
 author of the Fourth Gospel made use of the earlier 
 
 gospels. For if he did, then it may with great force 
 
INTRODUCTION. IQ 
 
 be maintained that these other gospels were sufficient 
 to provide the historical material which forms his 
 starting-point. And on few subjects have scholars of 
 all shades of thinking shown more unanimity than in 
 holding that he was at least acquainted with the 
 Synoptic Gospels. In the earlier form of this work 
 the contrary opinion was maintained ; and in restating 
 it acknowledgment must be made of what, not without 
 reason, may be deemed continued rashness or fool- 
 hardiness. The ground on which the generally rejected 
 opinion rests, that the evangelist did not make use of 
 the earlier gospels, is this, that in the cases where the 
 same occurrences as are told of in the other gospels 
 unmistakably appear in the Fourth Gospel in a new 
 dress, the ideal clothing so transforms them that, were 
 we to believe the evangelist had before him such com- 
 plete works as our other gospels, or even the narratives 
 adopted by our other gospels in anything like the form 
 they now possess, we should be accusing him of an 
 arbitrariness, a wilful disrespect, and a heedless license, cp. jn. vi. 
 in regard to generally accepted representations, all to 
 
 an extent which can scarcely be considered suitable 33J Jn- 
 to the promptings of a lofty purpose; and that hew.Mk.jui! 
 allowed himself such is surely, in view of the earnest- * 8 " 2 J : w ^ n 
 
 ness of his work, hardly credible. This point is, Mk - xi - 
 
 27-33, &c. 
 indeed, in some way met by supposing that it was only 
 
 at second-hand that the evangelist knew those other " I ? ie 
 
 Lehre 
 
 gospels, or that, in writing, he had them only before his Jesu," I., 
 memory. Here, however, an attempt will be made to 3 ' 
 bring out, as the study proceeds, that the original of 
 the Fourth Gospel was a fragmentary collection of 
 material preserved by the Apostle John (hence the s . ee J n 
 tradition), keeping in touch with the repetitions ofxxi. 24! 
 
20 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Peter and the other disciples long enough to preserve 
 a certain community of diction with these, then com- 
 mitted to writing still in its fragmentary condition, 
 and finally used by the philosophical writer, whoever 
 he may have been, who has left to future ages a work 
 so complex and so hard to explain. 
 
 Even holding, however, that we are possessed of this 
 further source, our difficulties are not diminished ; fcr 
 now, added to the intricate but comparatively definable 
 work of severing the original sayings and events from 
 three presentations very like one another, there comes 
 a new, far more subtle work of severance, namely, no 
 less than a severance of the original material in the 
 Fourth Gospel from a superimposed body of doctrine, 
 which has taken the very greatest literary liberties 
 with the narrative for the sake of expressing its own 
 thoughts. And so, bringing in the Fourth Gospel to 
 help us, we only, in an already intricate path towards 
 certainty, find more intricacies of a greater degree of 
 difficulty. 
 
 But just at this point of seeming bewilderment, we 
 are forced into an altogether new set of methods of 
 knowledge, which clear the whole situation. The very 
 irritation and the very sense of absurdity which must 
 arise over the discovery that many pre-suppositions 
 found to be so healthful and so stimulating as applied 
 to practical life are so difficult to confirm scientifically, 
 suggest the thought, There must be a new set of scientific 
 principles altogether which are available to supplement 
 the objective labour thus far considered. 
 
 There are principles of a different kind which must 
 now be mentioned as available for accurate knowledge 
 of the historical life of Jesus. They are partly such as 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 might be resorted to in regard to any life in the past ; 
 but partly also they have a special existence in relation 
 to the one life. They are these : 
 
 (i) The general Impression made by Jesus on the 
 world, as seen specially in the early Christian writings. Cp- Weiz- 
 
 sacker in 
 
 but further also in subsequent history, is a canon not his Unter- 
 
 sucl 
 gen. 
 
 only for the determination of the significance of his suc 
 
 life, but also for interpreting the records of his life. 
 This principle may rightly be looked at as a 
 scientific equivalent for the Traditional Authority of 
 the Catholic Church. 
 
 (2) The recorded events as a whole present a picture, 
 satisfying all laws of logic, of which, however, the 
 component parts are scattered among the four gospels ; 
 and it is reasonable and permissible to find the history 
 through the adaptation of these parts, as their being 
 capable of making a complete picture and their having 
 originated in a scattered condition is inconceivable. This 
 principle was illustrated in the earlier form of this book 
 by the case of a puzzle surely no unworthy illustration, 
 if one but remembers how search is exacted under the 
 Divine Government in regard to all sacred objects of 
 knowledge of a puzzle, say a child's picture of some 
 Bible scene, in which the scattered portions are to be 
 
 put in their places. 
 
 Cp. Holtz- 
 
 (3) The character as a whole presents a picture mann in 
 
 also, this time not in the material aspect of the 
 picture, but in the aspect of its genius, coming before 
 us as a unique, fresh entity, which no man ever can and the 
 have imagined out of the combinations of fancy ; and treatment 
 it is reasonable and permissible to prune and correct critical 
 
 particular records of sayings by the rule of the School, as 
 
 Pfleiderer, 
 
 character as a whole. This principle might be so far &c. 
 
22 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 applied in the case of any character ; but with respect 
 to that character which comes before us in the gospels 
 it has special applicability, inasmuch as the stronger 
 a character is the more must its outcomes show 
 unity. 
 
 On these principles, as filling up the gaps in 
 objective research, the following study reverently 
 proceeds. And they are sound principles. Application 
 of them may, indeed, at times look like subjective 
 dealing with the sources of information. And really 
 all application of them is to an extent subjective. It 
 is the receiving of the objective impression along with 
 a sympathetic and reconstructive action on the part of 
 the mind or subject. But this subjective action will be 
 of true value in any particular case only where it is no 
 mere individual action, but has been stimulated by the 
 universal movements of thought ; and similarly any 
 small contribution to knowledge that any individual 
 may be enabled to present, must itself stand the test of 
 the general declaration, as being in accord or not in 
 accord with the combined testimony of objective 
 evidence and general sympathetic understanding. In 
 the case of the life of Jesus Christ, indeed, what must, in 
 very great part, both prompt any valuable work and also 
 help largely to test it, will be that general Christian 
 recognition which is expressed not in popular unproved 
 fancies, nor even in the phrases of creeds, but in the 
 ideals of both public and private Christian aspiration 
 and practice. All judgment, short of that based on 
 the darkest pessimism and pyrrhonism, will admit that 
 the ethical ideal which is binding together Christian 
 communities, both in outward institutions and in 
 secret experiences of self-examination and self-restraint, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 is a witness to historical reality as regards the person 
 of the Initiator. 
 
 The principles in question, further, are essentially 
 the same principles as those professed for a wider 
 range of sacred study by Protestant Christianity, and 
 the application of them is the application to the 
 historical life of the same principles that Protestantism 
 demands for the whole circle of sacred truth ; for the 
 Protestant centre of authority is not the Bible as 
 external testimony, but the Bible as illumined through 
 spiritual influence which has traversed the universal 
 Christian consciousness. 
 
 And finally as relates to these principles, while the 
 objective conclusions above specified are not to be 
 under-estimated, being indeed the presupposition and 
 the preparation for the others, these have the power 
 which the objective conclusions have not, of bring- 
 ing virtual unanimity and certainty on the matter 
 before us. That this is so can be seen from the fact 
 that different contributors to the newer knowledge, Forex.cp. 
 whose special contentions regarding the sources of the mann w j t h 
 
 gospels may vary considerably, are found, in respect p^f 1 ' 01 
 
 to the life and teaching of Jesus, arriving at very much Bruce 
 the same results. It is not, indeed, to be pretended Keim. 
 that these latter principles, any more than the 
 objective labour, can reproduce the teaching of the 
 Saviour in verbal exactness, or can give any more than 
 an undetailed presentation of the outward events; but 
 they can give to the general comprehension of these a 
 restful certainty, and for particulars which, without our 
 principles, are insufficiently evidenced, they give the 
 right either, if these particulars are repellent, to remove 
 
24 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 them decisively, or, if they are needed for the unity and 
 vitality, to set them firmly in their proper places. 
 
 It remains to add to this introduction a few more 
 special preliminary considerations. 
 
 First, it is to be noted that the gospels have all a 
 structure, which has been built not for the end now 
 before us, of seeing the history alone, but for the more 
 complex end of setting forth the Messiah and the 
 Gospel. Accordingly, in searching for the history, it 
 is necessary to notice the structure carefully before 
 attempting to abstract the historical material from it. 
 The different evangelists have in common this plan : 
 To show (a) the centralising of the Divine in the 
 human in Jesus, (b) the main teaching of the Saviour, 
 (c) the opposition of the authorities, (d) the farewell 
 charge of the Saviour, (c) the death, and (/) the 
 Resurrection. But having this plan in common, they 
 use their material differently for building according to 
 the plan. Thus, the first floor of the structure, the 
 centralising of the Divine, is presented differently 
 by all four evangelists ; and very specially such 
 diverse choice of material is seen in the case of 
 .- J n : . the fourth floor, the farewell charge, the Synoptic 
 
 l.-XVll., 
 
 Mk. writers and the Johannine writer having chosen a 
 Mt. xxiv.- different set of sayings of the Master from one another 
 xxv - altogether, to regard as the groundwork of his farewell 
 
 charge. This state of matters makes a special call 
 on the Subjective Canons above specified. It has 
 brought about that there are to be reckoned with, in 
 the gospels, not merely the discrepancies and the 
 obvious divergencies which have overtaken the repre- 
 sentations, but also a certain artificialising both of the 
 
 Xlll.-XVll. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 events and even of the personality of Jesus. This 
 artificialising we may observe quite consistently with 
 retaining a respect for the evangelists. For the end 
 of seeing the history pure and simple, there must be 
 resorted to, to begin with, the criterion of lifelike- 
 ness ; and the above-mentioned canons restrain and 
 guide this criterion in its application to the special 
 subject, 
 
 Again, it is to be noted that each of the gospels 
 has a special bias and a special purpose. The 
 emphasising, if not the discovering, of this is the glory 
 of the famous " Tubingen School " of fifty years ago ; 
 and while many of the theories and particular con- 
 clusions of the great Dr. Baur and the other repre- 
 sentatives of the School have been set aside, it is 
 a grave error to underestimate this matter of the 
 " tendencies " in the gospels, which they brought into 
 the foreground. Of particular influences creating bias 
 the leading scholars of the present day have laid stress 
 on two, namely, first, the immense veneration of the 
 Israelite for the Old Testament, substance and form, 
 along with the mystical interpretation of both its pre- 
 dictions and its narratives, and, second, the already 
 growing types of apostolic teaching. These have 
 affected all the evangelists more or less ; and both 
 these and other influences have worked with the Prof. 
 evangelists' original activity, so as to make four special 
 lines of tendency. Thus, the Evangelist Mark, seeking Q 
 to show simply that Jesus was the Messiah, gives his Face," 
 narrative in such a way as to bring forward, without insulted 
 either straining or departing from fact, the power of 
 
 Jesus's personality. The First Evangelist, again, istics of 
 emphasises the purity or the moral kingship of Jesus, gelists. 
 
26 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 But strictly faithful to truth as his representation 
 must be pronounced to be in essentials, he permits 
 himself a background of scholarly detail, which is 
 national and, more or less, arbitrary. He presents 
 Jesus's appearance as a continuance from the old 
 dispensation, and in doing so strains Old Testament 
 See espec. quotations to prove, in the ways of his time, that this 
 
 ii. 23 and . - A M r . . 
 
 xxvii. 9. appearance was in every detail foreseen, gives the 
 teaching in a collective view as a Sermon from the 
 Mount, like the old Law from the Mount, and 
 transmits some of the sayings in legalistic forms, or 
 with legalistic interpretations, unknown in Mark, 
 Spec. cp. separating, for the future, the guilty from the innocent, 
 4 6, w. the cursed from the blessed. The Third Evangelist, 
 49 ' next, in marked distinction from the First, though not 
 in essential divergence, brings out the compassion 
 of Jesus, and the compassion of the Sovereign Power 
 whom Jesus revealed. Then lastly the Fourth Evan- 
 gelist, influenced by philosophical views as the others 
 are not, seeks to set forth the genuineness of Jesus's life 
 as a special outcome of the Eternal and Unchangeable. 
 In doing this, he ignores far the greater part of the 
 historical life and teaching. Where are the parables in 
 the Fourth Gospel ? where are the Good Samaritan, the 
 Lost Sheep, and the Sower ? where are the name of 
 our Heavenly Father, the message to the unfortunate 
 and the sinful, the beatitudes, the sitting at meat with 
 publicans, and the love for enemies ? The Fourth 
 Gospel has sacrificed history to doctrine, and were we 
 See vi. 29, to read the work as purely historical, we should find 
 
 V. 2O-22, i i i 1-1 
 
 vi. 44, viii. even the character which we worship perplexingly 
 51-24, 33- transformed from the majestic simplicity that belonged 
 
 44 55- 
 
 to it as we are assured from reading the other gospels. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 2J 
 
 Let all respect be paid to this gospel. But let those 
 who refuse to have it corrected, for historical questions, 
 by the earlier representations, remember that they 
 are becoming responsible for defending the literal 
 historicity not only of the fourteenth and seventeenth 
 chapters, but also of the eighth chapter. Really, the 
 eighth chapter of John contains a doctrinal dialogue 
 of early Christian times, set in a particular literary 
 form. The achievement, as the aim, of the Fourth 
 Evangelist is one other than historical ; it is the pre- 
 sentation of the metaphysical aspects of the Saviour's 
 life. In this he stands as a prophet. While, indeed, 
 his dualistic view of human beings is no more beyond 
 criticism per se than it is as a representation of the 
 teaching of Jesus, his view, on the other hand, of the 
 Divinity of Jesus, as amounting to the Incarnation of 
 the " Logos ", or Eternal Reason, while it has 
 developed, has not been surpassed. 
 
 And lastly, the discrepancies in the gospels, rightly 
 viewed, minister to the credibility of the history. The 
 very variety of form in which the facts appear estab- 
 lishes these facts, whether they have been general or 
 particular. And here, it may be remarked, that where 
 it is possible, by the sacrifice of a few very unessential 
 adornments to see one event, general or particular, in 
 several different stories, such a line of interpretation 
 greatly ministers to the credibility. Some attempts in 
 this direction in the earlier form of this work excited 
 considerable disfavour. But was it just ? Is it not 
 the truth that a very limited number of episodes in 
 the public ministry of Jesus Christ have come down to 
 us in the Divine Government, all the more certain 
 from their persistent appearance in the many coloured 
 
28 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 presentations of an imaginative and unscientific but 
 earnest people ? 
 
 It will be the aim, however, in the following pages, 
 to help to show that enough is certainly known of 
 Jesus to justify the profound doctrines and faiths which 
 have become associated with his appearance, and also, 
 it is hoped, in some small way to show that in Him the 
 human heart finds One to whom it turns unreservedly 
 as to the Captain of Salvation. 
 
PART I. 
 BEFORE THE MINISTRY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE HIDDEN THIRTY YEARS. 
 
 THE earthly life of Him whose name for us is " above 
 every name " is, with the exception of some few 
 months at the end of it, hidden from our sight. The 
 four books in the New Testament that tell of the 
 earthly life of Jesus neither are nor profess to be 
 biographies of him. They are messages of "good 
 news," which the writers wish to be read through his 
 life and teaching. And the good news is conveyed in 
 the language and imagery of their own time. Both for 
 the end of truly understanding this good news and for 
 the end of inquiring scientifically into the manner of its 
 emergence, it is legitimate to apply to the four books 
 a careful investigation, in which the doctrinal, the 
 artistic, and the temporary elements become, for the 
 moment, disregarded, and the bare facts of the history 
 are set alone in the foreground. But of the facts of the 
 history only a few have been preserved. And of par- 
 ticular facts only those remain to us which, belonging 
 to the public ministry of our Lord, ranged over the last 
 few months of his earthly life. 
 
3O THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Two things, however, are possible to all who intelli- 
 gently read the gospels. One of these is to get a 
 sufficiently clear view of those last months in the life of 
 the Master ; the other is to reconstruct reverently, not 
 in a particular way, but in a general way, the history of 
 what went before. 
 
 The Gospel of Matthew, indeed, and the Gospel of 
 Luke both present, at their opening, pictures having 
 to do with the earlier life ; they present pictures of 
 the sacred infancy, intermingled in representations of 
 beings having higher rank than men, and surrounded 
 by a halo of brightness greater than that which shines 
 on this world, preparing for the introduction of a 
 career that, while human, was at the same time more 
 
 See App. than human. But these pictures in their details go 
 back beyond the earthly history ; and indeed there is 
 little in them that can be abstracted from the pre- 
 earthly and adjudged to the sphere of earthly history. 
 Their place for consideration, therefore, is at the end, 
 not at the beginning, of the work we have entered on. 
 At the present stage all that comes to be done in regard 
 to them is to be influenced in the spirit of inquiry by 
 the sight of them as we pass, to call to mind that the 
 life we are studying has won the acceptance of such 
 representations, to listen, for a moment, in fancy to the 
 angels' song, and let the eye, for a moment, rest on the 
 words of its unparalleled theme. 
 
 Lk. ii. 42- The Gospel of Luke also, besides its picture of the 
 infancy, has given us one narrative of the earlier life 
 of Jesus. Isolated, the only record in the New Testa- 
 ment of Jesus not yet become a teacher, stands the 
 account of the boyhood incident in the Temple. But 
 the very isolation of this account emphasises the 
 
THE HIDDEN THIRTY YEARS. 3! 
 
 meagreness of our information. It is all we have ; and 
 it is itself little more than a flash, having hardly more 
 in it than what sympathy and reverence might have 
 themselves imagined. 
 
 For the real history of Jesus's life (excepting the last 
 few months of it) recourse must be had to indirect 
 methods. Fortunately, if generalities be alone aimed 
 at, there are indirect methods which can be followed 
 with a perfect confidence. We have a principle to go 
 on which, as regards generalities, is sufficient to give 
 us a clear view. This principle is simply to make the 
 later life, which we do know, tell also of the earlier life, 
 which otherwise we do not know. There are two ways 
 in which we can apply this principle, (i) We can, in 
 a few cases, find expressed references to the earlier life 
 in what is recorded of the later life. But (2) we can 
 also see generally in Jesus's own later words and 
 actions implicit indications of what the earlier life must 
 have been. In this second application, the principle 
 agrees with a demand which Jesus himself made of his 
 contemporaries. Jesus asked repeatedly that he might 
 be judged by his contemporaries according to his 
 actions, as "the tree is known by his fruit." This Mt.xii. 33 . 
 suggests the principle by which we ourselves may learn 
 of the earlier life of Jesus. If we can go in thought 
 from the fruit to the tree, we can similarly go from the 
 later growth to the earlier growth. " Of thorns," said Lk. v : . 44. 
 Jesus, " men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush 
 gather they grapes." Similarly we can say that from 
 a mature fig or a mature grape we can judge that in 
 the earlier growth there was, whatever else may have 
 been seen, a young fig or a young grape. Allowing 
 that some of Jesus's sayings and actions might proceed 
 
32 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 from what had come to him through experience, there 
 is nevertheless a general character to be found in them 
 which must have been there also in the former stages 
 of his life ; and there are certain words and deeds 
 telling of spiritual qualities which cannot have been of 
 late acquisition, but must have developed along with 
 his whole heart and mind. 
 
 See Mk. i. Proceeding, then, upon this principle of making the 
 24 ; Jn. i. j a t er known throw light on the earlier unknown, we 
 
 45 /vets 
 
 x. 38, &c. meet as the first certain fact this, that he belonged to 
 Jn. 1.46!' NAZARETH, a little inconsiderable town, beautifully 
 note on situated, some three days' journey north of Jerusalem. 
 Acts, in "Whether or not his belonging to Nazareth included his 
 
 App. VIII. 
 
 jn. iv. 43, having been born there, need not be decided. The 
 
 of'suffi- infancy pictures above alluded to, as literally read, 
 
 clearness ma ^e him out to have been born not in Nazareth, but 
 
 to be of in Bethlehem. On the other hand, it is not to be 
 
 any 
 
 weight. concealed that the evidence which comes from the rest 
 Mk.Vg, of tne New Testament suggests very strongly the other 
 J n - 2 U a nd state f matters - What we have for certain is that by 
 Mt. xxi. his contemporaries and by the immediately succeeding 
 
 generation he was known as Jesus of Nazareth. 
 Mk. vi. 3 ; We can believe him to have, as he grew up, lived 
 Jn. i. 45, ' with his parents Joseph and Mary, and with several 
 vl< 42< sisters and brothers, in the relation of strong mutual 
 Renan, p. affection. Some scholars, indeed, have believed rather 
 that the relation between him and his family was a 
 strained one. But this conclusion is chiefly based on 
 Mk.iii.2i, one little incident which, we shall see when we come to 
 it, really points, if carefully viewed, quite in the oppo- 
 site direction as regards the earlier part of his life. 
 Certainly a personality so commanding as we shall see 
 his to have been must at times have asserted itself 
 
THE HIDDEN THIRTY YEARS. 33 
 
 so as to cause little misunderstandings ; and the story 
 of the boyhood temple incident in the Gospel of Luke, Lk. ii. 41- 
 whether it indicates a special occurrence or not, repre- 5 ' 
 sents assuredly what may have often happened. But 
 the general course of Jesus's home life was, we may be 
 quite sure, smooth and pleasant. For our belief in this, 
 the character of Jesus, as we shall see it further on, is 
 enough. And we have, to help to confirm it, first, the i Cor. ix. 
 very incident just mentioned, as carefully read ; then 19, &C.; 1 ' 
 
 further, the fact that after his death the whole family ts I4 ' 
 seem to have been among his disciples; not to speak jn. xix. 
 still further of the story of Jesus's dying words about his afso Mt P * 
 mother, given in the Fourth Gospel, which is likely to * v - 4- 6 
 be based on a trustworthy enough tradition. 
 
 We can believe him, further, to have grown up, in 
 relation to those beyond his family, a bright-natured 
 boy, living the simple oriental life among other boys, 
 giving to them and receiving from them many a 
 simple kindness with a simple happiness. Ecclesiastical 
 tradition, indeed, would make it painfully otherwise. 
 The "apocryphal gospels " represent him as having been Apocry- 
 an over-bearing boy, using miraculous power for arbitrary 
 
 ends. In fact, they dare to represent him in places as and Rev ~ 
 
 elation, tr. 
 
 having been a merciless being in the shape of a boy, by Wal- 
 even at times blasting and killing the living children 
 of earth. But ecclesiastical tradition had grown 
 morbid in this, being influenced by an ignorant con- 
 ception of the divinity of Jesus ; the " apocryphal 
 gospels " have no value as evidence. The real Jesus, 
 so far from blasting, dearly loved the children of 
 earth. What we must go upon is mainly this one 
 lovely utterance of the later Jesus himself: "Judge Lk. vi. 37, 
 not, and ye shall not be judged : condemn not, and 3 
 
34 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 ye shall not be condemned : forgive, and ye shall 
 be forgiven : give, and it shall be given unto you ; good 
 measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and 
 running over, shall men give into your bosom. For 
 with the same measure that ye mete withal shall it be 
 measured to you again." This sacred utterance tells 
 of experience as well as of inspiration. We learn from 
 it that Jesus, in his earlier life, had given to others both 
 tangible things and the intangible treasures of respect 
 and sympathy, and had tasted in return the joys of 
 kindness and generous companionship. And indeed 
 we learn from it that Jesus had been specially of the 
 giving spirit, and not only that he had been specially 
 of the giving spirit, but that he had had a special power 
 of getting value out of what was of that spirit in others. 
 Mk. xii. This latter point is further supported by some incidents 
 47 See m *^ e public ministry, in which we see him rejoicing in 
 5 1 ? . the goodness of others. He seems to have formed this 
 
 J~*K. XI. ^-o" 
 
 Mt. vii. habit of noticing what was good in others, and to have 
 found in it both much happiness and also encourage- 
 me.nt to himself for lofty faith and practice. Jesus, we 
 can say, from his early years, was most gentle, most 
 considerate, and most generous, and, on the other hand, 
 such as to see in those around him that which made 
 him love and reverence everybody. 
 
 Out of such a boyhood he grew, we can further 
 believe, into a similar manhood. Only it must be 
 recognised that as he grew older there was a reserve 
 about him which, while not interfering with his simple 
 life of giving and taking, must have made a greater 
 than ordinary barrier of thought and feeling between 
 him and his fellows, and caused him to begin to 
 experience a peculiar loneliness of spirit. That he did 
 
THE HIDDEN THIRTY YEARS. 35 
 
 possess such a reserve we should know from the very 
 uniqueness of nature in him which was afterwards to 
 be shown. And it is further borne out by the fact that, 
 in the time of the ministry, we find he had a habit of E.g.,Mk. 
 
 i. 35. 
 
 retiring at times from human fellowship to commune 
 with the Divine Presence a habit which no doubt 
 would be formed by him as his unique inner promptings 
 began to mature in him. We cannot believe, however, 
 that this reserve ever entirely cut him off from com- 
 panionship. His whole after-teaching was of a life of Lk.vi. 38 
 companionship. His whole ideal was companionship, 39 . 
 as elevated and purified. And his actions in the time E.g., Lk. 
 of the ministry show an easiness both in making xlx * 5> 6 ' 
 acquaintances and in recommending himself to them, 
 which can only have developed through continual 
 society and intimacy. 
 
 Of the intellectual life which he lived as boy and man 
 we can say this much, that it was devoted from the 
 first to the subject of religion. Such a religious genius 
 as afterwards meets us tells of a mind that can never 
 have known but the one ruling interest. That indeed 
 he had an eye for the objects of the outside world we 
 know from his sayings ; but there is nothing to show 
 that any one class of these objects formed for him a 
 special interest. All the outside world spoke to him of 
 the Divine Life, and the Divine Life was his one 
 interest. Beyond this we can hardly look into his 
 intellectual life at all ; and we need not wish to do so. 
 What is allowed us in relation to his intellectual life is 
 to see the intellectual creations which, in his time of 
 public ministry, he gave to the cause of religion ; and 
 these, when we come to them, will enable us to form 
 
 3* 
 
36 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 some judgment as to the character of the intelligence 
 which lived in him. To seek to see in particular how 
 his mind had been employing itself before he gave those 
 creations to the cause he loved, is a thing we need not 
 wish to do. It would be like seeking to peer into the 
 time of struggle of an artist or inventor, and follow him 
 through the strivings, the promptings, the suggestions, 
 and the discoveries by which he became possessed of 
 subtfe in- ms mental treasures ; and it would be little better than 
 
 fluence m ere curiosity that would seek to do this. That Tesus 
 also may J J 
 
 be traced, learned religion through being taught the Hebrew 
 
 Cp. for ex. . _ . 
 
 Mk. iv. 32 Scriptures we can be sure of, in general from the fact 
 iv^i^nd of the number of quotations and allusions used by him 
 perh. Mt. ' m his speeches, and in particular from his adopting 
 Lk. xiv. for himself the name of " Son of man." That his mind 
 
 i rnoved to an extent along the paths of the time which 
 A 6 's & e C cial mac * e tne J ews a cnosen people, the Scriptures a unique 
 study authority, the observance of legal points the main 
 made of interest of religion, and the coming of a deliverer of the 
 thfe a con na tion the main hope of religion this too may be set 
 nection. down as certain, seeing various actions and words in 
 E.g., Mk. the time of the ministry show that he was not 
 25, x. 19, completely separated from these. That, once more, 
 Lk xl ' 42 ne received certain ideas and certain guidance from 
 A full and the different prevailing Jewish parties of the time the 
 discussion Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes this too is 
 of this more than probable, though to determine how far this 
 
 point is to e 
 
 be found may have been the case in detail takes us more into the 
 vol. ii.pp. sphere of speculation. But how and when he super- 
 170^188' i m P ose d on all that he learned and so far appropriated 
 (Engl.Tr.) an altogether new world of ideas free, ethereal, eternal 
 this we cannot tell. All we know is that during the 
 
THE HIDDEN THIRTY YEARS. 37 
 
 thirty years before he appeared in history there was 
 going on within him an intellectual process in which 
 he was receiving into his mind religion as distorted and 
 overgrown, and was changing it, through the power 
 that was in him, so as one day to send it forth again as 
 religion pure and lovely 
 
 One special interest indeed which he must have 
 possessed is to be mentioned, though we can see that 
 it, like every other, was subordinated to the interest of 
 religion, and that is the interest in healing diseases. 
 We can see that Jesus viewed the healing of diseases Lk. vi. 36 
 as being victories of God over the spirit of evil ; but Mk< "* 5- 
 the success- which he undoubtedly attained in regard 
 to the matter in the time of his ministry suggests that 
 he had given the matter some practical study. No 
 doubt much of his success was due to the faith aroused 
 on the part of the people in himself, and in the kind 
 God in whose name he acted. But the mere faith is 
 not enough to explain his success, as it could only well 
 be aroused after some genuine action of healing taking 
 place. No doubt also, the healing ministry of a life 
 which stands now " at the very centre of the world's Farrar. 
 history " must have had as its mainspring a personal 
 power which it is wisest for us not to attempt to 
 scrutinise. But .personal power in no case dispenses 
 with means, and even to this sacred human life there 
 must be attributed procedure which was human even if 
 in a true sense unshared. What we are to believe of 
 the hidden time of Jesus's life in regard to this subject 
 is that, while on the one hand he was awakening to the 
 consciousness of a personal command over suffering, 
 he at the same time disciplined himself in the know- Cp. Jn. 
 ledge of the subject in general, and so sanctified his 
 
38 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 personal attributes for the mission on which he 
 See Lk. afterwards entered, in which his own healing acts 
 18 ; Mt. became illustrations of his message, that for all suffering 
 xvn. 15- t h ere i s a Divine Conquering. 
 
 Of the outer life that he lived, we are given by the 
 Mk. \-i. 3. evangelist Mark this one point, that he became a 
 carpenter. When and for how long, we know not ; 
 but all ordinary probability suggests that he would 
 begin this trade early in life, and continue it till the 
 time in which he went away from his own town to 
 enter on his Mission. The fact that he was known in 
 his own town simply as " the carpenter " suggests 
 that he had not varied his occupation, and had not in 
 any way had a course of life eventful enough to excite 
 special attention. And the fact that little reference to 
 this trade is to be found in his after-sayings must be 
 held to be not in disagreement with this, but in full 
 accordance with it. It is perfectly explainable by the 
 delicacy of his disposition, which would make him 
 choose, so far as possible, symbols taken from other 
 sources than his own special occupation ; and we may 
 consider, further, how he would naturally have a 
 shrinking from dwelling much on what he had come 
 to know was very different from his real calling in the 
 world. We may believe he was indeed to popular 
 knowledge just " the carpenter " through all the more 
 mature part of the hidden thirty years. 
 Shows' this Amid a life of simple companionship Jesus early, we 
 
 truth to mav suppose, became assured of that truth by the 
 
 have been J . 
 
 declared asserting which and the dying for which he became 
 
 the Kin S of our world the truth of the FATHERHOOD 
 OF GoD< No doubt tllis truth was suggested to him 
 try. by the Old Testament scriptures, for it is really a 
 
THE HIDDEN THIRTY YEARS. 39 
 
 development and a widening of the truth that prevails 
 
 in them ; and possibly the name of " Father " for God Taylor's 
 
 1 T i sa yi n g s * 
 
 was given him from the sayings of some other Jewish the Jewish 
 teacher, for we know it was not peculiar to him to use p^^ 8 ' 
 it, though what he realised by it went far beyond what ma y be 
 it can have meant to any other. Further, it is likely But cp. 
 that his father Joseph had died when he was young, f x iii. 16, 
 so that the use of the name " Father " for the Supreme J t 8 ' vii i 
 Father was left easy for him. But these things had 5- On 
 
 . . . . , point in 
 
 but a small part in his attaining to the truth in regard to 
 question. Most to do with it had his own commanding R^nan,^' 
 mind and his own royal heart his mind, that was 5- 
 able to discern the true nature of the Divine Presence, 
 and his heart, that had religion for its One chief 
 interest ; his mind, that was able to discern the more 
 than creature nature in ordinary human beings, and 
 his heart, that in consequence loved all human beings, 
 especially the young, in whom he saw generosity, 
 trustfulness, and prevailing simplicity of character as 
 yet little corrupted, of whom he said that " of such " 
 was the " kingdom of God." And next to his own Mk - x - J 4- 
 
 See above, 
 
 part to be reckoned as of importance in his attaining p. 34, 
 to the truth was the goodness that lived in the lives of m 
 his fellows around him. 
 
 That truth has every consequence for us, the 
 worshippers and disciples of Jesus ; it had, however, a 
 special consequence for Jesus's own earthly life. One 
 more fact is to be added to what we can gather 
 regarding the private period of his life, and it is this, 
 that during that period he either continually possessed 
 or some time attained a notable Peace of Mind. In 
 the midst of his public ministry he said to all, " Come Mt. xi. 28. 
 unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 
 
40 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 and I will give you rest." And at the end of his 
 
 Jn.xiv. 27. ministry he said to his disciples, " Peace I leave with 
 you, my peace I give unto you." Rest and peace were 
 
 Lk 6 ' x 8 "s k* S) ^ would thus appear. But during the time of the 
 ministry they were his only as a memory and as an 
 anticipation. It was in the hidden thirty years that 
 they had been to him an already experienced attain- 
 ment. His peace was, to begin with, a repose on 
 the thought of that present heavenly Father who so 
 
 Mt. x. 30. cares for every one of His children that He may be 
 said to number the very hairs of their heads. It was, 
 however, further, an actual dwelling in the presence of 
 that Father. Everything around him spoke of the 
 
 Mt. vi., Sacred Presence, and so in everything he read Promise. 
 The flowers, the birds, the life of man, all spoke to him 
 of a Fatherly Care, and in realising that he found a 
 calm joy which, we must say, was the nearest approach 
 possible for this world of struggle to what we picture 
 as Peace. 
 
 The veil that covers the life of Jesus for the time 
 previous to his ministry, lifts away not suddenly, like 
 a curtain artificially hung, but rather gradually, like a 
 mist clearing away in the physical world ; so that, just 
 before he plainly appears to us in history, we get a 
 view of him which is dim, but yet more than the indirect 
 view of reasoning and conjecture. When we keep 
 following the principle that has been before us, there 
 is an epoch in Jesus's life, still within the hidden period 
 but close to the end of it, in which we can more defi- 
 nitely describe what took place than we can describe 
 what took place in the earlier part of that period. This is 
 the epoch in which, his mind having become gradually 
 filled with treasures of thought, and his heart having 
 
THE HIDDEN THIRTY YEARS. 41 
 
 come to burn with sublime desire and emotion, he was 
 first conscious that he had a sacred Mission in the world, 
 and was on the eve of following it. The mist half 
 clears away from the life of the Master while he is still 
 the Carpenter, but soon to be such no longer. We can 
 without much use of the imagination picture to our- 
 selves an event in the still private and unprofessing life. 
 What we see is a Figure, having laid aside work and 
 tools, buried in contemplation ; and as we look at this 
 figure with reverent interest, we see the face of a man 
 engaged in a struggle within himself, and we see his 
 lips moving, and we hear him express his thoughts in 
 words of unmistakable meaning. The words are 
 these : " Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, Mk. iv. 21, 
 or under a bed ? and not to be set on a candle- ^ 2 so J f race 
 stick ? For there is nothing hid, which shall not be Jesus's 
 
 expressing 
 
 manifested ; neither was anything kept secret, but that this 
 
 it should come abroad." Then the mist again closes 
 
 over the Sacred Figure soon to roll away completely ** d |. 35> 
 
 and leave Jesus clearly standing and moving amidst 4 6 
 
 summer brightness that again, alas ! soon, in its 
 
 turn, to give place to a wild tempest shrieking 
 
 around him, and then carrying him finally away out 
 
 of our sight. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIRST MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY 
 A JOURNEY. 
 
 JESUS steps forward into clear historical reality as is 
 
 Mk. i. 9. described in these words of the evangelist Mark, " And 
 
 it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from 
 
 Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in 
 
 Jordan." By the " those days" is meant about the 
 
 year 30 of our reckoning, and we can, with good 
 
 Keim, probability, fix the time exactly to about the opening 
 
 from |O- 
 
 sephus. of the year 34. We can simply accept the statement of 
 Luke, that Jesus was at this time "about thirty years 
 
 Lk. iii. 23. of age." 
 
 All that may have prompted him to leave his home 
 and work at Nazareth, we cannot tell. The natural 
 growth of his personality is itself sufficient to account 
 for his doing so. We may believe, however, that the 
 fame of John the Baptist reaching his ears was the 
 occasion of his self-consciousness coming to the 
 decisive step. 
 
 John was as can be learned from both the gospels 
 and the historian Josephus a man of intense moral 
 enthusiasm combined with clear intelligence, who 
 had become the leader of a religious movement. He 
 
FIRST MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 43 
 
 lived a hermit life, and, like the severer of the old 
 prophets, like Amos, like Jeremiah, sternly called on 
 the people of his nation and his time to show an 
 actual life that would be in accordance with the high 
 religious pretensions which as Israelites they made. 
 Along with his preaching he administered the rite of Mt. iii. ; 
 baptism ; that is, he bathed those who came to him with Lk. i.-iii. 
 pure water, as a symbol of their making a fresh start 
 and living a purer life. He also prophesied regarding 
 the expected Messiah, saying that there would come 
 after himself a greater " whose shoes he was not 
 worthy to stoop down and unloose." He was surrounded Mk. i. 5. 
 by a crowd of attentive hearers who came, it would x i. 7. 
 seem, from all parts of Palestine. He seems to have 
 lived at first in the midst of the Wilderness of Judaea ; Mk. i. 4. 
 but he administered his baptism at the Jordan, and it 
 seems as if he had come to frequent the side of the 
 river that was opposite from Judaea, and under the rule Mk. vi. 14, 
 of Herod the Tetrarch. 
 
 Among others though not, judging from what we 
 have seen of his character, in close association with 
 others Jesus went from Galilee and joined John at 
 the Jordan. He went, we must believe, to join one 
 whose name was ringing throughout the land, with 
 the purpose of making thus a first step towards the 
 communication of his own ideas. This purpose 
 which is indicated by his own saying about the candle Mk. iv. 21. 
 is the only purpose that can be conceived of as 
 having been before him, when we think of the com- 
 manding character both of his personality and of his 
 ideas. He went, we may say assuredly, with the 
 purpose of making a communication to which his 
 whole inner being had begun to drive him. 
 
44 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Mk. i. 9. Jesus underwent the baptism along with the others 
 who surrounded John. And this event is a significant 
 one for us and one that must be carefully explained. 
 It must not be supposed for a moment, by way of 
 explanation, that Jesus viewed himself as one in need 
 of this baptism, with the change of life which it 
 symbolised. The notion of some scholars that Jesus 
 Conway, started as a disciple, or even a " convert," of John, is 
 Christian- not a happy one, and cannot stand. It is destroyed 
 J ty, p. 18. com pi e tely by a thoughtful estimate of Jesus himself, 
 either as we can see him directly or as we can see 
 him through the impression which he made on others. 
 For ourselves here now, it is enough to refer to what 
 we have seen in the first chapter. With the Jesus 
 in view that we have there learned of, we shall say, 
 reverently, that Jesus needed neither any symbol of a 
 change in his life nor the change itself. And with the 
 glimpse of his thoughts and feelings which has thus 
 already been afforded us, we shall see no suggestion of 
 himself having supposed that he had such a need. 
 Indeed we can go further than this, and notice that, 
 while certainly Jesus did recognise baptism as a means 
 of consecration for people in general, yet even in regard 
 to people in general the idea of a necessary sweeping 
 change, at first associated with baptism, cannot have 
 been a favourite idea of Jesus. The religious con- 
 sciousness which we have already in some way had 
 before us as belonging to him, does not admit of the 
 Mk. x. 39 prominence of that idea. And in what we shall further 
 exception ^ earn f him, we shall find nothing to indicate that either 
 See App. this general idea or the remembrance of his own 
 baptism had any important place among his religious 
 thoughts. We shall find him teaching that little 
 
FIRST MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 45 
 
 children are of the kingdom of God, and that the change 
 required of every one is the getting back of their simple Mk. x. 15. 
 nature. We shall find him teaching that one of theMk.xii.3i 
 greatest virtues is to love one's neighbour as oneself, Lk. x. 25- 
 and that many who make no profession of religion are 37 ' 
 purer than those who make profession. The notion, 
 therefore, of tracing Jesus's religious life to his baptism 
 by John is a mistake, and his undergoing the baptism 
 cannot even be looked at as having been the meeting 
 of what he felt as a want of his own nature. Jesus's 
 receiving baptism from John is principally to be viewed 
 as an act having in it a spiritual quality, through which 
 it gives us the first important glimpse of Jesus's spiritual 
 character. It was an act in which he who had himself 
 great ideas on the subject of religion and morality 
 submitted, for the time,, to be a follower of another 
 whose worth and integrity as a teacher he believed in. 
 In undergoing the baptism, Jesus did two things : he 
 took a place beneath the Baptist, and he took a place 
 beside the humblest and the most erring that might 
 have, along with himself, obeyed the Baptist's call. 
 The act, therefore, was a modest act, in that by it he 
 took the most humble position that it was possible for 
 him to take. It was a respectful act, in that by it 
 he gave unreserved obedience and honour to the other 
 teacher. It was a prudent act, in that it showed the 
 knowledge of the true way for greatness to attain 
 ultimate supremacy. And it was a beautiful and re- 
 vealing act, in that it showed Greatness involving a 
 keen sense of greatness in others, and producing great- 
 ness of respect towards others. Words, indeed, fail to 
 tell, but ordinary sympathy and experience will never- 
 theless understand, how it was that One who was about 
 
46 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 to establish for himself a position in which he would 
 gradually bring the world into a subjection to himself 
 that would be established through inner influence, and 
 would be declared by transfixing outward homage, 
 began his public life by obeying the general invitation 
 of another teacher, and receiving from him the cleans- 
 ing water which was not so clear as the waters of 
 thought and feeling that daily refreshed his own soul. 
 Mt. iii. 16, All the three earlier gospels relate that at the baptism 
 II' ii^ l of Jesus by John there was seen a descent of the Spirit 
 c k also 2 ^ ^ o< ^ u P on J esus > an d was heard a heavenly voice 
 Jn. i. witnessing to Jesus being the Son of God. And as 
 Mark relates this more simply than the others, allowing 
 us to understand what he relates as just an experience 
 of Jesus himself, it may be that the narrative was 
 originally a narrative by Jesus himself of an inner 
 experience attained by him at this time in relation to 
 his position and his mission. If this is so, then we 
 can see that the narrative got enhanced in outer im- 
 pressiveness as it passed through the hands of the 
 different evangelists. But it may be that the narrative 
 is merely a particularising, on the part of the first 
 Christian tradition, of the general fact recognised, that 
 Cp. Acts i. the Spirit of God appeared plainly in him from the 
 ^7, 38*" time in which he was with the Baptist ; which was 
 indeed the time of his first public appearance. At 
 least, the narrative as it stands in the gospels has the 
 significance of introducing the general fact that the 
 Spirit of God dwelt in Jesus. And it is in the aspect 
 of so signifying that the importance of it lies, rather 
 than in the question of whether there may have been 
 on the part of Jesus at this time a definite psychological 
 experience. 
 
FIRST MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY 47 
 
 We get no further information regarding the time in 
 which Jesus remained among the followers of the 
 Baptist from the Synoptic gospels. But we can get 
 good probability, at least, of certain further facts by 
 a careful reading of the later Fourth Gospel. In the 
 Gospel of John there are some quite detailed notices 
 of Jesus's life while he was with John. We are 
 recognising, in this work, that the Gospel of John is 
 in the main a doctrinal book, but that there runs 
 through it a fragmentary historical account, independent 
 of the accounts in the other gospels, though to be 
 detected and verified by careful comparison with these 
 accounts. This state of matters holds especially true 
 in regard to the period at which we are now arrived. 
 And we may find in the earlier chapters of John several 
 historical materials intermingled with what is palpably 
 doctrinal and from the evangelist himself. 
 
 Foremost of these materials is an account of inter- 
 course between Jesus and some of John's disciples, Jn. i. 35- 
 which can be simplified into the fact that Jesus had, 
 even at this beginning of his public life, a group who 
 were surrounding himself, if not as disciples, at least 
 as associates and respectful listeners to his conversation. 
 The principles of investigation stated in the introduction 
 to this book secure for us these facts to the extent of 
 a probability which is almost a certainty. When we 
 start with what we have seen of Jesus in the first 
 chapter, and at the same time take an anticipatory 
 glance into what is still to come before us, we do not 
 indeed find it likely that he had any others accom- 
 panying him when he went to join the Baptist, for his 
 going seems to have been a deliberated act of his own, 
 arising out of his self-consciousness ; but we do find 
 
48 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 there is every likelihood that when he did go and did 
 meet others, he would both associate with them and 
 See above, impress them. The first of these two points comes 
 J 35 ' from our knowledge of his character ; the second 
 comes, by anticipation, from our knowledge of his 
 general power to impress. Thus starting, then, we 
 are on the outlook for anything that will tell in a 
 natural way of his having met companions and im- 
 pressed them, and this outlook is met by the account 
 in the Fourth Gospel as abridged and simplified. 
 Further, the earlier gospels give us no link between 
 this time of Jesus's life and what they tell immediately 
 Mt.iy. 13; after, that he went and established himself as a teacher, 
 not in the south, nor in his old home, but in a new 
 place, Capernaum. We ask how it came about that 
 Jesus took this course, as we get no information on 
 the subject from the earlier gospels. And we shall 
 find that the missing link is supplied when we receive, 
 as simplified, the Fourth Gospel account. 
 
 Going then to the particulars of the account in the 
 Fourth Gospel, so far as it can be accepted for history, 
 we find they are to the following effect : That two of 
 the others who surrounded John became interested in 
 Jesus being induced indeed by something that they 
 Jn. i. 35- had heard John himself say of Jesus ; that, as we may 
 sum it up, they became quickly friends and associates 
 of Jesus ; that one of them was no other than Andrew, 
 the brother of the famous Simon Peter ; and that this 
 was how Peter came to be a disciple of Jesus. At this 
 point we are left to fill in the account ourselves ; for 
 the story, as it may be critically read, leaves it un- 
 determined whether Peter was at the Jordan too, or 
 only afterwards became acquainted with Jesus through 
 
FIRST MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 49 
 
 Andrew. What we must do is decide that the intro- 
 duction took place immediately, from this consideration, 
 that if Andrew had become so intimate with Jesus as 
 to keep with him till they met Peter away in a different 
 part of the country, this would have meant that Peter 
 came to supersede Andrew in a very close intimacy, 
 which is unlikely. Receiving the story, then, we are 
 led on to believe that both brothers were at the Jordan, 
 that first Andrew met Jesus and heard John speak of 
 him, and that then Andrew introduced Peter to Jesus. 
 All that thus comes before us is most lifelike and, in 
 all respects, most probable. This falling . in with 
 acquaintances and making friends of them but yet 
 friends rendering homage is in accordance both with 
 what we shall come to see and with what we have 
 already seen, in regard to Jesus's character, as, being 
 " about thirty years of age/' he came " from Nazareth 
 of Galilee " to become known to the world. 
 
 Receiving this account from the Fourth Gospel, we 
 come into collision with advanced scholars, but not 
 seriously. The free and unprejudiced class of scholars 
 have so far been so much occupied with disproving the 
 Fourth Gospel's right to be called in general a source 
 of history, that they have both in some particulars too 
 greatly emphasised a distinction in the right of the 
 other gospels to be trusted as historical, and have 
 also been impatient rather than just to attempts to 
 extract from the Fourth Gospel historical elements ; 
 but they have not denied that there may be his- 
 torical elements in the Fourth Gospel, and many 
 such will come before us in this book which 
 are in agreement, not in disagreement, with the 
 advanced scholars' general conclusions. Regarding 
 
 4 
 
50 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 the case before us, it must be said that what we 
 have taken from the Fourth Gospel here enriches, 
 rather than differs from, the account of the beginning 
 Mt. iv. 18- of Peter's discipleship which is given in the earlier 
 16-20. l gospels. The earlier gospels, with their dramatic 
 account of a calling of disciples at the Sea of Galilee, 
 leave it to be imagined that Jesus must have become 
 known to his disciples previously. It is, in fact, to be 
 noted here that, while we recognise the superior 
 historical value of the Synoptic gospels, we must keep 
 also in mind that these gospels are in form very 
 dramatic. They are dramatic presentations of the 
 appearance of the Messiah. And thus, for historical 
 ends, we must deduce not only from such pictures as 
 the Annunciation and the Birth in the city of David, 
 but also from such as the Preaching from the Mount 
 and the Preaching from the Plain, certain facts thus 
 presented which must, in their reality, have happened 
 much more spontaneously and much less ceremoniously. 
 So here. The Synoptic account of the calling of disciples 
 must be said to be almost purely dramatic. It is most 
 unlikely that in reality the saying " Follow me " was 
 the occasion of the very beginning of the discipleship of 
 any, or that Jesus, having found in one place one pair 
 of disciples, found also another pair, equally willing, 
 See Mk. near tne same place, on just the same occasion. 
 19- Regarding Peter, judging from what we see of his 
 character, it is natural to believe that, as he was 
 attracted to Jesus, so he had been previously attracted 
 to the Baptist. And it is arbitrary to say that, 
 because he was a simple Galilean fisherman, he 
 cannot have travelled to Judaea and listened to the 
 Baptist. From all we learn of him it is plain that, 
 
FIRST MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 51 
 
 besides being a fisherman, he was also a striking 
 religious personality ; and it is not likely that his 
 religious life began with the influence of Jesus on him, 
 or that before the preaching of Jesus he had listened 
 to no other teacher. The story before us in its pruned 
 form, therefore, is a most probable one. We may 
 recognise it as a true reminiscence of the time of 
 Jesus's intercourse with John, and we shall see that 
 what it tells of had an important bearing on after- 
 events. 
 
 When we go on to the notices which bring Jesus 
 into connection with the Preacher of the Wilderness 
 himself, our ground is not so certain ; and yet we must 
 incline to grasp at one or two passages as real 
 reminiscences. The remarks ascribed to John in 
 which he recognises Jesus as the Greater who, 
 " coming after" himself, " is preferred before " himself, Jn. i. 27. 
 must be put aside, as the originals of them must 7i P 3. 
 certainly be considered as not having had special 
 reference to Jesus, but having had reference just to 
 the ideal Messiah of popular expectation. For this 
 apart from the general unlikeliness of the supposition 
 that John could have referred to Jesus at this time 
 there is strong argument in the consideration pointed 
 out by scholars that, according to the Synoptic gospels, 
 John later sent to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah. Mt xi 2 _ 
 Even if that passage in the Synoptic gospels is not 6 ; Lk - vii 
 literally historical, it shows that at the time of these 
 gospels being written it was not believed that John 
 had recognised Jesus from the first. When, then, we 
 go on to the saying of John with respect to Jesus, 
 " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin j n j 2g 
 of the world," we shall first be inclined to reject it also, 
 
 4* 
 
52 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 as its whole language seems to allude to the death of 
 Jesus, which John could not possibly have foreseen, and 
 thus comes to suggest that what it reallypresents us with 
 is just a prediction put into the mouth of John from an 
 after time. And yet we need not cast this saying of 
 John away altogether. The evangelist makes reiterated 
 
 Jn. i. 7, Hi. statements of John having "borne witness" to Jesus. 
 Now these statements have the appearance of denoting 
 something that really happened. It is going too far 
 to suppose that the assertion they contain would, if 
 
 Jn. v. 34. invented, be actually used to base dogmatic teaching 
 on, and not only used to base dogmatic teaching on, 
 but used as second-rate material for that purpose, 
 inferior to other material. And such is the use made 
 of the assertion by the evangelist. What comes to us, 
 therefore, is that John had indeed made some remark 
 upon Jesus's purity of character, though the words of 
 his remark are lost in their historical exactness, and 
 have taken instead a doctrinal form. We have thus 
 spirit without body a mere ghost of a fact. But still, 
 what we have is valuable. It is like some vague feeling 
 of remembrance in personal experience which, while 
 it cannot tell definitely what happened, remembers a 
 something of which it retains a general impression. 
 
 Jn. i. 37. "And the two disciples," says the evangelist, 
 referring to Andrew and the other, " heard him speak, 
 and they followed Jesus." This statement we can now 
 accept as real history. In other words, we may believe 
 that the interest in Jesus shown by the Preacher him- 
 self helped towards that forming of a group round 
 Jesus which we have recognised above. 
 
 Jn. ill. 23- One more reminiscence asks our acceptance, though 
 clearness has gone from it. It is found in the third 
 
FIRST MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 53 
 
 chapter of John, where the evangelist, having already 
 run over the whole public appearance of Jesus to the 
 end, enters on new material and begins all over again. 
 In the third chapter of John it is related that once 
 when John was baptizing, some disciples spoke to him 
 about Jesus, and he said of him these words, " A man 
 can receive nothing except it be given him from 
 heaven," and again, " He that hath the bride is the 
 bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which 
 standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of 
 the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is 
 fulfilled." Now the passage in which these words 
 occur is just one of those having the phenomena which 
 have led scholars to a fixed conclusion recognising 
 free enlargements in the Fourth Evangelist's presenta- 
 tion the contrarieties to the testimony of the other Cp. ver: 35 
 
 \v Mt xi 
 
 gospels, and the contrarieties to other statements 3> ' rcp. 
 within this same gospel itself. To particularise on these 2 ^- 
 phenomena does not belong to the work now before us. the n 
 The truth really conveyed by the evangelist, as his 
 presentation stands, is that to be " the friend of 
 the bridegroom" was indeed the Baptist's historical 
 position, and that he had claimed no greater. But 
 besides reading this meaning in the passage, may we 
 not see something more in it both interesting and 
 instructive? The view which we are looking for 
 establishment of as we proceed, is that the evangelist 
 by no means invented any narrative material to begin 
 with, but only worked up the material lying to his hand 
 into a doctrinal presentation. And the suggestions of 
 the passage before us give no disturbance of this view. 
 The passage, indeed, has such a form that plainness no 
 longer remains in regard to the scene at the Jordan 
 
54 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 indicated by it. But with very great confidence we 
 may deduce from the passage these facts: That 
 among the followers of John there had arisen a discus- 
 sion about "purifying" a discussion, indeed, about 
 the new purity of life which seemed to come with the 
 administering of the rite of baptism; that the name of 
 Jesus was introduced into the discussion, as the name 
 of one who was already making himself known to be a 
 power both in pure living and in teaching the way to 
 pure living ; and that all differences of view were in 
 the discussion brought under the rays of one benign 
 reality, a reality of which all were conscious, namely 
 this, that now God Himself was proving to be in 
 their midst in the way in which the prophet Isaiah 
 had foretold He one day would be, rejoicing over His 
 Is. Ixii. 5. people "as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride," 
 making the Baptist and every true worshipper care not 
 so much about the question of what Jesus would do or 
 into what further form the new awakening would be 
 led, as just simply about this, that they could "rejoice" 
 " because of the bridegroom's voice." 
 
 To estimate what may have been the influence which, 
 through this intercourse between Jesus and the Baptist, 
 the Baptist exercised on Jesus, is, if we go to details, 
 no easy task, and in every way requires considerable 
 thought. We may confidently, however, set down the 
 general conclusion that, while Jesus certainly received 
 suggestions from the Baptist which supplied him with 
 both phrases for his teaching and hints for his action, 
 yet his real personality and his teaching in its real 
 substance owed very little to the Baptist. We may, in 
 fact, accept Jesus's own view that he and the Baptist 
 Lk,vii. 35l were two different men two different " children " of 
 
FIRST MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. $$ 
 
 "wisdom" whose characters were independently 
 formed, as against any hasty idea of criticism that 
 would incline to deduce much, from the fact of their 
 association for a short period. We can fearlessly lay 
 the full weight of this conclusion on our first chapter : 
 we have seen in our first chapter that Jesus went from From Mk. 
 his home in Nazareth already developed and already much'eise. 
 equipped a great unrevealed Power. We must be so 
 sure of this fact of his self-sufficiency at the time of his 
 leaving home that, if it were necessary, we should dis- 
 trust any evidence of his having received his ideas from 
 the Baptist. There is, however, no evidence of his 
 having received more than supplementary ideas. The 
 particulars that the gospels give us support the general 
 conclusion which our first chapter supplies to us. 
 Looking at these particulars, there are four points in 
 Jesus's teaching that he may seem to have probably 
 learned from the Baptist namely (i) his using the 
 phrase " the kingdom of heaven " ; (2) his using certain Mt. ill, 2, 
 other less important phrases, principally his giving 
 good works the name of " fruits " and his calling the Vets. 7, 8, 
 Pharisees a " generation of vipers " ; (3) his instituting 
 baptism ; and (4) even his adopting for himself the title 
 of Messiah, or Christ. Now (i) the first of these may 
 be put out of consideration, as there is no mention of 
 John's having used the phrase in Mark or Luke, and 
 Matthew's adding it to the preaching of repentance can 
 most simply be explained as the adding by an uncritical 
 author of a phrase become familiar to him, which 
 seemed to bring out further what John was really 
 aiming at, and showed the union between him and 
 Jesus. (2) For the second point having to do with 
 the smaller phrases we can simply admit Jesus'a 
 
56 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 indebtedness to John for these phrases, though it is 
 to be noticed that the most important of them, that of 
 the tree and its fruit, was applied by Jesus in quite a 
 
 Mt.xii.25, different way from any in which John can have applied 
 it. (3) For the third point the instituting of baptism 
 what meets us on consideration will first m'ake us 
 incline to take the very contrary course to that which 
 we have taken with regard to the using of the phrase 
 " the kingdom of heaven " that is, as we have not seen 
 ground for ascribing the one to John, not see ground 
 for ascribing the other to Jesus. It is a question which 
 thoughtful scholars find a difficult one to answer, when 
 Jesus really instituted baptism, if indeed he ever did it 
 
 Mt. xxviii. at all. The gospels refer his instituting of baptism to 
 the period after the Resurrection. Whatever inter- 
 pretation, however, may be given to what is thus 
 recorded, it is unlikely that baptism would have got 
 such a hold as it did without authority from the 
 Master in his lifetime. What is really likely to have 
 happened is that Jesus beginning his public ministry, 
 ' as we can see he did, in intimate connection with that 
 of John appropriated the rite without much criticism 
 of it. Recognising this, we can see at the same time 
 that he made little of it, and emphasised other things. 
 Baptism was not one of Jesus's own ideas, but an 
 adopted child of his dead friend and fellow-worker, 
 which he reverently brought up along with his own. 
 (4) A similar state of matters presents itself with regard 
 to the fourth point the taking on himself by Jesus of 
 the name of the Messiah, or Christ. It is a question 
 greatly discussed by scholars, when Jesus really 
 adopted the Messiah character ; and it is almost 
 probable enough to be called certain, both that the 
 
FIRST MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 57 
 
 time of his being with John was a time in which 
 he made important steps in relation to this, and 
 that the preaching of John had greatly to do 
 with these steps. So much, then, is to be allowed. 
 But, on the other hand, the Messiah-idea was itself 
 just a vessel for Jesus to put his own ideas into, or 
 a category to express that of which he himself was con- 
 scious. We have seen already that he was certainly From Mk. 
 conscious of a unique authority before he came away muchdse 1 
 from his home. And it is further quite easy to see, 
 from reading the gospels, that even after the time of See Mk. 
 his being with John he avoided the name of the foregoing. 
 Messiah. He took indeed a name that had been given 
 to the ideal Messiah (" Son of man ") ; but this was a Dan. vii. 
 name which he carefully selected for himself out of the ^ 
 names that had been given to the Messiah, as if he c - xlvi - 
 rejected the other associations with the whole character. 
 He had been and was HIMSELF that alone really 
 and the idea of the Christ was adopted by him to 
 express what he was conscious of as himself; but so 
 far from it presenting a character which he merely 
 lived up to, he was not altogether satisfied with it as 
 expressing what he himself was. It is thus that, 
 as we know, the idea of the Christ came to be an 
 altogether new idea after it had been associated with 
 Jesus. The Pauline Christ is .not the old-expected 
 Jewish Messiah, nor is the Johannine Christ, nor is 
 the now believed-in Christ. No; all these are objects 
 of thought that are made up of many contributing 
 ideas, the principal one of which is not what the 
 Messiah-idea had in it when Jesus received it from 
 the old prophets or from John, but rather is what 
 came from Jesus's own self-consciousness, in which, as 
 
5& THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 a man, he was able to call himself Son to the Divine 
 Father. Just as with the baptism-idea, therefore, the 
 Messiah-idea, we can see, was adopted by Jesus from 
 John, but in such a way that his own original thoughts 
 far transcended what he adopted. Regarding all the 
 three points, it is to be maintained, as has been 
 already stated above, that Jesus received in them from 
 the Baptist supplementary ideas which helped him to 
 define his own thought and work, but that his thought 
 itself and his whole personality itself were what they 
 were with no debt of importance to John the Baptist. 
 We are to see here a wisdom in Jesus, such as he 
 displayed also in regard to other teachers than the 
 Baptist, which made him, while conscious of his 
 princely authority, not ashamed to receive leading 
 from others when it was good leading in accordance 
 
 Mt.xx.25- with m 's own words: "Ye know that the princes of 
 the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they 
 that are great exercise authority upon them. But it 
 shall not be so among you : but whosoever will be 
 great among you, let him be your minister; and 
 whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your 
 servant." 
 
 The association with John was rudely put an end to 
 by a catastrophe which is described by the historian 
 
 Antiq. of Josephus in the following words : " Now when [many] 
 
 xviii^ 8 ' others came to crowd about him [John] , for they were 
 greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, Herod, 
 
 Transla- who feared lest the great influence John had over the 
 people might put it into his power and inclination to 
 raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything 
 he should advise), thought it best, by putting him to 
 death, to prevent any mischief he might cause, and 
 
FIRST MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 5Q 
 
 not bring himself into difficulties by sparing a man 
 who might make him repent of it when it should be 
 too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of 
 Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle 
 I before mentioned, and was there put to death." 
 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE SECOND MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY 
 A FORCED RETREAT. 
 
 WHAT could become of that band of earnest and 
 thoughtful Israelites that had eagerly listened to the 
 prophet, when he to whom they had listened was 
 violently removed from them ? They could but be 
 scattered, as is the fate of earnest people along with 
 careless people universally when either the physical 
 world or barbarian power asserts itself. They could 
 but be scattered, dishonoured, and forced to escape to 
 save their lives. And that this is what really took 
 place is declared by the firm enough if vague indica- 
 tions that are in our possession. And what of that 
 One among them whose character, even at this stage 
 of our work, has begun to show a unique strength as 
 well as a unique beauty ? Is it possible that it was 
 with him as with the rest ? Is it to be conceived that 
 he was in danger, like any common man, of being 
 arrested by established powers at this very beginning 
 of his public appearance ? and that, like a common 
 man, he joined in the general flight in order to escape 
 with his life ? The facts tell us that it was so ; and 
 
SECOND MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 6l 
 
 that it was so is only in accordance with nature in 
 general. If an earthquake were to put in ruins a 
 house containing some priceless precious stone, the 
 precious stone would fall along with the meanest object 
 that the house contained though afterwards it would 
 come about that care would be taken to recover the 
 stone. Or if a fire were to break out in a room where 
 was a safe containing important papers, not one inch 
 would the flames divert their wild leaps from the safe 
 and its valuable contents though, when all was past, 
 it would be found that the papers remained unscathed 
 and only the outside of the safe was the worse. So it 
 evidently was when an assertion of brainless natural 
 force interfered with the benign life of Jesus. 
 
 There took place at this time of Jesus's life, we 
 must see, what was in accordance with nature. 
 Powerful as had been the impression he had made on 
 a few of the followers of John, he had had neither the 
 time nor the opportunities to get any special command 
 over them. He had no following to speak of, and he 
 was surrounded by strange country and people. What 
 was in accordance with nature was that he should 
 escape with the followers of John in general. And 
 this, we may conclude, was what did take place. If 
 with a purely arbitrary kind of worship we demand 
 marvel at every step we take, we are in this instance 
 simply refused by history our gratification. Marvel 
 enough we shall indeed meet with as we follow the 
 events of the year that from this point will be our 
 subject of consideration. But at this point there is no 
 marvel for us. What took place was in simple 
 accordance with nature. 
 
 Jesus escaped from the danger of being captured by 
 
62 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 the wild creatures that obeyed a half-barbarian prince. 
 Mk. i. 12- Knowing that the Baptist had been arrested and con- 
 J 4- veyed to prison, but not knowing what further might 
 
 have befallen him, he joined the other followers in 
 avoiding a useless sharing of his fate. He found refuge 
 in a " wilderness," which was in all probability the 
 wilderness of Judaea. With a natural impulse the 
 scattered band crossed the Jordan, and got away from 
 the territory of the ruler who had laid hands on their 
 chief. And with them went Jesus, we must believe 
 not thereby, as we shall see, to lose the majesty of his 
 personality, but to make that majesty appear in the 
 very midst of a seeming discomfiture. 
 
 Vers. 12, It is the gospel story of the "Temptation " which, 
 
 13. &c - beyond the a priori likelihood, assures us of these 
 
 facts. The usual theory, indeed, of thoughtful scholars 
 
 regarding the Temptation story is, that what is directly 
 
 historical in it is to be referred to a voluntary with- 
 
 For this drawal by Jesus into the desert before the imprisonment 
 
 Keim See of the Ba P tist - But li is unlikely that Jesus would so 
 
 soon separate himself from the assembly that he had 
 
 travelled so far to join, especially as he was amidst 
 
 regions unfamiliar to him. He had left a life of thirty 
 
 years in a quiet spot to join a concourse of men, and, 
 
 believing in his fixedness of purpose, it is not easy 
 
 to see why he should just then have gone voluntarily 
 
 into a strange wilderness for any length of time that 
 
 would have made the event be so solemnly recorded as 
 
 it is recorded, or have led to its receiving the doctrinal 
 
 E.g., Mk. application which the three gospels all give to it. It is 
 
 true that, as we shall find, he had the habit of retiring 
 
 to commune with the Divine Presence. But a retiring 
 
 for any lengthened period just at the time in which he 
 
SECOND MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 63 
 
 had emerged from retirement could only have occurred 
 as the result of some very deeply moving experience ; 
 and the baptism by John, according to the view we 
 have been taking of it, cannot be supposed to have 
 been an experience of such a kind. Further, the 
 Gospel of Luke favours the idea that it was on his Lk. iv. i. 
 returning to Galilee that the Temptation occurred ; and 
 as for the other two gospels, this reading of them also 
 need not be considered any straining of their narrative 
 when there is taken into account their evident turning 
 of the story into a dramatic act in the Messiah's ap- 
 pearance. On the other hand, the explanation of 
 Jesus's withdrawal into the wilderness as being the 
 result of the break up of John the Baptist's following, 
 has every natural probability in its favour, and we 
 shall see that it is borne out by the details of the 
 Temptation story itself. 
 
 The gospel story of the Temptation both declares 
 the fact of Jesus's escape into the wilderness of Judaea 
 after John had been arrested, and also gives us a most 
 interesting view of what befell him there. We may 
 look at the pictorial account of the Temptation given 
 in Matthew and Luke as being almost exactly a narra- See App 
 tive which Jesus himself had related of the workings of ' ^ 3 '* 
 his mind during this first reverse in the new under- 
 taking on which he had entered. And we may read 
 through the narrative both the facts of Jesus's inner 
 experience and the outward events to which the inner 
 experience had reference. Jesus had been, as we 
 may suppose he himself told the story, " tempted of 
 the devil." As he suffered in the Wilderness, probably 
 for the first time in his life, the pangs of hunger, the 
 thought had come into his mind, Was this what was 
 
64 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 led to by coming forth to assert man's sonship to the 
 good kind God ? But he had remembered the lesson 
 that God had meant the ancient Israelites to learn in. 
 
 Deut. viii. their hunger in the Wilderness, " that man doth not 
 live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth 
 out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." And as 
 he further meditated on the situation in which he was 
 placed, the thought had occurred to him that it seemed 
 as if to succeed in this world one must abandon such 
 aims as those of John and himself, and devote one's 
 powers to the service of the devil ; but on this thought 
 presenting itself, he had said, "Get thee hence, Satan," 
 seeing in the very thought a calling in question of the 
 sole and supreme rule of God. And then once more, 
 thinking further of the truth he had come forward to 
 assert, that of man's sonship to the good kind God, he 
 had asked himself, Could not God be called upon to 
 save good and great men from wild brute force such as 
 had interfered with John and himself, as the words of 
 
 Ps.xci. ii, the psalm expressed it which said, " He shall give his 
 angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 
 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash 
 thy foot against a stone " ? But being in full posses- 
 sion of a religion that far transcended such questions, 
 which could only lead to a negative answer, he had let 
 his mind go for expression of a transcending faith again 
 to the familiar ground of the history of the chosen 
 people ; and remembering a case in which they had 
 
 Exod.xvii. demanded an interference with nature for their sake, 
 he recalled the lesson that was afterwards connected 
 
 Deut. vi. with that incident, " Ye shall' not tempt the Lord your 
 God, as ye tempted him in Massah." Out of such 
 musings we .may suppose he formed an imaginative 
 
SECOND MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 65 
 
 narrative which he afterwards told his disciples, accord- 
 ing to his own tendency to convey thoughts in fanciful 
 presentation ; and his narrative, we may believe, As an ex- 
 having been first passed from mouth to mouth and jSus^s 
 then written down, at last, retaining its substance, took 
 
 the form in which it appears in the gospels of Matthew pating his 
 and Luke. Matthew and Mark give an ending to periences, 
 their accounts which, whether it was in Jesus's ^ L Keim 
 narrative or not, certainly represents what must have "^stances 
 
 Mt. xi. 25, 
 
 taken place. " Behold angels," we read, " came and &c. ; xii. 
 ministered unto him." Certainly the spirit of Jesus xxVi. 3*8. 
 was sustained during the trials of this time by many Mt. iv. n. 
 cheering thoughts. Did his experiences, indeed, really 
 represent what our word temptation suggests ? We can 
 confidently say, No. The tempting thoughts assuredly 
 only passed through the mind, and never really came 
 into touch with the true inclinations of Jesus. The 
 inner experiences that do come before us through the 
 account are these : A fixed hold on the idea of the 
 Fatherliness of God, a disappointment and an indigna- 
 tion at the rough handling of the barbarian authorities, 
 a keen sense of the hardships he had now to bear in a 
 world that had formerly seemed to him so beautiful, 
 and, last not least, an all-mastering religious conscious- 
 ness, explaining every difficulty and the more firmly 
 holding to its knowledge of what is true and good. 
 
 In these experiences we see how personal his ideas 
 were how, even when his thoughts were occasioned 
 by the failure of John's mission, they took their rise 
 from his own centre idea of the Fatherhood of God. 
 
 From the inner experiences thus narrated we can 
 also go to the outward course of events. The speaking 
 of hunger tells of endurance of hunger. And the being 
 
 5 
 
66 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 " tempted " (too strong a word as we are supposing 
 it) and the speaking of a temptation to think one must 
 serve the devil to secure success, tell the general fact 
 which we have already recognised, that a first repulse 
 had been met by the Sacred Life in its coming 
 forward to declare its benign messages. 
 
 At this point we have again to leave the compara- 
 tively easy paths cut out by the Synoptic gospels, to 
 follow for a little the footprints which a very careful 
 and critical reading of the later Fourth Gospel affords 
 us. But before going on to this, we must pause for 
 a moment to consider a little more particularly the 
 position in which Jesus now was as regards companions 
 or followers. 
 
 When the followers of John were scattered, the 
 probability is that they would form into different 
 bands, separated by influences of various kinds, but 
 mostly having to do with the parts of the country from 
 which they severally came. We should expect, there- 
 fore, to find Jesus independently of considerations in 
 regard to his character keeping with some group of 
 Galileans ; and our considerations drawn in the second 
 chapter from the Fourth Gospel, will induce us to 
 think that the group around him would consist of those 
 few Galileans who had already come to be impressed 
 by him. This group, however, might naturally now 
 become larger, as the whole gathering was breaking 
 up. And all that is thus suggested agrees so well with 
 what, as we shall find, followed in Jesus's ministry, 
 that it can with the greatest probability be held to have 
 happened. Jesus, we may believe, had now around 
 him a somewhat larger band of what we must call not 
 yet followers, but rather admirers. And, in particular, 
 
SECOND MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 67 
 
 we may with great probability assign to this period the 
 beginning of the friendship between him and James 
 and John, the sons of Zebedee having no evidence 
 of its having begun earlier. For this we have the 
 fact that all through the ministry James and John 
 appear, along with Peter, as in a confidential relation 
 to Jesus quite different from that of the other apostles, 
 which suggests that Jesus had known all three before 
 he began his ministry proper. Again, the intimacy 
 that existed between Jesus and these three is in 
 accordance with the supposition that they had passed 
 through special adversity together. Further still, the 
 Gospel of Mark relates the beginning of the disciple- Mk - 
 ship of all three in a way that suggests this reading of " 
 the matter, making Jesus dramatically call them to be 
 his disciples before he entered Capernaum, which, in 
 a thorough-going view of all the gospels, must be 
 set down unhesitatingly as the starting-point of his 
 ministry. And with these considerations before us, we 
 may add what is a thought by no means to be despised, 
 namely, that by this reading the ecclesiastical associa- 
 tion of the Fourth Gospel with the Apostle John 
 becomes to a very important extent justified. If John 
 cannot have written the whole book, we can see he 
 may have easily supplied the material from which the 
 work of the book takes its beginnings, inasmuch as he 
 was indeed with Jesus sufficiently early to gather even 
 such of the material as is peculiar to the book. James 
 and John, then, were, it is most probable among the 
 little Galilean group that now kept with Jesus as well 
 as Simon Peter, whose heart was already warming 
 towards the Presence, alike commanding and fascinat- 
 ing, that was afterwards to possess him body and 
 
 5* 
 
68 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 spirit. Thus Jesus had by this time found the friends 
 who were to sustain him through the rest of his short 
 life in this world. 
 
 The passage in the Fourth Gospel to which we now 
 
 proceed, with the view of finding footprints to follow, 
 
 is that which is formed by the fourth chapter. The 
 
 fourth chapter of John, taken as a whole, is of course, 
 
 like the rest of the gospel, a chapter of ecclesiastical 
 
 doctrine not strictly history. But also, like the rest 
 
 of the gospel, it has the appearance of being made up 
 
 from an original historical account which the evangelist 
 
 very likely finding it already historically incoherent 
 
 U3ed for his ecclesiastical ends. The fourth chapter 
 
 of John surely contains several pieces of real history 
 
 which by careful reading may be separated from it. 
 
 That this is so is urged upon us by the lifelikeness of 
 
 the pieces. But it can be further established when 
 
 we come to believe that the whole passage had an 
 
 original form, before it was worked up by the evangelist, 
 
 in which it was a narrative of real facts. And that this 
 
 latter is so is borne out by the following three weighty 
 
 Jn. iv. 1-3. considerations : (i) The passage begins with the words, 
 
 " When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees 
 
 had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples 
 
 The par- than John (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his 
 
 vJritten 8 ' disciples), he left Judaea, and departed again into 
 
 the*event r Galilee -" What recommends itself most strongly, by 
 
 must ' way of interpreting these words, is that they were 
 
 mean that . . ,, A . * r i , T 
 
 the dis- originally the record of a real conviction on Jesus s 
 baptized P al ^ ^ ^ s being likely to be involved in the movement 
 after by the authorities against John, and of his consequently 
 death. determining to return to Galilee. And as the only time 
 in which this could have happened was just after 
 
SECOND MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 69 
 
 John's arrest, which was, as we can be quite sure from 
 reading the earlier gospels, the only time in which 
 Jesus did in his public life journey from Judaea to 
 Galilee, we have most probably here the beginning of 
 an account of the journey to which the general con- 
 sideration has now led us. When, further, we attend to 
 the fact that the sentence thus before us, as only slightly 
 changed, states the motive of the journey to be exactly 
 one of the motives which we have detected indepen- 
 dently through a careful reading of the earlier gospels, 
 our position is made the more strong. (2) We find that 
 the passage goes on to describe the journey as pro- 
 ceeding through Samaria, and then, catching up 
 with the words " In the meanwhile" (that is to Jn. iv. 31. 
 say, going back), actually represents Jesus as uttering 
 words almost the same as some of those given in M t- iv - 4- 
 the " Temptation " story, along with other words very 
 characteristic of Jesus as we otherwise know him. J n - iv - 4 6 - 
 (3) The passage ends with an account which, though ThQ cotl _ 
 difficult to understand, suggests a more original form, fusion in 
 
 ver. 46 
 
 telling of Jesus some time arriving at Capernaum, between 
 All these three considerations, each one strong in 
 its way, suggest that the fourth chapter of 
 
 has been worked up out of a document that plained by 
 originally told of this journey from the Jordan to ge iist 
 
 Galilee, of which the other gospels assure us ; and as 
 
 the three sections of the chapter on which the three substitut- 
 
 ed Cana 
 considerations are severally centred have each of them for Caper- 
 
 something natural and lifelike not explicitly found in j.jj 
 the Synoptics, they suggest that the original document ^ 1V ' r> 
 has not been the Synoptics, but has been an independent 
 account of the journey in the evangelist's possession. 
 
 With great confidence, therefore, we can proceed to 
 read critically this passage of the Fourth Gospel ; 
 
70 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 and out of what is in its present form a chapter of 
 theological teaching, we shall be able to bring to light 
 at least two valuable reminiscences of what actually 
 happened. 
 
 The first of these is presented by the part beginning 
 
 Jn. iv. 31. " In the meanwhile." From it we come to believe 
 that Jesus, while still in the desert along with his few 
 friends, had even then uttered a saying conveying the 
 same thought as one of those he afterwards introduced 
 into his pictorial account of his experiences at this 
 time that pictorial account which we are supposing 
 to have been the original of the story of the Temp- 
 
 Vers. 31- tation. The company may have been speaking of 
 their want of food, or some among them may have 
 asked him to eat not in the causeless manner in 
 which they appear to do so in the gospel, but likely by 
 way of resisting his unwillingness to deprive some 
 other. Whatever may have led up to his reply, the 
 reply was, we may be pretty sure, as it is given, " I 
 have meat to eat that ye know not of. ... My 
 meat is to do the will of him that sent me." The 
 
 E.g., Mk. words are altogether like the other words of Jesus that 
 remain to us. We have every reason to believe them 
 authentic though the clause added by the evangelist, 
 
 Cp. Jn. v. " and to finish his work," has likely originated out of 
 the evangelist's own philosophy. We may contemplate 
 Jesus, at the very time of his first reverse, having seen 
 the Baptist arrested in the midst of his good work, 
 and having been " tempted " with the thought that 
 only the devil succeeds in this world, calmly speaking 
 of eternal ideas which no outward accidents can keep 
 from nourishing him, and of a fixed purpose which 
 no outward force can ever divert an inch from its 
 straight path. 
 
SECOND MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 7! 
 
 Joined to these words in the received gospel, are some 
 other words which may have been spoken by Jesus (in Jn. iv. 35- 
 their substance) at another time, but can well be believed 3 
 to have been spoken at this time as an addition to 
 those we have just considered. Scholars have indeed 
 regarded them as the words of a later period regarding 
 the history of the Church, put as a prophecy into the 
 mouth of Jesus. But we may rather look at the refer- 
 ence to later history as having been in the mind of the 
 mystical evangelist in inserting the words and uncon- 
 sciously, perhaps, changing them a little, without going 
 the length of believing they had their complete origin 
 in that reference. The student of the life of Jesus 
 will find in the character of the words themselves a 
 sufficient claim to be recognised as belonging to 
 Jesus and to this part of his life. There is in the 
 character of the words themselves a something 
 which is like a bold family likeness seen in the face 
 of a person whom one has not hitherto met, whose 
 relatives one knows well. The words as slightly pruned 
 are as follows : " Say not ye, There are yet four months, 
 and then cometh harvest ? behold, I say unto you, Lift 
 up your eyes, and look on the fields ; for they are white 
 already to harvest. And he that reapeth receiveth 
 wages, and gathereth fruit ; . . . that both he that 
 soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." We 
 see here, with almost a plain perception and almost no 
 use of the imagination, a reference to the work of John 
 the Baptist, w r ho has begun the awakening of religious 
 interest and faith. We see, too, a reference to Jesus's 
 own intention to carry on a work that will not neces- 
 sarily be the same as that work of John, but will follow 
 it in a natural manner. We see an encouragement td 
 
72 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 the new friends whom Jesus would keep with him, to 
 look at the hope there is for such a work. And we 
 see, what is still more interesting, we see what arrests 
 and charms as it appears, the same spirit of honour- 
 ing the Baptist which in the second chapter has 
 Seeabove, already come before us. Jesus, having first delicately 
 honoured the Baptist by receiving his baptism, now, 
 when circumstances have brought about that he is in 
 some way to supersede the Baptist, still must give 
 honour ; and so he employs the wealth of his fancy to 
 provide, for the purpose of giving honour, a new 
 picture, in which he suggests that he will be "he that 
 reapeth," and mentions the end as being that the sower 
 and the reaper will " rejoice together." 
 
 Having with regard to that first reminiscence been 
 
 travelling on firm ground, we must now leave the 
 
 steady ground to walk very carefully as we approach 
 
 Jn. iv. 4 the second reminiscence, which is to be found in the 
 
 story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria. 
 
 The story of Jesus and the Woman of Samaria has 
 
 been explained by various scholars as presenting a mere 
 
 idealistic conception the woman of Samaria standing 
 
 See Pflei- for the religion of Samaria, and Jesus himself for the 
 
 ^ifrchris- Christianity that was afterwards established. And 
 
 tenthum." ce rtainly this explanation must not be rejected. We 
 
 must, however, deal with this story as we have with the 
 
 passage we have just considered, and see that here also, 
 
 as indeed all through the Fourth Gospel, we have not 
 
 idealistic invention entirely, but reminiscence worked 
 
 up into idealistic story. Our task, in separating the 
 
 historical element from the ideal element, is, in the 
 
 case now before us, a specially difficult one, seeing 
 
 almost all the detail of the story, as it reads, must be 
 
SECOND MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 73 
 
 pronounced to have only that ideal trueness which 
 scholars have found in it. For the historical truth 
 we have to make a considerable use of the critical 
 imagination. The following statement, however, 
 probably presents very nearly what happened : 
 
 Jesus and his friends had proceeded out of the desert 
 on their journey northward, and had reached some 
 point in Samaria. One day the friends had left Jesus 
 for a little, and when they rejoined him, they found him 
 at a well talking to a woman who had come to draw 
 water there. He had asked the woman, evidently Jn. iv. 7. 
 before they came up, for some water to drink ; but as 
 they came the woman was drawing the water, and 
 Jesus was speaking to her on another subject, most Ver. 20. 
 likely the religious differences between Jews and 
 Samaritans, leading to a remark on his part about the Ver. 21 ; 
 heavenly Father, who could be worshipped everywhere. c P- ver - 2 7- 
 As the friends came up, the woman naturally hastened Vers. 27, 
 to present the water to Jesus ; and on his receiving it 2 
 from her, he took opportunity to say, " Whosoever 
 drinketh of this water shall thirst again : but whosoever Vers. 13, 
 drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never ^ 
 thirst ; " to which the woman replied, " Sir, I perceive Jn. iv. 19. 
 that thou art a prophet." The woman then \vent away, 
 and though the friends, in the words of the gospel, 
 " marvelled that he talked with the woman," " yet no Ver. 27. 
 man said, What seekest thou ? or, Why talkest thou 
 with her ? " Afterwards, however, they entered the 
 town, or, more likely, village, in which the woman lived. 
 The woman had told her friends of an impressive man 
 speaking to her, evidently a " prophet " ; and so it Vers. 39- 
 came about that he was kindly received by the people ^ 
 in the village or town, partly " for the saying of the 
 
74 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 woman " (which, we may believe, did not, as was 
 afterwards told, refer to her " husbands " or to the 
 things she had formerly done), but partly also from 
 the impression which he made on themselves. 
 
 It need scarcely be added that a simple story such as 
 we have thus before us has nothing to do with questions 
 regarding Jesus's relation to Samaria in general. So 
 that the objections of critics to the recognition of the 
 story, on the ground of the history in the Synoptics 
 and the Acts showing that Jesus had no hold on 
 Samaria in his lifetime, do not apply to it as it is 
 here curtailed. Here we have a simple occurrence, 
 which need not have had any far-reaching con- 
 sequences. 
 
 We are thus presented with a view of Jesus rising 
 above all little prejudices, acting and speaking like 
 himself, as we otherwise learn of him. And we are also 
 presented with a saying of Jesus, very like others we 
 possess, and also fitting in with an exactness most 
 persuasive of the authenticity of both with another 
 saying which we have found him to have uttered but 
 shortly before. We know from the general study of 
 Jesus's teaching, that it was his habit to turn all 
 ordinary things into imagery to represent sacred things. 
 And through the two reminiscences with which we are 
 now dealing, we see that before he entered on his 
 public preaching he began this kind of thought with 
 two very simple examples. The examples had already 
 Is. lv. i. been used by the older prophets ; but Jesus gave them 
 a turn of his own. First, he said there was " meat " 
 to eat, that consisted in doing God's will ; and then he 
 said there was " water " to drink, which was such that 
 any one who drank it would never thirst again. And 
 
SECOND MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 75 
 
 both that meat and that drink he professed to have 
 attained himself. Afterwards he would speak of trea- Mt. vi. ig. 
 sures to lay up, which would never be taken away from 
 one ; now he spoke of water to drink, which would 
 make one never thirst again. Afterwards he would 
 speak of a house to dwell in, which was doing God's Mt.vii.24. 
 will ; now he spoke of meat to eat, which was doing 
 God's will. Afterwards he would profess himself to be 
 able to give people a yoke to bear that was compatible ^ t- xl< 28 ' 
 with rest ; now, in speaking of the greater than temporal 
 drink, he professed himself to be able to give it. In 
 each of those pairs of sayings the one confirms the 
 authenticity of the other. 
 
 " After two days," says the Fourth Evangelist, when 
 he has finished his account of these occurrences, Jesus 
 " departed thence, and went into Galilee." We may Jn. iv. 43. 
 believe that this is so far a true record, and that imme- Cp. Mk. i. 
 diately after the occurrences that have just been before I4 ' 
 us Jesus entered Galilee. But how did he enter it ? 
 Did he enter as one embarrassed and defeated in the 
 aim with which he had set out ? No ; the picture of 
 Jesus which history is to open up to us is of another 
 character than that would imply. Jesus entered Galilee 
 at this time not in the attitude of humiliation, as being 
 one of a scattered assembly, but in the dignity of a 
 purpose of his own initiating. For the consideration 
 of this purpose, however, and of the events directly 
 connected with it, we must enter on another chapter. . 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE THIRD MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY 
 A DEFINITE PURPOSE. 
 
 THE escape which Jesus had made from the danger of 
 sharing the fate of the Baptist, became the means of 
 his forming a special purpose. On leaving Nazareth for 
 the Jordan, he had had, as we have seen, the general 
 purpose of communicating his religious ideas, knowing 
 that they were great ideas, and believing that a 
 " candle " should not be hid, but placed where it would 
 give light. In the second chapter we have seen that 
 this general purpose became in all probability so far 
 defined that he began to think of himself as the One 
 who would realise the idea of the expected Messiah, 
 though he kept this meanwhile within himself, and even 
 within himself never thought of accommodating himself 
 and his ideas to the Messiah-character, but rather 
 thought of using the Messiah-character to give external 
 form to his own character, and be the means of spread- 
 ing his own ideas. At the point to which we have 
 come, however, he was forced to form a quite definite 
 purpose. Having it still before him to communicate 
 his ideas, and being now cast adrift from the leading 
 
THIRD MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 77 
 
 to which he had chosen for the time to submit himself, 
 he had to make some new plan towards the communica- 
 tion he had in view. What the definite purpose was, 
 then, which he formed, we have now to consider. 
 
 There is no indication of his having at this time either 
 made or thought of making open adoption of the 
 Messiah-character. No doubt the influence of John's 
 teaching still remained, and he still kept the Messiah- 
 idea as a guide to his thoughts. And very possibly 
 though this is, of course, little more than mere con- 
 jecture it may have been during his musings at this 
 time that he chose for himself the name "Son of man," Dan. vii. 
 a name which was indeed associated with the Messiah- I3- 
 character that he was willing to adopt, but at the same 
 time fittingly expressed his own consciousness and his 
 own ideas, and besides retained for him the modesty 
 which was congenial to him. But there is nothing to 
 indicate and everything to deny that the Messiah-idea 
 had yet to do directly with the definite purpose which 
 he had before him. And, indeed, as he only knew of 
 the imprisonment of the Baptist, and not of his death, 
 the Messiah-character, involving as it did the " coming 
 after " John, had not yet presented itself for practical 
 consideration. 
 
 What the evidence tells us on the subject is, we may 
 say, that he formed a plan not according to the ideas he 
 had got from John, but rather according to the oppor- 
 tunities which the association with John had now left to 
 him. That is to say, what seems to have been the case 
 is that at this point he formed the purpose of carrying 
 on a ministry similar to John's, beginning for his 
 following with the few who accompanied him, teaching, 
 however, not John's ideas, but his own. What meets 
 
78 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 us on reading the gospels is, on the one hand, that he 
 appeared afterwards away in Galilee, quite removed 
 Mk. i. 14. from the scene of John's ministry, teaching in a very 
 Mt. v.,&c. different way from the way in which John taught. On 
 the other hand, the intimate connection made by all 
 Mk. i. 1-3, the gospels between his ministry and that of John, his 
 7-19. Ll ' own recorded way of speaking about John, and the very 
 fact of his ultimately being identified in the minds of all 
 his followers with the Greater who, " coming after " 
 John, was ''preferred before" him, make us believe 
 that he in some way took up the threads of John's 
 work. These facts together lead us to the view just 
 stated regarding the definite purpose which he now 
 must have formed. We are believing that a few 
 Galileans who along with himself had listened to John 
 now adhered to him. In last chapter we found him 
 encouraging these few by telling them that while John 
 had done the sowing, there was still to be done the 
 reaping. We can believe these men were becoming 
 more and more impressed with his sayings and his 
 whole personality. And accordingly it is most likely 
 that Jesus now formed the purpose of making them the 
 nucleus of a body to receive his teaching not in the 
 part of the country where they then were, but in the 
 northern regions to which all belonged. 
 
 His choosing Galilee as the place for carrying out his 
 purpose requires little explanation. He could not with 
 prudence return to the quarter about the Jordan from 
 which he had come. Going, again, to Jerusalem, to 
 which he was in every way strange, was as yet out of 
 the question. It was natural for him to go to the part 
 of the country where everything was familiar to him. 
 And his intention of doing so was made the more 
 
THIRD MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 79 
 
 necessary by the position of his new friends. Galilee 
 was their country also, and doubtless in every way they 
 found it convenient now to return to it. 
 
 Such, then, was the definite purpose which Jesus had 
 formed. And this purpose he immediately began to 
 carry out. He entered Galilee, we can perceive, not as 
 one repelled and crushed, but with the eager intention 
 to pursue now directly and unaided the Mission which 
 had been given him. 
 
 At this point we come within the lines again of the 
 narrative in the Synoptic gospels, and we find that Mk. i. 21. 
 Jesus, on entering Galilee, did not return to Nazareth, jjj" 
 but went to a town called CAPERNAUM, situated on the 
 banks of the Lake of Gennesaret, or Sea of Galilee, and 
 only a few hours' journey to the east of Nazareth. 
 
 That CAPERNAUM was the starting-point of the ministry 
 of Jesus may be set down as certain. The Gospel of ^ kt l I4 ~ 
 Mark records this when it is rightly read ; for though it 
 speaks of Jesus preaching in Galilee before it mentions 
 Capernaum, this is not to be taken as meaning that 
 first he went to other places in Galilee and then to 
 Capernaum, but simply that Galilee was the scene of 
 his activity in general, and then that Capernaum was 
 the first place he came to in particular. The general is 
 first stated, then the particular. The Gospel of 
 Matthew, again, puts the matter in another way, but 
 quite as decisively. " Now when Jesus," it says, " had Mt. iv. 12 
 heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into I3 ' 
 Galilee : And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in 
 Capernaum." This is evidently not to be taken as 
 meaning that he actually, at the beginning of his 
 ministry, was in Nazareth, and from it went straight to 
 Capernaum, any more than the statement in Mark is 
 
80 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 to be taken as meaning that he was first in some other 
 part of Galilee and then in Capernaum, but is to be 
 taken as meaning that Capernaum, at the beginning of 
 his ministry, superseded Nazareth, his old home, as the 
 Lk. iv. 16- pi ac e of his abode. The Gospel of Luke, once more, 
 Perhaps gi yes a strange account ; but its account points almost 
 Mtfr in i g as clearl y in the same direction. It speaks as if he 
 and mis- first went to Nazareth ; but in giving the events which 
 happened at Nazareth, it relates that Jesus said, "Ye 
 w *^ sure ^y sa Y unto me this proverb, Physician, heal 
 
 there, but thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, 
 
 more led 
 
 on by the do also here in thy country," thus indicating that he 
 of D the S h a d been at work in Capernaum before he was at 
 
 Nazareth on that occasion, and also suggesting that 
 places Capernaum had come to be the place with which his 
 idealistic ministry was specially associated. And finally, the 
 reasons. Q OS p e j o f j o h n points decidedly enough, if somewhat 
 5 o. vaguely, to the same fact. To Capernaum, then, 
 
 beyond doubt Jesus now went. 
 
 It is not difficult to see the reasons both why he did 
 not go to Nazareth, and why he chose to go to Caper- 
 naum instead. 
 
 For the reason why he did not go to Nazareth on this 
 occasion, we must turn again to the Fourth Gospel. In 
 the Fourth Gospel account of the journey northward, 
 which we had before us in the last chapter, these words 
 Jn. iv. 43, occur, " Now after two days he departed thence, and 
 went into Galilee. For Jesus himself testified, that a 
 prophet hath no honour in his own country." Now in 
 reading these words it seems at first sight as if the 
 evangelist were maintaining that Galilee was not 
 Jesus's country. But there is a better explanation of 
 the words. It is too much to believe the evangelist 
 
THIRD MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 8l 
 
 would convey a notion so contradictory of general 
 belief as that Galilee was not Jesus's country, in so 
 indirect and so uninterested a manner. And thus the 
 most natural explanation of the occurrence of the 
 words is that the evangelist had adopted them from a 
 source in which either they had lost their connection or 
 he had failed to notice it. Taking, then, the passage 
 along with a general study of this stage of the ministry, 
 it is a short step in thought to the conclusion that in 
 the account which the evangelist followed these words 
 were found, perhaps already obscured in meaning, but 
 originally having been written to give the reason why 
 Jesus did not go to Nazareth. This is confirmed by 
 the fact that, immediately after, the evangelist speaks of Vers. 46- 
 Jesus as working at Capernaum, though, with his usual 
 carelessness about matters of locality, his account 
 suggests that Jesus did not take the trouble to enter 
 Capernaum, but only worked a miracle there for the 
 sake of a man who had come elsewhere to seek him out. 
 
 The reason why he went to Capernaum in particular, 
 having given up the thought of Nazareth, we can detect 
 in the earliest gospel, if not with certainty, at least Mk - * 2I 
 with what is almost certainty. It was, we may be 
 practically certain, because his new friend Simon, and 
 probably others of his new friends, belonged to that 
 town. In all probability, indeed, he went to Caper- 
 naum invited by Simon, with whom it would seem he 
 went to live. 
 
 On his way towards Capernaum his plan for the future 
 was, it would seem, so far disclosed to his three special 
 associates. They were probably speaking of their fish- 
 ing business, to which naturally they would return. 
 Jesus said to them, however, something like this : If 
 
 6 
 
82 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Mk. i. 16- you come with me, " I will make you to become fishers 
 of men." How much they may have promised in 
 response to this proposal we cannot tell. In a lengthened 
 and popularised account of this incident which we find 
 
 Lk.v.3-u. in Luke, some words have been preserved that seem to 
 indicate reluctance on the part of Simon Peter to 
 associate himself with Jesus in a reforming undertaking, 
 
 Ver. 8. on the ground of personal unfitness. We see, however, 
 clearly enough the fact that they all three entered 
 
 Vers. io, the town with Jesus at least in full friendship and 
 , sympathy. 
 
 Regarding the time of this happening, in relation to 
 our own reckoning of years, the abstruse calculations of 
 
 Josephus, scholars contradict one another perplexingly. Dr. Keim 
 
 \vill^' bk arj d Wittichen reasoning from the mention of John 
 the Baptist in Josephus on the one side, and the time 
 of the recall of Pilate from charge over Judaea, also 
 mentioned there, on the other side have fixed the 
 death of Jesus to the spring of the year 35. Others 
 
 SoRenan, have arrived at earlier dates. The date 35 may be 
 
 and Weiz- adopted here, it being admitted that this bringing of 
 er ' the life into exact relationship with our own reckoning 
 
 culadons * s > ^ e certain other particulars in regard to the life, a 
 
 Keim, probability not a certainty. The relations of time 
 
 &c., may within the life, however, can be more certainly defined. 
 
 suited 1 . And as the early gospels give only scope for a year's 
 ministry or thereby, the event now before us must 
 have happened in the year before Jesus's death that is 
 the year 34, if the other reckoning be right. It is 
 
 Mk. ii. 23. further fixed to the spring of that year by the story of 
 Jesus, evidently just a little time after the beginning of 
 the ministry, walking among the ripe corn ; and this 
 
 jn. iv. 35. is confirmed by our own reading of the fourth chapter 
 
THIRD MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE MINISTRY. 83 
 
 of John, in which we have seen that in his journey 
 northward to begin the ministry, he spoke of it being 
 "four months" till harvest. Hurry marks all the 
 movements in the ministry of Jesus, as the gospels 
 clearly tell of them. It is according to this that the 
 time of his leaving Nazareth to join the Baptist has 
 been determined above as being about the beginning of 
 this same year 34 ; and according to this we can now 
 believe that the entry of Jesus and his associates into 
 Capernaum took place not more than three or four 
 months at the longest from the time he had left 
 Nazareth to go south. 
 
 About the place Capernaum little is known from con- 
 temporary history ; but from the gospels themselves it 
 has been concluded that it was a town of some size and 
 prosperity. It was situated on the Lake of Gennesareth, 
 which at that time, according to Josephus the historian, Jos., Wars 
 was a lake affording different kinds of fish and having Jews, bk. 
 ships in it, surrounded by a beautiful and fruitful m '* c ' 
 country. Into a prosperous oriental town, on the side 
 of a magnificent lake, in the spring-time of a year about 
 eighteen centuries and a half ago, very probably the 
 year 34 of our reckoning, we are to conceive Jesus and 
 his companions entering. 
 
 It is certainly both a solemn and a pathetic spectacle 
 that is presented to our reflection in this entry of Jesus 
 into Capernaum. When we remember that the return 
 journey to Galilee, although it did have an independent 
 purpose, was in some measure occasioned by the sight 
 of failure, and in a way by the participation in failure ; 
 when we remember that all Jesus had gained by his 
 journey to the south was the adherence of a few, perhaps 
 no more than three or four, men, along with some prac- 
 
 6 * 
 
84 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 tical ideas which as yet he had not put to trial ; and 
 when thus we discern that the return from Judaea, to 
 which he had gone with his great aim before him, must 
 have been accompanied by the disappointed feeling that 
 on coming back to Galilee he was no further forward 
 than when he left it this entry into Capernaum must 
 appear to us something in most solemn contrast to the 
 superb triumph of Jesus's name and ministry in after- 
 years, as well as excite in us a reverent sympathy for 
 the august Subject of this study. We have before us a 
 beginning of a ministry in absolute littleness. We 
 have before us historical reality in accordance with the 
 bold figures of the infancy-story in the Gospel of Luke 
 the being refused admission to the inn ; the stable, 
 and the manger. The spectacle has, indeed, if not 
 quite a bright side, still a side with brightness shining 
 on it. Such is brought about by the fact of it having 
 been spring-time, through which Jesus must have felt 
 a sustaining and something of an inspiring from the 
 natural world around him, along with the fact of the 
 growing devotion of be it but three human beings, 
 which would combine with the spring to cheer and 
 speak of hope. But taking these things fully into 
 account, we still must have our wonder and awe 
 appealed to and our sympathies moved as we contem- 
 plate Jesus, with the little band of companions in whose 
 charge he has meanwhile placed himself, entering as an 
 unknown traveller the streets of a busy town, with the 
 aim of making its men and women his disciples. 
 
PART IT, 
 THE MINISTRY IN GALILEE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. 
 
 THE supernaturalness in the proper sense of that word 
 which truly is to be seen in the life of Jesus makes an 
 almost complete appearance in miniature in the events 
 of the beginning of the ministry at Capernaum. A 
 supernaturalness consisting in the power of Spirit, as 
 personified in Jesus, to command surrounding life, must 
 already, to any sympathetic reader of the foregoing 
 pages, be showing itself as having belonged to Jesus, 
 and will still further reveal itself as we proceed. This 
 supernaturalness may be said to have assumed a con- 
 densed or abridged form in the events which are now 
 to engage our attention. The more simply we now 
 run over these events the better. The passage in the Mk. i. 21 
 Gospel of Mark which relates them is the most history- 4 
 
86 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 like of all parts of the gospels. We have but to 
 reproduce it in modern language, filling up details 
 from the other two early gospels. And if this be 
 faithfully done, then there must appear "to the reader 
 a taking command by the spirit of Jesus of the life at 
 Capernaum in the year 34, which is an epitome of the 
 ascendancy soon after to be begun, in which the whole 
 western world w r ould come into subjection to him. 
 
 Jesus as we may learn from thoughtfully reading 
 Mk. i 29. th e Gospel of Mark on entering Capernaum became 
 
 Cp. Mk.n. 
 
 i. the guest of Simon Peter. In a very short time there 
 
 Mk. i. 21. was procured for him an opportunity to address the 
 people of the town in a synagogue. He did address 
 the people once and probably more than once ; and 
 principally by means of his addresses, but partly also 
 through accompanying actions, he became in a few 
 days a popular centre of enthusiasm. 
 
 For us the first and most important question to 
 answer is, What were the ideas which Jesus now 
 communicated to the people at Capernaum ? 
 
 There is no answer to this question to be found in 
 the account in Mark palpably for the very reason of 
 its historical honesty. Of this first preaching no 
 careful report would be made, because there were none 
 who yet knew the importance of the preacher. The 
 gospel account, accordingly, shows its trustworthiness 
 in its very refraining from supplying us with anything 
 like a report. And thus, indeed, we must expect for 
 our question no answer which will give us particular 
 details. We get, however, an indication which will 
 enable us to learn what must have been the drift of 
 this first preaching of Jesus, and what, in brief, were 
 those ideas which Jesus had come forth to communi- 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. 87 
 
 cate, and now did communicate, from sayings that 
 have been preserved from his utterances in general. 
 The Gospel of Mark gives us a sentence which pro- Mk. i. 14, 
 fesses to sum up the first preaching of Jesus ; and the " 
 gospels of Matthew and Luke give each of them a Mt. v.- 
 sample discourse from his general preaching. When vL 17-49'. 
 we consider the solidity of thought and the power of 
 enthusiasm which appear in Jesus, we shall believe 
 that all the outpourings of his mind must have 
 contained essentially the same ideas, and that one 
 or a few samples will tell us of all his addresses, and 
 especially of the first that he spoke after long years 
 of silence. And we can hold to this even though it is 
 to be admitted that much of the teaching to be found 
 in the sample discourses was in all likelihood given, 
 as we find it, not in public discourses, but in private 
 conversation with the disciples. The ideas themselves 
 are of such a nature that we cannot believe he would 
 express them only to a limited audience. So that those 
 sample discourses which the gospels of Matthew and 
 Luke put into our possession along with the sentence 
 in the Gospel of Mark are as valuable for the purpose 
 of telling us what were the ideas which Jesus com- 
 municated in his first preaching at Capernaum, or what 
 was the drift of his first addresses, as a report of the 
 addresses themselves would have been. 
 
 The summing-up sentence of the Gospel of Mark is 
 in these words : " Now after that John was put in prison, Mk. i. 14, 
 Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the *' 
 kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and 
 the kingdom of God is at hand : repent ye, and 
 believe the gospel." As to the call to "repent," or metanoeite. 
 change, it need hardly be taken into account for our 
 
88 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 purpose. It is the same call as is attributed also to 
 the Baptist, and, in the case of Jesus at least, we may 
 
 Cp. above, set down as certain that there is nothing dogmatic 
 conveyed in the mere idea of the changing. Then as 
 regards the words " believe the gospel," these must be 
 put aside also for the meantime though we shall 
 return to them afterwards as a survey of the whole 
 records of teaching does not bear out the opinion that 
 Jesus ever dwelt much on the "gospel" (euangelion = 
 good news) as an expression. What remains to us of 
 the sentence is that Jesus preached the kingdom of God, 
 and that he said that it was at hand. 
 
 Cp. Mk. The records of the teaching of Jesus thoroughly bear 
 
 iv 26-^4. * 
 
 Mt. xiii. ' out his having put forth this last conception. The 
 24-52, &c. k m g(j om of God undoubtedly Jesus preached, and 
 he said that it was at hand. 
 
 And yet we cannot even now claim to have arrived 
 at the essence of Jesus's teaching. No, we shall find 
 that his ideas were vastly further-reaching than this 
 summing-up sentence of the Gospel of Mark would 
 indicate. 
 
 The Gospel of Mark in this sentence has presented 
 the outward form without portraying the life. That is 
 to say, the conception of the kingdom of God is to be 
 looked at as a setting for the ideas of Jesus, or a 
 category through which he helped to make them clear 
 to his own mind and to convey them to the minds of 
 his countrymen. It had the same use for him as we 
 have seen the Messiah-idea had. Only he fixed his 
 thoughts and sayings more to it than to that other, 
 as it kept his own personality more in the background. 
 That God would one day set up a kingdom had been a 
 popular religious notion among the Israelite people for 
 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. 89 
 
 centuries before the time of Jesus. It had had its origin 
 in the strength of the religious consciousness of the old 
 prophets. It had been provided by the prophets as a 
 new hope to take the place of the disappointed 
 expectation of the Israelite nation being maintained 
 as a chosen people under the Divine government. 
 Thus in a way the hope of a kingdom of God was a 
 mere commonplace of Israelite religious faith. And 
 further, it had been stated expressly in the Book of Dan. ii. 
 Daniel, which was evidently a book with which Jesus 
 was familiar. All that Jesus did in regard to the 
 conception was to adopt it to serve his own ideas. He 
 said it would soon be realised in the same free and 
 inexact way in which he said the expectation that 
 " Elias must first come" had been realised, namely, Mk. ix. 13. 
 by the life of John the Baptist, who had not literally 
 been Elias at all. 
 
 More particularly, the relation to Jesus's ideas of 
 this conception or this phrase, " the kingdom of God," 
 was that it expressed a consequence for which the free 
 course of his ideas was to be the moving power. It 
 was the conception which, in the common way of 
 looking at things of his people and time, represented 
 the general conception of an establishment of religion, 
 or of the Divine Presence becoming a real centre of 
 attention. Jesus, in the strength of his own religious Cp. Jn. ii. 
 consciousness, was proclaiming an establishment ofxiv. 58. 
 religion which would take place through his own means. 
 He accordingly laid hold of this conception, which, for 
 himself and others, was equivalent to or at least included 
 an establishment of religion, and by saying that it was 
 about to be realised, made his solemn proclamation in 
 a way both natural to himself and intelligible to his 
 
go THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 hearers. The means, however, by which he promised 
 that the object of his proclamation would come about, 
 were the receiving and adopting of certain ideas of his 
 own. These ideas of his own were not what was 
 expressed in the phrase or conception of the "kingdom 
 of God." The kingdom of God was the establishment 
 of religion, to which the making known of his ideas 
 would lead. 
 
 It must be stated here with some emphasis that the 
 conception of the kingdom of God had no more to do 
 with the teaching of Jesus than that it thus helped him 
 to express and enforce his own ideas. In other words, 
 it must be maintained that Jesus's own special ideas 
 were distinct from this conception. The importance of 
 taking up such a position emphatically lies in this, that 
 the true centre of religious knowledge and interest 
 cannot be in any mere object of hope in the future as 
 Cp. w - distinct from the past, but must be an eternal over- 
 
 this Kings- . ...... 
 
 ley's Hy- ruling, to be conceived of as prevailing in all ages, 
 p. R e iigi on i s largely deprived of its place as a rational 
 interest, let alone the place which is due to it of the 
 supreme rational interest when its object of attention 
 is narrowed down to the future as opposed to the past. 
 All the great sciences and religious knowledge at the 
 head of them have to do with the eternal. So that if 
 it were to be found that Jesus's teaching had con- 
 cerned itself only with a future establishment of religion 
 or future time of human welfare in general, such as the 
 conception of the kingdom of God naturally implied, we 
 should be confronted with something very perplexing. 
 That supreme prophetic attitude, which, with all Chris- 
 tendom, we are here ascribing to Jesus only among all 
 teachers, could not concern itself with the future alone. 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. QI 
 
 Perfection, in this matter, implies insight into the present 
 as well as the future. In a broad and scientific view, 
 what must be truly called the kingdom of God giving 
 respect to the conception of God which the thought 
 of the world has attained- is the eternal rule of God, 
 the rule of God of yesterday, to-day, to-morrow, and 
 always. The " kingdom " which is confined to the 
 establishment of religion is properly man's response to 
 a rule which has ever been exercised. And if Jesus's 
 prophetic insight was unique, was ideal, it cannot have 
 been taken up with the response apart from the rule 
 which precedes the response. But it is possible to 
 show beyond question that Jesus's ideas far transcended 
 the conception of the kingdom of God in its narrower 
 application. Sayings with other ideas far greater have 
 been preserved and ascribed to him sayings indicating, 
 among other things, that the reign of God, which he 
 believed in and taught, was the eternal overruling. 
 These latter sayings are of such a kind that they could 
 have no other source than in genius. Setting them, 
 therefore, opposite to the conception now before us, 
 there is no question as to which side shows us what 
 was working in the mind of Jesus and forcing itself 
 into expression. On the one side we have what we 
 recognise at once as a popular conception ; on the 
 other side we have what is the evident outcome of an 
 individual mind. In the sayings on this other side, 
 and not in that sentence from the Gospel of Mark 
 which we set opposite to them, we are to find the ideas 
 that were the outcome of Jesus's individual self and 
 formed the essential part of his teaching. To antici- 
 pate what these sayings were, we may run over such 
 sayings as those regarding little children, those re- 
 
Q2 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Mk. ix. 37, garding the valuing of man by God, those regarding 
 
 Mt.V. 30; life above and beyond this world, and those regarding 
 
 Mt ^vi 3 io' *he ex P er i ence f heathens and outcasts showing often 
 
 20 ; Lk. x. greater goodness than the professedly religious. These 
 
 are enough to assure us that the ideas of Jesus, the 
 
 enthusiasm of Jesus, and the whole interest of Jesus, 
 
 are not to be looked for in any conception or phrase 
 
 that would suggest him to have been a revolutionary 
 
 or Utopian. 
 
 There is greater importance to be attributed to 
 Jesus's proclaiming that the kingdom of God was " at 
 hand " ; that is to say, as we are interpreting that 
 proclamation, that he himself would bring about a new 
 establishment of religion. That proclamation was a 
 prediction made on the strength of his self-conscious- 
 ness, and it has been fulfilled. Many as have been the 
 misunderstandings of Jesus and his teaching, there is 
 no doubt that from his time religion has become, 
 broadly speaking, established as a new power in the 
 world. But even when we recognise this, our chief 
 interest will not be so much in the mere proclamation 
 of this triumph of religion through Jesus, as in the 
 particular ideas of Jesus and the particular enthusiasms 
 of Jesus which made him able to give the power to 
 religion in which it did triumph. To his real ideas, 
 therefore, which have so far eluded our search, 
 we must still press on. We have learned from the 
 Gospel of Mark what was the setting which Jesus's 
 ideas had assumed ; for what the ideas were in them- 
 selves we have to proceed to the gospels of Matthew 
 and Luke. 
 
 There is provided to our hands a reliable statement 
 Mt.v.-vii. of the IDEAS OF JESUS in the famous SERMON ON THE 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. 93 
 
 MOUNT. And our grasp of them is made the more 
 complete when we compare with the Sermon on the 
 Mount other sayings reported throughout the first 
 three gospels, and especially the collection given in the 
 sixth chapter of Luke, which we can appropriately call Lk - vi - I 7- 
 the SERMON ON THE PLAIN. 
 
 The notion that the Sermon on the Mount, as we 
 have it, is one complete discourse of Jesus, preached 
 by him from a mountain, vanishes at the first thought- 
 ful consideration of the matter. The question as to 
 what historical reality there is at the back of the words 
 in verse i of the fifth chapter of Matthew, will be con- 
 sidered in a later chapter. It is now, however, to be 
 said that the origin of connecting the whole discourse 
 as it reads in Matthew with a mountain, is principally 
 to be traced to the doctrinal imagination of the first 
 Christians. The Israelites had long lived in the belief 
 that their ancient law had been given to earth by God Exod. xix. 
 from a mountain. When, therefore, the Christian 
 faith superseded the ancient faith in the minds of 
 many Israelites, the belief grew that God had come to 
 earth again, and, again standing above men on a 
 mountain, had given them a new law. This course of 
 doctrinal thought can be seen quite plainly in these 
 words in the Epistle to the Hebrews : " For ye are Heb. xii. 
 not come unto the mount that might be touched, and 
 that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and dark- 
 ness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and 
 the voice of words ; which voice they that heard 
 entreated that the word should not be spoken to them 
 any more : . . . But ye are come unto Mount Sion, 
 and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly 
 Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
 
94 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 To the general assembly and church of the first-born, 
 
 which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of 
 
 all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to 
 
 Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the 
 
 blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than 
 
 that of Abel/' It is just a step further in the mystical 
 
 thought to be seen in this passage, that is to be detected 
 
 in the First Gospel, when, in giving a sample collection 
 
 of the teachings of Jesus, it declares they were delivered 
 
 The origi- from a mountain or the mountain. And so we can 
 
 to oros understand how we find in the Third Gospel a collection 
 
 corre m * sa y m g s almost the same even in the order of their 
 
 spending occurrence but having a different setting of time and 
 
 passages 
 
 in the place. The third evangelist gives his sample discourse 
 pels* *The as having been delivered, not at the beginning of 
 theTarticle J esus ' s ministry, but at the time of sending out the 
 isaques- disciples. And certainly if the discourses of the two 
 
 tion for 
 
 scholars; evangelists had been taken from any one speech of 
 byVo 1S J esu s, that one speech would more likely have belonged 
 means f- o t he later time than the earlier, seeing that at the 
 
 certain 
 
 that it earlier time Jesus's hearers would not yet be the 
 here a length of carefully noting his sayings. The historical 
 
 truth of the matter is likely, as we shall see, that parts 
 tion. See of the collections were taken down from some speeches 
 mentary of Jesus delivered about the time to which Luke 
 eyer ' ascribes the whole. But what is important at this 
 point to notice is that the third evangelist brings 
 his representation of Jesus, as uttering the discourse, 
 Ver. 17. down from the mountain to the plain. " He came 
 down with them, and stood in the plain," we read. 
 What we are to understand by this is principally that 
 the evangelist Luke, with a keen perception of the 
 spirit of Jesus's teaching, felt there was something 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. Q5 
 
 wrong in placing it, like the old Jewish law, away above 
 men as a thing merely given them to obey, and saw 
 that it was teaching which, in its tone of sympathy and 
 encouragement, suggested God coming down to help 
 men themselves to live pure and generous lives. For us 
 both the settings have a value an idealistic value. 
 We must recognise that the teaching of Jesus stands 
 still high up above us in its unique purity and power ; 
 and we must also recognise that it comes down into 
 the hearts of the humblest of us in its perfect sympathy 
 and care. But looking at the historical detail of the 
 matter, the collections must be believed to have been 
 gathered from several speeches of Jesus, and for us 
 now they are to be accepted as informing us on the 
 question of what must have been the general thoughts 
 of those first addresses delivered by him in the syna- 
 gogue at Capernaum. 
 
 The sample discourses ring with two w r ords. The Cp. Mk. 
 one is FATHER; the other is BROTHER, or, as the case V ' 7 ' 
 may be, SISTER. They are full of two eternal truths. 
 The one is the Fatherly relation of God to men ; the 
 other is the purpose, in men's receiving life, that they 
 should be brothers and sisters to each other. The 
 one is the truth of the infinite care of God for man ; the 
 other is the truth of the infinite responsibility of man to 
 man. With those two truths or those two words in Mt. vi. 19 
 our minds or with the passages which tell of the one, x ' 
 
 w 
 
 and the passages which tell of the other, before us similar 
 
 r passages 
 
 we can, with a sufficient exactness for our purpose, in Lk. 
 
 bring before us what Jesus preached to the people at 27-38 and 
 Capernaum. ^ t- v 2I ~ 
 
 He told them, we can gather, of a Care extended 
 over them which had begun with their lives and would 
 
96 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Mt. vi. 26, never end. This care was according to his mind, 
 29-3! vi. an< 3 most likely according to his definite utterances at 
 34- this time so wide that the birds and the flowers 
 
 might be said to be included in it, though, as they 
 were of limited value, it was for them of limited 
 duration, whereas for men and women, who were of 
 indefinitely greater value, it knew no limits at all. It 
 was so complete, too, that if they would but think of 
 Mt. vi. 34. it they could put away all anxiety for the future, and 
 let the morrow ever " take thought for the things of 
 itself." And as for the depth and the intensity of this 
 Care, to describe this his fancy went most likely in 
 these first addresses, but certainly in some of his 
 utterances further than that of any poet describing a 
 mother's affection for her child or a maiden's adoration 
 of her lover; for what has come down to us of his 
 sayings with respect to this is that it was such as to 
 Mt. x. 30. number the very hairs of the head. But also, while 
 the Care was thus like human love made ever so much 
 greater, it had at the same time one characteristic in 
 which it soared away completely from human parallels 
 Lk. vi. 21- as ordinarily seen and judged, and this was that it 
 chose always as its special objects the souls most 
 abandoned for the time by what makes life happy. It 
 was a Care most of all for the mourner, the poor, and 
 the hungry, and even for the unthankful and the evil. 
 
 This teaching, we can see, had its origin in the fact 
 that Jesus himself both had a keen sense that perceived 
 the Divine Presence and also was conscious of a rela- 
 tion of perfect oneness with that Presence. God ever 
 and everywhere present had been the object of his 
 knowledge. That God \vas he perceived, and what 
 God was he perceived. And he had learned, through 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. Q; 
 
 thus perceiving what was there beside him, that God 
 was all care and consideration for himself certainly, 
 but also for all beings that breathe and think. 
 And evidently there was nothing in Jesus that could 
 disturb the assurance that came with this perception. 
 He had no habit of minute analysing to prompt him to 
 explain away the glory of what he perceived. Nor 
 had he, on the other side, such a sense of the moral 
 abasement of man as might have made him hold man to 
 be shut out from expecting the blessings which that glory 
 promised. Plainly his own heart was pure as are not So also in- 
 those of other men. Plainly his own remembrance was testimony 
 
 not as those of others are, touched with shame. But 
 there was more than this that prevented him, as a man, sacker). 
 from having a despairing feeling of the moral abasement 
 of men in general. There was his consciousness that 
 all thinking beings were outcomes of the very life of 
 the Divine Presence, and that the Care over them was 
 perfect because it was the care of God for His own. 
 
 He told the people also, we can say, of a purpose in 
 their existence which was no less than this, that as 
 God cared for them, they were to come to care for Lk. vi. 35, 
 others. The motive of their every thought, he brought ^ 5 ' 
 out, if they lived as they ought to live, was to be care, Lk. vi. 35. 
 pure care, uninfluenced by any other feeling or notion. 
 As God loved, forgave, and was kind, they were to 
 love, forgive, and be kind. Adopting an ancient saying 
 in the name of God, " Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord Lev.xix.2. 
 your God am holy," he enriched this from his own 
 fresh knowledge of God into, " Be ye ... merciful, as Lk. vi. 36; 
 your Father also is merciful," and he gave this as what 4^ 
 properly would be the sole motive-power in a human 
 life. He pointed out that men should cease to need 
 
 7 
 
98 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 detailed prohibitions of this and that. They should 
 change, he pointed out, from slaves of the Sovereign 
 Power to children of the Sovereign Power, and substi- 
 tute * r ever y "Th u shalt not" the responsible feeling 
 vauable of a brother or a sister. 
 
 examples This teaching also, we can see, had its source in the 
 teaching ^ act tnat J esus perceived the Divine Presence and was 
 
 in this conscious of a relation of perfect oneness with it. His 
 
 line are 
 
 Lk. xvi. perception of God and his consciousness of relationship 
 
 xvif.^io, to God told not only of the care of God for man, but 
 botMt'is a ^ so f wnat i s indeed just the development of that same 
 difficult to truth, the care being so great that it would make man 
 the his- live the life of God. And every indication gives the 
 connec- ^ e to tne not i n afterwards to be entertained by his 
 tion. followers, that he claimed this relationship for himself 
 but denied it to others. The thought is quite the other 
 way both in the Sermon on the Mount and in the 
 Sermon on the Plain. All, he quite plainly thought and 
 said, had the calling of brothers and sisters and the 
 duty of brothers and sisters. He did, indeed, claim a 
 special relation to God. He did claim special great- 
 ness, and perhaps special purity. But the specialness, 
 as he claimed it, was of a kind that time and the awaken- 
 ing of man's true nature would ever be breaking down. 
 For Jesus, evidently, the world contained God and 
 His children nothing more, except those evil powers 
 which were to fall before the power of these two. 
 
 The two circles of ideas thus indicated, which, as 
 already suggested, can be summed up in the two words 
 Father and brother, were united both in Jesus's own 
 mind and in his teaching into ONE IDEA for the explain- 
 ing of human life namely, that every thinking being 
 born into this world is born a unit, never again to lose 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. 99 
 
 individuality, in the Eternal Life of God. To Jesus Mt. xxv. 
 each new individual stepped at the moment of birth Mk.ix. 49; 
 within not one but two worlds the one this most ^_ k ' vl 20 ~ 
 easily seen world, from which each soon must vanish, Mt.vii.n; 
 but the other a less easily seen world, in which each ;"] s 
 will for ever live and grow. And his practical exhorta- 
 tion, which was the outcome of this central idea, we 
 may conceive as very likely to have taken form in this 
 first preaching at Capernaum, in words almost the 
 same as those grand words in our possession, " Lay Mt. vi. 19, 
 not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth 2C 
 and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through 
 and steal : But lay up for yourselves treasures in 
 heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, 
 and where thieves do not break through nor steal." 
 
 These were the ideas which, as surely as almost 
 anything in the past is sure, were the ideas expressed 
 by him who has shown himself to have been the 
 greatest power in the world of mankind. These were 
 the ideas which formed the essential part of Jesus's 
 thought and teaching. These were the ideas which, 
 burning within his mind, had made him conscious of 
 his princely calling in Nazareth. And these are the 
 ideas which for us are now to tell what Jesus was and 
 what he taught. 
 
 And now we can return to the summing-up sentence 
 of the Gospel of Mark, and take from it what, for the 
 time, we left behind. Now we can see that, whether 
 or not our Lord Jesus literally began his teaching with 
 a mention of the " gospel," the evangelist was justified 
 in introducing the word. For the teaching was indeed 
 the gospel. It was the Good Tidings which the world 
 had been waiting for. No threatening prediction of 
 
 7 * 
 
IOO THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 new horrors, as his groping followers have too often 
 interpreted it and expounded it, it was the Message 
 come in a more than human face, and in a word glow- 
 ing with more than human authority, assuring those 
 bound by the horrors which nature itself has brought, 
 that God is greater than nature, and that for the 
 deepest dismay there is still deeper love. 
 
 It is indeed to be added that there was a less ethereal 
 element in his preaching, necessitated by the fact of 
 there being old doctrine around him which his masterly 
 understanding of religious matters made him hate and 
 demand to have cleared away. There was a polemical 
 element in his teaching. He began what was to grow 
 into a war between him and the scribes and the 
 Pharisees. The self-assertive disputations indeed in 
 the Fourth Gospel are not to be ascribed to the per- 
 
 Jn v.-i.\. sonality of Jesus, or to the period of his earthly life. 
 They are the answers put forward to later objections by 
 the Church in his name. Otherwise they would be in 
 contradiction to everything about Jesus in the other 
 gospels. Also all indications point to the fact that it 
 
 Mt. xv. 14, was on iy a j. t ne enc j o f n i s ministry that he took up a 
 
 not in Mk. m f 
 
 might directly aggressive position in relation to the " scribes 
 an excep- and Pharisees." But that even in his early preaching 
 tesdmon - ^ e * n some wa Y attacked the accepted religious teachers 
 but it can o f his time is certain, if it were for nothing more than 
 asinfusion the way in which they turned against him. He did not, 
 of later" 1 we mav sav certainly, at this earlier time go the length 
 into 1188 ^ ma ^ m to direct charges against them ; but he struck, 
 narrative, in a way that could not be mistaken, at their system, 
 with jn. 13 Jesus, most likely at this very time in Capernaum, as 
 he preached to the people the kingdom of God, and 
 told them the truths that needed to be recognised in 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. 101 
 
 order to bring the kingdom of God, also said they 
 would not be worthy to enter the kingdom of God 
 unless their righteousness would " exceed the righteous- Mt. v. 20. 
 ness of the scribes and Pharisees." 
 
 The manner of his preaching we can only in part be 
 certain of. Whether in these first addresses he em- 
 ployed, as commonly afterwards, the simple stories 
 which have come to be called parables, or stated the great C P- Justin 
 truths in the terse form in which we find them in the Apol.i.'i4. 
 sample discourses, we cannot tell. One thing, however, 
 is clear. He taught in a tone of authority, as one who had Mk. i. 22, 
 himself become master of his subject, and with an enthus- 
 iasm which was capable of carrying conviction with it. 
 
 To all this teaching Jesus began at once to show 
 corresponding actions. He began himself to do actions 
 in relation to the people around that were kind as the 
 heavenly Father is kind. And these actions proceeded 
 on a faith that God would fill up, in His care, what Mk. \, 27. 
 human limitations left yet imperfect. Of the detail of 
 what he did in this way we are given these facts : That Mk. i. 29- 
 he in some way cured of a fever the mother of Simon's 3I ' 
 wife ; that when he was preaching, a man " with an Vers. 23- 
 unclean spirit " interrupted him, and that he called out 2 ' 
 to the man, and through his "authority" silenced the 
 interruption ; and that, following up these two actions, 
 he healed others of diseases, and exercised his authority Ver. 34- 
 in calming other troubled minds. 
 
 The task of determining with any accuracy what kind 
 of power Jesus exercised on the man who interrupted 
 him in the synagogue and other similar persons spoken 
 of in the gospels, is one which, in this study, may not 
 unwisely be left unaccomplished. For the aim before 
 us it is enough to notice that these persons were in 
 
IO2 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 some way of unstrung if not unsound mind, and that 
 the power exercised over them by Jesus cannot be 
 doubted. And it may be added that the certainty of 
 this general state of matters is the more emphasised by 
 the way in which the evangelists describe what occurred 
 from the point of view of the patients as well as of the 
 Mk. i. 34, onlooker. The demons knew Jesus as their master, we 
 are repeatedly informed by Mark. This, surely, is no 
 mere doctrinal commentary. It is rather as much as 
 to assure us of what we may accept as indubitable, 
 that before the presence of Jesus those persons of 
 troubled mind became at once conscious of a command 
 over them. 
 
 Looking, however, now at both the silencing of the 
 man and the curing of Simon's mother-in-law, it is of 
 great importance for us to notice, in the interests both 
 of truth and of religion, that these and other similar 
 Cp. Justin g 00 d actions of Jesus are capable of being regarded as 
 Apol. i. 30, essentially human actions. That is to say, the "miracu- 
 ren.a 1 lous " element in them need not be supposed to have 
 
 Celsus i., been an y k mc | O f ma gi Cj or recondite interference with 
 ordinary laws and processes. It can be seen by thought- 
 Mk. i. 44, ful reading of the gospels that Jesus himself disliked 
 Mt. xii. 39, the popular notion of his actions that called them 
 xvn. 20. m iraculous in the sense of magical ; and had they been 
 miraculous in this sense, they would have been without 
 the real importance they possess for us. What we are 
 fortunate in being able to see in them is that they were 
 simple outcomes of his own teaching regarding the son- 
 ship of man to God and the duty of man to act like 
 
 on- with God ; and this they could not have been had the y 
 modern made use of means essentially different from those 
 
 tbis. J See granted to ordinary human beings. We are to be 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. IO3 
 
 thankful, then, that scholars have been able to show Origen for 
 that these actions of Jesus were not necessarily celsifs i. 
 miraculous in a sense that would place a barrier 
 
 between Jesus and those whom he called to share his Haer i 
 way of life with him. The first chapter of Mark tells, is the vie\\ 
 in the language of Jesus's people and time, of actions world that 
 in the best sense human. As for the silencing the j^iffe* 6114 
 hysterical man, and the other actions similar to that, the older 
 
 i . . 1 r i -i a.nd the 
 
 which in the language of the time are described as newer. 
 casting out demons it can be seen from the gospels Mt. xii. 
 that in general belief the casting out of demons was a ^.'38. 
 power possessed by various people, and not confined to 
 Jesus ; and the historian Josephus tells of the power Jos., Ant. 
 having been possessed by some as confidently as the 
 evangelists tell of it in regard to Jesus. And as for the 
 curing Simon's mother-in-law and the other actions 
 similar to that, there is nothing in the simple account 
 of Mark to take them out of the sphere of human 
 actions. Jesus evidently had a power of healing which 
 arrested the people among whom he moved, and com- 
 bined with his teaching to draw them around him ; and 
 in his later acts of healing, a faith in this power was 
 assuredly a most important factor in the cure. Nothing 
 will be further from the results, as nothing is further 
 from the aim, of this and every reverent study, than to 
 minimise or even too inquisitively to rationalise this 
 special power of Jesus. But that the power was in 
 him become a human power, and that it is possible for 
 man to participate in his power and do actions kindred Mk. vi. 7, 
 to his actions, accords with his own teaching, and must ^' 22-3?' 
 be believed to accord with the facts. Also that Jesus 
 may have used specific remedies to a small extent, is 
 neither itself improbable nor inadmissible from the 
 
104 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 gospel accounts ; and in this first act, the curing of 
 Simon's mother-in-law, there was, it is most likely, 
 some particular remedy employed as well as some good 
 practical advice given, which would both work along 
 with the faith aroused by the commanding stranger 
 that had entered the house. Jesus's good acts, then, 
 we may believe, made use of human means; and, it 
 may be added, they were performed within human con- 
 ditions. They brought no clean sweep of suffering and 
 death ; they only had relation to some few human 
 beings with whom his ordinary life brought him into 
 contact, and even for them had only a temporary and 
 relative effect. 
 Cp. the And now, having cleared away the mischievous notion 
 
 excellent _ . . . . f 
 
 account of of miracle in the sense of magic, we can go on to see 
 
 regarding w ^ at was rea ^y s P ec i a l m these actions of Jesus. They 
 
 his sub- had two very important special characteristics, which 
 
 Ood'd's can be described as miraculous if that word be only 
 
 Nazareth.' given its derivative meaning of wonderful. First, Jesus 
 
 showed in these actions a unique and worshipful 
 
 personal power. This is described to us in the Gospel 
 
 of Mark in the words that tell of the impression he 
 
 made on the people ; and the words convey the facts to 
 
 Mk. i. 22. us through their very simplicity. " He taught them," 
 
 we read, " as one that had authority, and not as the 
 
 Ver. 27. scribes;" and again, "And they were all amazed, 
 
 insomuch that they questioned among themselves, 
 
 saying, What thing is this ? what new doctrine is this ? 
 
 for with authority commandeth he even the unclean 
 
 spirits, and they do obey him." The good actions of 
 
 Jesus in general, and these first actions now before us 
 
 in particular, proceeded from a soul of unique power in 
 
 both intelligence, enthusiasm, and will; and this was 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. IO5 
 
 the secret of their success. This was what urged Jesus 
 to take known means to ensure success. This, too, 
 was what made him have a command over the so- 
 called possessed by demons by his very manner. And 
 this was what aroused on the part of the sufferers 
 a faith in Jesus, so as to cause an assertion of the 
 spirits of the sufferers themselves against their own 
 weaknesses. The other special quality of these actions 
 was that they were done in the name of religion. They 
 were done, in Jesus's confident tone of authority, as 
 instances of that kindness which, according to Jesus's 
 teaching, is the Ruling Force in the universe. 
 
 In a few days we learn there was an immense popular Mk. i. 28, 
 movement of recognition of Jesus. This was simply 
 brought about by the facts which we have been follow- 
 ing. Jesus endowed with a unique power and a unique 
 purity of nature, and having acquired a true knowledge 
 of the most important of all realities, had had oppor- 
 tunity bf becoming known to a number of ordinary 
 human beings through teaching and through action ; 
 and the result was that they rose up in enthusiasm and 
 admiration of him. 
 
 We notice, indeed, in critically looking at this 
 response of the people of Capernaum, the working of 
 the common laws according to which the less essential 
 powers seem to make more impression than the more 
 essential. No doubt what first arrested these people 
 was not so much Jesus's teaching as his seeming to be 
 able to cast out the demons. No doubt, also, in his 
 teaching, what first arrested them was not the matter so Ver. 22. 
 much as the manner, as the account plainly tells. No 
 doubt, also, even in the matter the real creations of his 
 genius did not carry them away so much as the repeti- 
 
IO6 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 tion of the familiar-sounding phrase " the kingdom of 
 God," and the proclaiming with force and fire that it 
 was " at hand." But also a great part of the way he 
 made with them and almost all of the lasting position 
 he held with them was attained through those sweet 
 simple truths which no human being can ever fail to be 
 affected by. And even allowing that the less important 
 elements helped forward the movement, we must take 
 human nature as it is, and we can see here God over- 
 ruling human nature and making it respond to what is 
 good, where it does not itself fully know the character 
 of that to which it is responding. 
 
 Mk. i. 35- Such sudden success profoundly affected the sensitive 
 spirit of Jesus, and he withdrew out of notice, to com- 
 mune with the Divine Presence that had inspired him. 
 He was not allowed to remain long alone. Simon, 
 joyful at the great position attained by him whom he had 
 begun to love, went after him with the others, and said 
 
 Ver. 37. to him, "All men seek for thee." He did not, however, 
 need to be urged to what he knew was his mission. 
 
 Ver. 38. He answered Simon and the others that he must go 
 round some of the other towns and preach in them 
 
 Ver. 39. also. He did go accordingly, followed in all likelihood 
 not only by Peter, Andrew, James, and John, but by 
 
 Vers. 4 o- others who had become interested in him at Caper- 
 naum ; and the most notable event that seems to have 
 happened in the little journey was that he showed the 
 greatness of his soul by touching and showing kindness 
 to a man afflicted with leprosy. The journey seems to 
 have been otherwise little marked ; and altogether it is 
 to be looked at as a tentative rather than a missionary 
 
 Mk. ii. i. movement. Jesus soon returned to Capernaum, where 
 he had still his initiatory work to build up. 
 
GOOD TIDINGS OF GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE. 107 
 
 The mission was begun. Jesus's " candle " was set 
 on a " candlestick." And though it has been subjected 
 to many a rough handling on the part of awkward 
 friends as well as of enemies, it still burns, through the 
 mercy of God, for our guidance and our delight, as we 
 have learned it burned for the people of Capernaum. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS, AND THE 
 RESISTANCE OF THE ESTABLISHED TEACHERS. 
 
 Mk. ii. SOON after the return of Jesus to Capernaum he seems 
 to have entered on something of a regular ministry, 
 which lasted a number of weeks from the spring of 
 
 Ver. 23. the year 34 till the late summer. It was a ministry 
 continuing as his ministry had hitherto been, made up 
 of kind actions on the one side, and teaching regarding 
 
 Ver. 2. the kind God on the other side. At first it was attended 
 by popular excitement, and had its chief importance, 
 in the eyes of the public, in that it was accompanied 
 
 Vers. 2, 3. by the healing of diseases. But later it settled into 
 being a quiet ministry of instruction, through improv- 
 ing conversation and public addresses. And we can 
 see plainly enough Jesus's wish to have his ministry 
 assume this quieter and, at the same time, more widely 
 valuable character. As it is suggestively told in the 
 
 Vers. 13. Gospel of Mark, he withdrew from the turmoil of the 
 town and the crowd of believers in his healing powers, 
 and taught " by the seaside." His wish, \ve can 
 perceive, was not to have his work too much associated 
 with healings from his own person, which were but 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 
 
 temporary at the best, but rather to have it known as 
 a work of teaching regarding that everlasting healing 
 which, according to his mind, was being accomplished, 
 through time, for all by the Heavenly Care that cared 
 for all. The open air was the surrounding in best 
 agreement with such teaching : the murmur of the sea 
 sounded in harmony with it ; and the summer sunshine 
 in quietness looked approval of it. Jesus withdrew as 
 soon as he could to the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret, 
 and there enforced the truths of a free and rational 
 religion, standing on the beach or sitting in some boat, 
 amidst the congenial surroundings of clear sky and 
 rippling water. 
 
 We are compelled to ask, from more than mere 
 curiosity, what were the outer conditions of Jesus's life 
 during this ministry when we think how this ministry 
 comes the nearest of all Jesus's action to that quiet 
 and settled kind of ministry which is required of most 
 of those who among ourselves wish to be special 
 ministers of Jesus. But we get only a very partial 
 answer to this question. From various indications, Mk. ii. i ; 
 it seems more than likely that Jesus had a fixed jn. ii. 12. ' 
 dwelling in Capernaum at this time. This may have 
 been still the house of Peter, or it may have been, as 
 some scholars think, a house he had secured for Reasoning 
 himself. Beyond the fact of his having had this fixed ii. 15; but 
 abode, we can find out little about his outer life at this seeApp. I. 
 time. Conjecture may suppose that he had come from (4)- 
 Nazareth with means sufficient to maintain himself in 
 comfort for a time. Fancy may add that no doubt the Mk. ii. 15 ; 
 entertaining by those who became interested in him yin. 3 
 would make his supporting himself the easier. And Mk - xv -4 I - 
 our faith, well grounded on the sure indications of his 
 
IIO THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 character, will assure us that, in any way of the matter, 
 he was living in the dignity of independence. But what 
 exactly were the circumstances of his life we cannot 
 tell. The state of the evidence, indeed, seems to 
 preach to us the lesson of his own life and words, that 
 the important thing in all cases is not what are the 
 circumstances in which one is placed, but how does 
 one live in the circumstances ? The circumstances of 
 Jesus's short settled ministry are only vaguely to be 
 descried ; how he lived in them is to be read by us 
 quite plainly. 
 
 One accompaniment of his ministry which is to 
 engage our attention in this chapter, began soon and 
 never left it. That was the resistance to him of 
 established teachers, who believed they knew better 
 about the subjects of God and goodness than he did. 
 The ordinary religious authorities of the time the 
 scribes, or expounders of the Law, and the Pharisees, 
 or party of enthusiasts for the traditional religious 
 faith rose in opposition to Jesus. They had been 
 stung, no doubt, by his attacks on their system in his 
 first addresses. They had been waiting to learn more 
 of him in no friendly attitude. And now in his life 
 and conduct they began to find points on which to 
 attack him, with the view of undermining his influence 
 on the people. The points they thus laid hold of 
 deserve our careful attention, as, both in themselves 
 and in the way Jesus defended them, they are capable 
 of arousing an initiatory appreciation of his personality. 
 
 For the facts of what took place we are, as mostly 
 hitherto, in the main dependent on the Gospel of 
 Mark. This gospel presents us with four special 
 narratives the last a double one, containing two 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. Ill 
 
 incidents bringing out the same point evidently strung 
 together with an intelligent purpose, but at the same 
 time carrying with them all the signs of historical truth. 
 The other two early gospels only confirm the narratives, 
 through giving the same materials more loosely joined 
 together. The Fourth Gospel, however through that 
 more reserved acceptance of its statements which alone 
 we have been allowing ourselves gives us an important 
 filling up of our historical picture. 
 
 As the fourth chapter of John has evidently been 
 built up from a lost narrative of the journey from Along 
 Jordan to Galilee, so the main part of the fifth chapter o 
 has evidently been built up from a lost narrative of the geebdow 
 same events as are related in the second chapter of section 3 
 Mark. Important points of similarity between the two chapter, 
 accounts have been, one and another, recognised by Cp. Jn. v. 
 
 8 w. Mk. 
 
 advanced scholars. These are not to be under- a. 9 ; j n . 
 estimated. An original identity in the materials ofJik^iT's; 
 the two passages is hardly to be disputed. And as, P erh w J n 
 according to the view with which we are proceeding, Mk. ii. 4 ; 
 this state of matters arises not from the use of Mark by common 
 the Fourth Evangelist, but from the Fourth Evangelist ^. cts 
 having had an independent source, the one account selves, and 
 
 espec. cp. 
 
 must enrich the other. The Fourth Evangelist, we jn. vi. i 
 must recognise, has had before him material containing 9 ' See 
 a record of the contents of two out of Mark's four Q^: 
 narratives. And though he has used his material for Holtz- 
 
 . . mann for 
 
 the pupose of setting fourth his metaphysical doctrine emphasis- 
 on the relation of Father and Son, yet a careful and {Besses, 
 critical reading must also find in what he presents a 
 valuable historical element. Also, the second chapter Jn. ii.i-n. 
 of John, where the evangelist has anticipated this stage, 
 in his first range over the whole ministry, presents a 
 
112 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 short, materialised account, having the contents of 
 one of Mark's other two narratives. The remaining 
 one of Mark's four narratives has been left uncon- 
 firmed, though in no way contradicted, by the Fourth 
 Evangelist. 
 
 In the four special narratives in Mark there are 
 separately brought out four points in Jesus's conduct 
 on which his opponents laid hold. These are as 
 follows : 
 Mk. ii. 7 ; i. That he called God his Father. 
 
 2. That while professing to be religious he associated 
 Mk. ii. 16. with " publicans " and other people held to be 
 
 not respectable. 
 Mk. ii. 18. 3. That while professing to be religious he did not 
 
 fast. 
 
 Ver.24,iii. 4. That he followed his own courses, instead of what 
 18. was believed to be the course required by God, 
 
 regarding behaviour on the Sabbath-day. 
 While each of the narratives, however, brings out one 
 of these points separately along with Jesus's defence of 
 his action having to do with it, they all together are 
 such as to enable us to form some idea of his continuous 
 life at this time. 
 
 As this chapter is necessarily a long one, it may be 
 divided from this place on according to the four points 
 in Jesus's conduct with which his opponents found 
 fault. 
 
 i. His calling God his Father. 
 
 Mk. ii. i. Shortly, then, it would seem, after Jesus's return to 
 Capernaum from his visit to the other towns and 
 villages, it was once known that he was teaching in 
 the house in which he resided. The friends of a 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 113 
 
 certain man afflicted with palsy heard of where he 
 was; and his fame for healing being at its height, they 
 brought their patient to let him see him. The crowd 
 was so great that they could not carry him in by the 
 door, and getting him up to some opening in the roof, 
 " they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy Ver 4 . 
 lay." The " faith " exhibited in the action touched Ver. 5. 
 Jesus acutely. But nevertheless his attention did not 
 remain centred on such an abstract object as either 
 the faith or the suggestion which it brought of his own 
 success. There was before Jesus's eyes a living man 
 who was suffering ; and what Jesus did was to stop 
 his teaching for a moment, and exclaim, " Son, thy sins Mk. ii. 5. 
 be forgiven thee." This saying, certainly authentic, 
 was just a simple kindly saying. It meant that God 
 would surely relieve the poor suffering man. Jesus 
 evidently gave some adherence to the common belief 
 that illnesses were the punishments of special sins Lk. xiii. 
 (though there is good reason to believe that he soon ix" 5 ^ 
 quite threw off all such adherence, and though, indeed, account 
 
 below of 
 
 this very incident may have formed one of the steps the teach- 
 towards his doing so his own exclamation of kindness 
 leading to after- reflection in which he went further). 
 This belief thus still gave a turn to his way of expressing 
 himself ; and so he spoke the words of tender promise 
 to the sick man, which meant in his lips, So sure am 
 I of the presence of One who is all kindness that I can 
 promise the sin is forgiven, and the punishment will be 
 succeeded by new health and joy. The saying was a 
 spontaneous, unpremeditated outcome of his own con- 
 sciousness of the heavenly Father that consciousness 
 which was also the source of his teaching that we had 
 before us in the fifth chapter. We shall have a special 
 
114 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 interest, however, in the saying in that it is the 1 first 
 expression of his consciousness which we have met 
 that must be called a pure outburst of feeling. It 
 was an outburst of that kind of feeling which we call 
 Compassion, and of that quality in which compassion 
 was Jesus's own peculiar attainment, and when we 
 contemplate it in him makes us in the one act 
 worship him and love him, call him divine and call 
 him human. 
 
 The Pharisees, however, took a very different view 
 from this of Jesus's great-hearted saying. They were 
 prejudiced against him, and they had been watching 
 him for something over which to quarrel with him. 
 And so the meaning of the saying struck on their ears 
 without effect. Its meaning was of no interest to 
 them. They only cared for the saying in as far as it 
 might be an occasion through which to find a quarrel. 
 Its mere words made it capable of a turn through 
 which it served this purpose. It was the very thing 
 they had been waiting for. Their conduct comes 
 before us with certainty, and in most unlovely reality. 
 Ah (they said to themselves, no doubt), here is our 
 chance ! Ah (they said, no doubt, aloud), he forgives 
 sins, does he ? Looks of intelligence unpleasant looks 
 of an intelligence badly employed passed between 
 them. A word formed itself in their different small 
 minds, and they knew they had got what they wanted. 
 Blasphemy was the word. Yes, they said ; for " who 
 Mk. ii. 7. can forgive sins but God only ? " Blasphemy, they 
 expressed to one another with satisfaction, was what 
 they would join with the name of this troublesome 
 teacher, and then would be found whose side would 
 prevail with priest and with people. 
 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 115 
 
 Jesus "perceived in his spirit," Mark says, " that Ver. 8; 
 they so reasoned within themselves." And Matthew, 
 putting it even more simply, speaks of him as " know- 
 ing their thoughts." So far the accounts in the earlier 
 gospels take us as uncritical followers. But from this 
 point a critical freedom must be permitted, which, in a 
 proper understanding of the first three gospels, by no 
 means undervalues the accounts. Without doubt, it is 
 history that Jesus knew their thoughts, and that he 
 proceeded to meet their attack. Also, it must be said 
 to be history that the man in some way recovered 
 whether the recovery began immediately or not, is of 
 little moment and that that was w 7 hat, for Jesus's 
 disciples, proved the most effectual answer. But still, 
 there must have been in the facts a filling up which 
 the Synoptic narrative has leapt over. Whether the 
 recovery really began at once or took place gradually, 
 one cannot escape the impression that in the making 
 Jesus's answer centre on the recovery we have one of Cp. above, 
 those dramatic treatings of fact from the later point 
 of view of disciples, in which w r hat at the later time 
 seemed the important element is brought alone into 
 notice. This impression is strengthened and, indeed, 
 placed virtually on secure ground by a comparison of 
 the Fourth Gospel account. 
 
 The Fourth Gospel account both induces us to 
 believe that the facts were more drawn out into detail 
 than the dramatic picture of the earlier gospels gives 
 knowledge of, and also conveys to us most convincingly 
 the filling up which the earlier gospels have left 
 wanting. The fifth chapter of John gives us at least 
 one thing in which the second chapter of Mark fails 
 us: and that is an indication which, by renewed com- 
 
Il6 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 parison of his account with that of Mark, informs us 
 how really Jesus answered his opponents at this time. 
 
 Mk.ii. ii ; Both evangelists relate that Jesus said, Rise, take 
 up thy bed, and walk. But the Fourth Evangelist 
 does not present this as having been an answer to 
 
 Jn. v. 18. opponents. He gives the charge of the opponents in 
 a place quite disconnected from this command and its 
 consequence. And he supplies for it a very different 
 kind of answer. The answer which he gives is one of 
 justification in word. 
 
 That what the evangelist thus supplies is largely his 
 own, must be asserted. Here, however, as elsewhere 
 throughout the book, the state of matters most strongly 
 suggests that the evangelist's work is no free invention, 
 but an elaborating into form of reminiscences from the 
 Master's own sayings. How are we to separate the 
 elements ? In no way, perhaps, so as to give much 
 detail. But at least one fact is virtually assured 
 us by the methods which we had before us in the 
 introduction. 
 
 The one fact of which we may become assured is 
 indicated by the opening words of the discourse which 
 
 Jn. v. 19- the evangelist gives, namely these, " Verily, verily, I 
 say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but 
 what he seeth the Father do : for what things soever 
 he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the 
 Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things 
 that himself doeth." The historical fact which these 
 words indicate is that Jesus had given an answer of 
 which these words are partly a report and partly an 
 adaptation. Can we dare to guess at the original ? 
 The scene of the Synoptic account itself suggests that 
 the original words were almost as they are reported, the 
 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 117 
 
 " almost " merely requiring the elimination of the pecu- 
 liarly Johannine mode of expression and the substitution 
 of that which the early gospels attribute to Jesus. Thus 
 we shall have it that, upon knowing their thoughts, Jesus 
 first, in all probability, considered for a little, and then 
 spoke these significant words, " The Son of man can do Jn. v. 19, 
 nothing of himself, but what he seeth God do. . . . God 
 loveth the Son of man, and showeth him all things that 
 himself doeth." The words thus adopted and slightly 
 changed fit so exactly to the exclamation recorded by 
 the Synoptists as a thoughtful justification to a spon- 
 taneous outburst of what one has long been conscious 
 of, and at the same time describe so exactly what 
 Jesus's consciousness can be seen to have been from 
 his teaching, that they force us to accept them at this 
 place in our narrative. And we shall be the more 
 induced to do so if we notice that, by stripping them 
 of their philosophical dressing, they come to form a 
 missing link leading naturally up to the words which, 
 according to the Synoptic account, Jesus uttered as he 
 healed the man these words, in their turn, stripped of Mk. ii. n. 
 what makes them rest chiefly on the success of the Ver. 10. 
 healing. We may suppose Jesus to have said, "The SeeA PP- 
 Son of man can do nothing of himself, but what he 
 seeth God do. . . . God loveth the Son of man, and 
 showeth him all things that himself doeth. Therefore 
 the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins." 
 The meaning of the word is easily read. Jesus would 
 have had them see how he had spoken directly out of 
 his consciousness of the Divine Presence, and his 
 consequent knowledge that God was forgiving such 
 sufferers as the man before him. He would have had 
 them see he had spoken to the man the words of 
 
Il8 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 kindness and promise because of the Presence that is 
 all kindness and promise, 
 
 Espec. The rest of the Johannine discourse may present 
 
 ravers.* something more of what Jesus said. We must suppose 
 
 \ 5 ' 29 viT ^ at J esus ' s inspired words made some impression on 
 
 andinver. these by no means irreligious "scribes and Pharisees.'* 
 
 And it is more than likely that, as the discourse 
 
 indicates, he spoke further to them, developing his 
 
 thoughts. The disjoining, however, of the original 
 
 from the representation is too delicate a work to be 
 
 advisable. 
 
 One thing more only we may conjecture regarding 
 this scene, and that is that the speech and action of 
 Jesus at this time brought about that the Pharisees and 
 scribes began to take up seriously his claims, not, alas ! 
 in any open-minded way, but in prejudice and spiteful- 
 ness. There is a notice, evidently spontaneous, further 
 Mk. iii.22. on j n the Gospel of Mark which speaks of " scribes 
 
 See also 
 
 Mk. vii. i. which came down from Jerusalem." We may believe 
 that it was most likely at the point we have now reached 
 that the teachers in the north sent for some more 
 influential of their colleagues to come and help them 
 to meet the claims and refute the doctrines of the new 
 teacher. 
 
 2. His associating with publicans and suchlike. 
 
 It was after the event having to do with the sick 
 man that, according to Mark, Jesus withdrew to teach 
 at the seaside. During the course of this teaching, we 
 next may learn, he made the acquaintance of one LEVI, 
 Mk. ii. 14. a member of the class of " publicans " or tax-gatherers 
 a class hated by the Jews. This Levi was most likely 
 an interested hearer, and in this way became acquainted 
 

 CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. IIQ 
 
 with Jesus. Through him Jesus got an opportunity, 
 which he boldly embraced, of becoming acquainted 
 with various members of this class. The facts present 
 themselves, if not in so many written sentences, yet 
 plainly enough to any thoughtful person. Jesus got 
 opportunity to meet these people, and was received 
 with interest by them ; and his whole character and 
 mind knowing, as they did, no exclusiveness were 
 such as not to prevent his associating with them, but 
 rather to make him feel impelled to it. He accordingly Ver. 15; 
 even, as is probable, accepted an invitation to the house 
 of Levi ; and there he met people who, if not really as See App. 
 great " sinners " as the national prejudice called them, 
 were certainly people who did not possess a very 
 religious character. 
 
 It is important to notice that Jesus here acted on 
 opportunity presenting itself. The associating with these 
 people was brought about by his teaching leading him 
 among them, and by their susceptibility to his influence. 
 That Jesus met in free companionship people who bore 
 the name of " sinners," who really were people careless 
 about religion, and, it also may be, careless even about 
 morality, is a certain historical fact ; but at the same 
 time that he did not do so in the way of making a 
 plunge out of the surroundings in which he lived, 
 but rather welcomed in sublime beauty of character 
 surroundings that had themselves, as it were, made 
 the movement and come to him, is also certain 
 for those that will thoughtfully read over our 
 materials. Opportunity brought about the assertion 
 of a part of Jesus's character. Likeness to his con- 
 duct in the matter would be found not so exactly in 
 any who might turn their back upon their own class 
 
120 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 to go and live in a less respectable class, as in those, 
 who within the class they find themselves placed in, 
 choose the less fortunate and the less eminently respect- 
 able as the objects of their kindness and their reverence. 
 This conduct of Jesus came to the knowledge of his 
 Mk. ii. 16. enemies, and they said to his disciples, " How is it that 
 he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners ? " 
 They only, it would seem, addressed themselves to his 
 disciples at this time. Perhaps they were a little 
 awed by Jesus, and did not care to come into close 
 quarters with him ; and perhaps also they wished, 
 by pointing out supposed faults in Jesus's conduct, 
 to disaffect the disciples one by one towards him, 
 and so weaken his following. The disciples told 
 Jesus what they had said to them, and Jesus said 
 Mk. ii. 17. something like this, " They that are whole have no 
 i3 n see' 1X ' need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came 
 A PP- 1-(6). no t to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." 
 These words were, we may feel certain, uttered in the 
 presence of his disciples and friends, and not in public. 
 As we shall see, his manner in the actual presence of 
 See, e.g., people called " sinners " was one more delicate than 
 9, and jn,' would have been shown had these words been said in 
 V1I1 - XI - &C - their hearing. The words were a justification of his 
 conduct quite expressing a view he had of the situation, 
 but only intended for the consideration of religious 
 
 enthusiasts. 
 
 3. His not Fasting. 
 
 Mk. ii. 18. " And " (we can at this point best quote, word for 
 word, from Mark) " the disciples of John and of the 
 Pharisees used to fast : and they come and say unto 
 him, Why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees 
 fast, but thy disciples fast not ? " The enemies of 
 

 CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 121 
 
 Jesus now interfered with him because his disciples did 
 not fast ; and this time they addressed not the disciples 
 but Jesus himself. 
 
 The answer of Jesus to this objection was, as Mark 
 presents it, as follows, " Can the children of the bride- 
 chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them ? as 
 long as they have the bridegroom with them, they Mk. ii. 19- 
 cannot fast. But the days will come, when the bride- 2 ' 
 groom shall be taken away from them, and then shall 
 they fast in those days. No man also seweth a piece 
 of new cloth on an old garment : else the new piece 
 that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent 
 is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into 
 old bottles : else the new wine doth burst the bottles, 
 and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred : 
 but new wine must be put into new bottles." Of the 
 first of these two sayings the "bridegroom" saying 
 and the "wine " saying the second half may be com- 
 mentary, in accordance with a liberty taken by the 
 earlier evangelists ; but in any case, the substance of 
 the answer is in these words, " Can the children of the 
 bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them ? " 
 The second saying is reported by Luke in a slightly Lk. v. 36- 
 different form ; but the difference is not such as to 39< 
 leave the point doubtful. The meaning of the complete 
 answer is partly on the surface, and easily read. This 
 was no time for fasting, Jesus claimed, it being a time 
 of special visitation the bridegroom was with them ; 
 but also, he claimed that a new religious movement 
 was beginning, and that that would require its own 
 ceremonious practices new wine must be put into 
 new bottles. 
 
 The first of the two sayings, however, when further 
 
122 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 considered, raises a difficulty. The difficulty comes 
 
 is. ixii. 5. from the " bridegroom " imagery. This same imagery 
 had been used by the writer of the sixty-second chapter 
 of Isaiah to figure the relationship of God Himself 
 towards His people. And that at once suggests the 
 question, If Jesus was remembering the use of the 
 imagery in Isaiah, was it not a visitation of God Him- 
 self which he was claiming to have taken place ? And 
 the question is of the greater urgency in that, beyond 
 
 See Mt. all doubt, the explanation of Jesus's words adopted by 
 
 *<ev 6 xi.\. t ^ le ear ^ Church referred them to that idea in Isaiah. 
 
 7, xxi. 9. The importance of the question for our' present con- 
 sideration lies in this, that if it be concluded that 
 Jesus here did involve the idea of Isaiah, he seems to 
 have, even at this stage, been claiming a superhuman 
 life a thing of which otherwise we find no trace in 
 what the earlier gospels record. 
 
 To help in deciding the question, we may turn to 
 
 Jn. ii.i-u. the Fourth Gospel. The story in the second chapter 
 of John of the " first miracle," or first sign, cannot 
 long remain unrecognised by any thoughtful reader as 
 being another account of the same occurrence as that 
 to which we have come. In rich profusion of symbol, 
 the whole situation of Jesus at the outset of his 
 
 Ver. 2. ministry is set forth in it. Jesus and his disciples had 
 been called away from common life to a marriage 
 what marriage but the marriage of the superhuman 
 
 Ver. 4,cp. and the human that was about to be celebrated ? This 
 
 3^-35- ' was to Gause misunderstanding and disagreement 
 
 between Jesus and his own family. At the marriage 
 
 Ver. 9. Jesus made of water wine what wine but the teaching 
 
 which he himself metaphorically called wine ? and, 
 
 though it was commonly thought that old wine was 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 123 
 
 better than new, yet in this case the bridegroom had Ver. 10, 
 given new wine which was better than the old. The by Lkv. 
 dispensing of this " new wine," along with an arresting 39- 
 of attention by sayings in which the imagery of the 
 wine, the water, and the bridegroom, was introduced, 
 was at least one "beginning of signs" in Jesus's Ver. n. 
 ministry, according to the early and reliable Gospel of Mk. ii. 22, 
 Mark as well as according to the Gospel of John. 
 
 The existence of this richly imaginative account in 
 the Fourth Gospel, having all the substance of what 
 the earlier gospels relate more simply, is decisive 
 confirmation of the historicity of the words under 
 review; and the tenor of it the comparing of the old 
 and the new in teaching is as decisive confirmation 
 of the suggestion that the bridegroom alluded to was 
 the bridegroom of the passage in Isaiah, still loving 
 his bride, and now celebrating the marriage. Also, 
 however, the story in the Fourth Gospel helps to get 
 over the difficulty in regard to the self-profession of 
 Jesus. Against acceptance of the belief that Jesus 
 at this stage professed, in his own utterances, to repre- 
 sent God Himself, the teaching of the Sermon on the 
 Mount, along with the plain development in his self- 
 assertion and the waiting for recognition on the 
 Messiah question, both indicated by Mark, are too 
 strong to yield to the disturbance by one piece of 
 imagery. But this Fourth Gospel story gives to the 
 imagery an explanation which removes its perplexity. 
 In the Fourth Gospel story Jesus himself is not 
 identified with the bridegroom. The bridegroom is i n Mark 
 only introduced as being appealed to. And thus, surely, J^ 6 bnde - 
 opens up the historical fact : Jesus, in his answer to i**g*y is 
 the objections of the scribes, indicated that the Eternal to. 
 
124 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Cp. above, Lord was plainly visiting His people, arousing anew 
 their devotion, about to begin among them a new way 
 of living, which, having been expressed as a new reign 
 or " kingdom," was also to be expressed as a new union 
 between Himself and them. It was for the followers of 
 Jesus, in the Divine government, to develop further 
 this thought, and see that the Lord who was the 
 bridegroom had dwelt in him who spoke and worked 
 himself that it was through a human nature made 
 pure, driven by duty, and melting into compassion, 
 that the Lord had visited His people. 
 
 4. His free conduct on the Sabbath. 
 
 The last point on which the teachers attacked the 
 conduct of Jesus had to do with his conduct in relation 
 to the Sabbath-day. Jesus was found, during this 
 
 Mk ii. 23. summer which he spent at Capernaum, walking with 
 his disciples in the corn-fields on the Sabbath-day, and 
 
 Deut. plucking the ears of corn a thing allowed on other 
 days, but not considered right on the Sabbath. The 
 teachers spoke on the subject, not as in the case of the 
 kindly saying to the sick man, to each other merely, 
 nor as in the case of the sitting at meat with " pub- 
 licans and sinners," to the disciples, but as in the case 
 of the fasting, directly to Jesus. Their interference 
 had been becoming bolder, perhaps through the 
 growing familiarity of his appearance among them. 
 
 Mk. ii. 24. They said to him, " Behold, why do they on the 
 Sabbath-day that which is not lawful ? " 
 
 The nature of the action to which Jesus thus lent 
 himself, as well as the nature of the objection which 
 the teachers raised against it, would be difficult to 
 estimate accurately, if it had not been the case that 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 125 
 
 the whole state of matters regarding Sabbath-keeping 
 is very much the same with ourselves in Britain in the 
 nineteenth Christian century as it was in Palestine in 
 this year in which Jesus was only laying the founda- 
 tions of Christianity. But we can understand the 
 whole state of the case, because our Christian Sunday 
 has, both in popular acceptance of its obligations and 
 in the ways of fulfilling the obligations, come to be 
 in exactly the same position in Protestant countries as 
 the Sabbath was among the Jews. The commandment 
 in the Decalogue regarding the Sabbath is of a rather 
 more arbitrary character than any of the other nine. 
 It is not, indeed, in its essence arbitrary. It is in 
 accordance, like all the rest, with the Israelite genius, 
 and is based, like all the rest, on the religious con- 
 sciousness of the Israelite people, which demanded a 
 sovereignty for God over all other life. To have held 
 that God never demanded a worship that was apart 
 from ordinary conduct might have seemed to encourage 
 the pantheistic opinion that God was Himself in no 
 way apart from the ordinary course of nature. Israelite 
 thought recognised a separateness between God and 
 nature ; and the Sabbath-command, or command to 
 rest from ordinary life on one day in the week, was a 
 reminder that one should show in conduct a recogni- 
 tion of God such as could in no way be confused with 
 merely following nature. While, however, the Sabbath- 
 command is thus based on religious principle, as 
 apprehended by the Israelite consciousness, just as is 
 the case with the other nine commandments in the 
 Decalogue, it certainly leaves to those who would 
 obey it more freedom in regard to particulars. Not 
 to speak of the number 7 being chosen for the time 
 
126 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 between Sabbath and Sabbath, which is certainly 
 arbitrary, there is a world of variety possible in the 
 ways of resting from ordinary life. Now to fill up 
 this defect in regard to the Sabbath-command, there 
 had stepped in among the Jews two new factors that 
 had come to be reverenced like the command itself 
 these were custom and the opinion of the Jewish rabbis. 
 The case is the same with ourselves. The Sabbath- 
 cornmand has been wisely accepted from the Israelites 
 by all Christian communities. It has for us all the 
 value it had for the Israelites, of reminding us of a Life 
 that is above any established system of things around 
 us ; and it has, further, like all truly religious injunc- 
 tions, not only the value of making us worship God, 
 but at the same time the value of making us minister 
 to the good of man, in that it provides rest for many 
 classes of men who are net in a position to choose 
 themselves their times of rest and of labour. With us 
 also, however, the particulars of obedience are left 
 undetermined by the command itself; and so with us 
 also there have grown up to determine these particulars 
 the same two powers custom and learned opinion. 
 Thus we can understand what Jesus now really did, 
 and also how it was that his action offended the 
 Pharisees and scribes. He, without in the least 
 implying any criticism of the Sabbath-command itself, 
 disregarded those particular lines of action which 
 custom and opinion had supplied for the obedience to 
 it, and went on a line of his own. We can illustrate 
 his action by means of many actions that may have 
 been done in England and Scotland. Playing games 
 on Sunday, while that is not in accordance with what 
 custom and opinion prescribe ; walking on Sunday 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 127 
 
 during the time not so long ago in which that was, in 
 Scotland at least, not in accordance with what custom 
 and opinion prescribed such are, in relation to the 
 Sabbath-command, viewed as bringing an obligation on 
 all, exact parallels to the conduct of Jesus (whether 
 they could be as well justified is a different question), 
 as with his disciples he plucked the corn on the Sabbath- 
 day, in defiance of all around, who he knew would 
 look upon his action as a breaking of the laws of God. 
 
 Jesus gave to his objectors an answer such as might 
 appeal to their slavishly Scripture-led minds. " Have Mk ij - 2 5 
 
 J 26 ; i Sam. 
 
 ye never read," he said, "what David did, when he had xxi. 6. 
 need, and was an hungered, he, and they that were 
 with him ? How he went into the house of God in the 
 days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the show- 
 bread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, 
 and gave also to them that were with him." But, as in 
 other cases, he did not stop short at what might appeal 
 at the moment, but went on to rest his actions boldly 
 on principle. " The Sabbath," he said, " was made for Mk. ii. 27. 
 man, and not man for the Sabbath." These important 
 words, though scholars have discovered two other 
 sayings the one in the Second Book of Maccabees, Hoitz- 
 and the other in the Talmud or collection of Rabbinical mann - 
 teachings with something of the same ring, were none 
 the less words of genius and of power. They expressed 
 in a simple way the attitude of the religion which Jesus 
 taught towards such an institution as the Sabbath. 
 His religion was one having as its first principle the 
 care of God for man, and its second the sonship of 
 man to God. He would continue, accordingly, to 
 respect the Sabbath where it could be shown to 
 minister to the welfare of man ; but where, as in the 
 
128 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 case before them, its obligation, as popularly under- 
 stood, inanely interfered with the welfare of man, he 
 would without hesitation set it aside. 
 
 In the accounts of Matthew and of Luke, Jesus's 
 answer is said to have been first, as in Mark, the 
 saying about David and the showbread, and then the 
 words, " The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath- 
 day." (Matthew inserts also a saying appealing to the 
 authority of the Old Testament regarding mercy being 
 better than sacrifice ; but this is more likely to be 
 a kind of commentary on the part of the writer, or 
 See writers, of the First Gospel in their usual tendency to 
 
 intr.,' make everything start from the authority of the Old 
 p< I2 Testament.) These words, indeed, are also in Mark, 
 but are unnaturally tacked on to the words above 
 quoted with a "therefore," suggesting that they have 
 been added to the Gospel of Mark afterwards from 
 the other two. They are, however, likely to have 
 been also uttered by Jesus at this time, seeing they 
 are characteristic of Jesus as well as sufficiently 
 attested, through their appearance in Matthew and 
 Luke. Most likely Jesus added them in the hearing of 
 all as a contemplative expression of his own relation to 
 the Sabbath-obligation as it were bringing the subject 
 back from the more general aspect to its particular 
 aspect, in which it was related specially to himself. 
 The meaning of the words was the same as that of the 
 above-quoted words, except that they introduced a 
 claim on the part of himself to be able to decide, as a 
 man, what was best for man, without any direction 
 being imposed for his guidance. 
 
 As Jesus's use of the name " Son of man " to 
 designate himself has first come prominently before us 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. I2Q 
 
 in this chapter, we may here pause for the considera- 
 
 tion of the question what in general he meant by it. Dan. vii. 
 
 The name is found in the Book of Daniel as applied to cc.' xivi C 
 
 an ideal deliverer, and in the Book of Enoch it is ai 
 
 found definitely as a title of the expected Messiah. 
 
 Now scholars are not agreed as to whether the notices 
 
 in the Book of Enoch regarding the " Son of man " Pfleide- 
 
 1 i r T T-* rer's view, 
 
 may not belong to the period after Jesus lived. But <?.#., Chris- 
 
 even if it were otherwise, and Jesus learned this 
 name as a definite name for the Messiah from acquain- probably. 
 tance with the Book of Enoch, it must be maintained 
 that he chose it as a simple title, conveying the 
 assurance that what he claimed to be was a man and 
 a brother-man. We must rely on the general presenta- 
 tion that is given here of the teaching of Jesus to 
 support this contention. It may be enough, by way of 
 argument, to say that the applications of the name Mk. ii. io, 
 which are attributed to Jesus are nearly all in agreement 33,' Ix.^ 1 ' 
 with this use of it. There are a very few, indeed, that ^ ? r ^ k 
 would make him out to have used the expression in a i*. 58. 
 
 Thf 
 
 transcendental sense; but in these, as we shall see . apoca _ 
 when we come to the consideration of them in ordinary lyp tic " 
 
 * passages 
 
 course, it can be shown either that the words of Jesus inMk.xiii. 
 have been not quite accurately quoted, or that he xxiv.,xxv.; 
 spoke in a figurative way. haps P Mk. 
 
 When, therefore, Jesus said, as we have seen he viii - 3$- 
 said, that he could forgive sins because the Son of man 
 sees what the heavenly Father does or what God does, and 
 said also that he could have a freedom of conduct on 
 the Sabbath because the Son of man was lord of the 
 Sabbath, he meant, we must say, that he was a Man 
 among men, who was conscious of the Divine Presence, 
 
 9 
 
130 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 and knew that it was man's nature and calling to grow 
 into the very life of God. 
 
 Shortly after the interference with the plucking the 
 
 Mk. iii. corn on the Sabbath-day, the same trouble, it would 
 seem, arose again over Jesus's performing one of his 
 acts of healing on the Sabbath-day. This time, as 
 Mark relates, and as was most natural at the rising 
 up of an objection which had already been so forcibly 
 
 Mk. Hi. 5. repelled, Jesus "looked round about on them with 
 anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts." 
 The words attributed to him by all the three gospels 
 
 Ver. 4 . as answer on this occasion, "Is it lawful to do good 
 on the Sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to 
 kill?" (Mark's form of them), may be accepted without 
 criticism, as also the grand words given only in 
 
 Mt.xii.ii. Matthew, "What man shall there be among you that 
 shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the 
 Sabbath-day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it 
 out ? How much then is a man better than a sheep ? " 
 When we go beyond the mere record of these 
 events, and try to fix our gaze on the Figure that 
 is disclosed through them, what do we see ? 
 
 Attending first to the answers with which Jesus met 
 his opponents, they are all in accordance with the 
 teaching which was before us in the fourth chapter, 
 and bring before us an authoritative mind able to 
 perceive the Divine Presence, and out of its own 
 intellectual power to choose its conduct and explain 
 its conduct with no other leading than the Divine 
 Presence itself. As the Divine Presence was seen by 
 Jesus to be heavenly Father, and as every human being 
 was perceived by him to be in real nature and calling 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 13! 
 
 son, sonship to God was to him the sole guide for 
 conduct, and he was able both to see what conduct it 
 guided to and to explain in words how he found the 
 conduct. He promised the goodwill and the help of 
 God to a suffering man because he " saw " God himself 
 doing the same. He justified his entering into the 
 company of people of evil repute, on the ground that 
 their having anything wrong with them showed they 
 were all the more in need of a "physician." He 
 refused to follow the custom of habitual fastingy 
 because fasting was not of a piece with his religiori, 
 which was based on the consciousness of sonship to 
 the- Divine Father. He justified a free use of the 
 Sabbath-day, on the ground that such was required 
 for the good of man, which was the purpose of having 
 a Sabbath at all. In all this we see One whose nature 
 was altogether fixed on the true God having first the 
 power to perceive God in such a way as to need no 
 other guide for his conduct, and then also having the 
 power to declare to others what he perceived. 
 
 All this meets us with even greater impressivencss 
 when we turn from the justifications of the conduct to 
 the conduct itself. 
 
 The very novelty of Jesus's conduct, viewed as 
 religious conduct, disclosed his original power. For a 
 careless person it would not have been a remarkable 
 thing to associate with people of bad name, nor to 
 break the Sabbath, nor to care nothing about the 
 efficacy of formal fasting, though this was made much 
 of not only by the established authorities about religion, 
 but also by the great independent preacher to whom 
 Jesus had in some way given allegiance. But that 
 all these things were, done by a person who at the 
 
 9 * 
 
132 TH2 SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 same time professed to be a teacher of the most strict 
 morality and a prophet of God Himself by a person 
 who was, moreover, as we can discern Jesus to have 
 been, really most sensitive about being recognised for 
 what he was has left for us the sight of a moral 
 courage, a self-confidence, and a determination to 
 make the reasonably good and true the only guide, in 
 utter disregard of the ordinary fashions of thought and 
 action that all of us feel we need the help of, which 
 all entitle us to say of Jesus that he was a spirit not 
 only possessing an unstained devotion to the Divine 
 Presence, so as to need no ordinary discipline, but 
 also possessing an intellectual grasp of the subject of 
 morality which made him perfectly confident in his 
 power to select the essential and leave the accidental, 
 to disregard the merely proper and hold to the good. 
 
 And if the novelty of his conduct arrests us and 
 tells us we have to do with a superior being, the detail 
 of the conduct will clearly bring before us an Authority 
 on religion that stands above all criticism. The whole 
 conduct of Jesus which we have seen in this chapter 
 shows that his action was simply in perfect harmony 
 with his consciousness of sonship to God. He would 
 go among "publicans and sinners," because that was 
 like a son of God and a sacred brother ; he would not 
 subject himself or his friends to formal fasting, because 
 that was not like a son of God and a sacred brother. 
 What was in agreement with sacred sonship he did 
 and wished others to do ; what was not in agreement 
 with it he left alone. And especially when we look at 
 the most notable part of the conduct, the associating 
 with people whose names were "cast out" "as evil," 
 we see the strength of character, the individuality, and 
 

 CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 133 
 
 the attractiveness which his conduct displayed. To 
 understand what was involved in Jesus's action in 
 relation to those people of bad name, we must divest 
 ourselves altogether of the idea that Jesus was, to the 
 view of onlookers, acting in condescension. Conde- 
 scending his conduct may be called by us who are - 
 able to see his nature ; but at the time of his action it 
 would not be apparent to the ordinary observer that 
 he was in a position to condescend. Nor indeed did 
 he himself approach the people with any condescending 
 manner. He approached them as a man as a brother- See Lk. 
 man. He first met them through himself receiving *J*[ c"p ' 
 hospitality from one of them. And all our later indi- Y H - 36-50, 
 
 jn. vm. 
 
 cations show that his attitude towards them was not n, &c. 
 dictatorial, but courteous, and indeed respectful. It 
 must be said, therefore, that he went to be with them 
 simply because he was drawn by a common nature 
 which he perceived to be a sacred nature. In our own 
 experience we see young children associating with each 
 other without shame on either side, even if it be that 
 one has a good name while the other has been found 
 out in a grave misdemeanour. We see in our own 
 experience grown people, when in danger, forgetting 
 for the moment differences of character and of name, 
 and for the moment facing together as human beings 
 the enemies of human welfare. But Jesus as a grown 
 man, and in times of no special distinction from other 
 times, deliberately associated with men who got the 
 name of caring nothing for religion, if indeed even 
 caring anything for morality, though he himself had 
 his whole mind filled with religion ; he deliberately 
 associated with them because he saw in them men, 
 and knew that of men God was the Supreme Father. 
 
134 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 In doing so, Jesus, it can be quite clearly seen, had 
 a master-insight into the meaning of life, a master- 
 enthusiasm to act in accordance with truth, and a 
 master-will to go, if need be, against a whole nation 
 obstructing him, simply where his own insight and his 
 own enthusiasm led him. 
 
 And if the novelty of his action and the detail of his 
 action thus disclose him, the results of his action will 
 enable us to complete the picture of him. We cannot 
 imagine a man of ordinary good character associating 
 with those who care little about religion in a purely 
 companionable way without his incurring a certain risk 
 of being influenced by the prevailing lower tone, so as 
 to lose some of his own purity of thought and action. 
 If this result be averted in any case, it must be through 
 decided strength of character. Jesus, however, we find, 
 not only remained himself as pure and high-toned as 
 before, but raised the others towards his level and did 
 so through no other means than simple courteous com- 
 panionship. There can be no doubt of this to a careful 
 See Mt. reader of the gospels. If it were nothing else, the 
 Cp. 2 Lk. v. speedy application to him by so many of the Messiah 
 8 jj A^ 5 *' character in the special aspect of Healer of diseases 
 45. 46. cannot have been based on mere bodily healings, but 
 must have rested greatly on the fact that the characters 
 of his associates were in almost all cases visibly im- 
 proved by their intercourse with him. Through the 
 results, then, that followed from his conduct he is 
 himself reflected to us, and we see that there was in 
 him a personality that carried a charm with it. Part, 
 indeed, of the charm can be explained as referable to 
 that very respectfulness with which, as we have seen, 
 he approached all. We can picture him with those 
 
CONTINUED MINISTRY OF JESUS. 135 
 
 commonly unrespected companions on some day on 
 
 which the Eastern sun had risen in all its splendour 
 
 to shine, as his words expressed it, " on the evil and Mt. v. 45, 
 
 on the good " ; and as we look at the company, we can 
 
 see that like the sun was himself, asking no questions, 
 
 but just shining in kindness, with the result that all 
 
 began to be purer in thought and in feeling. But 
 
 there was more than can be explained in a personality 
 
 that, surrounded as his was, could remain itself intact 
 
 and influence others. Jesus, indeed, through his power 
 
 over others, is a witness of the truth in general that 
 
 in a human being as such there is more than can be 
 
 explained, and that beyond the whole body, which can 
 
 be analysed and measured, there is the Soul, which 
 
 can only be reverenced. But also as regards himself 
 
 in particular, the power that he exercised on others 
 
 has left us a knowledge. It enables us to know that 
 
 he had a magical personality, caring for aims the 
 
 highest, the broadest, and the best, and having the 
 
 strength both of character and of spiritual perception 
 
 in which he could assert that those aims would be 
 
 reached. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MOUNTAIN SCENE. 
 
 WHAT next followed in Jesus's life and ministry can 
 easily be traced through the gospel accounts, and can 
 be seen to have been in perfect agreement with a 
 natural development of events. Oppositions continued 
 on the one side. On the other side popular enthusiasm 
 continued, and indeed increased. Jesus began to think 
 of extending his ministry beyond the neighbourhood in 
 
 Mk. iii., which he had met with so great success ; and at the 
 same time he began to think of putting some system 
 into his work by delegating part of it to others. More 
 careful reports of his speeches began to be made. And, 
 finally, the rapid growth of his success and fame, as 
 was to be expected, was not without his having to 
 experience various small annoyances. He had, for 
 
 Jn. vi. 66. example, this to bear, that some persons who at first 
 had joined in the popular movement in his favour 
 began to take umbrage at some of his sayings, and so 
 left him. 
 
 Going to particulars : there first comes before us of 
 what took place one scene which is at least alluded to 
 
THE MOUNTAIN SCENE. 137 
 
 in all the four gospels. It is a scene on a mountain or 
 
 hill. Matthew tells of it in this way, " And seeing the Mt. v. i. 
 
 multitudes, he went up into a mountain : and when he 
 
 was set, his disciples came unto him." Mark says, 
 
 "And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto Mk "i- J 3. 
 
 him whom he would : and they came unto him. And 
 
 he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and 
 
 that he might send them forth to preach." Luke 
 
 says, " And it came to pass in those days, that he Lk. vi. 12, 
 
 went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all I3 ' 
 
 night in prayer to God. And when it was day, he 
 
 called unto him his disciples : and of them he chose 
 
 twelve, whom also he named apostles." And even 
 
 John brings the scene before us in these words, " And j n . vi. 3. 
 
 Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with 
 
 his disciples." ain : in 
 
 all four 
 
 It is not difficult to discern the meaning of this scene cases To 
 and the course of events that led to it. Jesus, we learn BuTcp. 
 from Mark, was at this time followed by a great multi- J 11 X * 1V 2 
 tude. It was a multitude, says Mark, made up of( Me y er ) 
 people " from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from Mk. iii. 7, 
 beyond Jordan," and also from Tyre and Sidon. 
 Jesus's fame had spread. In a few short months he had 
 realised his majestic supremacy of nature among his 
 fellows. Now what we can further see is that, in the 
 full torrent of his success, just as had been at the first 
 rush of it, he became so deeply moved that one time he 
 felt constrained to go apart from the world for a little 
 while in order to engage in contemplation and in com- 
 munion with the Unseen Presence. He felt, we may 
 believe, that he must engage in quiet contemplation 
 over the significance of what had come about, and must 
 decide, with prayer, on the question of his future action. 
 
I3& THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 He withdrew, accordingly, to a hill an eminence 
 
 Ts. cxxi. away above the bustle of the world in the spirit of the 
 
 psalmist, seeking to be alone with the Creator. All 
 
 Lk. vi. 12. night, we learn, he " continued in prayer to God." In 
 
 the morning, as in the case of the earlier retirement, he 
 
 was followed by the faithful Simon and other devoted 
 
 followers. He was ready to receive them with a new 
 
 MU. iii. and practical idea. During the night he had been 
 
 forming a plan a practical plan, and yet a fanciful plan 
 
 a plan of universal importance, and yet of Jewish 
 
 colouring ; he had decided to choose from his disciples 
 
 some special ministers, and there were to be Twelve of 
 
 them, according to the number of the tribes of Israel. 
 
 The notion of the Apostoloi that is, Scnt-men as it 
 comes down to us from the institution of Jesus, is an 
 interesting one. There is probably nothing having to 
 do with Jesus that can be determined with less doubt 
 than the question what it was that this notion meant 
 for him. It meant that he looked upon himself as one 
 sent by God to accomplish a Mission, and that, carry- 
 ing out this idea in his own mind, he took upon him, in 
 the name of the Unseen One who was sending himself, 
 to send others. As all the gospels speak of Jesus 
 .., Mk. sending, there can be no doubt that Jesus had this idea 
 V1< 7 ' of sending as he himself was sent. The idea is summed 
 Mt. x. 40. up in these words reported in Matthew, " He that 
 receiveth you, receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me, 
 receiveth him that sent me." And it is also summed 
 Jn.xvii.i8r up in these words of prayer reported in John, " As thou 
 'hast -sent me into the world, even so have I also sent 
 ithem into the world." The idea, we can say, reached 
 its maturity in the mind of Jesus one night during 
 his short ministry in Capernaum in the summer of 
 
THE MOUNTAIN SCENE. 139 
 
 a year that was probably the year 34, while he was com- 
 muning with the Unseen on a hill away from the town. 
 Of the individual apostles, the most striking, certainly, 
 was that Simon to whom Jesus himself gave the name 
 by which we best know him, PETER. He was a fisher- Mk. i..ie. 
 man by trade, but was also a religious enthusiast. He 
 was not an excessively poor man; for, as we have seen, 
 he had left his business for a time to go and hear John See above, 
 the Baptist at the Jordan, and had also, most likely, as 
 we have also seen, invited Jesus to his house in Caper- Above, 
 
 p. 86. 
 
 naum. The striking good point in his character was 
 an overflowing enthusiasm that was capable of being 
 aroused when he came under the power of good 
 influences. He was a man most susceptible to good Mk. viii. 
 teaching. And it must have been on account of this xx ii. 33. 
 that Jesus called him Peter, meaning a rock, and said Mt.xvi.i8; 
 
 Jn. i. 42. 
 
 that on that rock he would build his Church. Com- 
 bined, however, with this good point of character, he 
 had one very bad one. He was, like many of similar 
 temperament, apt to waver when under the power of 
 two or more authorities that for the time were opposed 
 to each other. He was like a rock in being one that 
 could be built upon ; but it was the receptivity of a 
 rock, not the force or the hardness of a rock, that gave 
 the likeness. His wavering was exemplified in his 
 famous conduct at the trial of Jesus, and also in certain 
 later action of his, of which the Apostle Paul tells, in Gal.ii.n. 
 relation to the questions between Jewish and Gentile 
 Christians. As for the position that this apostle had in 
 relation to the early Church, the Catholic tradition 
 which would make him have been the first representa- 
 tive of Jesus in Rome, has truth underlying it, in that 
 Peter had evidently a very great deal to do with the 
 
140 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 rallying Jesus's followers after Jesus's death. And 
 especially it is evident that he had greatly to do with 
 the earliest experiences in regard to Jesus's resurrection. 
 In this way Jesus's prediction about building his Church 
 
 Jn. xxi. 19. on Peter was verified. It may be said of him in general 
 both that he had himself a religious perception keener 
 than that of the other apostles, and that he had a 
 greater receptivity than the others to the impression 
 made by Jesus's personality. It may be held certain 
 that he showed his devotion to Jesus and to religion 
 to the extent of suffering martyrdom for the cause of 
 Christianity. 
 JAMES was probably a more important apostle than 
 
 Mk. i. 10. one is at first apt to suppose. Like Peter, he was a 
 fisherman ; and we have seen how in all likelihood he 
 fell in with Jesus during the scattering of those who 
 had listened to John the Baptist. But we have an 
 indication which tells us pretty clearly that, with his 
 brother, he gave up good business prospects to keep 
 with Jesus. The indication is in the words by which 
 
 Ver. 20. Mark narrates the beginning of his discipleship, ''They 
 left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired 
 servants, and went after him." The leaving the father 
 Zebedee might be taken for mere imaginative colouring 
 of the narrative if it were not that we must compare it 
 
 Mk. x. 29, with Jesus's saying to his disciples, " There is no man 
 that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, 
 or mother, [or wife,] or children, or lands, for my sake, 
 and the gospel's, but he shall receive an hundred- 
 fold/' &c. From comparing this saying of Jesus with 
 Mark's statement just quoted, and reflecting that there 
 must have been something leading Jesus to utter it 
 more than the mere question of Peter, which introduces 
 
THE MOUNTAIN SCENE. 14! 
 
 it in the gospels, we may suppose the statement of 
 Mark regarding the beginning of James's discipleship 
 to be a condensed statement of the fact that James and 
 John no doubt facing thereby keen displeasure left See App. 
 Zebedee himself to carry on, with the assistance of his L (7 ^' 
 hired servants, the business in which formerly they had, 
 as was natural, assisted him. James and John were 
 called by Jesus, Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder. And Mk.iii. 17. 
 the trueness of the name as regards James was shown 
 by his so early meeting his death at the hands of Herod. Acts xii. 
 James was evidently a man of profound religious feel- Xt 2< 
 ing, but at the same time, unlike the Master, impatient Name 
 of all opposition to what his own religious feeling taught* ancLLk? 6 ' 
 Also it is likely that he failed to enter into the inner lx * 54 ' 
 circle of Jesus's ideas. Jesus's personality and his pro- 
 claiming the kingdom of God were probably what most 
 bound him to Jesus. Accordingly, after the death of 
 Jesus, he began to preach in a style that led to his being 
 apprehended and put to death very likely because it Acts xii - 
 was a style that gave ground for the belief that he was 
 a revolutionary. At the same time the very fact of 
 Herod's considering him a dangerous man, and there- 
 fore removing him, itself points to his having been a 
 man of considerable power. He evidently, under the 
 influence of Jesus, became something of a real prophet, 
 and met the fate which in these barbarous times was 
 that of prophets as a rule. 
 
 Regarding JOHN, our conclusion depends on what 
 authority we are to recognise in the indications regard' 
 ing him in the Fourth Gospel. While these indications 
 have been followed for centuries in such a way as to 
 make out of John a saintly person, not far removed in 
 beauty of character from the Master himself, modern 
 
142 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 criticism has largely taken the other extreme, and re- 
 fused tp recognise them as of any historical value. It 
 may be said that, after all discovered by criticism in' 
 relation to the subject, the old belief in general, in John 
 having been Jesus's most beloved disciple, will hold its 
 ground. No one can dispute the general fact that this 
 disciple was one of Jesus's three intimate associates. 
 Nor can his being James's brother account for this, as 
 Andrew had not the same close intimacy, though he was 
 Peter's brother. There must have been, therefore, some 
 special attachment between Jesus and this disciple. 
 Jn.xiii.23, And it is most likely that, as the notices in the Fourth 
 20. Gospel seem to indicate, he had endeared himself to 
 
 Jesus even more than had been the case with the 
 earnest Peter and the zealous James. Error, however, 
 is to be detected in the traditional belief where it goes 
 the length of ascribing to this disciple grandeur of 
 Mk. x. 35- character. In the evidences that have come down 
 49.54- 1X to us there is no foundation for the belief that he 
 possessed this, but indeed considerable suggestion of the 
 contrary. And Jesus, we may say, was not such as to 
 single out only those of authoritative character for the 
 objects of his esteem. It is likely that John was a 
 generous-natured, but perhaps by no means learned or 
 even clever, young man, who had given to Jesus kind- 
 Cp.Mk.x. ness and sympathy. Jesus's affection for him would 
 xw?c'. a " thus be greatly connected with sensibility to kindness 
 and sympathy ; and the fact that we are finding such a 
 touch of human nature in Jesus through that gospel 
 which is the most ecclesiastical of all the gospels, is 
 interesting, but is sufficiently reasonable to be accepted 
 simply as a fact. As for John's relation to the Church 
 of Jesus, it is hard to decide what amount of truth there 
 
THE MOUNTAIN SCENE. 143 
 
 may be in the traditions attaching to this and in the 
 suggestions afforded by the notices in the Book of 
 Revelation. We have seen, however, that at least it is See above, 
 to be believed that he conveyed some reminiscences of p< 67 ' 
 him who had loved him to those who preserved them, 
 till they were worked up into the extraordinary book 
 which now goes by his name. And to this it may be 
 added that, according to the Acts of the Apostles, Acts iii. 
 supported by the Epistle to the Galatians, he evidently Gal. ii. 9 . 
 continued with Peter maintaining the Christian faith 
 for a considerable time after the Master's death, not, 
 however, showing therein any special genius or breadth 
 of view. 
 
 ANDREW, in the light that real history gives us, is little Jn. 1.40,41. 
 more than a lay-figure. Having introduced his brother 
 Peter to Jesus, he evidently fell into the background. 
 Still it is likely that he continued after Jesus's death 
 faithful to Jesus's cause, and perished in one of the early 
 persecutions. Tradition at least ascribes to him martyr- Apocry- 
 
 J ' phal Gos- 
 
 dom ; and a most extravagant story was in the early pels, &c., 
 ages worked up out of this, of how he continued three walker 
 days discoursing from a cross, and finally refused to be 
 released, preferring to die. 
 
 Of PHILIP there are some notices in the Fourth jn.xiv.s.g. 
 Gospel, which have probably a historical background. 
 One of them brings him before us as causing pain to 
 Jesus by failing to understand him. Another tells of 
 how he brought to Jesus a person called Nathanael. ]n.i.^,^. 
 We shall come back to the story of Nathanael later on; 
 it is more interesting regarding Nathanael than regard- 
 ing Philip. Another notice still represents him as having 
 been approached in Jerusalem by certain " Greeks '' jn. xii. 21. 
 who happened to be there, with the request that they 
 
144 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 might see Jesus. This notice and the notice of him 
 introducing Nathanael together suggest that he had a 
 certain outward prominence in relation to the cause of 
 Jesus. He would seem to have been a vehement, but 
 not very intellectual, follower, who kept himself in the 
 foreground, and expected to see under Jesus a speedy 
 establishment of " the kingdom of God." 
 
 BARTHOLOMEW was an apostle of whom little can be 
 said with any confidence. The traditions, however, re- 
 garding him, though hardly to be taken very seriously, 
 Apocr. have an interest. One is to the effect that he knew 
 " Jesus as a boy ; another to the effect that he was 
 ultimately martyred by being thrown into the sea. 
 
 MATTHEW was beyond doubt a very important apostle. 
 In the first place, taking all things together, it may be 
 See App concluded that the First Gospel is correct when it iden- 
 tifies him with Levi, the publican whose acquaintance 
 with Jesus was the occasion of action so important on 
 Jesus's part. Levi seems to have been so influenced by 
 Jesus that he left a comfortable settled position and 
 followed Jesus during the remaining 'months of his 
 Abcve, p. ministry. This Levi, then, or Matthew, had already 
 taken a very important place in relation to Jesus. But 
 farther, this Matthew, or Levi, no doubt possessing, 
 though a member of a class morally despised, certain 
 abilities of mind which the fishermen-disciples did not 
 possess, did an important work which the fishermen- 
 See above, disciples could not do so well namely, no less than 
 tion dUC ma ^ e a re cord of the divine sayings of Jesus, which 
 under God saved them from oblivion, and preserved 
 them for us who now love and treasure them. It is as 
 certain as need be that to Matthew we are greatly 
 indebted for our knowledge of what the historical Jesus 
 

 THE MOUNTAIN SCENE. 145 
 
 was, and especially, it may be said, for our knowledge 
 of his sayings. Thus Matthew became, as we must look 
 at things, a disciple whose importance is not second 
 even to that of the more intimate Peter and James and 
 John. 
 
 Of THOMAS, all that need be said is that what is 
 related of him in the Fourth Gospel is likely to have a 
 historical background. It would seem that after Jesus's J n - xx - 2 4- 
 death he was slower than the others in falling in with 
 the belief in Jesus's resurrection. This must have 
 been, we can simply conclude, because he had a more 
 matter-of-fact mind than the rest. At the same time C P- also 
 the Fourth Gospel tells in the pictorial way that ic.' X1 
 Thomas gave assent to the idea that Jesus was risen, 
 and exclaimed regarding him, " My Lord and my God." 
 These words may have really been uttered by Thomas 
 in some conversation in which he was charged by the 
 others with want of faith in Jesus, because he hardly 
 looked at the matter in the same way as they did. The 
 character of doubting that has been ascribed to him was 
 thus very likely in reality a character more empirical, 
 less mystical, than was the case with the others. There 
 is nothing, further, to make us question, but everything 
 to make us believe, that he remained a faithful disciple 
 of Jesus till his own death. 
 
 Of JAMES THE SON OF ALPHEUS nothing is known. 
 We may suppose he met Jesus at the house of his 
 brother Levi, and quietly entered into his following. 
 
 JUDAS, THADDEUS, or LEBBEUS was an apostle of 
 Jesus who has become for history nothing more than a 
 name or rather, the three names that indicate him to Seev jrs.3, 
 
 17, 18 of 
 
 us. The little epistle in the New Testament, professing Jude. 
 to come from "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and pels he is 
 
 10 
 
146 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 connected brother of James," cannot have been by this apostle. 
 
 Wit 11 
 
 James; This apostle may, however, have been a brother of 
 word e James, and of Levi, and thus another son of Alpheus. 
 
 SIMON ZELOTES is chiefly interesting from this, that 
 in transl. his name indicates his having belonged to a certain 
 wlrs^v 8 ' f anatical political party known as the Zealots. His 
 3. &c. becoming a disciple of Jesus helps to show the power 
 of Jesus to bring under his influence men of all sorts of 
 pronounced views. 
 
 JUDAS ISCARIOT was evidently, unlike the others, of 
 southern origin, belonging to the village of Kcrioth, in 
 Mk. xiv. Judaea. While at this time a disciple of sufficient 
 prominence to be chosen as an apostle, he afterwards 
 betrayed Jesus to his enemies. Many attempts have 
 been made to explain the character that could bring one 
 into the unenviable position which this man occupied. 
 Here it may be enough to say that Judas Iscariot was 
 evidently a man of susceptibility to good teaching, but 
 without having himself the simple qualities of faithful- 
 ness and honesty. 
 
 Of the apostles in general it is to be said that, while 
 
 it is not reasonable to hold they were great men, as 
 
 ecclesiastical tradition soon came to make them out to 
 
 have been, they were, nevertheless, suitable for the 
 
 purpose for which Jesus chose them. They seem to 
 
 General have been all men of very decided religious tempera- 
 
 o?tradi ny ment " an d 3-\\, there is good reason to believe, with the 
 
 tion which one unhappy exception of Judas, heroically continued 
 
 able, Jesus's mission after his death, most of them meeting a 
 
 similar fate to that of their Lord. 
 
 legends fj-jg pj rs t a nd the Third Gospels both give discourses 
 
 are not. 
 
 See also of Jesus as having been uttered by him on this occasion. 
 
 2o. V ' We have already seen how the Sermon on the Mount 
 
THE MOUNTAIN SCENE. 147 
 
 and the Sermon on the Plain have, each of them, Mt.v.-vii.; 
 idealistic significance. It is to be said now, however, 
 that we must accept from the gospel narrative for the 
 history of the matter this much, that Jesus evidently, at 
 the time to which we have come, gave utterance to 
 some of the words which go to make up the two dis- 
 courses, and that it was about this time that these 
 words were reported and preserved. For the exact 
 detail of time and place in the matter, Mark must, as 
 usual, be followed rather than the other two. And we 
 find he gives some of the words found in the two dis- 
 courses as having been spoken neither when Jesus was 
 still up on the hill nor immediately on his coming down Mk.iv.2i- 
 to the plain, but a little later, at the seaside. We may 25 ' 
 make out the whole state of the case to have been 
 something like the following : 
 
 The words in which Jesus told his apostles that they 
 were the " salt of the earth " and the " light of the Mt. v. 13, 
 world," given in Matthew, may most likely have been 
 uttered as he chose the apostles on the mountain. And 
 along with the latter very likely there was spoken the 
 "candle" saying, reported by Mark as well as by M ^.iv. 21; 
 Matthew. This saying was no doubt originally applied 
 by Jesus in his own mind to himself, in allusion to his 
 special enlightenment ; and now it was only applied by 
 him to the apostles in that he was regarding them as 
 emissaries of himself. So that we are justified in Ab ove, p. 
 taking this saying, as we have done, as supplying a clue 
 to Jesus's earlier action. But evidently the time of 
 sending the apostles was a time in which Jesus uttered 
 this saying, and the time in which 'a record was made 
 of it. Mk ... ^ 
 
 When Jesus came down from the. hill along with the Lk. vi. 17! 
 
 10 * 
 
148 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 newly chosen apostles, he found, we learn, the large 
 multitude that had been following him still gathered in 
 expectation of seeing and hearing him. It was as he 
 looked at them, we may believe, that he gave utterance 
 Lk. vi. 20- to the words recorded in Luke, " Blessed be ye poor : 
 
 22. Ver 2 3 
 
 probably ' for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that 
 
 hunger now : for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that 
 
 from Mt. weep now : for ye shall laugh. Blessed are ye when 
 men . . . shall reproach you, and cast out your name 
 as evil." The words following in the text containing 
 
 Lk. \-i. 24- the "woes" we may take as being just a set-off on 
 the part of the evangelist, who is inclined to over- 
 state the opposition between rich and poor all through. 
 
 Mt.v.i-i2. The " beatitudes" of Matthew we may take as equally 
 historical with the above-quoted words from Luke. 
 Jesus would doubtless repeat and vary his sayings, and 
 thus allow of varied reports. And it is exceedingly life- 
 like that he should have first given utterance to a burst 
 of promise, in the name of God, to all poor and needy 
 souls, and that he should have, some time very soon 
 after, applied this in a didactic way, conveying, as in 
 Matthew, the general thought that those who are 
 themselves ready to be poor and humble for the time, or 
 are " in spirit " poor and humble, are to be commended 
 and assured of their reward. 
 
 Lk. vi. 27- The beautiful verses in Luke given slightly differ- 
 11 ently in Matthew about the Divine love and forgive- 
 ness and mercifulness, are likely to have been taken 
 from sayings uttered about this time, a little after the 
 coming down from the mountain. While thus their 
 historical position can be found to have been very 
 nearly at the sending of the apostles, it may be further 
 said that they represent what ought to be read at the 
 
THE MOUNTAIN SCENE. 149 
 
 start by all real apostles and disciples of Jesus. So that 
 Luke would seem to have first related them, following 
 Mark, in their proper connection, speaking broadly, Mk.iv. 24. 
 and to have then given them the more exact connection 
 of the very time of sending the apostles, from well- 
 judged idealistic considerations. 
 
 Regarding the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, we 
 need not determine when it was delivered. It is 
 evidently all, in substance, faithfully reported from 
 Jesus. The part that opposes Jesus's teaching to what 
 was said " by them of old time," may have been put in 
 the pointed form by the evangelist. The passage about 
 the care of God would likely be delivered in various 
 forms, at different times throughout Jesus's ministry, in 
 and around Capernaum. 
 
 Jesus came down again with his " apostles " among Mt. viii. i; 
 the multitude from whom he had withdrawn as we 
 must believe, with the intention of soon entering, with 
 his newly made " apostles," on an extension of the field 
 of his ministry and teaching. He did not begin this at 
 once, however, but made a pause, in which he continued 
 for a little his teaching about Capernaum. This pause 
 and its meaning, with the teaching and other circum- 
 stances which accompanied it, we must leave for 
 another chapter. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SOME FURTHER TEACHING. 
 
 WHAT made Jesus pause before actually sending away 
 his newly chosen " apostles " can be set down as having 
 
 Mk iii.cc. been partly that the enthusiasm and interest centering 
 on himself among the people were now at their height 
 and prevented him from making any new start, and 
 
 Mk i\- i P ar ^y th at ^ e considered it wise to let his apostles hear 
 a little further of his teaching, so that in their efforts to 
 spread it they might be saved from merely repeating 
 phrases which he might have used, with meanings 
 different from his own. 
 
 An instance of the interest in him now reigning, 
 which seems to have considerably affected both Jesus 
 
 Mt. viii. 5- himself and his followers, is recorded by both Matthew 
 and Luke, and referred to the time at which our 
 
 jn. iv. 46- account has arrived. It is also recorded in the Fourth 
 Gospel ; and it is there put earlier, probably from its 
 having assumed such an importance in the eyes of the 
 first followers, that the narrator who had supplied it 
 
 Holtz- 
 
 mann says had given it a first place among the occurrences at 
 Herod. Capernaum. An officer of the Roman Government 
 
SOME FURTHER TEACHING. 151 
 
 one who already had gained the reputation of " loving" Lk. vii. 5, 
 the nation or people among whom his duty had placed 
 him came to him on behalf of a servant he had that 
 was ill. Being, he seems to have said, "a man under Mt. viii. 9. 
 authority," and at the same time a man exercising 
 authority, he believed in Jesus's authority over the 
 unseen powers of evil. The followers of Jesus would, 
 no doubt, be most moved by the social importance 
 of the man ; but Jesus himself, we see, was greatly 
 affected at finding himself believed in by one who was 
 not an Israelite. These words in the Gospel of 
 Matthew spoken, it is likely, in reference to the 
 wish of the man to see Jesus, along with his words 
 about the "authority" bring simply before us the Vers - I0 ~ 
 historical truth, " Verily I say unto you, I have not 
 found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say 
 unto you, That many shall come from the east and 
 west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and 
 Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 The interest and the enthusiasm of the people in 
 general seem at this time to have been overpowering. 
 In the words of Mark, " And the multitude cometh Mk.iii. 20. 
 together again, so that they could not so much as eat 
 bread." Such enthusiasm and interest Jesus seems to 
 have taken advantage of to give some further teaching 
 to multitude and disciples alike before going further 
 in regard to the extending of his ministry. 
 
 For a moment, however, he was interrupted in this 
 action by an occurrence probably not unlocked for. 
 As he met the worshipping crowd, he also met his Vers. 22- 
 enemies coming to renew their opposition. Their 
 attack this time was of a more thorough-going 
 character than their previous attacks had been. They 
 
152 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 could not now disregard the fact that he had taken a 
 command amongst the people, and that, indeed, he 
 really seemed to have some power over those " devils " 
 whom all believed to be the causers of trouble in 
 human lives. They had, accordingly, men of their own 
 orders from Jerusalem to assist them in meeting his 
 claims ; and these latter brought against him the 
 charge, evil as it was stupid, that he cast out devils 
 through the help of the chief devil himself. Jesus met 
 this charge by pointing out the absurdity of reasoning 
 that sought to prove what was conquering evil to be 
 itself an evil power. At the same time he gave 
 utterance to some expressions in which we can follow 
 the course of his thought as he contemplated the 
 virulent attack which they were making on him. 
 Everything, he said, would be forgiven men except 
 Mk. iii. "the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost," by which, 
 
 22-30; Mt. * . 
 
 xii. 24-42. we may say, he meant calling by evil names what is 
 proved to be the work of the Divine Spirit, by its 
 being pure and true. And this was just what his 
 opponents were doing. But yet to follow Matthew's 
 account he went on to say, speaking against himself 
 would be forgiven, though blaspheming the Holy 
 Ghost could not be passed over. This we must inter- 
 pret as meaning that, as he was perplexed by the 
 unreasonableness of their attack and tried to explain 
 
 Cp. above, it, he, with his own magnanimity, sought to excuse 
 them by suggesting it was something about himself 
 they opposed themselves to, and saying that that was 
 not so bad as if they were resisting what was good 
 independently of its connection with a particular ir.an. 
 He called upon them, however, to recognise a " good 
 tree " through its bearing good fruit, and maintained 
 
SOME FURTHER TEACHING. 153 
 
 that even those who speak what is good have good Trace of 
 within them. They next asked a "sign" from him. v. 36. it 
 He replied in the same course of thought as he had been p S 
 following, saying that it showed something wrong about 
 the whole ''generation" to be asking for a sign, and there is a 
 that all the sign they would get would be the sign which f or 
 the prophet Jonah, for example, had shown when j 
 
 he managed to appeal to people through the truth of "greater"; 
 what he said. He unfavourably compared their con- xii. 41. 
 duct both with that of the men of Nineveh, who had j^ vi. 30. 
 listened to Jonah, and with that of the queen of Sheba, 
 who had listened to Solomon. These former great 
 men, he brought out, who had not been so great as 
 himself, had been received on their own merits. His 
 words, telling of bitter disappointment with his country- 
 men, but also telling of a consciousness on his own 
 part of greatness before which we will bow, ring down 
 the ages, " Behold a greater than Jonas is here." Mt. xii. 
 " Behold a greater than Solomon is here." 
 
 In the course also of his arguments with these 
 opponents, he gave expression to some quaint reflections 
 about the subject of casting out devils in general, in vers. 43- 
 which, it has been pointed out, he showed his own 45 ' 
 
 Witti- 
 
 belief in the merely partial character of these victories chen. 
 
 over evil. Also while he was speaking, it would seem, 
 
 a woman in the company called out, " Blessed is the Lk. xi. 27, 
 
 womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast 
 
 sucked " ; to which he replied, " Yea rather, blessed 
 
 are they that hear the word of God, and keep it." 
 
 A more painful opposition had at this same time to 
 be faced by him. The news of what had been taking Mk.iii.2i. 
 place had reached the ears of his own relatives in 
 Nazareth. And they, seeing the danger in which he 
 
154 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 was placing himself, came to Capernaum and tried to 
 
 dissuade him, even going the length, according to the 
 
 Evangelist Mark, of trying to force him away, saying 
 
 Vers. 31- that he was " beside himself." Jesus in his pain at 
 
 incident their not understanding him turned away, and said 
 
 confirmed bitterly that his disciples were (now) the only real 
 
 by jn. ii. mother and sisters and brothers that he had. It has 
 
 surely been an egregious blunder to deduce from this 
 
 incident the notion that Jesus and his family did not 
 
 incline to one another. The indications of the incident 
 
 are really quite the other way. The remark of Jesus 
 
 was an impulsive one, having to do with the occasion 
 
 only. And the whole incident was a simple and natural 
 
 one, disclosing relations of the warmest affection on 
 
 both sides. 
 
 Being rid of his opponents, and having turned with 
 pain from his misunderstanding mother and brothers, 
 Jesus went with the people to the seaside ; and there, 
 amid the surroundings that he loved, he taught his 
 disciples and the multitude. He addressed them sitting 
 Mk. iv. in a boat. He " entered into a ship, and sat in the 
 sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the 
 land." He spoke to them about the "kingdom of 
 God," or rule of religion, which all were expecting to 
 come: and he illustrated it by ''parables" or stories. 
 The parables which he told can be read in the fourth 
 chapter of Mark and the thirteenth chapter of Matthew. 
 They are parables about seeds in various aspects, about 
 leaven, about a fish-net, and about pearls. They mostly 
 bring out this idea, that it would be not sweepingly, 
 but by growth, that the " kingdom of God " would 
 come. 
 
 There is, however, to be carefully noticed a difference 
 
SOME FURTHER TEACHING. 155 
 
 between the two reports of Matthew and of Mark. 
 Mark's report speaks always of the kingdom of God, 
 Matthew's of the kingdom of heaven. And the difference 
 is not merely one of words. Mark's report seems to 
 make the teaching refer to something coming on earth ; 
 Matthew's seems to make it in great measure refer to 
 something to be experienced beyond earth. We have 
 now, therefore, to ask, (i) Which expression did Jesus 
 really use ? and (2) what did he mean by the expression 
 that he used ? 
 
 The question as to which of the two expressions was 
 really used by Jesus can be answered with a good deal 
 of confidence. The " kingdom of God " was the 
 natural name of the idea long believed in ; and from 
 its frequency in Mark and Luke we may conclude that 
 it was a name popularly used and generally understood. 
 It is natural to believe, therefore, that this phrase 
 would at least sometimes be used by Jesus. We might, 
 then, be inclined to go further. Seeing this is the 
 phrase always reported as that of Jesus in Mark and 
 Luke, the other being peculiar to Matthew, and seeing 
 Mark is the earlier and more generally trustworthy 
 gospel, w 7 e might be inclined to conclude that the 
 expression "kingdom of heaven" is very weakly attested 
 as having been used by Jesus. But that would be a 
 hasty conclusion. The question arises, Why has the 
 change been made in Matthew? The "kingdom of 
 heaven," not being found in Mark or Luke, does not 
 seem to have been a common expression. The " kingdom 
 of God," on the other hand, being found in all three, 
 though in Matthew not so much as in the others, 
 seems to have been the generally recognised phrase for 
 expressing the idea believed in. The peculiarity of 
 
156 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 "the kingdom of heaven," therefore, to Matthew would 
 seem to have had some special cause. Now it might 
 be said that this expression agrees with a tendency in 
 the Gospel of Matthew to dwell on the future beyond 
 earth. But the tendency is not sufficiently marked in 
 distinction to the state of matters in the other gospels, 
 to make us believe that the ascribing of the expres- 
 sion to Jesus was without historical evidence to support 
 it. Rather we must believe that in the independent 
 material possessed by the author or authors of the 
 First Gospel, this expression was found as that of 
 Jesus, and thus that the author or authors introduced 
 it in correction of what they found in the earlier 
 
 See App. gospel. We must therefore conclude that Jesus used 
 the common expression " kingdom of God," but often 
 substituted for it the phrase "kingdom of heaven"; 
 and what he meant by so doing we shall presently see. 
 We have, secondly, to ask, What did Jesus mean 
 by the expression " kingdom of God " or " kingdom of 
 heaven " at this time, seeing there appears the uncer- 
 tainty between the future of earth and the future 
 beyond earth ? In a previous chapter we have found 
 
 Above, p. Jesus using the phrase " kingdom of God " as meaning 
 a future establishment of religion. Did he now mean 
 to refer this " kingdom of God " to the future of earth, 
 or was he meaning to direct the thoughts of his 
 hearers to the regions beyond the earthly life into 
 which as individuals they would one and all soon 
 vanish ? 
 
 What we have just come to namely, that he often 
 substituted the phrase " the kingdom of heaven " for 
 the popular phrase helps us to answer this question. 
 There is needed, however, for the clear understanding 
 
SOME FURTHER TEACHING. 157 
 
 of Jesus's thought, a further key ; and that key must 
 be looked for in the religious books written about the 
 time of Jesus. It is simplest to suppose that Jesus's 
 thoughts on the subject first followed what was taught 
 and generally believed in his time ; let it be that we 
 find he himself made an advance on that. And what 
 was taught and generally believed in his time must be 
 looked for in the literature which emanated from his 
 time and shortly before it. Now, especially valuable 
 for this use is a group of books that have come down 
 to us, called by scholars Apocalyptic books, or books of 
 Revelation, comprising the following: The Book of 
 Daniel, the Book of Enoch, the Fourth (in the collec- 
 tion of the " Apocrypha " called Second) Book of Esra 
 (Esdras), the Sybilline Oracles, and the Revelation, or 
 Apocalypse, to be found at the end of the New Testa- 
 ment. With these there has been classed part of the Pfleiderer. 
 " Second Epistle to the Thessalonians " of our New 
 Testament ; and indeed many of the books of the New 
 Testament contain more or less of the same kind of 
 thought. We find, then, that in the books just men- E.g., 2 
 tioned, in the same way as in the reports of Jesus's ^ r< 
 teaching, there is a wavering of the object of religious xiv - 35- 
 hope between the future of the earth and the future of 
 individuals beyond earth. The state of the case can be 
 determined by concluding that the hope for individuals Also 
 beyond the grave had been gradually coming to possess JF 
 the minds of the thoughtful, and that it was only b Y 
 gradually that it came to fit in exactly with the hope 
 for the future of the world, which had formerly had a 
 greater hold on the minds of the thoughtful Israelites. 
 Thus in Daniel the hope seems to be that the individual Dan. yii. 
 saints will in heaven join with the Supreme Ruler in 3 . ' 
 
158 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 establishing the rule of what is good on earth. This 
 
 hope, we may say, prevails more or less through all 
 
 these books ; but also in the later ones there appears a 
 
 new thought, to the effect that the world is coming to 
 
 ES( Rev- 1! an en< ^ altogether, so that the whole ideal becomes 
 
 **i. i transferred from earth to heaven. This latter thought, 
 
 ^Thess wmcn ^ m some way a retrograde one, shows how 
 
 iv. 16, 17. the relation between the two objects of hope was very 
 
 undefined. 
 
 Jesus, then, we may say, received from contemporary 
 thought these two objects of religious hope which were 
 cast about disconnectedly in people's minds. We may 
 conclude, from a thoughtful survey of the reports before 
 us, that he gave recognition to both of them. And now 
 we can say that he gave to them a rational we may 
 almost say scientific welding together. This is found 
 in the Seed-idea. From thinking a little over Jesus's use 
 Mt. xiii. ; of the seed-idea, and noticing that he made it apply to 
 23125! ll the life of individuals beyond the grave, as well as to 
 the prevalence of religion in the future of the world, we 
 can read in his teaching this grand thought That he 
 expected individual spirits to spring to new life and 
 consciousness in the arms of nature after death, like 
 seeds after being sown ; and that in their new life, which 
 would be a life of improved knowledge and feeling, 
 Cp. Jn. they would enter into the happiness of seeing the im- 
 4> provement which by a similar process was also mean- 
 while coming about in the world generally. Thus, 
 starting at this time with the conception of the 
 " kingdom of God," or future rule of religion in the 
 world, he agreed with the belief that was held by those 
 who wrote the apocalyptic books and by many others, 
 that this would be a kingdom of heaven that is, a 
 
SOME FURTHER TEACHING. 159 
 
 kingdom in which the revived spirits of men and For this 
 women would reign along with God ; but he showed 
 his hearers how this would all come about gradually 
 through the growth in the whole world of nature. 21, xii ; 25; 
 
 While, however, we must recognise that, as Matthew xviii. io ; ' 
 indicates, Jesus taught that the object of hope was to 5I / X Qp 
 
 be beyond earth for individuals as well as on earth f O r use f . the 
 
 word in 
 
 future generations, we must not go with Matthew when ". Reyela- 
 he ascribes to Jesus in these teachings a dualistic view of 
 human beings, or view according to which only some 
 human spirits are to attain the object of hope and the 
 rest are to be "severed" from them for ever. That Mt. xiii. 
 this was not the view of Jesus we can assert fearlessly, 4 ' 
 on the grounds that, first, such an idea is quite 
 opposed to what is found in regard to the subject in 
 the Gospel of Mark, which is generally the more trust- Cp. Mk. 
 worthy of the two ; and that, second, the whole spirit U 
 of Jesus's teaching excludes it. Especially, we may 
 say, it is excluded by that very seed-idea which comes 
 before us in the parables now under our consideration. 
 The mind that could produce those parables, in which 
 the prevailing ideas are unity and development, could 
 not have been a mind entertaining the notion of an 
 everlasting dualism. We must, then, hold that, as 
 Matthew relates, Jesus at this time used the phrase 
 " kingdom of heaven " as well as the phrase " kingdom 
 of God," thereby showing his belief that human spirits 
 were to reign with God as His children ; but we must 
 not believe that Jesus took Matthew's dualistic view 
 regarding human spirits. We must also hold that 
 Matthew has greatly enriched our knowledge of Jesus's 
 teaching at this time by adding to what Mark reports See Mk. 
 the parables of the Tares and the Fish-net, which lx ' 43 ~ 5 ' 
 
160 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 centre the object of hope in the life of individuals 
 beyond the grave, as well as in the general life of the 
 world in the future ; but we must believe he has gone 
 astray in his explanations of these two parables. The 
 Gospel of Matthew is emphatically a book having to do 
 with morals ; and all moral enthusiasts, both men and 
 books, if they be not at the same time religious enthu- 
 siasts in the higher way, overstate the differences 
 between man and man. The " tares " assuredly, in 
 Jesus's mind, were not living and thinking beings, 
 for of such had not God numbered the very hairs of 
 the heads ? but the evil elements in the composition 
 of one and all, which, through growth and through 
 the power of good influences, would be cast " into a 
 furnace of fire" and become as if they had never been. 
 Jesus, then, at this time addressed his newly-made 
 apostles along with the whole multitude, taking as his 
 subject that coming " kingdom of God " in which all 
 believed. He had at the start of his preaching 
 announced that that "kingdom of God" was "at 
 hand," and he had recently taken steps towards its 
 realisation. It remained for him to make clear what 
 he held to be the true nature of the ideal which was 
 named by that phrase. And this he did now as he 
 sat in the boat, with the sea in its beauty, the sun in 
 its warmth and brightness, and the sky in its majesty, 
 all bearing witness to a kingdom of what is good, that 
 transcended the limited range of time to which the 
 popular phrase appfied a kingdom which the com- 
 bined powers of evil had never really removed. He 
 gave it to be understood, through one striking parable 
 Mk. iv. after another, that the ideal which was meant by that 
 phrase with which he had started, was to be realised 
 
SOME FURTHER TEACHING. l6l 
 
 not in a future that would rudely break with the past, 
 but in a future that would silently grow out of the past 
 and present. And gently altering the phrase in a Mt. xiii. 
 direction which led to the thought that human souls 
 themselves would help to reign with God as that ideal 
 became more and more established, he diverted their 
 minds from looking for the ideal in embodiments that met 
 their present vision to look for it in a region where its 
 more complete realisation would be found, namely, among 
 embodiments yet to be attained by their own spirits, 
 but not distinguished as such by their earthly senses. 
 And then he gave parables that illustrated this second- 
 ary thought. His discourse on the subject, probably 
 only in part reported to us, began to concern itself with 
 the movements of spirit-life that go beyond the time of 
 earthly existence. In the yet unperceived region, he 
 taught, into which those movements would lead human 
 souls, there would still be growing up that prevailing 
 of God and that prevailing of the children of God Vers. 30, 
 of which prophets had vaguely dreamed, as those 4 ' 
 children of God had what was evil in them cast away 
 like the refuse of a fish-net or like tares among the 
 wheat, and had what was good in them gathered and 
 secured for their everlasting possession. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE EXTENDING OF JESUS'S MINISTRY. 
 
 HAVING given, by the seaside, his great teaching which 
 
 Mk.iv. 35- we considered in last chapter, Jesus applied himself 
 
 jn. vi. ?! directly to that extending of the field of his ministry 
 
 and teaching for which the choosing of " apostles " had 
 
 been the introduction. He and his apostles crossed 
 
 the lake in the evening. And as they crossed, in the 
 
 excited condition of mind to which they had been 
 
 aroused, something happened which came to be told as 
 
 a story of how there had been a great storm, and how 
 
 Ver. 39. Jesus had ended it by saying simply, " Peace, be still." 
 
 What the original of this story had really been we can- 
 
 See espe- not tell now. It may have been nothing more than 
 
 cially ver. 
 
 40. Ver. this, that the apostles were noisy, argumentative, and 
 babl} full f wild projects, that Jesus alone was calm and 
 iTadmade s ^ ent anc * ^ at * n dignified reproof he restored peace 
 " wind and patience among them, calling their attention to the 
 become beauty of the evening calm in the lake around them. 
 
 > nowever > as it ma Y> a nne historical picture 
 own to us with practical certainty, in spite of 
 nature. the uncertainty of the details. It is the picture of 
 
THE EXTENDING OF JESUS'S MINISTRY. 163 
 
 Jesus in the midst of those roughly nurtured men, as 
 they all sail across the lake in a rude fishing-boat, 
 holding one and all bound in reverence by his mere 
 presence, so that even when, after the great fatigues 
 to which he has been subjected, he has fallen asleep in 
 the stern of the boat, and when he has spoken some 
 words that have changed to them the whole situation 
 around them, they, perhaps as he sleeps, regard him 
 with a mingling of awe and affection, saying to each 
 other, " What manner of man is this, that even the 
 wind and the sea " serve him ! 
 
 The little voyage, however, is interesting from 
 another point of view. It is interesting as having been 
 the first Christian missionary journey. Jesus was by 
 nature, we may say, no missionary. His habit of mind 
 was too introspective and contemplative for him to 
 apply himself to the organisation required for a 
 missionary enterprise. And we can see that this little 
 journey to the other side of the lake was a mere loosely 
 conceived venture, of short duration. Still we cannot 
 but pause a moment to fix our attention on the little 
 event, as we notice how it may be looked at as having 
 been indeed the first step towards spreading the 
 religion of Jesus over the world. When Jesus and his 
 disciples entered their boats and pushed out on the 
 lake, the religion of Jesus, we may say, entered a boat 
 unseen by the natural eyes, in which it was to be 
 carried over every ocean that separates land from land. 
 
 In the time in which the little company was on the Mk. 
 other side of the lake, only one event seems to have 
 happened that was considered worth remembering. 
 It was Jesus's helping some poor man of troubled or 
 unsound mind. The record given of this event, 
 
 Ji * 
 
 V. I 
 
 20. 
 
164 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 coloured as it is by the imagination of the time, is 
 evidently faithful in preserving both some interesting 
 words of Jesus himself, and also some words of the 
 poor troubled man, that have an importance to us. 
 The poor man is made out to have said, by way of 
 resistance of his " unclean spirit " to be interfered with 
 Mk. v. 7. by Jesus, " What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou 
 Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God that 
 thou torment me not." There is no need to doubt the 
 report of the words. We may believe that the man 
 really said almost exactly what is conveyed in at least 
 the first half of the report, and that, as best recom- 
 mends itself on looking back from our modern stand- 
 point, he said it by way of personal comment on Jesus's 
 teaching. The words thus meant, we must suppose, 
 that the man, believing he had a " devil " in him, 
 asked how he could have anything " to do " with one 
 who asserted that men were the children of God. The 
 words are interesting and important, in that they con- 
 firm the fact of Jesus having very specially taught the 
 truth of the Fatherhood of God in his early ministry. 
 And they are further important in that they bear out 
 its having been a general Fatherhood that he taught. 
 They do this, we may say, inasmuch as the point in 
 them is that the man felt his own nature to be different 
 from that which, according to Jesus's teaching, it 
 ought to have been. Jesus exercised over this man 
 an extraordinary power, and restored the calm of his 
 Vers. 8, mind ; and then the man, it seems, wished to join his 
 I5> I? " followers. But Jesus replied, " Go home to thy friends, 
 Ver. 19. and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for 
 thee, and hath had compassion on thee." These 
 words are even more interesting to us than the words 
 
THE EXTENDING OF JESUS'S MINISTRY. 165 
 
 of the troubled man that have just been before us. 
 They show that Jesus had a prudence which could 
 make him reject apostles as well as choose apostles. 
 But they also help to destroy some of the prevalent 
 errors regarding his whole character and views. 
 They help to show that he was no revolutionary, seek- 
 ing to rouse the community into an uproar. And they 
 also give one more blow to that most injurious error P. 154. 
 which we have just above been considering, to the 
 effect that he cared not for family life, and sought 
 earnest men to leave their natural relationships to 
 become attached to himself. 
 
 Jesus soon returned to Capernaum, and stayed a Mk. v. 21; 
 short time, before leaving for another little journey. 
 
 At this time several events happened which have 
 been recorded. One of them was that Jesus was called 
 to see the daughter of a certain Jairus, " one of the Mk. v. 22- 
 rulers of the synagogue " that is, the chief minister 43 ' 
 of some synagogue let us suppose, the chief minister 
 of the synagogue in which Jesus had delivered his first 
 wonderful discourses. What exactly happened in 
 regard to Jairus's daughter it is difficult for sober 
 modern thought to decide. Word seems to have come 
 to Jesus, before he reached the house, that the girl was 
 dead ; and Jesus spoke these lovely words of universal 
 application, " The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth." Ver. 39. 
 The gospel narrative declares that Jesus raised her from 
 the dead. The fact on which this declaration is based 
 might be that it was found her having died had been a 
 false report. But it is much more likely as we shall 
 see was the case with regard to Lazarus that Jesus 
 raised her only through the words just quoted that is, i e ^ IO ) PP 
 raised her in promise only. He promised authoritatively 
 
l66 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 her resurrection in the eternal rule of the heavenly 
 Father. 
 
 Another event of this short time in which Jesus was 
 
 ^k. v. back in Capernaum, was that a certain sick woman 
 2^-34. 
 
 had so great faith in Jesus that, as he was passing, she 
 
 Mk. v. 29. touched his clothes behind, and at the very touch " felt 
 in her body that she was healed of that plague." 
 
 Lk. vii. There is still another event of importance which we 
 36-50. 
 
 may fix to this short time in Capernaum, as w r e have 
 
 no clue to the time of its having happened except that 
 
 it is related by Luke shortly after his narrative of the 
 
 choosing of apostles. Jesus was partaking the hos- 
 
 Vers. 37, pitality of a certain Pharisee. " A woman in the city, 
 
 3v 
 
 which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at 
 meat in the Pharisee's house," came " and stood at his 
 feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet 
 with tears." The Pharisee objected, and Jesus told 
 one of the most benign of his parables to meet the 
 objection of the Pharisee. The account of this occur- 
 rence, indeed, which is only given in Luke, has evidently 
 got mixed up a little with the record of another 
 Thisspc- occurrence, to which we shall come later on. But as 
 owsthe far as it has just been related, it is likely to have 
 
 happened. The parable, which may be read in the 
 chen. seventh chapter of Luke, recommends itself strongly, 
 and the event related as having led to it may be accepted 
 also. 
 
 Impelled still, doubtless, by the feeling that the time 
 had come in which his message ought to be extended, 
 and still, no doubt, being himself without any very 
 complete scheme for the accomplishment of this, Jesus, 
 after only a few days' stay in Capernaum, resolved, as 
 Mk. vi. i. we may gather, on a visit to his own town. 
 
THE EXTENDING OF JESUS'S MINISTRY. l6/ 
 
 The apostles accompanied him. And we can believe 
 the intention from the start to have been that in some 
 way they were to separate from him during the journey, Mk. vi. i. 
 to spread his teaching. 
 
 It may have been also at this time that there began 
 to accompany him a number of earnest women. Jesus 
 was, beyond doubt, during much of his public ministry, Mk. xv. 
 
 A T * T Ic 
 
 accompanied by women, who were very likely the first v iii. 1-3. 
 to regard him with that kind of devotion which is to be 
 called no ordinary devotion, but worship. They were, 
 several of them, women who had felt themselves 
 delivered from spiritual diseases or troubles by his 
 presence and power. The most notable of the class 
 was Mary of Magdala a village near Capernaum for Mt. xv. 39. 
 so her name, " Magdalene," seems best interpreted. 
 Out of her, the record tells, "went seven devils." 
 This by no means implies that she had been an evil- 
 living woman. Her trouble may not have been moral 
 trouble, but may have been merely nervous. All these Saeabove, 
 women helped to supply the material wants of Jesus. ^ , 10 
 This may have begun during the settled ministry in 
 Capernaum. 
 
 Regarding Jesus's visit to Nazareth, several main 
 facts are practically certain. One is found related in 
 all the first three gospels. And a few others are found 
 through careful reading of two notices, both demanding 
 recognition, the one in Luke and the other in John. 
 
 The fact which is related by all of the Synoptic Mk. vi. i- 
 gospels is simply that Jesus was not well received by 16-29- Mt. 
 the people of his own town. As it is told in Mark, x111 54-58. 
 they said, " Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, 
 the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and 
 Simon ? and are not his sisters here with us ? " And 
 
168 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Mark adds, " And they were offended at him." Jesus 
 at this time repeated the saying which, as we have 
 Above, p. gathered, he had uttered already about the prophet in 
 his own country perhaps enlarging on it as Mark 
 Mk. vi. 4. reports it : "A prophet is not without honour, but in 
 his own country, and among his own kin, and in his 
 own house." Mark closes the account with this most 
 lifelike statement : " And he could there do no mighty 
 work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, 
 and healed them. And he marvelled because of their 
 unbelief." 
 
 Next, we get a reminiscence of this visit from Luke. 
 
 Lk. iv. 16- Luke has palpably misplaced the incident altogether 
 
 above, p. likely for reasons quite intelligible, as we have seen 
 
 marginal a ^ove. But on the other hand, in the first place, Luke 
 
 notethere. is surely to be trusted when he tells us that Jesus, in 
 
 his address to the people of his own town, took a 
 
 passage from the Book of Isaiah containing a Divine 
 
 Is. Ixi. i, 2. message of good news for all the unfortunate of the 
 
 earth, and then added that he himself was not merely 
 
 repeating that message in the name of God, but was 
 
 bringing about the beginning of its fulfilment in this 
 
 world. Had it been the case that Luke of himself put 
 
 this into the mouth of Jesus, just by way of making 
 
 plain to the readers of the gospel the spirit of Jesus's 
 
 teaching, it would not have been easy to see why he 
 
 should have connected it with the Nazareth visit* 
 
 especially as he so transparently misplaces the Nazareth 
 
 visit to bring this quotation and addition into the 
 
 foreground. Rather the state of matters points to the 
 
 fact that the Evangelist had found the words of Jesus 
 
 in an account of the Nazareth visit, and discerning 
 
 their suitableness to his purpose of bringing out the 
 
THE EXTENDING OF JESUS'S MINISTRY. 169 
 
 spirit of Jesus's teaching, put the whole thing in the Perhaps 
 foreground, careless of his thereby letting it be easily fn Mm- 
 
 seen that he had departed from the historical order of self ( rom 
 events. Besides this, Luke records certain words as See above, 
 having been spoken by Jesus at Nazareth at this time, Lk.iv. 25- 
 having a ring that cannot be mistaken for anything 27 ' 
 short of indicating that they were in substance uttered Cp. i 
 by Jesus. They are these : " But I tell you of a truth, 9 , xviii. i 
 many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when Kings v 
 the heaven was shut up three years and six months, X 4- 
 
 See Afp. 
 
 when great famine was throughout all the land ; but I. (u). 
 unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a 
 city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And 
 many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the 
 prophet ; and none of them was cleansed, saving 
 Naaman the Syrian." These words would likely be 
 said not to the people generally, but to the disciples; 
 and they are very interesting in that they present one 
 of the links in a chain of thought in which Jesus 
 explained, to others and to himself, the unreasonable 
 oppositions which he encountered. We have seen p. i 52 . 
 above that, in thinking over the opposition from the 
 scribes and Pharisees, he went just the length, in 
 explanation, of suggesting that what they were doing 
 was perhaps occasioned by their taking some offence 
 at his own personality, and that that was not so bad 
 as if they were directly resisting the Divine Spirit, see in- 
 In the words now before us we see a new thought that 
 
 he had come to by way of explaining oppositions. It complete- 
 
 , . rr ,.,,,... lyconfirm- 
 
 was to this effect, that every mission had limitations ; ing 
 
 in other words, that to one was given one region to Jnvi .43, 
 
 benefit, and to another another, and that to none was 44. ir jter- 
 
 mingled 
 
 given the whole world at once. We shall see that there 
 
I7O THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 with the Jesus carried out this thought further when he met 
 list's own the more terrible oppositions that awaited him in 
 
 Jerusalem. The modesty which thus beautifully shines 
 in those recorded words of our Master, was not opposed 
 to, but rather was the historic prelude to, the worship 
 on the part of his disciples, which no longer views his 
 case as having had parallels in that of any Elias or 
 Eliseus, and knows that his name and his spirit were to 
 take captive not Capernaum merely, not Nazareth, not 
 Galilee merely, not the land of Israel, but the world. 
 
 And lastly, to learn about this visit to Nazareth, we 
 
 go back to the guidance of our Fourth Gospel, which 
 
 for a time we have been neglecting. After the point at 
 
 which we last received information from the Fourth 
 
 c.vi. Gospel, it becomes very doctrinal and unhistorical ; 
 
 but still it contains several notices which, critically 
 
 viewed, so tally with what the other gospels relate, and 
 
 yet so exhibit freedom, that we must recognise they 
 
 come from an independent record which has been 
 
 worked up into the doctrinal whole. We find recorded 
 
 the crossing the lake, the multitude following, the 
 
 vi. i, 2, " mountain " incident, the seeking a sign, (the visit of 
 
 vi. 30, i'i. the mother and brothers to Capernaum,) the visit of 
 
 vii'. 3, vi. J esu s and the disciples to Nazareth, and the words 
 
 44. 65,42. of the people of Nazareth all these things in confused 
 
 connections, and mixed up with them several other 
 
 events recorded by the earlier gospels, which we have 
 
 not yet come to. About Nazareth, then, first, the 
 
 Jn. vi. 42. words of the people there are given in the sixth chapter, 
 
 Ver. 41. interlaced with doctrinal matter, and are referred 
 
 in. vii. i- vaguely to "the Jews"; then a little way on there is 
 
 an independent story which is so natural that we must 
 
 accept it, and accept it as a gem from the historical 
 
THE EXTENDING OF JESUS'S MINISTRY. 171 
 
 reality of the Nazareth visit. It is to this effect, that 
 Jesus had an interview while at Nazareth with his 
 brothers, that they, becoming, as we may gather, by 
 this time impressed with him, but still remaining in a 
 state of fear and distrust at his bold opposing of people 
 in authority, suggested, if he was indeed a great man, 
 he ought to go up to Jerusalem and get properly known 
 there, and that Jesus gave as his answer that his time 
 "was not yet come." This incident is most lifelike. 
 Jesus's brothers, we see, did not understand him ; and 
 yet their family affection asserted itself, and they 
 showed they were quite willing to believe he was the 
 Prophet he held himself to be. They gave him the 
 advice, however, to go to Jerusalem, no doubt having 
 the opinion that if he was what he thought himself, 
 his proper course was to get recognised by people who 
 knew better than they about the subjects which he 
 handled. We have here an example of the common 
 attitude towards an out-of-the-way character, which is 
 an attitude of timidity until the authorities in one's 
 own little world have given a decision. We have also cp. above, 
 here one more hard blow for the let us hope already ^ 3 f^ 3 ' 
 extinguished fancy that Jesus and his family were not 
 united by affection. 
 
 This little notice of the Fourth Gospel is also im- 
 portant in that it helps us in our chronology. It may 
 seem arbitrary to accept information on this subject 
 from the Fourth Gospel in one case and reject its 
 testimony regarding the subject in other cases ; and in 
 general, as we have seen, it must be said the Fourth 
 Gospel has and probably professes to have no claims 
 to be taken as trustworthy regarding time and place. 
 But the little notice now before us contains a state- 
 
172 THE SAVIOUR IN Y THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 ment which is so spontaneous and so bound up with 
 
 the lifelike story itself, that we need not relegate it 
 
 to the Evangelist's unhistorical treatment of days and 
 
 years, but accept it as a statement of fact. It is this : 
 
 jn. vii. 2. " Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.'* 
 
 Ex. xxiii. The feast of Tabernacles, or feast of Ingathering, was 
 
 xxiii. 39 held in the autumn about September. Jesus thus 
 
 S p en j. t he w hole summer about Capernaum ; the 
 events on the other side of the lake had lasted 
 just a few days ; and now in the autumn he was at 
 Nazareth, which probably he had left less than a 
 year before. 
 
 After this Jesus sent out his apostles to extend his 
 
 Mk. vi. 7. message. He sent them, says Mark, " by two and 
 two." A number of instructions are recorded in the 
 
 Vers. 8-1 1. Gospel of Mark as having been given by him to them 
 as he sent them. These are probably in substance 
 authentic ; but we need not notice them, as they must 
 be viewed as having had to do merely with immediate 
 circumstances, and as having no very great general signi- 
 
 Mt. x. ficance. The Gospel of Matthew gives a much longer 
 list of instructions to the apostles. Taken as a whole, 
 this list of Matthew's is in the same position as the 
 Sermon on the Mount. It is compiled from various 
 sayings of Jesus uttered at different times ; and as 
 these sayings are presented in it, they have been 
 changed, if not added to, through the idealistic purpose 
 of showing the instructions of the Messiah to his mes- 
 sengers, for the later time in which the gospel was 
 written, as well as for the time in Jesus's life to which we 
 have come. Some of the sayings were originally uttered 
 most probably, as we shall see, at a later time than 
 this, at Capernaum. Some of them, again, were 
 
THE EXTENDING OF JESUS'S MINISTRY. 173 
 
 originally uttered in Jerusalem, just before Jesus's 
 death, as we shall also see. There are likely, however, 
 to have been some of them uttered at this time, thus 
 forming a background. And such may have been 
 these, certainly authentic, sayings of Jesus : " Are not Mt. x.ag- 
 two sparrows sold for a farthing ? and one of them 3I> 
 shall not fall on the ground without your Father. . . . 
 Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many 
 sparrows," and again, " The very hairs of your head Ver. 30. 
 are all numbered." 
 
 After the sending out of the apostles, there comes an 
 obvious gap in the gospel narrative. We may gather, Mk vi. 6, 
 however, with great probability, that Jesus agreed to 3< 
 meet them all again at Capernaum, that he kept two From Mt. 
 or three by himself, and that several weeks elapsed X1 
 before all met again, bringing the time on towards the 
 end of the year. 
 
 Three recorded events which, from their harmony 
 with the other events, may be accepted as historical, 
 happened, we may say, just about this time very 
 probably in these intervening weeks and may be men- 
 tioned as providing a fitting close for this chapter. 
 
 First, certain persons who had listened to John the Mt.xi.2-6. 
 Baptist began to be so impressed by Jesus as to go the 
 length of bringing forward the question whether he 
 might not be the Great Coming One of whom John cp. Lk. 
 
 vii 
 
 had spoken. In the gospels'it is represented that John 
 himself asked the question, sending messengers from 
 his prison to ask it of Jesus himself. It is difficult to 
 conceive this to have been literally possible, and it is 
 not to show any disrespect to the accounts to suppose 
 that the name of John may have come in them to 
 stand for himself and his following, and that it was 
 
174 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 followers, not himself, who asked the question. This 
 point may be left undecided, however ; the importance 
 of the narrative centres on Jesus's answer. Jesus, 
 hearing of the question, said something like this, " Go 
 Mt.xi.4-5. and show John again those things which ye do hear 
 Cp. is. and see : the blind receive their sight, and the lame 
 xli^ 5 ' walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, 
 the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel 
 preached to them." Jesus still, we must gather, was 
 making no outward claim to be the Jewish Messiah, 
 and yet, when the question of whether he could be 
 called so was brought before him, he did not refuse to 
 have the question entertained, but referred it to his 
 favourite, unimpeachable canon of letting works or 
 Vers. 7-19. " fruits" be the test. He then went on to pay a high 
 tribute to the character of the Baptist, at the same 
 time showing his own independence of the Baptist, 
 both in his personality and in the ideal he had before 
 him. The words of his eulogy were probably almost 
 exactly as they are reported in the eleventh chapter of 
 Matthew and in the seventh chapter of Luke. 
 Vers. 20- The second event was that at this time he bitterly 
 reproached the towns in which he had laboured for 
 their meeting him with so much annoyance, opposition, 
 and coldness. 
 
 Vers. 25- The third event was the counterpart of the second. 
 While Jesus had met with oppositions which perplexed 
 and grieved him, he had also met with much recogni- 
 tion which uplifted him. The uplifting from without 
 intensified his own joy, which was occasioned by the 
 consciousness of a religion like a " pearl of great 
 price." And so we learn that at this time he once let 
 his joyful emotion at what he knew he had inwardly 
 
THE EXTENDING OF JESUS S MINISTRY. 175 
 
 attained rise up and express itself in these jubilant 
 words : " I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and 
 earth, because thou hast hid these things from the 
 wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 
 Even so, Father ; for so it seemed good in thy sight." 
 And then, as his religious consciousness was ever such 
 that after centering itself on God it spread itself out 
 towards his fellow men, his thankfulness was succeeded 
 by a feeling of power to impart, his feeling of power to 
 impart was succeeded by a desire to impart, and he 
 gave utterance to this exclamation, as grand as it is 
 famous : " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are C P- the 
 
 book in 
 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke Apocry- 
 upon you, and learn of me : for I am meek and clesiasti- 
 lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls. cus> h - 2 
 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SECOND RETREAT. 
 
 Mt. ix. 37, J T i s recorded in the First Gospel that before Jesus 
 
 Lk. x. 2. sent out his apostles he said to them these words, 
 " The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are 
 few ; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he 
 will send forth labourers unto his harvest." These 
 words, certainly authentic, must either have been 
 uttered some time before the sending out of the 
 apostles, or else have had a restricted signification. 
 In the work of spreading the name and message of 
 Jesus, in the latter part of the year in which most of 
 his public ministry took place, the labourers were in a 
 
 Mk. \i., way, at least, no longer few. This is seen from the 
 result that followed, which was no less than this, that 
 the people of the whole surrounding country came to 
 talk and discuss about him. They said, we learn, that 
 a prophet had appeared, some comparing him to 
 
 Mk. \-i. 15. Elijah, others comparing him to John the Baptist. 
 And so we can believe that the extensiveness of the 
 number of preachers is pointed out by Luke when he 
 
 Lk. x. i. relates that after Jesus had sent out the twelve he also 
 
THE SECOND RETREAT. 177 
 
 sent out seventy. That Jesus repeated the formal 
 action of sending apostles forth, choosing the number 
 70 instead of the number 12, is hardly to be taken 
 literally as a fact ; but we may believe that what Luke 
 relates is a dramatic account of the fact that far more 
 than twelve took up at this time Jesus's mission, and 
 may indeed have been in some way definitely commis- 
 sioned by himself. The name of Jesus was sent 
 resounding all over Galilee, and he became known in Mk. vi. 56. 
 both " villages," " cities," and " country." 
 
 Jesus met again the more intimate at least of his Ver. 30. 
 followers, as we may gather, at Capernaum. They told 53 . 
 him of great successes in their work; and he exclaimed, 
 " I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." Lk. x. is. 
 
 But even in the midst of such jubilation a fell blow 
 was struck at Jesus. The brightness of success 
 suddenly assumed the aspect of an afternoon glow, 
 and gave warning that the day was passing and 
 darkness coming on. Just as Jesus was in the midst of 
 great prosperity he had to turn and once more meet 
 pain and difficulty, in order that his sublime character 
 might make its grandest achievement, and that God 
 might give him " a name which is above every name : 
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, Phil. ii. 9- 
 of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things IX * 
 under the earth ; and that every tongue should 
 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of 
 God the Father." What happened was this: Herod, Mk.vi. 14- 
 the governor of Galilee and Peraea, heard what was 3 ' 
 taking place, and gave some good ground for fearing 
 that he might treat Jesus as he had treated John the 
 Baptist. No doubt the enemies of Jesus had gained See Mk 
 the ear of Herod, had .told him of the popular move- *" 6 
 
 12 
 
178 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 ment in his favour, and had made the most of it to his 
 
 Lk.ix. 7-9. detriment. As in the words of Luke, " Now Herod the 
 
 tetrarch heard of all that was done by him : and he 
 
 was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that 
 
 John was risen from the dead ; and of some, that Elias 
 
 had appeared; and of others, that one of the old 
 
 prophets was risen again. And Herod said, John 
 
 have I beheaded : but who is this, of whom I hear 
 
 such things ? And he desired to see him." At the 
 
 hearing of the danger which was threatening him, 
 
 Mk.vi. 30; Jesus withdrew with his intimate friends from public 
 
 i 3 .' notice, as he had done before on hearing of the capture 
 
 of the Baptist, first going, as in that former case, to 
 
 " the desert." 
 
 Mk. yi. ; The gospels of Matthew and of Mark tell at this 
 
 Mt. xiv. b 
 
 point, for the first time, that John had not only been 
 imprisoned by Herod, but had been put to death. And 
 from the repeated mention of " prison " in the gospels, 
 in relation to John, it is best to take their account 
 literally, and conclude that John had been kept a 
 while in the castle of Machaerus before Herod carried 
 his barbarous treatment to the last extremity. While, 
 however, agreeing in this, and indeed presenting 
 the identical story as the account of it, the two 
 Mk. vi. 14- gospels diverge considerably in the turn they give to 
 xiv. 1-13. the story. Matthew relates that John's disciples came 
 at this point and told Jesus of John's fate, and that 
 having heard of it, Jesus withdrew into the desert ; 
 Mark, on the other hand, makes no allusion to 
 Jesus's hearing of the event, and ascribes his with- 
 drawal to the wish to give his disciples rest. We may 
 decide that it is unlikely Jesus now heard of the 
 Baptist's fate for the first time. The people's calling 
 
THE SECOND RETREAT. 179 
 
 him John raised from the dead, points to its having 
 been popularly known that John was dead ; and also 
 Matthew's statement about John's disciples bringing Cp. Mt. 
 Jesus the news, both is itself most improbable and also with Mk. 
 has the appearance of having been manipulated, in vlt 29 ' 3 ' 
 misapprehension, out of the narrative in Mark. On the 
 other hand, Matthew, we must say, preserves for us 
 the true motive of Jesus's withdrawal. All that 
 followed, as we shall see, fits in exactly to the motive 
 pointed to by Matthew, and indeed can in no other 
 way be satisfactorily explained. Jesus learned, we 
 must conclude, that it had been told Herod how people 
 were saying he was John raised from the dead, and 
 that Herod had marked him. He knew the serious 
 signification of this. Herod himself had shown what 
 might be expected of him by his treatment of the 
 Baptist. But also, we may believe, Jesus saw that it 
 was not only Herod himself he had to reckon with, but 
 the mistaken zeal of the people, which was likely, in 
 spite of his own purely moral and religious position, to 
 give to the rising which had taken place the appearance See Jn. vi. 
 for such an onlooker as Herod of a political movement. *' 
 He therefore withdrew from public notice wishing 
 rest for himself and his disciples, no doubt, but also 
 wishing opportunity to pause and consider the danger 
 that was seriously standing in his way. 
 
 In this second of several withdrawals of Jesus from 
 danger to his own person, the characteristics of all 
 these withdrawals strikingly appear. What can be 
 seen in this case, and indeed in all the cases, is that, 
 first, Jesus did indeed make escape from danger on its 
 emergence ; but that, second, having done so, he 
 concentrated his attention on the special danger that 
 
 12 * 
 
180 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 had appeared, and then, his purpose thus receiving 
 new special direction, turned and faced the danger. 
 To suggest, regarding his withdrawals, therefore, their 
 indicating lack of courage even had his life not been 
 crowned by the heroic act which did crown it would 
 See Ori- be to make an outrageous blunder. His withdrawals 
 against showed no lack of courage, but showed an abundance 
 65, where f thoughtfulness. It is not courage, but foolishness, 
 * run nea dlong into real dangers ; and the dangers of 
 
 illustra- which Jesus had learned were most real. But Jesus 
 
 tion is 
 
 given. added to the escapes he made this further action, that 
 when he had had time to fix his thoughts on the 
 dangers, he in his strength of purpose, though knowing 
 that they were dangers, faced them again. His 
 escapes thus became mere times of pause, in which he 
 formed new special plans to serve his general purpose. 
 
 In the case to which we have come, we can discern, 
 Jesus took the same view of the danger that was 
 threatening him as he had taken in the first case, 
 
 See above, seeing" it to be such as arose from the interference of 
 p. 64. 
 
 brute force with the purposes of the thoughtful and 
 
 the religious. Either at the very moment of hearing 
 of the danger or soon after, he likened Herod to a 
 Lk. xiii. fox, as the word is translated, or, as we may say, a 
 jackal. And so, we may say, the escape which he made 
 was, in his view of it, as it was in reality, the with- 
 drawal of a Man who had awakened to the conscious- 
 ness of being a son of God, before the advance of a 
 man who was no more reliable than that he might 
 spring on the other like a wild beast. 
 
 In this second withdrawal, Jesus took a different 
 course altogether from that which he had taken in 
 the first withdrawal, because he had now a different 
 
THE SECOND RETREAT. l8l 
 
 position altogether in relation to his fellow-men, and 
 he saw in his changed position new responsibilities. 
 In the former case he had gone right away through 
 the wilderness of Judaea and entered a new region, 
 according to the suggestion that had come, as we are 
 supposing, from the two or three friends who had 
 accompanied him. In making at that time a complete 
 escape from the surroundings in which the danger had 
 appeared, he had left no duty and had forsaken no one 
 depending on him. This later time, however, his 
 position was different. He had by this time begun a 
 work among a particular body of people ; and a large 
 number of the people, having received him enthusiasti- 
 cally, were now waiting to learn more of his doctrine. 
 More than this, these people were, at the point to 
 which we have come, fairly crowding around him. 
 The account, indeed, of this period of Jesus's ministry Mk.vi. si- 
 has perplexingly mingled the symbolic with the historic, 33 ' 
 and so, literal reading of it can but lead one astray. 
 With care, however, it is possible to detect what took 
 place. When Jesus sought to withdraw, we can see, 
 he could hardly get away from the crowd. When he 
 and his disciples were going towards the desert 
 "privately," "the people saw them departing, and Vers. 32, 
 many knew him, and ran afoot thither out of all cities, 3 " 
 and outwent them." Thus, we can read quite plainly, 
 he put before his mind the fact that now, in a different 
 way from what had been in the case of the former 
 withdrawal, he had a number of persons depending on 
 him. He " saw much people," we read and saw, as Ver. 34. 
 we must interpret, that they were people who, should 
 he go away altogether, would be left morally helpless. 
 He "was moved with compassion toward them, 
 
l82 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 because they were as sheep not having a shepherd." 
 He gave full weight to this fact of the dependence of 
 the people on him. He gave it full weight, and acted 
 accordingly. He determined, as we can see quite 
 well, that his withdrawal should be in the meantime a 
 very short one. 
 
 Mk.vi.45- He went to a mountain near Bethsaida. There he 
 separated even from his immediate followers, and 
 communed alone with the Presence that ever sustained 
 him. Then, having stayed only a very short time, he 
 came back to his immediate friends. And then he 
 and they came back among the people in general. 
 
 Straight back among both followers and opponents 
 
 he came, and then there took place a new altercation, 
 
 which has been evidently carefully reported to us. As 
 
 Mk. vii. can be read in the first twenty-three verses of the 
 
 seventh chapter of Mark, the scribes and the Pharisees 
 
 from Jerusalem renewed their small-minded interference 
 
 with his mode of life and its carelessness about certain 
 
 ceremonial details which had come to be considered 
 
 Ver. 5. proper. They asked him, " Why walk not thy disciples 
 
 according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread 
 
 with unwashen hands ? " He replied as he had replied 
 
 in former cases. He began by meeting them at their 
 
 own point of view, appealing to ancient authority, and 
 
 yet at the same time raising the consideration into 
 
 freer air. Then he went on to base his position 
 
 directly on the grounds of reason. He first retaliated, 
 
 Vers.6-i3. that in the " tradition of the elders" Moses, whom 
 
 they professed to follow, was not really followed, 
 
 because, for example, that tradition took away from 
 
 allegiance to the lovely and rational virtue of honour 
 
 to parents, which Moses had enjoined in simple 
 
THE SECOND RETREAT. 183 
 
 language ; and then he went on to say that what made Ver. 15. 
 a man pure was not the compulsory washing of hands 
 before meat, but the cleansing of the heart. 
 
 He still saw, however, as we may gather, that his 
 person and with his person his work was in great 
 danger so long as he waited and disputed with these Mk.vii.24. 
 
 Cp. Mk. 
 
 determined opponents. He knew they were m some m. 6. 
 way allied now with Herod, who was a still more 
 difficult foe than themselves to meet, with no other 
 weapons than the simple presentation of truth. He 
 saw, therefore, that prudence demanded a more com- 
 plete withdrawal than he had recently made ; and so 
 he set out for a journey to the regions beyond Herod's 
 jurisdiction altogether. We may gather that he deter- 
 mined to make the untoward circumstances that had 
 overtaken him themselves minister to his purpose, by 
 turning this little journey of escape, which had become 
 necessary, into a side-path for the extension of his 
 mission. There is a vague story in Mark and also Mk. vii. 
 in Matthew about a " Syrophenician " woman, which 
 we can analyse so as to read in it these facts, That 
 Jesus had spoken to his friends about the plan of 
 going for a little to the more northern parts of Syria 
 and preaching there ; that he had said, however, that 
 he was loath to do this, as he felt himself only sent to 
 "the lost sheep of the house of Israel," and as it was Mt.xv.24. 
 not " meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it Mk. vii. 
 unto the dogs ; " that, however, some one, probably 
 one of the faithful women who followed him, answered 
 him with the ingenious suggestion, " Yes, Lord : yet 
 the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs;" 
 and that the conceit pleased him, as showing that his See App 
 follower was beginning to take those broader, those L ( I2 )- 
 
184 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 humanitarian, not merely national, views of life which 
 had long been really his own. He thus went, we are 
 to gather, making the best of untoward circumstances. 
 He went to begin with against his own will, not because 
 he had any narrow and purely Jewish sympathies, but 
 because he believed his own calling was for his own 
 nation, and still more because he still was thinking of 
 those actual followers whom he shrank from leaving 
 
 Mk.vi. 34. " as sheep not having a shepherd." But he accepted 
 
 See above, , 
 
 p. 181. the leaving of his own nation for a little as a necessity 
 
 forced on him not from within himself but from the 
 working of alien powers beyond him; and he turned 
 this necessity to the use of letting it enable him to do 
 a little purely extra good work, or good work quite 
 beyond what he felt himself specially called upon to 
 accomplish. 
 
 Mk. vii. He went first westwards to the neighbourhood of 
 Tyre and Sidon. He did not, we can conclude, stay 
 long there. He came back towards his own country, 
 striving, as he came near it, to keep out of public 
 Ver. 3 6, notice for a time. But the time did not pass as alto- 
 gether one of public inactivity. There took place at 
 this time two acts of healing which were considered 
 worthy of record in the Gospel of Mark. These were 
 Mk - V11> ... the curing of a dumb or stammering man at the coast 
 22-26. of the Sea of Galilee, and the curing of a blind man 
 at Bethsaida. It is plain that both occurrences have 
 Mk. vii. been related as proofs of Jesus's healing power and 
 See Is. f ms fulfilling, in virtue of it, particular prophetic 
 xxix. 18, promises regarding the blind and other sufferers. And 
 
 xxxv. 5-6, f 
 
 xlii. 7, PS. if, where the early Church saw the fulfilment principally 
 in the unusualness of the power which he was believed 
 to have exercised, a modern Church dwells rather on 
 
THE SECOND RETREAT. 185 
 
 his spirit of kindness and the opening up of eternal 
 realities which the sight of that awakens, there is no 
 falling away in estimation of the importance of the 
 occurrences, or essential change of view regarding 
 their significance. These acts of Jesus were, like the 
 relieving of Simon's wife's mother and the calming of 
 unstrung minds, instances of the kindness in which 
 Jesus centered both the nature of God and the ideal 
 towards which man is called to grow. And this mean- 
 ing of them may be found not far below the surface 
 in the record of Mark. In the evidently early accounts 
 w r hich Mark gives of these actions of Jesus there is in 
 no way obscured the accessibility to the ordinary 
 human soul of what they suggest both for faith and 
 for practice. The recorded use of human means in Mk. vii. 
 them, brings them as examples within the possible ^; vl11 ' 2 
 reach of ordinary human striving, and the gradual 
 character of the recoveries which they are related to 
 have brought about, places them as revelations for faith 
 close to the grasp of the blind and the deaf and the 
 dumb among ourselves, who are waiting under the 
 kind overruling of the Eternal Healer. 
 
 Having thus come back from the neighbourhood of 
 Tyre and Sidon to his own surroundings, Jesus seems 
 to have made the briefest stay. Then he went away 
 northwards, to the neighbourhood of a town called 
 Csesarea Philippi. There he brought his journey ofMk. viii. 
 escape to an end ; for a fresh, clear, unconquerable 27 ' 
 resolve had been forming itself in his mind, and had 
 come to maturity. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE BREAD OF LIFE. 
 
 Cp. w. As we saw in the fourth chapter, Jesus's first retreat, 
 ter^the^ m which he escaped from the danger of being captured 
 booif ky Herod as among the associates of the Baptist, had 
 Philo- very important issues, both in regard to his teaching 
 p. 214. and in regard to the course into which he led his 
 action. In the first place, the enforced bodily 
 hardship had occasioned definite thoughts which he 
 imparted to his disciples, regarding the nourishment 
 required not by the body but by the soul. Of these 
 the Temptation story and the aphorisms in the fourth 
 chapter of John preserve for us examples. And in 
 the second place, reflection on what he had met 
 with and on what he had next to face, had occa- 
 sioned a new directing of his own will. Dis- 
 appointment, repulse, and sorrow, had not, at that 
 earlier time, crushed his purpose, but had given it new 
 definiteness and new solidity. Similar consequences, 
 as we may now learn from a careful reading of the 
 gospels, arose out of the double retreat which, as we 
 saw in last chapter, took place over some threatened 
 
THE BREAD OF LIFE. 187 
 
 action of Herod in direct relation to Jesus himself. 
 By this retreat also there were occasioned, first, special 
 movements of thought, and, second, a new movement 
 of will first, definite teaching, and, second, a definite 
 purpose. Leaving the latter for next chapter, the 
 special movements in thought and teaching now 
 demand our attention. 
 
 As in the former case, the teaching rose directly 
 from experiences of hunger ; and also, as in the former 
 case, it had to do with the higher food, the nourish- 
 ment for the soul. But it is plain, from the state of 
 the accounts, that the teaching was delivered in this 
 case much more solemnly and significantly than in the 
 former case. All four gospels tell of a feeding of /A^Mk.vi.34- 
 multitude, which took place ceremoniously. The 
 gospels of Mark and Matthew, further, have each two Mk. vi. 34 
 accounts of such a feeding of the multitude. And the g 'Mt'xiV. 
 Fourth Gospel has given only one account, indeed, but I 5~ 21 - xv - 
 has made it practically fill up his whole presentation of 
 the Galilean ministry, weaving other incidents into a 
 discourse which elaborates the meaning of this cere- Jn. vi. 
 monious act, so as to sacrifice their detail to its 
 importance. Whatever interpretation is to be given 
 to the particulars in the accounts of this subject, it is 
 plain that something having to do with imparting food 
 had sufficiently impressed itself on the first disciples to 
 have been related as one of the solemn deliverances of 
 Jesus at this time. 
 
 For the actual history of what took place we can 
 best go to a little notice in Mark and Matthew, in 
 which there is recorded a saying of Jesus himself, 
 uttered at a later stage than the exact time of what 
 came to be called the feeding of the multitude. This 
 
i88 
 
 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Mk. viii. 
 14-21. 
 
 Cp. Is. 
 xxxii. 3. 
 
 Mk. vi. 
 
 51-52. 
 
 The por- 
 tions in 
 capitals 
 are from 
 the Re- 
 vised 
 Version. 
 In the 
 first case, 
 the Au- 
 thorised 
 differs on 
 account of 
 its follow- 
 ing manu- 
 scripts not 
 now 
 placed 
 
 notice claims a special attention inasmuch as it may 
 be said to be in some measure the Master's own testi- 
 mony in regard to what had taken place. In the 
 eighth chapter of Mark there occur the following words, 
 " Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, 
 neither had they in the ship with them more than one 
 loaf. And he charged them, saying, Take heed, 
 beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven 
 of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves, 
 saying, It is because we have no bread. And when 
 Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, 
 because ye have no bread ? perceive ye not yet, neither 
 understand (simiete)! have ye your heart yet hardened? 
 Having eyes, see ye not ? and having ears, hear ye 
 not ? and do ye not remember ? When I brake the 
 five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets 
 full of fragments took ye up ? They say unto him, 
 Twelve. And when the seven among four thousand, 
 how many baskets full of fragments took ye up ? And 
 they said, Seven. And he said unto them, DO YE NOT 
 YET UNDERSTAND (oupo suniete) ? " With this notice 
 there may be read a sentence found in the sixth chapter 
 of Mark, namely this, " And he went up unto them 
 into the ship ; and the wind ceased : and they were 
 sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and won- 
 dered. FOR THEY UNDERSTOOD NOT CONCERNING THE 
 
 LOAVES (ou gar sunekan epi tois artois) ; for their heart 
 was hardened." Jesus, then, we find, on speaking to 
 his disciples about "the leaven of the Pharisees" and 
 "the leaven of Herod," and on knowing that they 
 supposed he was alluding to material bread, sought to 
 make them " understand " better by going back on 
 what had happened in regard to the feeding of the 
 
THE BREAD OF LIFE. iSq 
 
 multitude. Plainly his intention now was to recall highest, 
 what had happened in the case of the great feeding, by 
 way of giving them an insight into what he meant by 
 speaking of the "leaven of the Pharisees" and "the 5 "'""- 
 leaven of Herod." Also, we find, they had even before 
 this been puzzled about the feeding of the multitude 
 itself; and now Jesus, having reproached them with 
 possessing eyes that did not see and ears that did not 
 hear, said, Do ye not yet understand ? Mark leaves 
 the case with this question of Jesus ;. but Matthew 
 goes on to say that then they did understand " how 
 that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, Mt - xvi - 
 but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sad- 
 ducees." One thing shines out plainly from what is 
 thus before us, namely that the Master himself regarded 
 the feeding of the multitude as a spiritual feeding. 
 And thus when we turn to the gospel accounts of that 
 feeding, we may legitimately be guided in interpre- 
 tation by this discovery. There comes before us this 
 at least, that in the time when Jesus was in the midst 
 of his second retreat, as he and his disciples were once 
 more exposed to bodily hunger, he, turning back, fed Mk. vi. 34 . 
 the multitude with spiritual food, and told his disciples 
 that they must also feed them. With a few loaves only 
 before him, he showed his disciples how thousands 
 could be fed, and how baskets full would still remain 
 over. Whether he did this in a ceremonious illus- W lth . the 
 
 lorm in w. 
 
 trative manner, as a literal reading of the accounts the occur- 
 would bid us believe, or whether the original of what related, 
 is recorded was just his directing their minds away ^^ e in 
 from the material and temporal food to the eternal and ? Kings 
 abiding, is of small importance in presence of the which 
 
THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Tertullian certain fact, that the spiritual teaching was that on 
 
 regards as 
 
 aproto- which Jesus meant attention to be fixed. 
 
 Marcion' The ^ con tent of the spiritual teaching which was 
 
 Bk. IV.). the food dispensed by Jesus at this time to the multi- 
 tude, has not been made known to us. It was, we 
 may be sure, like the rest of his teaching which we 
 have seen, and, for all we know, some of the actual 
 utterances which composed it may be in our possession. 
 Of the crumbs that remain, say in the long unconnected 
 
 Lk.ix.-xix. passage in the Gospel of Luke, who can tell how many 
 may not have been gathered at this time ? But also 
 there remain to us in tangible certainty several 
 aphorisms with which the teaching was introduced. 
 
 First, from the critical survey of the Synoptic 
 account which has just been before us, we can go on to 
 see that the Fourth Gospel has a strictly historical 
 contribution to present also. In the case of the first 
 
 Above, pp. retreat, we found the Synoptic gospels told in narrative 
 form how Jesus had been, in his hunger, " tempted of 
 the devil," and how he had repelled the temptation 
 with the thought of the higher food, whereas the 
 Fourth Gospel preserved something of what he had 
 actually said to his disciples in connection with this 
 experience. A similar state of matters seems to pre- 
 sent itself in regard to the second retreat. One 
 aphorism at least comes from the sixth chapter of 
 John, and claims authenticity from several most 
 weighty considerations. First there is the general 
 fact .that the chapter is full of notices of events spoken 
 of in the other gospels, too spontaneously occurring 
 to have been taken from the other gospels ; so that 
 here as elsewhere we must recognise an independent 
 
THE BREAD OF LIFE. 
 
 record to which some attention is to be given. Then 
 
 we find the aphorism in question is, on the one side, 
 
 just another expression of what we have seen to be 
 
 the thought conveyed by Jesus according to the earlier Cp.Mt.vi. 
 
 gospels, and is, on the other side, in its form like other 
 
 sayings of Jesus. And finally, there is found in respect 
 
 to it a state of things which is commonly found in the 
 
 Fourth Gospel, namely that it is in part repeated after See App. 
 
 various philosophical reflections, suggesting that it was 
 
 a text on which the evangelist was enlarging. The 
 
 aphorism is this, " Labour not for the meat which Jn. vi. 27, 
 
 perisheth, but for that meat which endureth. . . . This 5 i. 
 
 is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a 
 
 man may eat thereof and not die." 
 
 Another aphorism spoken during this period is that 
 which we have already in this chapter had to notice in 
 passing. " Take heed," said Jesus, " beware of the Mk. viii. 
 leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of 
 Herod." He was pondering, one can see, on the 
 persecution that was closing around him, proceeding 
 from an accidental union of bigoted priestcraft 
 with physical force. He was thinking of how there 
 was in both the powers that persecuted him an evil 
 essence directing them, and for expressing this 
 essence he recalled that figure of the " leaven " already See above, 
 used by him for expressing the good essence, which, p 
 permeating people's hearts, would bring about the 
 " kingdom of God." 
 
 Such, then, were the movements in thought and 
 teaching which took place during the second retreat of 
 Jesus. In any way of regarding the detail, there 
 occurred at this time a signal dispensation of the 
 nourishment which man needs because he is no mere 
 
THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 animal creature, but an ever-expanding soul. What 
 more natural than that the accounts of this occur- 
 rence should take the form of the assertion of a vast 
 miracle, indeed, of two vast miracles ? Was the 
 occurrence anything else than a miracle ? Are the 
 still full baskets and the still increasing multitudes 
 not witnesses to miracle, in the truest, highest sense ? 
 And what more right than that the philosophising 
 evangelist who wrote our Fourth Gospel should make 
 this occurrence the one all-embracing occurrence of the 
 
 jn. vi. in Galilean ministry, should show forth how the food that 
 had been dispensed was nothing else than the Eternal 
 
 jn. vi. 46- Living Reason that was incarnate and manifest in 
 Jesus himself, and should bring out that here was the 
 
 Vers. 53- real beginning of that Christian Communion with the 
 
 561 Divine in Jesus, of which the Last Supper was after- 
 
 wards to become the symbol ? There had, indeed, in 
 these hurried days of escape from the tyrant's grasp, 
 
 Ver. 31, been raining from heaven a " manna," a something 
 beyond naming, the very "bread of life." 
 
 rerumdiv Having to do with what thus happened, there also 
 
 heres," c. occurred, as we may reverently discern, an inner 
 
 15. the . v.i 
 
 divine experience of Jesus, which, seeing that he communi- 
 
 thefood cated an expression of it, and seeing that it appeals 
 
 (trophe) both to mind and to heart to rouse them to what is 
 
 of the 
 
 soul. abiding and true, must not be passed over. We have 
 
 not, indeed, in the case of this double retreat of Jesus, 
 as in the case of the earlier retreat, an actual record of 
 inner experience such as the " Temptation " story sup- 
 plied. But one thing comes before us plainly through 
 the narrative of the Gospel of Mark. It is this, that 
 Jesus experienced real pain and real disappointment at 
 finding his teaching and his action completely mis- 
 
THE BREAD OF LIFE. IQ3 
 
 understood. This comes before us, through the 
 manifestly faithful account of Mark, with wonderful 
 vividness. Mark, along with Matthew, relates that at 
 the time to which we have come the Pharisees asked 
 a " sign from heaven " from Jesus, a thing which, Seeabove, 
 according to Matthew, they had also done before. As Lk D also 
 regards the facts of the case, we must conclude that confirms 
 they really made the demand on both occasions ; for occur- 
 
 way. 
 
 both does Mark claim credence here as everywhere in 
 
 regard to the order of events, and also Matthew's 
 account of the earlier demand is organically related to 
 his account of the other events in the earlier time. 
 But what we are to notice is the way in which, 
 according to Mark's account, Jesus met the demand 
 that was made at the time to which we have now 
 come. Jesus, we read, as he disposed of it, " sighed " M k. viii. 
 over the mental attitude of his " generation " towards with 
 religious subjects. We can see that it was not only his 
 
 opponents that vexed him through want of under- view of 
 standing, but one and all. For there was indeed a tering 
 misunderstanding among his friends as well as among 
 his enemies. Great as was by this time the influence ' 
 
 c 
 
 of his personality, there was little grasp of his ideas. xiii - J -3- 
 All believed in signs from heaven ; all looked for See Mk. 
 miracles; all were in a state of excited aberration. Mt. xii.' 
 
 lv> 
 
 We do not need the gospels to state this to us 3 
 directly ; the material in the gospels tells us it through 
 the popular forms in which it is conveyed. The Master Mt.xii.33 
 himself, it is plain, considered no sign of his Divine ^ 
 Mission to be necessary except his teaching and its 36 
 consequences. The earlier gospels, overlooking, or 
 finding it wisest to disregard, the refusal of " signs " 
 on the part of Jesus, beyond just faithfully recording 
 
IQ4 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 it, present his doings as if they themselves were signs 
 of the kind that the populace asked for. The Fourth 
 jn. vi. 26. Evangelist goes much further in the same direction, 
 i. (13). And yet it is possible that this latter has been 
 due to an advance in popular opinions in which the 
 Fourth Evangelist has shared just through circum- 
 stances. For, strange as the phenomenon is, he seems 
 both to misunderstand Jesus and also to have advanced 
 beyond the popular conception to one which in some 
 Cp. Mt. way returns to Jesus's own thought. The " sign,'* 
 41 I?JD| fr m being considered by Jesus as sufficiently found 
 *6,then m his teaching, came to be looked for in outward 
 27-58 powerful action ; then later, the outward powerful 
 action was noticed to be symbolical, and so there was 
 some return to the point of view of Jesus himself. 
 But the first movement in reception was deplorable 
 misunderstanding. He whose life and teaching we 
 would here devoutly trace stood alone; ruling, but not 
 yet leading; listened to, but misunderstood. Nothing 
 written by the most conscientious and matter of fact 
 annalist ever bore more assuringly the marks of 
 historical truth than does the whole gospel material, 
 with its mingling of the reception with the giving, of 
 the popular representation with the Master's initiating. 
 And nothing written with the conscious purpose of 
 literary antithesis ever brought out more powerfully 
 two logical contraries than the condition of the gospel 
 narrative brings out these two elements. All in one, 
 yet separate and distinct, the two facts meet our 
 view, both majestic, but the one the creation the other 
 the creator, the one the story from and for the multi- 
 tude, told in the manner of a multitude, the other the 
 record of the Master's thought, his aggrieved question, 
 
THE BREAD OF LIFE. 195 
 
 "Do ye not yet understand?" and the simple state- Mk 
 ment, " He sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, 
 Why doth this generation seek after a sign ? Verily 
 I say unto you, There shall no sign bs given unto 
 this generation." 
 
 Vlll. 
 21, 12. 
 
 13 * 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE DIVINE RESOLUTION. 
 
 JUST as the earlier retreat of Jesus led to his giving 
 his general purpose a more definite form, so it was in 
 the case of the second retreat, which was considered 
 in the tenth chapter. There is, however, to be noticed 
 a development in his purpose as it advanced from the 
 first defining to the second. The purpose which the 
 first retreat led to was a bold and, as events proved, a 
 wise purpose. The purpose led to by this later retreat 
 was the climax of his determination ; it was a resolve 
 which we must call divine. 
 
 During the time of Jesus's escape, which was con- 
 sidered in the tenth chapter, there must have been 
 going on within him a most painful mental upturning, 
 in which a resolve was forming itself that was to be 
 for the future the one ruler of his destiny. 
 
 Jesus, we can see, with a powerful natural acumen 
 which in his character was combined with more sacred 
 qualities, perceived clearly enough that if he persisted 
 in his mission, reverse upon reverse and most probably 
 death were certainly before him. But to give up the 
 
THE DIVINE RESOLUTION. 197 
 
 mission was to him impossible. Also it was impossible 
 for him to disbelieve that the mission was to be 
 successful, and that he, as the accomplisher of it, 
 would be justified and made himself to experience the 
 fruits of it. There came to be the need, therefore, in 
 his mind of a new thought which would give new form 
 to the general purpose that was guiding him ; and in 
 the very facing of the facts before him, looking at their 
 two sides, this new thought came before him. In his 
 mind there came to life this conception, that he. must 
 continue his mission, thereby facing a temporary 
 discomfiture and temporary suffering for himself, but 
 that, through the care of God, the end would be certain 
 namely, that the work would prosper, and he himself, 
 even if deprived of life, would be raised up again to 
 engage still in the work and enjoy still its results. 
 This became the guiding thought of Jesus through the 
 working of his mind. It was the thought brought to 
 him. He could not put it away. It came plainly 
 before his imagination. Nothing could remove it 
 unless either a sudden change of action on the part of 
 the Pharisees and their terrible ally Herod, or an 
 abandoning of his own aims in life. The former he 
 saw no possibility of, as he perceived that the whole 
 characters of his persecutors were permeated with evil 
 " leaven." The latter was now as impossible as it 
 would have been for him to become another person 
 than himself. 
 
 In the course of the contemplation which led to this 
 thought, Jesus was no doubt aided, as it was his habit 
 to be aided, by the Old Testament scriptures. It is 
 almost beyond question that he had before him the 
 picture of the second Isaiah, of the suffering servant of 
 
198 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 is. liii. God, who was " despised and rejected of men." Thus 
 the common identification of Jesus with this ideal 
 person, while it is due to various influences in common 
 with the general identification of him with all ideal 
 descriptions in the Old Testament, can be traced in 
 great measure to Jesus himself, who deliberately took 
 the role described upon himself. Also, however, we 
 can see, Jesus had before him a passage from another 
 prophet. It was a passage from Hosea, and it reads 
 
 Hos. vi. i, thus : " Come, and let us return unto the Lord : for he 
 
 .-, /Cgg 
 
 Holtz- hath torn, and he will heal us ; he hath smitten, and he 
 bind us up. After two days will he revive us : in the 
 
 m 
 31. Cp. third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his 
 
 Kings xx. sight." But while these and other passages from the 
 mami) tZ Old Testament guided in some way the thoughts of 
 Jesus, they were not the moving power in his thoughts 
 and intentions. The moving power was his own con- 
 sciousness. These sayings from the Old Testament 
 held the same place as the Messiah-idea in general, and 
 the conception of the " kingdom of God." They 
 helped him to realise himself and his ideas. He 
 adapted not himself to them, but them to himself. 
 
 The resolve to face the suffering and carry on his 
 
 mission required for its application a special plan ; and 
 
 the special plan which Jesus at this time can be seen 
 
 . to have formed discloses, first, the thoroughness of the 
 
 resolve, and then also the force of his character. It 
 
 was nothing less than this : That he would GO TO 
 
 Mk. viii. JERUSALEM, and there assert the very teaching that 
 
 xvi. 21. was bringing death to him even in the freer north. 
 
 He would go to Jerusalem, though he foresaw it would 
 
 likely bring death to him. He would go to the centre- 
 
 point of the nation in which he had been born, and in 
 
THE DIVINE RESOLUTION. IQ9 
 
 the very face of those in authority would declare what 
 God had given him to declare. Yes, he would bring to 
 an end this escape from men like wild beasts. He 
 would openly and seriously proclaim his message and 
 take what consequences God would allow for him, 
 knowing that the end would be living again and 
 conquering. And he would have no stopping short 
 with the "jackal" that had seized the Baptist. He 
 would go to Jerusalem. 
 
 Jesus took the resolution of facing his persecutors, 
 defined further by the plan of going to Jerusalem. He 
 was never to depart from this resolution. So alone, 
 with no other human mind to direct him and no other 
 human personality to be comrade to him, he rendered 
 obedience unto death, only knowing that the Highest 
 Power was driving him, and was therein caring for 
 living souls whose very hairs were numbered in 
 intensity of cherishing, and, with them, for him who 
 gave the obedience keeping back no thought of safe- 
 guard for himself. 
 
 The thoughts of Jesus which we have thus traced 
 are made known through the events which, according 
 to the gospels, next followed in Jesus's life ; and we 
 only perfectly understand the events when we deduce 
 these thoughts of Jesus from them, and consider them 
 apart. When Jesus and his immediate friends and 
 followers, we learn, were in the neighbourhood of 
 C^SAREA PHILIPPI, he first put to them the question, Mk. 
 "Whom do men say that I am?" They replied, 27 
 "John the Baptist : but some say, Elias ; and others, ver. 28. 
 One of the prophets." He then said to them, " But, Ver. 29 
 whom say ye that I am ? " And Peter answered, 
 "Thou art the Christ." According to Matthew, Jesus 
 
2OO THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Mt. xvi. replied, " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona : for flesh 
 
 and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
 
 dent re- 1 Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, 
 
 ported in that thou art Peter, and upon this rock [ petra] I will 
 
 less cor- 
 rect form build my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 
 67-69 V See against it." And according to both Mark and Matthew 
 
 also next j-^ as j n ^he words of Mark, " charged them that they 
 
 Mk. viii. should tell no man of him." This, we may say, was 
 
 the first open appropriation by Jesus of the character 
 
 of the Messiah. He did now, we must gather, openly 
 
 rad 'con ad P t the character. The words quoted from Matthew 
 
 firmed in are lifelike and like Jesus's whole manner of thought. 
 
 He adopted the character, but only according to his 
 
 canon of the " fruits " or " works " because others 
 
 recognised him as filling it. And also, while adopting it, 
 
 he did so only in such a general aspect of it as would 
 
 let it fit itself to his own personality. He still shrank 
 
 from a public adoption of it, because he knew that 
 
 such would be taken as meaning not that he filled the 
 
 general character of deliverer of his people from 
 
 corruption and from despair, nor the general character 
 
 of the Anointed, or the Commissioned of God, which 
 
 the word " Messiah " or " Christ " meant originally, 
 
 but that he was posing as an opponent of the Roman 
 
 Government. 
 
 After receiving from Peter the recognition which he 
 so dearly prized, Jesus communicated to them the 
 thought of a Path through Suffering to Victory, which 
 he had now embraced as his guiding thought, and the 
 resolve he had formed, to act in accordance with this 
 Mk.viii. thought by going to Jerusalem. He told them "that 
 the Son of man must suffer many things, and be 
 rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests and 
 
THE DIVINE RESOLUTION. 2OI 
 
 scribes." He even hinted, as we may take it, that he 
 might be killed, and that if so God would, as in the 
 promise in the words of Hosea, " in the third day " See note 
 
 M ".!'- i 19 in App 
 
 " raise him up." ^ 
 
 At the very time of announcing his sublime resolu- 
 tion, Jesus showed that he had taken on him an almost 
 unnatural sternness, or abstraction from worldly in- 
 terests. On Peter affectionately trying to dissuade 
 him from the awful path on which he was determined 
 to walk, or to give a brighter hope for its consequences, 
 he answered, " Get thee behind me, Satan : for thou Mk. viii. 
 savourest not the things that be of God, but the things 
 that be of men." It is important to notice that the 
 sternness which thus began and continued till his verted, in 
 death did not belong to Jesus's ordinary habit of mind, 71. 
 but was the armour in which he clothed himself, that 
 no affectionate feeling in himself or others might 
 interfere with the purpose he had formed. And so 
 .we may notice that through it there were ever breaking 
 gleams of the sunshine of his ordinary nature. A 
 sufficient example to anticipate for illustration is to 
 be found in the fact that it was at the very time in 
 which he was hurrying southwards to his single-handed 
 invasion of Jerusalem, that he took up little children Mk. x. 14, 
 in his arms, and was displeased when they were not l6> 
 brought to him. 
 
 There are reported in the gospels several sayings 
 which we must receive as substantially and almost 
 literally authentic sayings of Jesus uttered at this 
 time. 
 
 First, as Jesus was expressing to his disciples his 
 resolve to keep by his mission and abide all conse- 
 quences, he spoke, we gather, as follows : " For what 
 
2O2 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Mk. viii. shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, 
 and lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give in 
 exchange for his soul ? " We have in these words one 
 of many examples to be found of words first spoken 
 by Jesus by way of explaining and justifying his own 
 personal action, and then presented by Christian 
 teachers, from the evangelists themselves downwards, 
 as oracular utterances intended for others. Jesus, we 
 can see, was keenly alive to the awful risk and loss 
 involved in the action on which he was entering ; but in 
 the words just quoted he brought out that any other line 
 of action would involve a greater loss, in that it would 
 involve the loss that is, the degradation of the soul 
 or self, and that that other loss he would not let come 
 to pass even in exchange for the possession of the 
 whole world. 
 
 Taking up decidedly, as he now was, a line of action 
 
 which led to danger, he had to place anew before his 
 
 followers the choice of keeping by him or leaving him. 
 
 And so he plainly indicated to them that to continue 
 
 following him meant both loss and risk, though at the 
 
 same time he expressed his certainty that the end of 
 
 following him in such a cause as he was working for 
 
 would be not loss but gain. His words, as he spoke 
 
 Mk. viii. them, were evidently something like these : "Whosoever 
 
 Mt 3 \vP P w *^ come a ft er me > l et him deny himself, ... for 
 
 25, and whosoever will save his life shall lose it ; but whosoever 
 
 Lk. ix. 24. 
 
 shall lose his life on account of me (or, " for my sake," 
 heneken emou}, the same shall save it." These words 
 certainly, as we may reverently interpret, were a simple 
 expression of his faith in the eternal truth, that those 
 who avoid duty for the sake of self-preservation are 
 only putting a little way off the losses that surely come 
 
THE DIVINE RESOLUTION. 203 
 
 in the course of nature ; while those who follow duty, 
 even let it be to death, will live and triumph beyond, 
 through the care of their Creator, who has given them 
 both the duty and their lives. 
 
 There are added to these words in the gospels further 
 words, in which Jesus is represented as having spoken 
 in the manner of thought of the " Apocalyptic " books, 
 which have been alluded to above, promising that the 
 " Son of man " would come " in the glory of his Father Ver. 38. 
 with the holy angels." We shall at once be inclined to X vL 27, 
 say that if the words thus reported are really Jesus's 
 words at all, they must have been considerably manipu- 
 lated from what they were as Jesus uttered them. 
 Their case, however, requires special treatment from 
 this, that if we recognise that Jesus spoke at all in the 
 strain of these words as they have reached us, there is 
 opened up the question, Did Jesus indeed promise his 
 coming again to the world after his death ? or, in other 
 words, did he indeed originate the belief in what has 
 come to be called the " Second Advent " ? 
 
 We may say that while the words as reported are 
 likely to owe something to the apocalyptic literature of 
 the evangelists' time as well as to Jesus's own utter- 
 ances, still Jesus must have said something really like, 
 in its sound, to what is reported. We may say, accord- 
 ingly, that he really expressed the idea that the coming 
 of the " Son of man " was still in the future. And as 
 we have seen that he certainly called himself by this 
 name, we are carried to the conclusion that he did 
 originate the idea that he was to " come " a second 
 time. But we must think a little what he meant by 
 Coming. We must by no means impute to Jesus the fan- 
 tastic, materialistic notions which many have associated 
 
204 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 with the phrase " Second Advent." To begin with, any 
 thoughtful reader of the foregoing pages will see that 
 the arrogating to himself, during his earthly life, the 
 position of a supernatural demon-power would have 
 been for him impossible. Further, the supposition that 
 he did so is disproved by positive facts about his whole 
 See espe- manner of thought. Apart from definite sayings having 
 
 cially Mk. , . . , . . . 
 
 ix. 11-13. tne mark of authenticity, in which he expressly dis- 
 avowed opinions of the kind we are dealing with, his 
 JJk- 1 -'.' parables about the "kingdom of God" show that his 
 
 Mt. xiii. r 
 
 real thoughts were irreconcilable with such opinions. 
 He could not have had the view of life expressed by 
 the parable of the seed and the parable of the leaven, 
 and at the same time have believed that he himself, 
 after death, would come through the clouds and make 
 havoc with all nature. What Jesus really meant in 
 Perh. quoting as we may say he did on this occasion from 
 fr. Dan. some apocalyptic writing, and saying that the Son of 
 vn I3< man would yet come in glory with his Father, was, we 
 must believe, just to enforce further, through the help 
 of familiar phrases, the truth which he had already 
 expressed namely, that though he had to face suffer- 
 ing and it might be death, still he would certainly live 
 beyond and have his consciousness and his mission 
 justified. How his triumph would come he assuredly 
 neither knew nor professed to know. He did know, 
 however, that a triumph was sure. He knew that fact, 
 because he knew God. And he used the pictorial 
 language which all were familiar with, to urge and to 
 make intelligible that fact. Thus we are to see here, as 
 all through, that what Jesus thought and what he did 
 were due to the development of his own life and con- 
 sciousness to that and, properly speaking, that alone. 
 
THE DIVINE RESOLUTION. 2O5 
 
 All phrases and doctrines which he received and in 
 some way recognised were aids to his expressing him- 
 self that and nothing more. 
 
 One other saying, joined to these apocalyptic sayings 
 in the gospels, may be accepted as entirely a saying of Mk - ix - I - 
 Jesus. It is an important one in that it expresses, xxi 22, 23. 
 in general terms, the absolute confidence to which 
 Jesus had by this time attained regarding the success 
 of his mission. This is the saying, " Verily I say unto 
 you, That there be some of them that stand here, 
 which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the 
 kingdom of God come with power." 
 
 After Jesus declared to his disciples his sublime 
 resolution, and explained it through the sayings just 
 quoted, he was, according to the gospels, "transfigured" Mk - ix. 
 before the three who were most intimate with him. 
 He was indeed transfigured before them from this time 
 on, as we know from all that followed. The account 
 in the gospels of the " transfiguration " may be looked 
 upon as a materialistic presentation of the change that 
 took place from this time in the attitude towards him 
 of his more intimate followers. Hitherto they had 
 followed him, indeed, in complete allegiance ; now, 
 however, they began to look on him as something 
 more than human. We must see in this change of 
 their attitude towards him the last stage reached of 
 that ascendancy over them which his personality 
 obtained. He had so far been asserting himself as 
 one both authoritative and enlightened, acknowledging 
 no leadership from anything but his own consciousness. 
 He had, however, as we have seen, accepted suggestions 
 from various popular ideas, and had expressed himself 
 through various popular phrases ; and it is to be 
 
206 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 recognised that up to this point the ideas which they 
 had associated with him had shared with his own 
 personality the power that bound them to him. They 
 had at first, while attracted by his personal authority 
 and the beauty of his personal character, also been 
 attracted by his proclaiming of the " kingdom of God." 
 They had even at the last been partly led by him 
 through having come to associate him with the 
 Messiah-character. They had thus, to put the matter 
 in a slightly different way, been so far exacting some- 
 thing from him in return for their allegiance ; they had 
 been exacting a suiting of himself to an extent to their 
 preconceptions. But his own new explaining of the 
 character he meant to realise, his powerful sayings 
 enforcing what he meant, his confidence in predicting 
 success, and the unswerving and absolutely independent 
 pursuit of purpose which he began to show, brought 
 about that they made at last a complete, unconditional 
 surrender to him of minds and wills. It was no longer 
 the preacher of the " kingdom of God " that they 
 followed. It was no longer even the Messiah or the 
 Christ. It was Jesus, their friend and master, let him be 
 
 Mk. ix 4 . or do as he might will. They saw that he was an original 
 character, a prophet like Moses and Elias. And yet 
 further, as their thoughts dwelt on him and their hearts 
 glowed towards him, even Moses and Elias vanished 
 
 Ver. s. from their imaginations. They saw that Jesus stood 
 alone, on a " mountain," to which he had led them up. 
 
 Ver. 2. cp. They felt and knew that there was something divine 
 
 19, 25, is. in him. Realising that they were helpless and utterly 
 
 1 7l &c " ignorant before him, they were yet charmed by him into 
 
 perfect subjection. They heard a voice from heaven 
 
 Mk.ix. 7. saying to them, "This is my beloved Son: hear him." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE FAREWELL TO GALILEE. 
 
 FOR the events that immediately followed Jesus's 
 resolution to go to Jerusalem, we have abundance of 
 information. And yet the limitations of that inform- 
 ation are as striking as its fulness. Reports of what 
 happened have come down to us more detailed than 
 those of what went before; but, on the other hand, 
 these reports give no full indication of time and place. 
 There have come to us strings of narratives inde- 
 pendent of one another, but having here and there 
 little circumstances that enable us to guess time and 
 place. Mark and Matthew give us collections ofMk. ix..x.; 
 narratives almost the same as each other. John gives x ix. X 
 only flying notices, hardly to be detected amidst the J n - vii 10, 
 idealism of his general account. Luke gives, of all the Lk.ix.-xix. 
 evangelists, the greatest detail. And while it is to be 
 recognised that his account at this stage has become, 
 as scholars have explained, biassed by doctrinal 
 tendency, so far as even to suggest a spreading of 
 Jesus's teaching in his lifetime to an extent to which it Lk. x. i, 
 really only spread after his death, still a fair estimate XVI1< I3 ' 
 
2OS THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 of the stories he tells will lead to the conclusion that 
 mostly they are trustworthy accounts of real events. 
 The narratives in Luke ix.-xix. are based, we may be 
 certain, on reports preserved without much entrance of 
 error into them from the time of the events to the time 
 in which the evangelist wrote. We can take for our 
 history from Mark and Matthew bit by bit with 
 confidence, adding from Luke with more reserve. 
 
 The main general fact that comes to us is this, that 
 Jesus chose the time of the " Passover " as the occasion 
 
 Ex. xii., of his visiting Jerusalem. The Passover was the greatest 
 
 Ant. xx ' f tne Israelite festivals, and was held in Jerusalem 
 yearly about the beginning of April. It was customary 
 for members of the nation to flock from the northern 
 parts to Jerusalem to attend this as well as the 
 other festivals. Now we have gathered from the 
 
 Jn. \ii. 3. Fourth Gospel account that on the occasion of a 
 festival held in the previous autumn, the Feast of 
 Tabernacles, Jesus's brothers had advised him, as we 
 may put it, to use the occasion for going up to Jeru- 
 salem and becoming known. Jesus, we have seen, 
 
 Ver. 10. refused to do so ; but the gospel adds, " But when 
 his brethren were gone up, then went he also up 
 unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret." 
 We can see in this statement which the earlier 
 gospels do not admit of being taken literally as his- 
 torical that though Jesus did not go up to the Feast 
 of Tabernacles as his brothers advised, he so far acted 
 on their suggestion in that he went up to a later 
 festival with very much of the same intentions as 
 they proposed to him. He went up to a later festival, 
 we may gather, not in the open way that probably 
 they intended, but quietly. 
 
THE FAREWELL TO GALILEE. 2OQ 
 
 How long Jesus had to wait for the time of the 
 Passover from the time of his expressing his resolu- 
 tion at Caesarea Philippi, it is impossible to tell. As, 
 however, the events to which we are coming do not 
 seem such as could have been long drawn out, and 
 as, on the other hand, the events which have been 
 before us as succeeding Jesus's visit to Nazareth must 
 have taken considerable time, it is reasonable to con- 
 clude that it was already well on in the spring of the 
 year 35 when Jesus was at Caesarea Philippi, and that 
 only a few weeks remained before the time of the 
 festival. These few weeks, we learn, Jesus spent in 
 this way : by first paying a final visit to Capernaum, Mk - ix 33. 
 and then going somewhat slowly up to Jerusalem by 
 an indirect route. 
 
 Jesus went to Capernaum for a final visit, but not Mk. ix. 30. 
 to teach or to show 7 himself in public at all. He 
 went with his intimate followers secretly, having the 
 determination, evidently, to avoid all further collision 
 with the authorities in the north, and leave his further Mk. ix. 30, 
 public action for the great city. Conversations, how- confirmed 
 ever, took place between him and his intimate friends, ^ y J n ' V11 
 which contained some of his most daring, and therein 
 most sublime conclusions regarding sacred truth. 
 These conversations his followers fortunately pre- 
 served ; and so there have come down to us many 
 treasures of thought which, as they must now be 
 presented, will give to this chapter a special im- 
 portance. 
 
 On the way to Capernaum, we learn, some of the Mk. ix. n. 
 disciples put a question to Jesus regarding the Messiah- I3 
 subject. They were following him now unreservedly, 
 as we have seen, held bound by his own personality 
 
210 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 and no longer expecting that he would shape his 
 actions to suit their own presuppositions regarding the 
 Messiah-character. Still, there was a general under- 
 standing that he was going to assert himself as the 
 One who realised what had been meant in the Messiah- 
 idea. And so, we find, they let their thoughts fall into 
 the popular plane, even while they looked up to Jesus as 
 one to be guided by without question. They asked 
 him quite ready as they were to have their thoughts 
 re-shapen in any way that he might indicate How, 
 seeing he was the Messiah, had the scribes taught 
 that Elijah was to come back to earth before the 
 Messiah appeared ? Jesus showed the tact that he 
 had always displayed in answering unenlightened 
 questions. He did not assert or remind them as 
 he might have done truly that he was not fitting 
 himself to any teachings of the scribes, or even of 
 the prophets themselves, but was exactly what God 
 had given him to be, so that it was not his concern 
 to decide what the scribes had meant. He came 
 down instead, in thought, towards their level, and 
 
 Mk. i\. 13. replied, " Elias is indeed come, and they have done 
 unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of 
 him." The result, we may say, was assuredly as the 
 
 Mt xvii account in Matthew declares, that they understood 
 
 w- what he meant, to the extent at least of seeing he 
 
 was suggesting that John the Baptist had taken the 
 part of Elijah. 
 
 An interesting little event also occurred as they 
 travelled towards Capernaum at this time. It was 
 that the disciples tried to "cast out" a "devil," and 
 
 Mk. ix. failed. It is very interesting and important to see 
 in this very beginning of the history of Christianity the 
 
THE FAREWELL TO GALILEE. 211 
 
 same interference of human conditions with religious 
 endeavour which has continually been repeating itself. 
 Jesus said, we gather, at this time, that the failure 
 was to be attributed to want of faith, and also that 
 a case of the kind before them required " prayer and 
 fasting " ; which meant, as we may interpret, that 
 faith in the Divine Overruler was necessary for the 
 conquering of evil, and that for even the partial 
 victories that could be shown in the present time, 
 such as he had shown, it was necessary both to 
 discipline one's own soul and also to seek help from 
 .beyond oneself. It is also interesting, however, to 
 see from this event, that those good actions of Jesus 
 to which the name of casting out devils was given, 
 required his own strong personality. He gave the 
 disciples profitable advice, indeed, as to how they should 
 set about conquering evil ; but from our point of view 
 it must be said what was essentially wrong in the 
 disciples, causing their failure, was that they had not 
 the Master's strength of character, and were in general 
 both too weak and too little enlightened, neither know- 
 ing rightly how to proceed nor awakening sufficient 
 faith among those for whose sake they wished to act. 
 
 Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum. And Mk. i.\. 33. 
 the events that took place at Capernaum at this time 
 are recorded to us in some plainly authentic stories. 
 
 First, there meets us the fact that Jesus had to Ver. 33. 
 redirect the thoughts of his followers, which, under the 
 suggestions of his new purpose, had strayed out of the 
 paths of his spiritual teaching, and were concerning 
 themselves with the expectation of outward triumph. 
 It would seem that the most intimate of his followers 
 the twelve, at least, and the faithful women had 
 
212 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 decided to accompany him to Jerusalem. But although 
 Mk. viii. he had told them plainly and repeated to them that he 
 
 31, ix. 31. ... . 
 
 was going in the expectation of meeting persecution 
 and perhaps death, they evidently took little account 
 of these sayings, and kept their attention on his con- 
 fidence of prevailing in the end, with which, further, 
 there agreed what they had seen in the north of his 
 power to raise enthusiasm. They thought, accord- 
 ingly, as in the words of the Third Evangelist, that 
 
 Lk.xix. ii. " the kingdom of God should immediately appear." 
 What that exactly meant for them, we can only guess. 
 But we may suppose that, religious men as they were, 
 they were a good deal tinged with the mystical thought 
 which we see in the " apocalyptic " books of their time, 
 without the intellectual power to separate the essential 
 thought in these books from its mystical setting. So 
 that in all probability they were expecting an actual 
 interference on the part of God with the world, and 
 a setting up of Jesus to be ruler over the nations with 
 more than natural powers at his command. In con- 
 versation thus, we learn, it had occurred to them to 
 speculate as to what kind of places they were to 
 
 Mk. ix 34. have in the coming "kingdom." "By the way they 
 had disputed among themselves, who should be the 
 greatest." 
 
 It is a doubly pathetic incident to contemplate, this 
 dispute of those poor men. They thought they were 
 approaching honour and glory, and they were really 
 approaching insult and dismay. But this contrast 
 between what they expected immediately and what 
 came immediately is not so striking as another contrast 
 that will suggest itself to us namely, the contrast 
 between what these men would have seemed to be to- 
 
THE FAREWELL TO GALILEE. 213 
 
 an ordinary intelligent onlooker of the time, and what 
 they were as we must view them. To an onlooker 
 they would have seemed to be but the deluded enthu- 
 siasts of a sect which was about to be crushed by the 
 arm of established power. As we must view them 
 they were, with the exception of their divine leader, 
 who made them what they were, the most notable 
 men among the millions that at that time walked and 
 breathed on the earth, the possessors of the key to 
 peace and power, afterwards to prove themselves heroes 
 and leaders of mankind. 
 
 At Capernaum Jesus took these followers to task Mk. ix. 33- 
 about their dispute on the way, and gently corrected 37 ' 
 their conceptions. He told them that in the " king- 
 dom " which he would set up, the greatest would be 
 those who would best serve the others. And to enforce 
 this celestial thought, he " took a child, and set him in Ver. 36. 
 the midst of them ": and "when he had taken him Mt. xviii. 
 in his arms," he said to them, "Except ye be con- A pp j 6 
 verted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter M- 
 into the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 About the same time, it would seem, as this took Mk. ix. 38 
 place, the disciple John related to Jesus that he and 
 some of the others had seen some man casting out 
 devils in Jesus's name, and that they had forbidden 
 him, because he did not follow them ; to which Jesus 
 
 replied, "Forbid him not : for there is no man which Vers.sg, 
 
 40. 
 shall" exercise power "in my name, that can lightly Auth Ver 
 
 speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on sion,"doa 
 
 miracle," 
 
 our part." but the 
 
 This little incident about the man casting out devils original 1 is 
 and not following the apostles has got confused, that f . 
 between the two first gospels, with the incident just power. 
 
214 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 related about the child, and the question who should 
 Mt. xviii. ; be the greatest. Matthew goes on to report more 
 sayings of Jesus in the line of his remarks about the 
 child, while Mark gives some of the same sayings as 
 arising out of this second incident. And so it seems 
 at first just to be a question as to whether this story is 
 interpolated in Mark and should not be there, or 
 whether Matthew has fused two different collections of 
 sayings into one. But it is best to believe that both 
 incidents really happened about the same time, and 
 that the second led Jesus to develop the thought he 
 had expressed in the first. That is to say, we are met 
 by this, that at the same time as Jesus rebuked the 
 disciples on the subject of who was to be the greatest, 
 John told his story about the man casting out devils. 
 Jesus, with the child still beside him, and looking at it, 
 as we can conceive, further expressed the thought 
 which he had so far expressed in his rebuke. That 
 thought had been the Implicit Greatness, in present 
 littleness, of a human soul as such. The thought was 
 illustrated by a living child. And it was further 
 enforced to Jesus's own mind by his hearing of an 
 earnest man who had been trying to do good, and had 
 only been resisted and injured for doing so. Accord- 
 ingly as they sat, we learn, Jesus proceeded to utter 
 several aphorisms, preserved still for us, to our ever- 
 lasting benefit, all turning on this one thought that 
 had arisen in his mind one of the very thoughts 
 that he had principally come from Nazareth into the 
 world to assert the thought of the Greatness in little- 
 ness of a human soul as such, or the thought of the 
 Value of Man. 
 
 He said that it was necessary that offences should 
 
THE FAREWELL TO GALILEE. 215 
 
 come to the " little ones " whom he loved and in whom Vcr. 42. 
 he believed, but that it was better for one to be thrown 
 into the sea with a millstone round one's neck, than to 
 be the person through whom the offence came. And 
 on the other hand, he spoke words reported differently 
 by the two evangelists, of which the meaning evidently 
 was that one who recognised a prophet to be a prophet 
 would himself receive the reward of a prophet, that 
 one who recognised a righteous man to be a righteous 
 man would himself receive the reward of a righteous 
 man, and that one who recognised a humble learner to 
 be a humble learner, and so did for such a one the 
 smallest kindness, would receive a reward unfailing. 
 The First Evangelist has presented the words away 
 from their historical connection, in the list of sayings 
 to disciples. Mark, on the other hand, whose report 
 of the words is less complete, has, by preserving the 
 historical connection, both made plain that Matthew's 
 report is the better of the two, and given the key to 
 the interpretation of Matthew's report. The words, Mt. .\. 41, 
 as in Matthew, are these, " He that receiveth a prophet f x ' 4I 
 in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's 
 reward : and he that receiveth a righteous man in the 
 name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous 
 man's reward. And whosoever shall give to drink 
 unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only 
 in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you he shall 
 in no wise lose his reward." 
 
 Then he carried further the thought of the offences. 
 Each one, he said, would not only be offended, but 
 would have to pass through that " fire " of which they Mk. ix.43- 
 had been taught in the popular belief. But he told 5 
 them that that fire would be a cleansing fire. " For Ver. 49. 
 
2l6 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Cp. Is. every one," he said " shall be salted with fire." He 
 also is 4 ' urged them, as we may interpret, to take reverses and 
 
 and' see' ev ^ s as ^ Te > OI ~' cnan g m g the imagery, as salt. Salt, 
 
 App. i. he said, was good if it really was salt that is, evils 
 could be made good if they were appropriated in the 
 way of cleansing or disciplining the soul. 
 
 Mt. xviii. He said also, " How think ye ? If a man have an 
 hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth 
 he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the 
 mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray ? 
 And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he 
 rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and 
 nine which went not astray. Even so it is not the will 
 of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these 
 little ones should perish." And also, we may suppose, 
 he added at this time the similar parable of the lost 
 
 Lk. xv. piece of money. And indeed, for want of testimony to 
 the contrary, we may believe he may at this time also 
 have spoken the parable of the Prodigal Son. If this 
 is so, we can imagine what a thrill must have gone 
 through the frames of those few attached followers, 
 and how the most intimate of them, at least, must 
 have been lifted up suddenly aw r ay from the whole 
 plane of the foolish thoughts which they had been 
 expressing, as this benign story fell on their ears from 
 the lips of him who had been "transfigured" to them 
 and become to them the very Son of God. 
 
 Telling them such things as these, he went further, 
 and expressed both his own ruling passion and also the 
 promise he felt able to make in the name of God, in 
 
 Mt. xviii. these words, " For the Son of man is come to save 
 that which was lost." 
 
 Then, as he always led from faith to duty, and as it 
 
THE FAREWELL TO GALILEE. 217 
 
 was his way to go from the care of the heavenly Father 
 to the responsibility of brothers and sisters, he went on 
 to say to them that they must all reverence their fellow 
 men and women and consider for them. He told them 
 how they should spare no pains to win back those that Ver. 15. 
 might go astray. And he told them they must forgive 
 their sisters and brethren with a forgiveness as 
 we may interpret and analyse Matthew's report the ver. 35. 
 very same as was felt by the heavenly Father Himself. 
 Peter, it would seem, here interposed with the question, 
 How often should one forgive one's brother ? He Ver. 21. 
 answered, " I say not unto thee, Until seven times ; Ver 22 
 but, Until seventy times seven." And then he put 
 before them a parable about a servant who had been Vers 2 3- 
 freely forgiven by his master, and yet refused to forgive 
 a fellow-servant. 
 
 At one quiet time, we may believe, in which they 
 were all sitting together, did Jesus deliver all these 
 teachings. And so in secrecy, to which he was com- 
 pelled, because if he should speak openly his fellow- 
 men were ready to fall on him like wild beasts, Jesus 
 was bringing to a close his Galilean ministry, and was 
 adding the last master-touches to the sacred exposition 
 which in Galilee he gave to the world. 
 
 On some other occasion, we may also gather, during 
 the same time, he spoke further in the same strain as 
 he had spoken in at Csesarea Philippi, when he had 
 justified the course he was taking by speaking of the 
 supreme importance of not "losing the soul." He Seeabove 
 said, speaking in the same strain, that it was better to P- 202 - 
 lose a hand, or a foot, or an eye, than to require the 
 whole self to be cast into the cleansing fire. He illus- Mk. i.\. 43- 
 trated his position and the position of all who would 47- 
 
2l8 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 learn from him by saying that one who understood him 
 and did accordingly was like a man whose house was 
 ^ vn 24 ~ built on a rock, and he illustrated his action and the 
 action of all who would follow him, in these words : 
 Lk. \iv ; " For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth 
 following not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have 
 sufficient to finish it ? Lest haply, after he hath laid 
 the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that 
 behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began 
 to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, 
 going to make war against another king, sitteth not 
 down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten 
 thousand to meet him that cometh against him with 
 twenty thousand ? Or else, while the other is yet 
 a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth 
 conditions of peace." 
 
 It is highly probable that some of the other sayings 
 which make up the collection which we call the 
 " Sermon on the Mount," were uttered also at this 
 time in Capernaum. It was a time in which the 
 disciples were likely to pay a special attention to 
 Jesus's sayings, so as to treasure the remembrance of 
 them ; and the fact that so many of the sayings which 
 make up the collection were evidently uttered at this 
 time, confirms the belief that it may have been so also 
 with some of the others. There may thus have been 
 Mt. vi.ao; spoken at this time the saying about the " treasures in 
 Lk.xii.i6- heaven," and along with it the parable given in Luke 
 about the man who determined to build new store- 
 rooms for his goods, and on the very night that he 
 did so was required to give up his earthly life. But 
 especially we may ascribe to this time the sayings 
 about prayer. This was the early time of the disciples' 
 
THE FAREWELL TO GALILEE. 2IQ 
 
 actually pupil-like obedience to him. It is very likely 
 
 that it was at this time that, in childlike veneration 
 
 and in readiness to follow what he would teach to the 
 
 last particular, they said to him, " Lord, teach us to 
 
 pray, as John also taught his disciples." Jesus, in Lk - xi l ~ 
 
 replying to their request, told them they ought to pray 
 
 to God as children ask of a loving father, or as a friend 
 
 in need asks of a friend who can help him. And he 
 
 also gave them a few simple sentences of prayer, which 
 
 Christians have come to call the " Lord's Prayer," and Xf 1 " 8 - . 2 '4 : 
 
 J Mt. vi. 9- 
 
 to look upon as the model for all prayer. 15. 
 
 The Lord's Prayer has been subjected by scholars to 
 the keenest criticism, and doubts have been thrown 
 both on the fact of its details having actually proceeded 
 from Jesus and on the fact of its originality on Jesus's 
 part, even if proved to have been uttered by him. It 
 can be said, however, without hesitation, that the result 
 of the matter is the recognition of the prayer by com- 
 petent judges in general, as in substance a prayer 
 actually given by Jesus, and an original prayer. As 
 for the authenticity of the details, no doubt of any 
 weight need remain on any of its parts that contain 
 essential thought, unless on the doxology at the end, 
 which scholars in general regard as an addition by the 
 early Church for liturgical purposes. And as for the 
 originality of the prayer, while we are to believe Jesus 
 took many of its phrases from what he had heard and 
 read, its arrangement is certainly Jesus's creation, and 
 its spirit has been breathed from Jesus's soul. It is a 
 prayer in which the leading thoughts are the sovereignty 
 of God the heavenly Father, the coming, in the world, 
 of a better recognition of the heavenly Father, and the 
 Tightness of each one asking the heavenly Father for 
 
220 THE. SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 help in ordinary needs, with perfect confidence of being 
 heard and answered. 
 
 Before Jesus left Capernaum at this time, we learn, 
 
 Mt. xvii. ne p a id a tax. It seems to have been a tax which from 
 24-27. 
 
 early times had been levied on the Jews for the main- 
 Ex, xxx. tenance of religious services, though some have 
 
 I 3 XXXV111 
 
 26! ' supposed it to have been a tax levied by the Romans. 
 
 The detail of the account of this event in Matthew is 
 obviously coloured by popular conveyance. The event 
 itself, however, is guaranteed us by the very existence 
 of an account of the kind, and it is interesting as. 
 bringing before us once more Jesus's perfectly sub- 
 missive attitude towards political arrangements. This 
 it does the more forcibly in that it took place at the 
 very moment that Jesus was on the point of leaving his 
 native province, never to return, as he himself sur- 
 mised, and was about to perform a bold action which, 
 as he well knew, would be mistaken by many for having 
 a political end. 
 
PART III. 
 THE LAST DAYS 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 
 
 THE journey of Jesus towards Jerusalem was under- Mk. x. i. 
 taken not in any public way. He went quietly, 
 accompanied by his intimate followers, including, 
 beyond doubt, the faithful women, and very likely Mk. xv. 
 children belonging to some of them. Once away Mk 4 x. 13. 
 from Galilee, however, he came more and more before 
 the public, so that, while still on the way, he attracted 
 attention in many quarters as one who was making 
 claim to be a great teacher and leader. Mk. x. 
 
 The accounts of the course of the journey do not 
 agree well with each other, and it is not an easy task 
 to decide what really happened in it. Mark and Ver. i ; 
 Matthew say that he went by the other side of the 
 
 J J Lk. xvii. 
 
 Jordan. Luke says, on the contrary, that he went n. 
 
222 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 through Samaria and Galilee. Now for the account 
 of Mark and Matthew there is this to be said, that 
 nearly all scholars give one or the other of these 
 evangelists the preference over Luke in regard to 
 historical accuracy in general ; and to this general 
 consideration it is to be added that in Luke's account 
 of the journey there is clearly present a doctrinal bias. 
 For the other side, however, there is to be said that 
 one at least of the stories Luke gives of Jesus in 
 Samaria has suggestions too realistic for us to sweep it 
 entirely out of history. The explanations of scholars 
 which treat the Samaritan stories of the Third and 
 Fourth Gospels as idealistic accounts of the univer- 
 sality of Christianity, or as after-events in Church 
 history transferred to the life of Jesus himself, while 
 throwing light on the form in which we have them, 
 are rather far-fetched as complete explanations of their 
 origin. And keeping to the case of the journey through 
 
 Lk. ix. 51- Samaria told in Luke, the story of the Samaritan 
 village, in which Jesus was not well received, is too 
 lifelike for even unconscious invention. It, further, is 
 suitable to the time in which Jesus had completely 
 left home and country, and was dependent on recep- 
 tion by strangers both for lodging to the body and in 
 great part also for cheering to the mind. And once 
 more, we can see a striking naturalness in the idea 
 
 See above, that this rejection would be specially noted by Jesus 
 and his more intimate followers, in that it presented 
 a strong contrast to the kind reception he had met 
 with in a Samaritan village a few months before. On 
 the other hand, it is to be noted that the accounts of 
 Mark and Matthew do not really preclude his having 
 gone so far . through Samaria, and that their, silence 
 
THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 223 
 
 regarding his having done this may be explained by the 
 fact that they are dealing with the direct ministry of 
 Jesus. They are more correct, doubtless, in regard to 
 Jesus's direct ministry, when they confine it to the 
 Jews ; but this does not interfere with the fact of his 
 having had a merely local relation to Samaria. To 
 this it may be added that the parable of the Good 
 Samaritan brings a mass of evidence in itself. This 
 beautiful parable first recommends itself as an authen- Lk - x 2 5- 
 tic parable of Jesus, as certainly as we can make any 
 judgment from internal evidence at all. Granted, 
 then, that it is an authentic parable of Jesus, its 
 introduction of a Samaritan, and also of the road 
 between Jerusalem and Jericho, suggests that Jesus, 
 before composing it, had been coming in contact both 
 with Samaritans and with that road, and so suggests 
 very convincingly that it is likely to have been spoken 
 by him just after a journey in which he had gone 
 through Samaria, and had also gone from Jericho 
 to Jerusalem. We must, then, harmonise the two 
 accounts. Jesus and his followers, we must believe, 
 first went through Samaria so far, then crossed the 
 Jordan, and then came back and went through Jericho 
 to Jerusalem. 
 
 On starting, then, we are to suppose, Jesus and his 
 followers entered on the ordinary road to Jerusalem 
 through Samaria. .They left, no doubt, very quietly; 
 and as they went along the road, they were to all 
 appearance but a body of people journeying to Jeru- 
 salem to the Passover. On seeking lodgings in a Lk. ix. 51- 
 certain village they w r ere received very inhospitably, 56- 
 the inhabitants probably being unaccustomed to put 
 themselves much out of the way to accommodate 
 
224 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Jewish pilgrims. The disciples James and John, re- 
 senting any discourtesy to Him whom they had come 
 to worship, and carried away into a mystical world by 
 ascribing to Jesus divine power such as they believed 
 Elijah anc * Moses to have possessed, exclaimed, "Lord, 
 wilt thou that we command fire to come down from 
 heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?" to 
 which Jesus replied, " Ye know not what manner of 
 spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to 
 destroy men's lives, but to save them." 
 
 We gather that as they went on they were not able 
 to preserve the quiet progress that Jesus wished. The 
 name of Jesus had become by this time pretty well 
 known ; and no doubt the excited condition of his 
 
 cp. Mt. followers led them to tell many, as they went along, 
 that this was indeed Jesus, the great prophet of Naza- 
 reth, with whom they were travelling. Accordingly 
 excitable persons in the country through which they 
 went were beginning to come up and to ask liberty to 
 
 Lk. i.\. 57. join them. Amongst such was one who, it would 
 seem, said he wished to follow Jesus, but asked him 
 to delay his journey a little until he had time to bury 
 
 Ver. Co. his father. Jesus is reported to have said, " Let the 
 dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the 
 kingdom of God." This harsh-sounding reply (made 
 even more harsh in Matthew's form of it) must be 
 accepted in substance as having been really uttered ; 
 but it assuredly does not represent the everyday mind 
 of Jesus. He had surrounded himself at this time 
 with a gloom which was really the gloom of death on 
 his young life. But what is still more important to 
 mention is that the incident, while we must accept 
 it in general, is almost certainly not correctly reported 
 
THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM! 225 
 
 to us. The evangelists have turned it into an illustra- 
 tion of the claim of religion on the soul, so that we 
 cannot say how far its original facts have been altered. 
 Probably the saying of Jesus, in its real form, was 
 much less harsh than is reported, and had merely 
 to do with his musing on that better life of man that 
 could triumph over death, as he himself was showing 
 through terrible experience. And further, there surely 
 followed, we may say, some remark in his own real 
 manner, which more than took away the sting that 
 may have been felt by the man. 
 
 The First Evangelist adds another saying of Jesus to Mt. viii 
 this one, so as to make two sayings to would-be *" 
 disciples ; and the Third Evangelist adds two to it, 
 so as to make three sayings to would-be disciples. Lk. ix. 57- 
 Of these other sayings, we may almost certainly decide 
 that the extra one in Luke, in its real utterance by 
 Jesus, had a different connection, as the question and Cp. Lk. \. 
 answer taken together have an artificial appearance, other* 
 and are not compatible with Jesus's general teaching. ^ ces f m 
 
 JLvK. Oi 
 
 The saying was probably one uttered in reply to some manifestly 
 reasoning with him on the risks he was facing. "No introduc- 
 man," he said, "having put his hand to the plough, ^ ds . 
 and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." and on the 
 The other saying, given both in Matthew and in Luke, hand, cp. 
 was indeed, it is probable, induced by some talk of a g . IO v x n ' 
 person or of persons wishing to follow him. It is, 7 " IO> 
 however, principally to be viewed as having been a 
 pathetic expression of musing in which he allowed 
 himself to indulge at intervals in the midst of his 
 heroic determination. He had left everything, he was Cp. above, 
 thinking, because conscious of a dignity in the human pp ' 63 ' 64< 
 soul, and of a care from God for the human soul, and 
 
 15 
 
226 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 because conscious himself of having a special nature 
 giving him a special name and calling the Son of 
 man, come to seek and to save the lost ; and what 
 he had attained to so far was, as he pathetically 
 
 Mt. viii. expressed it, " The foxes have holes, and the birds 
 
 i.\. 58. of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not 
 where to lay his head." 
 
 It is likely to have been the very fact that his journey 
 was beginning to lose all its private character, that 
 induced Jesus to forsake, at a certain point, the 
 common road, and to turn into another way across 
 the Jordan. At all events, we find him, according to 
 the most reliable accounts, having gone to the other 
 
 Mk. x. i. side. His journey along the other side was, no doubt, 
 a hurried and uneventful one ; and he crossed back 
 again and directed his course towards Jericho. His 
 progress began again to attract attention, and again 
 enthusiasts began to seek to enter into his train. Now, 
 however, probably, he began to make less objection to 
 publicity, as he was nearing the quarter in which it was 
 his intention to make himself known. 
 
 Mk. x. In the tenth chapter of Mark, and in the nineteenth 
 
 of Matthew, there is related an incident as happening 
 on the journey which is at first sight puzzling. It is 
 
 Ver. 2. introduced by Mark in this way, " And the Pharisees 
 came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to 
 put away his wife? tempting him." Now it is to be 
 remembered that " the Pharisees " who had been 
 accustomed thus to come up to him had at this time 
 been left behind away in the north ; and it is hardly 
 in accordance with the swiftness and unobtrusiveness 
 of his journey, that he could already have roused an 
 opposition among the southern Pharisees. The dif- 
 
THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 227 
 
 ficulty may, however, be very reasonably met by 
 supposing that the incident was at the start an incident 
 of the kind just above alluded to, in which excitable 
 persons became eager to follow the little band to 
 Jerusalem. Two or three unsettled men, we may 
 suppose, with whom some of the followers had been 
 conversing, had begun to think of joining in the 
 pilgrimage of which, no doubt, the followers had given 
 a glowing account ; but the difficulty had arisen, 
 whether, as they were married, they could leave their 
 wives and children leave them completely, as it 
 appeared might be the end of the matter, in the way 
 "Christian" in the "Pilgrim's Progress" leaves his 
 friends. The matter was brought before Jesus. The 
 men, or some followers speaking for them having 
 been, no doubt, of the party of the Pharisees said, 
 " Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife ? " Jesus 
 said, "What did Moses command you?" They Mk.x. 3-5. 
 answered, " Moses suffered to write a bill of divorce- v P 3I ^ 3 ' 2 
 ment, and to put her away." To which Jesus replied, j"^ 66 
 " For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this **iv. i. 
 precept." And then he went, as usual, from the Law 
 to Reason, and put an end to the whole proposal of 
 the men in these grand words, " From the beginning Mk. 6-9. 
 of the creation God made them male and female. 
 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, 
 and cleave to his wife ; and they twain shall be one 
 flesh : so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 
 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man 
 put asunder." 
 
 The disciples afterwards asked Jesus further about ver. 10. 
 the general subject which was suggested by the 
 incident just related. As Matthew, indeed, reports 
 
 15 * 
 
228 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 this after-questioning, there are mixed up with it 
 echoes of some discussions on the subject which must 
 have taken place among Christians much later, 
 indeed long after Jesus's death. And especially the 
 
 See App. worc i s i n verse 12 of the nineteenth of Matthew are to 
 I. (15). 
 
 be taken as inquiring words of those later Christians, 
 
 not as words of Jesus. But the simple account of 
 Mark may be accepted as an account of questionings 
 brought before Jesus himself, by his immediate disciples, 
 just after the incident we have now had under con- 
 sideration. They " asked him again of the same 
 matter." And he expressed his idealistic view of the 
 relation of husband and wife in these uncompromising 
 
 Mk. x. IT, words : " Whosoever shall put away his wife, and 
 marry another, committeth adultery against her. And 
 if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married 
 to another, she committeth adultery." 
 
 As they journeyed along, several other incidents 
 occurred, of which a record has remained. Of these 
 the first that meets us is one that stands in striking 
 contrast to the incident about the disciple who would 
 
 Vers. 13- bury his father. It is the incident about Jesus calling 
 the little children to him. Assuredly in his old home 
 in Nazareth, simple young life had been his delight, 
 and had stood before his mind in close relation to that 
 kind Father whose name and nature he was afterwards 
 to declare. And now, when it was required of him, 
 for the very sake of declaring the ultimate rule over 
 the universe of a simple childlike kindness, to act 
 himself for the time with more than ordinary stern- 
 ness, he could still on an occasion turn to delight in 
 the young untroubled souls that he loved, and to tell 
 his followers that their state of mind was like that 
 
THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 22Q 
 
 mind which rules in heaven, which all are called to 
 enter into and rejoice in. 
 
 Another incident which occurred one small in itself, 
 but leading to interesting remarks on the part of Jesus 
 was that a certain man came and kneeled to him 
 and asked him, " Good Master, what shall I do that Mk. x. 17. 
 I may inherit eternal life ? " Jesus, having first rebuked 
 him for addressing him as " Good Master," referred 
 him to the commandments. But on the man replying 
 that he had observed all of them " from his youth," Vers. 17- 
 Jesus first became affectionately interested in him, and 
 then gave him, as an indication of the direction in 
 which he might further excel, the suggestion that he 
 might bestow his wealth on the poor. When we 
 notice the spontaneous character of the occurrence, 
 when we see how the idea of giving his wealth to the 
 poor was only brought before the man by Jesus in 
 the second place, on his seeking guidance on sacred 
 things beyond what " the commandments " could give 
 him, and, most of all, when we see that Jesus was 
 specially impressed by this man, and, indeed, seems 
 to have thought of him as one who might become a 
 special instrument and enthusiast in his own sacred 
 cause, we shall perceive that it is quite a blunder to 
 suppose Jesus was here laying down a universal prin- 
 ciple, and that far less was he entering on political 
 and social questions. What we have learned of Jesus 
 all along discloses that he did not urge on people in 
 general any sweeping abandonment of the worldly 
 position in which they might be placed. And what he 
 said to this man had force only for the case of the 
 man himself, except that it went on the lines of the 
 general principle that excellence in a religious life is 
 
230 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 attained by caring for the unfortunate. The real point 
 of importance in this incident is to be found in the 
 fact that Jesus took a special liking to this man- 
 indeed, it is probable, saw something striking in his 
 personality, and for a moment entertained the hope 
 that he might have in him a follower of special power, 
 who might play a special part. Thus we find that just 
 after he gave the man the suggestion to sell his goods 
 
 Mk. x. 21. and give them to the poor, he asked him simply, as we 
 
 Ver. 22. may interpret the account, to follow him. The man, 
 however, only seemed grieved, and went away. And 
 
 Ver. 23. Jesus was grieved too, and said to his disciples, " How 
 hardly shall they that have riches enter into the king- 
 dom of God ! " This saying, we must carefully notice, 
 was occasioned by Jesus's disappointment in the man. 
 It was, we may believe, a hasty utterance, and was, as 
 Mark's account records, immediately qualified into 
 
 Ver. 24 " how hard it is for them that TRUST in riches to enter 
 
 everXp into the kin S dom of God ! " And then he added, 
 
 1 ( l6 ) speaking in his own vivid manner, " It is easier for a 
 
 Ver. 25. camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich 
 
 man to enter into the kingdom of God." The disciples 
 
 expressed amazement at this saying, no doubt mistak- 
 
 ingly giving it a literal and universal application. Jesus 
 
 Ver. 27. then added, " With men it is impossible, but not with 
 
 This say- 
 ing echoed God : for with God all things are possible." The 
 
 l yj " whole incident is to be interpreted as one in which 
 Jesus's strong feelings first of affection and hope, and 
 then of disappointment influenced his utterances. 
 So that it is wrong and unjust to give to the utterances 
 an oracular or even intentionally didactic character. 
 At the same time all of them were utterances of un- 
 impeachable goodness and devotion to truth, containing 
 
THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 23! 
 
 in them Jesus's own ideas. He taught in them that 
 the giving to the poor and needy is the virtue through 
 which man can show his kinship to the divine nature. 
 He gave a special suggestion, by way of carrying 
 out this principle, for a special case. On the sugges- 
 tion being rejected, he made a remark which was to 
 the effect that for any one's helping that new establish- 
 ment of religion to which he had lent his own energies, 
 the possession of great wealth was a stumbling-block. 
 And then, lastly, in his own manner, he acknow- 
 ledged that, while this was what a human view of 
 things disclosed, still God, who was the Father of the 
 rich as well as of the poor, and the Giver to the rich for 
 His own ends, would yet save and lead His children in 
 ways beyond what could be discerned by any human 
 view taken in connection with a particular time. 
 
 This incident, it would seem, put it into the mind of 
 Peter to say, "Lo, we have left all, and have followed Mk x 28. 
 thee." From the reply of Jesus, as well as from 
 our other knowledge of him, we must conclude that as 
 he heard this remark there arose in him a tumult 
 of mixed feelings. It sounded, we must believe, almost 
 like a reproach, as he thought of how some of those 
 about him had indeed left home, friends, and ordinary 
 business, for all of which he had himself the warmest See above, 
 reverence, and on the loss of all of which in his own p 
 case he was now looking with keen regret. But still he 
 was conscious of the faithful care of God, and of the 
 special calling which he and his followers had received. 
 His reply was, " Verily I say unto you, There is Mk. .\. 29, 
 no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or 3,', wife," 
 father, or mother, [or wife?*], or children, or lands, if g e ine, 
 
 1 must be 
 
 for my sake, . . . but he shall receive an hundred- an addi- 
 
232 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 tion, not fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, 
 3 an< ^ mothers, and children, and lands, with perse- 
 
 See above, cu tions ; and in the world to come eternal life." 
 
 p. 227. it 
 
 is not in This whole talk, however, among the disciples about 
 
 MSS. at their sacrifices, and what would come to them of high 
 
 ever h W " P os ^i n m consequence, led Jesus, further, to express 
 
 the general reflection that God gave high places to 
 
 whom He chose, putting one high up at one time and 
 
 Mk. x.3i. another at another time. "But many that are first 
 
 shall be last," he said, " and the last first." And he 
 
 Mt. xx. i- added a parable about workmen engaged to cultivate a 
 
 vineyard, of which the point unmistakably was that 
 
 God so gave, out of His own kindness, that He was 
 
 bound by no laws of only giving to the deserving, but 
 
 put now one and now another in a position of advan- 
 
 tage for His own gracious ends. 
 
 After recording the incidents up to this point, the 
 Gospel of Mark makes as it were a pause to tell how, 
 as they went on following their Leader, who was at 
 every step showing his august and imperial character, 
 they " were amazed," and even while they followed, 
 " were afraid." It tells, further, that Jesus repeated 
 Vers. 33, his predictions of the troubles they were going to face. 
 And then it records another incident, in which we see 
 how the very most intimate disciples, though "amazed" 
 and "afraid," had but little assimilated Jesus's spiritual 
 Vers. 35- thoughts. James and John, no doubt moved not so 
 much by any unworthy motive as by affection to Jesus, 
 of whom they knew themselves to be favourites, came 
 and asked him, in spite of what he had so lately said, 
 if they might sit one on each side of him when he came 
 to his " glory." The other disciples saw in the request 
 more desire of high position than affection to the 
 
THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 233 
 
 Master. And Jesus himself, seeing that the two dis- 
 ciples had indeed let themselves forget for the moment 
 all consideration for the others, so as justly enough to 
 offend the others, spoke something as follows : " Ye Mt x - 4 2 - 
 know that they which are accounted to rule over the 
 Gentiles exercise lordship over them ; and their great 
 ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not 
 be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, 
 shall be your minister ; and whosoever of you will be 
 the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the 
 Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." 
 
 Jesus and his followers came on the way to JERICHO, ver. 46. 
 At Jericho there happened a little event of which all 
 three gospels give an account. According to the gospel 
 account, it was an event in which a blind man got his 
 sight or, according to Matthew, two blind men. But Mt. xx. 30. 
 as Luke follows up his account with a much more life- i- k - xviii / 
 like story, that has, in essentials, a great resemblance i-io. As 
 to the accounts of the blind man, we may conclude {hi^treat- 
 that this other story is another version of the same ent ' note 
 
 the con- 
 Story ; that Luke himself, not knowing this, has tradic- 
 
 inserted both ; and that the second is the more V olved in 
 accurate of the two. As Jesus entered the town, we 
 
 are to learn, the appearance of his company caused s P ec - leav - 
 
 P , fo Jericho 
 
 some stir, and especially a wealthy publican, of the name in Mt. and 
 
 of Zacch&us, asked what this all was, and was told " that &pp? oac k- 
 Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." Very likely, indeed, ^g?,^'.. 
 this event is the origin also of the story of Nathanael in blind men 
 the Fourth Gospel, as there are some striking simi- though 
 
 larities between that story also and the story ol 
 Zacchaeus. If this is so, then, it would seem it was to parallels 
 
 in Mt., 
 
 Philip the disciple that Zacchseus put his question may pos- 
 
234 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 sibly be a s to what was the cause of the stir, and that he 
 
 explained 
 
 by the replied to Philip, " Can there any good thing come out 
 ofthe ing of Nazareth ? " At any rate, after being told about 
 * tor 7i . Jesus, Zacchaeus, being "little of stature," climbed a 
 
 oeei-.K.xix. " 
 
 2,3,4;cp. tree, that he might distinguish Jesus himself amongst 
 37,andjn. his company. And Jesus, arrested by the figure, and 
 1 45. 46- see i n g ) through his power of discerning character, 
 
 something interesting in Zacchaeus, first, no doubt, 
 
 Lk.xix. 5; asked some one who he was, and then called to him. 
 
 x 49 Zacchaeus came to Jesus, and as he came, we may 
 
 believe, Jesus, looking at him, said, " Behold an 
 Or likely, Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile! " Then, when 
 scm of h e came near mm > he, as we may simply receive the 
 Abraham account, boldly said to him, " To-day I must abide at 
 
 indeed. 
 
 Jn. i. 47. thy house." The result showed the delicate perception 
 xix! 9 ; which he had had of the case. Zacchaeus w r as over- 
 Mk. x. 47, j ovec i ^0 receive him, and they went into Zacchaeus's 
 Lk. xix. 5. house together. When they were in the house, 
 Ver. 6. Zacchaeus, after some conversation, must have shown 
 himself the better of Jesus's visit, and have expressed 
 Ver. 9. a new interest in sacred things ; and Jesus said, " This day 
 is salvation come to this house." Also, during the lighter 
 turns of the conversation, Zacchaeus evidently asked 
 Jesus how it was that he had marked him out and spoken to 
 Jn. i. 48. him, and Jesus replied that he had seen him in the tree. 
 This episode, trifling as it may seem, was noted and 
 repeated, we may conclude, by the apostle John, who 
 was present, as no doubt the simple-minded little man 
 showed very plainly a delight at the compliment 
 implied in his having been singled out by this com- 
 manding and charming person whom he found himself 
 to be entertaining. When the whole incident was over, 
 the usual murmuring arose, even amongst those people 
 
THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 235 
 
 who were following Jesus in perfect allegiance, over the 
 idea " that he was gone to be guest with a man that is Lk. xix. 7. 
 a sinner ; " and Jesus gently met this murmuring by 
 repeating his saying, " The Son of man is come to Lk. xix. 
 seek and to save that which was lost." Thus we " 
 may believe that Zacchaeus and the blind man who 
 received his sight and Nathanael were all one and the 
 same, and that it was spiritual eyesight which was 
 awakened in the blind man at Jericho. 
 
 As they drew near to Jerusalem, they stopped for a 
 little at the village of Bethany, and Jesus went into the Lk. x. 38. 
 house of one Martha. But he did not wait long there, x i. i. 
 we must believe, at this time. He hurried on into the C P- Mk - 
 
 xi. I. 
 
 great city. 
 
 The enthusiastic followers gave his entry into the 
 city something of a triumphal character. Jesus evi- Mk. xi. 7- 
 dently submitted to this quite willingly. And thus at ver. 7, Cp. 
 this point, we must say, we see him for the first time J 2 ' 
 
 openly and publicly, without any concealment, acting thsm- 
 
 selves his- 
 
 as the " Messiah " or " Christ " of the popular torical. 
 
 expectation. He rode into the city on a colt ; and See App. 
 
 the followers spread clothes and branches of trees on 
 
 the way as he rode, crying, " Hosanna ! Blessed is he 
 
 that cometh in the name of the Lord ! Blessed be the Mk. xi. 
 
 kingdom .of our father David, that cometh in the .name 
 
 of the Lord ! Hosanna in the highest ! " 
 
 He made at first just a brief visit to the temple. The Ver. n. 
 followers then, no doubt, dispersed to various lodgings. 
 Jesus himself and the more intimate of them went out 
 to Bethany, where, it may be supposed from what we 
 shall further see, the " Martha " that has just been 
 spoken of had procured lodgings for him, though 
 whether in her own house or in that of some neighbour 
 it is difficult to decide. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF JESUS'S PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN 
 JERUSALEM. 
 
 Mk. xi.- WHEN we enter on the consideration of Jesus's short 
 
 xiii. ; Mt. . r . . . T . , 
 
 xxi.-xxv. ; time of teaching in Jerusalem, we are met by a 
 Lk. xix.- su fl| C i enC y o f reliable and detailed information. The 
 accounts in the Synoptic gospels indicate, as is to be 
 expected, a still increasing care on the part of the 
 believers in Jesus to preserve particulars, so that we 
 get several passages of considerable length, which can 
 be taken as reports of public teaching, as well as 
 many passages telling with evident truthfulness of 
 incidents containing private teaching. But the advance 
 thus to be noticed in the care of believers in Jesus 
 to preserve reports of what he said has been a little 
 counterbalanced by the uncertainty and hurry of their 
 own movements, causing them difficulty in drawing 
 out a calm and complete statement. This position of 
 matters has brought about that the account of the 
 events in order is broken, even in the early gospels, 
 after the first full day in Jerusalem, only to be clearly 
 resumed at the terrible day of the arrest. To this it is 
 
JESUS'S PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN JERUSALEM. 237 
 
 to be added, as also on the negative side, that the 
 artificialising forces of Messiah-lore and ecclesiasticism 
 have, as we might expect, very specially laid hold of 
 the accounts of this important time, so as to repress 
 what is spontaneous and personal in Jesus's actions 
 and utterances, and bring into prominence his super- 
 human office. In spite of these facts, we meet very 
 sure ground on which to build up our history of this 
 time. 
 
 Special help for this and the following chapters is 
 
 afforded by our secondary informant, the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 That book, as all who have studied it know well, 
 
 conveys the impression of Jesus having been several 
 
 times, instead of only once, teaching at Jerusalem. 
 
 In doing so it has left real history behind ; there is no 
 
 proper reconciling of its account, in this matter, with 
 
 that of the other gospels. But it would be wrong to see 
 
 no history at all in its account. Some of its narrative 
 
 of Jesus in Jerusalem, no doubt, as has been seen above, 
 
 has originated in some account of Jesus's ministry in 
 
 Galilee. But most of it has been originally an account 
 
 of this one small visit to Jerusalem, which has been 
 
 drawn out and mixed up with the writer's own 
 
 teaching. In this and the following chapters there 
 
 will be an endeavour to show, just through bringing 
 
 forward the events, that the Fourth Gospel, from the 
 
 seventh chapter of it onwards, is part of a doctrinal 
 
 essay, to begin with, but is also a bold handling of a 
 
 lost account telling of the same events which the earlier 
 
 gospels relate as having taken place in Jesus's short 
 
 visit to Jerusalem the lost account having been 
 
 originally an independent account of the one short 
 
 visit, probably become mutilated and obscure before it 
 
238 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 reached the hands of the evangelist, and the changings 
 of place and the extendings of time having origins in 
 the doctrinal imagination. And recognising in our 
 work here that such is the state of matters with regard 
 to the Fourth Gospel, we shall both be able to confirm 
 points brought forward in the earlier gospels, and also 
 get some extra information through abstracting from 
 the doctrinal composition the lifelike elements. 
 
 Mk. xi. 12- \y e learn, then, that Jesus and his intimate followers, 
 having passed a night in Bethany, went back to Jeru- 
 salem. On the way a little incident happened which 
 has an interest. They passed a fig-tree, and, feeling 
 hungry, would have gladly had some fruit. There was, 
 however, no fruit on the tree, because, in the simple 
 words of the Gospel of Mark, " the time of figs was 
 
 Ver. 13. not yet." We shall come upon this fig-tree presently 
 again, and we shall then see what further took place in 
 regard to it. 
 
 Vers. 15- On entering the city, Jesus went to the temple, and 
 performed that bold act which, standing out in striking 
 dissimilarity to his general life and teaching, might, 
 only at first sight, seem to disturb the unity of his 
 character. In the outer courts of the temple it had 
 come to be customary for a large trade to be conducted. 
 It is to be remembered that Jesus had come to Jeru- 
 salem with a decidedly aggressive purpose. Having 
 found by experience that peaceful enunciation of his 
 ideas only stirred up the established teachers against 
 him, he had now taken the initiative of attack into his 
 own hands, and had come to Jerusalem with the 
 purpose of openly setting himself forward as a higher 
 leader than the established teachers in regard to 
 religious matters. He had come to make a very 
 
JESUS S PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN JERUSALEM. 239 
 
 special assertion of himself as the Teacher of a simple See above, 
 genuine religion. He had, further, thrown off all the ?g g I9/ " 
 ordinary considerations by which the in habitants of 
 earth guide themselves. He had made himself an angel 
 of God, and, for the time, not a peaceful but a warring 
 angel. And so, laying aside his natural sweetness, and 
 caring not for consequences to his own earthly life, he 
 went up to the traders who were accustomed to keep 
 their wares about the temple, threw down some of 
 their tables, and interrupted their work, saying, " Is it Mk.xi. 17; 
 not written, My house shall be called of all nations the 
 house of prayer ? but ye have made it a den of thieves." 
 At the same time, we are to believe, he began to 
 address the people in such a way as to command Mk.xi. 18. 
 attention. 
 
 It is unnecessary for us here to give a detailed con- 
 sideration to the moral bearings of this action of Jesus. 
 Certainly it was an action unlike his ordinary self; but 
 so was the whole stern attitude which he had at this 
 time assumed. And the results have declared that the 
 seizing of the public attention in the way adopted by 
 Jesus was such as was rightly calculated to advance 
 his cause. Whether or not he could have been equally 
 successful without this action, we need not be specu- 
 lative enough to inquire. The facts with which we 
 have mainly to do are, that Jesus laid the foundation 
 of an establishment of his teaching by forcing attention 
 on himself through an action which was violent 
 certainly, but raised above assailableness on moral 
 grounds in that it was, beyond all question, prompted 
 and permeated by stainless moral enthusiasm. 
 
 The authorities seem to have made no interference Mk.xi. is. 
 with Jesus. And this is to be partly explained by the 
 
240 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 fact that his followers from Galilee and some of the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem who had become interested in 
 him had, as no doubt they did, assembled round him, 
 Mt. xxi. a nd W ere supporting him. The Gospel of Matthew, 
 indeed, speaks of " children " calling out " Hosanna 
 to the son of David," and of Jesus, true to his own 
 heart and mind, being keenly touched as he heard their 
 young voices praising him. From comparison of this 
 story of the children with a somewhat similar passage 
 Lk. xix. in Luke, it has been argued with much force that the 
 Wendt, " children " were really the ordinary followers of Jesus, 
 so called from their humble position. This interpre- 
 tation is, at least, not necessary ; and the account in 
 Matthew taken quite literally is very suitable to the 
 whole scene as described by all three evangelists. In 
 any case it is certain that there was some kind of 
 popular movement around him at this time. And this 
 popular movement would itself be enough to explain 
 his being left unmolested after so high-handed an 
 action. But there is also to be taken into account his 
 own dignified bearing, along with the fact that he 
 immediately began to address the people, in that 
 See above, manner of his which, as we have already discerned, 
 J^ IC must have been irresistibly charming and commanding. 
 Mk.xi. 18; Jesus certainly did address the people at the temple 
 JJI'i' on this very day ; but of what he said, as is the case 
 with what he said in his first preaching in Capernaum, 
 not one sentence has bsen directly preserved for us, 
 unless some of the teaching occurring in different parts 
 of the gospels, which we can, by criticism, refer to the 
 Jerusalem time, may have been given on this day. All 
 we can be sure of is just as in the Capernaum case 
 that Jesus told the people of Him whose presence had 
 
JESUS'S PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN JERUSALEM. 241 
 
 come to hold himself in command, and of the intention 
 of that ever-present Being that one and all should 
 grow into His own life ; he told them of the Fatherly 
 care and of the brotherly and sisterly calling. 
 
 In the evening Jesus returned to Bethany. And we Mk.xi. 19 
 must not pass without consideration this and some , 7 / ' 
 following evenings at Bethany that lay between the days 
 of tumult within the city. Reports of these evenings 
 we have none, indeed ; but we can with very great 
 confidence surmise. We learned last chapter about 
 the "certain woman named Martha" who had received 
 Jesus into her house, and about the probability that 
 this woman had procured lodgings for Jesus in Bethany 
 either in her own house or near it. We shall 
 meet, further on, notices of this woman and her sister 
 and brother, asking our attention with all the claim to 
 recommend them of speaking likeness to life in general 
 and to Jesus in particular. And so we can fill up the 
 picture of the evenings at Bethany. Whether the 
 family was one with which Jesus had newly become 
 acquainted, or whether he had known some of the 
 members before, we cannot tell ; but we can say 
 almost surely that during some evenings extending 
 over a week or a fortnight, of which we have now 
 reached the second evening, a friendship of a very 
 intimate nature was cemented between Jesus and these 
 three persons. They, no doubt listening during these 
 evenings in reverent attention to his sublime conver- 
 sation, gave him what he now sorely yearned for 
 some simple trust and affection ; he in his turn gave 
 them, not now but afterwards what we shall see when 
 the occurrence comes before us in its proper order. 
 
 On the next morning that is, his second morning 
 
 16 
 
242 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Mk.xi.2o-i n Bethany, but the morning of his third day about 
 Jerusalem Jesus went into the city again with his 
 special followers,, and on the way they came again on 
 the fig-tree. Now in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew 
 there is recorded a little circumstance that naturally 
 must puzzle earnest believers in Jesus of any thought- 
 fulness namely, that Jesus had cursed this tree the 
 first day, and that now he found it had withered away. 
 The little circumstance cannot be taken as literally 
 historical. Scholars have been able to detect the 
 origin of this story of Jesus destroying a fig-tree in the 
 
 Lk. xiii. 6- lovely parable preserved in Luke, in which we see 
 Jesus telling of a good gardener who refused to destroy 
 a fig-tree. We must not, however, go with the scholars 
 the length of supposing that the whole incident in 
 regard to the fig-tree is unhistorical. Rather, there 
 was an incident in regard to the fig-tree, and that led 
 to the parable being spoken. The fig-tree incident led 
 to the parable, and the parable led to a false account 
 of the fig-tree incident, through the carelessness and 
 perverseness of mouth-to-mouth reports. What hap- 
 pened was evidently something like this : The followers, 
 as they approached the tree the second morning, made 
 some remarks, probably half humorous, about that 
 disappointing tree being there again ; and they may 
 have even repeated the kind of suggestion which some 
 of them had made before in relation to the inhospitable 
 
 Above, p. Samaritan village. Jesus, whose mind was now dwelling 
 on the serious future, led the matter into the lines of 
 
 Lk. xiii. 6- serious reflection. He said to them, " A certain man 
 had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard ; and he came 
 and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said 
 he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three 
 
JESUS'S PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN JERUSALEM. 243 
 
 years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find 
 none : cut it down ; why cumbereth it the ground ? 
 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone 
 this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it : 
 and if it bear fruit, well ; and if not, then after that 
 thou shalt cut it down." The thought he evidently 
 meant to illustrate by the lovely story was the inex- 
 haustible hope ever attaching to a living soul. And so 
 we find he added: "Have faith in God. For verily Mk. xi. 23 
 I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this 
 mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the 
 sea ; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe 
 that those things which he saith shall come to pass ; 
 he shall have whatsoever he saith." And then, in his 
 usual way, he turned from the devotional to the ethical 
 from the faith in God to the duty of man and 
 gently rebuked the way of thought that would destroy 
 what for the present gave offence, even were it an 
 irresponsible fig-tree. He said, " When ye stand Vers. 25, 
 praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any ; that 2 
 your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you 
 your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will 
 your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." 
 The reader will see how disconnected, or indeed how 
 out of agreement would be the teaching in these words 
 with Jesus's own action, if we were to read the report 
 in the Gospel of Mark quite literally. When we read 
 it, on the other hand, critically, with the help of Luke, 
 the whole incident comes intelligibly before us, and 
 brings most precious teaching to ourselves. 
 
 By the time Jesus presented himself at the temple Mk. xi. 
 on this day, the priests and scribes had collected their 2/ ~ 3 
 courage, and had resolved on an interference with him. 
 
 16 * 
 
244 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 They came up and said to him something like this, 
 
 Veis. 27, By what authority doest thou these things ? and who 
 gave thee this authority to do these things ? " Jesus's 
 answer was in accordance with his usual masterly skill. 
 He did not choose to involve himself in discussions 
 with these men about his claims ; but still we can see 
 he was determined to make clear to them the kind of 
 authority he was claiming, along with the kind of 
 ascendancy he was aiming at, so that, once for all, 
 there might be no confusing of his mission with that 
 of any political revolutionist. What he did was to 
 choose another concrete example for them to compare 
 him with. Clear and unmistakable to every class of 
 intelligence was his answer. He named the name of 
 
 Ver. 29. j j m the Baptist. He said, " I will also ask of you one 
 question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what 
 
 Ver 30- authority I do these things. The baptism of John, 
 was it from heaven, or of men ? answer me." They 
 were silenced, as they were compelled to be. They 
 
 Vers. 31- could not, in the face of the people, object to one 
 who was only coming with that moral kind of appeal 
 which had been addressed by a well-known man, and 
 been recognised by all honest persons as having no 
 political significance, and as being just a sacred appeal 
 to the heart. They saw that Jesus was claimi-ng to be 
 not a revolutionary, but a " prophet " ; and so, though 
 they might not withdraw their secret opposition to 
 him, they perceived they had no ground for public 
 interference. We find, accordingly, that they left him 
 to continue his sacred teaching. 
 
 From the Fourth Gospel we get a rather interesting 
 confirmation of this incident of the aim of the inter- 
 ference, the course adopted by Jesus, and the failure of 
 
JESUS'S PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN JERUSALEM. 245 
 
 the aim. The Fourth Gospel seems at first sight to 
 antedate Jesus's action in the court of the temple, and 
 conveys the impression that it happened at the begin- 
 ning instead of at the end of the ministry. The fact, 
 however, is that the evangelist, having evidently had 
 two different original accounts before him, runs over 
 the whole ministry in the first two and a half chapters 
 and then starts anew. In the second chapter of the j n . ii. 13- 
 Fourth Gospel, thus, we find an account of the events 
 
 p. 
 now before us, and there we find given as Jesus's 53 ; and 
 
 t J also see 
 
 answer to the objectors a remark which, we shall App. IV. 
 see, was really uttered by Jesus, but on a later occasion Jn. ii. 19. 
 than that to which we have come. The Fourth Gospel 
 also, however, in its second and main narrative, has 
 preserved a notice of Jesus's real answ r er to the 
 objectors, which has just been before us. Yes, far- 
 fetched as it may seem at the first look, we may surely 
 see a report of the incident in the following words : 
 
 " They sought again to take him : but he escaped out J n x 39. 
 
 40. 
 of their hand, and went away again beyond Jordan, 
 
 into the place where John at first baptised." This 
 statement is, literally read, not historical, for, as 
 scholars have shown, Jesus did not move about bodily 
 from place to place as the Fourth Gospel makes him 
 do. The Synoptic gospels do not give him time for 
 such journeyings ; and in the matter of time the 
 Synoptic gospels can be proved to be strictly accurate. 
 But, as has been said above, we are to see that the 
 whole of the second and larger half of the Fourth 
 Gospel is, in its original elements, an account of the 
 one short visit to Jerusalem. And so there is suggested 
 that the statement is not a purely fictitious one, but is 
 a materialised report of what took place in Jesus's 
 
246 THE SAVIOUR IX THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 management of his case. We shall see, indeed, in a 
 later chapter, that there is a truth in the fact that 
 Jesus made a slight withdrawal from notice during the 
 Jerusalem visit ; so that that event has so far entered 
 into the statement before us in its development. 
 But what has mainly given rise to the statement is 
 evidently the answer of Jesus to the priests and 
 scribes, which we have just had before us. It is quite 
 true in a sense, just as the statement declares, that the 
 enemies of Jesus taking "enemies" of Jesus, Galilean 
 and Judaean, all in a mass " sought again to take 
 him " ; and it is true that he " escaped out of their 
 hands," in this way, that he suddenly and unexpectedly 
 went away again (in his talk) " into the place where 
 John at first baptised." The disciples, no doubt, who 
 had come to think of late of his own great personality, 
 and of his acknowledging himself to be the Messiah, 
 were as surprised as the priests and scribes were at his 
 going " away again " back to John the Baptist. And 
 so the story would come to take the fanciful form, in 
 which the fancy was changed to an erroneous assertion 
 regarding the place in which Jesus actually was. 
 Mk. Mi. i; Jesus began at this point some lengthened teaching 
 47, xx. i. in and around the temple. But at this point the 
 exact determining of time fails in the gospel accounts, 
 from the natural causes above specified. All we can 
 know about the setting of time is that the whole 
 teaching evidently lasted little over a week. During 
 this week or so, Jesus gave some teaching on which 
 we must enter in next chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE PROCLAIMING OF HIS OWN IDEAS IN JERUSALEM. 
 
 THE teaching of Jesus in Jerusalem, in accordance 
 with the action which we had before us in last chapter, see above, 
 took a more aggressive form than his Galilean teaching P- 238 - 
 had done. The difference was brought about by the 
 fact that he was now deliberately laying siege, as it 
 were, to the religious opinions and feelings of his 
 countrymen, having it before his mind that he could 
 only spread his own ideas through making a decisive 
 stand against the old-fashioned teachers. Thus his 
 public addresses in Jerusalem seem to have been in 
 the same spirit as that in which he had acted when he 
 had overthrown the tables. We shall find, however, 
 that he made them lead up to the teaching of his own 
 positive ideas, and we shall also find that he gave in a 
 more private form much of his own teaching at the 
 same time. In this chapter we are to attend only to 
 the public teaching. 
 
 Both Mark and Matthew give reports of his attacking 
 the scribes and Pharisees about their love of high 
 
248 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 place. We may take it as certain that Jesus openly 
 reproached the scribes with loving the dignities 
 attached to their office, but not acting themselves in a 
 
 MI. xxiii.; wa y worthy of their office. 
 
 52. Matthew, however, adds to his report a long address 
 
 of reproach against the scribes and Pharisees ; and 
 the substance of this address is found in Luke also, 
 though not given there among the occurrences at 
 Jerusalem. The address speaks for itself as containing 
 the words of Jesus, so powerful is it, and so in accord- 
 ance with his ideas and his way of expressing himself. 
 Now it is to be recognised that Matthew has the 
 tendency to make up long speeches out of sayings 
 really spoken in different connections, so that in the 
 twenty-third chapter of Matthew there may be 
 elements that have been woven in to make up the 
 speech. The speech, however, is such a unity that 
 we can accept almost all of it as having been really a 
 speech of Jesus delivered in public. Any additions 
 must be inconsiderable ; the report of Matthew may be 
 taken as almost literally correct. And we must fix it 
 to this time at Jerusalem, and not to an earlier time, 
 as Luke would have us do, both because this was the 
 time consistent with its fierce spirit, and because 
 Luke's own report of it suggests the circumstances in 
 which Jesus now was that is, engaged in his last 
 struggle with the authorities. The speech is in the 
 tone of the old prophecies, but excelling all of them in 
 power. It is a speech which shows Jesus to have 
 excelled all others as greatly when speaking as a 
 moralist as he did when speaking as a prophet of the 
 higher kind. One after another of the ways of those 
 who make profession not in accordance with their 
 
PROCLAIMING OF HIS OWN IDEAS IN JERUSALEM. 249 
 
 practice is laid open in it in plain and cutting language. 
 But along with these are mentioned faults such as Mt. xxiii. 
 are the temptation of the devotees of all systems, \ 5 5 \ j^| ^ 
 and are only likely to be escaped where zeal is elevated 
 through being accompanied by an abundance of charity 
 and wisdom. The eagerness to make proselytes to 
 one's own system, the disputing over trifles, the 
 centering religion on ceremonies and forms, the out- 
 ward profession of sanctity disproportionate to the 
 inward attainment, the blaming the men of the past 
 for persecuting their prophets while acting in the 
 same spirit oneself all these things are trenchantly 
 reproved in this address in Jerusalem. 
 
 There is an expression used in the address which we Vers. 17, 
 have just had before us, which is interesting from " 
 different considerations. That is the expression Confirm- 
 " blind " as applied by Jesus to the scribes and f x .4" 
 Pharisees. It is interesting in that it gives an explan- 
 ation of the form of some of the miracle-narratives. 
 It is also interesting as we shall see it made a strong 
 impression on one at least of the hearers, who, indeed, 
 came to believe in Jesus. But it is interesting chiefly 
 in this, that it gives a most valuable clue to the nature 
 of Jesus's own religion. In reproaching the scribes 
 with being blind, he implied, in distinction, that there 
 was a way of dealing with religious subjects, in which 
 one looked and saw what was there to see. In this, as 
 elsewhere, Jesus assuredly taught that the true subject 
 for the study of the religious is to be found in what is 
 always living around us, and not in any records of the 
 past. Records of the past, we may say, according to 
 Jesus's teaching, may suggest in a most valuable way 
 how to look for ourselves ; but those who study the 
 
250 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 records without being able to see any present sacred 
 reality are, in relation to sacred things, like blind men, 
 and if they pose as teachers of others on these subjects, 
 
 Mt.xv. 14. are " blind leaders of the blind." It is in accordance 
 
 gin.p. ioo. with this that Jesus's own teaching keeps mostly away 
 from established embodiments of doctrine, as well as 
 from established religious practices, and busies itself 
 with the care of our heavenly Father, and our duty 
 to care for one another with such subjects as the 
 Divine government of nature, kindness, mercifulness, 
 honesty, and purity of heart. 
 
 Mt. xxiii. j n Matthew it is reported that Jesus said, in 
 connection with his attack on the scribes and 
 Pharisees, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in 
 Moses' seat : all therefore whatsoever they bid you 
 observe, that observe and do ; but do not ye after their 
 works : for they say, and do not." For us the fact that 
 he did say, if not this exactly, then at least something 
 like this, is confirmed strongly, if in a rough manner 
 by our finding in the Fourth Gospel report the 
 
 Jn. vii. 19. following words : " Did not Moses give you the law, 
 and yet none of you keepeth the law ? " It is likely 
 that in neither of the reports are Jesus's words quite 
 accurately preserved. But two reports so different 
 from each other, and yet evidently reports of one 
 saying, compel us to recognise that Jesus really said 
 something like them. The probability is that, in this 
 instance, the Fourth Gospel report is the more 
 accurate, the First Gospel report being led away by 
 the respect to Law which runs through the First 
 Gospel. Jesus, it is likely, stated plainly to the 
 inhabitants of Jerusalem that he was not interfering 
 with the Law nor objecting to the scribes teaching the 
 
PROCLAIMING OF HIS OWN IDEAS IN JERUSALEM. 251 
 
 Law, but wished them, scribes and people, to act in 
 accordance with what they professed to reverence and 
 learn. 
 
 In these aggressive addresses, we find, Jesus led up 
 to the presentation of the gracious truths which it was 
 his mission to assert. Our reports of this directly 
 positive teaching are, no doubt, more suggestive than 
 complete : but they are in the highest degree con- 
 vincing, and are sufficient in extent to give a valuable 
 addition to our knowledge of his ideas. 
 
 First and foremost, we have almost perfect evidence Mt. xxiii 
 for the fact that he proclaimed in public, in simple below P ' 
 language, his great ruling idea of the Fatherhood of 
 God. According to the report in Matthew, he was Mt. xxiii. 
 led on to do this through attacking the love of high 
 place which prevailed among the " scribes and Phari- 
 sees." And we have assuredly in this report of 
 Matthew the original words of Jesus, though a few . 
 small additions are just about as surely interwoven 
 from later elucidations given for the sake of the early 
 Christians. The original words of Jesus were at least 
 almost exactly these : " But be not ye called Rabbi : 
 
 for all ye are brethren. And one is 
 
 your Father, which is in heaven " to which prophetic 
 utterance he added, in his customary way, the ethical 
 
 counterpart, " Neither be ye called Masters 
 
 But he that is greatest among you shall be your 
 servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be 
 abased ; and he that shall humble himself shall be 
 exalted." 
 
 The fact of the prophetic utterance regarding the 
 Fatherhood of God having proceeded from Jesus at 
 this time, is confirmed by the Fourth Gospel, though jn.yiii.4i. 
 
252 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Vers. 41- the evangelist has in this case done the most arbitrary 
 App. I 66 thing we have seen him do in the enunciation of his 
 (I3 ' 23 )' dualistic philosophy namely, no less than put our 
 Lord's sacred words into the mouth of " the Jews " 
 themselves, and represent Jesus as having disagreed 
 with them, preferring to think that " the devil " was 
 their father, because they did not love him. This, no 
 doubt, is a case similar to others that have been before 
 us, in which the evangelist has received words accom- 
 panied by no explanation of their definite connection, 
 and has himself, accordingly, with every intention to 
 keep to the truth, given the words a setting in 
 this case an authorship. Nevertheless what he has 
 presented to us in this case is Johannine Christianity, 
 not history. The great words are Jesus's, not " the 
 Jews' " ; and the lesser words are the evangelist's, not 
 Jesus's. But the finding our words in the Fourth 
 . Gospel report, in spite of the perversion applied to 
 them, is confirmatory of their having been uttered at 
 this time. 
 
 And, further, the very perversion of the words in the 
 Fourth Gospel helps us to maintain what we must take 
 our stand by namely, that the words were uttered not 
 merely to the disciples, but to all, not merely to " the 
 
 Pp. 38,98, Christians," but to mankind. We have seen above 
 164. 
 
 that it was most certainly a universal Fatherhood that 
 
 Jesus taught, and that the supposition of his having 
 communicated his ideas to a favoured few only, is 
 excluded by the very character of the ideas themselves. 
 It is interesting, however, to find this confirmed by 
 a particular instance ; and in the particular instance 
 now before us testimony is borne both by Matthew 
 and John, independently of each other, to the fact 
 
PROCLAIMING OF HIS OWN IDEAS IN JERUSALEM. 253 
 
 that Jesus spoke of a Fatherhood for all. The fact 
 that the words had come into the hands of the Fourth 
 Evangelist in so bare a form that he had practically to 
 contradict them to suit them to his own narrow and 
 exclusive view, suggests convincingly that they had 
 not, at first, any qualification limiting them to the 
 disciples, as such a qualification is not of the kind 
 that would likely have altogether disappeared. 
 
 Another point seems to have been specially brought 
 forward in Jesus's proclaiming of his ideas at this 
 time, and that was the truth of the RESURRECTION 
 of our spirits after death. This truth had been 
 bound up with his teaching all along, as we have 
 seen above ; and in the matter of Jairus's daughter, Above, p. 
 he had given forcible expression to it. It natur- I 5 
 ally, however, had assumed greater prominence in his 
 own thoughts since the time of his coming to the 
 presentiment that early death was before himself. 
 And thus we should expect a slight distinction between 
 the place it would hold in his earlier teaching and that 
 which it would hold in his later teaching. We should 
 expect that in the later teaching he would oftener 
 and more prominently introduce the subject. This 
 distinction is borne out by the evidence we possess. 
 It is in what is certainly early teaching that we find 
 Jesus urging his hearers to take " no thought for the 
 morrow," and to trust to being clothed and fed by 
 the heavenly Father, like the flowers of the field and 
 the birds of the air. In this last Jerusalem teaching, 
 assuredly the truth of what is to come after death, 
 in the care of that same heavenly Father, was pro- 
 minent. We have not, indeed, much record of his 
 
 Jn. viii. 51 
 
 public utterances on the subject, though we shall may be a 
 
254 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 trace of find him expressing the truth forcibly in his private 
 
 Cp. the conversations. His parables, however, to which we 
 
 verseT ng arc to come presently, involve the truth ; and both 
 
 which are the faith among the people and the opposition among 
 
 founded the religious parties which followed his whole appear- 
 
 dentof the ance, bear witness to the fact that this truth was 
 
 objecting asser ted by him openly and unmistakably. Fixed in 
 
 teaching his gaze on that Presence which he saw to be all 
 
 rection. Care for every being that lives and thinks, and burning 
 
 with an emotion in himself which was so overpowering 
 
 that he knew it bore witness to the determination of 
 
 that Presence to accomplish its ends, Jesus, with the 
 
 ' authority " which was attached to his personality, 
 
 taught that those who suffered and hoped and died 
 
 in this world would live again. 
 
 A few of the grandest parables also were almost 
 certainly spoken and repeated at this time. These, 
 like his other .public utterances in Jerusalem, were 
 largely given to begin with by way of attack on the 
 Pharisees and scribes ; but most of them were such 
 that they soared far above their first aggressive aim, 
 and became expressions of those eternal truths which 
 Jesus had come to Jerusalem to assert. 
 
 There was the PARABLE OF THE WICKED HUSBAND- 
 MEN. This is the only one that our chief guide, the 
 Mk. xii. i- Gospel of Mark, has preserved ; and it had a special 
 importance from the view of those gospels which had, 
 as one aim, to set up the claims of Jesus to be followed 
 rather than the scribes. It is an almost purely aggres- 
 sive parable, and it has a peculiar gloominess in that 
 it seems to presuppose the temporary discomfiture of 
 Jesus. There is a self-assertion in it, on Jesus's part, 
 which prompts us at first to suspect it has been 
 
PROCLAIMING OF HIS OWN IDEAS IN JERUSALEM. 255 
 
 tampered with slightly before it has reached the form 
 in which we have it. We find Jesus saying in it, 
 " Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he Ver. 6. 
 sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence 
 my son. But those husbandmen said among them- Ver - 7- 
 selves, This is the heir," &c. Probably the report was 
 very slightly diverted from the original. The remark 
 about " the heir " especially is not likely to have been 
 in the parable as Jesus spoke it. But it is best to 
 believe that the change has been very slight, and that 
 Jesus did indeed, at this time, speak out his conscious- 
 ness of being greater than any prophet that had gone 
 before him. This self-assertion through a parable is 
 not like the Fourth Gospel self-assertion. And we 
 have already seen that Jesus's whole conduct at this 
 time implied an indirect self-assertion, for the sake of 
 his .mission ; so that a delicate self-assertion in words, 
 through a parable, is quite in keeping. This parable 
 is, however, also remarkable as containing a prediction 
 made by Jesus about the future of his own name, 
 which is no doubt authentic. Recalling the words of 
 a psalm, Jesus said, at the end of the parable, "And Vers. 10, 
 
 1 1 * Ps 
 
 have ye not read this scripture, The stone which the cxviii. 22, 
 builders rejected is become the head of the corner : 23- 
 This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our 
 eyes ? " This prediction, based on his consciousness 
 of power and of enlightenment, was justified long after 
 even the gospel's time by a resplendent fulfilment. 
 
 Then there was the PARABLE OF THE MARRIAGE Mt. xxii. 
 SUPPER. This parable, reported and certainly added i^adcL; 
 to in Matthew, and simply reported in Luke, may be ^ 6 k 2 xiv ' 
 assigned to this time on Matthew's authority. It 
 expresses the experience of Jesus all along, of finding 
 
256 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 those whose names were " cast out as evil," rather 
 than the professed religious classes, listening to his 
 simple teaching. 
 
 Then there was the PARABLE OF THE PHARISEE AND 
 
 Lk. xviii. PUBLICAN. We may fix this one to the time we are 
 dealing with from its local setting of the temple. It is 
 a great parable, going far beyond an aggressive purpose 
 in its teaching. 
 
 Mt. xxi. Then there was the PARABLE OF THE Two SONS 
 the one who said he would go and work, and did not 
 go, and the one who did not say, but went. This, 
 reported in Matthew along with the Parable of the 
 Husbandmen, may be assigned to this time. It is a 
 striking illustration of the point above noticed, which 
 Jesus brought forward in reference to the greater 
 importance of keeping the law than of professing 
 reverence for it. But it also goes beyond its immediate 
 purpose, and is of eternal value. 
 
 Lk.xv. ii- Some scholars, furthermore, have fixed the parable 
 of the PRODIGAL SON to the Jerusalem teaching, on 
 the ground of its likeness to the parable of the Two 
 Sons, just mentioned. And it may be that the parable 
 of the Prodigal Son, perhaps the greatest of all the 
 parables, was delivered at the temple at this time, 
 
 Above, p. though, as we have seen, there is temptation to fix it 
 to the last visit to Capernaum. 
 
 Then lastly, the parable of the JUDGE AND WIDOW, 
 
 Lk. xviii. one with no aggressive element in it, may have been 
 delivered at this time, seeing it is in some way coupled 
 with that of the Pharisee and Publican in Luke's 
 report. 
 
 By way of concluding the account of this part of 
 the teaching which comes under the head of pro- 
 
PROCLAIMING OF HIS OWN IDEAS IN JERUSALEM. 257 
 
 claiming his own ideas in public, there is one small 
 contribution that may be extracted from the long 
 disputatious report of the Fourth Gospel. It is in cp. above! 
 this sentence, " If any man thirst, let him come unto ?' 7 ' 73 ' 
 me, and drink." In this saying, in which we see Jesus Reuss 
 applying to himself the words of the fifty-fifth chapter Mt. v. 6. 
 of Isaiah, we have life-likeness and likeness to Jesus. 
 And we may find here an example of the length to 
 which Jesus really went in the self-assertion to which he 
 had a right. There is nothing here of the self-glorifi- 
 cation which the evangelist's handling has imposed on 
 Jesus in the general picture. Here Jesus only expresses 
 his consciousness of religious authority. Here is not 
 self-elevation, but modest assertion of conscious power. 
 That such teaching would actually win over the 
 inhabitants of a city which was the citadel of the 
 artificial Judaic religion, Jesus himself, as we are 
 believing, had hardly hoped. But the narrative in 
 general brings out surely, what we should otherwise 
 have felt certain of, that it charmed many and set 
 them a-thinking, as it had done with the people of 
 Capernaum. A little incident told of in the ninth 
 chapter of the Fourth Gospel illustrates this and bears 
 it out. Some man had been so impressed by Jesus's 
 public addresses, that he had become a believer in Jesus. 
 His friends were displeased at this, and abused Jesus 
 to hi?^, saying, " Thou art his disciple ; but we are Jn. ix. 28, 
 Moses' disciples. We know that God spake unto Moses : 2 ' 
 as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is." 
 They further said, in their ignorant indelicacy, that 
 Jesus was " a sinner." The man said, in reply to this Ver. 24. 
 abuse of Jesus, something like the following: "Whether Ver. 25. 
 he be a sinner or no, I know not : one thing I know, 
 
258 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 that, whereas I was blind, now I see." This was too 
 
 much for the ruling powers in the synagogue which 
 
 the man had attended ; and if we can hardly accept 
 
 entirely the evangelist's statement that they went at 
 
 once to the extremity of expelling him from the syna- 
 
 Ver. 34. gogue, we must believe they warned him that if he 
 
 persisted in his convictions they would do so. It will 
 
 be perceived that the suggestions which the man's 
 
 remark to his friends bears of Jesus's sayings about 
 
 Cp. above, the Pharisees and scribes in his address that we have 
 
 250 249 ' particularly reported to us, is strong evidence for the 
 
 truth of the incident, in the abridged and purified form 
 
 in which we have followed it. And indeed we find the 
 
 Jn. i.\. 4 o, evangelist's own account gets mixed up with that 
 
 saying of Jesus about the Pharisees. The giving here 
 
 the blindness of the man a spiritual, not a physical 
 
 meaning, need hardly be defended. Not only is it 
 
 required for the sake of making the whole incident 
 
 See vers. intelligible, but it may be said to be proved from the 
 
 5 X 2S> 39> record itself. This incident which will come before 
 
 us again in another aspect helps to show us the 
 
 power of Jesus's teaching at this time. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 TEACHING SUGGESTED BY INCIDENTS. 
 
 IT will by this time be apparent to the reader that the 
 teaching of Jesus in relation to incidents in general is 
 the most valuable part of his definite teaching that 
 remains to us. And the reason for such a state of 
 matters is not far to seek. In such a community as 
 that which surrounded Jesus, his words that were 
 called forth by special incidents naturally made the 
 strongest impression on the memory, and so were best 
 preserved. Now several incidents which took place in 
 the short time at Jerusalem have come down to us, 
 having connected with them teaching which both 
 discloses to us the mind of Jesus and brings sacred 
 suggestions of the highest order for ourselves. 
 
 At the outset we must consider one incident, which 
 is different from all the rest in that the report of it, in 
 literalness, though not in its significance when sub- 
 jected to critical treatment, brings before us teaching 
 of a kind very perplexing as related to the character 
 and mind of Jesus as far as we have discerned them. 
 
 Perhaps the only part of the Synoptic gospels which, 
 
2()O THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 to a thoughtful follower of Jesus, must prove in some 
 
 way repellent, is to be found in those passages towards 
 
 Mt. xxiv., the end of all three, which are called by scholars 
 
 xiii. ;' Lk. APOCALYPTIC passages, and deal with the subjects of the 
 
 destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world. 
 
 37' xlx - 
 
 41-48, xxi. They are so evidently compositions of an artificial type 
 See J. E. which prevailed in Tesus's time. They have, further, 
 
 H. Thorn- 
 
 son's not that ring of the highest type of prophecy, of 
 Apocalyp- unparalleled religious genius, which is found in the 
 tic books. Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain. 
 Their subjects, again, though in literalness super- 
 natural, are in reality less ethereal than the subjects of 
 the parables of the Seed, the simple aphorisms, and 
 the parable of the Prodigal Son. And finally, in dealing 
 with the end of the world, they so plainly, unless 
 recourse be had to the utmost ingenuity of interpreta- 
 tion, give an account regarding what was to come 
 which the facts afterwards proved to have been not 
 strictly accurate. 
 
 We are to be thankful, therefore, to scholars for 
 being able to hold with certainty that these apocalyptic 
 passages, so far as they are accounts of the sayings of 
 Jesus, are largely elaborated and added to by foreign 
 hands. It is not the work of this book to go closely 
 into the critical discussion of these passages ; but we 
 may sum up the truth regarding them in this way : 
 The fact that the destruction of Jerusalem did not 
 happen till long after Jesus's death is enough, in a true 
 understanding of prophetic insight, to put out of the 
 question the supposition that he really spoke, in any 
 detail, of that event. The fact that the idea of an 
 abrupt and judicial end of the world is quite out of 
 keeping with his whole view of life, as criticism discerns 
 
TEACHING SUGGESTED BY INCIDENTS. 26l 
 
 it, disposes, as we have already seen, of the supposition 
 that he really entertained that idea. And as regards 
 the general state of matters, it is to be said that these 
 apocalyptic passages are due to Church expositions of 
 the sayings of Jesus, and that they have been worked 
 up out of original sayings, wrongly interpreted in the 
 light of subsequent events, and filled up through the 
 help of apocalyptic writings belonging to the time. 
 
 For us now, however, the important thing is to 
 determine what points of real history are to be 
 discerned through them ; and the answer to this must Mk. xiii. 
 be that the main historical background is to be found f^ 13 
 in one incident. We can learn what this incident was by different 
 
 . . J occasion 
 
 reading the one chapter in our most ancient gospel Cp. Mt. 
 which presents the subject. We can recognise that ^3 
 
 the longer records of Matthew and Luke, while drawing Mt - XX IY,: 
 
 XXV 
 
 Mk. 
 
 more from other apocalyptic sources, have also had xiii. ; Lk. 
 
 xvii., xix., 
 
 access to some further true reports of Jesus's sayings xx i. 
 in connection with the incident. And we shall learn 
 thus what may make us call it the Incident of the 
 Disciples admiring the Temple Buildings. 
 
 The incident has three parts, which we may call A, 
 B, and C. 
 
 (A .) The disciples, and also, no doubt, Jesus himself, 
 were admiring the beautiful structure and ornamenta- 
 tion of the temple. And as they did so, Jesus made a 
 remark which the Synoptic gospels have reported not Mk. xiii. 
 very accurately, and in such a way as to suggest, I( 2> 
 wrongly, that it was an allusion to the coming 
 destruction of Jerusalem. For what he really said we 
 must call in the aid of a notice in the Fourth Gospel, j n iL Ig . 
 which is supported by a notice in Mark regarding the Mk. xiv. 
 charge which was afterwards brought against Jesus at Mk. xiii. 4 
 
262 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT, 
 
 >y ith p J n - his trial. Jesus said, we must learn, that this temple 
 what " made with hands " would be destroyed, and that he 
 Se^aiso " within three days " would raise up a temple " made 
 above, pp. without hands." The meaning of what he said is 
 
 53, 245. 
 
 easily discerned for a thoughtful student of his life. 
 
 In speaking of the three days, he again quoted his 
 Hos^vi. i., favourite saying from Hosea, meaning by the "three 
 above, p. days " a fixed period which God, who overrules all, 
 
 would determine. And the whole remark was as much 
 With as t o sa y This temple and the work connected with it 
 
 evange- J ' 
 
 list's ma- will perish, and indeed must perish soon ; but let both 
 explana- the temple and the whole worship connected with it go, 
 it *> out f m y own knowledge and power, will make 
 religion live again. 
 
 (B.) Afterwards when they had gone out to the 
 Mk.xiii. 3 . Mount of Olives, on the way to Bethany, " Peter and 
 James and John and Andrew " asked him for some 
 explanation of what he had said about the destroying 
 of the temple, and of himself restoring it. And it is in 
 reporting his meeting of this request that the Synoptic 
 gospels definitely introduce those considerations taken 
 from later time, in virtue of which they depart from 
 real history. For the learning what really happened 
 at this point of the incident, we get no help from other 
 sources, but are reduced to making the best of an 
 ordinary critical reading of the Synoptic reports them- 
 selves. Fortunately, however, amongst the reports of 
 the three gospels, there are fragments of information 
 which carry conviction with them ; and the broken 
 pieces fit together so as to make one consistent whole. 
 First, then, by way of explaining why he looked 
 forward at all to a destruction of the temple and of its 
 worship, he spoke, we must believe, those words which 
 
TEACHING SUGGESTED BY INCIDENTS. 263 
 
 the gospels report out of their logical connection, 
 
 "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be Mt. xxiv 
 
 
 gathered together." The meaning of the words is 
 
 plain. He had seen the whole religious system of his 
 people to be' dead. He looked at the temple building ^j^ 
 itself as having degenerated into being the centre of a connec- 
 not very honest trade. And as for the teaching of gospels, 
 those in authority, he had given his stern opinion of xxi 
 
 what it was worth. The words were as much as to * xvii - 
 
 36. 
 
 say, The whole system is dead. Dead things don't 
 remain as they are. Some power will come forward in 
 the course of nature and remove the carcase. 
 
 Then, we are to learn, from speaking of the first part 
 of Jesus's prediction namely, that the temple made 
 with hands would be destroyed they went on to ask 
 for explanations regarding the second part of his pre- 
 diction namely, that he would raise up a temple 
 made without hands. And in connection with this, 
 there came into the conversation some words of the Mk - xiii - 
 
 26 ; Mt. 
 
 apocalyptic kind, most likely the words Jesus himself xxiv. 30. 
 had used by way of expressing the fact of which he was 
 sure, that opposition and even death would not put an 
 end to himself or his mission, but that God would 
 restore himself and carry the mission to success. How 
 this would come about it is not difficult to see. When 
 Jesus was now talking about a restoration, all of them 
 would at once connect what he was saying with the 
 great restoration which they all believed in and called 
 the kingdom of God. And when Jesus was now speaking 
 of himself bringing about a restoration, they would 
 naturally recall the apocalyptic words which Jesus had 
 already, on a former occasion, used to express his 
 ultimate hopes regarding himself and his mission. 
 
264 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 When Jesus now spoke of himself, in the future, 
 building a temple without hands, there would at once 
 recur to them the thought of the Son of man coming in 
 his glory. Whether it was the disciples or Jesus 
 himself that introduced the words into the con- 
 versation now before us, it is difficult to tell ; but it 
 little matters, as we have already seen that Jesus was 
 willing to use such words, though he used them not 
 literally but as mere expressions of his own thoughts. 
 What happened, then, was that they went on to seek 
 explanation of what Jesus had meant by speaking of 
 restoring the temple, connecting that with the great 
 restoration and with the resurrection and ultimate 
 triumph of Jesus. Jesus's sayings, by way of supplying 
 the explanation which they thus desired, stand out from 
 Mk. xiii. the report quite plainly to a thoughtful reader. He said 
 that the time and ways of the coming restoration were 
 not to be accurately foreseen by human minds. He 
 said that all things come in unexpected ways and at 
 unexpected times. And he gave two illustrations of 
 
 Mt. xxiv. th i s g enera i f act> First, he reminded them of the old 
 story of the flood, as a vivid illustration of how things 
 happen in the eternal rule of God. And then, second, 
 he appealed to ordinary experience. He said, " Two 
 are in the field ; the one is taken, and the other left." 
 Two are grinding at the mill ; the one is taken, and the 
 other left." That the gospels have misunderstood 
 these words, and so slightly manipulated them, is 
 sufficiently clear from the fact that they present them 
 in such a way as to have no logical connection with 
 Cp. ver. the words which they make to follow them. They 
 JJjk'-E*' were assuredly, as Jesus uttered them, words expressing 
 the ordinary facts in the continual government of God, 
 
TEACHING SUGGESTED BY INCIDENTS. 265 
 
 brought forward to be examples of what was to be 
 expected in the future, and were not oracular 
 apocalyptic sayings. Jesus further, we may believe, 
 at this time, impressed upon his disciples the fact that 
 the restoration of what is good was not to be looked 
 for as to be accomplished altogether by external means, 
 but required the growth of what is good in the souls 
 of men themselves. For the report of this point, 
 indeed, we are indebted to a notice in Luke, in which 
 it is said that it was to the Pharisees Jesus said this. Lk. xvii. 
 But the notice seems to belong to the report of this 
 incident that is before us. The words attributed to 
 Jesus in it bear all the marks of genuineness, and are 
 these, " The kingdom of God cometh not with observa- 
 tion : neither shall they say, Lo here ! or, lo there ! for, 
 behold, the kingdom of God is within you." And then, 
 lastly, he added that indeed he looked for a great 
 immediate establishment of what was good in the 
 world, as he had always taught. He grounded the 
 belief in such a thing coming on the- fact of so much 
 earnestness having appeared all over the nation. He 
 said, " Learn a parable of the fig-tree ; When her branch Mk. xiii. 
 is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that 28> 2 " 
 summer is near : so ye, in like manner, when ye shall 
 see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even 
 at the doors." In the gospel report of these words 
 they read as if the " these things " alluded to were the Vers. 24- 
 realisations of awe-striking apocalyptic notions, such as 2?> 
 the sun and moon ceasing to give light, the falling of 
 stars, and the coming of the Son of man in the clouds. 
 The utter unsuitability of the parable to such things, 
 viewed as facts, and indeed its utter pointlessness 
 when supposed to start from such things as facts, 
 will be patent to the reader. The connection of the 
 
266 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 words has been lost in the apocalyptic composition 
 cp. above, w hich meets us in the gospel. The "these things" 
 which Jesus meant were assuredly the quickenings of 
 earnestness and devotion which had taken place in 
 connection with the preaching of himself and of John 
 the Baptist. 
 
 Thus here as elsewhere the " apocalyptic " element 
 in what is reported as Jesus's teaching is to be 
 detected as having been partly later filling up of the 
 report, and as having been, even in the part in which 
 it really belonged to what he said, mere material or 
 imagery there to his hand. On the other side, what 
 really proceeded from Jesus's mind on the subject is 
 to be looked for first, no doubt, in the declaring that 
 the imagery in question expressed a real fact, but, 
 second, in those thoughts which we have just had 
 before us, which gave to the imagery and the fact 
 presented by it a spiritual and rational explanation. 
 
 (C.) And finally, as regards this incident, it is as 
 plain as it need be for any fair reader, that Jesus went 
 on to turn the conversation which had arisen out of 
 the incident into the lines of taking lessons for ordinary 
 life. What he went on to say, we can see, was to this 
 general effect : While it is right to remember the fact 
 that God will bring in the end the triumph of what is 
 Mk. xiii. good, the main thing for men and women to attend to 
 is their duty in the present. And this thought he 
 developed in several parables which are more or less 
 pointed to in a brief notice by Mark, and are preserved 
 by Matthew, in forms through which, though they are 
 more or less influenced by the apocalyptic beliefs of 
 the time of the gospel, we can read the original. 
 Vers. 34- There was the PARABLE OF THE WATCHMEN. This 
 seems to have been a short parable. Its meaning 
 
TEACHING SUGGESTED BY INCIDENTS. 267 
 
 clearly is that God has given each one a trust for this 
 world, so that each one should be alive and attentive. 
 This parable is reported in Mark. 
 
 From the Parable of the Watchmen he likely 
 hurriedly went on to the PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS. Ver. 35 ; 
 
 Mt. xxv. i- 
 
 This parable is hinted at, but not properly preserved, I3 . 
 in Mark. In Matthew there is a long presentation of 
 it ; but in that presentation it must have been changed 
 since its utterance by Jesus. The Parable of the 
 Virgins in the severely dualistic form in. which the 
 Gospel of Matthew gives it is not in accordance with 
 the teaching of Jesus, but is in accordance with the Mt - xxv 
 tendency of the Gospel of Matthew. We can suppose Lk. xii. 
 the parable was originally a short parable similar to 3 ~ 
 that of the Watchmen, to the general effect that each 
 one has something to do before God sends the times 
 of rest and joy, and that when God brings the good 
 times it is right to be found not in an idle state, but 
 attending to one's duty, even if that duty only consist 
 in such a thing as keeping a lamp burning. 
 
 Then there was the PARABLE OF THE TALENTS. Mt. xxv. 
 This splendid parable, containing in itself the whole x ix. 12-27. 
 system of a moral philosophy in accordance with 
 religious faith, is preserved both by Matthew and by 
 Luke probably more faithfully by Matthew, but very 
 correctly by both. It was to the effect that all of us 
 have trusts to attend to in our common surroundings, 
 so that our commonest surroundings should be sacred 
 to us. 
 
 And lastly there was the parable as parable it may Cp. 
 rightly be called in its original utterance of the SHEEP .. 
 AND THE GOATS. The passage containing the remi- jL f 
 niscence, as it must be expressed, of this parable, is 326,"fire," 
 
268 THE SAVIOUR IX THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 &c., ^ one of the most remarkable in all the Bible. It 
 
 Mt 8 xx\- S presents, perhaps, an unparalleled collocation of the 
 
 Ezek Cp contraries of thought. On the one side is fancy, 
 
 xxxiv. 17, presenting a state of things for the future such as, in 
 
 ' the record of knowledge, no daylight experience, but 
 
 only perhaps some terrible dream, has ever brought 
 
 before the mind of man ; on the other side is promise, 
 
 which at once is justified by and transcends the best 
 
 that experience, imagination, and aspiration have 
 
 touched. And the collocation is no blending. The 
 
 weirdness of the one factor throws into relief the 
 
 winning gentleness of the other. But just from this 
 
 state of matters it comes about that the passage is 
 
 one of the dearest trophies of a victorious Biblical 
 
 Criticism. The separation of the factors is historically 
 
 justifiable, and Biblical Criticism is to be thanked for 
 
 Cp. Mk. it. Comparison of the teaching of Jesus in Mark and 
 
 Mt 4 xxv. Luke and of other treatment of teaching in Matthew, 
 
 xHi' ^ can P^ ace & beyond question that the awful dualism 
 
 w. Mt. which is found in this passage is to be referred either 
 
 XXV. IO- 
 
 13; Lk. to the evangelist or to the didactic school of which 
 Mt. xxv ms g s P e l was tne outcome. The original parable has 
 
 8 ~ciali nd k een treate d something as the parable of the Virgins 
 Lk. vi. 46 has been treated ; and a closer correspondence can be 
 21-23. found in the case of the parable of the Tares. The 
 Mt. xxv. second part of the passage is, at least in its present, 
 Mt 4 xiii. 'extreme form, a didactic offset to the first part, 
 
 36-43- intended by the early Christians as a warning to evil- 
 
 See also 
 
 App. i. doers. On the other hand, our canons of investigation 
 
 unhesitatingly ascribe the rest of the passage, in 
 substance at least, to Jesus; and the form also may 
 be allowed to be his own, from a broad view of its 
 distinctiveness and its likeness to his other teaching, 
 
TEACHING SUGGESTED BY INCIDENTS. 269 
 
 along with an appreciation of the character for faith- 
 fulness belonging to the First as to all the three earlier 
 gospels, keeping them from departing, more than in 
 "tendency," from the historical original. Returning 
 to the scene of the delivery of the parable, what comes 
 before us is that Jesus continued and, in all probability, 
 concluded his lessons for ordinary life at this time by 
 telling his disciples that, above all things, the main 
 interest for them was to be found in being kind to one 
 another. When the King would come in glory, he Mt - xxv - 
 said, He would say to his own " sheep," " Come, ye 
 blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
 for you from the foundation of the world : For I was 
 an hungered, and ye gave me meat : I was thirsty, and 
 ye gave me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me 
 in : Naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and ye 
 visited me : I was in prison, and ye came unto me." 
 " Then shall the righteous," he continued, " answer 
 him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, 
 and fed thee ? or thirsty and gave thee drink ? When 
 saw we thee a stranger and took thee in ? or naked, and 
 clothed thee ? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, 
 and came unto thee ? And the King shall answer and 
 say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye 
 have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
 ye have done it unto me." See App. 
 
 The other incidents having teaching connected with 
 them are easily made sure of. They are, most of them, 
 related in simple language, and may be accepted as 
 having happened much as they are related. 
 
 A certain scribe came and asked him what he taught 
 to be the first commandment of all. He answered, 
 " The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel ; 28-34. 
 
270 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 The Lord our God is one Lord : and thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all 
 thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy 
 strength. This is the first commandment. And the 
 second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbour as thyself. There is none other command- 
 ment greater than these." The scribe was evidently 
 impressed with the teaching, as well he might be, and 
 said, agreeing with Jesus, that indeed to love God 
 first and then to love one's neighbour, as Jesus had 
 said, was " more than all whole burnt offerings and 
 sacrifices." Jesus, in his turn, was pleased with the 
 scribe, and said to him, "Thou art not far from the 
 kingdom of God." 
 
 Luke gives in the long disconnected chapters in 
 the middle of his gospel a story very like the account 
 of this incident in Mark and Matthew. It is evidently 
 another account of this incident, seeing that the 
 essential points are much the same. And though 
 Lk. x. 25- Luke has related it out of its true historical con- 
 nection, he has told that it led to Jesus speaking 
 a parable which most naturally fits to the time here 
 recognised as the true time in which it occurred. It is 
 very likely, as Luke relates, that this incident led to the 
 Parable of the Good Samaritan. How exactly it did 
 so we cannot be quite sure, as it is not likely that, as 
 Luke suggests, this earnest scribe made an endeavour 
 Lk. x. 29. to justify himself." Probably Jesus led on to it by 
 lar mis- way of making plain what he meant to teach, himself 
 ver^, stating the question, "And who is my neighbour?" 
 edlTm 1 " 1 At an y rate ' t ^ ie P ara ^ e * s beyond question a parable 
 Luke's ex- of Jesus ; and in accordance with what we have 
 phrases already seen, its names of Samaritan and Jericho seem 
 
TEACHING SUGGESTED BY INCIDENTS. 271 
 
 to fix it to this time of Jesus's ministry. The road have been 
 on which Jesus had lately travelled had, no doubt, to much 
 suggested it, and now he stated it in its complete {n Stlga ~ 
 
 beauty, to the instruction and admiration of ages to See above, 
 
 p. 223. 
 come. 
 
 Again, they were near the treasury of the temple on 
 one of the days, and Jesus noticed a poor woman 
 giving her offering. He said to his disciples words 
 that need no comment. " Verily I say unto you," he Mk. xii. 
 said, " that this poor widow hath cast more in than 4 - 3 
 all they which have cast into the treasury : for all they 
 did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did 
 cast in all that she had, even all her living." 
 
 The incidents that come to us through the Fourth 
 Gospel account are, of course, less easily made sure of 
 than the two just noticed. Even they, however, can 
 be traced and accepted through criticism. 
 
 The story of Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night, Jn. Hi. 
 must for our present purpose be bereft of all the 
 teaching given by the evangelist in connection with 
 it, as it is certain all that teaching is, in the main, 
 the evangelist's own, not Jesus's, and any little echo 
 in it of Jesus's teaching is too faint for us to make 
 anything of it for our history. The stripped hulk 
 which is left us is such as to suggest that it has been 
 originally one and the same with the story of the 
 earnest scribe related above, though on that we 
 need not make certain. The mention of Nicodemus, 
 however, by the Fourth Evangelist has its special value. 
 The evangelist himself evidently introduces Nicodemus 
 by way of showing how a learned man was in essentials 
 quite unlearned in comparison with Jesus ; and that 
 point even is not without its importance. The chief 
 
272 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 value, however, of the story of Nicodemns, stripped 
 of its unhistorical accompaniments, will appear further 
 on, when we see how Nicodemus comes forward again 
 in two notices most worthy of acceptance. 
 
 jn. viii. i- The well-known story of Jesus and the woman taken in 
 
 adultery may be accepted as the account of a real 
 
 incident, and one that happened at this time. There 
 
 are great difficulties, indeed, in regard to accepting it. 
 
 nised e b g ^ ost commentators ^o not recognise it as an original 
 
 Pfleiderer, part of the Fourth Gospel itself, because it is not found 
 
 however, , . . 
 
 and a good m the best manuscripts. And it has been very ably 
 others explained as being a later particularising of the general 
 Keim. fact of Jesus associating with " publicans and sinners." 
 We may recognise it, however, as a genuine account 
 whether it belonged to the Gospel of John originally or 
 H?st, m SS not from its naturalness, and from a suggestiveness 
 I 9 res * n ^ to & rea * * nave ^s origin in anything fictitious, 
 ing on this and in consideration of the fact that, though it is not 
 thVat- 1S allowed by most scholars to be a part of the original 
 F urtri Gospel, it is sufficiently attested as being an 
 
 struction ancient story. 
 
 of the 
 
 "Gospel Another incident comes to us from the Fourth 
 Hebrews " Gospel as having happened at this time. It is one 
 
 son N s?me that has got min g led witn an incident already 
 scholars noticed here ; and it seems to have been the occasion 
 as of some very important teaching of Jesus. We had 
 
 been 08 before us, at the end of last chapter, a certain man 
 original in confessing that he had been " blind " before Jesus 
 text, com- came, and that Jesus had opened his eyes. The 
 '. narrative in the Fourth Gospel which presents this 
 b v i us ly been freely applied by the evangelist. 
 
 Holtz- But there seems to have been in some way connected 
 jn. ix. with it perhaps as one of the sayings of Jesus which 
 
TEACHING SUGGESTED BY INCIDENTS. 2/3 
 
 influenced the man an utterance claiming Jesus's 
 authorship by its fitting to much else that he said, 
 as a link in a chain. It is an utterance that plainly 
 must have been given in relation to some sufferer, 
 quite probably a literally blind man, and it is this, 
 11 Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but Jn. ix. 3. 
 (he suffers, understood) that the works of God should 
 be made manifest in him." It will be seen by the 
 reader how the miracle related by the evangelist spoils 
 the general meaning of these most suggestive words. 
 Except for the miracle, the words might suggest sweet 
 comfort to the many afflicted who know they have no- 
 miracles to depend on, but can only depend on the 
 ever-unfailing care of the heavenly Father. Criticism, 
 however, restores those words of Jesus to the class of 
 people to whom Jesus dedicated his life and teaching 
 the blind, the lame, the captives, the broken-hearted. 
 The miracle taken literally is unhistorical, as has See above, 
 partly appeared above. The words, on the other hand, p 25S ' 
 are evidently genuine, and besides being themselves of 
 deep meaning, they show how Jesus had now quite 
 thrown off all adherence to the popular belief that 
 sufferings were the punishment of special sins. Suffer- 
 ings, Jesus now taught explicitly, were not necessarily 
 to be looked at as punishments ; they were, on the other 
 hand, however, to be looked at as opportunities for 
 the kindness of God. Probably it was at this time 
 that he spoke further in the same strain, as Luke 
 relates. The disciples were, no doubt, interested in 
 what he had said as suggested by the case of the 
 afflicted man ; and so Jesus went on to give further 
 examples. Talking of some Galileans whom Pilate, 
 the governor, had caused to be put to death, he said, 
 
 18 
 
274 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Lk. xiii. 2- " Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above 
 
 5. We . 
 
 find, in- all the Galileans, because they suffered such things ? 
 
 small * l tel1 y u > Na y-" And then he added. "Or those 
 trace of eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and 
 
 these very 
 
 sayings in slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all 
 
 men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? I tell you, Nay." 
 the word Luke, we mav ^ e sure ' ^ as not cau g nt the point of 
 " Siloam " these sayings, when in his account he has added the 
 ' v> ?) 
 The word, words, " But, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
 
 i?k f e o^e 6 perish." These words, we may be sure, are a filling 
 
 wall of a U p either by Luke himself or, more likely, by a church 
 
 house, has exposition in which the whole passage reached Luke. 
 
 growi Ve The real point of the sayings, assuredly, has not to 
 
 legend do with repentance, but with the Divine Care, which 
 
 is above the range of small retributive considerations, 
 
 and will in the end be seen to have been kind to all. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 SELF-DEFENCE AND TEACHING IN CONNECTION. 
 
 IT is pleasant to dwell on the cases that have come 
 before us in the last three chapters, of successful 
 receptions with which our Lord met in his visit to 
 Jerusalem. The crowd strewing his path with leaves 
 to honour him, the children shouting in praise of him, 
 the man who through his teaching received new sight, 
 and, last not least, the earnest scribe who recognised 
 the value of his teaching, are all pleasant to contem- 
 plate. We have now, however, to turn to the other 
 side of the picture. We. have to fix pur minds on the 
 fact that from the first there had been growing a deter- 
 mined and vindictive opposition on the part of the 
 legally appointed priests and scribes in general. It 
 could not well have been otherwise. Jesus, having 
 had former experience of the class they belonged to, 
 had not this time waited for interference from them, 
 but had himself begun with a direct attack on them. 
 Besides this, it is almost certain, as we have seen, that 
 the priests and the scribes of Jerusalem had been in 
 communication for some time with those in the north, 
 so that they had been for some time prejudiced against 
 
 18 * 
 
276 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 him. It was inevitable that now they would act as 
 his sworn enemies. Enemies indeed they were, we 
 find, and as enemies indeed they acted. They, partly 
 openly, but more quietly, set themselves from the first 
 to destroy, if not his life, at least his position in the 
 minds of the people. And at the same time they 
 began to look to getting him into trouble with the 
 political authorities, the representatives of Rome. As 
 in the case of the oppositions in the north, we are 
 now to see, this opposition called forth some of the 
 finest teaching of Jesus, and led to the assertion of 
 his character. 
 
 The chief weapon which the priests and their allies 
 used against him was one that was well chosen ; and 
 how they used it comes before us in the gospels very 
 plainly. Those enemies of Jesus knew well that what 
 gave him his immediate influence with the many let 
 alone what would give him a lasting influence with 
 the many was the connection of him in the people's 
 minds with the Messiah-character. This connection, 
 therefore, they set themselves to destroy, and they 
 managed their attempt ably. The Messiah ! Who 
 was the Messiah ? A certain expected deliverer, told 
 of in the Scriptures ! They, who were practised in 
 interpreting the Scriptures, then, had surely a mastery 
 of the subject in comparison with the ignorant popu- 
 lace ! Thus they set themselves to show, from their 
 study of the letter of Scripture, how it was impossible 
 for Jesus to be that " Messiah " who was described in 
 the Scripture. The Messiah, they pointed out, was to 
 be a son of David, and to be born in Bethlehem. 
 How then, they asked, could he be recognised in this 
 man of notorious Galilean parentage and birth ? The 
 
SELF-DEFENCE AND TEACHING IN CONNECTION. 277 
 
 venomous power that this sort of reasoning exercised 
 on the minds of the people is made plain to us by 
 the very fact that the earlier gospels seem to avoid 
 emphasising it, as well as by the two later of these 
 gospels having prefixed to them stories which, if we 
 take them literally, gainsay the Galilean parentage 
 and birth of Jesus. But the earlier gospels, with that Mk. xii. 
 honesty which really never deserts them, have given 3 " 
 us a short notice in which it is possible for us to 
 read the facts. And the Fourth Gospel, which .was Jn . vii. 26- 
 written in a quarter where the question, as we may 52 ! 4 
 believe, no longer appeared to be one of much 
 importance, discloses much more fully what took place. 
 On hearing of the opposition being placed on the 
 basis thus indicated, Jesus, we learn, said something 
 like this: "How say the scribes that Christ is the Mk. xii. 
 son of David ? For David himself said by the Holy 3: 
 Ghost, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my 
 right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. 
 David therefore himself calleth him Lord ; and whence 
 is he then his son ? " This saying may at first seem little 
 raised above the scribes' own plane of thinking. But 
 there is in it a thought in accordance with the mind 
 that produced it. Indeed, as we have seen repeatedly, 
 it was Jesus's way to answer his objectors first on 
 their own ground, and then to lead them to a higher 
 plane of thinking. And here, we can see, there was 
 a thought of real worth expressed even in his words 
 which seemed to be limiting themselves to the scribes' 
 dark wanderings in interpretation of Scripture. The 
 thought was that this Messiah, or deliverer, being one 
 that was to be greater than David, should surely have 
 a freedom attached to his appearance. If a deliverer 
 
278 THE SAVIOUR IX THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 was coming to them from God the words meant 
 that deliverer must not be tied down, in the way of 
 his coming, by the likeness of men who had gone 
 before, but must have a way of coming of his own. 
 
 We must learn also, however, from our careful 
 sifting of the Fourth Gospel account, that Jesus said 
 something more than this in regard to the opposition 
 placed on this ground. He had all along, we know, 
 been demanding that his claim to be heard be judged 
 by his "works" or "fruits"; that is, by the natural 
 outcomes of his personality, showing forth the soul 
 and mind there were within. He had also ever been 
 angry and grieved at this canon not being applied to 
 him. And so we shall be inclined to recognise as 
 really his own these words of indignation, spoken 
 evidently in answer to the repeated murmurings about 
 jn. vii. 28. his origin not being the right one for a Messiah, " Ye 
 w. ver. 28 ; both know me, and ye know whence I am : and I am 
 
 not come f m yself, but he that sent me is true." 
 App. i. While the priests and the scribes thus sought to 
 
 language undermine his influence with the people, they also 
 xn. 14 began to try and involve him with the political 
 authorities. That they were dishonest when they 
 did so is clear. He had taken pains, as we have 
 seen, to impress upon them that his aim was not a 
 ^ 4 b 4 ove>p political one. But honesty seems to have had little 
 to do with their motives. What they did in the 
 direction of bringing him into trouble with the 
 political authorities is thus related by Mark : " And 
 they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of 
 I3 " the Herodians, to catch him in his words. And when 
 they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know 
 that thou art true, and carest for no man; for thou 
 
SELF-DEFENCE AND TEACHING IN CONNECTION. 279 
 
 regardest not the person of men, but teachest the 
 way of God in truth : Is it lawful to give tribute to 
 Caesar, or not ? Shall we give, or shall we not give ? " 
 Who the "Herodians" were is not known. From 
 the name it is plain they would be a party attached 
 to the house of Herod. But it is uncertain whether 
 they were a party so far loyal to the existing govern- 
 ment, submitting, for the time, like the Pharisees and 
 Sadducees, or were a party specialty suspected of 
 readiness to rise in rebellion ; and the determining 
 of this point makes a difference as to what was 
 meant by the priests and their allies in employing 
 them. On the whole, the account leads to the opinion 
 that they were a rather suspected party, and that the 
 priests actually stooped to the meanness of employing 
 them to try and lead Jesus on to utter something 
 which might be reported in such a way as to give it 
 a rebellious import, through his supposing that the 
 less respectfully he spoke of the government the more 
 he would please these men. Jesus, however, simply 
 answered them by calling for a coin, pointing to the 
 image of the Roman emperor on it, and saying these 
 words, now famous, " Render to Caesar the things that Mk - xi i- 
 are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." 
 They " marvelled at him," the account adds ; and 
 this is doubtless quite true regarding these men \vho 
 directly spoke to him. As regards the priests, how- 
 ever, the failure of their treacherous aim did not, 
 as we find, prevent them from proceeding farther 
 more determinedly in the same direction. 
 
 We may accept the little notice which the Fourth jn. vii. 5 o- 
 Gospel contains, in which Nicodemus that learned 52 
 man who was impressed by Jesus tried to intercede 
 
280 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 for him with his own fellows. It is in every way 
 probable that Nicodemus did say a good word for 
 Jesus to some of those who were against him, and that 
 he informed some of the followers of this, thus bringing 
 about the recording of the fact. It is also most 
 probable, as our record declares, that when Nicodemus 
 did this he was answered with the taunt, " Art thou 
 also of Galilee?" 
 
 We shall not meet Nicodemus again in our little 
 history of Jesus's ministry ; but we may pause here to 
 remember that there is one more notice of him in the 
 
 38-4Q 1X Kourth Gospel, which convincingly recommends itself 
 to acceptance. It is to the effect that after Jesus's 
 death this man assisted another man of position, 
 named Joseph of Arimathea, to bury the body of Jesus, 
 and brought spices, according to " the manner of the 
 Jews " " to bury." 
 
 The whole story of Nicodemus, as it remains to us 
 after criticism, is a natural one and a valuable one. 
 
 Conway, A learned writer of our own time has expressed the 
 
 Essay on 
 
 Christian- belief that Jesus must himself have belonged to the 
 
 appeals 6 higher classes, so cultured was his teaching, apart from 
 
 2Corviii being sublime in character. Evidence is against this 
 
 9) belief regarding our Lord's class position. But surely 
 
 here, in this story of Nicodemus, we have the nearest 
 
 approach in fact to that supposition. If Jesus really 
 
 did not belong to the classes that have the most leisure 
 
 for education and study, he at least could attract to 
 
 himself one who did belong to these classes. Nicodemus 
 
 was not the only man of the higher classes who, even 
 
 in the lifetime of Jesus, was impressed by him. But 
 
 he seems to have very specially appreciated him, more, 
 
 probably, than Jesus himself learned before his death. 
 
SELF-DEFENCE AND TEACHING IN CONNECTION. 28l 
 
 It was no easy thing for a man of position to get into 
 touch with Jesus, so short was his public life, and so 
 separated from conventional lines was the path on 
 which he chose to travel. But we are to believe that 
 this Rabbi Nicodemus visited privately the Teacher 
 who had charmed him, tried to save him from the 
 tiger-like attack that was made on him, and finally 
 paid to him in his death a last tribute of reverence and 
 affection. 
 
 A piece of opposition, of little account in itself, but Mk. xii. 
 leading to an important reply from Jesus, was made by 
 some of the party of the Sadducees. This party, as we 
 learn, was a worldly and somewhat aristocratic party. 
 Its members accepted offices in the priesthood, but 
 were not very religious, not believing, indeed, even 
 in the resurrection. Some flippant members of this 
 party, having listened to Jesus's prophetic sayings 
 telling of God and of a world to come, asked him, 
 as they met him, Suppose, as Moses taught, seven men Deut 
 should, one after another, marry the same woman, 
 whose wife would she be in the resurrection ? Jesus 
 answered, " Do ye not therefore err, because ye know Mk * iL 
 not the Scriptures, neither the power of God ? For 
 when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, 
 nor are given in marriage ; but are as the angels which 
 are in heaven." And then he added : "And as touching Vers 26 
 the dead, that they rise ; have ye not read in the book 
 of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, This in ci- 
 I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and reported 
 the God of Jacob ? He is not the God of the dead, 
 but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatlv err." 
 This latter saying of Jesus, in his own concrete 
 manner as it is, contains, we may say, both of the two 
 
 . XXV. 
 
 5- 
 
282 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 eternal bases on which a belief in the immortality of 
 the soul rests namely, the truth of the value of each 
 living soul, and the truth of the Care of God for each living 
 soul. These two truths, we know, were both ruling 
 truths in Jesus's mind. And now we must discern 
 that the Old Testament words which at this time he 
 quoted, had on some occasion come before his mind, 
 influenced as it was by these two truths, and that, 
 reading them as an expression of both the truths, he 
 had noticed that they presented a quaint and forcible 
 illustration of the truth of immortality. The care of 
 God was Jesus's supremely ruling truth. And we may 
 say he had seen this truth, to begin with, expressed in 
 those old words about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, 
 so far at least as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob 
 were concerned. He had then argued, we are to 
 believe and he now meant the Sadducees to argue 
 similarly How could such a Care as he discerned to 
 exist in the Divine Presence forsake those it watched 
 over and enriched, after a few short years ? This was 
 involved in the remark he now made after quoting the 
 old words. When he said God could not be the God 
 of the dead, he certainly did not mean to refer the 
 matter to written testimony, and that through the 
 means of a logical quibble ; his words, in their real 
 meaning, were as much as to say that the Care of God, 
 which had been so far expressed in the old words 
 quoted by him, was such that it was ridiculous to 
 think of it as extended to its objects only for a mere 
 span of time. The truth of the value of man, however, 
 was Jesus's second truth ; and we must say he had 
 seen this also expressed in the Old Testament words. 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were, to the Israelite mind, 
 
SELF-DEFENCE AND TEACHING IN CONNECTION. 283 
 
 names of the Great. And we may suppose he now felt 
 that their names might appeal even to these flippant 
 Sadducees, seeing they were still Israelites, and inspire 
 in them something of that belief in Man which was 
 moving himself. It had been implied then, also, in the 
 argument which he had on some former occasion had 
 before himself, what he also now meant the Saddncees 
 to be influenced by, that the names of those Great 
 Ones names that raised indescribable emotions in 
 their hearts surely could not be the names of some- 
 thing dead only. And this was also involved in the 
 remark he now made after quoting the old words. 
 When he said God could not be the God of the dead, 
 there was also contained in this the idea that it was 
 ridiculous to think of beings that had been singled out 
 to be the recipients of care on the part of God, so 
 majestically expressed in the ancient words, as having 
 been themselves nothing more than passing phenomena, 
 breathing for a few years and then vanishing away. 
 
 This truth of the value of man, or value of the soul, 
 used thus by Jesus as a ground for the belief in immor- 
 tality, was similarly used by Plato, the Greek philoso- 
 pher, and perhaps by Socrates before him, though of 
 course it was stated by Plato in a very different way 
 from the way in which Jesus stated it. In the book 
 called the ' Phaedo,' in which the subject of immor- 
 tality is keenly and thoroughly discussed, there is a 
 point emphasised in passing, in a poetical rather- than 
 a ratiocinative way, so that the matter is referred, 
 something in the manner of Jesus, to what is generally 
 implied in the facts of life, rather than to the deduc- 
 tions made in the particular arguments of the book. 
 This point is that the souls within us are existences 
 
284 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 that govern or initiate, and thus are not like perishable 
 things. In the ' Phaedo ' Plato represents Socrates as 
 Jowett's speaking of the soul, and saying that the soul is to be 
 tion.i. 473. found "leading the elements of which she is believed 
 to be composed ; almost always opposing them and 
 coercing them in all sorts of ways throughout life." 
 The ground of belief in immortality here made use of, 
 is the fact that the nature of the soul is such that the 
 soul is too great to perish. It is so far the same 
 ground of belief as was pointed to by Jesus when he 
 solemnly named the names of Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Jacob, whom all reverenced and God Himself cared 
 for. And one and all of us will be able to see specially 
 the strength of this ground of belief, when we may 
 become impressed by certain personalities that have 
 gained general reverence and have shown themselves 
 beings of a value which is more than can be measured. 
 And now we must conclude this part of our subject 
 by mustering forth a number of more general sayings 
 of Jesus, which were occasioned by the opposition to 
 him in general. These are mostly private sayings. 
 They are found principally in the Fourth Gospel alone, 
 and there only by a careful process of separation from 
 other material ; but one or two of them can be traced 
 also in the earlier gospels, and they are all in striking 
 agreement with the whole contents of the earlier 
 gospels. They bring their own guarantee of authen- 
 ticity. They are words of genius, and at the same 
 time words of strong personal emotion. That they 
 are indeed words of Jesus, the presentation of them 
 now must be left to show. 
 
 First, then, we learn, as he was oppressed by the 
 unreasonableness and unkindness of the opposition, 
 
SELF-DEFENCE AND TEACHING IN CONNECTION. 285 
 
 and as, in accordance with all we have seen of his 
 
 character, he hated the self-assertive position in which 
 
 for the time he was placed, he spoke some words of 
 
 which, we must believe, the following sentences give at 
 
 least a nearly correct report : " My doctrine is not mine, Jn. vii. if,. 
 
 but his that sent me. . . . He that speaketh of himself 
 
 seeketh his own glory ; but he that seeketh his glory 
 
 that sent him, the same is true. . . . When ye have 
 
 lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I 
 
 ... do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath 
 
 taught me, I speak these things." 
 
 As, again, he felt the greatness of his soul and the 
 grandeur of his teaching assuring him, were it against 
 a whole nation opposing him, of his worth as a teacher, 
 and of the certainty of his ultimate recognition as 
 such, he said words that in John are reported this way : 
 " Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto J n - vii 33. 
 him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not 3 
 find me ;" and in Matthew this way : " I say unto you, Mt. xxiii. 
 Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, 3 - 
 Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Quoting 
 The words are in both reports practically the same ; 26. 
 it hardly matters which, if either, is the literally correct 
 report. The saying, as it was originally, must be looked 
 at as representing Jesus's consolation in his distress at 
 not being received by the people he loves. 
 
 Again, as he felt the loneliness and the horror of his 
 situation, supported as he was only by men mostly 
 uninfluential and ignorant, and ominously opposed by 
 the whole strength of those in authority in a great 
 city, he gave utterance, we must believe, to these 
 words, " He that sent me is with me : my Father hath Jn. viii. 
 not left me alone." It was very natural that such a 2Q 
 
286 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 simple and affecting utterance as this should go home 
 to the hearts of the hearers, and that, as we find 
 
 Ver. 30. recorded in the gospel, "as he spake these words, 
 many believed on him." 
 
 Again, probably after his Parable of the Good 
 Samaritan had been uttered, some miserable man came 
 up to him with the coarse and stupid exclamation, 
 
 Vers. 4 C - " Say we not well that thoti art a Samaritan, and hast 
 
 -Q 
 
 a devil?" He answered, "I have not a devil; but I 
 honour my Father. . . . And I seek not mine own 
 glory." 
 
 Then, lastly, as he felt keenly disappointed at the 
 unimpressionableness he had met with in the city, he 
 spoke some words which have been lengthened out and 
 formed into an imaginative doctrinal discourse in the 
 tenth chapter of John. He sought to explain a little 
 to himself the facts that had led to his disappointment. 
 For this he had recourse to the familiar Hebrew 
 imagery of Sheep and Shepherd, and through that 
 imagery expressed a thought which he had once before 
 jn. x. 1-6, used to explain oppositions. He said that he was a 
 Shepherd ; that he was a good Shepherd, who would 
 even give his life for the sheep ; that his own sheep 
 would follow himself alone, because they knew his 
 voice, and knew not the voice of strangers ; that those 
 that did not listen to him were not his own sheep ; 
 and finally, that his own sheep had been given to him, 
 and that because they had been given by his Father, 
 who was greater than all, they would never perish, 
 and no one could ever pluck them out of his hand. 
 
 That these sayings, which we can separate from the 
 rest of the tenth chapter of John, are genuine sayings 
 of Jesus, uttered at this time, will strongly recommend 
 
SELF-DEFENCE AND TEACHING IN CONNECTION. 287 
 
 itself from the fact that, according to the early Gospel Mk. \i. 34, 
 of Mark, not only was the imagery in them used by 
 Jesus in a similar connection, but we find him dwelling 
 on this imagery a very short time after the point to 
 which our history has now brought us. Their authen- 
 ticity will, however, further recommend itself when we 
 notice how, in the simple meaning which they bear 
 when separated from the rest of the chapter, they accord 
 so well with Jesus's character, and fit so exactly to the 
 circumstances in which he was now placed. In the 
 evangelist's discourse, indeed, the idea is just the Old See Ezek. 
 Testament idea of God watching over His people as a ** x1 ' 
 shepherd watches over his sheep, Jesus being identified 
 with God. In the separated words, on the other hand, 
 the idea is a very different one. As we have seen, it is 
 an idea that was evidently resorted to by Jesus by way 
 of explaining the opposition which had pained him. 
 Having appealed to the people, having reproached 
 them, having in some way consoled himself for their 
 not receiving him, he in the end explained their oppo- 
 sition to him ; and his explanation was this, that, as 
 we may put it, only certain souls were, for the time 
 at least, given him, and that these received him 
 joyfully. 
 
 We have before seen Jesus explaining to himself 
 the irrational opposition which he had met with in 
 Galilee. In Galilee he first rested on the partial Mt xii 
 explanation that, at least, it was not so bad in the 3'- 3 2 See 
 
 above, p. 
 
 people as if they had been resisting the Divine Spirit 152. 
 itself, independently of any connection with a particular 
 man. But when he went to Nazareth, and found an T . . 
 
 Lk. iv. 23- 
 
 opposition which surprised him less than in other 27. See 
 places, he brought forward the very same idea for 169.^ 
 
288 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 explanation which now again meets us namely, that, 
 like other prophets, he had limitations imposed on his 
 immediate mission. This time he expressed the idea 
 through the imagery of sheep and Shepherd ; once 
 more before his death, as we shall see, he expressed it 
 dissociated from the imagery again. This time he 
 said that some were given him to be his own sheep. 
 And it may be he really also introduced the idea 
 contained in some words about entering the fold by 
 
 jn. x 2. the door, which have got confusedly mixed up with 
 the words under consideration in the evangelist's 
 account the idea, namely, that he had got his influ- 
 ence over these sheep by nature touching nature, or by 
 power and consideration entering through the natural 
 responsiveness of the heart. The thought of these 
 sheep, who were his own, afforded him joy amidst all 
 the painful opposition. If others than these would not 
 receive him, then these, on the contrary, listened to no 
 other than himself. He alone was their own, and they 
 his own. With an intensity that drove it beyond this 
 world's limitations, his affection for these special ones 
 
 Vers. 28, asserted itself. " They shall never perish," he said, 
 " neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My 
 Father, which gave them me, is greater than all ; and 
 no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." 
 Of such a nature, then, was the teaching of Jesus, 
 which was occasioned by his defending himself against 
 the authorities of Jerusalem during the few days that 
 he spent in the city as a prophet. The dire events 
 which quickly followed must be left to be entered on in 
 another chapter. Let this one close with our last 
 look at Jesus in that position of command to which 
 his personality entitled him. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE LAST RETREAT AND THE LAST PURPOSE. 
 
 WELL may earnest worshippers of Jesus have a wish 
 for a moment to stop the contemplation of his life at 
 this point. Why, they may ask, must they look at him 
 in his humiliation ? and what good can arise from 
 dwelling in thought on the sufferings of his sensitive 
 spirit, and on the brutality of his unworthy contem- 
 poraries ? Better, they may be inclined to say, to stop 
 with the impression of his majestic humanity, which 
 demands from those who look at it a belief in its 
 duration beyond the span of time in this world, and, 
 taking for granted the break, the wrench, the interrup- 
 tion of power and beauty which came to his person as 
 to the person of every one, go forward in imagination 
 to dwell on the glories beyond. But the wish thus to 
 escape the sight of what now asks our attention, 
 excusable as it is arising and lasting for a moment, is 
 to be overcome, on the promise of this, that Jesus, as 
 he walks through the valley of the shadow of death, 
 shows at their very best both the greatness and the 
 sweetness of his character. Jesus must be seen in 
 
 *9_ 
 
 OF -T 
 
 . . r-r~c~ I T\/ 
 
2QO THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 his last extremity to be known and valued. The 
 repellent nature of the surroundings is not more 
 marked than the grandeur of soul that appears within 
 the surroundings. And though sympathy for the awful 
 sufferings of Jesus will rigidly prevent us from drawing 
 out the portrayal of them further than may be neces- 
 sary, the chapters which tell of them must be faced, 
 because they are at the same time chapters which tell 
 of his glory. 
 
 Mk.xiv. i. The priests, or appointed ministers of religion, and 
 along with them, the scribes, or recognised teachers of 
 religion, decided, soon after Jesus's public appearance 
 in the city, to have him destroyed. Destroyed yes, 
 made away with in any manner. They had formed a 
 plan well fitted to accomplish this. They were going 
 
 Mk. xii. to make out to the Roman governor that he was a 
 rebel against the Roman Power, at the same time as 
 
 Mk. xii. they made out to their own people that he was a false 
 
 vfi ' sz.'&c Messiah. They saw, probably in a few days, that they 
 had him in their hands. The first excitement of the 
 people over him was subsiding, and the venom of their 
 
 Above, own pedantic arguments against him was taking effect. 
 
 pp. 276, . fhey set themselves against him, therefore, boldly, 
 with an appetite to tear him asunder. 
 
 Why did they do it ? and how could they do it ? are 
 questions which arise in every honest mind. That 
 men could act so wickedly, and that One so great and 
 good could excite such merciless hostility, are con- 
 siderations which arouse the wonder of succeeding 
 ages. The explanation is to be found, no doubt, 
 simply in the idea brought forward as explanation in 
 
 Mk. x\. the gospels, namely, that envy was at the root of their 
 conduct. And if we cannot understand an envy so 
 
THE LAST RETREAT AND THE LAST PURPOSE. 2QI 
 
 demoniacal, we are to remember what was the state of 
 
 development which these men had reached. They were 
 
 half barbarians, these men. Jesus himself gave the most 
 
 kindly estimate of his persecutors when he suggested 
 
 the likeness between the one he first feared, Herod, 
 
 and a jackal. These men were little different from Above, p 
 
 Herod in moral restraint and spiritual enlightenment. Il 
 
 They had some knowledge, indeed, and had a religion ; 
 
 but their knowledge was of things little worth knowing, See Re- 
 
 and their religion was itself both formal and super- p . 159 in 
 
 stitious, and also had not sufficient power over them to 
 elevate them above the passions aroused by injured 
 conceit and the sense of being supplanted. They were 
 half-barbarians, these men. They were not fiends, 
 plotting dramatically against all that is pure and 
 good ; but they were only half-civilised men, who, 
 finding themselves disturbed by a Being of a superior 
 character, and knowing that they could kill their dis- 
 turber and get rid of him, without much troubling of 
 conscience, because they were stupid and vainly 
 satisfied with their own Tightness of conduct, embraced 
 the opportunity, as a wild animal might turn on a 
 Man that had disturbed its rest. 
 
 So had those priests and religious teachers deter- 
 mined to destroy Jesus; and Jesus knew full well ofMk. xi 
 their determination. What it meant for him to know 27> 
 this is repressed in the gospels ; but it may be brought 
 out of silence for a moment and thought of quite 
 consistently with the deepest reverence, as without 
 this being done we should miss a link in the chain of 
 events. What it meant for him we can know, though 
 the gospels do not express it. It meant disappoint- 
 ment to the death, the vanishing of the last flashes 
 
 19 * 
 
2Q2 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 that had made returning light a possibility, the 
 remaining of nothing to be seen ahead in this world 
 but a vista of black darkness. He had weeks before 
 formed his heroic resolve, with a full appreciation of 
 its almost certain consequences ; but power is never 
 exercised without a lingering hope of achievement, and 
 no thoughtful mind can entertain the notion that Jesus 
 proclaimed his message in Jerusalem with all hope of 
 worldly success gone. He had come to Jerusalem, 
 seeing possible two alternatives, of which one, alas ! 
 was very shadowy, but still there. The few days had 
 brought before him which of the alternatives it was to 
 be. It was to be the one he had been all but certain 
 of from the first. His heroic action was to mean his 
 death. And Jesus flinched not in his resolution. He 
 had come to take what God would allow to befall him ; 
 and now he turned not back. 
 
 And if there must present itself to our minds the 
 question, Could not all this have been avoided; could not 
 Jesus have lived many years unmolested, a teacher of his 
 great ideas in Galilee, had he but taken up a less aggres- 
 sive position ? the answer is on the surface. He could not 
 have done this and yet have remained true to his ideas, 
 in that the ideas themselves involved his taking the 
 best means in his power to have them made known to 
 mankind. All, indeed, that we have seen of him, from 
 this point backwards, takes its rise in the principle 
 Mk. iv. 21, expressed in the "candle" saying, with which, as we 
 p 2 4 t bove 'have deduced, he first left Nazareth. His whole 
 conduct and his whole thought form together an 
 organic realisation of that principle ; and there is not 
 one weak spot from beginning to end. Even the 
 foresight, discerning that death would not prevent the 
 
THE LAST RETREAT AND THE LAST PURPOSE. 2Q3 
 
 spreading- of his ideas which his bold appeal to his 
 countrymen was meant to accomplish, was itself an 
 outcome of this principle, and organically related to 
 his action. It was as much as to say that, seeing- 
 God had given him a message to declare, he knew that 
 when he did declare it nothing would be permitted to 
 triumph against him. 
 
 But did he accept the personal discomfiture without 
 a moment of pause to consider ? That would show a 
 departure from the custom which we have hitherto 
 seen observed by him. All, therefore, that we have 
 seen urges us at this point to scrutinise the accounts, in 
 search of evidence for Jesus having made some small 
 retreat from his enemies, of the kind we have before 
 had knowledge of some small retreat in which, now 
 that the outlook had become more definite, he might 
 pause and consider what he was facing. Artistic unity 
 asks for this. And it is now to be added that the 
 records, when critically observed, will be found to 
 supply what we are thus urged to seek. 
 
 It is, indeed, the Fourth Gospel alone that gives us 
 the detail of this last withdrawal of Jesus. But keeping 
 to the way of reading the Fourth Gospel which we 
 have all along been following, we must have, to begin 
 with, an expectation of finding some real history in the 
 long passage made up by the eleventh and twelfth 
 chapters ; and on reading the passage carefully and 
 critically, we shall find ourselves not disappointed. 
 We shall find a sacred historical reality, which is not 
 less revealing, not less commanding, and more winning, 
 than would be the state of facts were the representation 
 capable of being taken with absolute literalness. 
 
 Nor are we even here altogether deserted by the 
 
Mk. xiv. 
 
 I, 2. 
 
 294 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 earlier gospels. They have themselves, indeed, nothing 
 to tell us of the little event now to engage us ; but 
 their account is in absolute agreement with its having 
 taken place, and indeed may, in some measure, be said 
 to confirm its having taken place. For taking Mark, 
 the earliest and most trustworthy 
 
 (i.) Mark leads up to his description of the events 
 connected with the Passover-day in these words : 
 " After two days was the feast of the passover, and of 
 unleavened bread : and the chief priests and the scribes 
 sought how they might take him by craft, and put him 
 to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest 
 there be an uproar of the people." Now these words 
 may quite well be interpreted, and indeed, when one 
 thinks a little, are most simply interpreted, as being 
 P 2 M Sec an ideation f a two days' gap in the evangelist's 
 App. I. narrative, the doings of Jesus on the two days meant 
 having not been suitable to be recorded for the evan- 
 gelist's purpose. Even if they were taken to mean 
 that at the point to which the narrative has come it 
 was two days to the night of the Passover, there would 
 still remain large parts of Jesus's time not recorded 
 and evidently not having been taken up with teaching 
 in Jerusalem, and there would also still remain a gap 
 in the narrative, inasmuch as it is in no way indicated 
 why Jesus stopped teaching in Jerusalem. When, 
 then, we remember that hitherto Mark has not been 
 specifying the time taken up by the events he has been 
 c'p. also recording (the events involved in the twelfth and 
 thirteenth chapters being far too many to have hap- 
 pened in one day), we may conclude, and reasonably 
 conclude, that he is not here, any more than before, 
 specifying the time of the events he is relating but is 
 
THE LAST RETREAT AND THE LAST PURPOSE. 2Q5 
 
 indeed indicating a complete gap in his narrative, 
 leaving unrecorded the events of two days. This con- 
 clusion is greatly supported by the fact that we find 
 it in striking accordance with what meets us in the 
 Fourth Gospel. In the Fourth Gospel account there 
 comes the following sentence, in a connection so 
 utterly different from that of the sentence just quoted 
 in Mark that it is impossible to regard it as having Same 
 been adopted by the evangelist from Mark, " When he i ng Mt. 
 had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode TWO JJfJjif 
 DAYS still in the same place where he was." This j n . xi. 6. 
 sentence, as we shall see presently, has all the appear- 
 ance of having been originally a separate account of 
 what Mark relates, a little more full, and made intelli- 
 gible by its relation to the other material which we are 
 to extract from the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 (2.) Mark proceeds to give, in something of a want 
 of connection, the account of Jesus sitting in a house 
 in Bethany, and of a woman coming in and honouring 
 him. This story, as presented in Mark, reminding 
 one of the Galilean period, very much requires explan- Mk. xiv. 
 ation, as the idea of Jesus having calmly sat in a 
 house, with people coming from the outside to do him 
 honour, seems out of keeping with the time in which 
 the storm was raging that was to take away his life. 
 The explanation is given, as we shall see, in a critical 
 reading of the Fourth Gospel account. 
 
 And (3) there is a decided confirmation of a with- 
 drawal of Jesus at this time in the idea introduced by 
 all the gospels, that Jesus was betrayed to his enemies, ver. 10. 
 Betrayed, we ask, from what ? If he was still going 
 daily to and from Bethany and Jerusalem, where was 
 the difficulty for his enemies to take him ? Now the 
 
296 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Lk. xxii. question is so far answered in the earlier gospels, in 
 
 xiv. 'i, 2. that they say the priests wished to get him in private, 
 in order to avoid the chance of the crowd making a 
 resistance in his favour. But Jesus was not, at this 
 time, always surrounded by a crowd ; and it would 
 have been easy, according to the accounts, for them 
 to have him followed to his night's lodging at 
 Bethany, where he would be nearly alone. The 
 betrayal becomes intelligible when it is believed that 
 they had indeed thus had him followed, and that 
 Jesus, knowing of that as well as of their resolve to 
 destroy him, had avoided Bethany for some two days. 
 To all this it is to be added that here, as every- 
 where, the Synoptic gospels are dramatic, and that so 
 their silence is explained. The presentation of the 
 last act in the appearance of the Messiah made little 
 account of this withdrawal of Jesus, before he would 
 yield to those men that were like beasts of prey. The 
 event, however, has a keen historical importance and 
 interest. And we are to be thankful that he whose 
 aim was to portray not the appearance of the Messiah but 
 the incarnation of the Logos has retained a record of 
 the event in a form sufficiently clear and convincing 
 for the establishment of credence in regard to it. 
 
 Gathering, then, what happened as regards the 
 withdrawal, we are to say something as follows : 
 
 Above, p. As we saw in a previous chapter, Jesus had evidently 
 during the evenings at Bethany been forming a close 
 friendship with one Martha, along with her sister and 
 
 jn. xi. brother. It is by reasoning back from the events and 
 the account of them which are now to engage our 
 attention, that that conclusion is reached. The names 
 of the sister and brother, we are now to learn, were 
 
THE LAST RETREAT AND THE LAST PURPOSE. 2Q7 
 
 Mary and Lazarus. All mention of Lazarus has been 
 left out in the earlier gospels except an indirect 
 reference in Luke, to which we shall come presently ; 
 and the reason for the silence we can take to be this, 
 that Lazarus, from the time of the arrival of Jesus, 
 had been nothing but a poor invalid, whom even the 
 followers of Jesus probably, with one or two exceptions, 
 had never seen. We can imagine, however, that Jesus 
 was specially drawn in sympathy towards the poor 
 man, from the very fact that he saw how both he 
 himself and the poor man were approaching very 
 nearly, though by vastly different ways, the mysterious 
 "sleep" which ends all this world's experience. Injn. xi. u. 
 the course of a week or so, then, Jesus and his imme- 
 diate followers found themselves tracked to Bethany. 
 And we may learn that some of those who thus tracked 
 them threw 7 some stones at them. On this happening, 
 Jesus turned and said, " Many good works have I showed Jn. x. 3 1 - 
 you from my Father ; for which of those works do ye xi.' s. 
 stone me ? " To this some bold fellow replied : " For 
 a good work we stone thee not ; but for blasphemy ; 
 and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself Ver. 33, 
 God." And Jesus, in reply, appealed, according to his 
 custom, to the Scripture, for the conception of the Vers. 34- 
 relation in general of man to God, and to his own 3 
 works for his own special relationship. It was then, 
 however, we gather, that Jesus saw he could not 
 safely remain about his lodging in Bethany, and so ver. 39. 
 resolved upon a last retreat, to consider his position. 
 
 Where he went this time, we do not learn exactly. 
 The Fourth Gospel gives two statements about it; 
 but the evangelist has evidently become confused in 
 applying his material. He rightly relates the retreat 
 
298 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Vers. 39, fj rs |- as nav ing taken place before the incident about 
 
 Lazarus. But it would seem he has found, in the 
 
 material in his possession, another assertion of Jesus 
 
 having retreated. This is likely to have been originally 
 
 a repetition by the narrator, after adding that Jesus 
 
 had indeed good cause for retreating, inasmuch as the 
 
 authorities were determined to put him to death. The 
 
 Cp. X pre- 4 evangelist, however, mistakenly makes out that there 
 
 vious was a second retreat in the midst of the events about 
 
 verses. 
 
 Lazarus. Then, again, it would seem, he has also 
 
 had either a record in his possession or a floating idea 
 
 jn. x. 40, i n his m ind, to the effect that Jesus escaped from his 
 
 xi. 54. 
 
 persecutors at this time, first by going to where John 
 the Baptist taught, and then by going to " Ephraim." 
 He accordingly assigns these two localities separately 
 to the two statements about Jesus's retreat, and makes 
 his account read as if Jesus had first gone away to the 
 Jordan, then come back to Bethany, and then gone 
 away to a " city " called Ephraim. The records, how- 
 ever, or traditional reminiscences about John the 
 Baptist have been misunderstood by the evangelist, 
 See above, as we have seen. The reference to going back to 
 246 24 where John the Baptist taught is a confused account 
 of Jesus's answer to the scribes when they asked him 
 by what authority he acted so boldly. And in view 
 of this added to the difficulty of harmonising with 
 the Synoptic accounts the " Ephraim " also becomes 
 hardly a guide. The going to Ephraim may also have 
 been a going in thought perhaps the going to the 
 Some country of ancient Ephraim in the very important parable 
 wfth'little of the Good Samaritan. Thus taken altogether these 
 t ? wn names of places in the Fourth Gospel give us no sure 
 
 noout six- 
 
 teen miles information regarding the place of Jesus's retreat. In 
 
THE LAST RETREAT AND THE LAST PURPOSE. 2QQ 
 
 the evangelist's second statement, however, he says north of 
 that Jesus went to " a country near the wilderness," 
 and this may be accepted as a so far true reminiscence. 
 Once more, we are to learn, he sought for a place 
 where he might be, comparatively speaking, away from 
 men and alone with God. It is likely he went to 
 some quiet spot pretty close to the city. 
 
 He went, we may further gather, accompanied only Ver. n. 
 by one or two of the disciples, but left two or three 
 others with a knowledge of the direction in which they 
 had gone, and with the instructions that they should 
 follow in a day or two, bringing provision for their 
 bodily wants, and also conveying any news that might 
 transpire. Now it is to be noticed Jesus had gone 
 away knowing that Lazarus was very ill, and probably 
 had not long to live. The Fourth Gospel, we may 
 believe, tells so far truly, when it asserts that, knowing 
 how Lazarus was ill, " he abode two days still in the Ver. c. 
 same place where he was." Then, we are to learn, 
 the two or three friends who were to follow arrived 
 at the place were Jesus was, and brought, among other 
 things, the news that Lazarus was dead. Jesus at once Ver. n. 
 decided to return to Bethany. Not, of course, without Vers - 7- 16 - 
 the opposition of the disciples. He said, by way of 
 giving his reason for going, "Our friend Lazarus 
 sleepeth." And they were not, surely, so obtuse as 
 quite to make the remark which the evangelist, accord- jn. xi. 12. 
 ing to his manner, attributes to them, but rather 
 tried intelligently to dissuade him. They reminded 
 him, in all probability, of the stones that had been 
 thrown at him ; and Thomas, seeing he was not likely Ver. 8. 
 to be easily moved, made the bitter remark, " Let us Ver. 16. 
 also go, that we may die with him." This remark of 
 
3OO THE SAVIOUR IX THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Thomas, no doubt, vexed Jesus; but it did not succeed 
 in turning him from his purpose. He went back to 
 Bethany. 
 
 We must not miss the beauties which are to be seen 
 in this last retreat of Jesus, with the return that 
 followed retreat. As in the case of the earlier retreats, 
 Jesus only waited in concealment till he made sure 
 of what his duty was in the circumstances, which had 
 assumed distinctness. And in this case, that took a 
 very short time, as he had been previously well 
 prepared for what had come about, and had from 
 the first made up his mind what he was to do if it 
 did come about. But in this case a new force arose, 
 and combined with his duty in bringing about his 
 return. That force was personal affection, or call it 
 friendship, or call it kindness to friends. So his 
 character opens up to us and the more arouses our 
 reverence and devotion. And so also we see how 
 God gave himself a gleam of sunshine to light him 
 in the darkness that was closing around him. With 
 a brighter outlook, we can see, he would take that 
 deliberate walk back into the power of his persecutors, 
 in that he was going to comfort two poor women in 
 great trouble, and at the same time to feel the fellow- 
 ship occasioned by the nearness of one whom he had 
 known and loved, who had already made the plunge 
 which he had resolved he would allow himself soon 
 to be forced to make, and had reached what awaits 
 all on the other side. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 LAST MEDITATIONS. 
 
 JESUS and his disciples came to Bethany, and Jesus 
 saw the sisters. They were in great distress, and one 
 or both of them said to him, " Lord, if thou hadst Jn. xi. 21, 
 been here, my brother had not died." Jesus told them 32 ' 
 that Lazarus would RISE AGAIN. And he told them Ver. 23. 
 this with his own tone of "authority " which enforced 
 conviction. He told them it with that tone of 
 authority which had in Capernaum made him the 
 spiritual king over a whole town in a few weeks, had 
 in Galilee generally made multitudes throng around 
 him like sheep around their shepherd, and had in 
 the circle of his intimates made him become " trans- 
 figured " so that they were ready to worship him. 
 He told those sisters that Lazarus would rise again 
 in a way that aroused a faith which was as satisfying 
 as certainty. He made them believe simply and 
 unquestioningly in a new life beyond, which awaited 
 their dear brother. He made them, we may say, see 
 in imagination their brother risen again. How exactly 
 he spoke so as to do this we cannot say. Certainly he 
 
302 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Vers. 23- cannot have disputed with Martha in the way the 
 gospel makes him do. Most likely he spoke in a 
 convincingly vivid mariner of the present Father, and 
 
 jn. xi. 34- of the certain restoration of His children. With the 
 sisters he then went to the grave in which, according 
 
 thT-four to the Eastern fashion of early burial, Lazarus had 
 
 should already been placed. He went to the grave, and at 
 the presence of the hidden form of him whom he had 
 
 See note but a few days before affectionately talked with, shed 
 
 /^ tears. Those who saw him were impressed by the 
 sight, and said, " Behold how he loved him ! " 
 
 Lk. x\-i. On the way back from the grave he talked musingly 
 over the loss of Lazarus, as we may gather, and let 
 his musings lead on to his telling a most thoughtful 
 imaginative story. It was, we may believe, something 
 like what we read in the sixteenth chapter of Luke ; 
 but we must believe that the exact form which it 
 bears in Luke is partly due to an influence from 
 the thoughts of the evangelist himself or of those 
 from whom the parable directly came to him. 
 
 Scholars have very generally explained the Fourth 
 Gospel story of the resurrection of Lazarus as being 
 a transference to fact of one of the mere suppositions 
 
 See note contained in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. 
 
 I. 1 ^ We must accept this explanation, only adding to it 
 that Jesus's authoritative teaching at this time regard- 
 ing a resurrection for Lazarus and for all, must have also 
 contributed to the rise of the story that authoritative 
 teaching which is part of what is represented when the 
 
 Jn. xi. 25. evangelist pictures Jesus as saying, " I am the resurrec- 
 tion and the life : he that believeth in me, though 
 he were dead, yet shall he live." We must not, 
 however, go with the scholars the length of holding 
 
LAST MEDITATIONS. 303 
 
 that the whole incident about Lazarus originated in 
 
 the parable, or in the teaching. Rather, as in the 
 
 case of the Unfruitful Fig-tree, there was a real See above, 
 
 incident about Lazarus, the incident led to the parable, P 
 
 and the parable, in its turn, led to the unhistorical 
 
 additions. The Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, 
 
 as it is found in the Third Gospel, is one of the least 
 
 pleasant to read of all the parables. We may apply to 
 
 it a treatment such as we are now applying to the 
 
 whole account as found in a gospel less correct than 
 
 that in which the parable is found, and see in it, first, 
 
 an original element, and next, later additions. While 
 
 valuing most highly and receiving most thankfully the 
 
 attempt of the Third Gospel to bring into special 
 
 prominence Jesus's enthusiasm for the welfare of the 
 
 poor and of needy persons in general, we may suppose 
 
 that in the case of this parable he has himself in great 
 
 part created its hard antithesis between rich and poor, 
 
 and that its real point, as it was spoken by Jesus 
 
 himself, was one quite different namely, one having 
 
 to do with the subjects of death and resurrection. 
 
 We must suppose that the story was told by Jesus 
 
 at the time to which we have come, and that it was 
 
 occasioned by the death of Lazarus. We need not 
 
 suppose him to have characterised Lazarus as a 
 
 " beggar." It is enough, in that direction, to believe 
 
 that he indeed called him a poor man. He was 
 
 thinking, we may suppose, of his lost friend having 
 
 been cut off, and he was recalling how Lazarus, in 
 
 his conversations with him, had shown a character 
 
 that might have been of real value in the world. His 
 
 mind dwelt on the thought of the beyond to w r hich 
 
 Lazarus had gone ; and he pictured him meeting there 
 
304 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 an evil-living rich man, who had on earth been 
 Lk. xvi. " clothed in purple and fine linen." He brought out, 
 in the story to the disciples, how in that meeting 
 Lazarus was the greater of the two, and was able 
 to give to the other what could quench the thirst 
 Cp. above, of the soul. He had further asked himself, Might 
 not Lazarus, were he allowed to come back to earth, 
 be a great power of good among all careless men ; and 
 he brought this out also in his story, representing 
 the rich man on the other side of death as saying to 
 Abraham that he had " brethren " still on earth who 
 might be saved from great troubles if Lazarus could 
 only be sent to them and let them drink the life-giving 
 water. But he had answered himself, and he made 
 Lk. xvi. Abraham answer the rich man, " If they hear not 
 Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded 
 though one rose from the dead." Thus he left the fate 
 of Lazarus and the value of his life in the hands of the 
 all-ruling heavenly Father. It is easy, however, to see 
 how among a people in a state of excitement there 
 might grow out of all this expression of reflection what 
 would help to create, if not the whole account of 
 Lazarus which we find in the Fourth Gospel, as some 
 critics would make out, then certainly that part of it 
 which relates to a calling of Lazarus back to the 
 vanishing life of this world. 
 
 Thus out of a narrative in most respects perplexing, 
 we redeem one of the most beautiful pictures of Jesus's 
 life. Instead of the literally received story of the 
 " Raising of Lazarus," of which it is not too much to 
 say that it neither contributes anything to the universal 
 hope of mankind, nor presents what Jesus must have 
 really promised to the sisters and to Lazarus, we have 
 
LAST MEDITATIONS. 305 
 
 a natural human story, in which we see Jesus almost 
 literally facing death to comfort his friends, see him 
 comforting them with the only comfort which the 
 circumstances admit of namely, the trust that the 
 vanished brother will, like all, live again and see 
 him, finally, weeping at the grave of him whom in this 
 life he will meet no more, whom he will soon follow by 
 a dreadful path which his own self-forgetful love has 
 helped to bring near him. 
 
 We are able now to take up the early gospels again, 
 though still we are the better of the Fourth Gospel 
 account to aid us. We come now to the impression J n - xii 9- 
 made in Bethany by Jesus's return, and by his conduct 
 and teaching. There was, no doubt, a most strong 
 impression made in his favour. He had revealed his 
 true self in his kindness to the sisters, in his vivid, 
 his authoritative, and, we may say, his passionate 
 assertion of the truth of a resurrection, and in his 
 affectionate bearing at the grave. He was, in Bethany 
 at least, regaining his position as a popular hero. But 
 also a consequence of another kind followed. The 
 Fourth Gospel relates it in this way: "But some ofJ n - xi 4 6 
 them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them 
 what things Jesus had done." And Mark relates it in 
 this way : " And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, Mk. xiv. 
 went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them." 
 The thoughtful reader will see how those words from 
 John are intelligible when the account is critically 
 sifted as above, whereas they would have been unin- 
 telligible had there literally happened the miracle 
 which follows in the account. Did sane men go to the 
 authorities to try and get into trouble a person who 
 could play with the great fact of death, as the Fourth 
 
 20 
 
306 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Evangelist makes Jesus do? What really happened, 
 on the other hand, is quite easily understood. The 
 traitorous Judas, now that Jesus was back in Bethany, 
 seeing that he would sooner or later fall into the hands 
 of his enemies, sought to get on the prevailing side 
 by going and offering to the priests to bring them to 
 where they would find him. And at the same time 
 probably some others, not disciples, went and told 
 that Jesus had appeared again at Bethany, and that 
 there was a new stir in his favour. The priests 
 accepted the offer of Judas. And in doing so they 
 evidently believed that Jesus, having appeared, would 
 withdraw again, or else imagined, from what they 
 heard about the rising in his favour in Bethany, that 
 even there by this time it might be difficult to find 
 him sufficiently alone and unprotected. 
 
 If, however, the priests believed that Jesus would 
 withdraw again, when they thought it worth while 
 
 Mk. xiv. to buy over his unworthy associate, they were wrong. 
 
 xii. 2. Jesus remained over this night in Bethany. And one 
 incident happened in the evening which all the gospels 
 
 Mk. xiv. have in some way recorded. This incident was a 
 supper of which Jesus partook along with those 
 devoted friends to whom he had returned. There 
 
 Lk. vii. i s an account given of this supper in Mark and in 
 Matthew. In Luke an account of it has got mixed 
 up with his narrative of a quite distinct a Galilean 
 incident, which, as we have seen above, is also in 
 all likelihood historical ; but also we must discover a 
 separate account of this supper in Luke in his general 
 remarks about Martha and Mary given in the tenth 
 
 Lk. x. 38- chapter, as these remarks contain essentially the same 
 points as are contained in the other accounts of this 
 
LAST MEDITATIONS. 307 
 
 supper. In John also there is an account so like those Jn.xii. 2-8. 
 of Mark and Matthew that advanced scholars have 
 made much of the state of matters in support of the 
 theory that most of what is historical in John is See espec. 
 directly taken from the other gospels or from the ma nn 
 accounts which they contain ; but even if it be true 
 that this account has been influenced by the Synoptic 
 accounts, it is to be said there are certainly indepen- 
 dent historical touches in it, showing an independent 
 source of information on the subject. What took 
 place, we may gather, was something as follows : 
 
 The sisters Martha and Mary accompanied Jesus 
 and his most intimate followers to the house of a man 
 known as Simon the Leper. There all sat together at 
 supper. Whether this was the house in which Jesus 
 had been staying all the time, or whether he had been 
 staying in Martha's house, we need not determine. 
 At all events, Simon no doubt was, like Martha and 
 Mary, if not an earnest believer in Jesus, at least an 
 admirer of him. There was some excitement about 
 this supper. Extravagant stories about Jesus and Jn. xii. 9. 
 Lazarus had gone among the neighbours, and the 
 house was full of people. Attention came to centre 
 itself very specially on the two grateful sisters, who 
 were in different ways devoting themselves to the 
 honouring of Jesus. Martha was showing the more 
 practical ministration, interesting herself in supplying 
 his material wants. In the words of the Third Gospel, Lk. x. 40. 
 she "was cumbered about much serving." Mary, on x if. ' " 
 the other hand, had chosen a different way for showing 
 her devotion. She had, in accordance with a very 
 widespread ancient usage for showing honour, brought 
 a most expensive kind of ointment, and had anointed 
 
 20 * 
 
308 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Jesus with it as an expression, evidently, of her 
 regarding him as the Messiah, or Anointed of God. 
 Her action was not altogether approved of by some 
 of those present. Luke, indeed, is likely mistaken 
 when he suggests that it was Martha that was dis- 
 pleased, as also when he makes Jesus out to have 
 rebuked Martha. His account stands alone among 
 all the accounts in regard to these two points ; and 
 it is highly unlikely in itself that Martha would object 
 to her sister at such a time, or that Jesus would at 
 such a time give the semblance of a rebuke to Martha 
 in her kindness to him. Luke has rightly brought out 
 the difference of character between the two women, 
 
 Mk. xiv. but has overdrawn the details. It was some of the 
 disciples, not Martha, that expressed disapproval ; and 
 all that they did, in all probability, was, while pro- 
 fessing admiration of the costly ointment, to remark, 
 with a mere innuendo of disapproval, that many poor 
 people might have been relieved by the money which 
 had been spent on that ointment. Jesus felt the 
 indelicacy of the remark. He was himself keenly 
 grateful, in this time of his terrible trial, for such 
 an act of personal kindness, and the more so as 
 he felt that he would have few more acts of kind- 
 ness shown him in this world. At the same time a 
 strange fancy flitted across his ever-imaginative mind, 
 to the effect that this anointing might be thought of 
 as the anointing of a body about to be buried. He 
 
 Vers. 6-8. said to those around him, " Let her alone ; why 
 trouble ye her ? she hath wrought a good work on 
 me. For ye have the poor with you always, and 
 whensoever ye will ye may do them good : but me 
 ye have not always. She hath done what she could : 
 
LAST MEDITATIONS. 309 
 
 she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the 
 burying." 
 
 The remainder of the night, no doubt, passed quietly. 
 Jesus went to rest ; and next day he awoke to the Ver. 12. 
 principal day of the Passover, " in the first month, Exod. xii 
 . . . the fourteenth day of the month," which has 
 been identified as a day in our month of April. Two 
 Aprils before, Jesus had been a Galilean carpenter, 
 outwardly little distinguished, inwardly most gentle, 
 most generous, most appreciative, and most wise. 
 One April before, Jesus had been a teacher regarding 
 sacred things to the people of Galilee, who, as he 
 stood and walked on the shores of a beautiful lake, 
 received him with enthusiasm, and said that no man 
 had ever spoken so commandingly and so sweetly as he. Mk - " I2 - 
 This April, the April probably of the year 35 of our 
 reckoning, Jesus was showing the divineness of his 
 nature by an unflinching upholding of his message 
 to the world, in the knowledge that through such 
 action he was walking into the jaws of death. He 
 and his disciples prepared to partake of the passover- 
 feast this day in the city where he knew his death- 
 warrant was signed. How he passed the day we 
 have no information to tell us accurately. In the 
 Fourth Gospel account, however, there is related and Jn. xii. 20 
 attributed to this time a little incident which, in 
 spite of certain suggestions, seen in it by some, 
 of later history, claims credence for its essentials. 
 Some men, we learnand they may, indeed, as the 
 evangelist says, have been Greeks who happened to 
 be in Jerusalem came to Philip the disciple, and said 
 they would like to see Jesus. Jesus, always sensitive 
 to appreciation, and always pleased when it came to 
 
310 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 him, said, on hearing of the incident, something like 
 
 this, " The hour is come, that the Son of man should 
 
 Ver. 23. be glorified." And there are also in the Fourth Gospel 
 
 26.' X1 25> account one or two sayings attributed to Jesus and to 
 
 this time which we must accept. He repeated, we 
 
 are to learn, his great words with which he had left 
 
 Galilee, to the effect that they who will save their 
 
 lives at the expense of duty do not gain in the end. 
 
 And we must also believe that he spoke the following 
 
 Jn. xii. 24. great words : " Except a corn of wheat fall into the 
 
 ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it die, it 
 
 bringeth forth much fruit." Suspicion, indeed, has 
 
 been attached to the authenticity of these words, 
 
 tion o? CS ow i n g to their close resemblance to certain words of 
 
 how far Paul. This suspicion, however, is unjust. The words 
 
 have in- are certainly Jesus's, not Paul's. For one thing, it is 
 
 fhTjohan- n fe n ty unlikely that the evangelist would put into the 
 
 nine mouth of Jesus here a saying from so well known a 
 
 writer is 
 
 interest- source as the epistles of Paul, especially as the saying 
 
 requires contains a doctrine quite out of the lines of the evan- 
 
 stud h gelist's own philosophy. But besides this, on the one 
 
 This sus- hand, the saying employs favourite imagery of Jesus, 
 
 however, is in accordance with Jesus's whole manner of thought 
 
 ^ply and expression, and is in strict accordance with the 
 
 , more than v i ew o f lif e which we have otherwise perceived him 
 mere in- 
 fluence, to have entertained ; on the other hand, the saying 
 
 a^hh/best IS not * n accor d ance with Paul's lines of thought, 
 in Rom. which are much more abstract than those of Jesus, 
 
 viii. 
 
 i Cor. xv. and, indeed, the words in Corinthians which form 
 the counterpart to the saying are palpably out of 
 36 w. vers. natural connection with the rest of the passage in 
 Cp. 5 al'so i which they are found, and so have all the appearance 
 Thess.iv. o f a quotation. The saying is a saying of Jesus; and 
 
LAST MEDITATIONS. 311 
 
 Paul, having heard it, throws it into the midst of an 
 argument of his own on the subject of the resurrection, 
 as a general contribution, without very intelligently 
 applying it. What, then, did the saying mean in 
 Jesus's lips ? Not, assuredly, what modern philosophy 
 has made much of, that the individual lives in its 
 influence on the general. Jesus's interest was far too 
 much centered on personal lives for him to have cared 
 much about that modern doctrine. The saying is to 
 be looked at as Jesus's own teaching on the subject 
 of personal immortality. He believed, we learn from 
 these words, in a resurrection, but in one quite 
 consistent with the study of nature. He believed, C P- J n - 
 evidently, that the spirit which dwells in a human and the 
 body, as it returns at last into the arms of its mother- f n g [ at 
 earth, receives new life there. Like a grain of wheat, Jg^in 
 if it does not thus return into the ground, it abides there, 
 
 . . . which is 
 
 alone, and its own single strength is soon spent ; but found in 
 when it does return, it receives from the parent- * E ^ r 
 substance new life and new strength. 
 
 This kind of reflection, of everlasting value to the 
 human race, was to Jesus himself, assuredly, of import- 
 ance beyond estimating. Along with the thoughts 
 that centered on the death of Lazarus, it was the 
 armour with which he faced his unjust death. That 
 he made much of such thought, and that he had need 
 to do so, come both clearly before us. His obedience 
 was to the Divine Voice. His stay was the Divine 
 Care. But a spirit so sensitive as his and so acute 
 in thinking sought something intelligible to the human 
 mind to light its path. And this was granted in re- 
 flection of the kind which has just been before us, 
 
312 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 bringing into clearness that human life not bounded 
 by the grave, in which " neither moth nor rust doth 
 corrupt," and " thieves do not break through nor 
 steal." 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE LAST SUPPER. 
 
 IN the evening of the day before that midnight-time in 
 which the Passover lamb had to be eaten, Jesus and 
 his special disciples came into the city. And it is most Mk. xiv. 
 likely that it was as he went into the city on this day, I7- 
 with an outlook so different from that with which he 
 had first entered it, that he spoke these still faithful 
 and affectionate words, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou Mt. xxiii. 
 that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are Lk. xix 
 
 sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy j- s 
 
 children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens 31 ; and 
 
 see above, 
 under her wings, and ye would not ! Arriving at a pp. 297, 
 
 house in the city, they all partook of the passover Mk. xiv. 
 meal ; and that meal of which they partook had its l8 - 
 importance as a passover-meal lost in the fact that it 
 was also the Last Supper of Jesus. 
 
 At no place in the history of Jesus is the state of 
 matters which prevails generally in relation to the 
 information we possess more marked than in that 
 having to do with the Last Supper. Here most dis- 
 tinctly we have two sources to be made use of in 
 
314 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 distinctly different ways. The account in the earlier 
 gospels is simple, and, as usual, evidently reliable ; at 
 the same time, all spontaneity and all natural develop- 
 ment of events are sacrificed in it to dramatic presenta- 
 tion. The account in the Fourth Gospel again, though 
 the hand of the evangelist has plainly been brought to 
 bear on it, still retains touches of nature such as the 
 earlier account lacks, which criticism is able to separate 
 from the doctrinal whole and make use of for history. 
 The account in the fourteenth chapter of Mark is clear 
 and evidently trustworthy, but requires filling up. 
 The account in John, chapters xiii. to xvii., is in its 
 complete form a doctrinal presentation by the evan- 
 gelist ; but yet it contains most palpable touches of 
 history, which must be carefully severed from the rest. 
 The whole scene comes before us through such uses of 
 our two sources of information, in a perfectness which 
 will leave little inclination in us to doubt the trust- 
 worthiness of our perception. And to begin with, the 
 two leading incidents of the supper can be made 
 sure of with the greatest certainty. 
 
 The first incident was that Jesus expressed his grief 
 at the desertion of Judas. That Judas was present at 
 the meal and retired in the middle of it is, we may 
 
 Mk. xiv. believe, a mistake. In the earliest account the 
 suggestion is otherwise ; such a course of events would 
 itself have been most inexplicable ; and it is easy to 
 see that the mistake arose from the later accounts 
 giving a literal signification to certain imaginative 
 words of Jesus. Judas, we may believe, had already 
 gone quietly away from the company, and Jesus either 
 suspected or in some way knew what was his purpose. 
 
 Ver. 10. He had been in the city the day before on his own 
 
THE LAST SUPPER. 315 
 
 account; he had likely enough been back with them 
 this day, pretending allegiance and gaining knowledge 
 of the plans of Jesus ; and Jesus had not failed to 
 detect the falseness in him. Now, when all but he 
 were seated together, and when the ceremonial observ- 
 ances in which they may have engaged were mostly past, 
 the bitterness of the desertion arose within Jesus and 
 caused him an overpowering melancholy. "One of Mk -*iv. 
 you which eateth with me," he said that is, one of 
 you who are accustomed to eat with me " shall betray 
 me." And it is most likely a true reminiscence that Jn.xiii.23. 
 the favourite disciple John was at the moment sitting 
 next him and leaning on him affectionately as he spoke 
 the pathetic words. For a moment, doubtless, as the 
 accounts declare, the question, " Is it I ? " started, as 
 such things happen, into every mind ; but it is not 
 likely that they quite expressed such a question to him 
 for whom they all felt ready to give their lives. The 
 question would only flit across their minds for a moment, 
 and then they would know quite well who it was 
 to whom he was referring. " It is one of the twelve, ^ k " xlv< 
 that dippeth with me in the dish," Jesus added ; 
 and the words must have roused in the whole company 
 conflicting emotions which would bring silence over 
 them all. 
 
 And now a careful and at the same time reverent 
 criticism may see in its real spontaneous occurrence a 
 historical incident which has played a wonderful part 
 in the succeeding history of the world. We have 
 already seen, through our critical reading of the Fourth 
 Gospel, that Jesus explained the seemingly unreason- 
 able opposition to him by comparing himself to a Above, 
 shepherd to whom was given only a certain number of 
 
316 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 sheep. Similarly now we may see, through critical 
 reading of the Fourth Gospel, that he sought for 
 explanation of the conduct of Judas, and found it 
 through the help of another figure, as familiar to the 
 Israelite mind as that of the sheep and Shepherd 
 namely, that of a Vine. The Fourth Gospel tells us 
 that at this last supper Jesus compared himself to a 
 Vine. The other gospels tell us that at this last 
 supper he compared his own blood to the fruit of the 
 vine. Modern criticism has cleverly brought out the 
 connection between the two reports, generally con- 
 cluding that the Fourth Gospel passage about the Vine 
 is largely worked up out of the report in the other 
 gospels about the wine. We must recognise the 
 connection thus brought out by modern criticism, but, 
 according to our whole way of understanding the 
 Fourth Gospel, we must not attribute the connection 
 to later working up out of the earlier reports, but must 
 see it in the original events as they spontaneously 
 occurred. 
 
 Jesus, then, we may say, after the pathetic words we 
 
 have found him uttering about the desertion of one 
 
 whom he had believed to be his friend, sat for a few 
 
 moments in silent suffering of the inward pangs which 
 
 that desertion occasioned him. Then he partly threw 
 
 off, as it were, the burdening thoughts, and spoke to 
 
 the disciples. But still what had occurred was filling 
 
 Mk. xiv. ; his mind and oppressing him ; and the words that he 
 
 jn. xv. now u ttered were as melancholy as those which he had 
 
 spoken before. Lifting up the wine-cup which stood 
 
 For order, before him, he said he would not drink again of the 
 
 Lk. xxn. ru - t Q tne y j ne t -jj k e drank it anew in that region 
 
 beyond in which he was going to live anew. It was 
 
THE LAST SUPPER. 317 
 
 then, we must believe, as he still gazed on the wine, 
 and as all were silent, knowing not what to say, and as 
 the thought of the desertion of Judas was still gnawing 
 at his soul, that his mind his mind ever inclining 
 naturally to express its thoughts through imagery jn.xv. 1,2. 
 
 came on the fancy which he expressed thus : I am a i 
 
 Vine, planted by God, and God has removed a branch that is also 
 was bearing no fruit. The further remark attributed to report of 
 him in the gospel account about burning the branch is i n g S s 
 altogether improbable. But we must believe that the j n . X v. 6. 
 fancy roused him to turn to the friends who were still 
 faithful, and to address to them something in the spirit 
 of his own care for them. They were the branches that 
 still remained ; we are to learn that, as the Fourth 
 Evangelist relates, he urged these " branches " to j n . xv. 4. 
 " abide " in him. He may have done this literally and 
 directly as the Fourth Evangelist records ; but at any 
 rate he did so through a request which was more 
 powerful than a direct injunction could alone have 
 been. He told them to regard this wine as his blood Mk. xiv. 
 
 24 ' Lk 
 
 which was about to be shed, and when they drank it, to X xi'i. 19; 
 do so in remembrance of him. Then he carried fancy 2 5 C r ' X1 ~ 
 a little further, said of the bread also, that it was 
 his body, and asked that also in the breaking of it 
 he might be remembered. Not one, we may 
 say, of the melancholy company assembled round 
 Jesus ever forgot the affectionate request that he 
 made of them. 'Those poor simple men, unable 
 as they were to say anything of comfort or hope 
 in reply 'to his mournful utterances, understood 
 at least the language of friendship, and determined 
 with one mind never to forget to do as he wished them 
 to do. No wonder that the eating and drinking in 
 
3l8 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 remembrance of Jesus became the most sacred act in 
 the worship of the first Christians. It was bound to 
 become so with such an origin. 
 
 How far, if at all, the doctrinal turn which was after- 
 wards given to this incident, may have been present in 
 the mind of Jesus, it is difficult to be sure. Certainly 
 much of the Church doctrine on the subject was later 
 development, if not indeed later accretion ; and espe- 
 cially the representations both in mediaeval art and in 
 modern declamation, of Jesus's flowing blood and of 
 the cruel sufferings to which he was subjected in his 
 death which reverent followers, one might think, 
 would rather see buried out of sight are far from the 
 simple thoughts which have just been before us. But 
 this at least of the doctrine was in germ in the original 
 occurrence, that Jesus desired his disciples to recognise 
 in the bread and wine the showing forth of a sacrifice, 
 which arose out of faithfulness towards heaven and love 
 towards man. And we modern believers in Jesus and 
 followers of Jesus may engage in the instituted cere- 
 mony of eating and drinking in Jesus's name, calling to 
 
 SeeApp. m i n d not only the historical sacrifice but also an 
 eternal sacrifice of which the historical was a revela- 
 tion, even while, at the same time, our first thoughts 
 may be those of simple discipleship and devotion to 
 Jesus, such as he sought and will never despise. 
 
 The Gospels of Mark and Matthew tell us no more 
 of much importance as having happened at the Last 
 Supper. But a broad comparison of all four gospels 
 brings us to some further occurrences wKich, with 
 practical certainty, may be fixed to this point in the 
 history. 
 
 What of the Fourth Gospel ? The Fourth Gospel, 
 
XIV. 
 IO. 
 
 THE LAST SUPPER. 319 
 
 in its chapters xiii. to xvii., gives a lengthened con- 
 versation, with the names of the different speakers 
 introduced different disciples making remarks, and 
 Jesus answering them, just in the way that things 
 must really have proceeded. But upon examination 
 the whole passage promises very little. As has been 
 said above, it is a doctrinal presentation by the 
 evangelist, just like the rest of the gospel. Even the 
 notices of the remarks of individual disciples give very 
 little on which to lay hold. One remark, indeed, that of 
 Philip asking Jesus to show them this "Father " whose Jn. 
 presence always upheld him, may have historical truth 
 in it, as also the reply of Jesus, to the extent of his 
 having expressed disappointment that Philip, after 
 being with him so long, should make a request so 
 materialistic. This is likely, indeed, to be a historical 
 reminiscence. And, accepting it as such, we may Combina- 
 gather that Jesus further answered Philip's question in testimony 
 words like these : If a man do " the will of my Father fl ! om J n 
 
 xiv. 9, 23, 
 
 which is in heaven," my Father will make his abode and Mt. 
 with him. But the other remarks and answers, connect- 
 however they may have taken their rise, are, as we {^["J^ 
 now have them, but the didactic expression of the Jn. xiv. 9 
 
 and Mt. 
 
 evangelist's own ecclesiastical philosophising. In the vii. 21, in 
 sayings attributed to Jesus, however, we shall still be 
 tempted to think there must be some remains of 
 Jesus's real utterances at this time ; and in seeking to 
 find these out, we may make one more appeal to the 
 Synoptic gospels in the hope of finding some touches 
 which we may connect with the Johannine report, in 
 the same way as has been done above in the case of 
 the wine and the Vine. 
 
 We find two passages in the Synoptic gospels which 
 
320 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 we may use in this way. Though there is almost 
 nothing more in the accounts of the Supper in Matthew 
 
 Lk. xxii. and Mark, there is a little piece of material in Luke 
 confirmed by the account in John. And though there 
 is almost nothing more in the accounts of the Supper 
 in Matthew and Mark, we are not to forget the 
 collected Speech to the Disciples which is to be found 
 in the tenth chapter of Matthew. That, as we have 
 seen, is collected out of sayings to the disciples 
 uttered at various times ; and now we shall find that 
 some of it fits, and only fits, to this Last Supper, 
 is confirmed in its connection with the Last Supper 
 by the Fourth Gospel account, and is confirmed as 
 belonging to the real sayings of Jesus by its having 
 slipped into the " apocalyptic " passage in Mark, with 
 which it has no natural connection. 
 
 The piece of material in Luke begins with the state- 
 
 Ver. 24. ment, " And there was also a strife among them, which 
 of them should be accounted the greatest." Now this 
 statement cannot be taken just as it stands. The idea 
 of a strife about which of them was to be considered 
 the greatest having arisen among them at a time in 
 which, as we have just seen, they must have been 
 silent in amazement and helplessness and yet burning 
 with devotion to the Master, is out of the question. 
 And indeed we find that what Luke here relates is 
 just an event which we have already had before us as 
 having happened in Galilee, reported by Mark and 
 Matthew in its proper place. The suggestion, however, 
 arises, May not Luke have had in his possession some 
 fragmentary report of sayings of Jesus at the Supper, 
 to the same general effect as those that are led up to 
 by the strife about who was to be the greatest, and so 
 
THE LAST SUPPER. 321 
 
 have introduced the passage about the strife in this 
 place, wrongly indeed, but for the purpose of filling up 
 a similar passage which really belonged to this place ? 
 This suggestion is borne out by the facts. The passage 
 about the strife, including Jesus's words which it led 
 to, is given by Luke, and then come the words, " For Lk xxii - 
 whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that 
 serveth ? is not he that sitteth at meat ? but I am 
 among you as he that serveth. Ye are they which Ver. 28. 
 have continued with me in my temptations." These 
 words are not found in the other accounts of the 
 strife, and they have no connection with it further 
 than that they enforce the same general idea. Now 
 we find in the Fourth Gospel account of the Supper a J n xiii. 4 
 passage enforcing the same idea, having no connection 
 with that " strife/' but having a great resemblance to 
 those last words of Luke's account just quoted. The 
 passage in the Fourth Gospel account tells of Jesus 
 having at the Supper washed the disciples' feet, and of 
 his having taught them to do the same to each other. 
 Now literally this passage can hardly be historical. 
 While it does not overstate the length to which one 
 should go in carrying out Jesus's teaching regarding 
 kindness one to another, still, viewed as an actual 
 event happening at this time, its presents us with a 
 picture not of spontaneous kindness, but of forced and 
 uncalled-for doing for others, such as does not seem in 
 keeping with what we otherwise learn of Jesus. The 
 feet-washing, then, depending as it does entirely on this 
 late Fourth Gospel, cannot be easily regarded as literally 
 historical. Still the fact of both Luke and John having 
 in their accounts of Jesus's sayings at this time 
 passages so dissimilar and yet urging, both of them, 
 
 21 
 
322 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 the same mental qualities namely, those of humble- 
 ness, kindness, and friendliness suggests most 
 convincingly, in the circumstances, that there was a 
 historical background for them both. We may find 
 a clue to what really happened in two further notices 
 in the Fourth Gospel account occurring further on. 
 The first of these (which also is repeated) is that in 
 which it is said that Jesus gave to the disciples as a 
 Jn.xiii.34, " new commandment " the injunction that they should 
 
 XV. 12. 
 
 " love one another." This notice is, indeed, too like 
 the First Epistle of John in its language to be accepted 
 just as it stands. The expression " new command- 
 ment," we must believe, originated not in any actual 
 utterance of Jesus, but in the application of Jesus's 
 Cp. Gal. teaching by the writer of the Fourth Gospel and of the 
 Tim.'i. 5. epistles of John, and also by others of the early 
 Christians. And we might be inclined to treat the 
 
 Above, 
 
 p. 269. whole notice as just an expression, in the evangelist's 
 own free fashion, of Jesus's teaching to the earnest 
 scribe. This latter, however, would be going too far. 
 It is best to believe that this repeated notice, explain- 
 ing as it does so well the feet-washing story and the 
 fragmentary words in Luke, is historical in so far as it 
 tells us that Jesus at this time went back in some way 
 on what he had said to the earnest scribe. We shall 
 presently, then, find help from this notice for our 
 search after what really happened at this time. The 
 other notice is that in which Jesus is reported to have 
 
 Jn.xv.i5. said, " I have called you friends." In the gospel that 
 sentence is mixed up with material which is certainly 
 more or less the evangelist's own composition ; but, 
 in accordance with what we have several times seen in 
 the Fourth Gospel, we may take it that the evangelist 
 
THE LAST SUPPER. 323 
 
 has separated these words from their right connection 
 to allow of doctrinal interpolations, and we may find 
 their original connection to be with a saying to which 
 the feet-washing story is made to lead up namely, 
 this, " Ye call me Master and Lord." This also brings Jn. 
 help to us for learning what happened at this time. I; 
 And now we are able to reproduce what took place. It 
 was, we may say, as follows : 
 
 The melancholy silence which, as we have seen, had 
 fallen on the company was broken, we may gather, by 
 some small kindly action on the part of Jesus to one 
 of the disciples indeed, it would seem likely, to Peter. Jn. 
 The action was performed, shall we not fancy ? by 
 way of gracefully turning the attention away from the 
 gloomy themes with which they had been engaged. 
 Peter, it would seem, deprecated the action of kindness 
 on the part of Jesus towards himself, addressing Jesus 
 in a distant and reverential tone as Master. Jesus 
 then, we may gather, answered something like this : 
 Ye call me Master and Lord ; I have ever called you 
 friends. Ye are they who have continued with me Lk. 
 through all my trials. The reverential tone of Peter's 2 " 
 remark, and the very word " Master " had somewhat 
 jarred on Jesus in the state of mind into which he had 
 come. He was feeling so keenly the parting from 
 those faithful men ; he would have preferred that they 
 should feel as he felt, that what was threatening them 
 was the parting of friend from friend, rather than the 
 removal of one to be looked upon with awe. There 
 was hardly, however, a rebuke in his reply ; there was 
 just an indication of his own fervent feelings in relation 
 to them. Then, we further learn, he went on to 
 remind them that in his whole teaching he had dis- 
 
 21 * 
 
324 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 couraged emphasis of the relation of master, and had 
 taught that the stronger should rather be kind to the 
 
 jn. xiii. ; weaker. And as he wished them to continue his 
 teaching and his work after he would be gone, he urged 
 on them to remember this point themselves. He said 
 he would leave with them this precept, that they should 
 
 jn. xiii. " love one another." And we may believe he really 
 added words very like these words which the evangelist 
 
 Ver. 35. gives us : " By this shall all men know that ye are my 
 disciples, if ye have love one to another." It is inter- 
 esting to notice how, even in this most trying time, he, 
 in his eagerness to impress his teaching on those whom 
 he was leaving to spread it, showed his usual acumen 
 in fixing on a word or phrase which they could not 
 mistake, and could carry away with them to hold in 
 their memories. It is also to be noticed, in relation to 
 all these sayings which we have just had before us, that 
 the near approach of death took away any constraint 
 that might have prevented him talking so plainly of 
 his own personal feelings towards them. 
 
 Keeping still by the little piece of information in 
 Luke, we find another sentence attributed to Jesus 
 namely, "I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father 
 
 Lk. xxii. hath appointed unto me : that ye may eat and drink at 
 my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging 
 the twelve tribes of Israel." This, we must decide, 
 has been altered from the original by Luke, not with 
 the intention of doing so, but on account of the 
 
 jn. xvii. saying reaching him in an incomplete form. We can 
 
 Lk Txif : reconstruct the original, with the help of the Fourth 
 
 30. Cp. Gospel account, so as to have it this : As my Father 
 
 also Rev. 
 
 iii. 21. hath sent me, so I send you ; " that ye may eat and 
 
 drink at my table in the kingdom of heaven, and sit on 
 
THE LAST SUPPER. 325 
 
 thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." He was 
 continuing the expression of his wish that they would 
 teach his ideas to the people ; and he recurred to the 
 old conception, half practical and half fanciful, which See above, 
 he had put before them in Galilee, according to which 
 they 'were his twelve Apostles, or Sent-men twelve 
 according to the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus through 
 Luke and John another episode comes before us ; but 
 this one is not only confirmed, but given us in extra 
 detail, in that other passage spoken of above, as 
 available for us from the earlier gospels namely, a 
 part of the dramatic Speech to the Disciples, which 
 forms the tenth chapter of Matthew. 
 
 Within the tenth chapter of Matthew there is one Mt. x. 
 small passage made up of warnings on the part of T ~ 31 ' 
 Jesus regarding troubles which were before his disciples. 
 Now this passage is quite unsuitable to the first 
 sending of the apostles in Galilee. At the early time 
 in which that event happened, Jesus had no such 
 gloomy outlook as this passage expresses, nor is it 
 conceivable that he would make such prognostications 
 as this passage contains in relation to the very first 
 attempt to spread his ideas over his own province. 
 When, then, we consider that Mark, the earliest 
 gospel, has no trace of the words of the passage as 
 having been addressed to the disciples at that time, 
 and when we remember that the speech, like other 
 speeches in Matthew, is plainly made up for dramatic 
 effect and didactic purpose, from various sayings, we 
 may conclude that it was not at the Galilean sending 
 of apostles that the words of this passage were spoken. 
 We might then be tempted to look upon the passage, 
 in the way of advanced scholars, as being a description 
 
326 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 of after-events put, with literary liberty, into the mouth 
 of the Master himself ; and this, indeed, we must do 
 in the case of some of the detail of the passage. But 
 seeing the passage taken generally agrees so well with 
 the Johannine report as critically sifted, and seeing it 
 is so very suitable to the circumstances we have now 
 come to, seeing further that, as we have just had 
 before us, it fits in to the report of Luke, critically 
 read, we may take it as giving a report genuine in 
 general, though slightly influenced in particulars by 
 after-events of what further took place at the last 
 supper of Jesus. 
 
 We have just seen, then, that Jesus had come back 
 on his old idea of his most intimate disciples being 
 " apostles," or " sent-men," the number being twelve 
 according to the twelve tribes of Israel. I have sent 
 you, he said, as my Father hath sent me. And then 
 the darkness of the outlook which had come to exist 
 influenced what he had to say on the subject. He 
 recurred as he would do yet once again to that 
 fancy which, as we saw in last chapter, had first 
 presented itself to him by way of explaining how only 
 a few listened to his teaching namely, that these few 
 were his special " sheep." He thought of the sheep as 
 they would be without their shepherd, and he said, 
 Mt. x. 16. " Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of 
 wolves." Sheep in the midst of wolves ! he seems to 
 have thought for a moment ; and then with a gleam of 
 humour even in the midst of the great sadness, he 
 added that they must then not be like sheep altogether, 
 but must be like " serpents " in wisdom, and like 
 " doves " in harmlessness. To justify the fear which 
 was expressed in this saying about the wolves, he gave 
 
THE LAST SUPPER. 327 
 
 the reason for it in these words, or something like 
 them, " The disciple is not above his master, nor the Mt. x. 24 ; 
 servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple xv. 20. 
 that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord." 
 They would hardly altogether escape, he said, when he 
 had been so treated. The disciple would be as his 
 master. The next two verses in Matthew's account, 
 after that about the wolves and sheep and doves and 
 serpents, giving the detail of what would come to them, 
 cannot be taken as literally historical. One morsel, 
 however, may be abstracted from them. It is this 
 clause : " They will scourge you in their synagogues." Mt- x. 17. 
 This likely tells of real words of Jesus, but not quite 
 accurately, the after-experience of Christians having 
 given a turn to the words. As the words stand, they 
 give a piece of detail which would have been quite 
 unlikely to be mentioned by Jesus. The original, how- 
 ever, is, we may say without doubt, preserved for us in 
 the Fourth Gospel account, and was this, " They shall J n - xvi 2 - 
 put you out of the synagogues." We can see how the 
 thought in these words was suggested to Jesus. He 
 was thinking, evidently, of that man of Jerusalem who 
 had been threatened with being put out of the syna- 
 gogue for saying publicly that he had been blind before See above, 
 he had heard Jesus, and that Jesus had opened his p ' 25 ' 
 eyes. Then he faced one more certainty which was 
 before them namely, that, like himself, they would 
 have to answer the objections, and possibly objections 
 backed up by threats and injuries, of those in power. 
 And this led to his uttering the grand words, " But Mt. x. 19, 
 when they deliver you up, take no thought how or 
 what ye shall speak : for it shall be given you in that 
 same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that 
 
 20. 
 
328 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh 
 
 in you." In this simple form these words, supported 
 
 as they are by Mark, are certainly genuine words of 
 
 Mk. xiii. Jesus. The Fourth Gospel has had, evidently, a 
 
 also Lk. report of them which has been almost word for word 
 
 Jn.xiv.i6, w ^h this f Matthew, as we find all the ideas of this 
 
 one in the Fourth Evangelist's account ; but he has 
 
 given us much more than Matthew. Most of what he 
 
 has given us is put into form by the reflection of a new 
 
 generation as is, to begin with, his calling what Jesus 
 
 named " the Spirit of your Father " the Representative 
 
 or the Advocate (Parakletos, translated in the English 
 
 version, as " the Comforter "). (He has preserved the 
 
 original idea that it was their Father's Spirit they were 
 
 Ver. 26. to trust to, in these forms, " whom the Father will 
 
 Jn. xv. 26. send in my name," " whom I will send unto you from 
 
 the Father," and "which proceedeth from the Father.") 
 
 But we may take it as a historical fact as this 
 
 evangelist tells us that he also bid them pray to their 
 
 heavenly Father as he had, doubtless, often bid them 
 
 do before, that he said he also would pray for them, 
 
 Jn. xiv. and that he assured them that after they had prayed, 
 
 and he had prayed, God would give them that great 
 
 boon, the help of His own Spirit. And we may also 
 
 take it as a historical fact that he added it would be 
 
 Jn.xvi.y. g OO( i f or them to lose him for a time, because in that 
 
 case the Spirit of their heavenly Father would come 
 
 and teach them. This is borne witness to by the 
 
 very growing up of the materialistic belief which is 
 
 Acts. ii. i- centered on the day of Pentecost. It could not well, 
 
 indeed, have been the intimate disciples themselves, 
 
 but rather later tradition, that gave to those sage 
 
 words of Jesus the aspect in which they seemed the 
 
THE LAST SUPPER. 329 
 
 prediction of a magical gift, and supposed that the gift 
 came on the day of Pentecost. Those intimate disciples 
 of Jesus, most surely, were able to see in some way, in 
 the words, the meaning which is so clear to any one 
 now namely, that when he was gone they would 
 have to think for themselves, and so would be brought 
 into more direct communion with the ever-present God. 
 Thus far we have gained our knowledge of the Last 
 Supper from the early gospels as confirmed and 
 illumined by the Fourth Gospel read critically. Dare 
 we now attempt to get one or two touches of infor- 
 mation from the Fourth Gospel alone ? We have been 
 walking with one foot on the firm ground and the 
 other on the ice. Dare we, just for a moment, venture 
 a little way out, and let the ice alone bear us ? 
 Assuredly, if our method of reading all along is the 
 right one, there is still, in these chapters of the Fourth 
 Gospel, much, beyond what the earlier gospels directly 
 confirm, to be attributed to Jesus himself. It is 
 difficult to abstract; and any full or detailed abstracting 
 cannot be satisfactory. But there are at least a few of 
 the sayings presented of which we can be particularly 
 sure according to the canons which have been generally 
 guiding us. We can be virtually sure, for one point, 
 that Jesus did say, " Let not your heart be troubled"; j n . 
 that he said, " In my Father's house are many ^ 
 mansions " ; and that he said, " My peace I give unto the words 
 you." We may be sure that he said in answer, your 
 probably, to some deprecating objection to which the 
 
 disciples may have roused themselves, "Whither I go a ^ t ^ 
 ye know, and the way ye know" meaning that they See App. 
 all knew pretty well the kind of movement that wasj n ' x i v . 4 . 
 going on against him, and knew that the Roman death 
 by crucifixion was before him. We may be sure that 
 
33 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 jn. xvi. 17- h e S poke of their meeting again, and that in his own 
 way he gave the illustration which compared death 
 
 jn. xvii. itself to the pains of travail. And lastly, we may be 
 sure that, even in the presence of them all, he sought 
 relief in prayer to Him who was sustaining him. 
 
 Yes, let us still refer the lovely elements of the 
 prayer in the seventeenth chapter of John to Jesus our 
 Lord. We have really, according to the view of the 
 Fourth Gospel which we have been taking, every- 
 thing on our side when we do this. First, it is most 
 probable indeed, from our knowledge of Jesus, we 
 may say it is certain that Jesus would pray with his 
 friends at this last supper, as he knew he was going 
 from them. And further, the earlier gospels may be 
 
 Mk. xiv. said to give some confirmation. Mark and Matthew 
 both relate that before leaving the supper-room they 
 "sang a hymn." And even if that refers to a ritualistic 
 observance having to do with the Passover, we must 
 feel sure, from what we have learned of Jesus, that he 
 would connect with it some individual contribution of 
 
 Lk. xxii. devotional expression. Luke, again, in relating what 
 certainly happened after they had left the supper-room 
 (although Luke himself is not clear on that point), 
 reports Jesus as having said to Peter, " I have prayed 
 for thee, that thy faith fail not." In the circumstances, 
 all things considered, it is most likely that the conver- 
 sation which we have had before us would lead up to a 
 prayer on the part of Jesus. It is, further, more than 
 probable that the disciples would remember the chief 
 points of Jesus's farewell prayer, and that some preser- 
 vation of it would be made, corrected by the remem- 
 brance of one and another. And it is intelligible why 
 we do not find it in the earlier gospels. It is enough 
 to notice that, as they were presenting the " Christ " 
 
THE LAST SUPPER. 33! 
 
 as a general object of faith, this prayer, with which 
 really his friends alone had concern, would not seem 
 to them of the importance which it possesses to us 
 who are inquiring anew regarding the personality of 
 Him whom we have worshipped. The Fourth Evan- 
 gelist has evidently had in his hands a report of it 
 which he has worked up into a longer form in his own 
 way. How can we separate the elements ? Only, 
 perhaps, at all to an extent which leaves a vague idea 
 of the original ; but so much of a separation can surely 
 be accomplished by the methods that have hitherto 
 guided us. The dualism of the "world" and theVer.g;the 
 chosen is not of Jesus : if Jesus said, " I pray not for (they are 
 the world," it must have been because he left the ^ ne j )ri 
 world to the Eternal Father and His care. The inaily 
 allusion to the "son of perdition" is not of Jesus; ifferredto 
 Jesus alluded to Judas in his prayer, it cannot have ..^orld " 
 been with the calmness of the evangelist's presentation. Ver. 12. 
 But Jesus, we may learn, did pray for those whom Vers. 2, 6, 
 God had given him in the time of his earthly life, did ver. n. 
 entrust them to his Father's keeping, did pray for y ers - I7 ' 
 their sanctification, did say, "the hour is come," did Ver. i.cp. 
 
 IVIk i i ^ 
 
 speak of love which he had himself known from God, 
 and did fervently implore such a realisation of that 
 love as would bring to all a meeting again. Vers - 26 
 
 With this prayer, in all probability, the occurrences 
 at the Last Supper ended. After this prayer, we must 
 believe, rather than in the middle of the conversation, Jn. xiv. 
 as the Fourth Evangelist perplexingly relates after 31 
 this prayer, which must have caused to reign among 
 those devoted and affectionate men who surrounded 
 Jesus, a silence even more profound than had been 
 before after this prayer, amid utter stillness, Jesus 
 said, " Arise, let us go hence." 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE TRANSLATION. 
 
 Mk. xiv. JESUS and his disciples, or rather, as he made known 
 his wish to have it expressed, Jesus and his friends, 
 went out from the house in which they had supped, 
 and walked as it were back towards Bethany, but not 
 to lodge there any more, as Jesus had only too good 
 grounds for believing. They reached the Mount of 
 Olives. And the stern supernatural humour settled 
 down upon Jesus, only to be relieved by expressions of 
 solicitude for his disciples' welfare, and of craving, in 
 return, for assurances of their community in his aims 
 and their devotion towards himself. He said, "All ye 
 
 Vers. 27, shall be offended because of me this night : for it is 
 
 28. 
 
 written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall 
 
 be scattered. But after that I am risen, I will go 
 
 before you into Galilee." Peter said in answer, 
 
 Vers. 29- Although all shall be offended, yet will not I." And 
 
 Cp. Cas- Jesus rejoined as we may simplify the report, which 
 
 Si" xTii. has been slightly moulded by after-events, Before the 
 
 ^Einld- 3 coc k-crow, thou shalt be offended. Peter " spake the 
 
 tung,"p.4. more vehemently," protesting that he was ready to 
 
THE TRANSLATION. 333 
 
 die with Jesus. And here we must find a trace of real Ver - 3 1 - 
 history in a narrative which not only is to be found in xxii. 33. 
 the Fourth Gospel alone, but also has been seriously 
 questioned as belonging to the Fourth Gospel. In the 
 twenty-first chapter of John, held by many scholars to 
 have not been an original part of the Fourth Gospel, 
 there is an isolated story which so perfectly fills up 
 and gives life to the scene now under consideration, 
 that our canons of inquiry are hardly strained if we 
 find part of its origin in its having been an account of 
 this scene. True, it is in its present form a narrative 
 of experiences after the death of Jesus, and there is a 
 likeliness in its details which recommends them to 
 consideration as having had a historical reality. But 
 the form of the story may be explained by the idea 
 that, in the resurrection experiences which it recounts, 
 the apostle Peter may have remembered the other 
 scene just before the translation of Jesus, so as to 
 dwell once more on its particulars, and that accordingly 
 the narrative of the resurrection experience which was 
 preserved blended the two scenes into one. And so we 
 may gather, what took place was this : Jesus, after his 
 remark about even Peter being sure to be offended 
 before the cock-crow, went on to say to Peter, in 
 allusion to his strong asseverations, "Simon, son ofJ n - xxi - 
 Jonas, lovest thou me ? " Peter, aggrieved, replied, 
 " Yea, Lord ; thou knowest that I love thee." Then 
 Jesus said, " Feed my sheep." Then, more affection- 
 ately and more trustingly, we may gather, he went on 
 to say what Luke has preserved for us : " Simon, Lk. xxii. 
 Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that 3I> 32< 
 he may sift you as wheat : But I have prayed for thee, 
 that thy faith fail not : . . . strengthen thy brethren." 
 
334 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 There is a clause in Luke's report of this saying 
 which, as he reports it, is not intelligible namely/' when 
 thou art converted" (strengthen thy brethren). The 
 appearance of this clause suggests that its origin may 
 have been in another remark of Jesus at the same 
 time, which Luke became confused over. This we may 
 take to be the case, from the fact that we find an 
 exceedingly lifelike remark which might easily have 
 thus originated the clause in Luke, in the twenty-first 
 chapter of John. Another remark, then, of Jesus, we 
 may say, which Luke became confused over, is preserved 
 in John, also in a confused form. The remark 
 originally, we may gather, was something like this : 
 Jn. x\i. 18. When thou wast young, thou stretchedst forth thy 
 hands, and another girded thee ; but now thou must 
 gird thyself and gird others. The scene comes before 
 us clearly, and very touching it is. Jesus, knowing 
 that his days on earth were about at an end, had only 
 this poor fisherman to look to to continue his work 
 and his teaching. Only this one ; for he saw, no 
 doubt, that his was the only very striking religious 
 personality among them, and that, while the others 
 were earnest, faithful, and in some ways well instructed, 
 they had not sufficient enthusiasm to make them 
 leaders. And this Peter himself, he knew, had up to 
 this point been never the least like a leader, but had 
 been of an impressionable and indeed somewhat 
 wavering character. It was not a confident outlook, 
 had he had no power other than his disciples to trust to. 
 But Jesus had more to trust to. He left his cause in 
 the hands of Him who had given it to him. And God 
 both led Peter and these other faithful friends in the 
 paths of success, and also raised up, in the great Paul, 
 
THE TRANSLATION. 335 
 
 a man such as Jesus now wished for, who carried his 
 name and his message triumphantly over the world. 
 
 The rest that happened is easy to tell. The account 
 in the Synoptic gospels is a plain, evidently trust- 
 worthy statement. The Johannine account becomes 
 much freer than before from doctrinal and traditional 
 influences, and contains some most valuable reminis- 
 cences of its own, which at this stage of our work may 
 be presented to the reader as they come, without 
 apology or much explanation. 
 
 Jesus and his disciples entered a piece of open 
 ground, called GETHSEMANE. This may have been Mk xiv 
 either a garden or a piece of waste ground or a 3 2 ; e af - 
 
 r m den, Jn. 
 
 plantation of trees. In this place Jesus parted a xviii. i. 
 little from the disciples, and gave way to a terrible out- 
 pouring of anguish. The Presence that had inspired 
 him now sustained him. He knelt in prayer as we 
 may behold him, revere him, and love him the Elder 
 Brother of the human race, who was the true Sen 
 of God. His disciples overheard him say : " Abba, Mk xiv 
 
 Father, all things are possible unto thee : take away 36. 
 
 J correctly 
 
 this cup from me : nevertheless not what I will, but reported 
 
 i ,,1 -i^ 55 in T n - xii 
 
 what thou wilt. 27 . 2g . 
 
 In Gethsemane his persecutors, led by Judas, found Mk. 
 him out. They came up to him, and as they came, he 43 " J 
 said bitterly, "Are ye come out, as against a thief, 
 with swords and with staves to take me ? I was daily 
 with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not." 
 And he added, " But this is your hour, and the power Lk. xxii. 
 of darkness." The devoted Simon Peter drew some jn. x i. 9, 
 
 10 ; Mk. 
 
 weapon, and made an attempt at defence ; but Jesus xv 
 rebuked him, repeating in calmness the words that Mk. xiv. 
 had lately burst from his soul in his agony. He said, xviii. 10 
 
336 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Ver. ii. "Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which 
 my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it ?" The 
 slight resistance, however, was enough to make some 
 of the officers begin to lay hands on the disciples also. 
 
 Vers. 7, 8. B u f- Jesus said, ''Whom seek ye?" and on receiving 
 the answer, " Jesus of Nazareth," continued, " I am 
 he. If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way." 
 We must not miss the heroic majesty of these words. 
 We have indeed presented in these words a com- 
 manding picture. He who has lately been praying 
 that his friends may not be taken away from him, 
 now gives the request from his own lips that they 
 may be allowed to leave him. Because he sees that 
 their welfare leads them for the time away from him, 
 he demands that they may be separated from him, 
 even till the coming of all to the hidden world beyond. 
 
 Mk. xiv. 'phg Disciples a t this moment let fear overcome all 
 50, 51. 
 
 other considerations, and fled in such panic, indeed, 
 
 that one, who had been seized by an officer, left his 
 cloak, or covering of some sort, in the officer's hand, 
 and ran off without it. 
 
 They took him before the high priest Caiaphas. 
 
 . 53 ; Witnesses against him were called, even in the middle 
 
 Mt. xxvi. 
 
 57. of the night, as the time was. They got two men to 
 
 testify to his having said he would destroy the temple, 
 
 Mk. xiv. and rebuild it in three days. What did it matter, 
 before such judges, that the testimony was both in- 
 accurate in detail and misunderstanding in general ? 
 The high priest gave him opportunity to defend him- 
 self. But he answered that he had nothing to bring 
 forward, saying that he had spoken openly of the 
 matters which he had come to Jerusalem to teach, 
 and that those who had heard him could tell what 
 
THE TRANSLATION. 337 
 
 he had taught. At this, one of those infatuated men Mk.,jn. 
 struck him. The high priest then, by way of bring- 
 ing the matter to a point, asked him : "Art thou the Mk. xiv. 
 Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" Jesus met his 
 challenge boldly, and said, " I am : and ye shall see 
 the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power. Ver. 62. 
 ..." The high priest then said : " What need we X xii. 69. 
 any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: 
 what think ye?" And, in the words of Mark, "they 
 all condemned him to be guilty of death." 
 
 The disciples had, some of them, gathered round Mk '- 
 about ; but they were too terrified to acknowledge con- xviii. 15. 
 nection with him. Even Peter was heard to deny any 
 acquaintance with him. But soon that really devoted 
 friend was found bitterly weeping. His fault would ^ k 72 xu ' 
 surely have been tenderly dealt with by the Master. 
 And for us it may be said in regard to him, that, 
 remembering his after-conduct in suffering and dying 
 for the cause of Jesus, no disciple of Jesus has the 
 right to speak of him with anything but respect and 
 admiration. 
 
 As the passover-meal, in which both Jesus and his 
 enemies had been engaged, had extended, according 
 to custom, till past midnight, they had not long to 
 wait till the new day was upon them. When the Mk. \\. i. 
 new day's business was begun, the whole circle of 
 priests, along with the whole company of scribes, 
 held a meeting with regard to him, and decided, as 
 they had before intended, to bring him before the 
 Roman governor, Pilate, on a political charge. They Vers T < ~- 
 hurried him away, accordingly, before Pilate, alleging Lk - xxiii 
 that he professed to be the King of the Jews. Pilate 
 said to him, "Art thou the King of the Jews ?" He Mk. xv. 2. 
 
 22 
 
338 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Mk. along replied, "My kingdom is not of this world." "Art 
 
 with Jn 
 
 xviii. 36- thou a king then?" Pilate rejoined; and he said, 
 "Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was 
 
 Cp. Mk. * 
 
 xii. 14. I born, and for this cause came I into the world, 
 that I should bear witness unto the truth." Pilate 
 replied, "What is truth?" Whether he meant to 
 ask for a further explanation of Jesus's own words, 
 or meant to express a sceptical opinion about matters 
 of conviction in general, we cannot tell. One thing, 
 however, we can gather plainly ; and that is, that 
 Pilate understood Jesus understood Jesus, and under- 
 stood the case w r hich had been brought before himself. 
 He did not, however, boldly and honestly acquit Jesus. 
 And in this can we judge him harshly, knowing so 
 little of the extent of power which in his peculiar 
 
 Mk. xv. position he possessed ? He first got the priests to 
 state openly their charges against him, and asked 
 Jesus to answer them. This request, however, Jesus 
 refused to comply with. He would answer nothing to 
 the charges of the priests. Why ? Partly, no doubt, 
 because he knew that it would do no good, but partly 
 also because he could not throw off his view of them, 
 in which he saw them to be practically at the time 
 just "jackals," or creatures that it would be unworthy 
 of him to argue with. Then Pilate tried to free him 
 through subterfuge. He suggested, as we may gather 
 
 Lk. xxiii. from a somewhat perplexing? report in Luke, that as 
 Jesus was a Galilean he should be sent to Galilee 
 to be judged by Herod. This suggestion, however, 
 the priests managed to overcome. And then he tried 
 that compromising plan which it is difficult to believe 
 could have been successful. It had been the custom, 
 
 Mk. xv. 6. it would seem, to release a prisoner at the time of 
 
THE TRANSLATION. 339 
 
 
 
 the passover. Pilate accordingly attempted to get 
 rid of the case by avoiding the question of right and 
 wrong in regard to Jesus, and proposing that he 
 should be the prisoner to be released. He addressed 
 the people who, it would seem, had begun to assemble 
 round the judgment-hall, saying to them, "Will yeVers.6-i5. 
 that I release unto you the King of the Jews?" The 
 fickle people, however, were now against Jesus, and at 
 the bidding of their long-respected priests. Perhaps, 
 indeed, they were now on their own account also 
 somewhat indignant with him. It may be, as is sug- 
 gested in Dr. Keim's account, that his failing to fulfil VI., 95- 
 the hopes they had associated with him of his being Tr.). 
 a political " Messiah," or deliverer, now inflamed them 
 against him. At all events, they rejected Pilate's offer, 
 and said they preferred to have released a certain 
 leader of insurrection who happened at the time to 
 be imprisoned. In the words of Mark, "the chief Mk.xv. 
 priests moved the people, that he should rather release I] 
 Barabbas unto them." Then as regards Jesus, there 
 got up among these savage beings the awful cry 
 " Crucify him ! " And at the same time the priests 
 surrounded the governor, saying that by their laws, 
 which Pilate was expected to respect, Jesus had in- 
 curred the penalty of death. " Why, what evil hath Ver. 14. 
 he done ? " said Pilate. They answered him, doubt- 
 less, with pendantry such as they were accustomed to 
 use, and at the same time from the streets there rang 
 again the horrid cry that called for the death of Jesus. 
 Pilate here, it would seem, in his weakness tried, as 
 another expedient, to get Jesus to speak out and de- 
 fend himself. Jesus was silent, however, and Pilate 
 said, " Speakest thou not unto me ? knowest thou not 9-11. 
 
 22 * 
 
34 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 that I have power to crucify thee, and have power 
 to release thee?" Then we must learn, with all our 
 xxiii L 34 admiration even especially aroused, Jesus excused this 
 perplexed judge in something like the following words : 
 jn. xix. ii. "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, 
 except it were given thee from above : therefore he 
 that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin." But 
 Mk. xv. again the cry arose from the streets ; and the priests 
 jn. xix'. 12. kept harassing Pilate, and said, " If thou let this 
 man go, thou art not Caesar's friend." Then Pilate, 
 Mk. xv. saying he "washed his hands" of the matter, yielded, 
 xxvii" 24. and delivered Jesus to his soldiers to be crucified. 
 Mk. xv. They took him to the place called Golgotha, and 
 Lk. xxiii. women followed him, weeping and wailing. He was 
 subjected to the death to which the people on the 
 streets had sentenced him, one of the most fiendish that 
 Ver. 34 ; barbarian cruelty has ever devised. With his dying 
 25-27. lips he was heard to speak words of forgiveness for his 
 murderers, and to send some loving message regarding 
 | his mother. His bearing impressed even two men who 
 more were dying by a similar death beside him, and one of 
 than^at- them at least roused himself to turn to him and say 
 form of something like this, " Lord, remember me when thou 
 thetradi- CO mest into thy kingdom." The people who had 
 
 tion.xxvn. * 3 
 
 44. followed in enmity at first mocked and abused him ; 
 
 Mk. xv. b u t soon this was changed, and their deepest feelings 
 
 xxiii. 48. were aroused as they saw further the grandeur of his 
 
 Mk. xv. death. Nature began to break down, and his spirit 
 
 turned to God, praying for help. He who had been 
 
 gentle and childlike in his life faced his death like a 
 
 Ver. 23. soldier. On some one offering him a draught that 
 
 would have lessened his sufferings he refused to receive 
 
 it. He died. The chief officer in charge bore witness 
 
THE TRANSLATION. 34! 
 
 to his greatness and goodness ; and the people around Ver. 39 
 friends heart-broken and foes awakening a little to 4?( ' 4 ^ m 
 their better nature " smote their breasts and re- 
 turned." 
 
 He went into the Beyond, into which we have all to 
 go ; and if we could not have hopes there for ourselves 
 alone, we should still have to feel it must be well there 
 for Him, and well there for all whom he loved. 
 
 He went into the Beyond, and went, as he had pro- 
 phetically known and said, to live again. That his 
 spirit was not held bound by the tomb into which he 
 was soon to be reverently placed, but only disappeared 
 to rise again, has been the faith with which his 
 disciples in all ages have connected their dearest 
 hopes. And it is a faith by which any one in full 
 sympathy with this little book will take the very firmest 
 stand. It is a faith to be rightly grounded on the 
 perception of many spiritual realities. Details, how- 
 ever, regarding the resurrection of Jesus are beyond the 
 purpose of this book. He went, like all other human 
 spirits that have for this present world died, into 
 regions yet hidden from us which he, in his prophetic 
 insight, had looked forward to as other " mansions " of 
 his Father. That in these mansions his spirit rose 
 again into active personal life is the fact on which we 
 must lay hold. How that happened is a consideration 
 going past the limits of this work. All that need be 
 said here is that, while the resurrection of Jesus, like 
 the general renewal of life of which it has come to be 
 looked on as a type, must have happened in ways far 
 beyond our present understanding, and while accord- 
 ingly all representations of it are but pictorial and are 
 inadequate, yet the fact of a resurrection for Jesus and 
 
342 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 for all whom he loved stands fast, and is the better 
 grounded when it is dissociated from superstitions, 
 which obscure and confuse everything they touch. 
 
 He went into the Beyond ; and he left behind him a 
 number of " apostles," who for a short time became 
 scattered in dismay, but soon rallied themselves, and 
 with the Divine aid became worthy of the hopes he 
 had rested on them. God made known to them that 
 their Friend and Master, in real personality and 
 activity, was alive again. And his words came back 
 upon them: "Peace be unto you:" "as my Father 
 hath sent me, even so send I you." So with new faith, 
 centered on Him in everything, they pursued bravely 
 the Mission which had been his and had been left to 
 them. 
 
 Jesus went into the Beyond. And what fancy can 
 even suggest the peace and the happiness which had 
 been won there for a life such as his had been ? He 
 sat down at the right hand of God, and his sorrows 
 were turned into joy. 
 
PART IV. 
 CONCLUSION, 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 
 
 WE have gone through the materials in our possession 
 affording a knowledge of our Lord Jesus, making every 
 effort to be honest and thorough in the treatment of 
 them ; and what conclusion can we have come to but 
 the one, that we have been brought face to face with a 
 Character so sublime as to be worthy of the recog- 
 nition given to it during so many hundred years, as 
 being the human ideal and the manifestation to us of 
 what is above the human ? We have brought 
 criticism to bear on the records that have come down 
 to us ; and criticism ends its work by giving way 
 to silent admiration. It has no faults to find. It 
 places before our view a completely beautiful and 
 noble Soul. There have indeed come before us, in the 
 course of the work, human weaknesses and earthly 
 
344 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 limitations ; but we have seen these caught up by the 
 master-spirit within the man, and absorbed in all that 
 received a heavenly glow from his heavenly enthusiasm. 
 The whole is perfect. The end of our study is worship 
 and transportation among things sacred. 
 
 That Jesus's character was sublime so sublime as 
 to lead those who contemplate it into regions higher 
 than the human has been made known to us through 
 the impression which, made on the age just after his 
 death by his spiritual grandeur, has never faded away. 
 Our critical study, as must come to be the case with all 
 critical study, while giving a certain consideration to 
 the impression for its own guidance, in its turn, also 
 renews the impression. 
 
 What, in character, was He who has been the 
 subject of our consideration ? 
 
 He was one, plainly, whose own character was 
 turned straight in the direction which he indicated 
 Mk. xii. when he spoke of the two chief commandments for 
 men, that they should, first, love God, and, second, 
 love their neighbours. He was a Soul whose whole 
 interest was the Divine Presence. Perception of the 
 Divine Presence in its self-existence and transcend- 
 ence made him what he was so far. Perception of the 
 Divine Presence as having imparted its nature to the 
 living and thinking beings of earth, completed what he 
 was. Perceiving God with him, he loved God. Per- 
 ceiving the good, or the divine, in the men with him, 
 he loved man. So was Jesus, as we have seen him. 
 
 In detail, what we have seen mainly is this : After a 
 quiet and unobtrusive, but most contemplative boy- 
 hood and early manhood, he comes into the world to 
 teach men about One who cares for them. He appears 
 
THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 345 
 
 first at the Jordan, listening, with many people, to 
 another teacher, a man only like himself in earnestness 
 and in being of commanding personality. While at the 
 Jordan he excites the interest of persons assembled to 
 learn of that very different teacher, and also gains the 
 respectful notice of that other teacher himself. He 
 shows honour to that teacher most unstintingly. He 
 is appalled at the triumph of brute force over that 
 devotee to what is good and true ; but he never wavers 
 in his faith that things are ruled by One the Best and 
 Kindest. He has attracted to him a few earnest and 
 high-toned men ; he says to them that that other 
 teacher has been a sower, and that there is still the 
 reaping to do. In so speaking he is most humble and 
 most respectful ; for what he is able to do is no mere 
 reaping, but is very enchanting. With a small body 
 of admirers around him, he in a few weeks arrests the 
 attention of a whole town. He shows himself a great 
 Power ; sickness yields to him, nervous excitement 
 yields to him, foolishness yields to him, human beings 
 open their hearts to him. He remains still humble in 
 this success ; he retires to think and pray. Having 
 done this, he comes back among men, to continue his 
 work which he has taken on himself. And similarly 
 the rest of his course is run. In unflinching devotion 
 to God and unshared enthusiasm for the elevation of 
 man, he deliberately continues his work till at the last 
 he crowns it by submission to an agonising and 
 horrible death, at the instigation of men debased and 
 heartless, whose relentless purpose he has clearly fore- 
 seen. But in the path which he thus pursues he does 
 many little things that declare his character to us in ever- 
 increasing completeness. He is disappointed often at 
 reverses ; but he always explains the reverse, and still 
 
346 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 is faithful to Him who has sent him forth. He is 
 touched and made sorry when he sees any human 
 suffering or any human fault. He is touched and made 
 glad when he sees a pure soul, when he hears an honest 
 word, when he looks at young children, and, perhaps 
 most of all, when he is himself the receiver of a piece 
 of genuine kindness, let the giver of the kindness be 
 saint or sinner. He is roused to disapproval and 
 rebuke at every littleness of view, every animosity, and 
 every needless interference with the earnest. He is 
 roused to open triumph both at the awakening of 
 earnestness and at the awakening of considerateness. 
 He prays as no one else has been known to pray. He 
 says at one time that he is able to give his fellow-men 
 an easy yoke to bear. He says at another time 
 that he can give them meat to eat and water to drink 
 which will satisfy them for ever. He comforts those 
 who have lost friends by death in a way that even 
 those who have learned from him his solace can but 
 feebly imitate. He is time after time very affectionate, 
 and very solicitous of a welfare for each that will not 
 pass away, but be an everlasting possession. He for- 
 gives those who murder him. He excuses the poor 
 judge who condemns him. He comforts his friends, 
 whom it almost breaks his heart to part from. All 
 this and much more we have seen. And so we see 
 Jesus first devoting his whole powerful mind and his 
 whole rich heart to God, and next desiring, in such a 
 way that we may call it demanding, all attainment for 
 every personal life. We see him valuing every personal 
 life, finding an original sacredness in every personal 
 life, and promising an everlasting care for every per- 
 sonal life. We see him, inasmuch as to begin with he 
 measures the worth of any possession by the idea of 
 
THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 347 
 
 accordance with the Divine Purity, demanding accord- 
 ance with the Divine Purity for every personal life. 
 The full activity of his soul-, as it comes before us, 
 takes the form of an unlimited Sympathy, or Com- 
 passion, which seeks out the unfortunate first, be they 
 suffering or erring, bodily fallen or spiritually fallen, 
 but cares for every one, rich or poor, old or young, 
 elevated or depressed. Such was the soul of Jesus. 
 
 We find, indeed, in the material telling of his life, so 
 far as we have been able to discern it in its genuine- 
 ness, a certain passivity, or humanness, in which the 
 great spirit feels the weakness of an individual, and 
 prays to and waits on the Eternal Disposer. And it is 
 important to notice this human weakness, for our 
 religion's sake as well as for truth's sake ; for it helps 
 us to see the more completely the divine power which 
 was also in his character. What meets us in Jesus is 
 this, that having a nature inquiring, sensitive, and 
 craving for affection and recognition, he, even when his 
 path was dark and when he was completely abandoned 
 by all outward stays and encouragements, followed 
 the path of his Mission unswervingly through pain and 
 weariness, and trusted the Divine Care unhesitatingly 
 from first to last. 
 
 This humanness, or passivity, is to be discerned 
 both in his position as a prophet of the Unseen, and 
 also in his general relation to his fellows as a man 
 among men. 
 
 There is a perfect humanness presented by our 
 material in regard to his position as a prophet of 
 the Unseen. 
 
 To begin with, his very sayings themselves, spon- 
 taneous as they are, royal as they are, proceeding as 
 they do direct from his own commanding soul, are 
 
348 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 occasioned and helped to come into expression by 
 circumstances. We can in several cases detect the 
 stages in their genesis into expression ; and what is 
 acutely interesting is that he seems, when once he had 
 come on a fine thought, to have gone back on it after- 
 wards, in a perfectly human manner, in a beautifully 
 simple and winning manner, in new applications or on 
 new occasions. Thus, after the imprisonment of the 
 Baptist he had compared the Baptist to one who had 
 c. Hi. sown, leaving others to reap; soon after, in Capernaum, 
 he gave to the same thought a general application in 
 <.:. viii. his great Parable of the Sower. So when turning from 
 c. iv. Nazareth to begin his work in Capernaum instead, he 
 had said that a prophet had not honour in his own 
 C. ix. country ; afterwards, when actually in Nazareth and 
 actually rejected there, be recalled the same thought. 
 C. xxii. And so in the garden of Gethsemane, to which he had 
 gone straight from drinking of the cup of friendship at 
 the Last Supper, he had given utterance to a passionate 
 but perfectly devoted prayer regarding the different 
 " cup " that was before him ; soon after, when some 
 would have defended him from his persecutors, he 
 prevented them, going back on that same imagery 
 which made his sufferings a " cup," given him and not 
 Mt. xxv. to be shunned. But while all this shows humanness, 
 jn' xiii 20 snows passivity, shows receptivity, it at the same time 
 may be helps to show us his divineness. To begin with, his 
 
 another 
 
 example divineness is in no way interfered with by the fact that 
 his thoughts developed themselves in a process which 
 we can partly follow. As the world of nature reflects 
 the Divine even though processes are discovered in it, 
 so the thoughts of Jesus are divine even though we 
 can in some way trace their growth. And besides this, 
 the very manner of their growth which has just been 
 
THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 349 
 
 noticed, attracts us to his sacred person, and so 
 ministers to our belief in his divineness. It speaks to 
 our sympathies, making us interested and charmed ; 
 and then when we have become so, we discover that in 
 what is interesting us and charming us there is to be 
 found a Soul worthy of our worship. 
 
 Most strikingly, however, does his humanness come 
 before us in relation to his position as a prophet of the 
 Unseen, in the plain evidences that reach us of his 
 having fervently wished for recognition as a prophet of 
 the Unseen. As he comes before us, we find him 
 feeling keenly that his people will not " know a tree by 
 its fruit," and will not receive him simply as the 
 prophet Jonah was received by the men of Nineveh. A^ ove> c 
 We find him also feeling keenly that his own town 
 does not honour him, and that his own family will 
 not understand him. Quite plainly to critical reading 
 of the gospels, he experiences pain at not being 
 recognised for what he is conscious of being. But at 
 the same time how divine is he in this humanness ! 
 How beautiful are the reflections with which he 
 silences his own disappointments ! He says, wrong as 
 his countrymen are, they can be forgiven if it is some- 
 thing about his human personality .that they object 
 to, and not the Divine Voice which speaks in him. He 
 recalls how it has always been the rule that a prophet 
 has only a limited sphere. Then he remembers, with 
 a very gratefulness, how some success has indeed been 
 granted to him. Some, indeed, are not his sheep, he 
 says ; but then, he says, he has some sheep that listen 
 to him, and to him alone. He receives with a simple 
 joy the inquiries of a few about him, and with a simple 
 faith the confession of his disciple Peter that he is the 
 Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed of God. Besides all 
 
350 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 this, he knows the recognition is only a question of 
 time. His countrymen will yet say of him, he asserts 
 with confidence, " Blessed is he that cometh in the 
 name of the Lord." And further still, beyond all 
 consolatory reflections, he is what he is and does what 
 he does independently of recognition. He is come 
 in his Father's name, not in his own. He seeks his 
 Father's honour, not his own. And he is not really 
 abandoned, for his Father has not left him alone. 
 
 With respect to his general relation as a man to the 
 men around him, there is a no less interesting human- 
 ness presented by our material. He is plainly very 
 affectionate, and he craves for affection from those 
 about him. He craves for companionship and 
 sympathy, and he is most tenderly appreciative of 
 any kindness. In one incident after another his 
 nature, in this aspect, flashes forth. We may recall, 
 for example, his inquiries of his disciples about their 
 thoughts of him when others are opposing him or 
 deserting him, his aggrieved outburst when he is 
 forced to turn from his family and find in his 
 disciples " brothers, sisters, and mother," and his 
 sayings in connection with the rich young man on the 
 way to Jerusalem. What pain, further, is suggested in 
 the way he speaks of Judas, reserved as his remarks 
 are ! What yearning to meet his friends again breathes 
 through the sayings at the Last Supper ! But here 
 also his humanness is met and glorified by divineness. 
 In the hour of his trial he requests that those who care 
 most for him may be permitted to go from him. In 
 the hour of his agony he thinks of the welfare not of 
 himself, but of those he loves most. And his consola- 
 tion for himself is in this saying regarding his friends, 
 " They shall never perish, neither shall any . . . pluck 
 
THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 351 
 
 them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me, 
 is greater than all ; and none is able to pluck them 
 out of my Father's hand." 
 
 Reverently analysing this character a little further, 
 however, and comparing it with other characters, what 
 is first to be noticed is an Intelligence, great enough 
 to be said to be above being measured. This intelli- 
 gence is of what is usually called the introspective 
 order; that is to say, it does not find its objects of 
 attention in material embodiments and their relation- 
 ships, but fixes itself on the spiritual essences or first 
 principles. And yet at once there is to be said also 
 in regard to it that it is of a concrete character 
 nevertheless. It does not much deal with spiritual 
 essences abstractly or as separate objects of thought, 
 but discerns the spiritual all through the material, 
 and, looking always at the ordinary world, sees all to 
 be spiritual. Being of this nature, it penetrates to the 
 very centre of things ; it makes the ruling and all- 
 pervading ONE the object of its perception, and 
 applies categories and descriptions to that One as 
 thus brought under knowledge. 
 
 Introspective in intelligence Jesus certainly was, 
 seeing the spiritual essence in the material. Does it 
 seem a discrepancy to maintain this when we further 
 find he had a considerable knowledge of the things of 
 nature, leading him to speak of the ways of birds 
 and beasts, and giving him a command of the 
 scientific idea of Growth ? He certainly knew nature 
 as, for example, his great apostle did not know it ; and 
 there is the greatest contrast between his treatment 
 of sacred truth and that of Paul, just in the fact Cp. above, 
 that, while Paul reasoned from the relations of p ' 310 ' 
 
352 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 abstract ideas themselves, Jesus verified all by the 
 ways of nature as experienced. There is, however, 
 no discrepancy between saying this and saying that 
 Jesus was in intelligence introspective. It was the 
 divine essence in nature, not the particular relations of 
 the things of nature, to which he attended and in 
 which he interested himself. The occurrences in 
 nature were to him examples and illustrations. And 
 while such a combining of an introspective percep- 
 tion with a knowledge of nature was indeed a quality 
 of his intelligence, it only brings out that it was an 
 intelligence unusually organised, and the more com- 
 manding. 
 
 The character of Jesus viewed on its moral side was 
 a character devoted to the Divine Presence. His 
 spirit, first perceiving and knowing with a commanding 
 intelligence the Divine Presence, came to be unwaver- 
 ingly devoted to the Presence thus known by it. It 
 may be that this state of matters was a simple case 
 of cause and effect, and that the moral side of his 
 character was just the development of the intellectual 
 side. It may be that a spirit so organised intellectually 
 could not but have developed itself in enthusiastic 
 desire and aspiration in regard to the Reality that 
 it had come to know. Bringing the character down, 
 however, into comparison with ordinary human char- 
 acters, for the sake of more clearly understanding it, 
 it is advisable to distinguish a moral side in it. We 
 must accordingly say, Jesus in his intellectual side 
 perceived always and everywhere the Divine Presence, 
 and in his moral side was devoted always and every- 
 where to the Divine Presence. 
 
 This combination in him of intellectual perfection 
 
THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 353 
 
 with moral perfection gives so much of an explana- 
 tion of the position which he came to take as the 
 Founder of a new religion, or the Creator of a new 
 circle of moral and religious ideas ; and it gives so 
 much of an explanation of how it was that he became 
 the Prince of all religious leaders. All, indeed, that 
 is to be believed as having brought about the position 
 of Jesus in regard to religion, is not in this way to 
 be summed up. There can legitimately be brought 
 to bear on this general subject investigation and 
 speculation of a kind that goes beyond the historical 
 work specially belonging to this book. And we shall 
 see something of the conclusions to which such 
 investigation and such speculation certainly lead in 
 next chapter. But so much of what made him become 
 the supreme prophet for our world is to be connected 
 with the quality of his character which is now before 
 us. The combination in him of a commandingly 
 strong and clear introspective intelligence with a 
 faultless moral purity and religious fervency, brought 
 about that he took up quite a unique attitude in 
 relation to the subject of Truth. It was an attitude 
 so far like that of many reformers who have appeared 
 in the world's history; but no mere reformer of an 
 old system has assumed quite the attitude which he 
 assumed. He took up an attitude of complete inde- 
 pendence in regard to the embodiments of truth which 
 prevailed in his time and in his nation. He saw that 
 these embodiments had become so corrupt that they 
 no longer represented the real truth. He likened them 
 in his speeches to dead things. And turning away Mt. \.\iv. 
 from them altogether, he appealed to truth as truth, 28- 
 and made truth as truth supply guidance for his 
 
 23 
 
354 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Cp. end thought 'and for his action. That Jesus did assume 
 this attitude in relation to the subject of truth, his 
 teaching as it remains to us itself declares. We find, 
 Seeespe- however, also that he claimed to do so. The Fourth 
 xviii. 37. Evangelist has given the most complete record of his 
 dealing with the idea of truth ; and while the Fourth 
 Evangelist evidently understands him to have given 
 to the idea of truth the narrow range of a new dogmatic 
 embodiment, it is plain to criticism that this is a mis- 
 understanding on the evangelist's part, and that Jesus 
 himself thought of truth as truth, or truth as it 
 recommended itself to reason. This state of the case 
 is made more certain by an unintentional witness, so 
 to speak, in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. 
 In both of these gospels, without the subject being 
 directly dealt with, there is record of certain men, 
 who were trying to lead him into difficulties, having 
 alluded to his devotion to " truth." The words in 
 Mk. xii. Mark recording this are as follows : " And they send 
 Mt. xxii. unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, 
 to catch him in his words. And when they were come, 
 they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art 
 true, and carest for no man ; for thou regardest not 
 the person of men, but teachest the way of God in 
 truth : Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not ? 
 Shall we give, or shall we not give ? " It is involved 
 in that remark made to Jesus and its testimony will 
 have great weight with any candid student that Jesus 
 had spoken much about " truth," and had meant truth 
 as truth, the truth that recommends itself to reason. 
 Combining, then, this testimony with the testimony of 
 the Fourth Gospel, and with the indirect testimony 
 which is borne by Jesus's own whole course of life, 
 
THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. 355 
 
 as we have become confidently acquainted with it, it 
 is certain that Jesus claimed to turn away from the 
 prevailing embodiments of truth, and to find his 
 guidance in truth as such, or in the fountain of truth. 
 And this much is certainly to be explained by that 
 combination in him which we have just recognised, 
 of a commanding intelligence with a perfect religious 
 and moral enthusiasm. In fact, without going into 
 the question of how he had the power to get a new 
 circle of ideas from truth itself, and only thinking of 
 how he had the impulse to do so, we may reverently 
 apply to him a rule which will hold good also for the 
 multitudes of thinking men who have in all ages taken 
 up decided positions of more or less antagonism to 
 popular embodiments of religious truth. The rule is 
 that it is a combination of very strong intelligence 
 with very strong moral enthusiasm that has dis- 
 tinguished such men. Strong moral natures, whose 
 intelligence has not been in keeping, have often, we 
 know, been content to cling to embodiments full of 
 error. And we can see that, on the other hand, strong 
 intellectual natures, whose moral sense has not been in 
 keeping, may also at least have tolerated such embodi- 
 ments, because manifestly they may have known things 
 were wrong and yet have not cared. And even what 
 might seem to be exceptions to the rule must be 
 explained by slight failings in the one factor or in 
 the other. One's own consciousness, for example, of 
 limitation either in intelligence or in purity of moral 
 purpose, has no doubt in many cases been a deterrent 
 from interfering. And many, again, have been deterred 
 by certain flaws in the one factor or in the other- 
 moral flaws, such as laziness or fear; or intellectual 
 
 23 * 
 
356 
 
 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 flaws, such as non-recognition of the importance of 
 religious matters. But none of these things held in 
 the case of Him who has been the King of rebuilders 
 and the Founder whose work all others can only help 
 to restore and can never improve. In his perfect heart 
 and perfect mind he has been an example to whom the 
 rule purely applied. And even in the uniqueness of 
 his case the rule is still to be seen. For if his case 
 is beyond parallels, is not that in great measure to 
 say that his intelligence was beyond parallels, that 
 his moral purity and power were beyond parallels, and 
 that the combination was beyond parallels ? In the 
 balance of his spiritual qualities his royalty is to be 
 seen. He knew the Truth. He knew that the em- 
 bodiments of truth which prevailed in his time had 
 totally lost the power to represent the truth to man- 
 kind. He knew that it is man's duty to recognise the 
 real truth and fear no consequences. He accordingly 
 set up THE TRUTH against the prevailing embodiments, 
 and as he did so, created fresh and new ideas which all 
 men would accept. 
 
 So the character of our Lord Jesus opens up to us, 
 under the treatment of criticism, in all the sublimity 
 that has been ascribed to it by that Impression which 
 has come down to us through the ages. By means of 
 a fair estimation of the documents in which it is made 
 known, influenced only by a reverence which the 
 general facts justify, and aided by a legitimate synthetic 
 judgment, it has come before us as a distinct reality, 
 consistent all through, and winning us into a unique 
 admiration. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS. 
 
 IT now only remains to bring into greater distinctness 
 how the doctrinal association of Jesus with what is 
 above the human is, in its essentials, placed on the 
 more secure basis by this work and all similar work. 
 
 We have seen that Jesus was conscious of a relation- 
 ship with the Divine Presence so close and so complete 
 that he expressed it as sonship. This he professed to 
 share with mankind in general ; but at the same time 
 he recognised in himself a certain prophetic initiation, 
 and indeed was so keenly assured of this that, when 
 first there suggested itself to him and afterwards was 
 urged on him by others his fulfilling the hope of a 
 " Messiah " or Divinely Commissioned Deliverer for 
 his people, he admitted the office and name of the 
 Messiah to be his own. His early followers, and with 
 them the whole western world, have not only recog- 
 nised along with himself the prophetic initiation, but 
 have much more particularly estimated it. They have 
 seen in him the first, or more correctly the One, 
 who has realised the relationship of Son to the Eternal 
 
THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Supreme, realised it in virtue of something special 
 in him. They have thus apprehended that his work 
 has been not merely the work of a teacher, but the 
 work of a communicator, and that he has become 
 worthy not merely of gratefulness, but of worship. 
 They have found in him not only their Prophet, but 
 also their Priest and their King. They have called 
 him in all respects Divine. The meaning and signi- 
 ficance of this process of thought which has taken 
 place is what must be inquired into in this last 
 chapter. 
 
 The idea of the Divinity of Jesus in its essentials 
 means, to begin with, that in Jesus there was a quite 
 unique indwelling of God. It has also, however, a 
 reflex signification caused by the idea of what God is. 
 In accordance with the idea of what God is, it means 
 that above and around ourselves there lives what 
 specially dwelt in Jesus. It means that what specially 
 dwelt in Jesus is the Ruling Eternal Presence. It 
 means that, in spite of many natural phenomena which 
 might seem to declare the contrary, what we see in 
 Jesus is the ruling Power in the universe. 
 
 The idea rests first, for all ordinary minds, like the 
 knowledge of his perfect character, on the Impression 
 which Jesus made on his own and the succeeding 
 generations by his personality. The details of the way 
 in which this impression was created are to many 
 minds somewhat uncertain ; but the Impression itself 
 is a fact remaining for all. This Impression is, for all 
 ordinary minds, sufficient to make plain that there 
 specially dwelt in Jesus that which has Power, and 
 prevails in the universe. 
 
 There has, however, come about a practical confirma- 
 
THE DIVINITY OF JESUS. 35Q 
 
 tion of the idea through the Experience of countless 
 individuals. A sense, within the human being, which 
 perceives the Divine above us and around us, has 
 certainly been awakened for multitudes through the 
 contemplation of Jesus. This sense, indeed, is not to 
 be supposed as having been altogether unawakened 
 before the time of Jesus's earthly life. That it was pre- 
 viously awakened is, without inquiring into the religious 
 condition of the ancient world in general, sufficiently 
 evident from the whole Psalm literature, as, for ex- 
 ample, from such an exclamation as this, " Whither PS. ex 
 shall I go from thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from 
 thy presence ? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art 
 there : if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 
 If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the 
 uttermost parts of the sea ; even there shall thy hand 
 lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." But for 
 the world at large there has been quite a special 
 awakening of the sense through contemplation of Jesus. 
 The human soul, face to face with Jesus, has recognised 
 God in him. And the sense which perceives God, 
 being thus awakened, has gone on to perceive what it 
 found in Jesus extended through time and space, 
 whispering in moments of quiet, prevailing in the world 
 in general, governing, chastening, and encouraging the 
 personal life. The case has been something like that 
 of some curious antique writing on ancient stones ; 
 the eye unaccustomed to detect the writing sees only 
 the stone, whereas the eye that has had attention 
 called to the writing in some special way not only 
 reads the writing in one spot, but is ready to find it, 
 as experience goes on, again and again. A better 
 illustration of the case, however, is found in that of 
 
360 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 some ordinary human virtue, as, for example, kindness. 
 Just as some child who has been starved and beaten 
 from infancy may not be able to detect kindness even 
 when in its presence, and may impute its outcomes to 
 other motives, so many a soul may go through the 
 world deaf to the voice of God and blind to His glory ; 
 but as the down-trodden child, having on some 
 occasion met with a resplendent and unmistakable 
 instance of kindness, ever after has new eyes to look 
 for it, so the soul that has perceived God in Jesus has 
 had awakened a new sense, which is ever repeating its 
 discoveries. It is thus that rightly the name of Jesus 
 has come to be used for what is above the human. It 
 is thus that the Christian, as such, possesses a peculiar 
 heritage. 
 
 Thus any person whose religious experience has 
 been at all full and rich will never entertain the 
 possibility of any study being able to interfere with 
 the idea of the Divinity of Jesus in this its essential 
 meaning. There has, however, been thrown on the 
 idea a certain confusion or darkness, through the 
 development of discriminating thought in modern 
 times. Two discoveries have caused disturbance for 
 a large number of minds. On the one hand, it has 
 been discovered that the documents which alone 
 contain representations of Jesus's earthly life are in 
 their particulars not beyond criticism, either as laying 
 claim to tell what really happened, or as consistently 
 arousing adoration. With respect, indeed, to the 
 latter point there is this curious phenomenon, that one 
 criticises the particular representations of Jesus by the 
 very idea of Jesus which one possesses. On the other 
 hand, it has been discovered that life goes on dis- 
 
' *IVfc 
 
 F 
 
 THE DIVINITY OF JESUS. 361 
 
 closing its Author and calling forth new wonderment, 
 not only in ways of which no account is taken in the 
 documents telling of Jesus or in the systems which 
 have been built on them, but also in ways of which a 
 literal reading of the documents seems to be some- 
 what contradictory. This confusion is dispelled, and 
 more than dispelled, the essentials of the idea are 
 re-established and more than re-established, by the 
 work of Biblical Criticism, or Biblical Science. Literal 
 reading of the gospels is helpless to face the confusion, 
 being itself, indeed, one of the causes of it. Criticism 
 accomplishes what Literalism fails to accomplish. 
 
 How does Criticism do this ? What aid does it give 
 towards maintaining the conception of the Divinity of 
 Jesus for all classes of mind ? 
 
 To begin with, recognition must be given to the fact 
 that modern critical study as a whole is helping the 
 unconscious assent to the conception, in that it bears 
 witness to the unique attractiveness first, and after- 
 wards the retaining power, of Jesus's personality. It 
 is to be carefully recognised that, though criticism 
 throws doubt on the question as to what was the exact 
 nature of the phenomena which were witnessed in 
 connection with Jesus's life, it leaves one " miracle " 
 untouched, and that is Jesus himself. By leaving that 
 miracle untouched, it brings that miracle into relief; 
 it emphasises the conclusion which, as we have seen, 
 the ordinary mind must draw from the Impression 
 made by Jesus on the world. It leaves us with this 
 position : Let criticism go its greatest lengths, there 
 remains to our contemplation in certain history a 
 Figure establishing complete ascendancy over the 
 western world, a Figure truly supernatural. 
 
362 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Modern critical study of the life of Jesus, looked at 
 in the aggregate, is surely, both in its first effort and 
 in the reverent and worshipping spirit which it main- 
 tains, an expression of adoration not to be decried 
 or slighted. The early ages of the Christian era 
 glorified Jesus in their own way ; the age of science is 
 not behind them in the degree of its homage. The 
 work of modern students, taken all together, as they 
 earnestly follow the footprints of the Sacred King, 
 bears witness in the most powerful way to the fact 
 that there was something in Him of whom the gospels 
 tell which, beyond what is seen anywhere else, fasci- 
 nates and yet hushes into reverence the world of 
 thought. The whole body of work, first approaching 
 the subject in fervent absorption, then traversing 
 freely the outer ground, and then stopping at one spot 
 where criticism in relief and delight yields to worship, 
 will take a distinct if modest place, along with the 
 Cathedrals of Europe, the Poetry and Music and 
 Pictures of generations, and the assemblies of men in 
 hall and street-corner in every western city, as obeying 
 God in contributing to Jesus's exaltation. 
 
 More definite and more positive aid than this, how- 
 ever, is rendered by criticism towards maintaining the 
 conception of the Divinity of Jesus. What the con- 
 ception really depends on is the question whether in 
 his life as it was in history there is to be seen a 
 perfectness which leads us to centre on it our highest 
 thoughts of the Divine. That question is the same as 
 the question, whether out of all the perplexing elements 
 presented by the four gospels, there proves itself as 
 having peculiarly lived in Jesus a character which is the 
 highest ideal. Those particulars in the gospel documents 
 
THE DIVINITY OF JESUS. 363 
 
 which cause confusion, as arousing criticism in regard 
 to credibility or ideality, cease to disturb if it be proved 
 that, distinct from the representations in the gospels, 
 there was certainly realised by Jesus himself an ideal 
 character, with such fulness and consistency that he 
 himself stands above criticism ; then these particulars 
 become swept away as insufficient efforts to depict his See App. 
 character. And those appearances in the advance of life, 
 telling us of the government that is really over us, change 
 their attitude completely if what we bring to compare 
 with them is no mere body of theories, either in regard 
 to natural science or in regard to the possible ways of 
 attaining to goodness and purity, but is a historical 
 character, which historically was unrestrained in 
 assent to everything to which the human mind, when 
 true to itself, bows, and in its own achievements was 
 more commanding than any other appearance that 
 meets us. The important question, therefore, is, 
 Whether there was such a character so realised in 
 Jesus. And this question has here been answered con- 
 fidently in the affirmative in last chapter. From last 
 chapter it is but a short step to the position : In Jesus 
 there was a quite unique indwelling of that Living 
 Presence that is the eternal Son of God, one with the 
 eternal Source of life, the end towards which life is 
 moving. Or, stating it precisely, Jesus in history, 
 through the royal character which we have discerned 
 as having belonged to him, is the Revelation or the 
 Unveiling to us first of God, Redeemer and Creator, 
 and then of the High Destiny of man. 
 
 What exactly is meant by saying that Jesus in 
 history is the Revelation or Unveiling of these 
 Realities ? 
 
364 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 There is meant, to begin with, that we recognise his 
 character to be just the same as that which we other- 
 wise know to be the Divine, and just the same as that 
 which we otherwise know to be the human ideal. So 
 that when we would describe the Divine, or describe 
 the human ideal, we can turn to Jesus and say, There 
 it is. 
 
 But there is more than this implied in saying that 
 Jesus is thus a Revelation. There is implied that he 
 has given us a conception with which to enter on 
 experience. For us the union between his character 
 and the Divine character has this special significance, 
 that he has been the first to bring the Divine character 
 perfectly before our minds. He has given a glimpse, 
 as it were, that arrests the otherwise unawakened 
 vision, and it is this glimpse, properly, which, as we have 
 seen above, is to be verified by further perception and 
 by experience. Perfect knowledge of God has come to 
 the world in knowledge of Jesus. Jesus has through 
 his own character provided us with a conception of God. 
 
 And what a conception it is ! It is the conception 
 of a character that actually values infinitely and loves 
 infinitely every personal life. If it is a true conception, 
 then overshadowing us, grasping us, making us, is One 
 to whom every soul of us can appeal. If it is a true 
 conception, then we can, each and all of us, appeal 
 from the hard laws of nature to an eternal Soul that 
 calls us children of the eternal, and promises us life in 
 the midst of death. 
 
 And it is a true conception this that Jesus in his 
 character has given us. We can dare to say it is 
 certain that the Supreme Being is such as we see in 
 Jesus. 
 
THE DIVINITY OF JESUS. 365 
 
 Scientific certainty, indeed, may seem to many to be 
 as yet only partially established ; but even that is on 
 the way to being established. It waits now for its 
 complete upbuilding on the further development 
 of Modern Theology, the greatest of the sciences ; 
 now under tutelage, but growing surely; ever approach- 
 ing the time in which it will put restraints aside, and 
 assume its position at the head of all the great sciences 
 that have come before it and are heralding it. It is a 
 science having to do with what is involved in all our 
 life, and with what is to be perceived in all our life. 
 It is a science based on the Present, the Living, and 
 the Eternal. 
 
 Meanwhile, however, there is for one and all of us a 
 certainty not less valuable than scientific certainty. 
 And that is the certainty of experience. Experience of 
 the Divine " Christ " of the Eternal Divine Presence 
 that was the inner soul of Jesus is alive among us. 
 It is to many the most certain of all realities. So 
 real and true a thing is it that, like any other thing 
 of life, it is assuming multitudinous varieties ; and 
 zealous professors of orthodoxy are bound to, it may 
 be, men the most negative in profession by a common 
 experience of One near them who is both a personal 
 strength and the source of all purity and kindness. 
 
 The doctrine, then, of the Divinity of Jesus as 
 amounting to the conclusion that there was a unique 
 indwelling of the Supreme Being in Jesus, and that as 
 Jesus's character was, so God is, is confirmed by our 
 critical study. A further element, however, has been 
 recognised in the doctrine by the consciousness of 
 Christendom namely, the conclusion that it was the 
 purpose of God to dwell in Jesus, and that that purpose 
 
366 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 of God arose from the gracious intention of both mani- 
 festing Himself to man, and saving man from the 
 corruptions of his nature. 
 
 This further element, this purpose, brings God before 
 us as not only full of care for the individual, but also 
 acting in behalf of the world in general, coming as the 
 Eternal Son, or Living Ideal, into a human life, and 
 becoming in that life a centre of faith and a spring of 
 action for the succeeding ages of the world's history. 
 
 It will be plain to the reader that this further 
 conclusion, arises naturally out of the recognition of 
 the fact that God specially dwelt in Jesus. So that 
 reaching that fact, as we have done, through study of 
 Jesus's character, we go at once beyond it to this 
 sacred conclusion. Critical study, finding in its object 
 a supernatural presence, ends in worship ; then comes 
 contemplation, which discovers in the supernatural 
 presence a condescending and gracious purpose. The 
 mind begins by seeing the Divine in the human ; it 
 ends by rising to a higher plane of thought, and 
 discerning what is involved in the Divine itself. 
 
 A logical distinction, indeed, cornes to light in the 
 course of the contemplation, and for the student and 
 for the teacher this distinction is of vast importance. 
 It is the distinction between the historical and the 
 Transcendent. The Transcendent, in all ages, is the 
 Divine ; the historical has for us bodied forth the 
 Divine. The mind, recognising a unique indwelling of 
 God in our Saviour, must also recognise that God, who 
 dwelt in Jesus, transcends the historical appearance. 
 Revelation must leave a still-remaining incomprehen- 
 sibleness in what is revealed. So again, the mind, 
 recognising the very actions of God in Jesus, must also 
 
 
THE DIVINITY OF JESUS. 367 
 
 recognise that the actions in their essence transcend 
 the human movements which occurred in time and 
 space. This also is involved in the category of 
 revelation. We say, In Jesus there was God ; but 
 inasmuch as it \vas God indeed that was in Jesus, 
 what God did for us in Jesus is in its reality an eternal 
 doing, and Jesus in history bodied forth that eternal 
 doing. This distinction is demanded by the very idea 
 of God. And it is of the highest importance both for 
 religious faith and religious practice. It is the legiti- 
 mate development of what is stated both in Bible and 
 Church formula. It may not come into clear conscious- 
 ness for every mind ; but it ought not to be forgotten 
 by the student and the preacher. 
 
 The conclusion, then, is for us no less than this, The 
 Most High, in His wisdom and love, has manifested 
 Himself to us by dwelling in a unique way in our Lord 
 Jesus. God manifested in Jesus His whole self in its 
 relation to us. And so we are to understand the 
 atonement. In the sacred death of Jesus there was 
 bodied forth the eternal submission of the Son to the 
 Father, of Life in glorious Finality to the Author of 
 Life ; and in the action of Jesus, in which he gave 
 himself freely when he was called to die, we are to 
 see bodied forth the Soul of One who sympathises 
 with the afflicted everywhere, feels for each and all of 
 us in our shame, and makes our pains, our burdens, 
 and our losses His own a Divine Son, and behind 
 that, a Divine Father who is one and the same. 
 
 A special inspiration reading a great circle of truth 
 in relation to God and human destiny was occasioned 
 by the manifestation of God in Jesus. And of that 
 inspiration the New Testament is the fruit. For many, 
 
368 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 indeed, when Jesus was no longer seen " after the flesh," 
 there was awakened the sense that perceives the Divine. 
 Many perceived around them and above them the Tran- 
 scendent Reality that 'had been bodied forth in the 
 historical. Many perceived around them and above 
 them One who was Son, first, an Ideal of life that 
 was a Living Presence, a Strength, a Heavenly Friend, 
 then also Father, a Fountain of Care, a " faithful 
 Creator." But for a few the awakening was so special 
 that they became, as we must say, specially inspired, 
 so as to rank with the older prophets and surpass them 
 in the glory of their perceptions. From these, or it 
 may be only some of these, came the New Testament. 
 Their inspiration was special ; but they conveyed 
 what they learned in it through human conditions, ot 
 country, of mode of thought, of time, of individual 
 tendency. They conveyed to us the message that God 
 had been in Jesus ; that his suffering and death had 
 bodied forth to us the transcendent dying for us of the 
 Son of God ; and that, as the Son and the Father are 
 One, there had been manifested a Love which would 
 deliver us from every enemy. This message is not 
 obscured, but made the clearer through critical reading 
 of the medium which has conveyed it to us down the 
 ages. 
 
 The earliest attempt which remains to us in the way 
 Above, p. of expressing the truth of the Divinity of Jesus, is in 
 the narrative preserved by all the gospels, of how the 
 Holy Spirit was seen descending on Jesus at the time 
 of his first public appearance among the followers of 
 John. We have seen that it is possible there may 
 have been at the root of this narrative some definite 
 psychological experience ; but, whether that be so or 
 
THE DIVINITY OF JESUS. 369 
 
 not, the chief significance of it lies in its expressing the 
 idea now under consideration. Soon this way of 
 representing the idea was not enough for the popular 
 imagination, and there were provided the two stories 
 which introduce the Sacred Life in the Gospels of 
 Matthew and of Luke respectively. The advance 
 which these stories brought was that they portrayed 
 the special element which must have been in Jesus 
 before his birth. They conveyed the fact that his was 
 no mere reception of prophetic fire as his mind became 
 susceptible, but a heritage of the Divine, a sacred inner 
 self. What need for us to follow the inquiry as to 
 whether these stories had also external evidence and 
 external facts to support them, seeing we discern what 
 they really mean, and see that in their real meaning 
 they are absolutely true ? As an expression, however, 
 of the truth, they are obviously, at least in great part, 
 poetical and figurative ; and to neglect to notice this 
 is to make them do violence to the idea, instead ofcp. Lk. i. 
 expressing it. A much greater advance is found in the i and 14,* 
 next later representation, that of the Fourth Gospel, ^ere- 6 
 Here poetry is abandoned, and philosophic accuracy is fore" in 
 aimed at. Here also the danger is avoided of material- seeming 
 ising the conception of the Divine Nature or of limiting ^"son! 
 to the earthly phenomena the revelation which had been !}" f . 
 
 God begin 
 
 granted. In the Fourth Gospel the state of the case at the 
 is expressed as having been that the Eternal " Logos/' jesus. 
 or Reason, the Divine Being who is in the world, as 
 distinct from the Divine Being who is invisible and at Jn. i. is. 
 the beginning of all things, was " made flesh " in 
 Jesus. It is to be said that, while the philosophical 
 view of the universe on which this representation was 
 based has been enlarged with the increase of knowledge, 
 
 24 
 
370 
 
 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Cp. also 
 Rom. viii. 
 19 (Greek, 
 or Revised 
 Version), 
 
 1 Cor. i. 7 
 (Gr. or 
 Rev. 
 Vers.), 
 
 2 Cor. xii. 
 
 !-4. 
 
 Ephes. 
 iii. 3-5, &c. 
 See App. 
 I. (21). 
 
 Broadly 
 disting- 
 uishable 
 as the 
 thoughts 
 
 (a) of the 
 early 
 Fathers. 
 
 (b) of the 
 Catholic 
 Church, 
 
 (c) of the 
 Protest- 
 ant creeds 
 and (d) of 
 modern 
 Christian 
 specula- 
 tion. . 
 
 yet the essentials of both the general view and this 
 particular representation are sound, and call for recog- 
 nition to this day. Finally, added to all these attempts 
 to express the idea of the Divinity of Jesus, there 
 has come down to us, in a book written, in all pro- 
 bability, earlier than any of these attempts took form, 
 another contribution of thought which was needed for 
 completing the understanding of the subject. In the 
 Epistle to the Galatians the Apostle Paul told of how 
 the gospel had come to him by the " revelation " 
 (apokalypsis) of Jesus Christ, and of how it had pleased 
 God to "reveal his Son" in the apostle himself. He 
 thus brought into use the category which, revived by the 
 idealistic theologians in general of modern times, has 
 been here employed for explaining how it can truly be 
 said that One who is rightly called the " only begotten 
 Son " of God was made known to the world in Jesus. 
 The sum of all this expression in the New Testament 
 is that the Supreme, the Omnipresent, the Incompre- 
 hensible, as Son first, then as Father, was unveiled in 
 the human soul and the historical life that have been 
 the subject of our reverent study. 
 
 The further course of this conception and the out- 
 growths from it, as the Christian Church took form 
 the doctrine of three " personae " or figures in the God- 
 head, all equal in substance, power, and glory ; the 
 popular anthropomorphisings of this doctrine ; the 
 reactions into Unitarianism ; the practical importance 
 of recognising the Sonship as well as the Fatherhood in 
 the Deity ; the historical thoughts regarding secondary 
 embodiment of the Son-" Person," the early thought of 
 an embodiment in all creation, then the thought of 
 an embodiment in a miraculously gifted Church, then 
 
THE DIVINITY OF JESUS. 371 
 
 the emergence of a distinction, for this respect, of an 
 invisible from the visible Church, then the looking for 
 embodiment in an ever-improving human society 
 all these developments from the conception of the 
 Divinity of Jesus, not yet by any means left behind, 
 more truly not yet come to maturity, are beyond the 
 sphere of consideration belonging to this book. 
 
 Meanwhile the Heavenly Friend unveiled in Jesus 
 remains held fast in the knowledge of an ever-living 
 experience. And this experience, awakened through 
 the gracious unveiling which has been before us, is 
 in a greater degree than critical study the anchorage 
 of our hope of that gospel message which the unveil- 
 ing brought being still read and ever more clearly 
 read. This experience not only places all the earnest 
 among us above the need of an exact science, but is 
 itself bringing the nearer the triumph of such a science. 
 As in early times, so now, experience of the Christ 
 Presence has really more to do with advance in religion 
 than education of the intellect. Early Christianity 
 was established, under God, through the experience 
 of many, from Paul to the humblest martyr who faced 
 violence and death, seeing the care of God in the midst 
 of them and beyond them. Protestant Christianity 
 was established similarly ; and Luther himself has left 
 sure indications that but for such experience he would 
 have succumbed under the fury of his enemies. And 
 in our own century experience of the same Eternal 
 Reality, advancing in clearness, has been quietly 
 victorious. Great men in Scotland, in the earlier 
 days of the century, bore witness, in the strength of 
 this experience, to a Father and a Redeemer that 
 are One indeed, mercy being greater than intention 
 
 24 * 
 
372 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 to punish with the first as with the second. Illus- 
 trious men in both parts of our island have since 
 added to this testimony. And now, when Biblical 
 Criticism has come with its forces, removing the 
 dead weight of Literalism which hampered even those 
 teachers and opposed distrust to their perceptions, 
 who will limit the achievements of that still living 
 experience ? It will advance still, and it will repeat 
 the conclusion of the earliest great prophet of the 
 Divine in our Lord Jesus : " I am persuaded that 
 neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
 nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
 be able to separate us from the love of God, which 
 is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 I. GENERAL NOTES. 
 
 i. Birth Narratives, I have purposely avoided, in this form 
 of my work, all detailed criticism of the narratives in the opening 
 chapters of Matthew and Luke. Let worshippers, all who will, 
 take such encouragement as may be afforded them from these 
 passages. One thing only is necessary to say here in a note. 
 It is that for those who find the essence of the Christian idea 
 most fully realised under the belief that Jesus, as " very man," 
 was born a man in a way that requires some free reading of 
 these passages, who, it may be, especially love to think of 
 Him as having sanctified ordinary, honourable wedlock as He 
 did all that is healthfully human, there is strong evidential 
 support in the New Testament. The course of the accounts 
 in the first three gospels, as they proceed, cannot be said to 
 disturb the view of such persons, nor can that of the Fourth 
 Gospel, read all in all. They may also appeal to Mt. i. i ; 
 Mk. iii. 21, cp. vers. 31-35; Lk. i. 27, cp. i. 69; Lk. ii. 48; 
 Lk. iii. 23, cp. i. 69 ; Jn. i. 45 ; and along with these, to Acts 
 xiii. 23 and Rom. i. 3, in which there is no trace of either 
 author entertaining the idea afterwards held by the Fathers, that 
 the descent from David came through Mary. It may be added 
 that at least against the view of such persons the unbending 
 literalist can hardly claim a monopoly of the orthodox Christian 
 doctrine ; in the Christian creeds the matter is stated in a way 
 
374 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 under which the view just alluded to maybe defended. Is not, 
 indeed, the literalist in danger of falling into "heresy" ? Did 
 Origen, for example, not fall into heresy when he spoke of 
 Christ's body as " like to our own, differing in this respect only, 
 that it was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit " ? (De Princ. 
 Pref. 4.) The difference, as stated in our creeds at least, is only 
 that Jesus, being like us otherwise, was "without sin." Cp. 
 the commentary of so conservative a writer as Dr. Meyer, 
 translated by several of our Scotch professors who, however, 
 do not commit themselves to his views. 
 
 2. Jesus mid Baptism. Mark x. 38 has no weight for show- 
 ing that Jesus made a special point of baptism. Baptism there 
 is used as a mere illustration for Jesus's own consecration. 
 The very using of it for the purpose of mere illustration suggests 
 that it was an institution very familiar to Jesus and to his 
 hearers, but also that it had not itself a place among Jesus's 
 more sacred thoughts. 
 
 3. The Temptation Stories. Very eminent scholars (Holtz- 
 mann, Pfleiderer, Wittichen, &c.) have been inclined to look at 
 the lengthened account of the " Temptation " found in Matthew 
 and Luke as being purely legendary (though symbolically his- 
 torical), and that on the grounds of most valuable investigation, 
 along with a wide consideration of the subject. For similar views 
 upheld in English, see Carpenter, " First Three Gospels," pp. 
 j 63- 1 64. I prefer the interpretation which I have given in chapter 
 3, while finding in the presentation of these scholars much that 
 throws light on the narratives as they read in our received 
 gospels. A specially interesting point is the explanation by 
 Holtzmann of the " pinnacle of the temple " reference as having 
 its probable origin in the later throwing down of " James the 
 brother of the Lord " (Eusebius ii. 23). 
 
 4. Jesus's dwelling in Capernaum. The " his" in Mk. ii. 15 
 (an ton) may refer either to Levi or to Jesus. Looking carefully 
 at the text alone, the reference seems to be to Jesus j but the 
 other is admissible. In the corresponding passage in Matthew 
 the disciple Matthew seems to have followed Jesus to the house 
 of Jesus ; but in the account in Luke it is distinctly stated that 
 Jesus was entertained by Levi. Taking all things together, the 
 
APPENDIX. 375 
 
 reference of the pronoun is too uncertain for a confident 
 conclusion to be based on this verse ; but Luke has much weight. 
 
 5. Jesus s words in John v. 19, 20. In the gospel the words 
 are exactly, "The Son. can do nothing of himself but what he 
 seeth the Father do," and so on. The change made here only 
 substitutes, in regard to two phrases, the well-authenticated 
 language of Jesus himself for the philosophical language in 
 which the evangelist has set all his presentation. 
 
 6. Jesus and the Publicans. Mt. ix. 13 (first half) may also 
 have been part of Jesus's saying to his disciples on his being 
 
 charged with associating with "publicans and sinners"; but 
 seeing these words are found neither in Mark nor in Luke, 
 their authenticity is hardly certain. A justification from the 
 Old Testament seems always to be demanded by the author or 
 originators of the First Gospel ; and this procedure of Jesus, in 
 view of the purpose of the gospel to declare a new moral 
 law would so very specially demand a justification in their 
 eyes, that if there was no justification from scripture at hand, 
 one might be searched for and inserted. 
 
 7. The Leaving Zeledee. The deduction made in chapter vii. 
 from the account of James and John leaving Zebedee with the 
 "hired servants," is the more supported when we compare 
 Mk. i. 20 with the parallel passage in Matthew (iv. 22). The 
 misplacing of the " straightway " (eutheos) shows the advance 
 of the account from being that of a general leaving of Zebedee 
 with no one helping him but hired servants, to being mixed up 
 with the dramatic calling itself. 
 
 8. " Matthew " and. " Levi." We may believe that the First 
 Gospel was neither in error nor carried away by indirect motives 
 when it changed the " Levi " of the story in Mk. ii. into 
 " Matthew," thus letting it be understood that Levi was identical 
 with Matthew the apostle. The account of Mark very strongly 
 suggests that Levi would become an apostle (i) through naming 
 him at all at this early stage of the ministry, and (2) through 
 recording that he was a son of " Alphaeus," who had at least 
 one other son that became an apostle of Jesus. Besides this, 
 the words, " And he arose and followed him," seem to indicate 
 prominence on Levi's part among Jesus's disciples (Mk. ii. 14). 
 
3/6 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 9. " Kingdom of God " and " Kingdom of Heave?!." The 
 explanation given in chapter viii. is quite in accordance with the 
 view of the origin of the different gospels followed in the Intro- 
 duction. The writer or originators of the First Gospel, having 
 at hand the notes of Matthew, discover that " ton ouranon " (of 
 heaven) is the favourite expression of Jesus, and so bring it in 
 as a corrective of Mark each time. Mark, on the other hand, 
 having not so full a collection of the sayings, but only the shorter 
 account that has come in great measure from Peter (though 
 through other channels doubtless also), uses the popular phrase. 
 
 Jo. The Dead-raising Stories. The stories of Jesus raising 
 the dead must in modern times not be taken literally. It 
 is becoming impossible to take them literally. At the 
 bar of Reason we modern Christians cannot maintain the 
 accounts of such violation of all experience and all scientific 
 ideas on the trifling evidence which we possess. We have, 
 indeed, no evidence that does not crumble away in our own 
 hands. The three stories of the kind that the gospels contain 
 have no organic connection with the rest of the narrative j the 
 other events recorded seem in no way affected by the tremendous 
 circumstances which these stories n lute. Their being historical, 
 therefore, is inconceivable. It is not conceivable that Jairus, 
 who was actually " one of the rulers of the synagogue," should 
 have done nothing in defence of Jesus throughout all the attacks 
 made on him, if Jesus had really brought back his child to life ; 
 still less is it conceivable that the raising of Lazarus by Jesus 
 should have made the authorities decide to put Jesus to death. 
 On the other hand, the origin of the stories comes before us 
 most palpably. The origin of them is in Jesus's teaching. 
 Thus, in the Nain story, it is recorded that the people came to 
 speak of how a great prophet had appeared among them (Lk. 
 vii. 1 6). This is no doubt a notice of real history. What led 
 to this happening among the people was no doubt Jesus's 
 authoritative teaching, especially regarding a resurrection. The 
 evangelist, however, or his precursors (having likely the ancient 
 stories of Elijah and Elisha in remembrance, as advanced 
 scholars are right in pointing out), supposed an actual miracle 
 had brought about that the people should speak in this way. In 
 
APPENDIX. 377 
 
 this and in the other two cases a raising of the dead in faith and 
 in promise has assumed the form of a story of the preternatural. 
 
 It is to be said further, however, in regard to these stories, 
 that taken literally they are perplexing rather than helpful to 
 religion, and that taken critically they are of the highest value 
 to religion. When we take them literally, they only tell of 
 accidental experiences of three persons in an age long gone by, 
 which only gained them a short extra span of life in this world 
 of struggle and then left both them and mankind generally 
 exactly where they had been as regards hope of anything more. 
 And to this must be added the disturbing thought of the 
 persons having been required to pass twice through the dire 
 experience which a merciful God, for ends of wisdom, requires 
 of all of us once. When we take the stories critically, on the 
 other hand, they tell plainly of two things : first, that our Lord 
 Jesus had a power to speak clearly and convincingly of a life 
 which ends not with the grave j and, second, that it is natural 
 for the human mind to believe in such a life. It is plain that 
 in great measure Jesus gained his ascendancy through assertion 
 and exposition of that great truth ; and it is also plain that that 
 truth, having been once asserted in boldness and with intel- 
 ligibility, fascinated mankind, brought a new interest for life, 
 and gained gradually universal belief. 
 
 u. Lukes Account of the Na%aretk Visit. Luke iv. 2^-27 
 must be genuine, so perfectly does it fit in with Jesus's whole 
 line of thought as it is discerned from the records in general 
 read critically. The passage presents a most interesting parallel 
 to the " Jonah" reference (Mt. xii., Lk. xi.). 
 
 12. The Syrophenician Woman. The account given in the 
 tenth chapter, based on the story of the Syrophenician woman, 
 will recommend itself. The story has the marks of having 
 a historical original, and yet that original could not well be 
 what the story literally relates. That a woman actually of the 
 country to which Jesus had withdrawn came up to him and 
 sought to have her daughter healed by him, that he compared 
 her to a dog in relation to the Israelites, and that she accepted 
 such a comparison and adroitly turned it to advantage, has not 
 the appearance of truth. On the other hand, it is highly likely 
 
37$ THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 that the adroit remark was made by a woman from among 
 Jesus's own followers, and an uncritical evangelist would very 
 easily fall into or adopt the mistake of making her out to be a 
 woman of the country into which Jesus had gone. Cp. Lk. iv. 26. 
 
 13. Three Curious Cases in the Fourth Gospel. There are 
 three cases where comparison between the Fourth Gospel and 
 the earlier gospels tempts one to believe that the Fourth Evan- 
 gelist, in his carelessness about historical accuracy, has actually 
 contradicted the original report no doubt, unconsciously 
 namely, vi. 26 (cp. Mk. vi. 52, Rev. Ver. viii. i2),vii. 27 (cp. 
 Mt. ii. 5, also cp. Jn. vii. 42), and viii. 42-44 (cp. Mt. xxiii. 9). 
 
 14. Getting the Child-nature again. It is interesting to see 
 how Jesus's teaching about getting back the nature of a child 
 came first to be supposed to mean being " born again " (Jn. iii. 
 and Justin, Apol., i. 61), and then came in popular use to have 
 the directly opposite signification from its original signification, 
 and to mean getting rid of all that is to be found in a natural 
 child. This has not been a real development. The idea is 
 profounder and more beautiful in the original teaching. 
 
 15. Marriage, &c. y and Mt. xix. 12. Mt. xix, 10 and the 
 first sentence of verse 12 must be connected as both belonging 
 to the objections of disciples, as obviously verse 1 2 is in a com- 
 pletely different line of thought from Jesus's sayings in verses 
 5, 6, and 9. Probably neither what is in the one verse nor 
 what is in the other was brought before Jesus by his immediate 
 disciples; it is likely that both (and what is in verse 12 most 
 certainly) are expressive of later questions arising from per- 
 plexities occasioned by the growing belief in the virtue of 
 celibacy, which Jesus's words seemed hardly to encourage. 
 Thus we are to notice further that verse n and the last 
 sentence of verse 12 contain the answer which was supplied 
 for such questions by the early Christian authorities who issued 
 the Gospel of Matthew an answer of some prudence in the 
 circumstances, and having its origin in being an echo of real 
 words of Jesus (see Mk. iv. 9, &c.). 
 
 16. Jesus and the Rich Man. "Trust in riches" (Mk. x. 
 24) is not found in either of the two best of the manuscripts 
 of the New Testament, and is therefore struck out by some 
 
APPENDIX. 379 
 
 scholars. It is ably defended, however, by Meyer, a very 
 competent authority. 
 
 17. Jesus Riding o?i the Colt. Dr. Keim, in dealing with 
 Jesus riding on the colt, which Keim, following Matthew, takes 
 to have been an ass's colt, attributes Jesus's having done this 
 (in accordance with Zechariah ix. 9) to his wish to show that 
 his claim of kingship was not one requiring outward splendour, 
 but was one joined to meekness. Keim further compares this 
 to his adoption of the name " Son of man " (Eng. Tr. V. 103). 
 
 1 8. The " Sheep '* and the " Goals." It is also to be noticed 
 about the "sheep" and the "goats" that, even taking the 
 passage literally, the " sheep " are represented as beings of 
 intense care for others, which is inconsistent with the idea in 
 the picture that an everlasting separation of their brethren the 
 "goats "from their power to help them would be pleasing to 
 them not to speak, also, of the idea that such would be the 
 reward which the Ruler of all would have prepared for them. 
 There is thus a thorough confusion in the picture as it stands ; 
 and the benign Author of the teaching regarding that care for 
 others that is attributed to the " sheep " could not have fallen 
 into such a confusion, being, as it really is, a stumbling on the 
 very threshold of his meaning. Here, as in the case of the 
 parable of the Tares, the evangelist has given us first Jesus's 
 parable, then a Church application. 
 
 19. "After two Days," Mk. xiv. i. There is a great loose- 
 ness in the New Testament in regard to time. We can only 
 in the different cases judge from the context as to the correct- 
 ness of any statement on the subject, and also as to the degree 
 of exactness which the author has really meant. It seems to 
 have been a habit to use a number of days just to express 
 a gap in the narrative, the extent of which is often unknown. 
 The doing this would seem to have implied often more or less 
 of a guess at the time 5 but the guess seems in some cases to 
 have had a certain amount of information to confirm it. Jesus's 
 own "three days," founded on Hosea, is an instance of this 
 habit ; and in that case, as the time alluded to is beyond the 
 grave, the time stated is evidently purely figurative. In Mk. 
 ix. 2, however, another instance, the time stated must be a 
 
380 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 guess based on a real knowledge of the time that the events 
 took altogether; though in that case the guess so far fails 
 through the evangelist not having noticed that what he was 
 introducing was not a particular occurrence at all, but a general 
 occurrence, the time of which could not be so accurately defined. 
 Mk. xiv. i, we may say, is another instance, and in it there is 
 a guess which seems to have been very accurate. Cp. Mk. ii. i, 
 where, instead of any statement of exact time, we have expressed 
 in a simple way the same thing as the habit we are considering 
 really expressed ; and on the other hand, compare the several 
 instances in the Fourth Gospel of the habit we are considering, 
 in which the statement of time is arbitrary and perhaps figurative. 
 (See also Luke ii. 46.) 
 
 20. The Burial of Lazarus, Jn. xi. 17. There is great 
 variation in the manuscripts regarding the " already" and the 
 " four days " in this verse. Whatever may have been the 
 original reading in the gospel, we may confidently conjecture 
 that the verse has been based on a statement in the original 
 account from which the gospel was compiled, to the effect that' 
 Jesus came, having last seen Lazarus about four days previously, 
 and found that he was " already " (ede) placed in the tomb. 
 
 21. The Idea of "Revelation." The idea of "revelation," 
 properly speaking, applied to the appearance of God in Jesus, 
 as indicated in chapter xxiv., might form the subject of much 
 interesting investigation. It was neglected by the early Catholic 
 theologians, who were content to assert, without explaining, 
 two distinct natures in Jesus (See Ambrose, on the Christian 
 Faith, ii. 7, 56). Still, the writings of these theologians are 
 not without premonitions of this explaining idea (See Augustine, 
 " City of God," x. 5, where he calls sacrifice, as among the 
 ancient Israelites, "a visible sacramentum or sacred sign (id cst 
 sacrum signittn} of an invisible sacrifice"). In regard to the 
 re-awakening of the idea in modern times, and its beginning to 
 be applied to the life of Jesus, these early words of Thomas 
 Erskine are interesting : "The gospel reveals to us the existence 
 of a fund of divine love, containing in it a propitiation for all 
 sin," and again : " I am led to regard the pardon of the gospel 
 as another name for holy compassion . . . and thus as a part 
 
APPENDIX. 381 
 
 of the unchangeable character of God, rather than a particular 
 act" ("Unconditional Freeness of the Gospel," pp. 116, 120). 
 A looser, less sound notion called "revelation," which has 
 .prevailed more widely, must not be confused with the idea in 
 its stricter comprehension. 
 
 22. Hell-Jire. The origin of the conception of hell-fire is 
 indicated in Is. Ixvi. 24, where there are prophesied a " worm " 
 that "shall not die" and a "fire" that shall not be quenched 
 for all who have transgressed against God. From Mk. ix. 49 
 it is plain that Jesus looked upon this fire as a reality, but as a 
 reality to be experienced, more or less, by all ordinary men and 
 women, and from ver. 50 it appears that he regarded the fire as 
 purifying the individual soul from evil. In the Gospel of Matthew 
 the influence of early Christian preaching has already been 
 brought to bear on Jesus's words, and so given them at certain 
 places that turn which suggests the everlasting burning of 
 certain souls in their very selves. Especially this influence is 
 found in Mt. xxv. 4r. No soul can be everlastingly tortured 
 at the hands of Him whom in all His transcendent benignity 
 and anxious love Jesus declared and revealed. The hell-fire 
 which Jesus really taught of is itself an instrument of love. 
 May the good God give to the fire and to the worm all about 
 us that is opposed to His purity and beneficence, and save 
 ourselves in His great mercy ! 
 
 23. The Fourth Evangelist as a Disciple. It is very important 
 to notice the entirely different aspect which some of the sayings 
 ascribed to Jesus by the Fourth Evangelist come to possess 
 when acknowledgment is made that the evangelist has himself 
 given them their literary form. Especially to be considered 
 with respect to this are three sayings in the eighth chapter, 
 namely, those in verses 42, 44, and 55. What would have 
 been so perplexing as the actual words of Jesus himself appear, 
 when proved to be really the words of the evangelist, as the 
 expressions of a just resentment on the part of an earnest 
 disciple against the persecutors and murderers of his divine 
 Master. In this aspect, also, the words become an important 
 witness for the general Impression which Jesus made. 
 " Children of the devil " seemed not too strong an epithet for 
 
382 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 this zealous disciple to apply to those who had been the enemies 
 of One so pure and so majestic. 
 
 24. The Doctrine of the Trinity. By general agreement the 
 Latin word personae has been translated by the word "persons" 
 in statements of the doctrine of the Trinity. This is so far 
 justified by the investigations of classical scholars in regard to 
 the Latin usage. And yet the conventiojial sense of the word 
 " person," or the sense in which it is applied to a human being, 
 is by no means, properly speaking, the sense in which the word 
 " persona," translated "person," is used in the traditional 
 formulas. That is to say, it is not the doctrine accepted by the 
 Catholic and by the Trinitarian Protestant Churches, to conceive 
 of the three "persons " as three beings separated by limitations 
 of knowledge in accordance with the self of each person, by 
 different streams of experience, by independent and possibly 
 disagreeing wills, and so on. Such anthropomorphism is, 
 indeed, supported by some of the presentations of the very 
 early ecclesiastical writers, as it is certainly also supported by 
 the utterances of many who in modern times deal with the 
 doctrine. But firmly against it are both the history of the doctrine 
 and the formulas themselves as weighed and compared. The 
 Church indeed narrowed to the thinnest line all qualitative 
 difference between the three " personae," while, on the other 
 hand, it was careful to maintain that the three were not nominal, 
 nor even apparent, but real entities or figures, distinguishable 
 for analytical thought within One Supreme Personality. See 
 the Athanasian Creed, and cp. the illustrations in Origen de 
 Principiis, I. 2, 12, and Tertullian, against Praxeas, cc. 8, 13, 22, 
 and 27. Later than the writers just mentioned, Augustine, in 
 " The City of God," expounded the doctrine in such a way that, 
 so far from the three " personae " being likened to three human 
 persons, every- human person was supposed to have within a 
 reflection of the Trinity; and in doing this Augustine was careful 
 to distinguish his view from that of the Sabellians, who agreed 
 with him in the matter of the Trinity being reflected within the 
 human being, but did not ascribe to the members of the Trinity 
 the distinct reality which Augustine recognised. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
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APPENDIX. 385 
 
 III. OUTLINE OF THE FOURTH EVANGELIST'S OWN 
 TREATMENT OF HIS MATERIAL. 
 
 The Fourth Evangelist uses the material which has come to 
 him (from the Apostle John, as we have concluded), to present 
 in order the following doctrinal subjects : 
 
 The eternal " Word," or Reason the higher life for man 
 the higher birth the Father and the Son the lamb of God 
 the new "wine" of the gospel the higher birth explained 
 the Father and the Son more fully spiritual conceptions of 
 God and worship the living water the meat that does not 
 perish eternal life in the eternal Son of God the last three 
 subjects more fully the light of the world, and the taking 
 away of blindness the heavenly Shepherd the resurrection 
 in the power of the eternal Son of God the New Command- 
 ment the Way to Life the Other Representative of the 
 Father the True Vine the unity of separates, in the love 
 of God the kingdom not of this world the Undying 
 Redeemer. 
 
 (These subjects are all, to begin with, of a kind familiar to 
 Alexandrian philosophy ; and a full study of them would have 
 to take account of the stages of that philosophy. Interesting 
 for all readers, in connection with the Fourth Gospel, is the 
 book of " The Wisdom of Solomon," found in the " Apocrypha " 
 of the Old Testament. In that book there are three names 
 which so far represent that Life in God introduced as " the 
 Son " in the Fourth Gospel, namely Sophia (wisdom), Logos 
 (word), and Rema (word; cp. i Pet. i. 25). See, e.g., ix. 17, 
 ix. i, xvi. 26. The work of the Fourth Evangelist was to bring 
 out, as he was right in doing, that that Life in God became 
 manifest or intelligible in the life of the Saviour. See especially, 
 for a proper exposition of this theme, Hausrath's New Testament 
 Times, now in great part translated.) 
 
3 86 
 
 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 IV. TIME AND PLACE NOTICES IN THE FOURTH GOSPEL 
 CORRECTED BY THE CORRECT NOTICES IN MARK, 
 WITH EXPLANATIONS OF THEIR INACCURACIES. 
 
 Passage in 
 Mark 
 
 Telling 
 
 Howjesusjoined 
 the Baptist. 
 
 Corre- 
 sponds to 
 passage in 
 
 John 
 
 1. 29 
 
 and 
 iii. 22 
 
 i. 12-14 
 
 How Jesus re- 
 turned to Galilee 
 on John being ar- 
 rested. 
 
 21 
 
 How Jesus start- 
 ed his ministry at 
 Capernaum. 
 
 43 
 
 and 
 . 1-3 
 
 i, 12. 
 
 Where the state of matters 
 is that 
 
 The event is related with 
 mystical accompaniments, 
 but not inaccurately. 
 
 The same event is told a 
 second time, as if it were a 
 new event (owing evidently 
 to the evangelist starting on 
 a different account of the 
 whole ministry), and the 
 evangelist, led away by his 
 desire to make a connected 
 story, says that Jesus's " dis- 
 ciples" (whom really he had 
 not yet met) went to the south 
 with Jesus. 
 
 The event is related 
 mystically, but not inac- 
 curately. 
 
 The same event is told a 
 second time (from the same 
 cause as in the case above) 
 with hardly any inaccuracy. 
 
 The evangelist has some- 
 how confused a place called 
 " Cana " with Capernaum, 
 and so says (wrongly) that 
 Jesus was previously before 
 the public in Cana, but then 
 says (rightly) that he went 
 to Capernaum, adding that 
 his mother and brothers 
 went to Capernaum also, an 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 387 
 
 TIME AND PLACE NOTICES continued. 
 
 Passage in 
 Mark 
 
 Telling 
 
 11. 2 3 
 
 35, 3<3 
 
 Corre- 
 sponds to 
 passage in 
 
 John 
 
 and 
 iv. 46 
 
 (Indirectly) how 
 Jesus's ministry at 
 Capernaum had 
 begun in the 
 springtime. 
 
 How Jesus, 
 having chosen 
 " apostles," ex- 
 tended his minis- 
 try to the other 
 side of the lake on 
 which Capernaum 
 stood , 
 
 Where the state of matters 
 is that 
 
 event that really took place, 
 but later. (See Mk. iii. 21 
 and 31.) 
 
 The same event is told a 
 second time (from the same 
 causes as in the case above), 
 the confusion of the evan- 
 gelist between " Cana " and 
 Capernaum is more evident 
 than before, and again the 
 evangelist is led astray into 
 connecting this with what 
 has gone before, by way of 
 making a continued story. 
 
 The evangelist reproduces 
 an assertion to the effect 
 that " a feast of the Jews" 
 (evidently the " Passover ") 
 was going on, and adds what 
 is impossible to be historical 
 according to Mark, that 
 Jesus went to this feast, 
 which, however, the evan- 
 gelist himself seems to neg- 
 lect having said, as he soon 
 after makes Jesus go "over 
 the sea of Galilee," with no 
 word of how he got back 
 from Jerusalem. (Also, the 
 events that he relates are 
 palpably the same as those 
 which Mark relates as hav- 
 ing happened in Galilee.) 
 
 The event is simply and 
 truthfully recorded. 
 
388 
 
 Passage 
 Mark 
 
 V. 21 
 
 vi. 1-5 
 
 vi. 31 to 
 viii. 27 
 
 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 TIME AND PLACE NOTICES continued. 
 
 Telling 
 
 Corre- 
 sponds to 
 passage in 
 
 John 
 
 How this first vi. 16, 17 
 little missionary 
 journey was soon 
 brought to a close, 
 and Jesus returned 
 to Capernaum. 
 
 How Jesus paid 
 a visit to Nazareth. 
 
 vi. 42 
 
 Howjesusmade vi. 66-71 
 a journey east- 
 wards and then 
 northwards, end- 
 ing at Caesarea- 
 Philippi. 
 
 Where the state of matters 
 is that 
 
 The event is simply re- 
 corded. 
 
 The whole record of time 
 and place has disappeared, 
 but the sayings of the people 
 of Nazareth about Jesus (as 
 told in Mark) are preserved, 
 and ascribed vaguely to 
 " the Jews." 
 
 The whole record of time 
 and place has disappeared, 
 but a little conversation that 
 happened near Cacsarea (as 
 told in Mark) is preserved in 
 a very distorted but recog- 
 nisable form. 
 
 x. i ; 
 
 xiv. i 
 
 How Jesus left 
 Galilee for Jeru- 
 salem at the time 
 of the Passover. 
 
 ii. 13. 
 
 and 
 vii. 10, 
 
 xi. 12 (cp. How Jesus while viii. i, 2 
 
 ver. i, at Jerusalem spent 
 
 also the nights at a vil- 
 
 ver. 19; lage called Beth- 
 
 and any, near the 
 
 xiv. 3) Mount of Olives 
 (cp. Luke xxi. 37). 
 
 The event is recorded 
 simply and truthfully. 
 
 A second account of the 
 event is given, a little con- 
 fused itself, and as if it were 
 a new event (as in the cases 
 above). 
 
 An instance of his going 
 to the Mount of Olives and 
 returning in the morning is 
 simply recorded. 
 
APPENDIX. 389 
 
 TIME AND PLACE NOTICES continued. 
 
 Passage in 
 Mark 
 
 Telling 
 
 Corre- 
 sponds to 
 passage in 
 
 John 
 
 xiv. i. How there was a x. 40 ; 
 
 cessation of Jesus's xi. 6 
 teaching for about 
 " two days." 
 
 and 
 xi. 54 
 
 Where the state of matters 
 is that 
 
 The evangelist relates 
 (evidently rightly) that Jesus 
 retired out of notice for these 
 two days, but (quite wrongly) 
 makes him out to have 
 journeyed away " beyond 
 Jordan " (through a con- 
 fusion, in the evangelist's 
 mind, with a going away of 
 Jesus, in what he said, related 
 in Mk. xi. 30). 
 
 The evangelist gives a 
 new statement about this 
 going away, as if Jesus had 
 gone away again (having 
 found, evidently, in his 
 material, the event asserted 
 a second time in a new con- 
 nection), and (mistakenly) 
 speaks of him going to " Eph- 
 raim," probably through a 
 traditional account of the 
 going away to the Ephraim 
 country in thought or in 
 speech which is related in 
 Lk. x. 30-33. 
 
 N.B. vi. 4 may be interpreted as a purely didactic remark, intended 
 by the evangelist as an introduction to his own eucharistic teaching 
 which follows. The nearness at hand of the Passover alluded to can- 
 not have been a greater nearness than that of about eight months ; but 
 that was sufficient nearness for the didactic purpose of one who cared 
 nothing about time and place as such. 
 
3QO THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 V. SOME EVIDENT TOUCHES OF REAL HISTORY IN THE 
 FOURTH GOSPEL, IN PASSAGES WHERE IT is NO LONGER 
 POSSIBLE TO READ THE HISTORY CLEARLY. 
 
 ii. 24, 25. Something having to do with Jesns's withdrawals ? 
 
 iv. 45. An account of Peter and the other Galilean hearers of 
 John having in some way introduced Jesus at Capernaum? 
 
 vi. 14, 15. An indication of Jesus having told his disciples 
 plainly that he was glad to be recognised as a "prophet," 
 but did not wish political associations to be connected 
 with him ? 
 
 vii. 22. Some further reasoning on the subject of Sabbath- 
 observance ? 
 
 vii. 45, 46. The officers of the priests, &c., actually refused to 
 arrest Jesus at first ? 
 
 xi. 48. An indication of some of the authorities having sought 
 to justify the death of Jesus to his disciples on the plea of 
 danger from the Romans ? 
 
 VI. SOME CASES IN WHICH THE FOURTH EVANGELIST COMES 
 BACK ON A PHRASE, MAKING ONE BELIEVE THAT HE HAS 
 RECEIVED THE PHRASE, AND is HIMSELF ENLARGING 
 ON IT. 
 
 i- 3i> 33- " I knew him not " (the historical truth pointed to), 
 v. 25, 28. The hour coming when the dead <; shall hear his 
 
 voice." 
 
 v '- 27, 33, 51, 58. Bread giving life, bread from heaven. 
 vi. 37, 44, 65. Coming to Jesus through God drawing one, &c. 
 vii. 1 6, 1 8, 28, 29, 33 j viii. 16, 18, 26. Jesus referring to One 
 
 who " sent " him, and saying that He is " true." 
 
APPENDIX. 391 
 
 vii. 34; viii. 215 xiii. 33. Jesus saying that his countrymen 
 will " seek " him after he is gone. (Note the obtuse 
 remarks attributed to "the Jews " after each of the first 
 two cases viz., vii. 35 and viii. 22.) 
 
 x. 7,9. Jesus the "door." 
 
 x. n, 14. Jesus the " Shepherd." 
 
 xii. 23 ; xiii. 31. The hour for the Son of man to be " glorified." 
 
 xiii. 16; xv. 20. The servant not greater than his lord. 
 
 xiv. 14 5 xvi. 23. Ask and it shall be given. 
 
 viii. 295 xvi. 32. Jesus not left alone. 
 
 xvii. 21, 23. Belief, or knowledge, of the " world." 
 
 VII. REMINISCENCES OF JESUS IN THE FOUR GREAT 
 PAULINE EPISTLES. 
 
 GALATIANS. 
 
 i. 4 recalls Jesus's general giving of himself, 
 iii. 26 (indirectly) his teaching of the Fatherhood 
 
 of God. 
 iv. 4 (indirectly) his claiming to be Son of 
 
 God. 
 iv. 19 (perhaps) his saying about the future life 
 
 (Jn. xvi. 21). 
 v. 14 his saying to the earnest scribe (Mk. xii. 
 
 29-31). 
 vi. 2 the same. 
 
 i CORINTHIANS. 
 
 iii. 10 (perhaps) his saying about himself and 
 
 the Baptist (Jn. iv. 35-37)- 
 v. 6 ,, sayings about leaven (Mt. xiii. 33, and 
 
 Mk. viii. 15). 
 
 v. 12, 13 (perhaps) his recognising a special charge, 
 and leaving the rest of the world to 
 God (Jn. xvii. 9, &c.). 
 
 xi. 24, 25 his sayings at the Last Supper, 
 xiii. 2 his saying about faith (Mk. xi. 23). 
 
392 
 
 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 1 CORINTHIANS. 
 
 xv. 3, 4 recalls his dying, and his own and other teaching 
 
 connected. 
 
 xvr - 36, 37 his saying about the corn of wheat (Jn. 
 xii. 24). 
 
 2 CORINTHIANS. 
 
 i. 5 his sufferings. 
 
 iv. 6 his sayings about light (Mk. iv. 21). 
 iv. 10 his dying greatly. 
 
 iv. 14 his being confidently believed to have risen 
 again. 
 
 ROMANS. 
 ii. 19 
 
 ii. 28 
 
 xii. 20 
 
 xiii. 9 
 
 xiv. 10-13 
 
 his sayings about blindness (Mt. xxiii. 
 
 I7.&C.). 
 
 (perhaps) his saying to Nathanael(Jn.i. 47). 
 
 his general teaching (Mt. v.-vii.). 
 
 his saying to the earnest scribe (Mk. xii. 
 
 29-31). 
 his general teaching (Mt. v.-vii.). 
 
 VIII. THE OTHER EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITINGS, IN 
 RELATION TO THE LIFE OF JESUS. 
 
 The Acts of the Apostles, 
 
 the most purely historical of all the books in the New Testa- 
 ment, and very reliable when read critically, deals with events 
 that happened after Jesus's death, and therefore does not give 
 direct information regarding him, but also gives through spon- 
 taneous allusions indirect evidence for the facts of his life, of 
 a most trustworthy and important kind. It gives emphatic 
 testimony, with no qualification, to the fact that Jesus belonged 
 to Nazareth (iii. 6, iv. 10, vi. 14, x. 38, xxii. 8, xxiv. 5, and xxvi. 
 9). It expresses the belief that he was inspired by the " Holy 
 Ghost" (i. 2, and x. 38; cp. Mk. i. 10). It gives a saying of 
 Jesus not recorded in the gospels, but of the same tenor as the 
 gospel sayings (xx. 35). It sums up the names of the enemies 
 that he had in his short public life (iv. 27). It gives indirect 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 393 
 
 testimony to his remark about the times of the good to come in 
 the future not being known (i. 7 j cp. Mk. xiii. 32). It echoes 
 his saying about sheep and wolves (xx. 29 ; cp. Mt. x. 16). 
 It bears witness to the fact that Pilate wished to let Jesus go 
 (iii. 13). It testifies to his having been crucified (ii. 36). 
 
 The Epistle to the Ephesians, 
 
 dealing with the subject of the Church, has a reminiscence of 
 Jesus's saying about marriage (v. 31). 
 
 The Epistle to the Philippians, 
 
 dealing with practical religion based on belief in Jesus, has a 
 reminiscence of Jesus's sayings about light (ii. 15). 
 
 The Epistle to the Colossians, 
 
 like Ephesians in subjects, has perhaps a reminiscence of Jesus's 
 saying about the " treasures in heaven " (iii. 2). 
 
 The First Epistle to the Thessalonians 
 
 expresses a very early Christian attitude. It looks for a dramatic 
 " second coming of Christ " (for example, i. 10, iii. 13, iv. 16). 
 It has a trace of the general impression made by Jesus, centering 
 religion on brotherly love (iv. 9 ; cp. Mk. xii. 31). It has also 
 what is perhaps a reminiscence of Jesus comparing the perse- 
 cution of himself to the persecutions of older prophets (ii. 15 ; 
 cp. Mt. xxiii. 29 and 37). 
 
 The Second Epistle to the Thessalonians , 
 
 being similar in subject to the first epistle, is very materialistic. 
 It seems to have a materialised reminiscence of Jesus's saying 
 about the Temple and its worship (ii. 3-5). 
 
 The First Epistle to Timothy, 
 
 having to do with oversight of the Church, has a simple re- 
 miniscence of Jesus's appearance before Pilate (vi. 13). It 
 shows that difficulty had arisen over the subject of marriage (of 
 
394 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 which Mt. xix. 12 is likely also an outcome), but does not 
 contain any decided trace of Jesus's own teaching recorded in 
 Mk. x. It emphatically repeats Jesus's teaching about love of 
 neighbours (i. 5; cp. Mk. xii. 31). 
 
 The Second Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus, 
 
 similar in subject to First Timothy, do not, either of them, give 
 any important contribution. 
 
 The Epistle to Philemon 
 gives no important contribution. 
 
 The Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 
 an exposition of early allegorising doctrine, shows a little of the 
 tradition, or of the account, of the real life, in speaking of Jesus 
 having prayed (v. 7). 
 
 The Epistle of James and the Epistles of Peter, 
 
 dealing with practical Christian religion, introduce spontaneously 
 some of the ideas of Jesus's teaching, and so bear witness 
 unconsciously to these ideas having been expressed by him (for 
 example, Jas. ii. 5 and iv. 10; i Pet. ii. 25 ; 2 Pet. iii. 10). 
 
 The Epistles of John 
 
 bear testimony of a very important kind to Jesus's teaching. 
 While dealing with metaphysical subjects that Jesus himself 
 certainly did not enter on, they professedly take their start from 
 certain themes which are only accidentally brought into con- 
 nection with their metaphysical line of thought. Now not only 
 the want of connection between these themes and the general 
 line of thought in the epistles, but also the fact that these themes 
 are elaborated in a far narrower way than the same themes are 
 handled in the teaching of Jesus in the Synoptic gospels, make 
 it plain that the writer has taken the themes from some source 
 beyond himself which he reverences, and is trying to convey 
 
APPENDIX. 395 
 
 them, with devotion to the author of them, even while he does 
 not understand them. Such is the theme of the importance of 
 following truth as truth, in the way that Jesus did (i Jn. ii. 21, 
 iii. 1 8 j 2 Jn. 2, 4 ; and 3 Jn. 3,4), which the writer manifestly 
 hardly understands (see i Jn. ii. 22, iv. 6). Such, again, is 
 the theme of brotherly love, the " new commandment " of 
 Jesus, running through these epistles, which the writer has 
 clipped down till its spirit is almost gone (see i Jn. ii. 22, 
 iii. 10, iv. 5, and v. 16 ; cp. also 2 Jn. ver. 5 with ver. 10, and 
 cp. 3 Jn. ver. 6 with ver. 10). And such also is the theme of 
 all being "light " about God and religion, made much of by 
 Jesus, sounded by the writer of these epistles (i Jn. i. 5) only 
 to be abandoned without any force having been given to it. 
 Small details also may be found in the way of showing otherwise 
 the influence of the teaching of Jesus (for example, cp. i Jn. 
 iii. 15 with Mt. v. 21, 22). 
 
 The Epistle of Jude 
 gives no important contribution. 
 
 The Apocalyptic Books 
 
 that is, the " Revelation " in the New Testament, along with 
 2 Esdras, the Book of Enoch, &c., otherwise translated depend 
 as evidences on the way the question is to be decided as to how 
 far they are Christian writings and how far they are earlier 
 writings adapted to early Christianity. It may be said, however, 
 confidently, that the book in the New Testament, with all its 
 startling fancy, bears witness both to the new hold on immor- 
 tality and resurrection brought about by Jesus, and also to the 
 general spirit of Jesus's teaching (see especially vii. 13-17); 
 and it may also be said that 2 Esdras contains a most notable 
 echo of Jesus's really detailed ideas regarding the life to come 
 (ii. 31 and iv. 40-43). 
 
 The First Epistle of Clement, 
 
 a very commonplace writing based on slavish dealing with 
 Scripture, though evidently by a heroic man, gives independent 
 
396 
 
 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 and very substantial confirmation of several points regarding 
 Jesus. They are these : His teaching regarding mercy and 
 forgiveness, &c. (c. 13) ; the Parable of the Sower (c. 24) j his 
 teaching that he was sent from God, and that his disciples were 
 to be "sent" (apostoloi) from him (c. 42); and his teaching 
 regarding " offending " " little ones " (c. 46). 
 
 The Epistle of Poly carp 
 
 has some of the teaching found in the Sermon on the Mount, in 
 an evidently independent, or at least freely quoted, form (c. 2). 
 
 The Epistle of Barnabas, 
 
 an allegorising writing like the Epistle to the Hebrews, but 
 more anti-Judaistic, has an independent echo of Jesus's saying 
 about the " first" and the " last" (c. 6; cp. Mk. x. 31). 
 
 The other early writings do not give much particular testi- 
 mony of any importance; but they witness to the general 
 grandeur of Jesus's personality, and also echo some of Jesus's 
 ideas in such a way as to confirm their being universally 
 recognised, in the time of the writings, as Jesus's ideas. This 
 is especially the case with " The Shepherd of Hennas." As we 
 come to writings of slightly later date than those mentioned, 
 their importance if lost by their evidently using our received 
 gospels. Some quote from authorities now lost, as a " Gospel 
 of the Hebrews " and a " Gospel of the Egyptians " ; but the 
 added information thus offered does not materially increase our 
 knowledge of Jesus. ^^ , 
 
 (ji THE 
 
 UN S1TY 
 
 .. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 151, 281 
 
 Age. See Time 
 
 Alexandrian Philosophy, 5, margin, 385 
 
 Amos, 43 
 
 Andrew, general account of, 143; also 48-49, 52, 262 
 
 Angels, 30, 65 
 
 Angels' Song, 30 
 
 Apocalyptic books, 157, 203, 212 
 
 Apocalyptic passages in gospels, 14, margin, 203, 260-266 
 
 Apocryphal gospels, 33 
 
 Apostles, 138-146, 172, 325, 342 
 
 Authority of Jesus, 101, 104, 151, 254, 301. See also Power 
 
 Baptism, 43-46, 56, 68, 374 
 
 Barabbas, 339 
 
 Bartholomew, 144 
 
 Beatitudes, 148 
 
 Bethany, 235, 238, 241, 296-309 
 
 Bethlehem, 32, 276 
 
 Bethsaida, 182, 184 
 
 Betrayal of Jesus, 295, 305, 315, 335 
 
 Biblical Criticism, beneficent work of, 268, 273, 361, 372 
 
 Birth-narratives, 30, 84, 369, 373 
 
 Blasphemy, charge of, 114, 297, 337 
 
 Blind, the (physically), 184, 18=5, 273 
 
 Blind men and Blindness (spiritual), 174, 233, 249, 250, 258, 272 
 
 Boanerges, 141 
 
 Boyhood of Jesus, 30-34 
 
 Brothers of Jesus, 32, 154, 167, 171, 208 
 
 Brotherliness, 95-98, 251 
 
 Caesarea Philippi, 185, 199 
 
 Caiaphas, 336 
 
 Cana-narrative, 69, margin, 122 
 
 Capernaum, specially, 79-84, 165, 173, 209, 211 
 
 Care of God, 95-96, 148, 274, 282, 372 
 
 Care as ethical principle, 97 
 
 Carpenter, 38, 41, 167 
 
 Centurion, the, 150 
 
 Chief Priests, 200, 243, 290, 336-339 
 
 Children, Jesus in relation to, 91, 201, 213-215, 228, 378 
 
398 
 
 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Children praising, 240 
 
 " Children of the devil," 252, 381 
 
 Church, 139, 142 
 
 Church expositions, 14, 172, 225, 251, 261, 268, 274, 302, 378 
 
 Christ. See Messiah 
 
 Communion, 192, 318 
 
 Companionship, 35 
 
 Compassion of Jesus, 26, 114, 181. 346 
 
 Cornfields, 124 
 
 Daniel, book of, 89, 129, 157 
 
 David, 127, 235, 277 
 
 Dead raised, 174, 179, 376. See Resurrection 
 
 Deaf and dumb, 174, 184 
 
 Death of Jesus, 340 
 
 Death generally, a sleep, 165, 297, 299 ; a process towards further life, 
 
 3". 330 
 
 Desert, 178, 181. See Wilderness 
 Devils or demons, 101-105, 153, 164, 167, 210, 213 
 Disciples, 66 and thereafter 
 Dispute of disciples, 212 
 Divinity of Jesus, 30, 33, 348-350, 357-372 
 Divorce, 227-228 
 
 Dramatic treatment of events, 50, 115, 296 
 Drink, spiritual, 73-75, 257 
 
 Dualistic view of human beings, 27, 159, 267, 268, 331 
 Dying thief, 340 
 
 Elias, Elijah, 169, 170, 176, 199, 206, 224, 376 
 
 Eliseus, Elisha, 169, 170, 376 
 
 Enoch, book of, 129, 157 
 
 Enthusiasm centered on Jesus, 86, 105, 150, 151 
 
 Ephesus, 3 
 
 Ephraim, 298 
 
 Escapes. See Retreats 
 
 Esdras, 2nd book of, 157, 158, margin, 395 
 
 Essenes, 36 
 
 Eusebius, 2 
 
 Faith, 37, 103, 113, 151, 168, 211 
 
 Family-life, Jesus in relation to, 32, 33, 154, 165, 171. 182, 231 
 
 Fasting, 120-124, 211 
 
 Fatherhood of God, 5, 38, 65, 95-99, 112-118, 164, 175, 219, 251, 252,297 
 
 Feeding the multitude, 187-192 
 
 Feet-washing narrative, 321 
 
 Fig-tree, 238, 242 
 
 Fishers, Fishing, 81, 82 
 
 Food, spiritual, 64, 70, 75, 187-192 
 
 Forgiveness, 34, 113, 148, 217, 243, 340 
 
 Friends, 296, 322, 323, 332 
 
 Galilee, specially, 42, 75, 80, 217, 280; Jn. iv. 45, 390 
 
 Gennesaret, Lake of, 83, 109. See Sea of Galilee 
 
 Gethsemane, 335 
 
 Golgotha, 340 
 
 Goodness in man, 34, 98 
 
 Gospel, Good-news, 29, 87-88, 99-100, 364 
 
INDEX. 399 
 
 Gospels, the, in general, 1-28 ; structure, 24 ; tendencies, 25 ; dis- 
 crepancies, 27 
 
 Greatness, 45, 58, 212, 233, 320 
 Greeks, incident, 309 
 
 Healing ministry, 37, 101-105, 115, 134, 184 
 
 Heaven, 155-161, 316, 324 
 
 Hebrews, Epistle to, 93 
 
 Hell-fire, 215, 268,381 
 
 Herod the Tetrarch, 5, 43, 58, 141, 177-180, i8S, 191, 197, 338 
 
 Herodians, 278. 
 
 Holy Spirit. See Spirit of God 
 
 Honour to parents, 182. See Family-life 
 
 Hosea, 198, 201, 262 
 
 House where Jesus lived, 109, 374 
 
 Human nature of Jesus real, 10, 347-350 
 
 Humility, 45, 345 
 
 Hunger, 63, 187. Spiritual hunger, see Food 
 
 Ideas of Jesus, 43, 55, 65, 86-100 
 Immortality, 99, 283, 312. See Resurrection 
 Impression made by Jesus, 21, 344, 356, 358 
 Incarnation, 27, 366, 367, 370 
 Infancy-narratives. See Birth-narratives 
 Intellectual life of Jesus, 35-37, 351 
 Irenaeus, 2-3, 7 
 Isaac. See Abraham 
 Isaiah, 54, 122, 168, 197 
 
 Jacob. See Abraham 
 Jairus's daughter, 165 
 
 James the Apostle, the greater, general account of, 140-141 ; also 67, 
 224, 232, 262 
 
 ames the son of Alpheus, 145 
 
 eremiah, 43 
 
 ericho, 223, 226, 233 
 
 erusalem, resolve to go to, 198 ; arrival at, 235 ; apostrophe of, 313 
 
 ohn the Apostle, general account of, 141-143; also 67, 213, 224, 232, 
 
 234, 262 
 
 John the Baptist, intercourse of Jesus with, 42-59, 78; fate of, 59, 178 ; 
 question of influence on Jesus, 54-58 ; work of, 71, 266 ; message 
 from, &c., 173, 174; Jesus going back to, 244, 245 
 
 ohn, Gospel of, 3, 6-7, 16, 18-20, 26, 47, 53, 67, 237, 378, 381, 383-391 
 
 ohn " the Elder," 2 
 
 onas, 153 
 
 ordan, 42, 221, 245 
 
 oseph, 32, 39, 373 
 
 oseph of Arimathea, 280 
 
 osephus, the historian, 42, 58, 82, 103 
 
 udas the brother of James, 145 
 
 udas Iscariot, 146, 305, 314, 335 
 
 ude, Epistle of, 145-146 
 
 Kindness, 135. See Care 
 
 King, 179, margin, 338, 358, 390 
 
 Kingdom of God, 88-92, 154-161, 205, 376 ; within, 265 
 
 Kingdom of Heaven, 55, 155-161, 376 
 
400 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Lamb of God, 51 
 Lame, the, 174, 273 
 Law, the, 26, 93, 250 
 Lazarus, 297-307 
 Lebbeus. See Judas 
 Leper, Lepers, 106, 174 
 Levi, 118, 144, 375. See Matthew 
 Lifelikeness, criterion, 25 
 Logos, 27, 192, 369, 385 
 Lord's Prayer, 219 
 Lord's Supper, 192, 318 
 Love of God, 148. See Care of God 
 
 Love to others, as general principle, see Care ; to neighbours, 270, to 
 enemies, 148, from disciples to one another, 324; in i Jn., 
 
 395 
 Luke, Gospel of, 2-3, 7-14, 17, 26 
 
 Machaerus, 59, 178 
 
 Manger, 84 
 
 Manna, 192 
 
 Manner of Jesus's preaching, 101, 105 
 
 Mansions beyond, 341 
 
 Mark, Gospel of, 2, 3, 7-14, 25 
 
 Marriage, 226-228, 378 ; figurative, 122-124 
 
 Martha, 235, 241, 296-307 
 
 Mary, mother of Jesus, 32, 33, 154, 167, 340 
 
 Mary Magdalene, 167 
 
 Mary, sister of Lazarus, 297-307 
 
 Master, 229, 251, 323 
 
 Matthew, Gospel of, 2-3, 7-14, 25 
 
 Matthew the Apostle, 2, 144, 375. See Levi 
 
 Mercy, 97, 130, 148, 269 
 
 Messiah, generally expected, 36, 43 ; the Baptist in relation to, 43, 56- 
 58- 173; Jesus hailed as, 199; question of disciples on, 209; 
 entry as, 235 ; discussion regarding, 276-278 ; Jesus acknowledges 
 himself as, 337 ; his relation to the idea of, 57, 77, 174, 357 
 
 Miracles, 102-105, 192, 361 
 
 Missionary journey, 163-165 
 
 Moses, 182, 206, 250, 257, 281, 304 
 
 Mount, 93-94, 137. See Prayer 
 
 Naaman, 169 
 
 Nain, 376 
 
 Nathaniel, 233-235 
 
 Nazareth, 32, 42, 79-80, 153, 167-172, 224, 233, 377, 392 
 
 New commandment, 322 
 
 Nicodemus, 271, 279, 280 
 
 Nineveh, 153 
 
 Old Testament, 25, 197 
 Olives, Mount of, 332 
 Oral Tradition, 14 
 Outward life of Jesus, 38, 109 
 Overruling of God, 101, 231 
 
 Palsy, the sick of the, 113 
 Papias, 2, 7 
 
INDEX. 4OI 
 
 Parables, 101, 154, 254-256, 265-267 ; in particular, as follows: 
 Creditor and debtor, 166 Pharisee and Publican, 256 
 
 Fig-tree (unfruitful), 242 
 Fig-tree (growing), 265 
 
 Pounds. See Talents 
 Prodigal Son, 216, 256 
 
 Fish-net, 154, 159, 161 Rich Man, 218 
 
 Good Samaritan, 223, 270, 286, j Rich Man and Lazarus, 302-304 
 
 298 
 
 Husbandmen, 254 
 Judge and Widow, 256 
 
 Rock and Sand, 218 
 Seed in secret, 154 
 Sheep and goats, 267, 379 
 
 Leaven, 154, 204 ! Sower, 154, 348 
 
 Lost Piece of Money, 216 
 Lost Sheep, 216 
 Marriage Supper, 255 
 Master and servant, 217 
 Mustard-seed, 154 
 
 Talents, 267 
 Tares, 159, 160 
 Two Sons, 256 
 Vineyard, 232 
 Virgins, 267, 268 
 
 Pearl, 154, 174 , Watchmen, 266 
 
 Passover, 208, 223, 309 
 
 Paul, 3, 57, 139, 310, 370, 391 
 
 Peace of Jesus, 39-40, 175, 329 
 
 Pentecost, 328 
 
 Persecution, 249, 327 
 
 Peter, general account of, 139-140 ; testimony of, 3, 14 ; first acquaint- 
 ance with Jesus, 48-51, 67 ; his house, 81, 86, 109 ; his devotion to 
 Jesus, 67, 106, 140, 332, 333, 335 ; his naming Jesus the Messiah, 
 199 ; Jesus's rebuke of, 201 ; his denial at the Trial, 337 ; also 231, 
 262, 323 
 
 Pharisees, 5, 36, no, 188, 226, 250, 278, and incidentally elsewhere 
 
 Philip, general account of, 143 ; also 233, 309, 319 
 
 Pilate, 273, 337-340 
 
 Plato, 283 
 
 Polemical element in teaching, 100, 247 
 
 Poor, the, 96, 148, 168, 174 
 
 Power of Jesus's personality, 25, 130-135, 206, 232 
 
 Prayer, 35, 106, 138, 211, 219, 328, 330 
 
 Priest, 358. See Chief Priests 
 
 Promise, 40, 118 
 
 Prophet, 141, 171, 244, 347, 349, 358 
 
 Proselytising, 213, 249 
 
 Protestantism, 23 
 
 Psalms, 64, 138, 255, 277, 285, 359 
 
 Publicans, 118-120, 233-235, 375 
 
 Purity of Jesus, 25, 52, 54, 97, 134-135 
 
 Queen of Sheba, 153 
 
 Reign of God, 90-91, 101, 160; cp. 95 ff 
 
 Repentance, 44-45, 87. See Parables 
 
 Reserve, 34 
 
 Respect. See Reverence 
 
 Rest, See Peace 
 
 Resurrection, in general, 140, 145, 166, 253, 281-284, 301, 302 ; personal, 
 
 99. 34i. 342; bodily, 161, 311 
 Retreats, 61-75, 179-185, 293-300 
 
 Revelation, idea of, applied to life of Jesus, 363-370, 380 
 Revelation, book of, 157, 395 
 Reverence, or respect, in Jesus, 34, 45, 72 
 Rich young man, incident, 229-231, 378 
 
 26 
 
402 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT. 
 
 Sabbath, 124-130 
 Sacrifice, 231 
 Sadducees, 36, 189, 281 
 Samaria, 69, 72-74, 222-224 
 Satan, 64, 177, 201 
 
 Sayings of Jesus, notable (See also under " Parables " and under names 
 of subjects) : 
 
 Blaspheming the Holy Spirit, 152 
 
 Blessed is he that cometh, &c., 285 
 
 Bramble. See Fruits (below) 
 
 Bread from heaven. See Food 
 
 Bride and Bridegroom, 121-124. Cp. 53-54 
 
 Caesar, 279 
 
 Camel, 230 
 
 Candle, 41, 43, 147, 292 
 
 Cock-crow, 332 
 
 Come unto me, 39, 175 
 
 Converted, 45, 213, 378 
 
 Corn of wheat, 310-312 
 
 Cup, 317, 335, 336, 348 ; of cold water, 215 
 
 Darkness, 335 
 
 Dead bury their dead, 224 
 
 Destroy temple, 262 
 
 Dogs, cast unto the, 1 83 
 
 Doves and serpents, 326 
 
 Eagles, 263 
 
 Fox, or jackal, 180, 199, 291, 338 
 
 Foxes, 226 
 
 Friend, 219 
 
 Fruits, 31, 55-56, 152, 200, 278 
 
 Galileans, 273 
 
 Generation of vipers, 55 
 
 Hairs numbered, 96, 173 
 
 Harvest, 71, 83, 176 
 
 House, 75, 218 
 
 Judge not, 33-34, 148 
 
 King, 218 
 
 Last first, 232 
 
 Leaven, 188, 191, 197 
 
 Light, 147, 385. See Candle 
 
 Lightening, 177 
 
 Lose one's own soul, 202, 217 
 
 Mansions beyond, 329 
 
 Meat to eat. See Food 
 
 Millstone, 215 
 
 Offences, 214-215 
 
 Plough, 225 
 
 Prison, 269 
 
 Prophet, 215; in his own country, 80, 168, 348 
 
 Rock, 139, 200 
 
 Salt, 147, 216 
 
 Save one's life, 202 
 
 Save the lost, 216, 224, 235 
 
 Sheep and shepherd, 130, 181, 183, 216, 286, 288, 326, 332, 333 
 
 Sowing and reaping, 72, 348 
 
 Sparrows, 173 
 
INDEX. 403 
 
 Sayings of Jesus, continued : 
 
 Tower, 218 
 
 Treasures in heaven, 75, 99, 218 
 
 Two in the field, 264 
 
 Vine and vineyard, 232, 316-317 
 
 Works, 297. See Fruits 
 
 Will of God, do the, 319 
 
 Wisdom, children of, 54-55, 174 
 
 Yoke, 75. See " Come unto me " 
 
 Scribes, specially, 5, no, 243, 250, 290; from Jerusalem, 118, 152, 182 
 Scribe, the earnest, 269, 271, 275, 322, 391-395 
 Scriptures, 36, 127, 277, 281, 297. See Old Testament 
 Sea of Galilee, 50, 162. See also Gennesaret, Lake of 
 Second Advent, 203-205 
 Seed-imagery, 154, 158, 159, 204, 311 
 Self-consciousness of Jesus, 40, 41, 47 
 Sermon on the Mount, 12, 26, 50, 92-99, 146-149, 218 
 Sermon on the Plain, 12, 50, 92-99, 147-149 
 Seventy, sending of, 177 
 Sign, 153, 192-195 
 Siloam, 274 
 
 Simon Peter. See Peter 
 Simon the leper, 307 
 Simon Zelotes, 146 
 Simon's wife's mother, 101-104 
 Sin, 97, 120, 135, 166, 217, 272 
 Sisters of Jesus, 32, 167 
 Socrates, 283 
 Solomon, 153 
 Son of God, 164, 206, 297 
 Son of man, 36, 57, 77, 128, 200, 203, 264, 285 
 Soul, 135, 202, 216, 217, 282 
 Spirit of God, 46, 152, 328, 368 
 Stammering man, 184 
 Sternness, in later ministry, 201, 332 
 Stones thrown at Jesus, 297, 299 
 Storm and calm, 162 
 
 Subjective canons, their legitimate use, 20-23 
 Suffering, Jesus's views of, 113, 273 
 Sufferings of Jesus, 13, 200, 289 
 Supernatural, 85, 359, 361, 366 
 Supper at Bethany, 306 
 Swine, narrative, 164 
 Sympathy of Jesus. See Compassion 
 Synagogue, 86, 165, 327 
 Syrophenician woman, 183, 377 
 
 Tabernacles, feast of, 172, 208 
 
 Tax, 220 
 
 Temple, boyhood incident, 30, 33; action in, 238, 243; teaching at, 
 
 240 ; disciples admiring, 261 
 Temptation, the, 62-66, 69, 70, 190, 374 
 Thaddeus. See Judas 
 Thirst (spiritual). See Drink 
 Thomas, 145, 299 
 Time, in regard to ministry, 42, 82, 108, 171, 209, 309, 379, 386-389 
 
404 THE SAVIOUR IN THE NEWER LIGHT 
 
 Tradition of the elders, 182 
 Transfiguration, the, 205-206 
 'Trial, 13, 337-340 
 
 Trinity, doctrine of the, 5, in, 367, 370, 382, 385 
 Truth, 279, 338, 353-356, 395 
 Tubingen School, 25 
 Tyre and Sidon, 137, 184 
 
 Unitarianism, 370 
 
 Value of man, 214, 282-284 
 
 Washing, ceremonial, 182 
 
 Water into wine, 122-123 
 
 Weeping of Jesus, 302 
 
 Widow's mite, 271 
 
 Wilderness, 43, 62, 299 
 
 Wine, 121-123, 3 J 6-3i8 
 
 Wisdom, book of, 385 
 
 Wisdom of Jesus, 58 
 
 Woes, passages, 148, 174, 248 
 
 Woman of Samaria, 72-75 
 
 Woman having " issue of blood," 166 
 
 Woman, " which was a sinner," 166 
 
 Woman "taken in adultery," 272 
 
 Women following Jesus, 167, 211, 221, 340 
 
 Word. See Logos 
 
 Works of Jesus. See Healing ministry 
 
 Worship rendered to Jesus, 167, 206, 358 
 
 Zacchaeus, 233-235 
 Zealots, 146 
 Zebidee, 140, 141, 375 
 
 or THE 
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