. HHttiiS;:; Slltlll OF CONGRESS JESUS: His Life and Work AS NARRATED BY THE FOUR EVANGELISTS By HOWARD CROSBY NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 4 Bond Street, Baltimore : 54 Lexington Street 1871 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871), by tlw UNIVERSITY PUBLISHINa COMPANY, In the Ofrioe of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington ALVOKD, FEINTEE. TO HENRY DRISLER, LL.D., PIMFESKCtR IN COLUMBIA COU.KGK, WHOSE LARGE AND VARIED LEARNING WAITS UPON A SINCERE FAITH IN THE LIFE AND DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. PREFACE, Titk life of Jesus is the historic basis of Christianity. That life (including tlie death and resurrection) as explained by the apostles is the doctrinal basis of Christianity. The words of Paul may stand as a motto for all the epistolary teaching of the New Testament : — " Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand ; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory (el xarexsrs) what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all, that which T also received, how that Christ died for our sins accord ing to the Scriptures ; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. xv. 1-4). The public career of Jesus began with the announcement that he was the sacrificial Lamb for the world's sin. The sacrifice was, of course, the pivotal fact of such a career The history preceding the sacrifice is the manifestation of the victim, that the world may see and know him. The history succeeding the sacrifice is the manifestation of tlie victory achieved, the intended work wrought. A.s the life of Jesus is thus -both the historic and doctrinal basis of Christi anity, the Church of Christ is ever to be purified or preserved in purity by a constant recurrence to that life. Everything in doctrine or practice is to be brought to this touchstone, and to stand or fall by this test. Everything that is out of harmony with the life of Jesus, as explained by the Baptist and the Apostles, is abnormal in Christianity. Neither philosophy nor authority can palliate the incongruity. When Jesus ascended, man was thrown back upon his completed earthly life as the gospel to be preached pnd received, until the same Jesus should return in like manner as he ascended. The truth was com plete. Man's search into this truth must be a search into the great fact as given us, and not an independent appeal to consciousness or reason. Hence the study of the life of Jesus from his birth to his ascension is the appropriate occupation of the Church. Here is the only field open for legitimate discovery in a true theology. For these reasons no apology need be offered fo* multiplying the histories of the life of Jesus. The many such histories that this age has pro duced are significant of a healthy condition of the Christian heart, and though some of the most prominent of these are from the pens of skeptics and scorners, " notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached," and the attention of men is turned in the right direction. Most of the books 6 PREFACE which have been written on the life of Christ have been largely disquisitional. These have the advantage of bringing forth a special view of Jesus' work or word with greater freshness and in appropriate connections, but they also have the disadvantage of exalting the special doctrine on which the writer dwells beyond its comparative importance. The proportions of truth are not duly maintained. It has, therefore, been my desire in the following pages to let the life of Jesus speak for itself, to take the narratives of the evangelists and make one out of the four, only adding such matter as a knowledge of the Greek language and Pales tine topography might suggest. In this way I have endeavored to fill out the pictures given us by the sacred writers, without the aid of mere fancy, and never to go beyond the limit that the text warrants. In other words', I have prepared a paraphrase and harmony of the four evangelists. It has become common in some quarters to scout the idea of a harmony. I could never understand the ground of this position, unless it be in the falsity of the sacred writers. If they have given us historic truth, then their histories certainly can be harmonized. Some details may not find their exact niche in the chro nology, but the great outlines will arrange themselves in coincidence. Those who argue against a harmony sometimes acknowledge their views of evangel istic errors. I have never been moved by their arguments from believing that they do not make the proper allowance for the many sides of one fact. Ten thousand years hence a history may be preserved which will speak of a Corsi- can named Bonaparte astonishing Europe by the victory of Marengo, and sitting, with his wife Josephine, on the throne of France. Another history will tell of a Frenchman named Napoleon, whose wife was the Austrian archduchess, Marie-Louise, who made his fame by the battle of Austerlitz, and ruled with despotic sway over Italy, Germany, Holland, and France. The criticism which finds discrepancies in the four gospels could never reconcile these two histories of the same emperor. It is acknowledged by all that the evangelists do not pursue a chronological order. Very few historians do. Often a sequel, remote in time, must be made to follow its principal fact immediately in the narrative, and often similar occur rences must be grouped to illustrate an important principle. I cannot hold with those who consider Luke's order of time the most exact. The ¦Kahetfis of the third verse has no necessary reference to time. If we look at the manner in which this evangelist groups our Lord's teachings, we can sec ample reason for the use of the word, or, if we prefer to consider the reference to time, we can find in the account of the birth and youth of Jesus, preceding his ministry, a sufficient warrant for the term. Many incidents in the life of Jesus, as we have said, cannot be placed chronologically; others we can put in chronological proximity, but are at a loss as to priority. For example, Matthew tells us that on the same day that Jesus spoke to the multitude of his mother and brethren, he gave the parable of the sower; but he records the former first (chaps xii., xiii.), while Luke gives the latter first, and then adds, " Then came to him his mother and his brethren," etc., where the " then" may be exact, and PREFACE. 7 mean " after," or may be general, and mean " about that time," or " on thai day," (chap. viii.). It seems impossible, therefore, to lay down any rule of order which will shut us up to the chronology of any one of the evangelists. And yet, while this is so, it seems more likely that the order of the two evangelists, Matthew and Mark (who generally agree), will furnish us with a better chronological warp on which to fill out the narrative than that of the later writer, Luke, who was not an eye-witness, as Matthew was, and whose history more frequently bears the inward marks of events and teachings grouped against the order of time. By this we do not assert Matthew's exactness by any means. Chrono- ' logical order in details seems to have been of no importance in the eyes of any of the writers. The healing of Simon's mother-in-law is manifestly out of place in Matthew and right in Luke. Here Mark is with Luke. But we can not in this preface enter upon the details* which bring us to the general con clusion, that while there is no order of time rigidly observed by any evangelist, yet the order in Matthew and Mark is more apt to be the true order than that in Luke. There is another question of more importance to be touched here. If we had only the synoptic gospels, we should certainly recognize but one journey of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, that mentioned in Matthew, xix. 1 ; Mark, x. 1 ; and Luke, ix. 51-56, a harmony of which three passages would make Jesus and his apostles to have journeyed through Samaria to Judea and then to have crossed over into Perea. This was evidently the journey, five or six months preceding his crucifixion, to the Feast of Tabernacles, mentioned by John (chap. vii. 10). But John mentions two other journeys from Galilee to Jerusa lem preceding this, the first in chap. ii. 13, the second in chap. v. 1. The first, he states, was on the occasion of a Passover, and the second on the occasion of " a Feast of the Jews." Besides this, John mentions (chap. vi. 4) a Passover to which Jesus did not go, because of the personal danger to which he would be subject (cf. chap. vii. 1). It is usually supposed that the first Passover of John was that which immediately succeeded our Lord's baptism, that the " Feast of the Jews" was the next Passover, a year after, and that the Passover to which Jesus did not go was the third Passover of his ministry. Hence it is argued that he was crucified at the fourth Passover, and hence his ministry extended over three years. Some, however, hold that his ministry was only one year long, that the first Passover of John was (as in the other view) that which immediately succeeded our Lord's baptism, that " the Feast of the Jews" was the succeeding Pentecost, that the Passover to which Jesus did not go was not a Passover but the Feast of Tabernacles again mentioned in chap. vii. 2, and that he did eventually go secretly to this. Browne argues zealously for this view from grounds of general chronology, as he wishes to put the beginning of our * The harmony in its details has been carefully arranged according to my view of the internal evidence, but any statement of particulars regarding my reasons would be tedious and unprofit able. Where the order is a matter of moment and a change in the usual view has been made. the reasons have been given in the work. 8 PREFACE. Lord's ministry in a.d. 28 (fifteenth of Tiberius ; Luke iii. 1), the crucifixion taking place in a.d. 29.* But this theory involves, besides other difficulties, the violent excision of the word " passover" from the text of John, vi. 4, which cannot be justified. We are, therefore, required by John's gospel to recognize two years of ministry, and it will depend on the interpretation of the "Feast of the Jews," in John, v. 1, whether we make it two years or three. For my own part, I believe three years' time is more in accordance with the amount of incident and the growth of sen timent that we find recorded in the evangelists, quite apart from the significance .of the number three and the age thirty-three. We find, then, that as John wished especially to record what happened in Jerusalem, he had occasion to speak of the diff'erent journeys which Jesus made thithei, while the other evangelists, chiefly engrossed with his Galilean life and teachings, omit all mention of his Jerusalem visit, except that last one, at which the great sacrifice was offered up. The synoptic writers show Jesus as the man of Galilee, with his humanity shining forth toward the Gentiles. It is a broad exoteric view they furnish. But John shows Jesus as the true temple at Jerusa lem, with the mystery of his divinity dwelling among men — among a chosen people. This is the esoteric view. The two views must be combined before we can understand aright the life of Jesus. In Galilee the great principles of the heavenly kingdom are promulgated. There the sermon on the mount is preached. But in Jerusalem the depths of spiritual life are opened, aud there he gathers up his disciples into the mysterious prayer of the Son to the Father. It was necessary that a long time should elapse before John's esoteric gospel could be received by the Church. In other words, the Church, after its founda tion, had to be shaken by Judaizing dissension and outward persecution before it could reach the higher view of the life of Jesns which the fourth gospel con veys. We may believe that quite early in the apostolic history it was found necessary to carry from church to church the narrative of the life of Jesus, in order to give correct form to the growth of each church, left, as almost each church was, to the eldership-supervision of men who had never seen our Lord, and receiving only an occasional visit from an apostolic or evangelic eye-witness. Matthew's f gospel, which was without doubt the first written, may have been * The Ordo tlceclorum of the Rev. Henry Browne, Principal of the Diocesan College, Chiches ter (184 1), is an elaborate and valuable treatise on Biblical chronology. In the question be'bre us he supposes that the heading of Luke's third chapter contains the date, not of the mission of John the Baptist, but of the year of our Lord's ministry. He then stales that the fifteenlh year of Tiberius began 19th August, a.d. 28. As one-half of the year 28 thus belonged to the fifteenth Tiberius (or, according to Jewish reckoning, nearly the whole), the Passover of a.t>. 28 could be considered as belonging to the fifteenth Tiberius, about which time Jesus began hi~ ministry (John, ii. 13). It seems better to begin our Lord's ministry in a.d. 26', and to consider the date in Luke. iii. 1, as referring not to the beginning of John's ministry, but his appearance at Jordan a mouth or so before the Passover of that year. This would be Tiberius's fifteenth year, counting from his joint sovereignty with Augustus, if that began at his triumph in a.d. 12. 1- Whether Matthew ever wrote his gospel in Hebrew, according to Papias, seems n matter cf great uncertainty. If Roberts's view of the Greek-speaking habits of Palestine in our Saviour's PREFACE. 9 in circulation as early as the year 45. Although Paul makes no allusion to it yet his references to the knowledge of the churches, to whom he writes, with regard to our Lord, are more explicable on the theory of their possessing a written gospel than the contrary. Such allusions, for example, as that in Phil. ii. 6-8, appear not as new instructions, but reference to well-known and long- held truths. It is true that this, being one of the later epistles, has no special weight with regard to the early date of Matthew's gospel, but it does illustrate the general fact of Paul's allusions to Jesus, as if the details of his career were well known by his readers. It may be supposed, however, that the apostle, at Thessalonica, for example, where he spent a fortnight, gave orally a gospel nar rative ; but if he had done this, surely the church would have copied it out, and we should have had a multiplication of apostolic gospels. It seems much better to refer, 1 Thess. i. 5-8, to an oral commitment of a written gospel to their care and study, which they had heartily accepted. The same argument which would make a written gospel necessary at Thessalonica in 52, would require it at Iconium in 45* Mark's gospel may have been prepared contemporaneously for the same object, for it is hardly probable that a narrative so very similar to that of Matthew would have been prepared after Matthew's gospel was in full circulation. Rather would the copies of Matthew's have been multiplied for the demand. The fact that we have no explicit proof of either of these gospels existing at this early dale is of course no argument against so reasonable a pre sumption. We might expect, d priori, to lack proof of their existence for the first fifty years. Luke's gospel takes a new view of Christ's life. In one sense it takes the same view with Matthew's and Mark's, and, with those, is called! synoptic. But while the two former ever combine the human and the divine in, Jesus, Luke rests more entirely in the human. He is thus the opposite of John, who enters into the inner Deity of Jesus. Luke and John are the developments, on either side, of both Matthew and Mark. And yet we find that this is not to be pressed too strictly. For example, the passage in Matt. xi. 27, " All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father ; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him," is perfectly Johannean in its style, and yet Luke has it, while John has it not (Luke, x. 22). We may put the date of Luke's gospel as late as the time of Paul's imprison ment at Rome (a.d. 63), and that of John's toward the close of that evangelist's time be trne. a Hebrew or Aramaic gospel would hardly have been needed. Josephus' preface to his Antiquities (§ 2) is quoted against the Greek-speaking theory, but his language may mean that be counted it a formidable task to translate the Hebrew of the Old Testament into classical Greek. This he might say. while Helenistic Greek had been a second mother-tongue to him. He does not say "into another language," but " tli dXXoSaTtr';r r/ulv uai ^ivjjv ftiaXe'xrov 6vvri'Si?.-ia.Y?' * Some of the more ancient fathers, Theophylact for instance, put, Matthew's gospel as far hack as a.d. 37. I see nothing improbable in this. The common reference of Mark's gospel to a late date (a.d. 62, or even a.d. 80) seems to rest simply on a desire to make it Peter's gospel through Mark, as Luke's is supposed to be Paul's gospel through Luke. Tbe ground of the theory is fanciful, but even if true, does not necessarily demand the late date. 10 PREFACE. long life (a.d. 98). Such are the four clear sources of the Church's historic knowledge of Christ. The Church has never sought any other, but has indig nantly rejected every attempt made by pious romancists to fill up the lacunae in the precious story. From the beginning these four gospels were holy and divine, and for man to attempt to improve or supplement them, was for Uzzah to steady the ark of God. She has been conscious of their heavenly inspiration from the start, and never condescended to argue it except as the ignorance and falsehood of enemies made it necessary to protect weak and easily deluded minds. The life of the Church has rested calmly upon this basis of " the prophets (Mark and Luke) and apostles (Matthew and John), Jesus Christ being himself the chief corner-stone." The great need of the Church to-day is a careful study of these four gospels, not so much the perusal of dissertations on the character of the gospels and the Messiah portrayed in them, as the actual examination of the sacred Word itself. Treatises are written on the life of Jesus by many who only skim over the his tory to gain materials for their favorite theories, and one of these, which lately made a great stir in the world, betrayed, with a show of learning and philosophy, a lamentable ignorance of the facts of the narrative, and a complete misunder standing of Old Testament expressions found in the New. German rationalistic critics have made themselves notorious in this nineteenth century for their destructive efforts against the gospels pure and simple. The true defence of the mind against their evil work is in the careful study of the sacred text. Before such a study the soul can only laugh at the folly of the whole crew, from Bruno Bauer, with his extreme charge of imposture through Paulus and F. Ch. Baur, to Strauss, with his elaborated and learned life-work of childishness. These and the fanciful Frenchman, Renan, with his Parisian romance on the life of Jesus, suited to the French theatres, are to be treated as we should treat a writer who should insist that the story of the Pilgrim Fathers was a mythical preface, placed before American history by later necessities (this is the Strauss idea), or was an outgrowth poetical and legendary from a few unimportant facts (this is the Renan idea). Sober consideration of such folly is only necessary to shelter weak minds, who do not study the Scriptures, from the evil influence. No one who carefully reads the gospels can be affected for a moment by such wild criticism. It is to promote the study of the gospels that I have written this volume. I desire it to be a, book which may suggest a continual reference to the sacred text, and which may make, by any explanations it may offer, the study of that text the more fascinating and fruitful. I have not sought to be elegant or eloquent, but to be careful and accurate, and yet I know I must have made many mistakes to try the forbearance of my readers. May the Spirit, who has given us tho priceless volume of Gospel Story, use this feeble attempt to commend its study to the glory of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ! CONTENTS. PAGE Preface 5 List of Illustrations 13 CHAPTER I. The Birth of Jesus 15 II. The Threefold Witness 30 III. The Preparation 4.5 IV. The Baptism and Fasting 60 V. The Temptation and Eeturn to Galilee 77 VI. The Three Public Manifestations, to wit : in Gali lee, in Judea, and in Samaria 90 VII. The Opening of the Full Ministry 110 VIII. The Institution of the Apostleship, and the first contact of the Messiah with the Gentiles 139 IX. The Conqueror of Death and of the Pharisees . . . 152 X. Teaches his Disciples — Storm — Maniacs of Gadara — Levi's Feast — Jairus, etc 166 XI. Second Rejection at Nazareth — Bethesda Cure — Sonship 189 XII. Mission and Instructions of the Twelve 200 XIII. John the Baptist's relation to Christ — Rebuke of the cities of Galilee — At Simon's House 210 XIV. The Feeding of the Five Thousand, and its Inter pretation 224 XV. Temporary Withdrawal from Galilee 244 XVI. Csesarea Philippi — Transfiguration 257 XVII. The Last Days in Galilee 274 XVIII. Feast of Tabernacles 287 12 LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. CHAPTEB PAGE XIX. From the Feast of Tabernacles to the Feast of the Dedication 302 XX. Feast of the Dedication — Raising of Lazarus 324 XXI. Last Retirement from Jerusalem 334 XXII. The Going up to Jerusalem 367 XXIII. The Barren Fig-Tree and Three Parables against the Pharisees 386 XXIV. The Final Overthrow of the Pharisees, with Warn ings and Denunciations 398 XXV. Jesus tells his Disciples of the " Last Times" 415 XXVI. The Lord's Supper 427 XXVII. Last Interview with the Disciples — Gethsemane.. 444 XXVIII. The Arrest and Trial 470 XXIX. The Crucifixion 489 XXX. The Resurrection 503 Harmony of the Gospels 533 Explanatory Notes on the Illustrations 535 Index LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. PAGE 1. Frontispiece on Steel. Head of Jesus. 2. Map of Palestine (opposite Frontispiece) . 3. Virgin Fountain at Nazareth, 15 4. Map of the Roman Empire, .17 5. Ain Karim, .... 23 6. Bethlehem, .... 25 7. Figures in the Temple, 34 8. The Wise Men by Night, .36 9. In Egypt, _ 39 . 0. Nazareth, .... 41 . 1. Plain of Mukhna, 51 2. Carpenter, . 56 .3. Succoth, 61 /'"¦""-*' ^Jk LIST OF ENGRAVINGS. l\ , „ i"3m fl -1 , V->^'' &-"¦ i J'- , F4P8 '¦ 14. Figure in the Abba, T^^ t -i '^.j%fl' 15. Mount Sinai, fe 'A^'.^, Uft !; 16. The Wilderness, \>'^. . * . *T8t''' 17. Bethany beyond Jordan, . 'gi, 18. Cana of Galilee, " . .gg 19. Kefr Kenna, ¦-¦*. 95 20. Ford of the Jordan, . 103 21. Jacob's Well, 107 22. Tell Hum Ruins, .111 23. Ships, ... .114 24. Women, 118 25. Jebel Kaukab, 123 26. Hazur, 132 27. Map of Nazareth, .... 136 28. Tell Hum, ... 137 29. Bethsaida of Galilee, 146 30. The Centurion, ... 150 31. Nain and Jebel Duhy, ..... . 154 32. A Divan, 183 33. Wheat-head, . . . . 171 34. Stoem on the Sea of Galilee, . . 177 35. An Oriental Girl, 186 36. The Virgin Fountain 192 37. Figure Reading, . 197 38. Gennesaret, ... 205 39. Paneas : The Village, . 212 * 40. Ruin at Chorazin, . , 216 41. The Plow, .... 219 42. John's Prison. Machaerus 225 43. Coin : Penny, . . 231 14. Bethsaida beyond Jordan, . 233 45. The Fig Fountain, . . 241 46. Sidon, . . . 247 47. Pella, 251 48. Huleh Plain and Marsh, 259 49. Winnowing, 264 50 Mount Hermon, 267 51 . Paneas : Source of the Jordan, 272 52. Coin : Stater, 276 53. Paneas : The Castle, 278 54. Ruin at Samaria, . . 285 55. Plan of Mount Moriah, . . ... . 288 56. A Shepherd's Booth, . . 293 57. Ain Mellalah, ... 298 58. Mary of Magdala, 303 59. The Blind Beggar, 310 60. The Way to Jericho, 317 61. Bethany, 324 62. Mahanaim : The Pool, 327 63. Ephraim. Ophrah, 334 14 64.65.66.67.68.69.70.71.72. 73.74. 75.76.77. 78.79. 80. 81. 82. 83.84.85. 86. 87.88. 89.90.91. 92. 93. 94. 95. 96.97.98.99. 100.101. 102.103. LIST OF ENGRA VINGS. Bethel, .... The Lost Sheep, A Scribe Writing, . A Little Child, Lord of the Vineyard, Elisha's Fountain, Site of Jericho, Coin: Silver Shekel, . Street Scene in Jerusalem, . Samaria — The Hill, Farmers Lying in Wait, . Coin. Antiochus the Great, Jerusalem from Bethphage, . Coins : Mite and Lepton, Jews' Wailing Place, Ancient Lamp, Oil Jug, Coin : Antiochus Epiphanes, Diagram of Passion Week, Washing Feet, Coin : Judas Money, . Kidron Valley, Vine and Branches, . Burning Sticks and Grass, . Door of Synagogue in Ruins, Gethsemane, . ... Zion : The David Mosk, . Flowers from Palestine, Map of Jerusalem, Tiberias, , SpinaChristi — Thorn-Tree, Coin : Judas Money. Shekel, View of Mount Moriah from Zion, Broken Door of Sepulchre, Plan of the Tomb of the Kings, Emmaus A Shepherd, By the Sea, Mount Tabor, .... Olivet, PAGE . 337 345 . 349 359 . 365370 . 373378 . 383390 . 393 399 . 407 410 . 415423 . 423 425 . 430 434 . 438445 . 450 451 . 455461 . 467469 . 473 480 . 484 490 . 492 497 . 501507 . 519522 . 523 529 JESUS: HIS LIFE AND WORK. VIRGIN S FOUNTAIN, NAZAKETH. CHAPTER I. THE BIRTH OF JESUS. The voice of God's mercy was heard so soon as man fell into sin. Its first utterance implied the coming of the God-man, but that coming was to be delayed until the race should learn by time the wretchedness of sin and the helplessness of man, and thus be prepared tc understand the character of the promised Deliverer. Again and again God selected a special family and line to be the curators of his promises, hedging them about 16 THE BLRTH OF JESUS. with peculiar care for this high purpose amid the prevail ing iniquity, and at last in the Jewish law and ritual elab orated this guardianship of the holy oracles. But even here the stubborn and rebellious heart of man abused its privileges, and turned the truth of God into a lie. But while this was the general treatment of the Divine mercy and its promises, there were souls in all parts of the pre-Christian history who recognized the grace and trusted the word and enjoyed the divine life. Not only the inspired prophets raised up by God to withstand the hardening of religion into formality, but many humble and hidden ones, who in private walks spent their quiet lives, waited hopefully for the salvation of God. In the Jewish nation the expectation of the Messiah was universal, but they had, in spite of prophecy, defined him in their minds as a mere earthly monarch and con queror of world-wide sway, who should hold all nations under the feet of the Jews. In the heathen world the promise had not faded out. Sibylline oracles and popular impressions only echoed one another, in weak tones, it is true, but in outline suffi ciently clear to show the relationship between the pagan and Judaic anticipations. The "fullness of time" was marked by a very general sentiment (among Jews and Gentiles) that the Coming One was near at hand. It is impossible to find the sentiment among the Gentiles of any defined form, or as derived from any clear source ; THE BIRTH OF JESUS. 17 but we cannot deny that the restlessness of expectation marked the Augustan period of Rome.* And as men's minds, in experience and expectation, were prepared for the great event, so was the condition of the world ordered for the same end. The successive empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Macedon, had only made the world ready for the Roman yoke, and the idea of universal empire was now for the first time virtually realized. From Britain to the Indies, and from the Caspian to the Canaries, Rome held undisputed sway. * Julius Caesar, and, after his death, Augustus, was regarded as the Rex ven- turus. (Cic Divin. ii. 54. Sueton. Aug. 94.) Cf. the well-known passages of Suetonius and Tacitus, which refer to the coming out of Judea of a monarch to rule the whole world. Also cf. the 4th eclogue of Virgil and the whole literature of the SibylliDP oracles. 9 18 THE BIRTH OF JESUS. The very size of the empire, and the manner in which it had made its accessions, gave it a far more tolerant spirit toward all religions than any of its predecessors possessed. The unity of the government, and that a government of toleration, rendered it easy for a great religious fact to be made known everywhere, and the doctrines based on that fact to be everywhere propagated. Moreover, as never before, since the separation of the nations from the Meso- potamian plain, there was an almost universal language. Not that the various nationalities had abandoned their vernacular tongues, but that a master language had in serted itself everywhere, and overlaid all the world with its presence and influence. It was the language of art and refinement, as well as the language of commerce and travel. It was the minister of literature and of trade. In the eastern portion of the empire it was most complete in its conquests, but in the western portion also it was the dialect of the cultivated, and received higher honors than the Latin itself. This universal language was the Greek, the most perfect tongue ever spoken by man, rich in its roots and inflections, and possessing a nicety of discrimi nation and flexibility of form that could best develope the human mind by best grasping the subjects of thought. By this unity of government, toleration of religions, uni versality of the Greek language, and (we may add) cessa tion of wars, the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled — " Pre pare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert THE BIRTH OF JESUS. 19 a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low : and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain : and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together : for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." — (Isaiah, xl. 3-5.) In the year 750 after the foundation of Rome, twenty- six years had elapsed since, by the death of Mark Antony, Octavianus had become the undisputed master of the Roman world. The constitution of the empire (which had succeeded the republic, with its system and its names largely preserved) was such as to allow many of its out lying provinces to be governed by tributary or subordi nate kings, thus flattering the pride of the subject nations,, while rendering their allegiance equally firm and more tranquil. Judea, Samaria, and Galilee, with Perea and Gaulonitis, the whole of the original land of Israel, was governed by Herod, an Idumean, who had married Mari amne, a daughter of the royal Jewish house of the Mac cabees, and who had, through the favor of Mark Antony, and then of Augustus, received the title of king, The history of the Jews, for more than five centuries previous to the birth of Christ, had been that of a provin cial people. The feeble remnant who returned from Babylon had continued to be the subjects of the Persian monarchy until that monarchy was destroyed by Alex ander. Under Alexander's successors, the Greek kings 20 THE BERTH OF JESUS. of Syria, the Jews were governed with severity, until the excesses of Antiochus Epiphanes, the eighth king of that dynasty, drove them into resistance, under the gallant leadership of Mattathias, a priest, and his sons, one of whom, Judas, received the surname of Maccabeus (or " the hammer") for his valor and success. This revolt began in b.o. 168 and was ended in b. c 143, when the independ ence of the Jews was recognized by the Syrian monarch Demetrius IL, Simon, the brother of Judas Maccabeus, being then the leader of the Jews. Simon's grandson, Aristobulus, first assumed the title of king in b. c. 107, which title continued in the family through two genera tions further, until Herod, through his intrigues, made himself, by Roman power, first governor of Galilee, then tetrarch of Judea, and at last (in b. c* 40) king of Judea. Herod was a monster of cruelty ; but so long as his bloodshed was confined to his private enemies and rivals, especially those of the Maccabean or Asmonean house, the Roman government continued its favors, and increased them for his fidelity to the cause of Rome. In the year of Rome 750, to which we have referred, Herod was an old man of seventy, wasting away under a painful disease. He had reigned thirty-seven years in splendor and crime, and was now dying with undiminished ferocity that seemed to get only inspiration from his pains. A general registration of the inhabitants of Syria had been * It will be borne in mind that the true date of the nativity is b. c. 4. THE BLRTH OF JESUS. 21 ordered by Augustus, and this order included the king dom of Herod. Although the Roman law only took cognizance of the place of a man's residence, and not of his birth, yet the Jewish custom would modify the mode of taking the census in Palestine ; and hence each man would go to his forum originis, or family head-quarters, in order to be enrolled. In accordance with this system, a carpenter of Nazareth in Galilee, whose name was Joseph, proceeded with his young wife Mary to Bethlehem in Judea, and took up their humble quarters in the stable of a public khan or lodging-house. A strange experience had marked this unnoticed couple. The woman's cousin, who was the wife of a priest in Judea, had brought forth a son in her advanced years, regarding whose birth and character an angelic messenger had notified the aged priest, while he was officiating in the temple in the order of his course. The woman herself, the carpenter's wife, had, before her marriage, received a visit of the same angelic being, who had promised her a child in her maidenhood, who should be the long-expected Messiah. On a visit afterward made to her cousin, the priest's wife, before either of the promised children had been born, she was saluted by her in prophetic strain as the mother of the Messiah, to which salutation her own rapt spirit responded in words of inspiration. Full of the deep thoughts that these circumstances had engendered, the Nazarene girl had returned to her home, and under the 22 THE BIRTH OF JESUS. protection of her nominal husband, waited for the event. The decree of Cassar had now brought them to Bethle hem. This was the strange experience locked up in the breasts of those two plain people, as they lodged in the stable of the inn. Although plain people, royal blood flowed in the veins of both. They were the lineal descendants of David ; and this fact had a deep signifi cance in the Jewish mind. These humble people were not gross and vulgar, as the lower classes of large cities often are ; but their origin, their quiet life in Galilee, their con nection with a priestly family, and the general influences of the Jewish faith, produced and nurtured in them a dignity and refinement which would have adorned the highest walks of life. The whole bearing of the interview be tween the cousins, as given by the evangelist Luke, is lofty and graceful ; and the words uttered are replete with beauty and sublimity. Mary's words, under the name of the "Magnificat," have been prized by the Church for nearly nineteen centuries as one of its most precious gems of lyrical thought. The wonderful occurrences of the preceding fifteen months, a renewal of angelic visitation and prophetic in spiration after an interval of ages, the exact determina tion of the Messianic birth, and of the new Elijah who should prepare the way before Him — these things were necessarily known but to a chosen few. The kingdom of God was not to come with observation. It was not to THE BERTH OF JESUS. 23 astonish the senses, but to convince the understanding by its heavenly truth. Its human framework was to be simple and unostentatious. A few witnesses should be hold its necessary marvels, but its own inherent truth should be its passport to the confidence and homage of mankind. The bodily life of the Messiah and the miracu lous accompaniments could necessarily be beheld but by a limited number. By these the Redeemer would lay the AIN KAHIN. historical basis of His work, but by His doctrine and His spirit he would achieve the conquest of the world. At the time of which we are now treating, the special revelation that had been so lately vouchsafed from heaven was prob ably known in its completeness to the old priest Zacha riah and his wife Elizabeth, and to Joseph, the carpenter, and his wife Mary, and to no others. A general rumor, however, prevailed in the hill country of Judea that great 24 THE BIRTH OF JESUS. things were to be expected of Zachariah's child, for, upon the birth of the child, now six months old, the father had declared to his neighbors the facts of the vision and the promise in the temple. Upon the great mass of the Jewish people, of course, these things made no impression whatever. No hint of the story, perhaps, had reached their ears, so that the birth in Bethlehem was as private and unnoticed an event as any of the births that are constantly occurring in humble life. Bethlehem is situated amid scenery of great rural beauty. Though only six miles south of Jerusalem, that great city is entirely shut out from sight by the high ridge on which at present the convent of Mar Elyas rears its white walls and spire. On every side the green hill- slopes skirt the quiet valleys, among which the chalky aspect of the Bethlehem hill is conspicuous. The town crowns the hill, and forms the petty metropolis of the district. Down in the northern valley the tomb of Rachel marks a sad epoch of the patriarchal day. In that little western plain we may see Ruth gleaning behind the reap ers in the fields of Boaz ; and on that further hill-side, among the outcropping rocks, young David, Ruth's great- grandson, at a later day, is tending his father's sheep and cheering the vales with the echoes of his voice and harp. These softer scenes of the recorded history of Israel had been witnessed in this tranquil district, and, with the ex ception of the fortification of the town by RehOboam as a B E T FT T, E H E M . THE BIRTH OF JESUS. 27 precaution against Egyptian invasion, the associations of war are wholly unconnected with the spot. The very name of the place was significant — -" the house of bread" — testifying to the fertility of the surrounding soil, and doubtless providentially indicative of the higher glory that awaited the town where He should first appear, who was to be the bread of life to every hungry soul. Although the town was small and had never held any political importance, it was very prominent in the minds of the Jewish people. Its historical connections, such as we have mentioned, had given it a large place in the national regard, and the voice of prophecy had designated it by name as the birthplace of the Everlasting Ruler of Israel.* It was in this place of peaceful memories and happy prophecies, in the portion of the khan where the beasts of burden were kept, that Jesus, the son of Mary, was born. Wrapt in the swaddling-clothes of babyhood, his first bed is the feeding-trough of the cattle. The mother's faith and gratitude were full and fresh in that lowly abode, as she bestowed the name, dictated by the angel, upon her boy. That name— Jesus, or Jehoshua — had been borne in the Jewish history by two great types of the coming Messiah — first, by the successor of Moses, the conqueror of Palestine, who established Israel in the promised land ; and a thousand years later, by the * Micah, v. 2. 28 THE BIRTH OF JESUS. high-priest who restored the worship of the temple after the captivity.* The kingly f and priestly offices had been thus marked by the name, which was to be borne forever by the Supreme King and Priest, and which in its mean ing (salvation of Jehovah) was to designate the character and design of the incarnation. The virgin mother must have pondered upon the significance of a name so given, and upon its place in the national history. "With the heavenly words she had received, and the Messianic light that had shone upon her mind and heart, the God- given name of her son must have ever been to her a text of gratitude and hope. In her inspired song of praise, before alluded to, she had echoed the language of David and Habakkuk, J in evident reference to the holy name of the expected child — " My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour"§ — where the last phrase in the Hebrew tongue which she used would bear a striking similarity to the name that was then so deeply impressed upon her mind. And now, as the new born babe lay breathing and sleeping on the manger straw, the thought of his name must have filled the rude stable with unearthly glory. Such was the birth of Jesus. The Roman power was fastening itself upon the nations with its iron system and * Zech. iii. f Joshua was. like Moses, virtually a " king in Jeshurun." Deut. xxxiii. 5. X Compare Ps. xxxv. 9, and Hab. iii. 18. § Luke, i. 46, 47. THE BLRTH OF JESUS. 29 relentless energy — the vast interests of the world were seething in this capacious political cauldron of assimila tion — the emperor had grown so great that he over shadowed the whole earth, and when he spake its very borders trembled — in Palestine the Herodian family, by shrewdly chiming with the policy and prejudices of Rome, wielded a despotic sway, and produced con fusion and distress amid the remnants of the ancient nation, where the life and spirit of the divine law had well-nigh faded out, when, in opposition to all these devastations of despotism and formalism, the germ of liberty and spirituality for the world was planted among those Judean hills, and a few unheeded and unworldly souls nursed its mysterious growth. CHAPTER II. THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. A few only had received the supernatural tokens of the coming birth of Christ. So a few only were to behold the tokens of the supernatural character of the new-born Jesus. We have already noticed that necessarily but a few, compared with the great mass of the human race, could have been personal witnesses of the life of Christ and its miraculous testimonies ; and we have also noticed that the testimony of a few was all that was necessary to form the historic basis of the Christian doctrine, the truth itself containing the convincing power which was to conquer the world for God. Accordingly we find only three separate and very distinct groups of witnesses selected by the wisdom of God to testify to the divinity of the Bethlehem babe. The first was a company of shepherds, spending the night, as was their wont, in the open air, while watching their flock against the assault of jackal, dog, or thief. Looking up at the stars, as David often had done in these same pastures, they would learn to think of things beyond this earth, and would marvel at the greatness of that God who had made the strange depths of ether and the stellar fires. This little band THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. ol were thoughtful and devout ; they had looked for the Messiah, and were ready for the Gospel. In the quiet of their watch-night, the heavens are suddenly ablaze ; a stream of glory is poured from the skies and envelopes the astonished peasants ; and as they behold in the midst of the brilliancy the commanding form of an angel, they are overwhelmed with fear. The angel's gentle speech reassures them : " Be not terrified, for I am the messen ger of most joyful news to you and all God's people. I have come to tell you that in Bethlehem the Messiah has appeared — a little new-born babe lying in a feeding- trough." As these strange words reached and comforted them in the dewy night, the glory around them became filled with heavenly beings, who joined in such a chorus of praise as earth had never heard before : " Glory in the highest to God, and upon earth peace ; among men good will." With this burst of celestial harmony, the wonderful scene gradually faded from view. The angels and the glory seemed to retire behind the limits of the firmament, and left the shepherds again with their sheep and the quiet stars. Recovering from their astonishment, they propose to leave the flock and go at once to the town. They go, not speculating whether the announcement were true, but in the confidence of a simple faith, hastening to behold the Anointed One of Israel. That the great Messiah should be a helpless little child, and that, too, in a cattle-stall, they receive as readily as if they had been told he was 32 THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. an imperial prince in purple, sitting upon the very throne of Solomon. When they reach the town they seek out a stable where a child had lately been born. It is easy to find a place with such a mark. They see the infant Jesus, and tell their simple but wonderful story, which soon becomes the marvellous tale of Bethlehem. With hearts of gratitude, and voices of praise, the shep herds return to their abandoned flock ; and while the story excites the empty conversation of the town, there is one who, in deep meditation, receives this new testi mony to her son's Messianic character, and ponders with curious thought upon his future manhood. The second group of witnesses appear forty days later. The child Jesus had been circumcised on the eighth day, according to the Jewish law, and had then formally received the name by which he was to be forever known. When thirty-three days more had elapsed, Joseph and Mary carried the babe over the six miles of hilly road to the Holy City to perform two religious duties in the courts of the temple. The first-born child of every Jewish mother was originally to be set apart to the Lord's special service in commemoration of the deliverance of Israel when the first-born of the Egyptians were destroyed. Afterward* the tribe of Levi received the honor of consecration in the stead of the first-born, because of their noble conduct at the time of the apostasy regarding the golden calf, by * Cf. Exod. xiii. 11-15. Numbers, iii. 5-13, 40-51 ; xviii. 15, 16. THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. 33 reason of which substitution every first-born child (after the first twenty-two thousand, who exactly equalled the Levites in number) was redeemed by the presentation of five shekels to the Lord's treasury. The narrative of Luke seems to signify that in the case of Jesus, Mary did not exercise the power of redemption, but actually pre sented her child to the Lord as one peculiarly set apart to a holy life-long service. Besides this duty, it became her to offer at the door of the temple the offering of puri fication,* which consisted of a lamb for a burnt-offering and a young pigeon or turtle-dove for a sin-offering. Where the offerer was poor, two doves or two pigeons were substituted ; the one for the burnt-offering and the other for the sin-offering. In the present instance, the latter style of the offering which they made is a proof of the poverty of Joseph and Mary. There was at this time residing at Jerusalem a man of holy heart and life, named Simeon, who had received a divine intimation that he should not die before he should behold the Messiah. From the time of this revelation he had been hopefully awaiting the arrival of Israel's Saviour. On the day of Mary's arrival in the city, a spiritual im pulse guided his feet to the court of the temple, and as the Nazarene mother brought in her child, he took it into his arms, and praised God with a psalm of inspired power : "Now thou dismissest thy servant, Lord, accord- * Lev. xii. 34 THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. ing to thy word, in peace ; for mine eyes have seen thj*- salvation, which thou hast prepared before all peoples ; a light for revelation to the nations, and a glory to thy people Israel." This new marvel made its deep impres sion upon the minds of Joseph and Mary, when the holy FIGURES IN THE TEMPLE. man proceeded to pronounce his benediction upon them, and added a prophecy that was meant for Mary's own heart: " Lo, this one is intended for the falling and res urrection of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. 35 gainsayed ; and a sword shall pass through thine own soul, in order that strifes may be revealed from many hearts." The prophecy contained the history of the overthrow of prejudice which should mark the rise of the Redeemer's kingdom, and which should include even the tender heart of Mary in its necessary work. There was another ven erable witness to the infant Saviour in the temple court on this occasion, a woman named Hannah (Anna), daughter of Phanuel, of the Tribe of Asher, who had seen more than a hundred summers, and who was spending her last days in active service in the temple, accompanying her service with frequent fasting and earnest prayer. This aged widow heard the words of Simeon, and responded heartily in praise to God, and began at once to proclaim the Messiah to the devout Jews who were expecting the day of redemption. Simeon and Hannah formed the second group of witnesses. The third group came from a distant country, and represented the great Gentile world which was to share in the blessings of the Redeemer. For two years the Magi of Chaldea* had noticed peculiar signs in the heavens, f until at last a meteoric light that shone as a new star upon the western horizon led some of their * The Magi were a Persian guild of sacred philosophers ; but from the time that Persia (under Cyrus) seized upon Babylon, the guild was represented in that imperial city. The purer, non-idolatrous worship of Persia was theirs. See Prof. Dpham's excellent monograph, " Who were the Wise Men ?" f Perhaps the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, which Kepler suggested. 36 THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. number by an irresistible impulse to travel westward and seek the full meaning of the phenomenon, which they had already connected in their mind with the birth of a great Jewish king, for whom they had prepared presents of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. It may be that from the Jewish captivity in Babylon, five centuries before, the tradition of a coming Jewish king of glor}r had been preserved among the Magi, the prophecies of Daniel THE WISE MEN BY NIGHT. being especially thus cherished among the learned guild, who would claim him as one of their number. Five hundred miles across the desert tract that lies between the Euphrates and the Jordan, in the latitude of Jerusalem, would be the direct route from Babylonia ; but it is not likely that the Magi pursued this unusual and wearisome course. They would follow the valley of the Euphrates to the northwest, and then from the neighborhood of THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. 37 Thapsacus strike southwestward along the Syrian high lands to Jerusalem. This was the usual route (and probably the shorter in time) between Babylon and Judea, in order to avoid the desert. The star seems to have disappeared from the eyes of the Magi, and hence its presence would not lead the travellers to make the direct course instead of the easier journey. We find the eastern philosophers at Jerusalem making zealous inquiry regarding the expected Messiah, until their errand reaches the ears of the suspicious old Herod, who straightway summons the highest dignitaries of the Jewish people, the first authorities in the Mosaic and prophetic Scrip tures, and asks them of the birthplace of the Messiah. When they had shown him from Micah's prophecy that Bethlehem was the designated spot, he called the Magi to a private audience, and extracted from them all their knowledge in the matter. The aged despot felt assured, from the combined information furnished hj the Magi and Sanhedrim, that so near Jerusalem as at Bethlehem was living a child who mysteriously threatened the Herodian dynasty, and who, if allowed to survive, might prove the long-looked-for Messiah, and carry away the hearts and allegiance of the Jewish nation. As the whole city had been excited by the Oriental visitors and their story, the jealous monarch felt obliged to use extreme caution to attain his end — the destruction of the child. The Messi anic feelings of the Jews would not permit him to use a 38 THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. Jewish means of identifying the infant ; he must therefore engage the Chaldeans themselves in this work, which he does under pretence of a desire to follow them in a tribute of homage to the wonderful child. When they should have found the babe for which they were in search, they would bring back the news to the sovereign who had so aided them in their investigation, that he, too, who had shown such interest in the matter, might see and salute the Messiah with becoming reverence. Shortly after leaving the royal palace, the little group of eastern sages were overjoyed to see suddenly again, in the south, the same peculiar star which had first drawn them upon their distant journey. It lay in the same strange way on the edge of the horizon, and seemed to call them to the full realization of their hopes. As they leave the walls of the sacred city, the star rests upon the hill of Mar Elyas, but when they have reached that conspicuous summit their shining guide has descended, and now watches like a heavenly eye over the lower height of Bethlehem. Its position confirms the words of the learned Jews of Jerusalem, and they are now confident of the result. They pass down into the valley, leave Rachel's tomb upon their right, and then ascend the Bethlehem hill, never losing sight of their supernatural leader, which, as they enter the town, leaves its higher position and so far ap proaches the earth as to specialize a particular house — the very stable of the nativity. The delighted travellers THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. 39 enter the building, and as soon as they see the child in Mary's arms, they yield him the profound obeisance of the Orient, — then rising from their prostration, they open their packages and bestow upon the infant Jesus the gifts of royalty, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. As Mary hears their story and sees their devotion, her heart re ceives still another impetus of faith in the angelic words with which she had been surprised a year before. In a dream, probably that night, the Magi were directed to avoid Herod on their return ; and so that anxious king was disappointed in his scheme. Shortly after the departure of the Chaldeans, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and bade him take the 40 THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. child and mother at once to Egypt, out of Herod's way, and remain there until a new order from heaven should reach him. The pious Israelite immediately complied with the divine command, and the journey of ten days into the valley of the Nile was at once undertaken. They had scarcely reached this land of refuge when the storm burst over Bethlehem. The rage of Herod at his disap pointment from the Magi, and his fierce determination to destroy the possible claimant of his throne, suggested the bloody edict by which every child under two years of age in Bethlehem and its vicinity was destroyed. With a cruelty in keeping with his whole career, he thus hoped to cut off the unknown babe, of whom the Magi had informed him, using the tokens they had given him with regard to his age. The slaughter was but the beginning and type of the blood that should be shed upon the earth by the rage of man against the Redeemer, over all which, however, the great salvation that was to be wrought was to be an infinite compensation. This is the lesson that is taught in Jeremiah's prophecy (xxxi. 15-17), quoted and applied by Matthew to the massacre of the children at Bethlehem. Hardly had this fearful sentence been ex ecuted, when the land was relieved by the death of the monster who had uttered it. Herod's decease led to the recall of Joseph and Mary with the infant Jesus from their short abode in Egypt. The refuge which the child had found there, and the divine HHK n® * i mm PJKi' jI'IH His i 1,'iH •,!,.,! If^HHH'I'iH/lM il 'Vnff If ' ififitpf Sllil If ' W* 'If i m\\:f fig! Kill imxi Smlm'mrP 1"" ;pr'%||i iSW':,'Ww?8^$"ffl^W' " ¦:;iJ|,'1il'!||',iiis' S'-';i'!l ^^Ri lis I *i'li If I SI' ¦'' iilill'l Wm . M Ml am i'iI ii ''"'^nii'W'ivill1 "¦lit HBp'I Mi,ISHH THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. 43 order for its return to Palestine, were the accomplishments in the personal history of Christ of typical passages in the history of the Israelitish people. Just as Israel had found shelter and growth in Egypt, and from that land, where it would have been identified with the heathen if the abode had been permanent, had been divinely called to its great work of service (the bondage being only an incidental means toward its removal), so Jesus had been sheltered in his feebleness in the same region, and was now sum moned forth, that his life might take root in the country where his work was to be wrought. With this double reference the prophet Hosea had represented the words of Jehovah — " When Israel was a child, I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." * When Joseph arrived in Palestine and discovered that (through a second will of his father's) Archelaus, the very worst of Herod's sons, had secured the succession against the others, he was uncertain what course to pursue, till a new divine intimation directed him to establish his family in Galilee, where Herod Antipas, the brother of Arche laus, was ruling as tetrarch. In this way Nazareth, from which they had gone the year before, becomes again the family home, and the spot where the childhood, youth, and early manhood of the Messiah is to be passed. In this retired and beautiful vale, among the green Galilean hills, far away from the centres of influence and the great high ways of travel, his life was to bear that character of sepa- * Cf. Hos. i. 11, and Matt. ii. 15. 44 THE THREEFOLD WITNESS. ration from the main life of the nation, of which the Nazarite was an established Messianic type, and of which the very name of the village was a significant token.* We have now seen how God raised up three groups of witnesses, who, under supernatural guidance, testified to the Messiahship of the child Jesus — the Bethlehem shep herds, the aged worshippers of the temple, and the Oriental sages. From these sources the rumor had spread, and created an excitement in the popular mind which had even shaken the ancient capital. Herod's massacre of the children had probably destroyed whatever hope had been thus enkindled in the minds of the people, and they had been led to postpone their expectations of the nation's coming deliverer ; the political changes of the country helping to call off their attention elsewhere. But the tes timony, thus allowed to remain dormant for a season, was not destroyed. When the life of humiliation and suffer ing should be succeeded by the triumph of the truth, the church which was to grow forth from this dying seed was ever to hold in precious remembrance the threefold testi- monj- of the supernatural infancy. The song of the angels was ever to be the very motto of the gospel, the words of Simeon were to prove the formula of the contentment of the redeemed soul, and the homage of the Magi was to illustrate on the canvas and in verse, through all time, the universal kingship of the child called Wonderful. * See Matt. ii. 23. CHAPTER III. THE PREPARATION. Of Jesus, between his first and twelfth years of age, we have only this simple record: "And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom,* and the grace of God was upon him." It tells the story of his true humanity ; how that his body, his intellect, and his spiritual life alike, under the fostering care of God, main tained a healthy growth. We may suppose that his physical development led him into the hearty sports of boyhood with his fellows of the village, while his power ful mind gave him a commanding influence among them, and his moral beauty of character excited the attention and wonder of the neighbors. His childhood does not appear to have been marked by the eccentricity of the morbidly precocious, but an even expansion of his being seems to be denoted in the words that so briefly describe this early period of his life. He must have made himself familiar with every feature of that quiet home. He must have often climbed the northern hill and looked out over the plain of Sepphoris beyond. To the southward his * It is not the perfect, but the present nXrjpovixevov, and denotes a process of filling. 46 THE PREPARATION. eye would rest upon the green carpet of Esdraelon, terminated by the long, dark ridge of Carmel and the glittering sea ; to the southeast, right over the little valley of his village, and beyond its enclosing hills, he would see the wooded sides of Tabor and the fortress- walls upon its summit ; and to the northeast the rugged heights of Saphet, and distant Hermon, with its drapery of snow, would mark the limit of the landscape. It was a beautiful country for the cultivation of a child's eye and heart. Nature was peaceful, fruitful, and picturesque. Besides, the charm of ancient story lay on every hill, for fifteen centuries of a wonderful national history had consecrated all the land. Yonder, on Carmel, Elijah had wrought his marvels against the priests of Baal ; and there, down Tabor's slope, the son of Abinoam had, under the power of a woman's voice, swooped upon Sisera and the mighty host of Jabim. In that broad plain a modest Gideon had carried havoc among his country's oppressors, and made Israel to shout for joy from Dan to Beersheba ; and in that same plain, at a later day, a presumptuous Josiah had found his death and plunged the nation into an abyss of sorrow. Along those high lands of Gilboa the Philistines had chased the panic- stricken army of Israel's first king, and there that wayward monarch had met the desperate end of a suicide. The sacred books had identified all these scenes with the providential government of Jehovah, so that the national THE PREPARATION. , 47 memories suggested by every feature of the prospect were at the same time tokens of the divine presence, and lessons of the watchful control of the Infinite God. These surrounding monuments of the past, with their inherent beauty, must have had much to do with the development of the heart and mind of Jesus ; and with these influences we may join the faithful instructions of parental piety in the home, stimulated as they were by the lofty Messianic hopes that had been enkindled there. The providence of God had ordered (as it ever does) all the circumstances of the daily life, and a special training was accorded to him who was to be Israel's Deliverer and King, through the ordinary details of a quiet rural abode. This divine training through natural means appears to be suggested by the tone and expression of this pregnant verse of Luke's gospel. No external peculiarity in the early life of Jesus seems to have marked him, while a general respect for his character and disposition is certainly established at a later period of his youth (Luke, ii. 52), and perhaps may have already had a place in the little community of Nazareth. But while no external pecu liarity could be noticed, and we can imagine the boy Jesus playing amid the shavings of the carpentry, or joining the children of the village in driving the cattle to pasture, or watching with them the sheep upon the hill side, yet we are led to believe that, like Samuel of the elder day, the voices of heaven reached his ear. Like 48 THE PREPARATION. Samuel, he was consecrated personally to God's service, and, like Samuel, we may believe that supernatural methods were added to the natural means by which his life was trained for its work. And this we surmise from the next fact of his child-life that is recorded by the evan gelist, in which there is an evident implication that his heavenly Father had revealed a knowledge to the young Jesus beyond the teachings of his parents. The event was this : when Jesus was twelve years old, it became him, according to the Jewish custom, to begin his attend ance upon the yearly feasts at Jerusalem ; at least upon the Passover, which the women attended. Joseph prob ably was punctual, as a devout Jew, in his attendance on the three great feasts — the Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles ; but only to the Passover would Joseph and Mary journey together. At this time they take Mary's first-born with them, and he partakes with them of the remarkable feast which commemorated the birth of the nation and the sparing mercy of Israel's God. He then may have asked the question, which seems to have become a formal portion of the ritual of a child's first passover: "What mean ye by this service?" To which the parents would reply : " It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians and deliv ered our houses. By strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage ; and it came THE PREPARATION. 49 to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and the first-born of beast. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the first-born being males, but all the first-born of my children I redeem."* Here the parents would tell the child Jesus why they had not paid the redemption-money in his case, and would relate to him the wonderful prophecies connected with his birth. It would be the appropriate time to inform him of his special dedication to God, in which they would testify to him their own assent to the consecrated life to which he had been doubtless led by supernatural guidance. The sequel, however, showed, according to a veiy common human experience, that Joseph and Mary were not pre pared for the realization of their own views. When the eight days of the Passover had elapsed, and the multitudes that had gathered at Jerusalem for the feast began to retire from the crowded city to their homes, among those who followed the northern road toward Galilee were the representatives of Nazareth, kinsfolk and acquaintance, making the long journey pleasant by friendly intercourse along the way. Joseph and Mary were so interested in this social enjoyment, and placed such confidence in the matured judgment of their bo3r, that he was neglected until the encamping-time toward the close of the first day of their return. It was then discovered that he was not * Exod. xii. 26, 27; and xiii. 14, 15. 4 50 THE PREPARATION. in the caravan. In alarm they hurried back to Jerusa lem, and spent two anxious days in searching through the city for the missing child. Their faith seems to have utterly failed ; and the temple, where of all places they should have expected to find him, seems to have been the last place of search they thought of. On the third day their hearts were made glad by seeing him again, as he was sitting amid the temple-teachers in one of the build ings of the sacred precinct, listening to their instruction, and putting such questions as disciples were allowed to present to the Rabbis. Notwithstanding his position and the remarkable point and power of his words in this learned conversation, which ought to have opened Mary's eyes to the propriety and consistency of her son's con duct, she feels it necessary to chide him for his absence : " Child, why hast thou acted so with us ? thy father and I have been much pained in looking for thee." The boy's reply showed his own appreciation of his great work in life, and should have assured the faith of Mary : "Why was it that ye had to seek me ? ought ye to be ignorant that I had to be engaged in my Father's matters ?" The whole incident seems to have been providentially ordered to arouse and reinvigorate the faith of Joseph and Mary, which the lapse of years had probably weakened ; and the rebuke seems to show that they had suffered their knowledge of his exceptional character to be overgrown by the routine thoughts of daily life. The reply puzzled THE PREPARATION. 53 their minds, but it was stored away in Mary's memory with the other strange words that she heard years before from the shepherds, from Simeon and Hannah, and from the Magi. Leaving the Rabbis deeply impressed with his wisdom, Jesus quitted the temple and accompanied his parents. From Jerusalem to Nazareth the distance is about seventy- five miles by the ordinary road, and the journey, accord ing to Oriental habits of travel, would consume about three and a half days. The road leads for the first thirty-five miles through the homogeneous scenery of the hill-country (where it is known in Scripture history as the mountains of Ephraim), taking its course along the narrow valleys that wind among the low, rounded, and terraced heights, until beyond Bethel and Shiloh the Mukhna plain is reached, wedge-shaped and stretching out northward for five miles from its apex at the south to the bases of Geri zim and Ebal. This beautiful view of the Mukhna, with its fertile surface, bordered by the Samaritan mountains, is a preparation to the traveller from Judea for the more picturesque scenery of Samaria and Galilee. In the month when Jesus greeted this view on his return to Nazareth, the valley was in its glory. The grain was waving under the bright sunlight of a Palestine April, and the barley harvesters were already in the field. The streamlets were still running with their winter supply, and the moun tain-sides were spangled with flowers. Beyond Gerizim 54 THE PREPARATION. and Ebal, and bej'ond Samaria's isolated hill, the road reaches the great plain of Jezreel, along whose level the eye is led to the heights of Carmel and the mountains of Galilee. Just beyond the plain, and within the first em brace of the mountains, lies Nazareth. Here, in retire ment, Jesus was to pass eighteen years more before he should openly manifest himself to the people as the Mes siah. He probably from this time accompanied Joseph three times a year to Jerusalem, and performed with ex actness all the requirements of the Mosaic ritual. Of this long period we have (as in the case of the preceding twelve years) but a few words of record. But these are weighty and suggestive. We are told that he was subject to his parents. The scene at the temple in Jerusalem had in volved no rebellious spirit, not even a peaceable emanci pation from parental control. It was only a manifestation for the moment of the truth concerning the child — a testi mony on the long way that led to his final disclosure, after which things went back to their ordinary channels. Jesus was an obedient child. This obedience was part of his perfect human character. His remarkable wisdom and his supernatural experiences had no tendency to throw him off the track of filial responsibility and affection ; but the glory of God was best subserved by him in a cheerful faithfulness to all the relations of life. So perfect was his life in this regard, so free from eccentricity and assumption, that (as we have before remarked) the neighbors and villa- THE PREPARATION. 00 gers only noted him as an upright and exemplary child. Their surprise at his later avowal of the Messiahship and the words they use on that occasion clearly indicate this, while the language of the evangelist in respect to these eighteen years of his life confirms the view. Luke* asserts that Jesus advanced in his mental growth, pari passu, with his physical development, and adds that he received marks of love both from God and from men. From God these favors must have been of a supernatural character, such as visions, significant dreams, angelic vis itations, and inward inspirations. The language used closely resembles that which describes young Samuel's corresponding period of life, and in that case the refer ence to supernatural favors is clear: "The child Samuel grew on, and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men."f As an explanation of this statement, not only follows the account of the Lord's first revelation to the boy, but also the general assertion that " the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord." Throughout the account of the childhood of Jesus we are reminded of the youthful career of Samuel, and we are led to illustrate the one by the other. But while Jesus, as a lad and a young man, was trained by the special favors of God for his Messianic work, these favors being graduated according to his years and the * Luke, ii. 52. f 1.8am. ii. 26. 56 THE PREPARATION. demands of his approaching ministry,* he was also con stantly establishing his character for uprightness and kindliness in the Nazarene community, for these are the qualities which educe the favor, that is, the true regard and attachment of men, such as Jesus secured. At a later period his enemies, although they had known him through CARPENTER. his boyhood, could not point to a fault or error of those earlier days. All they could allege was, that he was one of their well-known townsmen, son of a well-known car penter, himself a workman at the trade, and related to various families in the village. As Jesus Bar-Joseph they * npoiuoitre x v B mm VyJU'^/M '.-¦;/'{- .>"¦'*- "'>!?¦ lit '•/>•"¦ ]\y'A""'y '! IflpK1; Hi ' *. ¦',, . ^*^ "Up ¥m 'U-»^-f'W|t P|!, Vi-mtt !^i.",':-:'' ¦.'':;;|';;!'-'-i, I1,: ilfw liL l m?M iirrOTLl ¦ 111 ' ¦ :n , ; iii-i » , ¦'-.» ; » .- *"i'.,-j-' * ¦ ¦'¦'.-**>-.,*. : 4.?3^§^.g^^=-',: :::5/^-3^" ii « #fc;" 1111!1 Ill | i Aiii if , ii 1 1|| THE BAPTISM AND FASTING. 73 recognize in the dove a bodily form of the Spirit of God. To Jesus himself the revelation was still more full. As he walked up the bank, looking upward in prayer, he saw the blue sky rent before his gaze and the dove come forth from the sundered heavens to rest upon his head, and he heard a voice descending from the same rent sky — "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I have been well pleased." From this moment Jesus entered upon the full apprecia tion and exercise of his Messiahship. The testimony from heaven was made directly to him and to John. No others saw the dove — no other than Jesus heard the voice. The testimony was given to instruct and strengthen both. The one could now point more directly to the Lamb of God, and the other could now manifest himself to the world he came to save. A special inspiration* now filled the soul of Jesus, under whose impelling power he left the haunts of men and sought the depths of the Sinai desert, where Moses and Elijah before him had found wonderful communion with God, and there, like them, he spent forty days of continuous fasting. From the Jordan to Sinai is a journey of ten days for an active man, on foot, and the fasting would be, as in the case of Elijah, a necessary experience of such a journey through such a region of sand and rock. In that fierce wilderness of frowning crags, among those dark mountains of porphyry, his soul would be shut up * See the phrase, " full of the Holy Ghost," (Luke, iv. 1), as used passim. 74 THE BAPTISM AND FASTING. to the contemplation of the power and work of God, and he would collect himself for the. strife and suffering that were before him. Both Moses and Elijah had begun their high career before their Sinai experience of forty days' fasting, but that experience prefaced the more arduous part of their work. It was so with Jesus, who had lived thirty years upon the earth, and had performed, in a sense, a ministry throughout that period, but who, now, before the severer tasks of a public manifestation in the presence of an envenomed hostility, needed this isola tion from man and anomalous communion with God, that he might obtain strength adequate to the emer gency.* At a later day Jesus met his predecessors, Moses and Elijah, upon a lonely mountain in Galilee, and there the three tasted of the glory which in their experience was set over against the days of fasting and conflict. For among the frightful solitudes of Horeb, with no earthly life appearing before him but that of the wild beasts, the days of isolation were days of conflict. Satan used the whole period to assault his most formidable foe. How could the son of Mary transform the peaceful life of the past into the stormy life of the future ? How could he meet the certain envy and wrath of the chiefs of the * I believe the desert of Sinai a much more probable place of our Saviour's fastins than the desert of Judea or the Quarantana mountain, both of which latter regions could not have been free from intrusion in our Saviour's day. THE BAPTISM AND FASTING. 75 nation ? How could he pain the loving hearts of those most near to him? How could he accept a degree of suffering that had no human parallel, and deliberately enter upon a career of ignominy and death? On the other hand, his superior wisdom might open the way to the choicest honors of the land, and a course of peaceful re nown might be his for the seeking. He might merge the Messiah in the benefactor, and heal the national woes by judicious compromise. Against such suggestions as these the soul of Jesus had to contend, that his holy will might overcome every obstacle and tread the broken weapons of the devil under foot. We can gain this slight glimpse only into the story of those forty days. A mystery hangs over the scene. We see Jesus passing into the cloud with prayer — we see him coming forth with the determination of a conqueror, dealing his last few, silencing blows upon his adversary's head. Between the two views was the steeping process of his soul in faith, by which it was made invulnerable and the resolute master of its mighty work. The Baptist had spent his life in the desert, while Jesus was a man of the people, and yet the Baptist never was so far removed from man as was Jesus in these forty days of seclusion. The Baptist kept evenly through life apart from his fellows ; but Jesus plunged into the extreme of isola tion for awhile, that he might the more completely exhibit his fullness of human sympathy, and exalt humanity be fore God and the angels ; for in Jesus the race became a 76 THE BAPTISM AND FASTING little lower than the angels, and was crowned with glory and honor, a result wrought out by that career of suf fering and death which was evolved (if we may use the word) from the mysterious exercises of those forty days. CHAPTER V. THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE. We have seen that the entire forty days of fasting were days of temptation. The very object of the Spirit in lead ing Jesus into the solitude of the desert was that Satan might ply his resources to best advantage, and that by victory there and then he might be established against all that the great adversary could do thereafter. But while the entire forty days had this character, we are only admitted to a particular view of the last vain attempts of the arch-fiend. In these three instances Satan appears to Jesus in form,* probably as a holy man, who had been waiting for the Coming One, saluting Jesus with a gracious greeting, to throw him off his guard. He hails him as the Son of God, the Messiah, to the full conscious ness of which office Jesus had now reached, and begs him, as holding this sublime position, to use its power in satis fying his great hunger by turning the stones about him into bread. These are words of kind concern apparently. The new companion is touched with interest in the condi tion of Jesus, and would suggest an immediate relief to his suffering. However Jesus may have been pleased * The whole style of the dialogue demands this. — Cf. the words in Matt. iv. 3. 78 THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALLLEE. with this sympathy, his soul rejects the proposition as an error. The wonderful works which the Messiah was to perform were not to be for his personal human comfort, but for the truth's confirmation ; and in all his work he was to perform only what God gave him to do.* He was no more to originate a miraculous action than was Elijah in his day to do so. Elijah was by God's express command THE WILDERNESS. sent to the widow of Zarephath, and there cause the miracu lous continuance of the meal and oil for his own sustenance as well as the widow's. The same Spirit filled Jesus that filled Elijah, and if He had bidden him to turn the stones to bread, the miracle would have had a righteous origin and would have been wrought ; and so in the present in- * Cf. John, v. 30, 36 ; vi. 38 ; viii. 28, 42 ; xiv. 10. THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE. 79 stance Jesus must look to the word proceeding out of the mouth of God and not to his physical need of bread. Resting his decision on the Scripture,* and thus acknowl edging the written word as the ultimate arbiter, he rejects the advice and cheerfully continues to suffer the distress of hunger. No further assault upon the integrity of his soul was offered at once. Any such would have laid the motives of the tempter open to suspicion. But as a friend and well-wisher he accompanies Jesus on his journey back from the desert, and establishes relations of intimacy and confidence on the lengthy way to Jerusalem. Long before reaching Jerusalem the hunger of Jesus has been ap peased at the villages upon the road through the cultivated land, so that the circumstances of the first temptation are altered. On arriving at the Holy City, the two proceed to the temple, and mount to the roof of the long portico, which extended like a wing of the main edifice along the southern wall of the great enclosure to its southeastern extremity. Here it overhung the deep ravine of the Kedron, where the head would grow dizzy at the sight.f As they gaze from this lofty out-look, his companion again seizes the opportunity, after so long an interval from the last, and proposes his leap from the giddy height. It would establish his Messiahship in the minds and hearts of all the crowds who thronged that promenade. It would * Deut. viii. 3. f See Josephus, xv. 11, 5, Antiq. Jud. to itvspvyiov is not " a pinnacle." 80 THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE. be a fitting beginning to his career, and shut the mouth and palsy the hand of opposition. And if any thought of physical risk should enter his mincl, the Scripture, on which he rightly leaned, had declared regarding the Messiah that the angels were commissioned to preserve him from injury in just such an emergency. The quotation from the ninety-first Psalm was exactly in point, and the kind urging of a friend ought not to be withstood. Jesus listens to the tempting appeal, but immediately rejects it. He uses the same argument as before, when his new-found companion had sought to relieve him of his hunger, but he quotes a different passage from Moses: " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God,"* as indicating the same necessity of following God's guidance, and not vainly and without permission calling on the exercise of the divine power. The adroit tempter is foiled again, but not dis couraged. He gathers himself for a final effort. He con tinues with Jesus as his companion clown to the Jordan valley, and crosses the river with him to join the Baptist, whom Jesus had left in order to go into the desert under the Spirit's guidance. He induces him, before rejoining John, to ascend one of the high Peraean mountains, per haps the very Nebo from which Moses had gazed upon the promised land. Perhaps he suggested a season of prayer on that mountain-top as appropriate before again mingling with his friends and countrymen. Whatever the * Deut. vi. 16. THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE. 81 argument he used, Jesus found a righteous reason in fol lowing his companion's lead. Now the tempter throws off the mask. In his zeal he loses his prudence. He uses his mighty power as a prince of the power of the air, and, whether by refraction or other methods beyond the knowledge of men, causes all the great kingdoms of the world to appear before Jesus, with their vast wealth of cities, announces his ownership of all, and promises all to Jesus if he would only fall down and do him homage. In an instant Jesus understands the true character of his professed friend. It is the great adversary of God and man himself. "Get thee behind me, Satan," drives the monster to his den ; the order being accompanied by its vindication in the quota tion from Deuteronomy, vi. 13: "Thou shalt worship Jehovah thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." That temptation which the devil had intended to be his strongest was his weakest. Where he displayed the greatest power he was most completely discomfited, so that he had only fortified, instead of weakening, the soul of Jesus. The plan which Satan had adopted of deceiving Jesus bypersonal approach in human form had utterly failed and he withdrew for the present from active assault upon the Messiah's integrity, to prepare new plans or wait for new opportunities. He had exhausted his strategy and must abandon his enterprise, at least for the time."* No * Luke, iv. 13. 6 82 THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE. sooner had the person of Satan been removed, than holy angels surrounded Jesus on that mountain-peak, and en couraged him with their counsel and their commendation, fulfilling the ninety-first Psalm in its true meaning, Avhich the devil had literally and falsely quoted on the portico at Jerusalem : " He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." Before Jesus had entered upon his desert experience he had been strength ened by the heavenly voice and the appearance of the Spirit as a dove ; and now that the long loneliness was over, with its perils, heaven again grants him the re assuring comforts of the supernatural. Such disclosures of the unseen were occasional to the Son of Man, and not continual. The ordinary supports of his way were those vouchsafed to every believing heart, and the prayer of [Note. — I am not able to consider the temptation as a mere mental phenomenon, because of the clearly historic or narrative language of the account, exactly coinciding in style with what precedes and what succeeds. Nor can I believe that Satan appeared to J esus as Satan, or " Get thee behind me, Satan," would have been uttered at first. Nor can I see any force or meaning in the temptation, if there were anything but the human nature of Christ to resist it, of course, in dependence upon God. Furthermore, human tendencies must have been appealed to, or there was no temptation. Putting viands before one who has no appetite is no temptation. Luke gives the three temptations in a different order. That evangelist makes a logical and not a chronological' arrangement of his material. He does not in this account of the temptation use the tots of Matt. iv. 5, which marks a chronological sequence. Luke has left the greatest tempta tion to the last, that which suggests the immediate and successful inauguration of the Messiahship.] THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE. 83 faith brought down for him the power of God.* Where he had extraordinary burdens to bear, extraordinary help was furnished ; but in the ordinary experiences of life he was left to the ordinary means which Infinite Love has provided for our race. We find the same system of divine superintendence and care in his case that we find in the case of the prophets and apostles, where the supernatural interference, ab extra, was the exception and not the rule. From the scenes of the desert and the temptation, Jesus returned to the eastern edge of the Jordan, and appeared again among the multitude who gathered around John. The Baptist detecting him in the crowd, declares his presence, f and on the ensuing day pointed him out distinctly to the people as God's lamb that taketh away the world's sin. The allusion was wholly to the sacri ficial lamb, whose blood was poured out as a symbol of sin's punishment and man's reconciliation with God. The Baptist's indication was a prophetic act, by which he declared the Messiah to be a sufferer, and a Saviour through suffering ; the great sacrifice to which all the sacrifices of the law pointed as to their completeness and fulfillment. On the third day of Jesus' return, as John was pri vately conversing with Andrew Bar-Jonas of Bethsaida, and another.^ Jesus passed in sight, when John immedi ately directed their attention to him, and repeated the * See Heb. v. 7, 8. t John, i. 26. % Probably John, the son of Zebedee. 84 THE TEMPTATLON AND RETURN TO GALILEE. words, "Behold God's Lamb!" Full of enthusiasm, the two no sooner hear the words than they hurry after Jesus, who turns and inquires their business. They ask him where he is residing, that they may know where to find him. It is not a word of aimless curiosity, but an eager question of those whose hearts are absorbed with the Ml^if - ._- -' . g£ -_ ."SUB BETHANY EETOND JORDAN. thought that they had found the Messiah. At his invita tion they accompany him to his lodging, and spend the later hours of the day in cementing this first acquaintance, not, however, before Andrew had gone to his brother Simon and induced him to become a witness of the great discovery. If the anonymous companion of Andrew was John, as is generally and with every probability believed, then we have, in the little company at the lodging-house of Jesus, by the Jordan, the first nucleus of the apostle- THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE. 85 ship and of the Church. Jesus was there instructing ; and intent upon his teaching were the three, Simon, John, and Andrew, who afterward, with James, formed the most distinguished third part of the apostolic college. These three Bethsaida fishermen had little notion of the sublime destiny that was before them, much less of the path of humiliation and suffering by which it was to be achieved. Their incipient faith in the Messiah doubtless gave some vague hope of undefined glory ; but a long course of precept and experience was necessary to destroy their false prejudices, and open their hearts fully to the truth. A remarkable incident had occurred early in the interview. As Simon was brought in by his brother, Jesus greeted him with the strange salutation : "Art thou Simon Bar-Jonas? Thou shalt be called Rock."* The giving of a new name was a formal initiation into disciple- ship, and thus Simon was first recognized by the new Teacher as one of his pupils. The name bestowed marked him as the firm foundation on which the Great Builder would lay historically the structure of his Church, although Simon himself could have had little idea of the meaning of Jesus other than that of bestowing upon him a kind and graceful compliment. He did not assume the new name until after the Saviour's death, nor was he ad dressed by Jesus himself with any other than his name * The word Cephas must be translated in order to give the true force to the salutation. 86 THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE. of Simon, except once, two years after this first meeting, when near Caesarea Philippi, the gift of the name was ratified to him, and its meaning explained in those mem orable words : "Thou art Rock,* and upon this rock I shall build my Church, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it." On the morrow after this interview Jesus set out to return home to Galilee. Simon, Andrew, and John accompanied him, and they were soon joined by Philip, who also belonged to Bethsaida, and whom Jesus on seeing had called to his side. This Philip ere long discovering a friend from Cana, probably returning, like himself, from John's baptism homeward, eagerly announced to him the Messiahship of Jesus Bar- Joseph of Nazareth ; and on his doubting whether so insignificant a place as Nazareth could originate any matter of general good, urged him to come to Jesus and see for himself. This was Nathanael. On his approach Jesus pointed to him as a true spiritual Israelite, of simple, honest heart ; when Nathanael, astonished that Jesus should recognize him, put the very question whose answer settled the fact of the Messiahship of Jesus in his mind. "Whence is it that thou knowest me ?" was the question ; and the reply was almost as brief: " Before thou wert called by Philip, when thou wert under the fig-tree, I saw thee." This reference to a retirement so distant, that Jesus could not * The difference between iterpoi and rtirpa. disappears in the Syriae, which our Saviour probably used. THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE. 87 have known it except by supernatural means, satisfied the pure-minded man, and his faith found instant utter ance in the confession, "Rabbi, thou art God's Son, thou art Israel's king." To this candid acknowledgment Jesus answered with a promise that was a commendation of his faith, assuring him with impressive manner,* that he would hereafter understand him more fully, and would see the meaning of Jacob's ladder explained in him as the Son of Man (whom Nathanael already recognized as the Son of God), and would perceive Jesus to be the means of communication between heaven and earth, by whom prayers ascend and blessings are bestowed. f For the first time Jesus uses the phrase " Son of Man," in evident allusion to the Messianic title employed by Daniel in his description of the vision of the four beasts (Dan. vii. 13), and to emphasize the truly human character of his work, which was to present man justified and sanctified before God, accomplishing, as a man and the representative of all who accepted him, everything that infinite justice and holi ness required of man. From this time throughout his min istry he uses this title of himself more often than any other. Thus far Jesus had made no public demonstration of his claims. His manifestation was to be gradual, not reaching its fullness until John the Forerunner should be shut up within the walls of Machaerus. John the Baptist and five of his future apostles were as yet all (excepting * durjv, d/.ir;v. Cf. Psa. xii. 13; lxxii. 19; lxxxix. 52. f John, i. 51. 88 THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE his mother) who beheld the carpenter of Nazareth as Israel's great Messiah. To himself the descending dove and heavenly voice at his baptism, and the angelic min istry after his temptation, had been a glorious testimony of his Sonship ; and to John one of these signs had been vouchsafed as a witness, while the five disciples had seen the divine power exhibited in him when he confirmed the faith of Nathanael by his supernatural knowledge. But as yet he had wrought no open miracle, although the last act referred to was truly miraculous, and done under the influence of the Spirit.* In a few days the public testi mony was to be offered ; not to the whole nation at once, but first to a little village in Galilee ; not to his own vil lage, but to one a few miles from the home of his child hood and youth. f He was gradually to increase and John gradually to decrease. There was to be no violent transi tion, but a natural order in the prevailing ministry of the two. The five disciples of John most naturally became the disciples of Jesus. John's baptism was to be suc ceeded and even synchronized by that of Jesus (John, iii. 22, 23 ; iv. 1), and Jesus was to take John's very theme to preach when John should lay it down (Mark, i. 14, 15). The harmony between the two, and the complete * See Luke, iv. 14. f As a possible chronology of this period, I would offer this : John begins to preach in January ; Jesus is baptized at the beginning of February ; he returns from the fasting and temptation about March 17th ; he reaches Cana, March 22d ; he has eighteen days in Galilee before starting to go to the Passover. THE TEMPTATION AND RETURN TO GALILEE. 89 unity of their purpose, were apparent to all. There was difference of character and st}Tle, but evenness of devotion and design. They neither sought the popular favor, they neither counted wealth or rank, and they both carefully avoided political entanglement. The usual paths of human energ}r and aspiration were not trodden by either Jesus or his forerunner. The restoration of man to God by conversion and faith was the object of each, and for this their lives were given up. Not by human means was the truth to be propagated. The agencies of riches and rank were powerless to change the hearts of men. Govern mental interference in behalf of the gospel could only destroy its purity and hinder its efficacy. From simplicity and poverty of life must go forth the refreshing stream that was to make glad the new-formed city of God. That divine message, which would have been obscured in its outline and perverted in its tone if it had reached man through the glitter of nobility and the pomp of courts, came clear and mellow to the weary heart through the simple channels of humble life. John and Jesus were at one in this presentation of the truth of God. And as John not only urged all to turn to the Lord, but in the words, "Behold God's Lamb," showed the way of pardon and reconciliation, so Jesus, in all his preaching, not only called the soul to rest in God, but by his sufferings and death held up to the world the atoning sacrifice through which the rest was attainable. CHAPTER VI. THE THREE PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH IN GALILEE, IN JUDEA, AND IN SAMARIA. Jesus and his five disciples reached Cana in Galilee on the third day after leaving the Jordan and John, having probably in view a marriage feast to which both Jesus and the five had been severally invited, and which was celebra ted on the very day of their arrival at Cana. The village lies three miles to the northeast of Nazareth, on the edge of a small plain, and on the direct road from Nazareth to Tiberias.* The marriage-feast was evidently a very large one. Invitations had been sent out to Nazareth on one side and to Bethsaida on the other, the latter place being twelve miles distant. From this fact, and the additional fact that at least one hundred and twenty gallons of wine were added as a supplement to the original supply for the occasion, we are very sure that the wedding was of no ordinary character. We may also add that Jesus and the five disciples seem to have hurried to Galilee in order to be present, and that, too, when the Passover was at hand,f * I hold Kefr Kenna to be the true Cana. I could find no one in the vicinity who knew the name of Kana el Jelil, as applied to the hamlet in the plain El-Bnttauf, or to any other. f John, ii. 13. PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. 91 and their return to Galilee would naturally have been deferred till after that solemnity. The mother of Jesus was among the guests, and from the position she holds to the servants present, we may suppose her an influential relative of the bridegroom, at whose house, according to Oriental usage, the entertain ment would be given. Her son had probably communi cated to her the knowledge of the wonderful events which had occurred during the preceding two months since he had left home. She had listened to his account of the baptism and the temptation, with their supernatural at testations, and had become convinced that now her hopes were to be realized and the predictions at his birth to be fulfilled — that he would now become manifested to the nation as its Great Deliverer, and at one stroke accomplish the work which he had come to do. Thoughts of a long course of gainsaying and suffering, culminating in a cruel death, were foreign to her mind. The sword was yet to pierce through her own heart. There seems to have been an intimation given to Mary by Jesus that he should pro vide a miraculous supply of wine at the banquet. It may be that in the confidence of filial regard he had pre- announced the miracle, for as yet Mary had not known her son as a miracle-worker. When, therefore, the wine was exhausted and more was needed for the festivity, his mother, with her hopes so high, urged upon Jesus the performance of the miracle. While his reply was respect- 92 PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSLAH. ful,* it yet rebuked her false and low views of his work. It was equivalent to this, " Mother, in my great work as the Messiah, no human advice is to be my guide. The miracle I am about to perform is for the truth's sake, but you are desiring it with a spirit of pride and self-interest. Moreover, the consummation of my Messianic work is not now. There is much preliminary teaching and training and witnessing before that hour comes." The reply was not a refusal to work the miracle, but a check upon his mother's erroneous interpretation of the miracle, which she rightly anticipated. Hence she orders the servants to await his bidding and act accordingly. Six stone jars, holding over twenty gallons of water each, had been filled for the use of the guests in accordance with the customs of purification, f which had been prescribed not by the law but by the Rabbis. These had, of course, been partially if not altogether emptied. Those very jars which had been used to preserve the vain traditions of the elders, the false fungus-growth of the old dispensation, were now to contain a testimony to the fresh divine teaching of the new. As the miracles of Moses in their material reflected against the idolatry of Egypt, so those of Jesus ruthlessly denied and set aside the follies of a merely human ritual. As the servants, at the command of Christ, filled up the stone jars with water to the brim, there was a silent irony * There is no harshness in the use of the word " woman." f Cf. Mark, vii. 3. warn H PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. 95 in the act, the apparent help to the burdensome ritual being about to prove the iemoval of a burden and the be stowal of a joy. When the jars had been filled, the serv ants, again at Jesus's command, drew off vessels full of the liquid and carried them to the superintendent of the ban quet, who, surprised at the exceeding excellence of the KEFR KENNA. wine, expostulated with the bridegroom for retaining the best till the last, contrary to universal custom. By this, the first miracle of Jesus, the attention of the whole assembly and the whole neighborhood was fastened upon him, and the confidence of his five disciples was strengthened and assured. The news of the wonder tra- 96 PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. veiled fast through Galilee, and from this moment the carpenter of Nazareth was such no longer, but a public teacher and prophet, the subject of universal remark and conflicting criticism. With his mother and five disciples, and also accompanied by his younger brothers, Jacob,* Joses, Judas, and Simon, he quitted Cana and went down to Capernaum, on the sea of Galilee, before returning to Nazareth. This little sea or lake was the central point of life and business in Galilee. The new capital had been lately built in Roman style upon its borders. Other large towns lay on the western shore, Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin. At the north end, just east of the inflow of the Jordan, was another Bethsaida, which Philip the tetrarch had enlarged and called Julias, after the daughter of the Emperor Augustus, and not far from the eastern brink lay Gergesa.f The lake was fourteen miles long and seven miles broad, of oval shape, and well surrounded by grace ful hills and mountains, whose declivities in most parts of the lake's circuit reached the water's edge. Its surface was dotted with the fishing-boats of a vigorous and bus}' popu lation, and constant communication was kept up between the different towns and villages upon its shores. Four of the five disciples who had already attached themselves to Jesus belonged to this busy neighborhood, and perhaps this reason had influence, with others, to lead Jesus thither * In English " James." t See Matt. viii. 28, aud Thomson's " Land and the Book." PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MES8LAH. 97 first after manifesting his glory by a public miracle. In Capernaum,* toward the northern end of the lake, Jesus continued a short time and wrought several miracles in testimony of his mission, f and then returned to Nazareth. The people of his own village were eager to see and hear him, now that he had gained so sudden fame. Jesus had been accustomed to avail himself of the privileges of a Jew in the synagogue, and act as reader and speaker to the people under the permission of the elders. On his return to Nazareth he sought such an opportunity to meet the people and to announce his Messiahship. On the Sabbath- day he attended the public service at the synagogue, where he had been wont to worship all his life, and there at the proper time, among his personal acquaintances, stood up to read and expound the Scriptures. The roll which con tained Isaiah's prophecies was put into his hands, from which he read the passage now found at the beginning of the sixty-first chapter.^ Then closing the roll and hand ing it back to the chazan, he sat down according to the usage of Oriental teachers and speakers, and, amid the breathless attention of his fellow-villagers, he declared to them the fulfillment of that remarkable prophecy in him self in words of nervous eloquence, that called forth the * Now " Tell Hum." f Cf. John, ii. 12, and Luke., rv. 23. X The phrase " to set at liberty them that are bruised" has dropped out of the LXX. at this place, and the phrase " recovering of sight to the blind" has dropped out of our Hebrew versions. They were both in the Nazareth copy. 7 98 PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. astonishment and audible admiration* of the people. But they could not reconcile the high assumptions of Jesus with the low estate of his earthly life. That their neigh bor, the son of Joseph, should be the Messiah, was absurd. Perceiving the agitation in the audience, Jesus addressed himself directly to its cause. He told them that they would seek such miraculous testimony from him as he had already given in Capernaum, but that their prejudices (so common to the intimate acquaintances of a prophet's youth) against him, not their love for the truth, made this demand ; for what had happened at Capernaum or Cana was as easily known at Nazareth and as good testimony there as at the places where the miracles were wrought. He then referred them to the Old Testament history, wherein the prophets Elijah and Elisha are shown to have left their prejudiced and unbelieving countrymen and per formed their miraculous works of mercy upon foreigners. At this rebuke and reference the congregation were con vulsed with rage, and rushing upon the speaker, hurried him out of the synagogue in a wild tumult to the edge of the cliff on which the town was built, with the intention to throw him over the rocks ; but in the confusion of the crowd Jesus escaped from their hands and left the place. It was now nearly the time of Passover, and it is likely that Jesus took the direction of Jerusalem in the company of his five disciples. He had now manifested his Messiah- * Luke, iv. 22, £/., aprvpovv. PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. 99 ship publicly in Galilee, and the manifestation was to be repeated in Judea. The holy city of Israel must receive the witness, and in that city the appropriate place for the manifestation was the temple. The last of the prophets (before John) had written, "The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple." He had also pre dicted that this coming should be with a purifying power and the exhibition of judicial authority. The fulfillment was now at hand. It was for the Jews to recognize the sign. Amid the degenerations of formalism, the traders in oxen and sheep for sacrifice had become accustomed to occupy portions of the temple courts for their sales, and money-changers had followed them in the sacrilege, under the ostensible necessity of changing the foreign money that Hellenistic Jews might bring for their purchases. It is characteristic of all ritual manufacturers to neglect God's ritual in the exaltation of their own. The Jews of our Lord's day were no exception. They insisted on every item of their own most burdensome additions to the law of Moses, while the spirit, and even the letter, of that law, was often disregarded. The custom before us was a glaring instance of their practical degradation of the holy place, and their low, carnal views of religion. Jesus, on entering the court and beholding the usual sacrilege, seized some cords, which were probably used in the management of the cattle, and forming them into a 100 PUBLIC MANLFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. whip, drove the oxen and sheep out of the holy place. He then returned, emptied the money-bags of the exchangers and overturned their counters, and finally ordered the dove-sellers away with the significant words, "Take these things hence ; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise." No opposition was made to this act of authority. All were overawed by the bold and resolute conduct, and might have seen, in the power exercised, and the especial reference to the God of the temple as his Father, the incontestable claims of the Messiah. Yet the surrounding multitude, who had wit nessed this act, so utterly impossible for a man to perform except by supernatural help, clamored for a sign to prove his authority to perform it. The reply of Jesus to this blind unbelief was enigmatic. Their condition of mind and heart did not deserve or even permit a clear exposi tion, which they would have rejected as they already had rejected the sign he had given them. " Destroy this tem ple," said Jesus, "and in three days I will raise it up." He referred to the real temple of God, his own body, in which God dwelt among men, and which was only typified by the temple of Solomon and Herod. But they, referring it to the marble structure, regarded it as an idle boast, and were the more confirmed in their unbelief. His own disciples did not understand his meaning, but none the less clave to him, and apply at once to their master, as seen in this act that had aroused an opposition, the PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. 101 words of a Messianic psalm (lxix. 9), "My zeal for thy house devours me." During the eight days of the Passover, Jesus wrought a series of miraculous works in Jerusalem, as he had done in Capernaum, which had the result only of creating a superficial belief in the minds of many, a belief that was scarcely deeper than astonishment, but which developed itself in neither conversion nor discipleship, and in which Jesus, with his profound insight into human nature, placed no confidence whatever. There was one exception, how ever, to this general condition of unconcern. A Phari saic member of the Sanhedrim (the supreme council and court of the Jews, which had had an existence for two or three centuries, and held its sessions within the precincts of the temple), named Nicodemus,* whose distinguished abilitiesf had given him the title of " The Teacher of Israel," had become convinced that Jesus was a divine prophet, if not the Messiah himself, and was anxious to see more of him, and hear his teachings. But his timidity prevented an open application. He therefore sought and obtained a nocturnal interview, in which he confessed that the members of the Sanhedrim were convinced that Jesus must be a teacher from God, however their pride might cloak their convictions. Jesus met this confession with a statement of the true character of God's kingdom, * Greek names became common among the Jews after Alexander's day. f So I explain 6 diSdduaXoi, John, iii. 10. 102 PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. the false view of which was the root of Judaic error. He insisted on the new birth as the necessary requisite for even the understanding of that kingdom. Nicodemus, whose Jewish and Pharisaic prejudices had led him to suppose that so radical a change as that figured in the phrase "new birth" could only refer to the transition from Gentilism to Jewry, and could not be applicable to him, a born Jew, was astonished when Jesus showed that Jew and Gentile equally, as men, sinful men, needed a spiritual washing before thejr could be members of the true kingdom of God, of which the outward Israel was a mere type. The mystery of such a spiritual birth was no greater than the mj^stery that was inherent in physical nature, where, for example, the wind was recognized but not understood. If Nicodemus was not prepared to receive a spiritual truth, whose exhibition in fact was clearly given in earthly experience, to wit, this truth of the new birth, how could he receive the truths which the Messiah might reveal of subjects that belonged entirely to the heavenly world, and had no exposition to the senses ? Jesus then introduced the fact of his own divine mission and its connection with man's salvation, which were the heavenly things to which he had referred. The "Teacher of Israel" was, doubtless, deeply impressed with the truths he had learned at this interview. By the two later references to Nicodemus in the gospel histor}-, we find that he preserved amid excessive timidity a respect PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. 103 and affection for Jesus, which tradition declares culmina ted in a full and open confession of his faith and devotion. A number of nominal disciples having now attached themselves to Jesus, the time had arrived for a formal inauguration of his ministry ; and accordingly he estab lished himself in a convenient spot in the Judean ^aBSmWt VHBrSH «™^MB«Bi sSfo FORD OF THE JORDAN. country, and there taught the people, who flocked to him in vast crowds and received baptism at the hands of the five disciples who had accompanied him from the first. The same sign of a new life was used as by John (/3airTio>a (wravoiaf — the "baptism of repentance," or new life), who was continuing his preaching and baptism at this time on the western side of the Jordan,* probably in the southern part of Judea, f and the same absence of miraculous * Cf. John, iii. 23 and 26. f If iEnon and Salim are to be identified with Ain and Shilhim of Josh. xv. 32. 104 PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. accompaniments marked the preaching of Jesus, as yet, as marked the preaching of John. The double baptism of John and Jesus excited comment, and on a dispute occur ring between John's disciples and a Jew, who used the fact of the two baptisms as a proof against both,* his disciples referred the difficult question to their master to solve, who showed them that he had only come to pre pare the way for Jesus ; that Jesus was the bridegroom, and he only the friend of the bridegroom ; that his work had now been accomplished, and his delight completed in beholding the Messiah ; that he must now soon retire, when Jesus should assume the full proportions of the Messiah before the nation, and become the nation's divine teacher, full of the Spirit, the Son of God, the giver of eternal life through faith. In this exposition John not only showed that his message and mission were at one with that of Jesus, but also manifested at this latest hour of his short ministry his full apprehension of the person and work of Jesus. The latest prophet of the law brings us fully within the pale of the gospel. The old and new dispensations are welded at this point. The use that the Pharisees were making of the two baptisms to oppose both, caused Jesus to leave Judea and return home to Galilee. It was now the month of Novem- ber.f Jesus and his disciples had been for six months * ixerd lovSaiov, John, iii. 25. A " Jew," as opposed to the new teaching. f John, iv. 35. 3 PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH 105 preaching and baptizing in Judea, when they set out on their homeward journey. The direct and ordinary road from Judea to Galilee lay through Samaria, although the way on the east of Jordan was sometimes used, by which Samaria was avoided. On their way northward through the Samaritan region, between whose inhabitants and the Jews there was a perpetual hatred, by reason of the mixed foreign character of the Samaritan population,* they stopped, weary, by the side of the well which had been dug by the patriarch Jacob eighteen centuries before, on the tract between Shechem and Shalem, which he had pur chased from the Canaanite Hamor. This tract lay toward the north end of the plain Mukhnah,f where the lateral val ley of Shechem, or Sychar, enters it from the west, between the heights of Ebal and Gerizim. Just at the corner of the two valleys, at the foot of Gerizim, is Jacob's well, a mile eastward from the town of Shechem. This was a classic region in Israelitish history. In this narrow valley be tween the two mountains, the very central point of Pales tine, the twelve tribes had sworn allegiance to Jehovah on first entering the land, and here they had buried the bones of Joseph, not far from the well of Joseph's father. It was noon-tide. Half a day's journey was accom plished, and the travellers needed a rest and the mid-day meal. But an incident was to occur which should make that the limit of their day's journey, and even detain them * See 2 Kings, xvii. 24-41. f 8ee P- c7- 106 PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. for the morrow. While the disciples had gone up to the town to purchase food, a Samaritan woman arrived at the well with her water-jar. Jesus, on asking her to procure a drink of water for him, is contemptuously reproached by her for asking a favor of a Samaritan. Jesus takes this opportunity to open to her the truth regarding himself. " If you knew anything of the spiritual refreshment which God bestows, and of me as the means through- which the blessing flows, you would ask of me the fresh running water of this grace." This was the meaning of his words, but he purposely cloaked their spiritual reference with the figure, so that the woman, supposing that he referred to the water of the well, was led more deeply into the conversation and brought more fully under the power of his words. Her reply was accordingly this: "Sir, how can you give me the excellent water you speak of ? Surely not from this well, for you have no rope and bucket, and you are certainly not greater than our ancestor Jacob,* who made the well and counted it the best water of the district, that you should obtain better water here." In the conversation that ensued, Jesus turned her thoughts at length from their earthly plane by telling her the story of her own sinful life. On perceiving that she was talking with a prophet, she brought up the question of the rival claims of Gerizim and Jerusalem, when Jesus urged the * The Samaritans were accustomed to claim descent from Jacob through Joseph. WSr | i i SSsiSSgES L. jm R^^> M sag 151 ^Pl& ^^^^^g PUBLIC MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MESSIAH. 109 spiritual character of worship, and showed her that this spiritual meaning was preserved among the Jews in all their service, while it was wholly lost among the Samari tans, at the same time assuring her that a new dispensa tion was at hand, in which the outward symbols would give way to the realities symbolized. To this teaching she objected that when the Messiah should come, then it would be time to learn about such a change as that. On this Jesus declared to her that he was the Messiah him self. The woman, startled by this announcement, left her water-jar, hastened to the city, and called on her friends to come out to the well and see a man who, by his mi raculous knowledge and explicit claim, appeared to be the Messiah. Many to whom she told the strange story were convinced, and accompanied her back to the well, where they prevailed upon Jesus to become their guest for two days, during which time many more became assured of his Messiahship. Jesus had now openly manifested himself as the Messiah in Galilee, in Judea, and in Samaria. The first stage of his ministry had been accomplished. In nine months from his baptism he had diffused the knowledge of his claims and their evidence throughout the land. From this time he will assume a more formal and authoritative course. The foundation has been laid. The building will now rise more and more conspicuously upon it. CHAPTER VII. THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. The mission of the Baptist was now near its close. He had returned to the eastern side of Jordan, and, having dared to reprove the tetrarch, Herod Antipas, for taking to himself the wife of his brother, Herod Philip, who was likewise his niece, was cast into the fortress of Machaerus, on the shore of the Dead Sea. The rest of his work would be to testify by his patience and suffering to the truth he had proclaimed, and to point the disciples who might still have access to his dungeon to the Lamb of God, now fully manifested to the people. The news of John's incarceration seems to have reached Jesus while he was on his way northward, and perhaps suggested the immediate entrance upon the fuller Messianic- life. The miracles which Jesus had thus far wrought (in Cana, in Capernaum, and in Jerusalem, John, ii. 11, 23 ; Luke, iv. 23), had been simply signs to arouse the nation to recognize his claims ; but now his miracles, more con tinuous than before, are, with few exceptions, the outflows of compassion upon the sick and suffering, and, more than mere wonder-signs, testify to the loving, helping, saving character of his mission. THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. Ill Avoiding Nazareth,* in which he had resolved no longer to dwell, as the unbelief of his townspeople was so deep and bitter, Jesus took up his abode at Capernaum upon the lake, and immediately began to preach the great con summation of prophecy in the proximate establishment of TELL HUM (CAPERNAUM) RUINS. the kingdom of God. The good tidings were the advent of the Messiah, and the beginning of his work. This was the gospel Jesus preached. The gospel his apostles afterward preached was the completed work of the Messiah. . But by both the new heart was insisted upon as the necessary * The naraXntav of Matt. iv. 13, does not refer to a present quitting, but an abandonment in purpose. Also see John, iv. 44. 112 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. means of understanding and entering the divine kingdom. There, on the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali, by the side of the lake, the darkness of Jewish prejudice and ignorance was first steadily shone upon and dissipated by the light of Christ's perfected ministry, and Isaiah's prophecy was fulfilled.* Before his arrival at Capernaum Jesus had again stopped at Cana, perhaps for Nathanael's sake. His welcome was hearty, not only on the score of ancient friendship, but because they had formed a high idea of Jesus from the miracles he had wrought and the conduct he had exhibited at the Passover in Jerusalem. While here at Cana, one of Herod's higher officers, whose post of service was at Capernaum, hurried in upon Jesus, having come the eighteen miles from that town to meet him and urge him to come down to Capernaum and heal his dying son. This is the first instance of a direct and wholly voluntary acknowledgment of and appeal to the supernatural power of Jesus, except by his mother. It was a clear and nota ble instance of a healthy faith in the evidences which Jesus had established in the land, and the truth and power of that faith the Master brings out for the edification of those around him, by suggesting to the nobleman whether more sign-wonders were sought after before the people of Galilee could safely give him their confidence. The earnest appeal to hasten to Capernaum before his child * Isa. ix. 1, 2. THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. 113 dies, which is the nobleman's only reply, shows his perfect confidence in Jesus, and that from no want of faith does he seek a wonder-working. " Go, thy son lives !" are the words which satisfy the father's heart. He knows that the supernatural power has been exerted, and without a ques tion returns toward his home,* on the way meeting his servants, who bore the news of his son's release from the fever at the very moment when Jesus had spoken. The adhesion of this prominent man and his establishment to Jesus had, doubtless, its influence in preserving the Master from interference in his ministry from the court of Herod, almost under the eyes of which so much of that ministry was performed. This miracle acted, like that at Cana in the previous spring, as an awakener of Galilee to the presence of the Messiah. The absence of eight months seemed to make expedient such an announcement of his approach. It was very natural that the people of Capernaum should throng around him when he reached their town, and hang with eagerness upon his words. Not many days after his arrival, we find him by the lake's side, near where two fishing-boats lay drawn up on the beach, the fishermen from which were out upon the strand washing and mending their nets. Three of the five disciples who had been his followers for so many months were among * He travelled slowly, for he was at least eleven hours in going eighteen miles. He may have been obliged to stop at Tiberias, the capital, on business of state. 114 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. those thus engaged. One of the little vessels belonged to Simon and his brother Andrew, and the other to Zebedee and his two sons James 'and John, and all these were partners in the fishery. Since their arrival in Capernaum with Jesus, the three disciples had resumed their occupa- ORTENTAL VESSELS. tion : but they were now, together with James, to be sum moned away from dependence on this resource, and to join their destinies with his. While Jesus stood near Simon's boat, the people collected around him in such crowds, with demands for his instructions, that he requested Simon tG shove off his vessel a short distance from the shore, that THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. 115 from it as a platform he might address the people with the word of God. After this had been done, and he had fin ished his teaching, he told Simon to push out into deeper water and cast in his nets. Simon consented, having, however, little confidence in an}'' success, as he told the Master of his all-night's toil in vain. The result aston ished him. The net began to break by the weight of fish, so that they had to call Zebedee and his sons, with their boat, to their help ; and as the fish were taken into the boats, they both began to let in the water bjr reason of the load. Simon, who was an impulsive man, deeply impressed by the occurrence, the first miraculous act of the Master's which had directly touched his own personal interests, fell at his feet with feelings of gratitude and awe combined. Jesus reassured the excited disciple. "Fear not : follow me, and from this time I shall make both of you fishers of men, and you shall catch them alive as you catch the fish in the net." The words of Jesus so deeply affected Simon and Andrew that they no sooner reached the shore than they abandoned their boat and nets and abundant fish and devoted themselves to his personal service. Meanwhile Zebedee's boat had reached the shore, when his nets were found to be so torn that he and his sons began at once to repair them. But when a few minutes afterward Jesus reached them, and called the two sons to be his followers, as were Simon and Andrew, they left their boat, as the others had done, and were from that 116 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. moment attached to his person. It is probable that Philip, from Bethsaida, and Nathanael, from Cana, soon rejoined him, and permanently united themselves with the other four. This formal calling of the four fishermen from their occupations may be considered as the distinctive begin ning of the second stage of the Saviour's ministry, and with this the first two Evangelists open their account of his active career.* While remaining in Capernaum with his band of followers, Jesus continued to use the synagogue services as points of influential contact with the people, who appear to have acted with far more moderation and respect than those of Nazareth. By these remarkable opportunities Capernaum was " exalted to heaven." The Son of God had become the stated preacher of the town. The neglect of the marvellous advantage forms a sad and natural sequel. The people of Capernaum at this period of visitation loved to hear the Great Teacher, and felt the extraordinary power of his words, that were not formed into the enigmas, fables, and conceits of the Rabbis, but flowed forth clear, strong, and refreshing in the simplicity of truth. They enjoyed the novelty and beauty of the teaching, even though they did not yield their lives to its guidance. Capernaum was no retired country village by a rural lake, but a flourishing and busy mart, the centre * Matt. iv. 18 ; Mark, i. 16, Luke, as usual, has put it out of chronological order. THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. Ill of the life of Galilee. Next to Jerusalem, it was the most active and thronged neighborhood of the land, and, as free from the local pride of Jerusalem, it presented the most apposite field for our Saviour's central labors. The oppo sition to the truth which was to be met with there, was not that of Pharisaic assumption, but the more general opposition of the human heart engaged and engrossed in the busy works of daily life in the throng of a thriving community, where the special prejudices of the Jew would be much modified by the general cares of trade. On one of these Sabbath-days of unappreciated privi lege the services of the synagogue were rudely disturbed by a loud cry from one of the auditors: "Away! what have we to do with thee, Jesus the Nazarene ? Didst thou come to destroy us ? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God." All eyes were turned to the disturber, when the voice of Jesus was heard : " Be silent and come out from him." The man who had made the outcry fell upon the floor in convulsions, and after one fierce shout was quiet and in sound mind. The evil spirit who had taken possession of his body and had provoked him to all impurity, had now fled before the command of the Messiah, a token of the discomfiture and destruction which awaited Satan's empire at the hands of the Son of God.* The entire assemblj" understood the case at once. They doubted neither the demon nor Christ, the possession nor * 1 John, 3-8. 118 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. the miracle. The authority of the teaching was all of a piece with the miraculous power which cast out evil spirits. The people were overwhelmed with astonishment, but of any deeper or more permanent effect we have no record. The account of this miracle travelled through Galilee on the heels of that concerning the nobleman's son, and the wonderful character of Jesus of Nazareth was now the accepted subject of conversation in every hut and palace of the land. The light was put on a candlestick that it might give light to all in the house. From this public scene of manifested power Jesus turned to a more retired and unnoticed exercise of his healing virtue. Leaving the synagogue, he went directly THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. 119 to the house where the four fishermen dwelt together.* It was perhaps Simon's house, f in which he had admitted Zebedee's family as sharers of the house, and we may even suggest that Simon had married a daughter of Zebedee, and sister of James and John. If this be a correct sur mise, then it was Salome, Zebedee's wife, whom Jesus found on his entrance into the house had been seized with a sudden and violent fever of alarming character, and for whose aid the family, who had just witnessed his miracle of healing in the synagogue, eagerly besought his inter ference. Going immediately to her bedside, he took her by the hand, and rebuked the fever as he lifted her up. In perfect health she left her couch, and took her part in preparing the family meal. The knowledge of this cure may not have gone beyond the family in Simon's house, but the healing in the synagogue was known everywhere. Consequently, so soon as the sun had set and the Sabbath was therefore over, a vast crowd assembled about the door, all the sick of Capernaum being brought to Jesus for restoration, and many also whose bodies were possessed with evil spirits.! Amid this waiting multitude Jesus ap peared in the fullness of his sympathy, and by his acts of compassion in alleviating physical distress, gave a signifi- * So I take the fxEtct of Mark, i. 29. f Luke, iv. 38 ; Matt. viii. 14. Yet this may only mean " the house where Simon lived." \ Demoniacal possession I take to be a physical possession. Are not all dis eases inflictions of Satan? Cf. Job's case. Also Luke, xiii. 16; 1 Cor. v. 5; 2 Cor. xii. 7. An actual indwelling is no more incredible than the infliction. 120 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. cant token of the higher meaning of the prophet's words : "Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses." On every diseased body in that throng he laid his healing hand, and by word of command he drove forth from every possessed victim the evil spirit who had afflicted him. Some of these spirits cried out, as they were leaving the bodies whose voices they could use : " Thou art the Messiah, the Son of God ;" but the Master terminated their testimony with their possession. His own words and works, with the teachings of the prophets, were testimony enough, without summoning witnesses from the unseen world. Moreover, the witness of spirits might easily be counterfeited, and on no such testimony was the public mind to rely. Overcome with the labors of this remarkable day, de sirous of releasing himself for a season from the excited people, and feeling the need of retirement and prayer, Jesns arose on the morrow at the earliest gray of dawn, and sought out a wild and uninhabited spot in the neigh boring hills, where he prostrated himself before his Heavenly Father and strengthened his soul in high com munion with his God. As the morning advanced the citi zens of Capernaum were eager to find the Great Healer, with that mingled respect and curiosity which a popu lace exhibits toward the person of a great man. Simon and the other disciples, surmising his place of conceal ment, directed their way thither, followed by a portion THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. 121 of the crowd. On reaching Jesus, Simon informed him of the longing of the people to see him, and many of them soon coming up, entreated him not to leave Caper naum. His reply referred to his work as a preacher of the truth as his main object and the need of his visit to other cities as well as to Capernaum. Taking, therefore, his disciples with him. he left the townspeople and began a circuit of travel through the entire region of Galileo, visiting the synagogues aud proclaiming his Messiahship iu all. and supporting his claims with acts of miraculous healing wherever he wont ; so that far beyond the bounds of Galilee his fame extended into Syria and drew thence throngs of applicants upon his bounty, while every part of the Jewish couutry was represented in the multitudes that daily formed his voluntary escort. All through that picturesque country which stretches from the roots of Lebanon aud Hennou to the lake of Galilee and the groat plain, the voice of Jesus became familiar. Iu the rich valleys ho gathered about him the sturdy husbandmen of Galilee, aud led their thoughts to a higher culture aud a richer harvest tliau those of Issaohar aud Zebulun : and ou the cliffs aud peaks where villages were perched in giddy security, ho told the attentive people of the respon sibilities which belonged to those whom God had placed in conspicuous positions and exalted with peculiar privi leges. His teachings wore eminentlv natural iu their 122 THE OPENLNG OF THE FULL MINISTRY. illustration, but these natural allusions set off truths which had long been concealed from the common mind by being buried under the casuistry of the Rabbis. The spiritual truths of the Mosaic revelation were to be disinterred, as well as the new revelation of the Messiah to be made, and in this way the perfect harmony of law and gospel would be made manifest. The dead formalism which had settled down upon the nation was to be shaken by exciting the truth which lay beneath it, and so the people could receive the spiritual kingdom of the Messiah. The law was a pedagogic servant to lead the nation to him, but this office of the law had been rendered null by the en thronement of the letter in place of the spirit. The spirit uality of the law had therefore to be vindicated, and we hence find our Saviour everywhere disenthralling the public mind from this debasing bondage to the letter, and opening anew to the delighted people the first principles of revealed truth. With such a subject, and with his illustrations taken from the familiar scenes of daily life and experience in nature and society, he was gladly wel comed and heard by the Galileans, removed as they were from the selfish, political, and ecclesiastical interests of Jerusalem. One of the discourses which the Great Teacher delivered during this complete journey through Galilee has been preserved to us probably in its entirety, and in its whole character we see the features of which we have spoken. He had extricated himself from the great crowd THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. 123 and had taken with him the smaller band who professed to be his disciples to some retired mountain district. These more interested and attentive followers he would instruct to a greater extent and with more careful minute ness. In this sermon on the mount he lays the corner stone of the spiritual foundation, which the apostles and prophets of the New Covenant were to complete, on which foundation alone, as received into the hearts of men, could the great truth of the Messianic sacrifice and kingdom ilPPpi JEEEL KAUKAB. rest. It is an error to consider this sermon on the mount as defective because it does not preach Christ, and it is equally erroneous to consider it as a mere code of ethics. It is more than ethical ; it is spiritual, and was, as spiritual, a necessary preface to the preaching of a Christ who was to suffer before he could be preached. It was a prepara tion of the soil for the seed that was so soon to be sown and fill the world at last with its golden harvest. The 124 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY spirituality of the sermon on the mount, as opposed to the mere letter-criticism of Rabbinical teaching, is paralleled by its comprehensiveness as compared with the fragment ary character of the traditionary doctrine. Every phase of the spiritual experience is reached, and all the sources of falsehood are marked with appropriate warning. It may be entitled "a description of the godly man," wherein the principles of the divine life are stated, not nakedly and philosophically, but in figurative language and concrete example, the forms best adapted to impress a true philosophy upon the convictions and the life. It may be considered Christ's expansion and explication of the passage in the twenty-fourth Psalm, which shows the style of man who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah aud stand in his holy place. He began his weighty words by describing God's blessed ones as possessing eight unusual characteristics, when compared with the great world or with the Pharisaic re ligionists of Jerusalem, and to each of these characteristics he affixed a spiritual attainment, which was its logical accompaniment. As sensible of their own spiritual need, to them belonged that heavenly kingdom which was a kingdom of grace, full, free, and exclusive. As grieved by sin, they alone could accept the comfort of the Holy Ghost, which was a comfort arising from pardoned sin. As gentle under provocation, they alone could be the possessors of a genuine peace in this world, and really THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. 125 enjoy this life. As longing eagerly for holiness, they alone were in the true road to holiness. As exercisine a compassionate spirit, they leaned securely on the com passion of their God. As pure in their thoughts and pur poses, their view of God's beauty was clear and refresh ing. As active in the interests of peace, the public con science would recognize them as the true children of God. And as persecuted because of their uprightness, they exhibited a sign of their connection with that divine king dom, hated by the world, but Avhose supply and relief were all-sufficient for its own. y Nothing could have been more antagonistic to the prevailing Jewish idea of a citi zen of the heavenly kingdom than the pungent truths con tained in these eight beatitudes. They overthrew the entire structure of Rabbinical ethics and Pharisaic prac tice. Conformity to this teaching would compel an utter abandonment of a system of pride, selfishness, hypocrisy, cruelty, and strife, the eminently human thing which was in vogue throughout Jewry under the name of religion, and which had been fostered by the false expectations of a political Messiah — an earthly warrior and king. These beatitudes touched the heart as the seat and centre of life, and evolved the kingdom of heaven from that source as a subjective condition in order to an objective possession. It was a hard way for its realization to poor human nature ; but, on the other hand, it put the highest glories of the kingdom within the reach of every soul, and it was this 126 ,;. THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. latter revelation that so surprised and delighted the com mon people. Starting with this deep spiritual foundation, the Divine Teacher proceeded to the consideration of the exaltation and corresponding responsibility that belonged to those, his disciples before him, who professed to have entered upon this new spiritual life. They were the salt of the earth, the lamp of the world ; but salt could lose its savor, and a lamp might, though lighted, be hidden under a bushel-measure. Their usefulness was alike gone, whether they lost or neglected their powers, while, like a city on a hill-top, they could not but be conspicuous before the eyes of the nation, as the followers of the new Teacher. The Messiah had not come antagonistically to the law of Moses, but in exact accordance with that law. That law, so far as it was not local and political, would be recognized as the divine law in the heavenly kingdom now to be established, and its spiritual character should be vindi cated against the Pharisees, Whose righteousness had been founded on its mere letter. Without this spiritual appre hension of the law, not a soul could enter into the divine kingdom. As examples of the Pharisaic abuse, either by omission or addition, the commandments against murder, adultery, and profanity had been interpreted as referring only literally to the act designated in each, while these laws were intended by God to direct the thoughts and affections. Anger was allowed with any degree of vitu- &'i;\ ,- « riffi OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY, |j,, .. , ;12I '•( peration, so long as life was not taken ; lascivioui^pqhauui ', and easy divorces were righteous, while the technical act ' of adultery was avoided ; and the use of God's name in''" oaths might enter into the most trivial conversation, pro vided that it was used only for a true statement or promise. In like manner the great principle of equivalent and homogeneous punishment, which is thrice inculcated as a guide to the judicial action of the nation (as probably typical and indicative of God's unerring justice), had been degraded into a warrant for personal revenge ; and the injunction of love to one's neighbor had been glossed by circumscribing the meaning of the word " neighbor," and then creating the converse proposition, " thou shalt hate thine enemies." Against all these low, carnal corruptions of God's law, which had been framed and sustained under the name of peculiar devotion to that law, his disciples were to be guarded, and in their cultivation of the inner life of God by the use of the spirit of the law they would avoid the vain display, proceeding from a proud self- righteousness resting in externals, which characterized the alms-giving, prayers, and fasting of the Pharisees. They were to remember that God was united to man by the affections and in the heart, and that the life of the heart was known to Him and formed the true character as He accepted it, and that display before man could not deceive God, while, far from being an act of benevolence, it was but a bait for the popular homage. In the Lord's 128 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples at this point of his discourse, he showed them that the stream of sympathy and forgiving love which they desired from God must, if truly received, flow through them upon all mankind, in their sympathy and forgiveness toward all, and that this principle of the dependence of love was wholly violated by the proud selfishness of the religionists of the day. In such a life of spiritual character they would appreciate the great unseen and future world and make their calcu lations and preparations for its enjoyment. A clear and undivided view of that world would fill their souls with peace, while a blind disregard of the unseen is ever fraught with confusion and perplexity to the earthly soul. Any attempt to reconcile the two lives was absurd. A man could not live for this world and yet live for the other. Hence the godly man should not be disturbed by any thoughts regarding earthly provision, as he does not live for earthly ends, but should cast away his care with his ambition, confident that his real necessities will be daily supplied by his Heavenly Father, whom he serves in his kingdom. The tenderness of heart that belongs to one who is admitted to a sense of God's forgiving love leads to gentleness of criticism and conduct toward those who err, that is directly in contrast with the sharp and bitter judgments of the world. Yet, of course, the reason is not to be abandoned in the cause of charity, and those who are manifestly as dogs and swine before the glorious ex- THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. 129 periences of the heavenly life are not to be treated as believers. The soul should be ever found making ad ditions to its spiritual treasures by application to God, from which source of love the supply is unfailing ; and in thus cultivating the spirit of daily dependence, which would extend in modified form toward our fellow-men also, the godly heart would be trained to all kind and benevolent actions toward others. We could not be con sistently askers unless we were also givers. This way of life, with its entire spiritual and divine character so opposed to the prevailing worldliness, was unattractive to the natural heart. It did not present the appeal to the passions which the way of selfish aggrandizement offered. It was a narrow road with a narrow entrance, that sug gested isolation, while the other was pursued by crowds of companions. There would be many who would pretend to teach spiritual truth and many who would even deceive themselves into a supposed connection with it, under the necessity of compromising with conscience ; but their evil lives would disclose the cheat to the discerning (for a spiritual heart must exhibit a righteous life), and the judgment-day would withdraw the veil from the eyes of the self-deceivers. In accordance with this view of the godly life and its necessary connection with the entire being, the wise hearer of the truths of the Gospel would be he who would accept its teachings into his very nature, to act as the motive power of his whole existence. His 130 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. faith would resemble the house built on a rock, that defied the rain, the freshets, and the wind. The mere hearer of the Gospel enjoyed a fancied and fatal security. Before the storm, his house would be laid in ruins and swept away. Such is the general tenor of this wonderful sermon — won derful in its deep views of the relation of man to God ; wonderful in its simplicity of presentation, and wonderful in the circumstances of its preaching amid a people de graded by centuries of materialistic habit under teachers of a lifeless formalism. The multitudes, who seem to have joined him during the delivery of the discourse (which he had begun amid his disciples only*), were equally amazed at his words as at his works. They saw in the humble Nazarene an authority equal to that of the learned doctors, and they beheld a novel mode of simple and forcible teaching wholly foreign to the system of the scribes. The truth was beginning to make them free. At least its liberating influences were felt, and the people were pleasantly moved by the strange sensation. On descending the mountain the crowd that followed him became larger than ever, changing, doubtless, in its individual members, as the Master passed from town to town, but furnishing at every stage of the journey the escort of a multitude, through whom the leaven of his teaching would reach every soul in the land. The num- * Cf. Matt. v. 1, and vii. 28. r/££? OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. bers became frequently embarrassing, so that he eridj&y- ored to check the thronging and keep it within more easy » management, seeking a more healthful diffusion of the truth in the heart of the nation than what a mere excite ment could furnish. The surgings of the people after the person of Jesus, however well meant, would be rude and ungovernable, and often impede the truth by diversion of attention and thought. Moreover, such vast collections of people throughout the country might easily excite the jealous suspicions of the tetrarch, and lead to a forcible interference with the preaching of the spiritual kingdom. For these reasons we find Jesus charging those he healed to say nothing of the miracles, if they were wrought in regions where he was to abide for any length of time. But in that part of Decapolis which lay on the eastern side of the lake of Gennesaret the Saviour even commanded the restored man to publish the miracle to his country men,* for there he was but a transient visitor. An in stance of the other sort, however, is given as occurring probably during this first extended tour through Galilee, which we are now considering. In one of the Galilean towns a leper, oppressed by his loathsome disease, on see ing Jesus, fell prostrate on his knees before him in the street, acknowledged his power to heal him, and modestly sought his willingness. The Master's outstretched hand touching the untouchable, and thereby removing instead * Mark, v. 19 ; Luke, viii. 39. 132 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. of receiving defilement, was answer to his faith. In spite of the prohibition to make known the cure except to the proper ecclesiastical authorities for ritual purification,* the poor man's joj" was so great that he could not restrain his speech, but everywhere told the stor}r, the intense ex citement arising from which obliged Jesus to retire for a season to the less settled districts. These momentary retreats were as full of prayer as the rest of his life was full of good words and works, and were sources of new strength for his continuous and indefatigable application. Even in these he was not long allowed to be free from the curiosity and importunity of the people, who sought him out and succeeded in discovering his hiding-places. There are two more incidents which we believe may be assigned to this passage of our Saviour's ministry, in both of which the false teachings of the scribes with regard to * Lev. xiv . THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. 133 the Sabbath are met by argument and action. The Sab bath, like all the other institutions of the law, had become a prey to the formalists. It was a very inviting warp for their woof of detailed precepts, with which they had en thralled the popular mind. But wherever formalism had placed a burden, there Jesus sought to relieve the souls that were only weakened and degraded by it. At this time the Master and his disciples were spending the Sabbath at a Galilean town. In walking along the narrow path through the suburban fields of grain, the dis ciples began to satisfy their hunger by plucking the ears and eating the grain, according to the established custom which grew out of the law of Moses.* Some Pharisees at once objected to this profanation of the Sabbath, as they styled it, and brought it to the notice of Jesus. He at once pointed them to the example of David at Nob, eating the removed shew-bread ; and that of the priests, per forming the work of the ritual on the Sabbath, as illustra tive of the great principle of spiritual religion propounded by the prophet Hosea : " I desire mercy and not sacrifice," by which no mere external rite was to be so pressed as to injure the cause of divine love, which was the true root of the rite, that cause of love requiring exceptional cases in matters of human help and necessity. Moreover, the Sabbath was not man's master to tyrannize over him, but man's servant to assist him, and Jesus, as eminently the * Deut. xxiii. 25. 134 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MLNLSTRY. Son of Man, was conspicuously the Lord of the Sabbath. If the holiness of the temple were thought to sanctify the apparent transgressions of the priests, much more would the presence of Jesus, who, as the real temple, was greater than the typical structure, sanctify the apparent profana tion of the Sabbath by his disciples. This bold teaching regarding both the spirituality of true ¦ religion and his own superiority to the temple was followed the week after by another sharp lesson on the same subject — the righteous view and use of the Sabbath. While he was teaching in a synagogue, a man who had his right hand shrivelled was seen near the Master. The people had become so accustomed by this time to associate the great Teacher with miraculous cures, that they natu rally looked for a cure in this case. Some scribes and Pharisees, who seemed to be dogging his steps to counter act his influence, were present, watching if he would break the Sabbath by a work of healing ; and as the Saviour approached the afflicted man and bade him arise and come forward before all, they asked him if it was right to heal on the Sabbath, that by his answer, if not bj- his act, they could find a handle against him. For even if he should assent to their view, he would appear as checked from wrong-doing only by their influence, and hence he would be chargeable with rashness — as one not to be relied on. To their question his reply was twofold — first, as to the general principle of doing good which knows no Sabbath, THE OPENLNG OF THE FULL MINISTRY. 135 and then the argumentum ad homincm as to their own con duct in extricating a sheep from a ditch on the Sabbath, which their own inconsistent code allowed. His conclud ing exclamation, in its irony, must have thrilled the crowded assembly with its convincing appeal to common sense, against the petty casuistry of the scribes : "How much better, then, is a man than a sheep ? So that it is lawful on the Sabbath to do well." The interrupters were hushed. With his heart saddened at their spiritual blind ness, he turned his eyes from the one to the other, fixing a stead}- gaze of indignation upon each, and then com manded the man to open his withered hand, which he did. Their signal defeat drove the Pharisees to madness. Where they had expected to shame him and shut his mouth, Jesus had openly defied them and derided them. He had degraded them in the eyes of the people. This was an offence that could not be forgiven, and for which the extreme of vengeance must be sought. There were not many Pharisees in Galilee, but the Herodian party, as advocating the Herodian claims against the further encroachments of Rome, had something in common with the Pharisees, and were numerous in the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas.* The Pharisees, who retired discomfited and enraged from the synagogue, sought out prominent * I do not consider tho Herodians as on the Roman side of politics. The Pharisees would not have sought such allies. It is more likely that they were that numerous party who hoped to see the kingdom restored in its glory under a Herodian Messiah. 136 THE OPENING OF THE FULL MINISTRY. men of this party, who were naturally the most influential men of Galilee, and with these resolved on the destruction of Jesus. Here was the beginning of persecution. The hatred which the spoken and enacted truth of love had excited in this Galilean synagogue was to wage ceaseless war against Christ, and at length erect its trophy upon Golgotha. The path of the Messiah began now to enter among the thorns. CHAPTER VIII. THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP, AND THE FIRST CON TACT OF THE MESSIAH WITH THE GENTILES. Aware of the vindictive conspiracy of the Pharisees, the Master brought his tour through Galilee to a close, and returned to the side of the sea of Tiberias, where his person was more safe amid a population that had become warmly attached to him. Large numbers of the country people of Galilee followed him to his Capernaum home, and by this time there was not a section of the Jewish land, or any country bordering on the Jewish territor}T, that was not represented in the eager inquirers who had come to Capernaum to know more of the great Teacher, Wonder-worker, and professed Messiah. So pressing and exacting was this vast crowd, that Jesus was obliged to keep one of the fishing-boats near him, that he might release himself, as convenience or the necessity of rest might dictate, by taking refuge in the little craft and put ting out into the lake. Yet he continued his miraculous cures, healing every sick patient that was brought before him, and casting out the evil spirits from all who were possessed, in the same manner as he had wrought his won- 140 THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP. ders throughout Galilee. The evangelist Matthew points to the constant order of our Saviour to the cured to refrain from proclaiming him, as the fulfillment of Isaiah's de scription of the Messiah, as one who would make no tumult and show no violence in his career, by exciting the popu lace and disturbing the political quiet.* An instance of the constant and severe pressure upon Jesus is given us in a scene which occurred about this time in Capernaum. He had just returned from one of his tours of mercy and love, and had entered into the house for rest. No sooner was it known that he had returned, than the house was overrun with visitors, and the increasing numbers soon crowded all the avenues to the house-door. Among these curious self-invited guests were a number of Pharisaic doctors of the Mosaic law, some of whom had come even from Jerusalem and other parts of Judea, drawn by the marvellous fame of the Nazarene. For their spiritual benefit Providence would furnish a testi mony which they may receive or reject. While Jesus is teaching these teachers, the tiling over their heads is removed, and eager men let down by ropes a litter with a paralytic lying upon it. This faith again meets its certain reward. Jesus looks on the sufferer, and says, " Cheer up, child ; thy sins are forgiven thee."f The words were immediately noted by the learned Rabbis as blasphemy * Matt. xii. 17-21 ; Isaiah, xii. 1-4. f The paralytic was probably a young man whose disease was the result of excesses. Jesus receives him as a penitent. THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 141 against God, when JesuB added the testimony of physical cure to prove the truth of his spiritual assertion. As the paralytic at the command of Jesus arose from his bed, rolled it up and bore it away between the ranks of the yielding crowd, astonishment filled every mind, and even the critical Pharisees had to give glory to God for what they had seen. On leaving the house at this time to seek the sea-side again, Jesus added a sixth to his number of special followers. This recruit he took from the public office by the water, where the revenue was collected by one of the Jewish tax-gatherers. These publicans were equivalent to the Latin portitores, or underlings of the Roman vublieani, who farmed the revenues of the empire. Both classes were proverbial for their fraud and extortion, and the lower office was reckoned the basest of livelihoods. Among the Jews there was a special reason for abominat ing the publicans, as in helping to draw money from the people for the Roman treasury, they were counted as traitors and apostates, as well as extortioners. They- were ranked with sinners, harlots, and heathens. The Jews declared that with three classes of men a promise need not be kept, to wit : with murderers, thieves, and publicans, and no money coming from them was allowed to be put into the alms-box of the synagogue. No decent man would associate with them, and hence their only companions were found among outcasts. We find that John the Baptist's preaching had reached even this class 142 THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP. of human vultures, and it is likely that the result of his faithfulness was seen in many cases like those of Levi and Zaccheus, who seem to have been made ready for the word of Christ. Jesus had left the house where he had healed the para lytic and had reached the sea-side, where he saw the pub lican, who collected the tax probably for the fisheries of the lake. In that despised character who could see the future evangelist? At Jesus's invitation to follow him, Matthew, or Levi Bar-Haliphi, immediately abandoned his post and gave up his calling for the service of Christ. As the farming of the revenue was managed, this act in volved no loss or embarrassment to the government or to superior officers, for each publican paid for his position and could abandon it whenever he pleased. Such an act as this choice of Matthew for an intimate associate and follower must have filled the Pharisaic portion of the community with contempt of Jesus, and must have shocked the minds of the people. We see, however, no mention of surprise or murmur on the part of the five who had been most closely connected with Jesus, and who had learned to respect his conduct and rely upon his wisdom and righteousness ; and it is probable that the force of our Saviour's works and words was at this time making so full and fresh an impression on the public mind, that even this act, so repugnant to the Jewish sentiment, could not alienate the people from the Master. THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 143 Thus far Jesus had carried on his work of preaching and teaching without aid. He had spent a year from his baptism in establishing his claims as the Messiah, and in laying the spiritual foundations of the gospel of the king dom. But now that this preparatory work had been performed, and all Jewry knew the evidences and the general character of his ministry, the time had come to train a special number of his followers for the proclama tion of the facts and truths of the Gospel to the ends of the world. The Messiah had come for Gentiles as well as Jews, and the truth was to be made known from Palestine (first through the "dispersion") to the entire population of the globe. It was for a world lying in sin and under condemnation that the Son of God had become the Son of Man, and though salvation was to arise "out of the Jews,"* it was to be a stream that should go forth to all nations, that wherever sin had abounded grace should much more abound. It was this characteristic of the Gospel that the prophet Isaiah had emphasized, but to which the Jewish mind appeared to be entirely blind. It was to exhibit this characteristic and provide for the diffusion of the Messianic knowledge to all mankind that the twelve apostles were appointed. Their actual work as the sowers through the world-field did not begin till the great sacrifice was offered up aud a special divine power was communicated to them, but their name was given * kx xmv 'IovSaicov, John iv. 22. 144 THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP. them when they were appointed, as significant of the office whose functions they were ultimately to exercise. They were "apostles,"* or legali, embassadors of God to the whole world, to proclaim the fact of salvation wrought by the Son of God, and to demand the faith of all in order to their eternal life. In order to be fit for this exalted work, a training in the knowledge of Jesus and his heavenly kingdom was necessary. This they were now to obtain. By constant companionship, by repeated in structions, by the witness of his perfect life, by correc tion and rebuke, by losses, falls, and disappointments, as well as by special gifts, they were to be qualified for their all-important duty of founding the Church of Christ. It was apparently soon after the calling of Matthew that the twelve were designated and appointed. Jesus had withdrawn to the mountain region for the purpose. There he spent an entire night in prayer, knowing the imperfections of the men he must choose and their need of peculiar grace, and thus providing for their necessities by his faith. The daylight found him still pouring out his soul before God, when he proceeded from prayer to action, and summoned his disciples about him. While believers in his miraculous powers were numbered by multitudes, those who could bear the name of "disciple" were very few. These formed the inchoate or embryo Church. In the fresh air of the early morning these dis- * Probably '¦ Shaluhim," or " Tsirim," in the Hebrew. THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHLP. 145 ciples gathered around their Master on that Galilean height, when he announces to them his plan, that he should select twelve of their number to be his constant attend ants in view of a course of preaching and wonder-working like his own. More than this they could not understand, and, therefore, more than this he does not tell them. The full character of the preaching, and all its detail of method and circumstance, they were to learn bj7 a process of spiritual absorption, and could learn in no other way. The first in this list of eternal renown whom Jesus desig nated was Simon, who had the year before been saluted as " Rock" by Jesus at their first meeting, and who had already taken naturally the place of prominence among the disciples, on account of his striking force of character. In choosing him as the first of the apostles, Jesus again bestowed upon him the epithet he had used before. Next in order were chosen James and John, the sons of Zebedee, young men of remarkable energy, to whom he gave the title of " Boanerges,"* or " Sons of thunder." Then An drew, Simon's brother, was named. So the four fisher men and associates of the lake stood together in the list. Philip and Nathanael (Bartholomew), the two friends of Bethsaida and Cana, came next. These six had already been attached to the person of Jesus throughout Galilee, and five of them had been with him in Judea. Their apostolic education had been already begun. Next in * Heb. Bene Ragash. 10 146 THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP. order were Matthew, the publican, who had so lately devoted himself to Jesus, and Thomas ; then James, the son of Alpheus (Jacob Bar-Halphai), Simon the zealot, Judas Lebbeus Thaddeus, and Judas Iscariot.* BETHSAIDA OF GALILEE. Of five of these we know nothing regarding their origin and position with certainty. The second Simon had evidently been an adherent of that radical party which opposed the Roman domination and advocated forcible * The names of the apostles in Hebrew (or Aramaic) are : Shimon Kepha, Philippus (Greek), Jaacob Bar-Halphai, Jaacob, Nethanel Bar-Talmai, Jehudah Lebbiah Thaddiah, Johanan, Mattithiah, Shimon Kanan, Andreas* (Greek), Taom, Jeliudah Jissachari. * Perhaps for Kanariah. Heb. from Kanar, to sound, and Jail. THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 147 resistance, a party which started the various insurrections that marked the period between the death of Jesus and the destruction of Jerusalem, a party which, by reason of their zeal for the law, was styled the "Zealots." The second Judas was probably called Iscariot, as a man claiming his descent from Issachar, or having his home iu that beautiful and extensive plain which formed Issachar's portion in Israel. James, the son of Alpheus, and the other Judas were brothers, and it is generally believed were the first cousins of Jesus. We may safely say that all these twelve were men of very humble rank, belong ing to the uneducated class, as did Jesus himself. Yet they were probably all men of great force of character, independent thinkers, men of distinct individuality. Some of them had been disciples of John the Baptist, had been anxious expectants of the Messiah, and in this disciple- ship and expectancy their minds must have expanded and unfolded beyond those of ordinary fishermen and villagers. The school of Jesus was to perfect their educa tion, develop their powers of thought, their spiritual insight, and even their styles of expression, so that^-ye of them should be the permanent teachers of the Church of Christ to the end of time through their writings, in which there should not be found a trace of rudeness or intel lectual deficiency, and all but one were to be qualified to bear the Gospel to all varieties of people with skill, power, and success. 148 THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP. Having in this impressive manner (the time and the place adding to the, solemnity of the transaction) set apart the twelve apostles, the Master descended with his disciples to the plain, where immediately the usual multi tude assembled, and his wonderful works of healing satis fied the urgent demands of those who had brought their sick to his feet. Here he taught them in a strain so simi lar to that of the sermon on the mount, that the two are very generally confounded. But it will be noted that in this discourse, after choosing the twelve, he says nothing to his disciples of their conspicuous and important position in the world, nothing of his own position toward the law, nothing of the falsehood of the Pharisaic doctrine and practice, and nothing of the care of their Heavenly Father for them. So also the four beatitudes respecting mild ness, mercy, purity, and peace-making, are omitted. The discourse does not rise to the height of the sermon on the mount. The beatitudes it uses are those wherein the soul is regarded as in great commotion, as marking the begin nings of the new life rather than its high attainments of spiritual joy and peace, and the one subject dwelt on in the discourse is the right treatment of our fellows. It is true that the phraseology of this discourse is similar to that of the corresponding passages in the sermon on the mount, but this would be a very natural similarity in the repeated instructions of the Great Teacher. But it is also true that in this discourse there are additions with THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 149 regard to the main subject of duty toward our fellow-man, while ever}' sentence of the sermon on the mount, which urges the duty of our personal inner life toward God, is carefully omitted in this. Moreover, there are similar passages in the two, which, notwithstanding the general likeness, have different turns of thought involved in them as carefully compared with one another. And then, beside all this, the sermon on the mount was delivered, as its common designation asserts, on a mountain, while this discourse we are expressly told was delivered in a plain. The sermon on the mount was the more esoteric, if we may use the language of the schools, and intended chiefly for the more advanced and attached of his disciples, who had followed him even to the mountain summit, while this dis course was such part of the former as, with slight modifi cations, was best adapted to and could be apprehended by the masses who had brought their sick to him, and who needed the simpler rudiments of truth. On our Saviour's return to Capernaum, he came into contact for the first time with the Gentile world. It was a fitting time, now that he had selected his twelve legates in view of the universality of the Gospel, to show, by a practical application of his grace to a Gentile, that the heavenly kingdom knew no Jewish limitations. The cir cumstances of the case were these. A Roman army officer, stationed at Capernaum, a man of wealth and benevolence, and attached to the Jewish people and ritual, 150 THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHLP. who had probably become a proselyte of the gate, was deeply afflicted at the apparently approaching death of a favorite servant, suffering with paralysis. Hearing of the return of Jesus, his heart leaped toward this help. With a diffidence that his nationality suggested, he procured CENTURION. certain Jewish elders to act in his name and solicit the Saviour's healing power. There was no doubt either in his mind or in the minds of the elders regarding the power of Jesus, who at once responded to the application and started for the officer's house, near which friends, whom THE INSTITUTION OF THE APOSTLESHIP. 151 he had sent out, met the Master, and in the centurion's name begged him to speak the word of healing where he was. The officer's modesty and humility, which shrank from intruding his Gentile presence upon a prophet of the Jews, for the same reason deprecated the entrance of Jesus into the house, and with this humility went a faith that recognized the power of Jesus to heal by his will and word, without contact or proximity, and to control and order diseases hither and thither as he, the officer, could order the soldiers of his detachment. Jesus called the attention of the Jews around him to this Roman's faith, superior to any example given by the Jews themselves, and from this instance taught the people how, at the last, the Gentiles should be found in company with Abraham, while the children of Abraham should be cast out from the society of the faithful. With this prophetic warning he sent back the officer's friends to find in the restored serv ant the Master's response to his exalted faith. CHAPTER IX. THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES The time which Jesus had to do his Father's will was brief. As his time of preparation had been long and quiet, so his time of action was to be short and intense. His whole life was now filled up with the manifestation of the truth by word and miracle. The world had never heard such exalted teaching, and had never seen such a vast number of wonders concentrated in so small a com pass of time. These events followed one another so fast that their chronological order is of small value, and is indeed impossible to trace with exactness. The Saviour was ever moving from city to city, from village to village. In constant journeys from Capernaum, as his home, the light of his personal ministry was radiated over the whole region of Northern Palestine. An indefatigable activity marked his life. His sympathies were ever aroused for the suffering, and his body was wearied with the labors which these sympathies suggested. Neither the selfish ness nor rudeness of the people could affect that abound ing love which sought their lasting welfare. He looked over their deserts to their wants, as love always does, and when they intruded upon his moments of stolen retire- THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. 153 ment, he met the interruption of his rest not with rebuke, but with the ready response of irrepressible kindness — as one whose very food and sustenance it was to do the will of Him that sent him. On the day after the healing of the centurion's servant, by which he had taught the Jews the union of the Gentiles with them in the privileges of grace, we find Jesus down in the great plain of Issachar, at the foot of Duhy, the moun tain that abuts upon the plain from its eastern side. He had travelled more than twenty miles from Capernaum since the day before, doubtless making the journey on foot with his disciples on this errand of mercy. A little above the plain, on the mountain, is the town of Nain. Jesus and his disciples ascend the steep rocky way that leads to the place. On either side of this road are sepul chral caverns, in which the dead from Nain are buried. The usual crowd accompanies the Master. He had for four months healed the sick of Galilee, and cast out evil spirits by his touch and word, and had by these cures shown not only his power and Messiahship, but also sym bolically his mission and office to heal the diseases of the soul and rescue men from the spiritual dominion of Satan. But there was another deeper truth to be illustrated. Messiah is to be exhibited not only as the Helper but the Creator of the new creation. He is to appear as not only able to right the wrong action of the soul, but to give life to the soul ; and the illustration must now be not the 154 THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. healing of the leper or paralytic, or the casting out of an evil spirit, but the raising of the dead man to new physical life. This new phase of his action and teaching was now to occur. He comes far away from Capernaum to plant this new seed of truth. As Jesus and the disciples, to gether with the following crowd, came near the gate of the NAIN AND JEBEL DUHT. town, a funeral procession was passing out toward the sepulchres. One of the more prominent women of Nain (as the numbers at the funeral show, when we note also that the woman was a widow) was burying her onty son, a lad on whose future manhood her hopes had rested. Her tears, as she followed the bier, attracted the active THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. 155 sympathies of Jesus, and from his full heart he bade her not to weep. When she saw the multitude accompanying him and heard this stout word of cheer, she must have known that it was Jesus, and paused in astonishment and vague expectation. She watches him as he goes up to the bier. The bearers, touched by the sense of his presence, halt. The crowd is mute while Jesus, in the voice of com mand, speaks : "Young man, I say to thee, arise." The body at once sits up ; the mother hears her boy's voice again. Here the curtain falls. We are left to imagine the joy and gratitude of that woman's heart, and the changed character of the procession as it returns through the gate into the town. That way among the sepulchres was made, by the scene of those few moments, more famous than the Cerameicus beyond the walls of Athens. Those words of Christ, at which death yielded up his prey and fled, have sanctified and glorified that quiet spot in Palestine as the scene of a victory unequalled in the prowess of the mightiest heroes. Nine hundred years before, Zarephath and Shunem had witnessed each a simi lar triumph, where the prophets Elijah and Elisha had struck the blow in the name of the life-giving God, as pledges of the reviving power grace had prepared for man. And now once more the barriers of death are thrown down that man may see the fullness of the divine protection and seek its holy refuge, and may apprehend a divine life, which is eternal. Five other places were yet 156 THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. to behold a like exhibition of the death-conquering power of the Word of God— Capernaum, Bethany, Jerusalem, Joppa, and Troas. These nine instances of resurrection from death are all that stand before us with clear outline in the world's entire history, but they are enough for the double lesson of God's power over the physical dissolu tion, and (symbolically) the resurrection of the soul by the same divine power from its spiritual death.* A strange solemnity was added by this event to the mingled emotions of the people. He, whose hand could be stretched out into the dark realms of death and pluck his trophies thence, was one to be regarded with reverence and awe. A great prophet sent of God to teach His own people was this Nazarene after all. The doubts that the Pharisees had begun to throw around him were false. Through all the land of Israel sped the story of Nain, and the surrounding provinces had their attention turned to the country where so mighty a work had been wrought. It was impossible that so stupendous a miracle could be performed without a profound agitation of the public mind. More than ever the towns and villages poured out their thousands to behold the raiser of the dead, and a corresponding intensity marked the opposition and hatred of the ecclesiastical rulers who had been the leaders of public opinion, and who now found their influence under mined and their power derided through the life and * See Coloss. ii. 12, 13. THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. 157 actions of this Galilean. A delegation of scribes is sent down from Jerusalem to Galilee to look into his conduct and thwart his influence. They arrive in time to see him cast out an evil spirit from a man whom the spirit had made blind and dumb. As the restored man's use of eyes and tongue excites the query among the people if this be not the son of David, the Messiah for whom the nation longed, the Pharisees assert, and find some among the crowd to applaud and echo the assertion, that Jesus was himself possessed of the very chief of evil spirits (whom they supposed to be Baalzebub, the Ekron god*), and by his power he was able to perform these wonders. Jesus, hearing their words and understanding their motives and plans, called them near and addressed them pointedly before the people, exposing the folly of their allegations. How could Satan cast out Satan ? Would one destroy his own power ? Or, if there was a division in Satan, then, like a divided kingdom, city, or family, he must fall to ruin and come to his end at once. Furthermore, if his casting out evil spirits proA^ed him to be in collusion with the chief of such spirits, why should not the same argu ment apply to the exorcists, who were disciples of the Pharisees and who pretended to expel demons? The truth was that the finger of God was as evident in the ex pulsion of the evil spirits as it was in the plague of gnats which confounded the Egyptian magicians, and was a clear * 2 Kings, i. 2, 3. 158 THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. mark of the coming of the promised kingdom of God. An evil spirit in a man was like a strong man armed protect ing his own interests in his own house. Only God, who had a superior power to Satan and his hosts, could bind the strong spirit, render his strength useless, and rescue his prey. Whoever was not a sympathizer with Jesus in this work was his opponent, and every one who did not co-operate with Jesus in collecting material for the kingdom of heaven was actually, by his personal indolence and opposition, as well as by his influ ence, scattering that material and retarding the divine work. Such conduct was exceedingly perilous, for while sin of act or word was in general open to pardon through the door of faith in God's grace, yet when a man delib erately set himself to calumniate the Holy Spirit (as they did when they saw His power displaj^ed), he had reached a degree of hardness and hostility against the truth which was proof against all the means of grace. He might even speak evil of Christ himself, and yet the work of the Spirit be encouraged in his heart ; but if he reviled the Holy Ghost, he was rejecting the very root of the divine life, the only power that could renew the heart. That renewal was possible only, it is true, through Christ's work, but Christ's work might be ignored and yet the heart recog nize its error afterward through the teaching of the Spirit ; but if the Spirit was rejected there was no possibility of correcting the error. The good which Jesus had wrought THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. 159 through his year's ministry could not be mixed up with such fearful evil as collusion with Satan except in the minds of deadly enemies to the truth. The good tree and the bad fruit could not be found together. They (the Pharisees) were thoroughly evil, and could no more speak truth and righteousness than vipers could pour forth sweetness and health from their venomous mouths. Where the heart was good the words were good, and where the heart was wicked the words were wicked. Even the useless, trifling words which men should speak would have their part in those exact accounts by which eternal justice regulated the future of the soul. Our Saviour dealt these severe rebukes to the treach erous Pharisees, probably while returning to and in the neighborhood of Capernaum, resting in some house by the way. Those who had accused him of being pos sessed by Beelzebub were silenced ; but another portion of the hypocritical crew attacked him in a more covert way bjr demanding of him a sign of his Messiahship. His yielding to their wish would be to magnify them before the people, and support their exacting pride. Beside, they had had most abundant evidence, not only in the testimony of the whole country, but in the healing of the blind and dumb man, which they themselves had beheld. The demand for evidence of his Messiahship was a mere cloak for malignity, and no motive of sincere inquiry. 160 THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. Our Lord's response to these was as stern and pointed - as his reply to those who accused him of collusion with evil spirits. The askers were a wicked set of men, estranged from God, made incapable by their hostility of appre hending a sign, and he would only point them, enigmatic ally, to the great event of the prophet Jonah's life ; his confinement for three days and three nights in the whale as typical of his own confinement for a like time* in the grave. Jonah was, however, not by this miraculous fact, but by his whole manner and message, a sign to the Nin- evites, who sought no other sign, but repented before his preaching ; and those Ninevites would, in the final judg ment, show by the contrast the righteous condemnation of the Pharisees who had had far more signs and evidences of the divine mission of Jesus than the Ninevites had of Jonah. In like manner the queen of Sheba would be a witness against them, for she yielded her homage to the wisdom of Solomon, and came from a distant land to put herself in a more immediate relation with it, while the Phari sees had before them, in Jesus, far more than Solomon could exhibit that should attract their homage and obe dience. The Pharisees had had a divine light intrusted to them, and they were hiding it away by their devices, as a man might hide a lighted candle under a bushel-measure, so that it should give no light to those who entered the * See note below on the resurrection. THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. 161 house. This truth of God which had been given them was like the bodily eye, which gave all the animation and attractive beauty to the body. When the eye's bright glances are gone, the whole body is in the shade ; but where they exist, they flash their brightness, like the lightning, over the whole person. The Jews had, by hiding God's spiritual truth committed to them, destroyed the very eye of the nation,* which gave. the nation all its divine brilliancy before the world.f The nation had become far worse than it was when God punished it by the Babylonian captivity. Then they had been idolatrous, it is true ; but when, after the captivity, they guarded against that one sin of idolatry, and prided themselves on this purity, they admitted a thousand sins equally as hateful in the sight of God, virtual idolatries, in the hypo critical Phariseeism which had eaten out the spiritual life of the land. Satan had treated them as his evil spirits were accustomed to treat men's bodies, where the divine protection was not sought. An evil spirit, on leav ing a man's body, was wont (as the Jews believed, or as was, perhaps, the actual fact) to pass through waterless regions, seeking rest in vain. Determining to return to the man he had left, he finds him a fit prey iu his security * The Pharisees also were the eye of the nation, made dull and heavy by pride and worldliness, which should have been its light and life. f Luke, xi. I interpret our Saviour's words regarding the eye thus object ively, because the eye is not the body's light subjectively. It does not enlighten or affect the lungs and stomach, but it does enlighten the outward person to beholders by its animation. 11 162 THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. for a new occupation. So he goes and brings with him other evil spirits worse than himself, and they enter in and make the poor man's case far worse than it ever was before.* Just so had the nation been made the more cor rupt from its proud religionism. While dealing these blows against the Pharisees as the prolific sources of the nation's wickedness and woes, Jesus was twice interrupted from very different motives, but used each interruption equally to turn the thoughts of the people to the heart-obedience which they owed to God. The first occasion was that of a woman full of admiration loudly blessing him and the mother that bore him, to whom he replied, "Yea, rather are they blessed who hear and cherish God's word ;" and the other was that of this mother herself, whose lack of faith in her son was a sad response to the former woman's blessing. f The Naz areth family had become either alarmed lest the excite ment he was causing might bring ruin upon them, or were annoyed at the publicity to which they were exposed through his notoriety. They had come out to meet him and expostulate with him, believing he was touched with insanity. On reaching the house where he had stopped, and where his earnest words against the Pharisees had * The tone of this passage (Matt. xii. 43-45 ; Luke, xi. 24-26) is rather that of fact than either a parable or consent to a Jewish fiction. This movement of evil spirits is no more mysterious than their occupation of men's bodies. f This incident is rather hard to reconcile with the theory of Mary's freedom from actual sin. THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. 163 been uttered, his mother and cousins could not gain an entrance, by reason of the dense mass of people surrounding the place. Word, however, was passed in to the Master that his mother and kinsfolk were without, wishing to speak with him. His answer was a repetition of his reply to the good woman who had blessed him, but with an addition of surprising tender ness and pathos. Looking around upon the attached dis ciples who sat close to him, he pointed to them with affection, and exclaimed, " These are my mother and kinsfolk, for those who hear and do the will and word 164 THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. of God, my Heavenly Father, they are my mother and kinsfolk." Though he would not yield to this unadvised conduct of his immediate family, he accepted the invitation of a Pharisee to dine at his house, and ceased his general de nunciation of Pharisaic formalism in order to make a more special and direct denunciation in the smaller circle of formalists whom he would find at a private banquet. His host gave him an opportunity to speak with severity with out breaking the rules of courtesy, by expressing his surprise that Jesus had not performed the ritual ablutions* before reclining at the table. The Master then opened his mouth for the truth against the wretched ritualism that was dishonoring God, degrading the people, and de stroying souls. He addressed the Pharisees as such, and exposed the avarice, fraud, and pride, that underlay their religious exterior ; and a,s a scribe present interrupted to know whether he intended these strictures to apply to the scribes also, he turned upon him with still growing sever ity and accused the scribes of being but bloody outlaws in the sight of God. The depths of their Satanic hate were stirred up by this bold exposure of their defiled hearts, and scribes and Pharisees together pressed him with questions iu hopes of finding in some of his answers matter for legal charges in the civil courts. From this scene at the dinner-table this * Ordained not in the Mosaic law but by the Rabbis. THE CONQUEROR OF DEATH AND OF THE PHARISEES. 165 system was inaugurated which at last led to the trials before Caiaphas and Pilate. Before conscience and the public sense the Pharisees and scribes had been utterly defeated. The worsted opponents of the truth must take refuge in the technics of human law. They now prepare for this retreat. CHAPTER X. teaches his disciples. — storm. — maniacs of gadara. — Levi's feast. — jairus, etc During the Master's severe denunciations of the hypo critical formalists in the Pharisee's house, the crowd without became so vast and dense — numbering tens of thousands — that by its swaying men were thrown down and trampled on. On quitting the dining-hall, where so stern a contest had been waged, Jesus found himself again amid the multitude, his own disciples forming a wall near about him. He immediately referred to what had occurred within, and warned his disciples against Pharisaic hypocrisy, showing that concealment of the true character was impossible, and that the only noble course to pursue was that of an open, fearless confession of the truth, reposing confidence in the divine protection against all forms of opposition, depending upon the Holy Ghost for instruction in times of difficulty, to reject and denounce whom was to seal the fate of the soul. Here one of the crowd called out to Jesus to interfere in a pecuniary difference that existed between the speaker and his brother. The reply of the Lord referred him to the higher objects for which Messiah had come, and re- TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. 167 proved him for his low views and desires. The man who laid up his treasures on earth was a fool, for he was pre paring a substance only for destruction. Again turning to the disciples, he assured them that food and clothing- were all we needed, of worldly goods in this world and these would be furnished by Him who ma,de the life and the body, who fed the ravens and clothed the lilies with out their industry, than whom God's own children were far more precious in the sight of heaven. Anxiety cannot add anything to the length of life ; why then be anxious about things contained in this life. Rather let God provide what is necessary here, and let the whole heart be set upon seeking the divine kingdom, about whose re ception they need not fear, for their Heavenly Father had shown them his grace in order to give them this kingdom. Let the world's treasures be of small account, except to help the needy, and let the heavenly treasures secure their hearts, so that they should be ever watching and in readiness for entering upon their full possession. Peter here interposed to know whether this matter of readiness was urged upon the disciples or upon the whole multitude, thinking probably that it was not applicable to those who had accepted his Messiahship and awaited his kingdom, especially to those whom he had selected as his apostles. Jesus replies that the servant whom he shall appoint to feed his church is blessed only as he answers the descrip tion of readiness and watching already given. Remissness 168 TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. in this (accompanied, as it always would be, by worldly and wanton conduct) would be met by chastisement pro portioned to the willfulness displayed. The demands from each would be according to the gifts of each. Such con duct as this enjoined must produce fierce conflict in the world, tearing asunder the tenderest ties of kindred, and before it could begin Jesus must undergo a baptism of blood. Yet for that baptism and that conflict Jesus could only long, because of its results. Again addressing him self to the multitude, he held up the common hypocrisy of their hearts as exemplified in their constant use of weather-signs, while as constantly they refused to use the signs of God's coming kingdom. Now was the time to be reconciled to the divine justice, which it was folly to neglect. Just then some persons arrived and brought news of some Galileans slain by Pilate, in Jerusalem, while en gaged in sacrificing. Jesus immediately met the popular belief " the worse the death the worse the sinner" by assuring the people that neither these Galileans nor the eighteen men whom the tower in Siloam had crushed to death were special sinners. A like fate, a death subject ively and in all its real features as bad, awaited every unbelieving, unrepenting sinner. The fig-tree that would remain barren after all care had been expended on ir must be cut down. Its continuance could only be for evil. As Jesus continued these teachings, he reached the shore TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. 169 of the lake near Capernaum, where he was soon obliged, by the junction of the city populace to the former crowd, to take refuge, as before, on a fishing-vessel, and address the multitude from its deck. With intentness this host of hearers listened to the exposition of the heavenly kingdom, as the wonderful Teacher gave it in words that were most delightful to their ears, but which they could not under stand, because of their lack of spiritual life. The Saviour had begun now to use parables in his teaching. Sufficient testimony had been given of his Messiahship and his divine authority and power to command the soul of every Jew, and lead it to the study of his truth. That truth ought to be taken as a lamp and put on the candelabrum of their lives. But only a few had yielded to the testi- .mony, and bowed in faith to his guidance and will. To these he would speak plainly. Their hearts were ready for it. But to the rest the mysteries of the kingdom of God should remain mysteries, according to that divine rule by which the receiver of truth should have more given, and the rejecter of truth should lose what he had. Isaiah's declaration* was now, as ever, exemplified, that the truth was received by the unbelieving as a mere para ble or picture, so that they might hear it, and yet not be under the necessity of accepting it as heart-truth. There fore, in speaking parables to the people, he was only * Isa. vi. 9, 10. 170 TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. speaking to them in the language into which they would translate all his teachings, however direct, while his own believing disciples would desire an interpretation back again into direct language, which they should have. This is our Saviour's explanation of his parabolic teaching, which he entered upon at this juncture. Four parables he uttered from the deck of the vessel. He first repre sented a sower casting his seed on the hard pathway, on the, shallow soil over the rock, on the soil where the young thorn-bushes were sprouting, and on good ground. In the first instance the birds picked up the seed, in the second the sun withered the stalk after it had suddenly grown, in the third the thorn-bushes enveloped the growing grain and stifled it to death, but in the last the corn reached per fection. The disciples learned afterward from Jesus that . these four results represented the results of evangelizing in four different styles of heart, the careless, the super ficial, the worldly, and the true. A second parable represented the kingdom of heaven by the picture of a man sowing good seed in his field, and then that seed growing up in a way nobody understood, first as blade, then as stalk, then as fruit, when the harvest receives it into the garner. Into such a field the enemy, however, had come and sown darnel, a plant that so closely resembled wheat, that until the heading out it can not be easily distinguished from it. The servants, who had detected the presence of darnel, and who desire at once to TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. Ill pull it up, are forbidden, because of the mistakes they would make by reason of the similarity. In the harvest the separation shall be made. This parable also Jesus afterward, in the retirement of the house, explained to his disciples as representing the Son of Man sowing the sons of the kingdom in the world, and the devil sowing the sons of the evil one among them. At the end of the dispensa tion of grace the Son of Man will send his angels, and WHEAT-HEAD. they, as harvesters, will gather all that are false and cast them into the fiery furnace of lamentation and rage ; while the just, gathered into the perfected heavenly kingdom, shall shine there with sun-like glory. The other two parables likened the kingdom of heaven to a single seed of mustard in its marvellous disproportion between the size of the germ and the size of the tree-like 172 TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. bush that results, — and to the leaven, which, so insignificant in bulk, spreads so thoroughly and so rapidly through the large lump of dough. These parables, and others not given us, formed texts of instruction to the disciples on which Jesus enlarged in moments of greater privacy, the parables thus becoming, when interpreted to them, valua ble aids in systematizing and illustrating the truth. Just as God had, through his prophets, used the history of Israel as a parabolic teaching to the world,* so now Jesus used the works of nature in the same way, and showed himself in this the great Prophet of whom all the others were but types. When our Saviour had withdrawn from his para bolic teaching at the lake-side, and had entered his Caper naum home, and had there explained to his disciples both the parables he had uttered, and his general intent in utter ing them, he added, as if to exercise them in this new mode of teaching, the parables of the hidden treasure, the pearl- merchant, and the net, in which he further developed the character of the heavenly kingdom. When the disciples assured their Master that they now knew how to interpret for themselves these beautifully-covered truths, he com pared this instruction with that of the scribes, and affirmed that every scribe who should become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven would have to cast away all the merely typical, on which he had prided himself, for the spiritual truth of the kingdom, as the head of a family empties his * See Ps. lxxviii. 2, etc. TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. 173 strongbox of every coin, new and old, in order to exchange them for the food and clothing of his household.* Our Lord had now spent many consecutive days in laborious teaching among the multitudes. From the time he had chosen the twelve apostles and healed the centu rion's servant he had taken no rest. He had gone di rectly to Nain, and from Nain, on his return, had kept up a continual conflict with the Pharisees until he had baffled them, and had then devoted his time to the masses who followed him and to his disciples. Four days of incessant labor may be reckoned as intervening between the elec tion of the twelve and the close of the parabolic teaching. When the evening of this last day had arrived, the ex hausted Jesus proposed to his disciples to retire to the other side of the lake, where there were others to be evan gelized, while the passage across would also afford a time of repose. As they were about leaving the shore, a scribe proposed becoming his disciple and accompanying him. Jesus replied that while foxes had holes and birds had the trees for shelter, he had no place that he could call his own where he could rest. At this -view of a life of destitution and toil the scribe seems to have given up his intention. On Jesus calling one of his professed disciples to accompany him on the new tour of labor in prospect, * The interpretation of Matt. xiii. 52, seems necessary from the three words ypafi/uarevS, ixoc^rfrev^eU, and infidWei. The old interpretation is, more over, harsh. 174 TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. the disciple's heart failed him, and he endeavored to excuse himself by the necessity of attending his father's funeral. The Lord saw through the excuse, showed him that there were enough left to carry his father's remains to the sepul chre, and made this self-denial a test of his faith in him. To another disciple, who desired before starting to make some household arrangements, he replied : "No one who, having taken hold of the plough, looks backward, is well adapted to take part in the establishment of the kingdom of God." In these ways he showed his disciples that he had a toilsome, self-denying work for them to do in establishing his kingdom on the earth, and that it demanded on their part an entire and hearty consecration, from which no worldly interest could allure them. The kingdom was to be established, not in harmony with earthly habits and views, but directly in opposition to all that was cherished and tenaciously held by the men of the world and the teachers of the Jewish people. For such a work Christ wished no coward or halting soul. Dismissing the crowd, who had again assembled as Jesus was embarking, the disciples pushed out with him into the lake, several boats forming the little fleet. Jesus stretched his exhausted frame upon the boat-cushion at the poop of the little vessel and fell asleep. On the pas sage a shock of earthquake was felt, the sea was lashed into fury by a sudden tempest, and the waves broke over TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. 175 the craft and threatened its foundering. The disciples in their terror ran to the sleeping Jesus, crying, "Teacher, Master, Lord, we are perishing ; have you no care for us? Save us." Awaking at these confused and loud cries, his words rang out in the midst of the warring ele ments, "Why are ye cowards — your faith why so small? If ye have any at all, where is it ?'' Then turning to the tempest, he addressed the winds with words of rebuke, and bade the sea be quiet. The storm forthwith was at an end and the surface of the lake was calm. The disciples who had just trembled before the tempest were now filled with awe of their Master, and wondered with one another at this new and striking exhibition of his power over the wild elements. He had healed all forms of sickness, he had cast out evil spirits, he had raised the dead, and now, greater than all in its immediate effect upon the mind, he had tamed the winds and waves with a word. The voyagers reached the opposite shore of the lake near its southeastern corner, six miles back from which the town of Gadara held a strong and commanding position. On quitting the ves sel, the next morning after leaving Capernaum, they were met by two fierce-looking demonized men, the terror of the neighborhood, whose ferocity kept every one away from that quarter. One of them, a Gadarene, was naked. He had defied all bonds, having burst asunder again and again the chains even with which they had attempted to secure him. The pitiable and frightful object spent his 176 TEACHES HLS DISCIPLES. time, night and day, in shrieking and cutting himself with stones, while both he and his companion dwelt among the tombs (which are excavated in the limestone rock, and which dot the cliffs in the vicinity of Gadara) or roamed along the heights in aimless madness. When the demo niacs saw Jesus from afar, the naked one ran toward him and made obeisance before him, crying out aloud, in response to Christ's order for the evil spirit's departure : "What have I to do with thee, Jesus, Son of the Most High God ? I pray and adjure thee, do not afflict me be fore the time." The other demoniac seemed to echo the words, if not imitate the acts, of the stronger and fiercer one. The evident occupation of the man by a demon led to the question by Jesus as to the demon's name, that the disciples might see in the reply the fearful power which the world of evil spirits could exert over man, and would exert if God's grace were removed. "My name is ' Legion,' for we are many," was the reply, using the name of a grand division of the Roman army as indicative of the numbers and the discipline of the evil spirits who, under some demon chief, possessed the body of a single man. It was this chief demon who now replied, and added an earnest entreaty that Jesus should not send them out of the region and order them into Hades. They were desirous of remaining upon the earth, where they could find their human prey. There happened to be a herd of two thousand swine feeding at some distance up the TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. 179 height. Into these swine the demons from both men beg ged to be permitted to enter, and when immediately the permission was given, the whole herd, occupied by the spirits, rushed frantically down the steep and were drowned in the lake. The vast power of the great adversary of our race and his hosts was exhibited in this scene to the disciples, whose work it was to be to raise up a standard against the Evil One. The spirits of evil were seen to be in immense numbers, permeating human nature, and interfering in the daily life of men. They could occupy fleshly bodies of men and animals, and could distress and brutalize the human soul. If the name Legion were to be literally used, six thousand demons could make their home in one man's body. At any rate, there must have been a thousand in each of the two sufferers, as two thousand swine were pos sessed by the demons when they had left their human victims. On the other hand, God's grace has sent legions of good spirits to wait upon his children in this world, and their proximity faith can recognize and use against the " prince of this world" and his multitudes.* The swine herds, seeing the disaster to their animals, and learning the cure of the demoniacs, went hastily to Gadara, pro claiming as they went the strange occurrence, which brought the mass of the population down to meet Jesus. Their curiosity was turned to awe when they beheld * See Matt. xxvi. 23 ; Heb. i. 14. 180 TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. their townsman, before a naked, roaming, raging maniac, sitting peacefully and clothed and in sound mind at the feet of Jesus. This awe, far from leading them to acknowledge the Messiahship of Jesus, and repose their confidence in him as Satan's victor, only ripened into a low superstitious dread of so great a Being, and a desire that he would leave their country. There was undoubt edly mixed with this motive of dread a base worldly greed, which sought to preserve the swine that were left in the land, against whose illegal keeping the destruction of the herd had been a tacit protest.* In the presence of the men from whose bodies Satan's forces had been expelled, they were unwilling to permit the same divine beneficent power to expel the Satanic influences that held possession of their minds. They shut their eyes on all evidence, closed their hearts against all mercy, and drove away the Saviour. As Jesus, thus virtually driven back by the Gadarene multitude, was about quitting the shore in the vessel, the restored maniac sought to go with him ; but the Master, not willing that the region should be abandoned by the truth, told him to return to his home in Gadara, and let the story of his cure operate to turn souls to the source of help. To this the happy man conformed, and became a * The swine must have been kept for food, contrary to the Mosaic law. Lev. xi. 7 ; Isa. lxv. 4, lxvi. 17. TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. 181 zealous preacher of the power of Jesus, not only to his own family but to the entire city. On the return of Jesus to Capernaum, a vast crowd was found waiting at the shore to receive him, through whom he made his way to Levi's house, where a grand entertainment had been prepared for him by the new disciple and apostle, who, only a few days before, had been sitting at his publican's desk. Besides Jesus and his disciples there were many publicans present, friends of Levi, and others who were known as outcasts from the more elevated society of Capernaum. Some scribes and Pharisees were witnesses of this banquet, and were shocked at the sight. They could not appreciate either Levi's motive (which was, perhaps, to bring his fellow- publicans in contact with Jesus, as well as to honor Jesus himself), or the conduct of Jesus in associating and eating with such low classes of the community. With the pub licity which is given to Oriental feasts, these carping spies could find access to the dining-hall without partaking of the meal, and there they could not restrain their indigna tion, but expostulated with the disciples in regard to this breach of decorum of which they and their Master were guilty. Jesus overhearing their mutterings, spoke to them with a rebuke that was mingled with cutting irony : " The strong and well have no need of a physician, but the sick. Go and learn what means, ' I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' for I have not come to call the righteous 182 TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. men, but sinners to repentance." It was to raise up the fallen and restore the sin-sick that Jesus had come to earth. In this work, strictness of letter must give way to the spirit of love ; and the hearts that were ceremonially unclean might be found purified by the truth of God. The irony was in the implication that the Pharisees were the strong and well who needed not a physician ; when, if they had known their true condition in God's sight, they would have been glad to sit by the side of the pub licans and sinners as equally needing the grace and teach ing of the Lord. Still another complaint was ready on their tongues. It was then the time of a fast. Moses had only commanded one fast-day in the year ; but the formalists had multiplied these days and periods of fasting. It was during one of these periods that Jesus was partaking of Levi's banquet. What helped the Pharisees in this complaint was the fact that the disciples of John the Baptist were rigidly observ ing the fast, and some of them even joined the Pharisees in the charge. They seem afraid to rebuke Jesus, and so they ask the question regarding his disciples : " Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast frequently, with set times of prayer, while your dis ciples do not fast, but eat and drink at one time as at another ?" The Lord's reply showed that fasting was a sign of sorrow — that the sons of the bride-chamber (i. e., the groomsmen) could not mourn while the bridegroom TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. 183 was with them — that when the bridegroom should be separated from them, fasting would be appropriate. He thus reasoned about fasting as a matter of expediency, and removed it from the sphere of prescribed duty, where they had put it, and showed that it should be the token and the offspring of a special sorrow. He added, in a still more parabolic style, that no one sews a piece of a new, unfulled garment into an old garment ; for if he should, he would both destroy the new garment, and then make an ugly patch in the old one, which, by the strength of the new piece, would, in the use, tear the old garment worse. And so, again, no one puts new wine into old skins ; for if he should, the new wine would burst the skins and be poured out, while the skins would be ruined. But new wine is put into new skins, and so both the wine and the skins are preserved. By these two figures he showed his questioners, who at this time seemed to have some honesty in them, that the new dispensation of the Mes siah and the old dispensation of types must remain dis tinct ; and any attempt to mingle the two together would only ruin both. The disciples of John (and perhaps some of the Pharisees too) were willing to annex the Messiah's dispensation to the Mosaic. They would preserve the old order of things, and then here and there introduce a Messianic novelty. Our Saviour's language meets that sentiment which was going to be such a hinderance to the Gospel, and which at 184 TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. length would almost entirely confine the Gospel kingdom to the Gentile world. The words are prophetic as well as parabolic. They point to the day when the Mosaic temple ceremonial shall be a thing of the past, and when the new wine shall at length take the place of the old. For awhile the old tasted better to those accustomed to it. But it would not always be so. While Jesus was thus defending what many called his eccentricities, and so attacking the harmful prejudices that prevailed, a man of prominence in Capernaum, a chief elder in one of the synagogues, named Jair, or Jairus, appeared before him, and in great agitation threw himself at Jesus's feet and strenuously besought him to come to his house and lay his hands upon his little daughter, his only child, who at the age of twelve years was in the article of death. Such a touch of Jesus, he was sure, would save her life. Jesus immediately re sponded to the call by rising from Levi's table with his disciples and following the guidance of Jairusv The im mense crowd, that had received him on landing and had waited for him while he was in Levi's house, now swarmed around him again, so that he was fairly crushed in the pressure. In that dense throng was a woman who had been afflicted with a hemorrhage for twelve years, and in her distress had spent her whole property on many phy sicians and suffered severe applications, but all in vain, her disease becoming the worse in spite of medical aid. TEACHES HLS DISCIPLES. 185 Hearing now about Jesus, perhaps for the first time, she instantly seized the truth that he was the physician she needed. Her faith led her, feeble as she was, into that mass of people, and gave her strength to work her way to the Master and touch the border of his cloak. With the touch she perceived that her hemorrhage was cured at once. Jesus, conscious that a miraculous power had gone out from him, turned amid the crowd and asked who touched him. The disciples showed him that all the crowd was pressing upon him, and hence no one could be detected as especially touching him. But as Jesus searched for the recipient of the miraculous grace which had been conveyed through him, the woman, finding that her act had become known, and feeling that she had gained her health from Jesus, in much trepidation fell at his feet and confessed what she had done. She had hoped to have received her cure quietly and have withdrawn. Her faith was greater than her gratitude. But Jesus desired an open application and confession from those who had faith in him. The woman's confession added to her cure the treasure of the Saviour's spoken sympathy and love — " Take courage, daughter, thy faith hath saved thee ; go in peace and be well from thy disease." While this was occurring, some friends of Jairus arrived direct from his house, announcing his daughter's death, and that there was no longer need to trouble the Master. Jesus, hearing; the announcement, met the heart-sinking 186 TEACHES HLS DISCIPLES. of the father with the words, " Fear not ; only believe, and she shall be saved." On arriving at the court-gate of Jairus's house, Jesus permitted only Peter and James and John to enter with Jairus and himself. Within the court and in the house a large number of friends had AN ORIENTAL GIRL. already gathered, and amid much confusion were weeping and lamenting. The flute-players, accustomed to perform at the side of the corpse, had also arrived and were ready to begin their dirge, when Jesus cried out among them all, arresting the attention of each, " Why are ye making this ado and weeping ? let me pass in. The little TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. 187 girl is not dead, but is asleep." The people around, in their assurance of her death, only ridiculed this assertion of the Teacher. He, however, ordered all to leave the house except her parents and his three apostles, and with these he entered the chamber where the child lay. Tak ing her by the hand, he called upon her to arise, and im mediately she arose from her bed and walked before them. In the astonishment of the parents, they were ready to forget their daughter's necessities and to rush out to pro claim the wonder. Jesus checked this impulse, enjoined upon them a strict silence upon the subject, and reminded them that their child, from the long fasting of a diseased condition, needed physical nourishment at once. The in junction of silence was in accordance with that avoidance of extreme excitement which formed part of the holy policy of Jesus. When the Master had left the rejoicing family of Jairus, two blind men followed him, with the Messianic cry of "Son of David," which afterward the Syrophcenician woman and the blind men of Jericho used in similar faith and need. A few days before, when returning from Nain, the people, on his healing the blind and dumb demoniac, had saluted him with this title, which had called forth the bitter charges of the Pharisees. These blind men by the house of Jairus had probably heard of that cure, and now heartily echoed that popular cry. If that blind demoniac was healed, why may not the son of David heal them also ? 188 TEACHES HIS DISCIPLES. They follow him to the house of Peter, where he made his abode, calling for his pity. When in the house he asks them if they trust his power. When they express their perfect confidence, he touches their eyes and uses what may be denominated the formula of the Christian life, "according to your faith let it be to you." In one sense their cure was in their own hands. Their faith was genuine and not a trick of words, and therefore their eyes were opened. Jesus charged them earnestly, but in vain, to say nothing of their cure. Their delight in their new experience burst even the bonds of due obedience to their Saviour. As the restored blind men were going out of the house, a man demonized into dumbness was brought in, whose immediate healing, in conjunction with the raising of the daughter of Jairus and the cure of the blind men, all occurring within a few minutes of time, excited the mul titude to new expressions of astonishment and admiration, and this again led to the renewed charges by the Phari sees of collusion with Satan. CHAPTER XI. SECOND REJECTION AT NAZARETH. — BETHESDA CURE. — SONSHIP OF GOD. Jesus had entered Galilee about the first of December, nine months after his baptism (according to our reckoning), during which nine months he had proclaimed his Messiah- ship in Galilee, Judea, and Samaria, but principally and for the longest time in Judea. That nine months had formed the first stage of his public ministry — the period of his manifestation. He had, on re-entering Galilee after his visit to Samaria, entered upon the second and long stage of his ministry, the period of his instruction. The third period was that of his suffering. Entering Galilee about the first of December, he had spent three months in visiting the entire region, two months in itinerating, and one month in the neighborhood of Capernaum, healing the sick and casting out demons continually, and as continu ally teaching the vast multitudes the truth regarding God's spiritual kingdom. During this time he had selected and entitled his twelve apostles, and had begun his fierce conflict with the proud and corrupt Pharisees. He had also begun the system of parabolic instruction, as a test to the people of their faith in him as the Messiah of Israel. 190 SECOND REJECTION AT NAZARETH. Of the thousands of miracles which he performed during these three months we have a detailed record of only six teen, eight of which were the healing of diseases or phys ical infirmity, four the casting out of evil spirits, two the raising of the dead, and the other two the stilling of the storm, and the miraculous draught of fishes. The time of the Passover was now at hand, and Jesus would again betake himself to Jerusalem, that his work of instruction might be impartially distributed over Jewry. Galilee had basked in the sunlight for three months. It was now time that Judea should be illumined by the rays that had so awakened the land of Zebulun and Naphtali. The year before he had prefaced his visit to Jerusalem by an appeal to the people of his own village. This year he does the same. He spends a Sabbath in Nazareth, where a year before they were ready to throw him off the cliff. He goes into the synagogue as before, and at the propel opportunity addresses his townsmen regarding the inter ests of the kingdom of God. They are not ready to kill him now. They do not fly into a rage and assault him. The intervening year had changed opinion and disposition, Then it was a new and strange thing for their neighbor; the carpenter, to appear suddenly as the Messiah. The few miracles he had wrought at Cana and Capernaum they could deny or explain away. They looked upon him as only a presumptuous, assuming, and blasphemous charac ter. But now all was altered. The whole land was full SECOND REJECTION AT NAZARETH. 191 of his glory. The people, as one man, testified to his miraculous power and marvellous teaching. Even the dead had been raised and the tempest hushed by his voice. It was no longer Jesus, the carpenter, they looked upon. It was Jesus, the wonder-worker and prophet. And yet they could not but remember the long years of intimacy with Joseph's son. They were both awed and perplexed. The abundant evidences of the Messiah aroused their wonder, but could not break through their prejudices. They thought of his mighty works and heard his words of power and were startled, then looked on his brothers and sisters at their side, and said: "It cannot be — it is the carpenter." Where faith was so deficient, confirming evi dences were withheld, according to the law of increase in God's kingdom. Jesus, although he was aware that a prophet's native home is his worst field, was himself astonished at their unbelief, and was unable to perform any miracle among them, except the healing of a few sick,* who had, perhaps, privately appealed to his compassion. The Passover found Jesus at Jerusalem. Of this visit we have the record of but one incident and its conse quences. Near the sheep-gate, on the east side of the city, was a pool (with five porches of rest erected by it) called Bethesda, or the "House of the Outpouring," probably from * It does not seem likely that the woman who had had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years was healed at this time. (Luke, xiii. 11.) I would rather put this event on some proximate Sabbath. It seems to have occurred about this period of the ministry. 192 BETHESDA CURE. the flow of the water. A miraculous effect of the water of the pool had been for some time noticed. A periodic excitement of the surface took place,* after which the first bather in the pool was cured of whatever disease he had. This was one of those " wonders in the earth," which, ac- VffiGIN FOUNTAIN. cording to the prophets, were to mark the times of the Messiah, and which should have prepared the Jewish mind and heart foi the manifestation of Jesus. It was a type of the divine intervention and salvation. Its cure * It seems very likely that the intermittent flow of the " Fountain of the Virgin" is referred to, and that at this time the remarkable healing power (and its eclectic exhibition) was the result of unseen angelic agency. I consider 'ihn, v. 4, genuine. BETHESDA CURE. 193 of the first comer suggested the alacrity which should mark the nation when the great opportunity should come. In the porches around the pool there lay a large number of people — infirm, blind, lame, and paralytic, all watching for the movement of the water, each hoping that he might be the first to go in. One infirm man in this sad array had been thirty-eight years a victim to a disease which deprived him of strength and rendered him well-nigh helpless. When Jesus perceived this cripple and under stood that he had suffered so long, his compassion was kindled. Approaching the sick man, he asked him if he was wishing for health, and for this was at the miraculous pool. The man replied that this was his object, but that he had no friend to help him into the pool at the proper time, and hence others always seized the blessing, and he failed. Jesus immediately cured him, and ordered him to take up his mattress on which he had been lying and use his newly-acquired powers in carrying it forth from the porch. The Jews rebuked the man for breaking the Sabbath in carrying his bed, for it was the Sabbath-day on which the cure was wrought, and probably the great Sabbath-day of Passover week. The man, with instinct ive confidence in his right, asserted that the one who mi raculously cured him had told him to carry his bed. He could not, however, satisfy their curiosity as to his healer.* * Note the style of their inquiry : " Who said ' take up thy bed and walk ?' " — not " who healed thee ?" This shows where their hearts were. 13 194 BETHESDA CURE. The man had not himself inquired Jesus's name. He had been so full of his cure that he had not thought of investigat ing the character or history of his deliverer. And Jesus had become lost to sight in the crowd. Some time afterward, however, he was met in the temple court by Jesus, who recognized him, reminded him of the great change that he had experienced, and bade him avoid the ways of sin, which would lead him to greater distresses than his long and tedious illness had been. Ascertaining at this inter view who his healer was, the man communicated the in formation to the Jews, not aware of the way in which they would use it. It was the immediate signal for persecution and plotting. The Galilean had come again into Judea. He had dared to return to the Holy City. He had begun his pernicious course here by breaking the Sabbath-day. The whole structure of the law, which Rabbinism had so perfected, was insulted and in danger, and the insolent offender must die. The interests of the ecclesiastical rulers and the prejudices of the people were alike touched. Their indignation and hostility were fanned to fury when on confronting the Master he had replied to their expostu lations and threats, " My Father is until now working, and I am working too," thus showing that working with God on the Sabbath-day was consistent with the highest requirements of the law. This familiar manner of speak ing of God, this assumption of a peculiar family re lationship with God, which was equivalent to putting SONSHIP OF GOD. 195 himself on a par with God, exasperated them beyond measure. This madness Jesus met by no attempt to explain away his language, by no denial of the inference, but by a sub lime instruction on the great fact of his divine Sonship. While he makes a clear distinction between the Father and the Son, and makes the Father to be the greater, yet he uses all the more fully that language of familiarity which in a mere man would have been blasphemy, and which had so exasperated the Jews. He first asserts that the Son can only imitate the Father in his acts. There is a grand model — a pattern in the mount — a divine ideal in the incomprehensible world beyond human reason, which the Son copies in his activity. In the love which the Father has for the Son he is ever showing him these sublimated realities, as the pattern of his work upon earth ; and he will show him still greater works, that in their translation into the comprehensible before man, these Jewish hearers may be amazed. Those greater works would be witnessed in the resurrection and the judgment. The Son would appear in both those stupendous scenes as acting by his own will, and yet as the representative and expression of the Father, demanding of all the same honor accorded to the Father. Where this honor is not given to the Son, it is not given to the Father, who is known through the Son. Trust in the Father is found in giving heed to the Son's words. One who so takes heed is at 196 SONSHIP OF GOD. once the possessor of eternal life, and has been removed from the state of condemnation, which was a state of spiritual death. The hour had already arrived when those who were thus spiritually dead should hear the voice of the Son of God and live. For just as the Father is an independent fountain of life, so has he made the Son to be an inde pendent fountain of life, and bestowed upon him, as the Son of Man, the highest judicial functions over the race. The time will come when this judicial power shall be ex hibited in the grandest manner before the universe ; when the dead bodies of men shall hear his voice and arise be fore him, and the great separation between the righteous and the wicked shall then be made. The condemnation of that day, as made by the Son, would be the just judg ment according to the will of the Father, and heard from him by the Son. These declarations of his Sonship and glory with the Father he would not make without evidence. The testimony to his Messiahship, he reminded the Jews, had been ample. He might point to John the Baptist as a witness, but he did not receive his credentials from man. Still he would use John's testimony, for it might have weight with some of their minds, and he longed to have them saved, however their hearts and minds might be reached. The Psalmist had prophetically spoken of John, when he had declared, "I have ordained a lamp SONSHIP OF GOD. 197 (or candle) for mine anointed"* (the lamp being emblem atic of a witness f), and the Son of Sirach had historically spoken of Elijah, who was a type of John the Baptist : FIGURE READING. '' He stood up as fire, and his word was kindled as a lamp."J With probable reference to both these, Jesus declared that John was the kindled and shining lamp, and * Ps. cxxxii. 17. t 1 Ks. xi. 36, and xv. 4. X Sir. xlviii. 1. 198 SONSHIP OF GOD. reminded the Jews how they had for a time approved of his light, while now they rejected his testimony. But John's testimony, after all, was of small importance compared with the works which Jesus had himself per formed. They were incontrovertible proof that the Father had sent him. But besides these, there was the direct testimony of the Father in the Scriptures, the most direct way in which the incomprehensible God could testify to man. Yet the Jews had not that divine testimony in their hearts, or they would have believed in the Messiah. They searched the letter of Scripture, believing that eter nal life was to be found in some magical way, but the Christ there continually testified to they refused to approach, and receive the eternal life from him. Being destitute of the love of God they were carnal, and so had no heart for a spiritual Messiah. With this testimony of the Father, Jesus had come and was rejected, and yet if another, suiting their low, carnal notions and selfish desires, should come, him they would accept. With their debased tastes and affections it was impossible to trust to a spiritual Redeemer. Jesus would not be their accuser before the Father. Moses would be their accuser. The written Word of God, which they had deliberately per verted, would condemn them for rejecting Jesus. The apostle John, who records this address,* gives no more, nor does he tell us the immediate result of this * John, v. SONSHIP OF GOD. 199 sublime claim and these pointed rebukes. Knowing, as we do, the intense worldliness and pride of the Jewish leaders, we may be sure that such words as these stung them to the quick, and excited the vilest and bitterest passions of the human heart. They must have served largely to increase and mature that organization of hatred and malice which was to be the undesigning means of perfecting the Messiah's work through his sufferings and death. Jesus had, before this, taught that he was the Messiah, the anointed son of David and king of Israel. He had now advanced a step in his teaching, and declared himself the Son of God. Those who had not received the first teaching with all its testimony from John; from the mira cles, and from the Mosaic Scriptures, would not, of course, receive the second. CHAPTER XII. MISSION AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TWELVE. Following the evangelical narrative, the scene again shifts to Galilee. Jesus is once more visiting all the cities and villages of that region, as he had done a few months before, teaching in the synagogues and proclaim ing the good tidings of the Kingdom of God, and healing all the diseased. In this way the second summer of his ministry is passed. As he contemplated the wretched condition of the chosen people, wearied with burdensome rites, and plun dered by the exactions of their ecclesiastical lords, exhibiting the fatigued and bruised appearance of sheep that have been wandering foodless and shelterless without a shepherd, his heart was touched with pity, and he exclaimed to his disciples, " The harvest is large, but the laborers are few ; pray, then, the Lord of the harvest that he send forth laborers into his harvest." In this way he kindled a missionary spirit in the bosoms of his apostles, and showed them the work set before his discipleship. It was now time for them to exercise their gifts, and carry out this spirit into practice. Before long they were to be left to sow the divine seed alone, and it was well MISSION AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TWELVE. 201 for them now, under the Master's eye and with his express instructions, to act as the apostles or legates of their Lord, and there learn by practice as well as precept the details of their life-work. Accordingly, calling the twelve apart,* he, by a special bestowment, conveyed to them a miracu lous authority over evil spirits and diseases ; and after giving them instructions for their guidance, sent them forth in couples to proclaim the divine kingdom, and accompany the proclamation with the signs of miraculous healing. The going in couples was a source of strength to the apostles and a surer token of integrity to those to whom they came, and from this beginning seems to have become an established system of the Church. f The instructions given by our Lord to the twelve on this trial of their apostleship were these : they were to confine their visits to Jewish districts, and there proclaim the proximity of the heavenly kingdom. In doing this they were to use their miraculous gifts with large liber ality, not only healing the sick in their worst forms of suffering, and casting out demons, but also raising the dead, as he had raised the son of the Nain widow and the daughter of Jairus. They were not to procure an outfit for the journey, but lean upon the providence of God. They were going with miraculous powers, and a constant miracle should supply them, if necessary. They * Probably in the beginning of winter of the second year of the ministry. f Peter and John, Barnabas and Mark, Paul and Silas, Paul and Barnabas. 202 MISSION AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TWFLVE. who were to communicate to others divine wonders, should have faith in the promise of the divine providence. Hence they should take no money, or food, or pouch to carry food, or two coats,* or travelling shoes (but only sandals), or even a staff, unless in case of emergency. As the Lord's workmen they should be supplied with their living by the Lord in his own way. Whenever they entered a city or village, on discovering the proper man to lodge with, they should not change their lodging during their stay, and should bestow an authoritative benediction upon the house, if it should prove a true home to them. But in case of either house or city that rejected them and refused to hear, they were to leave it and shake off the dust of their feet as a witness against it.f Sodom and GomorrahJ would receive a less weighty condemnation in the judgment-day than a Jewish city so visited with Messianic privileges and yet rejecting them. They were to go with prudence and simplicity com bined ; this was the only way for the Lord's sheep to venture among the world's wolves. The inoffensive char acter of the sheep or dove must be supplemented not by the serpent's enmity and deceit, for that were contra dictory, but by the serpent's prudent use of opportunity. * To wear during the day, instead of xlr<*iy and xXouva, so that at night the X.\aiva might be an extra garment over them, having been carried on the arm all day. f A symbol of renunciation of communion. X Greek form. The Hebrew is " Gh'morah." MLSSION AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TWELVE. 203 They would meet with opposition in their whole apostolic course. At first they would find persecution before the ecclesiastical courts aud suffer personal violence in the synagogues, and then they would be brought before civil magistrates up to the highest ranks of viceroj^s and kings. This persecution would be part of the divine plan of spreading the testimony of the Messiah to the ends of the earth. Hence they should entertain no anxiety regarding these results, perplexing themselves as to the manner or matter of their defence, for this divine work would be superintended in every fact and word by the divine Spirit. The most distressing external circumstances should not disturb them, for the truth in its progress must separate families, so that brothers, fathers, children would become persecutors of Christ's people, and all unbelievers would unite in hating the apostles as the very leaders in the spiritual kingdom. But he who would maintain his posi tion as a witness for the truth to the end would behold the glory of the achieved work with a heavenly satisfac tion. (This was said in the presence of Judas Iscariot, who was to be the single instance of unfaithfulness.) In this matter of persecution, however, they were not to seek it, either from pride or a morbid sense of duty, but to flee from it as far as consistent with their duty of proclaiming the Messiah ; for even then, before they would have visited all the cities where the children of Israel dwelt as scattered through the world, the Son of Man 204 MISSION AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TWELVE. would have come in his judgment upon the nation and the destruction of its temple and ritual service. The days of Israel's visitation were fast drawing to their close. In all their persecution they must remember they are sharing reproach with their Master. So let them fear nothing. They were on the side of truth, which at the last would be vindicated, when the hypocrisy of their perse cutors would be revealed. They were therefore to speak boldly all that Jesus committed to them. As he had before said to them, when first the Pharisaic treachery had come into collision with him,* they were to fear God and not men, for the minutest providential care of the God of the sparrows was pledged to them. The bold con fessor of Christ before men should be confessed by Jesus before his Heavenly Father, while, conversely, the denier of Christ before men should be denied by Jesus before his Heavenly Father. The sword of division must follow the publication of the truth, and then men must decide for Christ as against the dearest relationships of earth. A disciple must take up his cross as he follows Christ. A man who only thought of his temporal safety should lose his eternal safety, and he who held his temporal safety in subjection to higher interests should gain his eternal safety. Last of all, the treatment of the apostles was the treat ment of Christ and the Father. A cordial reception of a * Luke, xii. 4. MLSSION AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TWELVE. 205 prophet (or a just man) brings the receiver into the en joyment of the prophet's (or just man's) own wages. A spiritual oneness is formed by the faith which identifies the two. So whoever treats with kindness a disciple of Christ because he is a disciple, is himself proved by the act a disciple with all a disciple's heavenly privi- OENNESARET. Such were the great principles of the apostolic work as laid down by the Saviour on the first trial of the apostolic gifts and duties. The words have reference only to the twelve, although their spirit belongs to the church of all ages. The details of action belonged to an age of miracles and a special promise for the time, and yet the general 206 MISSION AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TWELVE. teaching with regard to the subordination of all earthly things to the hearty service of Christ is applicable to every soul. These instructions were not intended only for this first and brief apostolic tour, but for the entire apostolic work considered as one. They formed a pro phetic view of the foundation of the church in the blood of the apostles and their Lord, amid the fearful over- turnings, domestic and social, which were to mark the apostolic period of the Christian era. The ref erence to the cross was entirely prophetic and could have had no clear present meaning to the disciples who heard it.* With these words regarding their own dependence on God, the hatred and violence of the world, and the full provision made for them, he sent these simple Galileans forth on the sublimest mission men had ever undertaken. As the most stupendous changes in nature are brought about by causes that silently obey the bidding of the Great Artificer, so the simplest movements of men, that cause not a perceptible ripple on the surface of the broad world, are the divine means of spiritual revolution, extinction, and new creation. When God's great message of salva tion was to be the world's regenerator, upheaving the foundations of society, overturning the mightiest nations, and altering the whole history of man and the condition * See John, xii. 16 ; Luke, xviii. 34 ; John, xiii. 7 ; unless we suppose a mere allusion to the Roman criminal led to execution. MISSION AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TWELVE. 207 of thought, he did not march his legions of angels through the air with dazzling vesture and the noise of heavenly trumpets, and shake the world by earthquake, but he sent twelve Galilean peasants to their countrymen first, and then beyond, to tell a simple story of a son of man who had shown himself to be a Son of God. They were men without fame, without riches, without learning, but strong, earnest souls, in whom the truth would not be compromised by adventitious circumstances, and from whom it would be received only for its own sake. No worldly advantage nor heavenly grandeur should set it off, and thus appeal to false motives and establish a false discipleship. On the contrary, present worldly disadvantage and opposition were made the truth's accompaniment, that the honest soul might prove its honesty by pressing through these obstacles to the truth's embrace. This was the divine philosophy of evangelization as promulgated in the apos tolic instructions of our Lord, a philosophy whose spirit cannot be too often urged upon the Church of Christ in its temptations to adopt the pomp and prestige of title, rank, and riches as its means of growth. We cannot lose by going back to the fountain-head of evangelization and drawing thence the purity of principle and method by which the truth of Christ was to make its conquests, and we may rightly reproach ourselves for the retarded con summation of the glory of the divine kingdom on the earth, by reason of our faithlessness toward the divine element, 208 MISSION AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TWELVE. and our unholy trust in the human elements that have entered into the work of Ohristianization. In this way the Saviour's instructions to his twelve apostles become of immeasurable importance to the church of every age, and demand the careful heed and obedience of every human soul. The Son of God, the express image of the Father, is to be made known to men through no perverting media of human pride or prejudice, but in a simplicity that pride may despise and prejudice persecute — through which simplicity alone can the pattern of the things in the heavens be copied in the hearts and experi ence of man. As the apostles were to go without human pomp, so they were never to seek human favor, and the reason was the same in both cases. The divine wisdom came to give and not receive. It desired neither adulation nor assist ance. A ruined race was to be saved. The messengers of the saving truth sought not what men had, but what men were — not theirs, but them. They went everywhere to bless, to convert, to sanctify. Human favor would only interfere with this divine work ; it could proceed only from compromise, and compromise would mean a reserve of the soul from the Son of God. The Church could never expect favor from man if it was true to God. It could only find favor (if true) by converting the soul to Christ, and thus identify it with itself. The favor of the world is always the condemnation of the Church. There can be MISSION AND INSTRUCTIONS OF THE TWELVE. 209 no concord between Christ and Belial. To evangelize the world is to present the Truth in its simplicity and in its strength, and to leave the consequences to Him whose work we are then performing in his own ordained way. 14 CHAPTER XIII. JOHN THE BAPTIST'S RELATION TO CHRIST. — REBUKE OF THE CITIES OF GALILEE. — AT SIMON'S HOUSE. While the apostles were away upon their special mis sion, two of the disciples of John the Baptist arrived in Galilee as messengers from their master to Jesus. It was probably now mid-winter. Jesus had heard of John's imprisonment by Herod, in the fortress of Machaerus, when he was on his way to Galilee more than a year before. During that interval the continuous series of mighty miracles had been exhibited to the Galileans, and had been followed by the healing of the cripple at the pool of Bethesda, and the later works (unrecorded) in Galilee. The tidings of this marvellous career reached John in his dreary dungeon, and cheered him. His own decrease was soothed by the increase of Him whom he came to proclaim. He had lived thus far to be the herald of the Coming One, and the full development before the nation and the world of that Messiah to whom he had first pointed as the " Lamb of God" the year before, was a joy to his heart — the fulfillment of his life-work. The gloomy prison could not break that sturdy and noble spirit, accustomed to solitude and self-denial, and the ces- JOHN THE BAPTISTS RELATLON TO CHRIST. 211 sation of his own active preaching could readily be borne when the Messiah whom he had preached had himself as sumed the service of announcing the heavenly kingdom. There had never been on earth a more unearthly man than John, and there was none, therefore, to whom a prison would bring less distress and sadness. It was not, then, a condition of melancholy superinducing a doubt of Jesus' Messiahship which caused the Baptist, on hearing of the wonderful career of the Master, to send two of his disciples to Jesus with the question, — "Art thou the Coming One, or are we to expect another?" It was rather to wean away his disciples from himself to Jesus, to pre vent their stopping half-way to Christ to derive their spiritual life from him who was only a Forerunner. That sublime heart, which knew no envy or selfishness in its devotion to the Lamb of God, saw its own joy and peace in His glory, and knew no purpose but the magnifying of Jesus. He recognized his imprisonment as a providential means to turn his disciples more fully to the Anointed One, and he entered heartily into co-operation with this provi dential event. The prison was as good a platform whence to proclaim Jesus as was the desert, and in sending the two disciples he was carrying out the great work for which he was designed from the womb. When John's disciples arrived, they found Jesus en gaged in miraculous works of healing. Diseases and pains were stayed at his word, evil spirits fled at his rebuke, 212 JOHN THE BAPTIST'S RELATION TO CHRIST. and the blind received their sight. The two messengers beheld with amazement what they had never witnessed in their master's company. The reports which had reached them were abundantly confirmed. The testimony of heaven to the Messiah was written so profusely, that there was no room to doubt. This testimony Jesus put into a mm ^n,FHnBmu,nmfiiT f Iri PANEAS, THE VILLAGE. formula, and gave it to the two disciples of John to carry back, not for John's information, but for the instruction of the vast number of his disciples, who needed just this one clear teaching to fulfill the intent of their baptism. The formula was this, — " The blind see again, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, JOHN THE BAPTISTS RELATION TO CHRLST. 213 and the poor are evangelized ; and whoever is not stumbled in me is blessed." The meaning was this : The most con firmed conditions of bodily derangement, disease and decay, are constantly changed by a word from me into conditions of health and vigor. I do these wonders as the Messiah of God. The evidence is the most cogent that can be brought before the minds of men. No honest- hearted man can possibly withstand it. God does not wish any to accept the Messiah on that Messiah's personal dictum only, but these works, stupendous in themselves, and forming part of the Messianic accompaniment as pre dicted by the prophets,* are God's abounding testimony to the Coming One. When John's two disciples had thus received the an swer to their inquiry and had departed to carry it to John, Jesus began an exposition of John's character and position to the multitudes who were surrounding him. The man they had gone out in such vast numbers into the desert to see and hear was no frail reed shaken by the wind, and now, quaking with fear in Herod's fortress, sending to Jesus to have his doubts removed. He was not of that soft, effeminate class who, nursed in royal luxury, are irresolute, timid, fickle, and readjr to despair before calamity. No ! John was of the true prophetic order, and a prince among the prophets, marked in the highest degree with their faith, their heroism, their lofty disregard of * Isa. xxxv., etc. 214 JOHN THE BAPTISTS RELATLON TO CHRIST. earthly motives and manners, and their oneness of sub lime purpose. It was of him that the last of the record ing prophets, Malachi,* wrote, when he announced him as the immediate courier and way-preparer of the Coming King. There had never been upon the earth a greater man than John, in the true estimate of greatness, as con nected with divine knowledge and wisdom. But yet the man who is least privileged in the new heavenly kingdom, with its increased light of truth, is a greater man than John by the same standard. From the time that John appeared (who closed the list of the prophets, himself the Elijah of Malachi), the kingdom of heaven in embryo, first announced as at hand by him, had been assailed by the worldly and formalistic Pharisees, and they had endeavored to draw over its spiritual teachings into con formity with their ritualistic religion, and so plunder the new kingdom of all its essential life. They had been largely successful in uniting John's disciples with them selves in their multiplied fastings and formal prayers, and were so obstructing John's great work, the preparation for the Messiah's spiritual reign. This was thev conduct of the Pharisees and law-teachers, setting at nought God's will to their own destruction, while the common people and the despised publicans received his baptism and so justified God's ways. These words of Jesus demanded their utmost attention, for they involved the most impor- * Mai. iii. 1, and iv. 5. REBUKE OF THE CITIES. 215 taut interests of every soul. The Pharisaic generation around Jesus were like cross and unreasonable children, who, in their play in the public square, would neither dance when their comrades played the appropriate tune upon the flutes, nor perform the usual acts of mourning when their comrades led in a funeral dirge. They were determined to be displeased with everything. John had come an ascetic, separated from society, and they had pronounced him a demoniac. Jesus had come as one of the people in the style of his life, and they had accused him of gluttony and drunkenness and had jeered at his low companionship. And wisdom, finding no support from these selfish souls, had found her justification from those who, however humble, were proved to be her own children by following both John and Jesus. The Saviour was probably standing on one of the heights that overlook the western shore of the Sea of Galilee when he held this interview with John's two disciples and gave this testimony regarding John himself. The sick, whom he had just been healing, had, perhaps, mostly come from the lake towns. Turning, therefore, upon these three cities that glowed and hummed with busy life beneath him on the edge of the beautiful water, he applied the truth of his teaching regarding the rejection of the divine tes timony in rebuke of these privileged cities, on which the full glory of the Messiah had fallen — " Alas for thee, Chorazin ! alas for thee, Bethsaida ! for if in Tyre and 216 REBUKE OF THE CITIES. Sidon had been done the miracles which have been done in you, long ago in sackcloth and ashes would they have changed their course. But I say to you, that the final judgment of Tyre and Sidon will be more endurable than yours. And thou, Capernaum, that hast been lifted up to heaven, unto Hades shalt thou be brought down ; for if in Sodom had been done the miracles which have been done in thee, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you, that the final judgment of Sodom will be more en durable than thine." The repentance of Tyre and Sidon, re ferred to as poten tial under a different treatment, must be understood to be like that of Nine veh under Jonah's preaching, are pentance of the outward, social, and polit ical life, and not a saving repentance of the soul. Tyre and Sidon and Sodom had had a worse fate than the Galilean cities in their earthly history, because they had received less opportunities ; but this would be made up to them in the future world, where the inhabitants of those Gentile cities should have a less fearful experience than those of Capernaum and her sister towns. The Lord Jesus, though so severe in testifying against CHORAZIN RUIN. REBUKE OF THE CITIES. 217 his rejecters, never forgot the affectionate consideration of the humble souls that received him. It was not long after this occasion,* in which he had denounced the cities of Gennesaret, that he poured out his soul in praise to God for his grace to these trusting hearts, and then in words of peculiar tenderness commended his salvation to the people. "I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and shrewd, and didst reveal them to infants. Yea, Father, such was thy good pleasure." Then turning to the people around him, he explains to them the use of the word " Father," as he had explained it to the Jews of Jerusalem: "All things were delivered to me by my Father, and no one beholds the Son except the Father, nor does any one behold the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wishes to reveal him." In this way the inseparable companionship of the Father and Son was asserted, and the need of the people to seek the Father only in and through Jesus. Then followed the tender invitation, which has been a heavenly benediction to so many millions of our race : " Come unto me, all ye that * I presume the mission of the Seventy occurred about this time. The woes against the Gennesaret cities were uttered immediately after giving the Seventy their instructions (Luke, x. 13). The Seventy were probably sent out during the apostles' absence, as examples of unofficial work in the same direction, with the same object in view, to prepare the way for Jesus. They went in the same manner and with the same miraculous powers. Their absence was probably brief, and their return before the apostles'. The words, " I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth," etc., were uttered on their return. (Luke, x. 21.) 218 AT SIMONS HOUSE. labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Lift up my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is useful and my burden is light." In this invitation he addressed the Jewish crowd as on one hand toiling actively in vain, and on the other burdened with a formal ritualism. He offered them labor under his yoke as a set-off to the labor under the yoke of legalism, and declared that such labor as he offered them would bring a rich reward. So the teaching which he offered was not the heavy burden of ritualistic detail which the scribes imposed, but the lessons of gentleness and humility, which would prove a rest rather than a burden to the soul.* At this period of our Saviour's ministry, while the twelve were absent on their missionary tour, we may place the scene in the Pharisee's house, where a woman anointed his feet and gave rise to one of the profound utterances of his divine philosophy. A Pharisee, desirous of being in the popular current which set so strongly for Jesus, and yet proudly contemning the Great Teacher, invited him to his house to dinner, but studiously avoided extending to him the ordinary civilities of such an occa sion — the ablution-water, the kiss, and the anointing. A woman, who had led an abandoned life, on hearing that Jesus was dining at the house of the Pharisee Simon, took * The parallelism should be noted, "labor" — "yoke" — "yoke," and "heavy- laden" — " learn" — " burden." xPV^Toi refers to success in labor by the yoke, and not to the easy wearing of the yoke. AT SIMONS HOUSE. 219 her alabaster vase of unguents, which had been one of the accompaniments and accessories of her sins, and hastened to pour its contents on the feet of the Lord. Bending over his feet, as he reclined at the table, her tears of pen itence flowed abundantly, and as they fell upon him she wiped them away with her dishevelled hair, in her deep NfSliioihSR' | PUTTING THE HAND TO THE PLOUGH. convulsive gratitude kissing the feet on which she emptied the perfume. All this, so dissonant from occidental habits, was in accord with the customs of the East. To embrace the feet of a teacher was a mark of deference and respect, and the woman's conduct was a heart-offering of love and honor to the Master, as well as a public recognition to all 220 AT SIMONS HOUSE. his Messianic claims. There was no objection in any mind that it was improper for a woman thus to act, but only that such a woman should be allowed to do it. The conceited ritualist who had invited Jesus immediately drew the inference from the permitted act, that he could not be a prophet, for, in that case, God would have enlightened him regarding the evil character of the woman. With his whole religious experience an exter nal one, it was impossible for Simon to imagine that the sublimest virtue could take delight in the homage of such a woman, with full knowledge of her history. Jesus per ceived the indignation of his host and well knew its source. He turned to him, and by illustration and question drew from him the acknowledgment that forgiveness causes the greater love in the greater debtor ; and then turning with full face upon the woman, he continued with words addressed to Simon, "Dost thou see this woman? I en tered thy house : thou didst not give me water for my feet, but she washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. Thou gavest me no kiss, but she, from the time I entered, did not cease caressing my feet. Thou didst not anoint my head with oil, but she with unguents anointed my feet. Wherefore, I say to thee, her many sins are forgiven ; and that is why she loves me so much ; but he to whom little is forgiven, loves little." As he followed this with the direct declaration to the woman of her sins' forgiveness, the guests at the table AT SIMONS HOUSE. 221 were startled, but the woman drank into her soul the sweet words, "Thy faith hath saved thee : go in peace." By this striking incident Jesus had shown that a sense of forgiveness was the basis, beginning, and criterion of divine love and spiritual life in the heart. Men were all alike sinners before God, and none could shrink from contact with another as holier than he, except through the ignorance of pride. The only virtue possible to sin ful man was that which came from God with his pardoning grace ; and where this was received the heart was purified and ennobled. Man must empty himself to receive the divine, and any self-righteousness was a rivalry and exclu sion of God. The abandoned woman, humbled and peni tent, resting gratefully with adoring soul upon the mercy of the Lord, was honored by Him who searches the heart, while the precise Pharisee, with spotless hands and broad phylacteries, was utterly ignored in heaven. This practical teaching was most essential for a people so enslaved to an external religion as were the Jews of the days of Christ, which, like all formalisms, utterly subverted the foundations of morality, sustaining and encouraging the callous hypocrite, and driving the con victed and weeping sinner to despair. The Pharisee's righteousness was the current coin of the nation. It passed and was honored everywhere, while the righteous ness of God by grace through faith, which had so marked Abraham the father of the faithful, had become almost 222 AT SIMONS HOUSE. unknown and incomprehensible to his children accord ing to the flesh. Jesus, therefore, in all his ministry, made broad the contrast between the Pharisaic sys tem and God's. He threw great emphasis on the act of faith. He purposely mingled with the outcasts of society, that the great truth of the divine grace might be more conspicuously fastened upon the mind of his disciples, and that he might rebuke the false separatist principles of the proud leaders of the nation.* With marked boldness, and yet with sublime calmness, Jesus enforced the long-buried truth in the very houses and assemblies of the formalists. He did not violate the behests of courtesy, but cast back the truth of God in response to the charges and insults of his entertainers. When, before, at a Pharisee's house, he had been charged with innovation, he threw back the charge by showing that they were the innovators, and by their innovations were ruining God's heritage. And now, at Simon's house, the studious insult of his Pharisaic host had opened the way for his broad comparison of the abandoned woman and the man of pride, so favorable to the former. And while we notice this side of Jesus' teaching and action — this severe rebuke of the conceited religionists, we cannot avoid witnessing the touching tenderness with which he * This Messianic upheaving of established error was a marvel that holy men had longed for, and which was a privilege for the disciples to behold, to the sense of which they could not yet rise. (Luke, x. 23, 24.) AT SIMONS HOUSE. 223 cheered the sad, the readiness which he always displayed to meet their applications, and the hearty zest which ever marked his conduct in their behalf. He loved to show them that divine grace was given them to the overflowing, and that their sins were no barrier to the love and pardon of their God and Saviour, while all that they could do was to accept the blessing at his hands. "Thy sins are for given thee" — there was the unhindered grace; "go in peace" — there was the fullness of that grace ; " thy faith hath saved thee" — there was the key to the grace, so sim ple and so despised by the proud heart of man. CHAPTER XIV. THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND, AND ITS INTERPRETATION. The remarkable career of Jesus in Galilee, extending now over more than a year, had at length by its wonders forced itself upon the notice and attention of Herod and his court. It was a matter that could no longer be confined to the common people, but demanded the regard of every living soul. The easy, worldly-wise, and hollow-hearted tetrarch had, not long after John's message to Jesus, reluctantly and yet most cruelly, to save himself from the reproach of a bad woman, put the Baptist to death in his castle-prison. And now, on hearing of the miracles of Jesus, the Galilean monarch flippantly, and without full belief in his own words, asserts that this wonder-worker was John the Baptist risen from the dead. He does not know, or, if he does know, he does not use his knowledge, that John and Jesus had been contemporaneous, that Jesus had been working wonders long before John had been beheaded. He simply grasps at this interpretation of the fact as more satisfactory to his mind than the other rumors that were current in his court, which made Jesus either Elijah or one of the other old John's Prison. THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. 227 prophets reappearing. He could not suppress his curi osity, and sought to see Jesus for himself and settle the question. He may have had some superstitious fear of retaliation, or he may have had a desire for the discovery that while Herodias had been gratified, John had been after all rescued. Whatever his motives, he endeavored to have a personal interview with Jesus. The news of John's death and of Herod's notion regarding Jesus reached the Master about the time of the return of the twelve apostles from their missionary tour. We may sup pose that they had been absent about three months in their new work. Under the circumstances, to wit, their com pletion of a laborious task, the perpetual pressure of the multitudes around him and the desire of Herod to see him, Jesus withdrew his disciples to the other side of the lake, that they might rest in that less settled region out of the jurisdiction of Herod.* On arriving at the shore near Bethsaida (Julias), not far from the debouchure of the Jordan, they found that the vast crowd whom they had left behind them at Capernaum had, joined by others on the way, passed around the head of the lake by land and anticipated their arrival. The new miracles of heal ing occurring daily kept the popular excitement ever fresh, and the intensity of interest in the person of Jesus was as great now as it had been two years before, when * The east side of the lake belonged to the dominion of Philip, Herod's half- brother. 228 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. he first began to astonish Galilee with his miraculous cre dentials. This continuous excitation of the public mind was the ploughing and harrowing which prepared it for the seed of the Gospel. The supernatural atmosphere in which the Galileans now lived was best adapted to draw out their faith in the words of the Messiah. In the pro- fuseness of the divine testimony the new dispensation of the Son was founded, which should, from this abundant rooting, grow historically, when miraculous accompani ments should be withdrawn. Miracles were not a part of the dispensation's essential character, but were necessi ties of its birth ; nor was the healing of the sick an end, but a means, and that a temporary one, having as its object (or one object at least) the arousing of the public attention, as in no other way could it have been excited. The Galilean portion of the nation were very naturally enthusiastic in their admiration of one who had passed through their country as a benefactor to every household. With the exception of the small Pharisaic element in Galilee, and the prejudiced townspeople of Nazareth, this whole section of Palestine acknowledged the greatness of Jesus, and many greeted him as the Messiah, although their views of the Messiah were very mistaken and worldly. At any moment they would have joined him in a political revolution against Herod, and ardently followed his standard as their chieftain and prince. They all believed his divine mission, but they could not THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. 229 rightly interpret that mission. Their degraded minds could not perceive its spiritual character. He commanded their respect, and even to a large extent their gratitude, but the multitude never could understand Jesus, and this lack of spiritual understanding was the rock on which they were wrecked. In Judea matters were very different. It is true Jesus had spent six months there of the first year of his minis try. He had wrought miracles there, even under the shadow of the temple, and he had taught there the great facts and truths of the Gospel. But around the temple formalism had intrenched itself. Priests, scribes, and Pharisees had established an ecclesiastical oligarchy, full of hatred to divine truth, which was inimical to their pride and assumption. The people of Judea, oppressed by this oligarchy, had not the manliness and independence of the Galileans. They were the dupes and tools of the Jerusa lem leaders. They had not responded to the call of Jesus. They had been either stupid or hostile before his miracles. The Pharisaic determination to make away with Jesus, which had started in Galilee on the bold exposure Jesus had made of their hypocrisy, was very naturally transfer red to Judea as its place of nourishment, and there active plans were formed to destroy him. The Passover was now at hand (the third of our Lord's ministry), when a favorable opportunity would be given 230 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. to carry out their design. He had deeply wounded them at the last Passover, openly rebuking them for their vio lation of the Mosaic. Scriptures, which they pretended to honor. They would have their revenge at this Passover. Because of these machinations Jesus resolved to absent himself from the Passover of this year. His time for service had not yet expired. There was work still to be done, that the Gospel cause might receive no shock by his removal. In another year he would go to the Passover and receive the full fury of his enemies. Such was the condition of things when Jesus found him self on the east side of the lake, surrounded by the multi tudes, whom he had sought for a time to avoid, that both he and the twelve might have some physical rest. Passing up into the barren highlands, they were followed by the crowd, and, when Jesus had seated himself, his compassion took precedence of his fatigue, and, instead of dismissing the people or disregarding their application for bodily cures, he spoke at length to them of the heavenly king dom, which formed the burden of his teaching, and healed all their sick that they had brought with them. This day of intended rest became, therefore, a day of toil. As evening approached the twelve apostles suggested that as the people had been all day without food they ought now to be dismissed that they might disperse them selves among the nearest villages and country estates to find something to eat. In reply to this, Jesus astonished COIN — DENARIUS — PENNT. TEE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. 231 them by charging them to feed the multitude. Turning then to Philip, he tried this ardent apostle's faith by ask ing him, " Whence shall we buy bread for these to eat?" Philip thought only of the neighboring towns, and com puted that then it would require the large outlay of two hundred denarii* to give to each even a partial meal. Jesus then asked how much provision the twelve had with them, to which Andrew, the earliest of the disciples, replied that a little boy with them had five barley loaves and two small fishes, which might satisfy the twelve and Jesus for the night, but were, of course, nothing for the mass of people about them. The weak faith of the apos tles had been now clearly exhibited. Philip and Andrew had spoken for all. That faith was now to be instructed and these divine legates to be taught that where the Master orders a duty, he will not allow obedience to be thwarted by lack of ability, that the supplies of his grace are commensurate with his demands of service. Accordingly, by direction of Jesus, the apostles arrange the multitude on the green grass in groups of fifties and hundreds, so that they can readily be reached on all sides * The denarius of that day being about equal to fifteen cents, two hundred would be equal to thirty dollars, which, among five thousand persons, would give each six mills. 232 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. (as beds are arranged in a garden), by which it is dis covered that there are five thousand men present, besides some women and children who had ventured so far. In full view of this large congregation, thus carefully ar ranged, Jesus took the five loaves and two fishes from the boy, and, lifting up his eyes to heaven, gave thanks to God for his grace to the children of men ; then, as the Son of God, he blessed the food, as commanding its full sufficiency. Then breaking the bread (using a symbol which afterward became so significant), he gave the broken loaves and the divided fishes to his immediate disciples, and they carried them around to the multitude, who obtained a hearty meal under a miraculous influence, plainly recognizable by all. When the meal was over, the disciples, at the command of Jesus, passed again through the seated ranks of the people and collected twelve baskets* full of the remnants that were edible. The conviction that Jesus was the prophet, to whom Moses had pointed Israel (Deut. xviii. 15) and for whom the nation was looking, was impressed upon the whole assembly in the most forcible way by a miracle which touched the experience and comfort of each. They had not only all beheld but had all felt the power that had been exerted. They had been not only spectators, but inter- * The xotpivoi (basket), we see in a fragment of the comic poet Strattis, was a Bceotian measure, containing a little more than a peck. Perhaps this may guide us somewhat in estimating the size of the baskets referred to in the narrative of the evangelist. THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. 235 ested spectators. This feature of the miracle was entirely new. Heretofore the miracles of Jesus had only directly affected a small group on each occasion — the sick man, or demoniac, or dead, and the relatives of the restored. In the two exceptional miracles of the water turned to wine and the calming of the storm, the circle immediately af fected was small ; in the latter case his twelve disciples only, and in the former the few hundred guests of a wed ding. In this latter case, indeed, only a few of the guests could have been spectators of the miracle, and thus have connected Christ's power with the result which they enjoyed. But here, in this third exceptional miracle (which belonged without the sphere of healing, in which the miracles were ordinarily found), we have a vast mass of men acted upon directly and at once. The result was accordingly peculiar. A consentaneous enthusiasm was enkindled to such an extent that it was ready to burst forth in an attempt to establish a new kingdom, with Jesus as monarch. Jesus, perceiving the elements of this move ment at work, lost no time in sending off the twelve in the vessel to the other side of the lake, and then dismissing the crowd to their homes, himself taking refuge in retire ment in the mountain region, where he fortified himself by prayer against these new temptations. The "strong cry ing and tears," which are alluded to by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews,* are probably to be found in such * Heb. v. 7. 236 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. passages of his life as this under consideration, where the strongest temptations were brought to bear upon his man hood, from whose power he was rescued by " Him who was able to save him from death, having been heard by reason of his piety." The disciples, in their effort to return across the lake, had been met by a strong westerly wind which had raised a heavy sea, so that by four o'clock in the morning they had only made between three and four miles, about half their voyage. In the midst of their tedious toil against the gale they were startled by the appearance, in the un certain light of the first dawn, of a human form walking toward them over the boisterous waves. Believing it to be a ghost, they cried out from fear, when the well-known voice of Jesus calling to them allayed their excitement. The impetuous Peter, who had just been trembling at the spectre, asks for a command to meet the Master on the water. He will compensate for the fear by much bold ness. Jesus gives the sought order, and Peter starts upon the stormy surface toward his Lord. But, the wind was fiercer than he had supposed, and his heart sank as he saw the distance still between Jesus and himself. Confi dent Peter is sinking, and Jesus reaches him in time to answer his cry for help and save him from drowning. His weakness of faith has been very apparent to him. The incident has been an important instruction to his soul. As Jesus and Peter entered the vessel the wind ceased, THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. 237 and the rest of the voyage was speedily accomplished. This new miracle, exhibited only to the twelve, called out in their minds a more vivid realization of Jesus as the Son of God than anything that had before occurred, and they fell before him in grateful homage. On the west side of the lake of Galilee is an alcove in the hills, three miles in width and extending inward more than two miles. This beautiful plain is to-day covered with rich verdure, and abounds in wild figs, nubk-trees, and oleanders. In the time of Jesus its fertility was marvellous, and its beauty was enhanced by all the trees of a warm sunny clime, conspicuous among which was the stately and graceful palm. It was on the north edge of this tract (from which the lake received its name, Gen nesaret), near to the town of Bethsaida,* that Jesus and his disciples landed the morning after he had fed the five thousand. His arrival was the signal for the immediate collecting of all the sick of the neighborhood, who sought permission to penetrate the crowd sufficiently to touch the border of his garment. The permission, always given, was followed by the cure. This was the invariable scene in Galilee during these months of Messianic manifestation. Every household carried the touching testimony to its hearth-stone. * The disciples started for Capernaum (John, vi. 19), directly west of their place of embarkation, but they were deflected by the northwest wind from their course, and therefore landed at the northern extremity of the plain, near Beth saida (Mark, vi. 45-53). 238 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. Later in the day of our Lord's arrival at the plain of Gennesaret, the multitude who had been fed by him the day before arrived in search of him, and were sur prised to discover him on the west side, as they knew no boat had left the east side except that in which the apos tles had sailed. Marking their zealous attachment to his person, he answered their curiosity with a spiritual ap-' plication of the miracle which they had witnessed and enjoyed the previous day. It was a showing of the pro found meaning of that miraculous feast. We cannot sepa rate this remarkable discourse (as given in the sixth chapter of John's gospel) from the miracle. It follows immediately in the narrative, and historically it was the very next utterance of Jesus to the people, and to the same people who had been so deeply impressed by the miracle. This connection of the discourse with the mira cle is most important, as showing the deep spiritual mean ing that underlay our Lord's actions, corresponding to that which underlay his words. There was an esoteric as well as an exoteric significance to his verbal and his practical teaching, and he endeavored to lead the public mind through and by the one to the other. He who saw in the feeding the five thousand only an act of kindness and a lesson of human charity, saw but a part, and the smaller part of the truth there expressed. Our Lord teaches us that himself as the Bread of Life was exhibited in that miraculous sustenance, and leads us by this expla- THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. 239 nation, to accustom our hearts to search beneath the surface of this life and teachings for the richest treasures of his truth. His words to the Jews on this occasion may be thus paraphrased : "Ye follow after me from one side of the lake to the other, simply to have your physical wants supplied. Ye do not come to receive God's truth from his accredited Messenger, but ye desire the bread, which I only used as a means to draw you to higher things. Now alter your conduct. Seek not the earthly bread as your chief aim, for this is expending your immortal ener gies on a matter of only temporary consequence ; but give your zeal to the acquisition of the spiritual food, which has an eternal value. It is that heavenly food I can give you, and for that purpose God the Father has accredited me with such abundant testimony before you." With the legal sentiments so common to the heart and so resistant to the notion of God's free gift of salvation, they ask what work they can set themselves to as the work which God would desire of them, and as wages for which they could obtain this heavenly food. Jesus then con tinues : "The only work which God wishes of you in order to your getting this heavenly and eternal suste nance is, to put your confidence in me as his representa tive." With wonderful blindness of heart these Jewish hearers demanded a sign that should be as grand an exhibition of divine power as the giving of the manna to 240 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. their fathers. The miraculously augmented bread of the day before was not enough. They must see the bread lying around them on every side. It must be a spectacle as well as an experience. To this sad exhibition of unbe lief Jesus replied (not by way of apology, but by way of instruction) : " The manna was only a type of the heavenly food. The real bread of God is now descending from heaven and giving life to the world." As the people cry out here for the gift of this bread (probably in a spirit partly sincere but carnal, and partly ironical), the Master goes on: "I am the bread which gives this life. He who puts his confidence in me shall be supplied. Ye have had the opportunity abundantly given, but have neglected it. But I shall not be without confiding souls ; the Father's purpose shall be fulfilled. Some will come to me as his gift to me, and I shall never cast them away, but I shall accomplish his will, which is to raise them up as one united body of the saved in the last day, when the final awards of justice and mercy shall be made. [Here the hearers muttered the old Nazarene objection, " How can this son of Joseph say he has de scended from heaven ?" to which Jesus alluded as he con tinued.] These mutterings are of no value. The difficulty with you is that you refuse to hear God. Your hearts are alienated from Him. No one can come to me, and be raised by me at the last day, except he be drawn b_v the teachings of the Father according to the prophetical words THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. 241 of Isaiah.* Those teachings, as given in the Scriptures, you practically despise. They are the teachings of the Father. For no one has seen the Father except the Son. His teachings, however, are given to you. Again, I tell you that the soul which puts its confidence in me is the possessor of an eternal life — that I am the bread of life. Those who ate the manna died. That bodily food could FIG FOUNTAIN. not perpetuate the body. But this spiiitual food which I am to the soul of man does perpetuate the spiritual life. This food is my own fleshly life — my human condition — which is offered to the world as its true life. [Here again there were indignant or doubting questions put among the crowd as to the manner in which it could be possible foi Jesus to give his fleshly life to men to eat. Not that they * Isaiah, liv. 13. 16 242 THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. now thought that he meant a literal eating of his flesh, but that they could see no satisfactory meaning to the language. Whereon he continued with emphasis.] This is the great truth I have to enunciate, that my flesh and blood received as man's spiritual food and drink can alone bestow eternal life. Between such a participant and myself there is a mutual and mystical indwelling. He who in this high sense partakes of me as his spiritual food shall find his life in me as I find my life in the Father who sent me. This is what I mean when I tell you that I am the bread which has come clown from heaven, which gives eternal life, and of which the manna was but a type." At the conclusion of this teaching, many of his professed disciples were staggered by the bold utterances, especially by the statement that he had come down from heaven. In relation to this he did not argue, but hinted to them that they would see him ascend into heaven ; and in relation to the doctrine he had taught of eating his flesh, he reminded them that his words were to be interpreted of the spiritual life, — that they should not be stumbled by the mere letter in which the great spiritual truth was clothed. He further asserted that he was aware (as he had been from the very beginning of his ministry) that there were unbelievers among his disciples, and on this account he had so emphasized the truth that there was no true coming to him except through the teachings of the Father. He wished to put on their guard THE FEEDING OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. 243 those who accompanied him and called themselves disci ples only for selfish or earthly reasons, and who had no conception of the heavenly kingdom. This plain state ment and rebuke sent off many conscience-smitten fol lowers, ashamed to call themselves his disciples any longer. When Jesus turned to the twelve and put the question " Do you also desire to go ?" — a question to test their appreciation of his connection with the Father, — the prompt reply of Simon Peter formed a commentary on the words of Christ relating to the giving and drawing of the Father — "Lord, to whom shall we go away? Thy words give eternal life. And we have put our confidence in thee and know that thou art the Messiah, the Son of the Living God." It was a sad appendix that Jesus added to this noble confession, announcing that even in that little circle of twelve unbelief had fatal possession of one heart — one apostle was a devil. So hard was it for faith to find root in the sin-absorbed heart of man. CHAPTER XV. TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. Jesus had not gone up to the Passover at Jerusalem, because of the preparations that had been made for his seizure and death by the hierarchs and their adherents. These desperate men were disappointed of their prey. In Galilee they could have no power against so popular a teacher, who, although so entirely misunderstood, was so prized by the simple people of that region ; but in Jerusa lem they could easily arouse the mob against him, and bring a sufficient pressure on the Roman authority for his execution. Not finding him at the Passover, their plans are completely disarranged, and a new device is con ceived. A band of scribes and Pharisees will go into Galilee and excite the popular mind against Jesus through religious prejudice. They will attack him on some prac tical point, where prescribed custom is against him, and where the universal sentiment of the people is shocked. The constant lustrations, established by human authority but confirmed by ages of habit, formed a ground of preju dice from which they could hopefully make their assault. A Pharisee with whom Jesus had dined some time before TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. 245 had been deeply offended by his neglect of the preliminary ablution, and the Master had made this incident the base of his most severe denunciation of the hypocrisy which the leaders of public sentiment had substituted for religion. A like reproof was now awaiting the Jerusalem delega tion. He unmasked their hypocrisy, and showed them that while so zealous for the traditions of men in things external, they were utterly regardless of God's spiritual commandments. Indeed, their traditions actually annulled the ordinances of God, and took the place of the divine institutes. The corban system, by which neglect of parents was permitted through an ecclesiastical device, was an instance. Then turning to the multitude around him, and addressing them in contradiction and defiance of the Pharisaic position, he assured them that it was not anything external that could defile a man (the thought which formed the foundation of the lustration system*), but that all real defilement proceeded from an impure heart ; that thus not the food which entered the mouth but the speech which came out of the mouth was the defiling power, with regard to which we had to be on guard. When his disciples told him of the horror mani fested by the Pharisees at this sentiment, the only apology of Jesus was the plain assertion that every doctrine or practice which was human was to be rooted up. The blind * The lustrations commanded in the Mosaic law being typical, have only an apparent antagonism to this position. 246 TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. leading of the Pharisees would only take their blind fol lowers into ruin. Their teaching must, therefore, be stoutly opposed at any hazard. It may have been to be rid of these interfering Jerusalemites, to foil them in their plans and send them back to their fellow conspirators, that Jesus withdrew for a time from his native land.* It is the only recorded absence from Palestine during his public ministry, and was as brief as the circumstances demanded. His place of temporary retirement was the region of Phoenicia, from which many had come to hear him and to be healed during the preceding year (Luke, vi 17), a land which had originally been marked by the divine gift as a part of Israel's possession, but which the people had always neglected to occupy. There seems, however, to have been a close affinity between the Phoe nicians and the Jews (see 1 Kings, v., and xvii. 9), their language being almost identical. Our Lord on withdraw ing to Phoenicia endeavored to preserve an incognito, but the attempt was fruitless. His person and works had become too well known to permit his concealment. 'Even Phoenicia was full of the trophies of his healing grace. It was not strange, then, that here, as in Galilee, but little rest would be given the Master. One scene is given us by two of the evangelists. A native of that Canaanitish land was in deep affliction. Her little daughter was pos- * That Jesus actually crossed the frontiers I think is clear from the words of Matthew (xv. 21), eiS rd fieprj Tvpov uai SiSdavoi. TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. 247 sessed by an evil spirit, who prompted the child to de grading impurities. The mother's heart leaped with hope when she heard that the Great Healer was in her country. She hastened to the village where he was staying, and entering the house, cast herself at his feet, crying, "Be merciful to me, Lord, Son of David — my daughter is M |®li?sSasStes VIEW, SIDON. sadly demonized." This recognition of Jesus as the Son of David showed an enlightened heart of lofty faith in Israel's Messiah. To this earnest and urgent petition Jesus was utterly silent, so that his disciples even inter fered and begged him to grant her request. He seems to have arisen and left the house without noticing her. As 248 TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALLLEE. she followed him with her entreaties the disciples made their appeal. He answers them by assuring them his mission was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They seem to be convinced by this reply, but the woman is not. She presses her cry for help. He then turns to her and speaks for the first time, but it is only to present a new obstacle to her application. The children's bread, must not be given to dogs. Her lively faith bounded immedi ately over this repulse. Even the little dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their masters' tables. This triumph of trusting humility is crowned with its appropriate honors. The fullness of the Saviour's compassion and sympathy is turned upon her and his words remove her sorrow. " 0, woman, great is thy faith ; be it unto thee as thou wishest. For this word, go. The demon has left thy daughter." The persistent suppliant goes back to rejoice with her restored daughter in the peaceful fruits of faith. It is remarkable that the two cases of most con spicuous faith toward Jesus during his ministry were those of the Roman centurion and the Syro-Phcenician woman, aliens to the commonwealth of Israel. These in stances should have been prominent tokens to the disciples of the un-Jewish and universal aim and destiny of the Gospel of Christ, and yet some years later the case of Cornelius, miraculously assisted, was necessary to impress the great truth upon even the apostolic mind. TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. 249 On leaving the region of Tyre and Sidon, Jesus returned to Palestine by the north and east of the lake of Gen nesaret. In the country of Decapolis, lying principally on the eastern side, he spends some days. While there a man who had lost his hearing, and whose speech had con sequently become very imperfect, was brought to him by friends, who asked the imposition of Jesus' hand. He refused to heal him among a crowd ready to be excited, and thus by their false enthusiasm thwart his great object. But his compassion found a secret opportunity to effect the cure. There were some noticeable features in this healing. Jesus put his fingers into the deaf man's ears ; he then touched his tongue with his hand moistened with spittle, and looking up to heaven groaned while he uttered the command, " Be opened." These signs were language to the deaf man, who could hear no words from Jesus. They called his attention to the source of healing and elicited his intelligent faith. They were also, as signs, helps to the faith of his disciples — new modes of tracing the course of the power from Jesus to the disease. The groaning was that of earnest prayer, the mark of the necessary effort in lifting the human soul toward God. As the deaf man received his hearing and his tongue was unloosed, Jesus enjoined silence upon him and his friends regarding the miracle, as it was now important that there should be no public excitement created, which might bring upon him the interference of Philip and Herod, as well as 250 TEMPORARY WLTHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. the Pharisees. But the injunction was in vain. They not only disobeyed the command, but the more strenuously published the case because of the command, perhaps attributing the prohibition to a false modesty, and anxious to show their gratitude. Whatever may have been the reason, the news of the miracle produced the usual result. The whole country brought out the sick and suffering to the feet of Jesus. The scene that had been so often enacted on the west side of the sea of Galilee was now witnessed on the east side. The dumb spake, the bent were made upright, the lame walked, and the blind re ceived their sight, while the multitudes were wild with excitement at the sight, and glorified the God of Israel. For three days the crowds hung around him, amazed and , fascinated by his words and works, until their provision failed them, and it was necessary for them to leave the highland, to which Jesus had retired with them, and seek their homes. The feeding of the four thousand with seven loaves and a few small fishes, and the taking up of seven baskets full of the remnants, occurred at this time. The place of the miracle was not far from that of the similar miracle, where the five thousand were fed a few weeks before, but the persons were different. Then they were the inhabitants of Capernaum and Bethsaida, who had come around the head of the lake to meet Jesus, but now they were the inhabitants of Decapolis. The design of the miracle, beyond its present relief of physical want, was TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. 251 probably the same as that of the former, and may have been followed by spiritual instruction that is not recorded. There is a peculiar impressiveness in these twin miracles. There is a strange beauty in their outward form. The green hill-side, dotted with the grouped peasant^', under the fair summer sky of Palestine — the Saviour standing before them, lifting up his e}'es and hands in thanksgiving to the Father — the twelve apostles waiting by his side to receive the growing loaves and carry them to the glad multitude — these form a picture of touching gracefulness to any heart possessed of ordinary human sympathies. But to one who looks deeper into the symbolic charac ter of the scene a grander thought is present. He sees 252 TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. the Son of God giving himself as Son of Man to sustain the souls of his people. He sees the broken body ac cepted by a simple faith. He sees the transcendent truth, the human and suffering Jesus received into the heart and nourishing it to fullness amid a desert world. It is an Oriental teaching of peculiar power, and we must endeavor to place ourselves in an Oriental atmosphere to receive its full force. When Jesus had dismissed his Decapolitan followers and had returned to the west side of the lake, he met near Magdala,* at the south end of the little Gennesareth plain, a company of Pharisees ready and waiting for him. His absence in Phoenicia and De capolis had not turned them from their purpose. They had kept their eye upon him, and now at once atta,ck him, as he lands again in Herod's dominion. They were at this time joined by a number of their bitter antagonists, the Sadducees, who were the materialists of the Jewish Church. The fact that the Sadducees were now joined with them is proof of the earnest determination of the Jerusalemite persecutors. It must have been a strong objective effort that united such discordant elements. At this time they did not dare accuse him as before of trans gressing the human traditions which had been so injuri- * Called " Dalmanutha" in Mark. I suggest that this word was originally Magdalmanutha (Heb. migdel-menath, " Tower of the portion"), and that the place was the same as Migdal-el of Josh. xix. 38, the Kartan of Josh. xxi. 30, and the Kirjathaim of 1 Chron. vi. 76. The " portion" would refer to the Levit ical portion, for this would make it a Levitical city. TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. 253 ously mixed with God's law. They had been so signally discomfited before when pursuing that course of attack, that now they must trjr a new method. They knew that even those who had seen his miracles, and who applauded them, had sought a more striking sign from him. They will join in this cry, and so secure the popular mind on their side. They meet Jesus, therefore, as he arrives on the western shore, with a direct demand for a sign from heaven such as Moses and Elijah had shown, some appear ance in the visible heavens that should overwhelm the minds of all with its material magnitude. It was a demand not only based on the baldest unbelief, but also suggested by a malevolence that expected the opposition of the Galilean people to Jesus as the consequence of its denial. The reply of Jesus accused them of gross inconsistency in seeking further signs, when far less indications in nature they observed and acted upon with undoubting faith. He thus showed their wicked motives in their de mand, and with a deep sigh at their obduracy, gave them the same reference to the type of Jonah he had formerly given the Pharisees who had first assailed him more than a year before with the same solicitation for a sign. The reception by the Pharisees showed it to be impru dent for Jesus to continue in Galilee, and he accordingly returned straightway to Decapolis, probably on the very day he had arrived on the western shore. A very marked and sad exhibition of the feeble faith of the twelve apos- 254 TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. ties at this time is given in their concern regarding a supply of food when now with Jesus in Decapolis. Some figurative words of his, warning them against the false teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees whom they had so lately encountered, were supposed, from the use of the word "leaven," to refer to the fact that they had brought only one loaf with them from the west side, and to chide them for not having supplied the deficiency. He recalled the scene of the previous day, and the similar scene of a few weeks before, when multitudes had been fed by him in the very country where now they were. He reminded them of the miraculous supply then furnished, and the superabundance at his command. As he rehearsed those wonderful acts, the minds of the disciples were rebuked and enlightened, and they saw that his theme was a higher one than that of earthly food. Bread for the body God would provide. The leaven of falsehood and hypocrisy, as taught by specious formalists, was to be carefully avoided by the followers of Christ. As they passed through the Bethsaida* of Philip the tetrarch (which that monarch had made his capital, under the name of Julias, in compliment to the daughter of Augustus and wife of Tiberius) Jesus was petitioned to touch a man who had lost his sight. Perhaps the people were thinking too little of the source of the wonderful * To be distinguished from Bethsaida, the city of Philip the apostle and Peter and Andrew, which was on the west shore, near Capernaum. TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. 255 healings of which the land was now full, and were making as little of the cures as if they had only to use a mechan ical process and obtain them. They were, by a natural materialism, losing the higher view and higher influence of the miracles. Jesus, therefore, does not meet their wishes by simply touching the blind man, but leading the man out of the village, he uses a formal method, as with the deaf man a short time before in the same region, and divides the process of cure into two parts, a partial res toration, where the man expresses himself as seeing men walking like trees as they move with the wind, and the full restoration, with clear and distinct vision regained.. This lengthening of the process of cure would cause the beholders to dwell more upon the efficient cause aifj(£' correct the tendency to a blank superstition. The happ^ man was bidden, as the deaf man had received a similar^' injunction, to say nothing in Bethsaida regarding his cure, and not even to enter the town while Jesus was near by, the importance of preventing excitement being now very great in the plan of Jesus for the closing months of his manifestation in Galilee. It is interesting to note this precaution, to see the Messiahship assuming human conditions and adapting itself to ordinary human methods and consequences. The human view of Jesus is never defective. The divine never interferes to mar the perfectness of his manhood. Artists put a halo around his head upon the canvas, but 256 TEMPORARY WITHDRAWAL FROM GALILEE. they do this as artists, not as historians. The life of Jesus was eminently a human life. God bore witness to it, but Jesus lived on earth a man, and not a God. He asserted his divinity, and the Father bore witness to his truth, but he exhibited a humanity. He eat, and drank, and was weary as others ; he was sad, he prayed with tears and sighs, he sought release from the nervous excitement caused by a pressing multitude, he avoided persecution by leaving the country — in every way he conformed to the dictates of human necessity and human wisdom. He never called in the aid of Omnipotence to help him in dif ficulties, nor was any divine help offered him that was not offered to his disciples — as Paul. It is deeply significant that while thus yielding to the demands of a human nature (most really, and not phenomenally), he proclaimed his eternal Godhead, which was now mysteriously unused, the use of which would have marred his complete humanity, aud made an infinite gulf between himself and man which no sympathy could have bridged.* The incidents which occurred shortly after the healing of the Bethsaida blind man exhibit conspicuously these important features in the character of our Lord's person ality. In retirement with his apostles, he gives these chosen attendants a closer view of the Messiah than that which he bestowed on the unbelieving multitude. * See Appendix. CHAPTER XVI. CJESAREA PHILIPPI. — TRANSFIGURATION. The upper valley of the Jordan presents very striking and peculiar characteristics. It is a separated district, shut in by hills and mountains, and in its more northern portion abounding in wild and picturesque scenery. After leaving the lake of Gennesaret, the traveller, going northward along the course of the river, finds a winding- way among hills for ten or twelve miles, which leads him 17 258 CESAREA PHILIPPI. out upon the plain of Huleh. The Bahr-el- Huleh, or Waters of Merom, lie before him, occupying about two miles of the plain in each direction — the plain itself ex tending across from the heights of Galilee to the Iturean cliffs, in a width of five or six miles. For ten miles beyond these waters the vast marsh of the Huleh extends, cover ing most of the plain, to the northeast of which, in an alcove of the Iturean country, lies Banias, Paneas, or Caesarea Philippi. Eight thousand feet above this roman tic spot rises the glory of Hermon, and from its base gushes forth the most copious fountain of the Jordan, spreading luxuriance and beauty over the surface of the valley. Another fountain of the Jordan is found four miles to the westward, at the ancient Dan, while still a third lies far away (thirty miles perhaps) up in the mountain plain of hollow Syria, whence it winds down around Hermon by gorge and rapid to join its fellows in the Huleh marsh.* It is no marvel that the ancient heathen dedicated this wild and charming nook to Pan, the god of rocks and grottoes. Man instinctively looks about for a god in such a spot. The aspects of nature call him out from himself and fill him with awe ; he hears an unearthly voice in the echo, and sees strange forms in the obscurity of the forest and the cavern. The god whom the Greek- thinking peo- * This isolated region seems to have been early withdrawn from Israelitish influences, if they ever were fully felt here. CESAREA PHILLPP1. 259 pie of antiquity associated with such scenery was Pan, and hence the great grotto of this valley was sacred to that god,. and the little city bore his name. Here Herod erected a beautiful temple of white marble in honor of Augustus ; and Philip the tetrarch, Herod's son, enlarged and embellished the town, changing its name from Paneas to Caesarea Philippi, in honor of the Roman emperor and himself. Over the ruined site a huge castle,* the most remarkable fortress in Palestine, still stands upon its height, a relic of the old heathen age. It is readily seen that the mountains of Galilee and Iturea, rising only a few miles apart, and the mighty mass of Hermon, spreading along the north, make this upper Jordan valley a district of seclusion. To this region Jesus now withdrew with his twelve apostles, to lift them to a sublimer contemplation of his person and character before the days of humiliation, suffering, and death should arrive. It was their prepara tion for that hour. The first scene revealed to us of this passage of the Messiah's ministry is the introduction to the others. The little band had retired to a quiet mountain-side for prayer, when, after their devotions, Jesus had asked his disciples of the common opinion concerning himself and they had replied that the public mind was divided between three theories — that he was either John the Baptist, or * Here is situated the modern town. 260 CAESAREA PHILIPPI. Elijah, or one of the prophets of the canon. Jesus then put the question for which he had asked the former, — "And who do you say that I am?" Simon's eager answer was an outburst of a full faith, — "Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the Living God." The Saviour's prophetic benediction was the response to Simon's holy ardor, — " Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonas, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee, that thou art Rock,* and on this rock I shall build my church, and powers of the unseen world shall not prevail over it. And I shall give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever thou mayest bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever thou mayest loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven. "f After this remarkable blessing, he enjoined the apostles to say nothing to others at that time concerning his Messiahship. He had given evidence enough of the fact, but men had either denied it or so warped the idea that it had no just proportions in their minds. Now the proclamation of his Messiahship was to be no more made. Moses and the prophets on one side, and his own miraculous career on the other, were enough. His own apostles shall be instructed according to their degrees of faith, but the nation at large can only be ap proached with the original call, " The kingdom of heaven is at hand." * See p. 85. \ See p. 281. CESAREA PHILIPPI. 261 The apostles, who had now made confession of their faith in their Lord, are at once to have that faith tried. The believing will be strengthened through humiliation and rebuke ; the unbelieving Judas will be driven farther from the Master by this testing process. He now for the first time opens the subject of the passion. He seeks to remove all thoughts of temporal exaltation from their minds, to place their hopes on a higher spiritual and heavenly plane, and thus to separate them more com pletely from the world as the apostles of the heavenly kingdom. Accordingly he tells them plainly that his work in Galilee is nearly finished, that he must shortly go to Jerusalem, there to suffer at the hands of elders, ruling priests, and scribes, and that this suffering must result in his violent death. And then he adds the strange intimation that on he third day he should be raised from the dead. No preparation was sufficient to prepare his disciples for the shock of this announcement. Not comprehending the concluding assertion regarding the resurrection, or else slighting it in unbelief, the picture of ruin only is placed before their minds. This intercourse with Jesus, which they had supposed would be perpetual, must cease. Their kingdom of heaven was a dream. They had ex pected opposition on the way to glory, but now they are to expect opposition on the way to death. The great work on which they had entered was to ter- 262 CESAREA PHILIPPI. minate in suffering and ignominious death of their Master. The little college of apostles is well-nigh destroyed by the announcement. Consternation and despair shatter their former prospects and jeopard their stability. One of their number will not allow such an alternative. He will put forth his hand to the ark and keep it from falling. Simon the Rock, on which the Church of Christ was to be built, will now prove himself and steady the shaking structure. He grasps his Master by the garment and expostulates with him: "Nay, Lord, nay! this shall not be." Simon speaks for the rest, and he receives the re buke for the rest. His faith had shown itself in his for mer confession ; his pride had shown itself in this latter action. Before, he leaned on the Master, and humbled himself ; now, he exalted himself to oppose the Master, All the apostles, except Judas, had doubtless sympathized with Peter's confession. It is probable that all, including Judas, sympathized with his expostulation. The rebuke with which Jesus meets the rash, unbelieving words of Peter is intensely severe. Its first portion is a copy of his withering rebuke to the devil himself at the last temptation : " Get thee behind me, Satan, for thy thoughts are not the thoughts of God, but the thoughts of men." Such conduct as this of the disciples, and such a state of heart, taking human views of the spiritual kingdom, were hostile to that kingdom's establishment, and a direct help to Satan's adverse efforts. Simon the Rock, on whom, CAESAREA PHILIPPI. 263 with the other apostles,* the Church was to be built, had now become, by his unbelief, the very mouth-piece of Satan. He would stop the very suffering that was to redeem the world. The severity of the rebuke, so needed by the deceitfulness of unbelief in the human heart, is modified by the instruction which follows, which was addressed to the multitude, who had now approached him, as well as to his disciples. It was an earnest appeal for the higher life, where earthly considerations would lose their power and spiritual truth would be realized. " Let every one who wishes to follow me deny himself utterly, and let him take up his cross and follow me. [This allusion to the cross he had made before, in giving their instructions to the twelve, when he sent them on their missionary tour.f] For whoever is desirous of saving his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's shall find it. For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and suffer loss in his own life or lose himself? Or what ransom-money shall a man pay for his life when it is lost ? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then shall he repay to each according to his conduct. For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this apostate and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and that of the Father and the holy angels. Verily I say unto you, there * Eph. ii. CO t See p. 206. 264 CJ2SAREA PHILIPPI. •are some of those standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."* In these words he lifted them to the consideration of life in its higher sense. The life of this earth was of small account and not to be cared for in the wishes of the heart. WINNOWING. The only life to be regarded was the life which was con cerned in the eternal judgment ; and the salvation of that life was connected with a readiness to sacrifice the earthly life for Christ's sake and the spread of his gospel. The judgment-seat of Christ was to mark the termination-)- of that kingdom which was ere long to begin with power, the * The " coming in his glory" and the " coming in his kingdom" are different The latter occurred at Pentecost — the former is still future. f 1 Cor. xv. 24-28. CESAREA PHILIPPI. 265 beginning of which would be witnessed and comprehended by some of those then present. The reference in this was, doubtless, to the coming of Christ by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ at that time. The teaching which our Lord had now given his disci ples was calculated to prepare them for the course of per secution and suffering which they were personally and especially to experience — not by stoically steeling their hearts against the coming evil, but by fixing their thoughts on the unseen realities which persecution could not reach, and leading their lives up to the higher plane of spiritual activity and enjoyment. Three of the apostles stood forth conspicuously in the strength of their faith and ardor of their devotion. They had been admitted to witness the raising of Jairus' daugh ter from her bed of death, when the rest were excluded, and now they were to receive a still stronger support for their hopes in a more vivid revelation of the glory of the Master. It was a week after the instructions just consid ered that Jesus selected Simon and the two sons of Zebe dee from the apostolic band and journeyed with them to a lofty mountain summit, probably one of the bastions of the mighty Hermon. On that height prayer was to open heaven, as it had been opened to Moses and the elders of Israel,* and the dark present should, before the * Exod. xxiv. 9-11. 12 266 CAESAREA PHILIPPI. disciples' eyes, receive some of the rays of the brilliant future. The gloom of night enshrouded the little company as they knelt upon the solitary summit, far from the sounds of busy life. The murmurs of the wind, the cry of the jackal, and the night-chirpings of the insect world were all that interfered with the voice of Jesus as he prayed with his three disciples in that solemn place and hour. His prayer was, doubtless, for the furtherance of their faith, and its answer was at hand. Suddenly a dazzling radiance shone forth from the face of Jesus, and his gar ments becoming snow-white, reflected the marvellous bril liancy. The sudden light revealed the forms of two men at the side of Jesus. They are talking with him, and the apostles can hear the subject of the conversation. It is that very death at Jerusalem of which he had so lately spoken to their weak faith. The apostles, though wearied and inclined to sleep, are aroused to Wakefulness by this glorious display of the divine presence, and recognize in the two friends of Jesus the persons of Moses and Elijah.* They are bewildered with amazement at the revelation and keep silent through fear. At length, as the two prophets begin to withdraw, Simon, not knowing what he said, proposes to erect three tents, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah, that they might all continue * There were probably conventional representations of these two great pro phets among the Israelites, to which their persons conformed. C-ESAREA PHILIPPI. 260 there. But while Simon was speaking, the brilliaucy was extinguished and a dark cloud took its place, covering them with its deep gloom aud filling their hearts with terror. From this cloud came the voice that had been heard by Jesus at his baptism — " This is my Beloved Son." But now it was addressed not to Jesus, but to his disciples, and hence the added words, " hear him." The three apostles fell on their faces in the excitement of their fear, when the touch of Jesus aud his words " Arise and fear not" reassured them. They were alone with him. The face of nature appeared as before. It was the mountain height, the quiet night, and the eonipauiouship of Jesus. that had takeu the place of the glory, the cloud, the voice. and the prophets. The display of the divine testimony to their Master which they had now beheld was the crowu- iug scene and teaching of the retirement within the wild district of Ctvsarea Philippi. The three favored apostles were to keep this revelation to themselves uutil Jesus should arise from the dead. This was his injunction, whose terms perplexed them. They could not yet under stand the allusion to a resurrection. They were also puzzled with regard to the teachings of the scribes, based on a literal interpretation of the words of Malachi. that Elijah was to return before the Messiah appeared. The appearance of Elijah on the mount had suggested the train of thought. The glory they had witnessed certainly belonged to the Messiah and none else, but how could 270 CESAREA PHILIPPI Malachi's prophecy be fulfilled ? Messiah had come, but Elijah had not, except just now, two years after Messiah's appearance, when he had appeared only to the chosen three. Jesus replied to their perplexity by showing that John the Baptist was the Elijah of Malachi,* and added that he had been his forerunner not only in the proclama tion of the heavenly kingdom, but in suffering and dying for that kingdom's sake. On the morning after the transfiguration, Jesus and his three disciples are descending the flank of Hermon. At the foot of the mountain they find the other nine apostles surrounded by a crowd, who, under the leading of some scribes, were disputing with them. When the multitude beheld Jesus they were struck with astonishment, some of the effects of the heavenly glory being probably visible in his face, as had been the case with Moses under similar circumstances. f Running to him, they saluted him with reverence, and on his asking the cause of their disputation with the apostles, one of their number, kneeling before him, besought him to look mercifully upon his only son who was a grievous lunatic, often falling into the fire and the water, and who was subject to the attacks of an evil spirit that had made him dumb, under whose influences he foamed at the mouth, gnashed his teeth, and became dry like a corpse. The petitioner added that he had brought * The words of Jesus seem to denote that before each of his comings an Elijah prepares the way. \ Exod. xxxiv. 29, 30. C-KSAREA PHILIPPI. 271 the boy to the disciples of Jesus, but in vain. They could not cure him. Iu sorrow and rebuke the Master exclaimed at the want of faith, and the distorted religion which the failure to cure the lad and the disputations which had ensued indicated as prevailing in the whole generation of Cod's privileged people of that day. Low views and motives were actuating the minds of the multitude and the apostles also. They did not rise to the dignity aud self- denying grandeur of the Kingdom of God. With this Jesus called for the sufferer, who was immediately brought. The evil spirit made one of his violent assaults upon the poor lad in the Saviour's presence. The wretched crea ture rolled on the ground foaming. Jesus asks the father how long his son had been thus afflicted. The question gives the father a new opportunity for petition. He tells Jesns that his son had been subject to these distressing attacks from his early boyhood : he refers to the terrible scenes through which he had passed under the epileptic influences, and then iu weak faith that was almost despe ration, he cries : '"If thou art able to do anything, have compassion and help us." The reply of Jesns is to encour age the little spark of trust : "If thou art able to believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." The father caught at the words, was raised up by them, aud ex claimed through his tears: "Lord. I believe — help thou mine unbelief." Then followed the last efforts of the evil spirit, the lad lying as if dead, and the out- 272 CAESAREA PHILIPPI. stretched hand of Jesus lifting him up to activity and health again. When at their next resting-place, in the retirement of a house, the apostles anxiously inquired of him the cause of their inability to cast out the demon. They had cast out many demons when on their special tour* among the Galilean towns. Why should this power now leave them ? ^&?mR PANEAS — THE SOURCE OE THE .TORl>AN. The reply of Jesus shows that then they went in fresh faith, relying on his words of promise. Now they had relied on themselves. Their faith in him had evaporated. ' If ye have faith as a seed of mustard, ye will say to this mountain, ' Remove hence to yonder place,' and it will remove, and nothing will be impossible to you." A per- * Mark, vi. 13. CAESAREA PHILIPPI 273 feet reliance on the Lord's power was the requisite they lacked, and that reliance was the attribute of an earnest character, which found its natural outflow in profound exercises of divine communion. This is what I under stand by the words — "This kind goeth not forth but by prayer and fasting." This kind of demon was of the most malignant sort, and a serene and triumphant faith was necessary to expel such. There are gradations in demoni acal character, and there are on the other hand gradations in a godly faith. We are too apt to ignore the influence of the former in human diseases, and the influence of the latter in their cure. This ends the record of this episode of our Saviour's life in the quiet district of Caesarea Philippi. He had gone there to prolong his absence from Herod's jurisdic tion, and to prepare his apostles by higher teachings for a higher career. He had taken Simon's confession as the text of his instruction, and his teachings had culminated on the mount of transfiguration, where the heavenly glory had dwarfed the sufferings of earth into insignificance. Implicit reliance in the Son of God had been shown to be the key to spiritual progress and spiritual power. We may suppose Jesus spending the month of August in this isolated region, from which he returns for a few clays' sojourn in Galilee, and then follows his departure to attend the Feast of Tabernacles at Jerusalem. 12* CHAPTER XVII. THE LAST DAYS IN GALILEE. We have seen how both Herod's interest in Jesus and the plottings of the Pharisees had rendered his abode in Galilee insecure. With the exception of a few days' absence at a Passover* in Jerusalem and the prudent withdrawal into Phoenicia also for a few days, Jesus had for nearly two years healed and preached in Galilee and Decapolis, using the full measure of his time and strength in settling the foundations of the heavenly kingdom. But now the elements of opposition were rapidly gaining and concentrating. The work in Galilee is accomplished, and Jesus must leave that beautiful and favorite district, to meet his death in Jerusalem. The minds of his dis ciples had been called to this immediate future during their brief retirement in the region of Caesarea Philippi, and now on their return he repeats the prophecy which they were so slow to receive. All they could understand of this thrice uttered predictionf (for they could not be lieve that he would actually die) was that woes were * That Passover in which he healed the cripple at Bethesda. f Twice by Jesus and once by Moses and Elias. Luke, ix. 22, 31, 44. THE LAST DAYS IN GALILEE. 275 before them, and at this prospect their hearts were sad dened. During this last sojourn in Galilee Jesus avoided as far as possible the public gaze, and seems to have con fined himself almost wholly to the company of his apostles and his immediate relatives. His absence in Phoenicia, Decapolis, and the regions of Caesarea Philippi had weaned off the Galilean crowds who had been wont to follow him, and he could now by carefulness avoid the production of popular excitement, spending the last days in his Gali lean home in quietness and meditation. He knew they were his last days there. He knew that the cross was close before him. That lovely lake and the green hill sides of Zebulon were very dear to him. A long boy hood and early manhood had been spent quietly among their beauties, and now two years of crowded energy had been added. He looked back through these later scenes of excitement to the days of tranquillity, when an unknown carpenter, he had passed his solitary hours of thought and prayer on the height behind Nazareth, before the Fore runner's voice had called him to his manifestation and his ministry. And if a sigh accompanied this retrospection, it was quickly succeeded by the contemplation of the joy set before him, in view of which the cross was endurable and the shame despised. Three scenes are given us in this passage of our Saviour's life at Capernaum his home. The first is this. The collectors of the half-shekel tax had come to Peter 276 THE LAST DAYS IN GALILEE. and asked if Jesus would pay it. This tax was (accord ing to Josephus) an annual tax for the temple-service, although it seems originally to have been designed as a single offering of every Israelite at twenty years of age.* It was not a compulsory tax under the Roman law, but was probably in Galilee, when Herod reigned, a universal habit, supported so strongly by public opinion, that a Jew who refused to pay it was considered as an apostate. The collectors of the tax seem to have anticipated a refusal on Jesus' part, regarding him, by reason of his opposition to the scribes, as an enemy to the law of Moses. After Simon had assured the collectors that Jesus would pay the half-shekel, and had entered the house where Jesus was, the Master showed him that he as the Son of God was strictly without the range of taxation for God's temple, that, as the kings of the earth never tax their own sons, but those out of their family, so the half-shekel was a mark of original alienation, that it was the tribute or ransom- monej7 paid to God by those who were under condemna tion, f and that hence God's own Son was not subject to it. He further showed that the believer in God's Son was * See Exodus, xxx. 13, and xxxviii. 26. It seems to have been neglected and Joash renewed it. 2 Kings, xii. 4, and 2 Chronicles, xxiv. 6, 9. f See Exodus, xxx. 13. STATER. — TRIBUTE MONET. THE LAST DAYS IN GALILEE. 211 by this union of faith brought into the same immunity. In the Old Testament dispensation, the people of Israel gen erally represented by the half-shekel tax that they were by nature foreigners to God. Only the Levites, as ex empt, represented those who had been brought nigh to God, who had entered this family. But now, in the new dispensation, it was fitting that this mark of the original alienation should be removed, and that all who rejoiced in the adoption of sons should have nothing imposed on them to mar their sense of full deliverance in Christ. But while this was theoretically and really the true im munity of Christ and his people, yet, lest a refusal to pay might so affect the public mind (that was strongly influ enced by the acts and words of Jesus) as to lead it to think light of God's ordinance, the power to discriminate not being yet developed in the inchoate church, Jesus deemed it expedient to pay the tax, confirming his words, however, by procuring the stater or shekel necessary for himself and Simon in a miraculous way from a fish's mouth. Simon was the only witness of the miracle, which was probably wrought to impress upon him personally, as chief of the apostles, the great truth Jesus had just uttered concerning the relation of the old to the new dispensa tion. The second scene in this last Galilean portion of our Saviour's life is, like the first, private. Our Saviour and his apostles are in the house. The twelve, while on the 278 THE LAST DAYS IN GALILEE. road with him from the north Jordan, had been discussing the question of superiority of rank in the coming Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus had perceived their busy talk among each other, and knew its cause. To this he now referred, when resting in the house at Capernaum. He asks the cause of the controversy, but shame keeps them silent. At length, however, they confess the subject of their con sideration ; whereupon he took a child and placed it bj PANEAS, THE CASTLE. his side in the midst of them, and as he affectionately put his arms around the little one, he said : " Verily I say unto you, unless ye turn from your pride and become as little children, ye shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself as this little child, he is the superior in the Kingdom of Heaven ; and whoever receives one such little child for my name's sake, receives me. And whoever receives me, receives also Him that sent THE LAST DAYS LN GALILEE. 279 me. For he who is the inferior among you all shall be mighty." Here John interposed with a statement of an incident from which, perhaps, the discussion regarding superiority had arisen. He told Jesus that they had seen a man cast ing out demons in his name, and they had forbidden him, because he did not accompany them in their constant association with Jesus. John probably states this as a justification. Surely (he thinks) such a man as this whom they had forbidden could not be an object of regard to Jesus, and hold equal rank with them in the heavenly kingdom. Even if the apostles were to be equals to one another, they were to be superior to this outside man. Jesus rebukes the apostles for their conduct. " Do not forbid that man from casting out demons in my name. For there is no one who will work a miracle in my name and will be able readily to speak evil of me ; and any one who uses the materials of the heavenly kingdom without antagonism toward it, is really helping its cause. A man who gives you a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, is a helper of the cause and shall be rewarded. But on the other hand, whoever leads away the least of believers from me, would have been better off with a mill stone around his neck at the bottom of the sea. Woe to the world from these seductions !* For they must come, * Lit. Scandals, or stumbling-blocks, over which a follower of Christ stumbles into sin and rebellion. 280 THE LAST DAYS IN GALILEE. with human nature what it is ; but woe to those by whom they come ! If that which is dearest to thee leads thee away from me, use the most extreme measures of safety. Cut off the hand or foot, or pluck out the eye, if either of these are the cause of seducing thee from thy allegiance to me. It is better to enter maimed into the Kingdom of Heav en than without these acts of self-denial, to be cast into the Gehenna-destruction of fire, where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched.* For there is another fire of self- denial (like the cutting off of hand and foot) by which a believer is furnished with the salt of covenant truth, with which every sacrifice of word or act which he offers to God is salted. Now it is a sad thing for this salt of truth to lose its saltness and become a dead formula. Keep this salt in your hearts and let it prevent all strife among you. See that ye despise not one of my disciples, f for I say to you that their guardian angels are continually looking on the countenance of my Father in heaven. Remember it is not earthly greatness that has any value in my eye. I came to save what was lost, and where man humbly feels his lost condition there the angels are interested. The interest that a shepherd feels for a lost sheep is an illus tration of what God feels for one of these humble disciples. He will not have one of them destroyed. I have spoken to you of the need of gentleness toward all, which prefers * Isa. lxvi. 24. t " These little ones," who, like the child, are humble and obscure. Matt. xviii. 10. THE LAST DAYS IN GALILEE. 281 all in honor. You need not suppose that this will expose you or the church to ruin, that the rough and wicked will take advantage of your mildness and self-abnegation and harm you. If thy brother sin against thee go and rebuke him privately. If he refuse to notice thy complaint, take two or three others, according to the Mosaic law,* to seek with them to bring him to a right mind, and if he still refuse, tell the matter to the whole assembly or congrega tion of believers, and if he refuse the advice of the assem bly also, consider him just in the same light as the Gen tile and publican are considered by the Jewish nation, and trouble thyself no more about him. Whatever ye in this way bind and loose will have heaven's ratification, and ye will have heaven's defence. Ye will thus act as my repre sentatives.-)- Even two of you agreed on anything to ask from my Heavenly Father shall receive it, for wherever even two or three are assembled in my name, I am there in the midst of them to secure their petitions from my Father." As Jesus in this way exhibited the life of love and forbearance to be the true Christian life promotive of the cause of truth, Simon, with the Jewish legalism and casuistry { still clinging to him, put the question " How often, Lord, shall I forgive my erring brother ; seven * Deut. xix. 15. f The binding and loosing here, as in Matt. xvi. 19, refers, I take it, to a true representation of Jesus, not official, but spiritual. X A casuistry probably founded on Prov. xxiv. 16, and Lev. xxvi. 18-28. 282 THE LAST DAYS IN GALILEE. times?" Jesus answers his specific number by another specific number, whose magnitude shows that no specific number could be used in spiritual things. " No, not seven times, but seventy times seven."* It is the spirit of for giveness, not the number of times in which an outward act of forgiveness is performed, that God regards. The Kingdom of Heaven is founded on God's forgiving mercy, and its subjects should imitate God in this divine char acteristic. The unforgiving disciple is like a king's minister, who, in debt to his royal master for an enormous sum, when ordered to be sold into slavery, seeks and obtains forgive ness, and who then, with stern and unrelenting hand, seizes his fellow, who owes him a trifle, and casts him into a dungeon. Such a one the monarch would rightfully hold responsible for the whole of the old debt, and put him in the hands of the officers of the law till he should pay it. Just so would God at last punish the man whose life upon earth was on God's side a respite from deserved punishment, but on man's side a course of selfish revenge. Jesus by these instructions showed the divine nature of forgiveness, and that the divine forgiveness was to be the model for us. That forgiveness was offered to man through his whole earthly life. His continuance during that life was its token, for it was a delay of the execution of condemnation. That forgiveness, therefore, so far as * Comp. Gen. iv. 24. THE LAST DAYS IN GALILEE. 283 God was concerned, was really man's, whether he accepted it or not. An unforgiving man did not accept the forgive ness of God, for the acceptance of God's forgiveness and the reception of the forgiving spirit are contemporaneous. The condemnation would at length fall on such. Such was the teaching of Jesus, which received its occasion from the carnal self-seeking of his apostles — their strife for position in the heavenly kingdom — as they in their low theories pictured that kingdom. The little child's freedom from ambition, and the little child's speedy forgetfulness of injuries, and the little child's humble sense of dependence are put before them, as they see the little one in the Master's arms. The third scene in these few last Galilean clays of Jesus is of a different nature from the former two. His spiritual family — the twelve apostles — contained only one unbe liever ; but his family according to the flesh were nearly all unbelievers. The Nazarene hostility was seen in them. They come to Jesus at Capernaum and taunt him with cowardice. They had noted his absence from the last Passover, and as the Feast of Tabernacles was now at hand, they bid him go to Jerusalem and show himself to the authorities there, whom they ironically style his disci ples. They assure him, in their sarcasm, that a man hid den away in Galilee could never establish a religion for the nation. Jesus uses but few words in reply to these insults from those who should have honored him the most. 284 THE LAST DAYS IN GALILEE. "My time to appear publicly at Jerusalem is not yet; any time is your time. The world cannot hate you, and therefore you need not make persecution an element in your plans ; but me the world hates, because I testify against its iniquity ; and hence, not as a coward hiding from danger, but as a prudent man, having a certain work to accomplish before I suffer, I am postponing my departure to this feast. You can go now — I shall follow at the due time." It was, probably, the design of Jesus to prevent any anticipation of his arrival on the part of the Jews of Jeru salem, so that they should be able to perfect no plot against him. There was a work for him to do in Judea before his ministry should be accomplished, and it required great care to avoid the ultimate issue of the Jewish malignity for any length of time. After his relatives and the Galileans generally had started for Jerusalem, Jesus with his disciples took their departure, a company by themselves. In passing through Samaria, those whom he had sent before him to prepare a lodging-place in a Samaritan village, were refused by the villagers, on the score of their being Jews on their way to a feast at Jerusalem. The sons of Zebedee, James and John (who were probably there rebuffed messengers), in high indignation asked if they could not imitate Elijah's action with Ahaziah's captains,* and call fire down from heaven to destroy these villagers. They did not see that 2 Kings, i. 10-12. THE LAST DAYS LN GALILEE. 285 Elijah's representative character they were using as a support for the private revenge of injured pride. Jesus directed them to another village, while administering his rebuke: "Ye know not of what spirit ye are. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy, but to save men's lives." At another stage of their journey through Samaria, they saw ten lepers standing off from the path by reason of RUINED CHURCH. SAMARIA their terrible defilement, who began to cry out as they approached: "Jesus, Master, pity us." The poor crea tures recognized Jesus from afar. The poor and suffering throughout the land had become acquainted with his per son. Jesus immediately responds to their cry of humility and faith by bidding them to go directly to the priests at Jerusalem, according: to the law for those who were cured 286 THE LAST DAYS LN GALILEE. of lepros}'.* The trial proves their faith. They do not wait to be healed, but hurry toward Jerusalem. There were ten glad hearts made more glad on the way, as every symptom of the fearful disease disappeared. Only one, however, of the ten, and he a Samaritan (one of those whom the Jews despised, and one of whose villages James and John had just desired to destroy), came back to Jesus in his overflowing gratitude with praise to God, and falling on his face before his feet, showed his pro found agitation. A special blessing fell from the Master's lips upon this exceptional case. The spirit of praise and thankfulness showed a higher faith than the spirit of prayer, which all the ten had possessed. Here ends the record of our Saviour's life in the northern sections of Palestine. Henceforward till his death he will be seen only in Judea and the lower valle3r of the Jordan. It is two years and a half since his baptism. In six months more he will be crucified. * Lev. xiv. 2, etc. CHAPTER XVIII. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. From very early times the city built on Zion has been a consecrated spot of earth. Two thousand years before the birth of Jesus we see the mysterious Melchizedek coming forth from its walls to bless Abraham. His sacer dotal benediction upon the distinguished patriarch exhibits to us something of the sanctity of the city of which he was both king and priest. The argument of the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews emphasizes the sacred character of the man and the place.* It is possible that from the first habitancy of this region, a protecting Providence guarded the spot which was to witness the great reconcil iation between a pardoning heaven and a sinful earth, and bestowed upon this highland city the appropriate name of Salemf (Peace). When the great type of the Messianic sacrifice was to be added to the Abrahamic promise, this same spot wit nessed the son of Abraham bound and laid upon the altar.J The very name of Moriah given to a part of * Hebrews, vii. 1-16. f Gen. xiv. 18; Ps. lxxvi, 2; Cf. Josh. x. 1. How Salem became Jeru-Salem is not known, nor is the meaning of the prefix ascertained. X Cf. Gen. xxii. 2, and 2 Chron. iii. 1. The fact that a city was here does not disturb this identification. The city was on Zion, and Moriah, then higher than now, would have been sufficiently distant. 288 THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. Jerusalem's site indicates the providing care of God to stay human sorrow, and is so regarded in the two narratives touching Abraham and Solomon.* "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering," are the words of deep prophetic significance used by Abraham on this mount of providing, in which the verb used by Abraham and the name of the mountain have the same root in the Hebrew. So, also, the word "appeared" in 2 Chron. iii. 1, ("in Mount Mo riah, where the Lord appeared unto David,") has the same root with the name of the mountain. N= BRIDGE OT ZION PLAN Or MOUNT MORIAH. When Joshua entered the land of Canaan the king of Jerusalem led a combined attack of the principal southern * The play upon the words cannot be seen in the English version in Gen. xxii. 2, 14, aud 2 Chron. iii. I. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 289 princes against the Israelites, and was utterly defeated at the memorable battle of Gibeon. But although he was slain, his strong city was not taken, and when, after Joshua's death, the tribes of Judah and Simeon made the first movement to complete the conquest, they only suc ceeded in capturing the lower city, the upper city on Mount Zion proving to them impregnable. For four cen turies the Jebusites, one of the Canaanitish tribes, held firm possession of this old stronghold, until the pertinacity of David, the number of his troops, and the valor of Joab, gained the height and made it the centre of the Israelitish ceremonial worship. From Araunah, its Jebusite king, who seems to have been allowed by his conqueror a peace able settlement in the place, David afterward purchased the site where Solomon erected the temple.* From that day Jerusalem was the type of the Church of God as it was the seat of the typical exhibitions of the Coming Messiah. From David's day more than a thousand years had passed away. Great changes had occurred. The Babylonish, Persian, Graeco-Syrian, and Roman tyrannies, had oppressed the chosen people and their chosen city ; but still it remained in beauty and glory the joy of the Jewish heart, itself a god to their degraded minds. The great event of its historv was at hand. The Ions typic history was to end in the antitype. Jerusalem's work was to be accomplished and its life to be then * 2 Sam. xxiv. 23. 19 290 THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. extinguished. The old site should remain, and upon it should cluster the houses of a Roman and Saracen town ; but the old Jewish Jerusalem was to be blotted out for ever. While the Jewish history of Jerusalem had been a con stant witness of God's grace, it had also been a constant exhibition of man's perverseness. The sins of the people had been rolling up for centuries,* and the very proximity of the divine shrine seemed to give an additional intensity to the selfish pride of the people, as it made that pride the more culpable and odious. Under the various external oppressions of the surrounding empires, this conceit and arrogance grew, just as Pharaoh's obstinacy increased under the plagues that should have dissipated it. A small and feeble people, they were perpetually talking great things — not of their God, but of themselves — and, by their hard-headedness and violence, succeeded in disgusting the best-disposed of other nations and bringing reproach upon the name of the holy religion they professed. The very centre of this late and unworthy type of Judaism was, of course, the Holy City. Here the spiritual religion, which Moses had taught from the Sinai inspirations, whose typical ritual only had significance as it led the thought and worship to the spiritual realities, f had become frozen into formalism ; priests, scribes, and Pharisees moved * See our Saviour's language iu Luke, xi. 49, and Matt, xxiii. 34-37. f See Deut vi. 5, x. 12, xxx. 6 ; and Gal. iii. 24. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 291 before the people in pompous hypocrisy, and the people became their dupes and ready servants. Neither the in dependence nor the simplicity of Galilee could be found in the streets of Jerusalem, and if there was any piety there, it deserved more praise, for it grew in a more barren soil and in a more forbidding atmosphere. To this depraved city, where pride and formality were attended, as always, by misery and crime, Jesus came under the divine impulse of his sublime purpose. The Lamb of God was approaching the altar. The Prophet had spoken — the Priest was now to offer the sacrifice — and after that the King should ascend his throne, and the heavenly kingdom, which the prophet announced, should be established. From the ruins of the Jewish system should arise the new growth, as from the seed that dies comes forth the fresh stalk. This growth should be the Church of Christ, the spiritual Zion, the Messianic king dom, of which the Jewish polity had been the adumbra tion, and the old patriarchal dispensation had been a still fainter shadow. Jesus of Nazareth, as he approached Jerusalem, was doubtless sustained in his view of the cross by these glorious prospects beyond. The joy was set before him. He knew the prophets. He understood his own position. If a world's sin was on his shoulders, a world's regenera tion and glory were there too. The sight of Jerusalem was painful ; the degradation of the people, the utter per- 292 THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. version of the national mind and heart, the neglect or mutilation of the divine oracles could only elicit the sigh from that pure breast ; but the sight by faith of the New Jerusalem was an antidote to the pain ; and in its purity and peace, its truth and trust, its beauty and bliss he saw of the travail of his soul and was satisfied. How unconscious was the world of the impending moment! The earthquake that swallows up the population of a city is all unthought of the hour before, and yet the wheels of nature have been preparing it for ages. So God works. The great event of deepest interest to the race of man was in preparation through and by all the revolutions of human history, and more especially through and by all the vicissitudes of Israel's fifteen centuries, and yet here and there a Simeon was all that expected "the light of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel." The Jewish race had wholly misconceived the meaning of type and proph ecy, and hence the Messianic expectation was not calcu lated to rest for a moment upon the Galilean teacher, whose religion had broken through all Jewish barriers and embraced the whole race of man in its spirit and instructions. He came now to Jerusalem, known only to be hated by the custodians of law and temple. Personal pride, national exclusiveness, religious bigotry, and metro politan superciliousness were all allied with political power in organized opposition to one who had, in spite of his mean birth and rural surroundings, upheaved the whole THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 293 mind of Galilee and set half the nation to independent thinking and to distrust of the prescribed authorities in things divine. A Judas of Galilee might be welcomed, who brought only a crown for Pharisaic pride ; but a Jesus of Galilee who, when he came to his own cross, brought the cross for the arrogance of the lords of Jerusalem, could only be met by the venom of malignity and the vengeful thirst for his blood. The Feast of Tabernacles, though not as important in its essential character as the Feast of the Passover, was yet, owing to its high jubilant character, the most popular of the annual festivals. It commemorated the passage of the Israelites through the desert, and was also a time of general thanksgiving for the harvest, and hence was called the Feast of Ingathering. It occupied eight days in the autumn, when the land was in its full glory under a gentle sky. During these days the people dwelt in booths formed from tree-boughs, with which in Jerusalem the courts and gardens, the temple area, the streets, and even the house-roofs were adorned — improvised houses, suggest ive of the tent-life of the fathers. Sacrifices were far more numerous than on any other solemnity, and, if it were a Sabbatical year, the law was read in the hearing of the people. The rich and the poor were brought together by the peculiar character and customs of this feast, and this fact added to the general hilarity of the occasion. Jerusalem afforded such a scene when Jesus and his 294 THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. twelve apostles entered it. There had been much talk about him among the crowds in the city, and most opposite views entertained regarding his honesty ; some maintain ing that he was an upright man and meant well, and others accusing him of a course of deceit for selfish purposes. Yet all this conversation and discussion was in subdued tones and in retired groups. There was such an awe of SHEPHERD S BOOTH. the priests and rulers, whose hatred and determination against Jesus were well known, that the people were afraid to be marked out to those in authority as taking any interest in his character, and hence restrained the free expression of their eager curiosity to see the wonderful Nazarene. On the fourth day of the feast their curiosity was grati fied. There in the grand court of the temple stood Jesus THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 295 of Galilee teaching, while a multitude of sneering, and yet astonished, Jews stood around him. Their astonishment arose at the wonderful facility, force, and beauty of the Galilean carpenter's speech. Such fluency and philosophy belonged only to minds that had been long and carefully trained in the schools. But here a peasant stood forth in the precincts of the temple, and among the dignitaries of the nation spoke with an ease and eloquence unrivalled. Whence was this ? The query passed among the crowd. Jesus met it with a reference to his Father and the law of Moses ; from the former came his teaching, from the latter his testimony, but the Jews slighted both God and Moses. " My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me. If any one wishes to do His will, he shall know concern ing my teaching, whether it be out of God, or I speak from myself. He that speaketh from himself seeketh his own glory, but he that seeketh the glory of him who sent him, he is true, and there is no wrong in him. Has not Moses given you the law ? and no one of you doeth the law. Why do ye seek to kill me as a transgressor of the law ?" With insolent equivocation the bystanders exclaim, "Thou hast a devil, who seeketh to kill thee." Jesus unveils their motives and purposes. He shows them how their anger and malice had been kindling ever since, eighteen months before, he had healed the Bethesda crip ple upon the Sabbath-day. He had now come back to them to receive the brunt of their malignity. " One 296 THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. work I wrought — only one — when I was here at Jerusalem at the Passover before the last, and ye are all amazed at my hardihood in thus, as you suppose, breaking the law of the Sabbath. Moses has ratified and enjoined (as God's agent) the rite of circumcision (which has a reference to certain promised and partial benefits), and ye do not hesitate to perform this rite on the Sabbath. Then why are ye angry with me that I made a man sound and healthy in body and soul on the Sabbathu? Do not judge so superficially, but regard the deep foundations of truth." Many of the Jerusalemites were satisfied to reject the teacher whose words were so powerful, because neither had the established rulers of the people accepted him as the Messiah, nor had Jesus come in the sudden and mys terious way in which they expected the Redeemer of Israel. This latter view, which largely prevailed, led the Saviour to point his prejudiced hearers to the essential character of his ministry as manifesting the Father, which manifestation needed no sudden and mysterious coming. "Yes, me ye know, and ye know my origin. But there is something behind my earthly life. I have not come from myself, or in the mere action of my manhood ; but he who sent me is the true God, whom ye do not know. I know him, for I am from his side, and he sent me." This familiar manner of representing his relation to God exas perated the Jews and, had not some difficulties appeared in the way, they would have laid violent hands upon him. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 297 One obstacle to their desire was the effect that the pres ence and speech of Jesus had had upon many, who com pared his words with his miraculous works and were convicted of his Messiahship. The Pharisees, on learn ing this state of things, obtained a corps of the temple police from the chief-priests who were sent to watch their opportunity and seize Jesus. Before Jesus left the temple area to avoid this seizure, he exclaimed : " A little while longer I am with you, then I go to him who sent me. Ye shall seek me and shall not find me, and where I am, ye are not able to come." As Jesus disappeared with these words, the Jews were left wondering whether he intended to go to Gentile lands and teach the Gentiles. Jesus had now renewed his high Messianic claims in the sacred pre cincts of the temple, proclaiming there, as twice before* on the same spot, not only his mission from God, but his union with God. This Sonship had pre-existed (" I am from his side"), and when the Jews saw only Jesus of Nazareth, they did not and could not see the Messiah, the Son of God. For four days he concealed himself from the multi tude, while the temple-officers were searching the city to secure his person. It was for Jesus now, by wise precau tion, so to appear as to make most effective his testimony, while he avoided the violence that would have prema turely terminated his career. He did not fly from the * John, ii. 10, and v. 17. 298 THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. city. He had a duty there, and a courage that was com mensurate with his holy ambition marked every movement of his life to the last agony upon the cross. The eighth and last day of the Feast of Tabernacles not only was marked, like the first, by a holy convocation, but was counted as the greatest clay of the feast, because, while on the other days sacrifices were offered for all the nations of the world, on this day only one bullock was AIN UELI.AHAII. offered, and that for Israel. Moreover, as on the other days, so on this last day of the feast, they filled a golden vase with water from the pool of Siloam* (with allusion to Is. xii. 3), and after carrying it in jubilant procession to the altar, poured out the water to the Lord, according to a tradition that God at this feast decreed and determined * It may be that they filled the vase only on the first day of the feast, and poured out from it a portion each day. The exact custom is not clear. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 299 on the rains that should fall the following year. The Talmud has the sentence : "The holy blessed God saith, ' Offer ye waters before me on the Feast of Tabernacles, that the rains of the year may be blessed to you.' " Be sides this primal reference of the act, they regarded the outpouring of the water as signifying the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was on this last day of the feast that Jesus emerged from his concealment and again appeared in the temple- court among the rejoicing crowd. Taking a conspicuous position, probably upon some balustrade or pedestal, he cried out to the multitude (perhaps at the very moment of the outpouring) : "If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth in me, in accordance with the testimony of the Scripture, rivers out of his belly shall flow of living water." This enigmatical utterance was made with a manner and unction that convinced many present of his prophetic and Messianic character, while others had the ready objection of his (supposed) Galilean birth with which to repress their convictions in the service of their pride. The words of Jesus might be explained in this way: "Ye pour out this water in hopes that God will furnish you with water for your soil and His Spirit for yourselves. If you come to me, you will find all tem poral and spiritual blessings in me ; and more than that, the believer in me shall himself, like that vase, be himself an outpourer of life and refreshing to others." An effort 300 THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. to seize Jesus at this time proved abortive, by reason of the divided sentiment of the people. The temple-police, who had been especially commissioned to arrest him, con fessed to the chief-priests who had sent them, and to the Pharisees who had suggested the act, that they felt the speech of Jesus to be more than human ; the only reply to which was a sneer at the common people, and a notice of the superior views of the rulers and Pharisees ; they had not believed in the Galilean. This brought out a contra diction in a half-way defence of Jesus from Nicodemus, who was one of the Sanhedrim, and who three years before had been convinced of his Messiahship : " Does our law judge the man unless it hear from him first, and know what his acts are ?" Timidity prevented him from saying more, while even this mild expostulation brought on him the contemptuous response from his brethren: "What! art thou, too, out of Galilee ? Search and note that no prophet has arisen out of Galilee."* The multitude separated at the close of the excitement which the words of Jesus had created, the last day of the feast having now ended with the sunset. While the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the many temporary sojourn ers there sought their lodgings for repose, f Jesus, partly, perhaps, from precaution, and partly from a desire for quiet meditation and prayer, crossed the ravine of the * The rulers in their contempt overlook the fact that Jonah was a Galilean. f This night they did not rest in booths, as on the seven previous nights. THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES. 301 Kedron and found a retreat for the night on the side of the Mount of Olives. Though so near the great city, the precipitous west bank of the Kedron acted as a guard to the mountain, preventing the overflow of the population, and rendering it always a convenient spot for a complete retirement, the thick olive-groves aiding this object. No other side of the city presented these advantages. At the south, the valley was too broad and the distance too far to the southern cliffs ; at the west, the valley opened up into the plateau where the "upper pool" lay, to which easy access was had from the western gate or gates. At the north, the outer country was comparatively level with the city's streets. But here, on the eastern side, the Kedron valley formed a deep, narrow gutter— a stay to the ordinary saunterer, but an attraction to one seeking a near solitude. From this time to the very eve of the crucifixion, the Mount of Olives became the favorite and frequent resort of him whose divine character and mission found scarce a single sympathizing heart within the walls of the city. CHAPTER XIX. FROM THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. The period between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Passover (six months) was spent by Jesus in bringing his instructions and life to bear upon the people of Jerusalem and Judea in spite of their opposition. He was forced often to quit the city in order to avoid outbursts of vio lence, and even was obliged to pass over the borders of the country and find safety in the dominions of Herod Antipas. Of these six months the evangelists give us a few teach ings, becoming more connected and detailed in their nar ratives when they reach the very week of the crucifixion. With regard to the chronology of this period it is impos sible to be exact, nor is it a matter of importance in what special order all the details of our Lord's instructions were given. Luke and John furnish us with the most information concerning this portion of the life of Jesus, presenting us with his teachings, while the other evangelists almost en tirely confine their account to the historical events. Early in the morning that followed the Feast of Taber nacles, Jesus again appeared in the temple-court and had a new opportunity of instructing a large crowd. It was TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 303 a Sabbath-day. The event, of the day before had made the rulers cautious. They saw that the imposing influence of Jesus might prove a formidable obstacle to any act of attempted violence on their part, and were therefore now ready to undermine that influence as a step toward con summating their scheme. If they could bring him to re sist some received opinion of the people, to overset some deeply-seated prejudice, to offend their orthodoxy, and so alienate their regard, their point was gained. Accord ingly they brought to him an adulteress,* who, according to the law of Moses, should be stoned, and asked his view of the case. If he had urged the strictness of the Mosaic law, it is prob able that the people would have been re pelled from him, as the traditions of the elders had greatly modified the law in this as in other matters, and the crime was so common as to excite no public opinion against it. Moreover, the FIGURE— MART OF MAGDALA. * She must have been unmarried, but betrothed, as only for such the law prescribed stoning. Deut. xxii. 21. 304 TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. Roman question would enter in, as the Mosaic law ordered a death penalty, but the Roman rule took away the right of inflicting that penalty from the Jews. Jesus refused to reply immediately to their question, but bent forward and wrote with his finger on the ground, making the inci dent more marked and his final reply the more solemn by this delay. When they pressed their question, he at last looked up and said : " Let the sinless one among you first cast the stone upon her ;" he then resumed his writing upon the ground. Conscience-smitten, the rulers slipt out of his presence, the older Pharisees setting the ex ample. Jesus had appealed to a principle established in their own tradition that there should be no punishment of the adulteress if the husband were an adulterer, and righteously extending the principle to the accusers, had confounded the rulers without justifying the guilty woman. " Go, and sin no more," were his words to her, from which she could gather comfort and hope, but no license. On another occasion Jesus was able without violent interruption to teach the people in the Treasury building, which was in the outer court of the temple, the court of the women. Iu the course of this address he used the words, "I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." This the Pharisees considered a gross assumption, and accused him of imposture, having no foundation for his pretentions but his own words. To TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 305 this Jesus made answer, first, that sometimes a man's own testimony concerning himself was the best and only testimony procurable, if the place of his origin and desti nation was only known to himself. Their judgment that his testimony was false, was an act of hatred and hostility. His judgment of no man was of this kind, but whatever judgment he uttered was a true and divine decision, as the Father was with him in every utterance. Secondly, the testimony of the Father was his, so that he was not alone in testifying of himself. Hereupon they asked him where the Father was ; to which Jesus replied, that they did not recognize him as the Messiah, and hence could not recognize the Father. At another time Jesus used the expression, "lam go ing, and ye shall seek me, and in your sins ye shall die. Where I am going ye cannot come." This provoked the sarcasm from the bystanding Jews: " Is he about to com mit suicide?" Jesus responded, "Ye are of those below, I am of those above ; ye are of this world, I am not of this world. So I said to you, that ye shall die in your sins ; for if ye will not believe that I am,* ye shall die in your sins. "f " Who art thou ?" they interrupted. "Ex actly what I speak to you," was his reply, referring to himself as the Word of God. He then continued : " I have * He uses the name of God, " I AM." His hearers do not understand him. t Our Saviour always insisted on his heavenly origin and mission as abun dantly proved in Scripture and miracles, and blamed the Jews for their refusal to accept the message of a heavenly messenger. Cf. chap. iii. 12, 13. 20 306 , TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. much about you to speak and to judge ; it is not that I wish you to depend simply on a man's declaration con cerning himself, but he that sent me is true, and what I hear from him I say to the world. When ye shall have lifted up the Son of Man, then ye shall know that I am,* and from myself J do nothing, but as the Father has taught me, these things I speak, and he that sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, because I do always what he pleases." This calm and lofty asser tion of divine authority in connection with his wonderful career, brought conviction into many minds then present, although their affections were not yet (if ever) enlisted in the Redeemer of Israel. Perceiving the effect of his teaching, he exhorted them to continuance in his doctrine as permanent disciples, promising them the freedom that the truth only could confer. This affronted them, as it implied that Abraham's descendants could be otherwise than free. They could not consent to be considered slaves. Though under Roman domination, as before un der Graeco-Syrian, Persian, and Babylonian, they protest that they never lost their personal condition of freedom. Jesus, perceiving their false interpretation of his words, as if he had referred to their outward condition, corrected them, as he went on to explain his allusion to freedom and slavery. " Verily, verily, I say to you, that every * See note on p. 305. f As a mere man. TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 307 one who doeth sin, is the slave of sin. But the slave does not continue in the house permanently,* the son does. If, then, the son, who is the heir, free you, ye will be really free. I know ye are Abraham's seed, but ye are not his children in the higher sense, for ye are seeking to slay me because my word has no place in you, which proves your bondage to sin. You have another spiritual parentage than that of Abraham, and just as I speak what I have seen from my. Father, so ye bring out in your lives what ye have seen from your father." As the bystanders interrupted him with the assertion that Abraham was their father, Jesus continued: "If ye were the children of Abraham, ye would do the works of Abraham ; but now ye are seeking to slay me, a man, who have spoken to you the truth which I heard from God ; this Abraham did not do. Ye are doing the works of your father." Aroused again by the emphasis, and perceiving the spiritual significance of the words of Jesus, the Jews exclaim : " We are not the children by fornication. f We have one Father, God." Jesus again continued : " If God were your Father, ye would love me, for I from God came forth, and am here as his representative, for I came not of myself, but, he sent me. Why do ye not know my doctrine ? Because ye are not able to hear my discourse. You will not listen to the truth. For ye are from your * The unbelieving Jews were in God's house (i. e., the recognized church), but only temporarily as slaves. f i. e., idolaters. See Hosea, ii. 4. 308 TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. father the devil, and the desires of your father ye wish to do. He was a inanslayer from the first, and did not stand in the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he speaks his lie, he speaks out of his own resources, for he is a liar and the liar's father. But because I speak the truth, ye do not believe me. Who of you convicts me of sin? But if I speak truth, why do not ye, if ye are lovers of the truth, believe in me ? He who is from God hears the words of God. Ye clo not hear because ye are not of God." Here the Jews, in their resentment at his bold charges, interfered with epithets where argument was lacking. The}' called him a Samaritan,* and told him he was possessed by an evil spirit. To this Jesus, seizing the opportunity, replied: "I have not an evil spirit, but I honor my Father, while ye dishonor me. But I do not seek my glory — there is one who seeks it and judges. Verily, verily, I say to you, if any one keep my instruc tion, he shall never see death." Again the Jews interrupt him : ' Now we have proof that thou hast an evil spirit. For Abraham died and so did the prophets, and yet thou saj'est, ' If any one keep my instruction, he shall never taste death.' Art thou greater than our father Abraham ? For he died, and so did the prophets. Pray, who dost thou make thyself to be ?" Again Jesus repels the implied charge that he made himself anything, or was the only authority for his pretensions. " If I glorify myself, my * An exceedingly bitter epithet with a Jew of that day. TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 309 glory is naught. It is my Father who glorifies me, whom ye call your God, and yet whom jre do not know ; but I do know him, and for me to assume a mock modesty and deny my knowledge of him, would be to imitate you in lying, for I do know him and keep his instruction. Abraham, your father, rejoiced in the hope of seeing my day, and he did see it, and was glad." Here the Jews interposed : " Thou art not yet fifty years old,* and hast thou seen Abraham?" " Yes," continued Jesus, "I verily say to you that before Abraham came into being, I am."f At this supposed blasphemy the madness of the Jews culminated, and the very men who had been convinced of his truth now seized the stones, that were lying near for the temple repairs, to stone him to death, when, by a quick and dexterous movement, Jesus escaped from the temple. On his way from the temple, probably to his place of retirement on the Mount of Olives, he saw a man (perhaps a well-known beggar) who had been born blind, to whom he directed the attention of his disciples. They at once asked him where the sin was that brought this punishment on the man. Was it in the man or in his parents? Cer tainly not in the man, for he was blind when he was born, and if it was in the parents, then a man is punished for another's fault. Jesus replied that the blindness was not * The age of completed manhood among the Jews. f He again uses the name of God. 310 TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. the punishment of sin, but a part of God's providential plan to show forth his glory.* It was now the day-time of the Messiah, in which wonderful works were to be wrought for the glory of God's saving name. Very soon it would be night, and this form of glorifying God through the Messiah's works upon earth would cease. So long as , Jesus was in the world, he was to enlighten the world by his teaching supported by his works, and this blind man was providentially an occasion for one of those marvellous works. When he had thus corrected their erroneous notion regarding affliction as a punishment for sin, he used spit tle, as he had done twice beforef in restoring the use of the senses, and formed a paste with some earth, and, putting it on the eyes of the blind man, told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, J which he did, and returned thence to his accustomed haunt a seeing man. The use of apparent means for this cure was, doubtless, to suggest thought in the blind man's mind — to make him dwell the longer on the mercy. BLIND BEGGAR. * Compare, for the same truth, ch. xi. 4. f Once with the half-dumb man of Decapolis (Mark, vii. 33), and once with the blind man of Bethsaida (Mark, viii. 23). X At the south side of the city. TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 311 The use of spittle for the ejTes was common, and hence this sign of a cure was the most handy and apposite. The disciples, with Jesus, appear to have gone on their way when the blind man started for the pool, and not to have witnessed the consummated cure* until some time after the event. The neighbors of the restored man, and others who had known him, differed in opinion at first among themselves as to his identity ; but on his assuring them in this regard, eagerly asked him of his cure. His reply was the simple truth — "A man called Jesusf made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash,' and when I went and washed I gained my sight." When they found that the man did not know whither Jesus had gone, they brought him to the Pharisees, as it seemed to be a tes timony for Jesus that they ought either to acknowledge or controvert. When the members of the SanhedrimJ heard the facts, they denounced Jesus as a Sabbath- breaker, some, however, doubting that a Sabbath-breaker could produce such signs of a divine mission. The blind man's own view that Jesus was a prophet, which he modestly gave in reply to an interrogatory on their part, started a doubt in the minds of many that the man was * The cure was not only the creating of correct functional action in the eye, but also the gift of ready use of this action without a long period of learning. t The man uses this style of language in fear. He certainly knew who Jesus was. X " The Pharisees" seem to have been the Pharisees in authority. 312 TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. ever blind. But his parents, when summoned, removed this doubt, though they timidly declined to say anything about the method of the cure, as it was well understood now in Jerusalem that any one who declared himself an adherent of Jesus would be excommunicated. The parents were afraid lest anything they should say might be construed as a proof of attachment to the doctrines of the Master, and thus bring upon them an official ex clusion from the congregation of Israel.* As the parents referred the Sanhedrim to the man himself, they again questioned him, when the colloquy ran in this way : Pharisees. Remember that thou art in the presence of God, and answer truly. Tell us about this man who healed thee. We know that he is a sinner. Man. If he is a sinner I do not know ; one thing I know, that from being blind I now see. Pharisees. What did he do to thee? How did he open thine eyes ? , Man. I told you already, and did ye not hear ? Why do you wish to hear again ? Surely ye do not wish to become his disciples. Pharisees. Thou art his disciple, but we are the disci ples of Moses. We know that to Moses God spake ; but this one, we do not know whence he is. Man. Why herein is a wonderful thing, that ye do not * dito tivvdycayoS can hardly in this connection refer to a particular syna gogue. TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 313 know whence he is, and yet he opened my eyes. But we know that God does not hear sinners, but if any one be godly and do his will, him he hears. Never was it heard that any one opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this one were not from God, he could not do anything of this kind. Pharisees. Thou wast born altogether in sins,* and doth such as thou teach us? With their use of calumny and authority, where argu ment failed, they cast him out of the temple precinct as an excommunicate. Jesus and his disciples were probably returning from the Mount of Olives, where they had been spending the noon-tide of the Sabbath, when they hear of the blind man's experience at Siloam and afterward at the temple. Turning down the Kedron toward the east gate, they meet the excommunicated man, with his mingled feelings of gladness at his new sense, and sorrow at his ecclesiastical disgrace. Jesus immediately accosts him and puts to him the question, "Dost thou believe in the Son of God?" The man answers : "Who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?" To this Jesus replies : "Thou hast even seen him with thine eyes, and he that speaks with thee is he," — and the man falls down before the Master with the confession of his faith. Turning this incident to a spiritual signifi- * They considered his congenital blindness a proof of an original condition of eminent sin. 314 TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. cance, the Master says to the people who had already gathered about him as they saw him approaching, " For a great separating crisis I came into this world, that the not- seeing* may see and the seeing f may become blind." Then to some Pharisees present, who asked if he referred to them, and meant that they, as the seeing ones of the nation, were now blind, he replied: "If ye were humble confessors of blindness, your sin would be removed ; but in your present self-satisfied condition, in which you boast of your sight, your sin remains charged upon you. Verily, verily, I say to you, he who does not enter through the doorj into the sheep-fold, but goes in from some other point, is a thief and plunderer ; but he who enters through the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the door keeper opens, and all the sheep understand his voice, while he calls his own sheep§ by name and leads them out, they following him because they knowr his voice. But a stranger they will not follow, but will fly from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers." When he saw that the Pharisees were puzzled with regard to the meaning of his figurative language, Jesus spoke more plainly : " I am the door. Through me if any one enter he shall be saved, * i. «., The humble confessor of sin and darkness. f i. e., The self-righteous. X i. «., Jesus himself. See v. 7. He accuses them of being false shepherds — only thieves and robbers. His apostles were true shepherds, and he himself eminently the Cood Shepherd. § The particular portion of the flock over which he is shepherd. The refer ence is not to Christ, but to one of his under-shepherds. TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 315 and shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture.* The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy ; I came that the sheep might have life, and have it abundantly, And so I am not only the door through which all the true sheep and the true shepherds pass, but I am also the Good Shepherd, who gives his life for the sheep. Now, the hireling is only little better than the robber, for as he is not a shepherd, and so does not own the sheep, when he sees the wolf coming he leaves the sheep and runs away, and lets the wolf seize and scatter them. He is a mere hireling, and has no interest in the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd and know mine, and am known by mine, even as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I give my life for the sheep. And other sheepf I have which are not of this fold, and those, too, I must lead, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one flock, one shepherd. On this account the Father loves me, because I give my life in order that I may take it again. No one seizes it from me, but I give it of myself. I have authority to give it, and I have authority again to take it. This command I received from my Father." These lofty words, under the peculiar circumstances in which they were uttered, had a marked effect upon the hearers ; and while many used the old cry: "He has an evil spirit, and is mad," there were others who persistently answered : * Both as sheep and under-shepherd. t *. «., The Gentiles. 316 TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. " These are not the words of a man possessed with an evil spirit ; can an evil spirit open the eyes of the blind ?" Between the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of the Dedication, a period of two months, Jesus was probably in Jerusalem as constantly as the machinations of the Pharisees permitted. It was not till after the latter feast, when he had raised Lazarus from the dead, that the pur pose to kill him became so defined and developed, that he was obliged to flee from the city until the time had come for offering himself up to the rage of his persecutors. It was probably in this interval between the two feasts that one of the learned law- expounders, with the design of op posing and thus reducing the influence of the Master, put to him the question, " What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" When Jesus asked him in reply what the law was, he gave the summary or rather the underlying principles* of the decalogue, as found in Deut. vi. 5, and Lev. xix. 18, which the Jews probably were wont to use as a brief expression of the spirit of the ten commandments. f Jesus commends him for the answer and assures him that eternal life was in the way thus designated. Not catching Jesus in his first question, he tries again by asking, " Who is my neighbor?" hoping that Jesus will offend the Jewish mind by calling the Gentiles neighbors, which the Jewish prejudice denied. * If he quoted the LXX., he added Ik oXr/i Trjs xapSiaS <3ov. If he quoted the Hebrew or Aramaic, he added the words corresponding to ?| oXiji riji SiavoiaS 6ov. As we find the same thing done in the other instance (Mark, xii. 33) we may consider the fuller reading as then existing. f Cf. Mark, xii. 33. TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION 319 It was then that Jesus defined the word " neighbor" by the beautiful story of the kind Samaritan, forcing upon the scribe the reply to his own question — " A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers, who, after stripping and beating him, went off, leaving him half dead. But by chance a priest was going down that road, and seeing him, went along on the other side. And so also a Levite, coming to the place went and saw him and then passed along on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he was travelling, came there, and when he saw him was moved with pity for him. And he went to him and bound his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, and then putting him on his own beast he led him to an inn and took charge of him. And when he went away on the morrow, he gave two denaria to the innkeeper, and said to him, ' Take charge of him, and whatever thou mayest spend I will repay thee when I return.' Who, now, of these three seems to have been neighbors of the man who fell into the hands of the robbers ?" Under the pressure of this graphic picture, the question so abruptly put could be answered only one way. The scribe is taken off his guard. He is taught to imitate the Samaritan in not con fining brotherly love to any special nationality ; but as a Samaritan could show by his kindness to a Jew that he was the Jew's neighbor, so a Jew ought to treat even the despised Samaritans as neighbors. The lawyer has con fessed that the Gentiles were his neighbors before he is 320 TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. aware. Along the eastern side of Jerusalem, beyond the defile of the Kedron, rises the three-domed Mount of Olives,* screening the city from the wilderness that stretches away to the Jordan and Dead Sea. Just beyond this beautiful height, at its eastern font, is Beth any, a little retired village, only two miles from Jerusa lem, and yet shielded entirely from its population and noise. Here dwelt a family of wealth, that had learned to acknowledge and love the Master as the Messiah of Israel. They opened their doors to him, and much of the time intervening between the Feast of Tabernacles and his death seems to have been spent under this peaceful and happy roof. The three members of this family were Martha, the elder sister, who appears to have been the owner of the house aud the recognized head of the family, Mary, the younger sister, and a brother, Lazarus.f On one occasion when Jesus was sitting in their house aud giving his divine instruction, Mary was sitting at his feet listening with intentness to the words of the Master. Hers was a quiet, thoughtful, and trustful nature, and beyond this she had accepted the Messiahship of Jesus with remarkable vividness of faith. While Mary sat and listened in the delight of her soul, Martha was nervously bustling about the house in the preparation of the meal. Hers was a restless, impulsive, self-centred spirit, the * Five hundred feet above the Kedron, and two hundred feet above the high est part of the city. f In the Hebrew "Eleazar," or "Elazar." TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 321 very opposite of her younger sister ; but, like her, she had accepted the Messiah, and even now was seeking to honor him in the repast she was preparing. In her anxious haste she is vexed to see her sister sitting quietly instead of helping her in the household tasks ; and in her headlong way rebuked the Master himself as a partner in her sister's negligence. "Sir, dost thou care not that my sister has left me to do the work alone ? Bid her help me." This rude impetuosity is met by a gentle but earnest remonstrance from Jesus. "Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things, while the need is of one thing. Now Mary has chosen the good share, which shall not be taken away from her." Under the figure of the meal and its materials the Master's spir itual meaning was clear. Martha was in a worry about the many dishes she was preparing for the table. That worried state of mind was not becoming. In the spiritual life only one dish (so to speak) was needed for the soul, and where that was had, the spirit was free from anxiety. Mary had found that one food of the soul in Jesus. It was her share of the feast that could never fail her. Mar tha had still to learn this lesson of calmness in the posses sion of Jesus as all. At another time, when Jesus had been praying apart, according to his custom, one of his disciples asked him for a form of prayer that would be appropriate for them, and quoted John the Baptist as a precedent, who had given 21 322 TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. such a form to his disciples. In reply to this application Jesus gave them the Lord's prayer, which he had given to the people in Galilee two years before in the course of " the sermon on the mount," with slight verbal alterations in two of the petitions. He then added, to enforce the duty of earnest and persistent prayer, " Who of you will have a friend and will go to him at midnight, and say to him, ' Friend, lend me three loaves ; for a friend of mine has arrived from a journey at my house, and I have nothing to offer him,' and he from within shall answer, 'Do not disturb me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise up and give thee anything.' I say to you that even if he will not rise up and give to him because of his being a friend, he will at least for his impudence be aroused and give him as much as he wants. Much more may I say to you (whose persistency in prayer would not be impudence, but faith, with regard to your Heavenly Father, who is not like the selfish man I have described), ask and it shall be given you ; seek and ye shall find ; knock and it shall be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Even you, earthly fathers, are ready to hear and respond to your children's requests. Will a son ask any of you, his father, for a loaf of bread, and he give him a stone ? or will he give .him a serpent for a fish ? or will he give him a scorpion for an egg ? If then, ye earthly fathers, so TO THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 323 deficient in your affections and abilities, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him ?" The evangelist Luke, who seems to have thrown the events and teachings of our Saviour's life together, not in a chronological but in a didactic order, has grouped here the conversation with the law-expounder — the scene in the family of Bethany, and this instruction of the disciples in the matter of prayer, showing their grades of spiritual need and treatment. In the lawyer there was the full force of natural pride to be brought to the acknowledgment of the first principles of religion, and to see that he was like all the race helpless and dying, and from this view of self to regard the law of neighborly kindness. In Martha there was a true piety, but so pressed by the old self-hood as to shut out the soul from the comforts of the new life. In the apostles, on the other hand, there was a piety that was all too timid. What the world did for Martha, timidity did for the apostles. In each case the soul was prevented from casting itself fully and firmly upon the abundant and overflowing grace of a Covenant God. Our Lord's words are exactly adapted to each of these three cases, which so perfectly represent the whole human race before the Gos pel of Christ in three classes — the proud unbeliever, the worldly Christian, and the timid Christian. With the no tice of these three scenes we return to Jerusalem and note the events that occurred at the Feast of the Dedication. CHAPTER XX. THE FEAST OF DEDICATION. — THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. The Feast of the Dedication was instituted to com memorate the purging of the temple and the rebuilding of the altar by Judas Maccabaeus, when he had overcome the Syrian tyrant and destroyed the Syrian power in Pales tine, B.C. 164. The circumstances of its institution made BETHANT. it a festival of great joy. It was maintained for eight days, and, different from the three great Mosaic feasts, could be celebrated not only in Jerusalem but all over the land. The Jews called it the "Feast of Lights," because the houses were illuminated, as well as " Hanuchah"* (Dedication), because they considered the purgation as a new dedication * The word used in Num. vii. 11, and Ps. xxx., inscription. THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 325 of the temple. The feast began on the twenty-fifth day of the month Chisleu (December), bearing some resemblance in time and character to the Roman Saturnalia. It was at some period of this feast that Jesus was seen in the magnificent colonnade which overlooked the Kedron val ley, known as Solomon's porch, and which formed the eastern limit of the sacred area of the temple. This was the most frequented spot in Jerusalem, and on a feast-day, like this of the Dedication, crowds must have thronged the marble pavement, to whom the Teacher could present the truth. The leaders of opinion and power were soon about him, with no kindly feeling. " How long dost thou keep us in suspense ? If thou art, the Messiah, tell us plainly ?" We cannot suppose that these men, who had for nearly a year sought to overthrow the influence of Jesus, had the slightest sincerity in these questions. They desired to bring Jesus into a position before the multitude that would alienate the people and excite their hatred against him, for the fear of the people's sympathy with him had been the one barrier to the execution of their purposes. The suspense, of which they pretended to complain, was of their own creating. They had refused the long array of evidence which his life, teachings, and miracles had furnished, and might now, if they had not so acted, been fully convinced adherents of Jesus, their Messiah. The reply of Jesus was a rebuke of their unbe lief : " I have told you, and ye do not believe. My mira- 326 THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. cles, wrought in my Father's name, testify of me. But ye do not believe this abundant, testimony, and so are not of my sheep. As I before told you,* my sheep have no dif ficulty in recognizing my Messianic voice, and hence my union with them is complete, and I bestow on them that eternal life which is resident in this union ; so that nothing from within, as their native sin, nor from without, as the assaults of Satan, can destroy them. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all these sources of opposition, and they cannot prevail against Him. I and my Father are united in this work of salvation." Just as on a previous occasion, when Jesus had declared his pre-existence to Abraham, the Jews had hastily seized the stones that lay in the court for the repairs of the tem ple, with the intent to stone him, so now, at this familiar mention of God as his Father,f they make a similar move ment. Before, Jesus had hid himself from their attempt, but now the circumstances permitted him to remain and expostulate with them. "Many good works I have shown you from my Father, which proved this relationship which I declare. For which of these do ye prepare to stone me ?" To this irony they answer that they wish to stone him as a blasphemer ; % to which Jesus retorts : " Is it not written in your law, ' I said, ye are gods ?'§ If the Holy * John, x. 3 ; vi. 14. t See verse 36. The Jews did not regard Jesus as making himself one with God, but equal in nature with God as His Son. Also, cf. chap. xvii. 21, 22 X See Lev. xxiv. 16 ; 1 Kings, xxi. 13. § Ps. lxxxii. 6 ; Exod. xxii. 7, 8, where the word " judges" is Elohim (gods). THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION. 327 Spirit calls those gods who are inspired men, who were merely the mouth-pieces and channels of communication with men which God used, is it blasphemy for one, whom his Father has especially consecrated in the other world and then sent into this, to say that he is the Son of God ? If I do not my Father's works, do not believe in me. But if I do them, even if ye do not believe in me, do not reject the works and deny such clear truths as they are, for if ye will receive them, ye will soon learn to believe in the wonderful union between the Father and me." At this point the excitement had become so violent, that the Master was again obliged to seek safety in flight, and at this time found it expedient to retire to the eastern side of the Jordan, where nearly three years before he had been baptized by John. The place must have called up many deep thoughts in his mind. John had passed away. Violence had removed him. His own sacrifice was at hand. Violence was ready to visit him with a still worse death. John had gone before him in more ways than one. For three years the Messianic tidings and testimony had been before Israel ; but what a meagre result was exhibited ! A little band of humble disciples followed him, but the great mass of the nation were either callous or hostile. Even if many in Galilee were pleased with him, and proud of him as a Galilean, it was a mere selfish sentiment of no depth or permanency. The truth which he had proclaimed they did not receive. Into the 328 THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. Messianic kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, they showed no disposition to enter. Amid such thoughts, both of the future and past, nothing but an ardent faith could sustain the soul of Jesus. But he was a man of prayer. He prayed " with strong crying and tears, and was heard for his piety,"* and in this way renewed his strength amid associations so calculated to depress. The place also sug gested comparisons in the minds of the multitude who flocked to him beyond the Jordan, when they knew of his retreat. They remarked that John, who had commanded the respect of the nation, had never wrought a miracle, while the ministry of Jesus had been accompanied all along with the displays of miraculous power ; and then adding to this that John's testimony had been wholly directed toward Jesus, and that this testimony had been fully sustained in the course of the Master, they could not withhold their acknowledgment of the Messianic claims. Some of these convinced minds, doubtless, became hearty believers and disciples, while the majority in all proba bility, as is the way of men, did not apply their convic tions to their life. The evangelist John records in this connection the memorable event of Bethany, the raising of Lazarus from the dead. Jesus, while in Perea, f received the tidings of the severe illness of Lazarus, and immediately told his * Heb. v. 7. f The district east of Jordan, under Herod's jurisdiction. THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. 329 discipies that this sickness was about to be the basis of a remarkable manifestation of God's glory. Two days after he received the news, he proposed to his disciples to re turn into Juclea. They endeavored to dissuade him on account of the danger from the Jews who so lately were ready to stone him. But Jesus reminded them that in MAHANAIM. the path of duty was the true safety. God's will was to him as the sunlight, in which he could not make a mis step. He then used the enigmatic language : "Lazarus, our friend, is asleep ; but I am going to awaken him." They could not understand either member of the enigma, when Jesus explained the first and left the event to ex plain the second. "Lazarus is dead, and I am glad, for 330 THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. your sakes, that ye may believe, that I was not there ;* but let us go to him." Thomas, whose faculties were blunt, regarded the return of Jesus to the west side of the Jordan as simply suicide, but proposed that they all should in desperation accompany him to martyrdom. The little company found themselves at Bethany on the fourth day after the decease of Lazarus. Martha, in hurried anxiety, meets the Saviour in the road. "Lord," is her greeting, " if thou hadst been here my brother had not died; but even now, I know, that as much as thou asketh of God, God will give thee." She hoped for relief from Jesus, but she hardly knew of what sort. And when Jesus openly promised her the resurrection of Lazarus, she could not believe in a present resurrection, but sup posed he meant the final resurrection. The Master seized this opportunity to show her his true relation to death. " I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, even if he be dead, shall live, and every one who lives and believes in me shall never die." To this declaration of his complete power over death in all its forms, bodily and spiritual, Martha gave her consent by the full confession : " Thou art the Messiah, the Son of God, the One who was coming into the world." As Jesus rested before entering the village, Martha, in her restless way, hurried back to Mary, who had remained at home, and privately told her * If Jesus had been there, Lazarus had not died. See what Martha and Mary alike say, v. 21, and v. 32. THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. 331 that the Master had arrived and wished to see her. This devoted sister at once hastened to Jesus, and falling before him, used the very same language that Martha had used, that which for four days had doubtless been often on their lips as the theme of their thoughts and sighs — "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died." When Jesus saw her tears and the heart felt lamentation of the many friends who had fol lowed Mary from the house (supposing she was going to the sepulchre to weep), he endeavored to restrain his deep emotion ; but at length, on his way to the tomb, burst into tears himself. As the Jews present saw this mark of his love for Lazarus, they drew an argument from it against his power : " Could not this one who opened the eyes of the blind have prevented this death ?" There was doubtless unbelief as much as perplexity in this question. They had their doubts as to the blind man's cure, which had made such a stir at the Feast of Tabernacles a few months before. Jesus, again repress ing his emotion, arrives before the sepulchre-cave and orders the large stone door to be removed, to which Mar tha, with her usual nervous want of faith, objects, on the score that the body had been too long dead. Jesus re minds the impulsive and slow-hearted woman that he had in former interviews told her that faith was the condition on which God manifested his glory. Checked by this rebuke she no longer resists, and the stone door is with- 332 THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. drawn from the sepulchre. At this moment Jesus lifts ^'his eyes upward and speaks aloud to God: "Father, I thank thee that thou didst hear me. But I knew that thou always dost hear me ; but for the sake of the surround ing multitude I have spoken, that they may believe that thou didst send me." This thanksgiving presupposes a prayer on the part of Jesus for the restoration of Laza rus, which, most probably, was also made in public, in order that the multitude might see the connection direct and authoritative between God and Jesus. With this word of thanksgiving he cried out with a loud voice that all might hear: "Lazarus, come forth." The awe-struck crowd at once saw the dead man moving in all the bondage of his grave-clothes out of his sepulchre. Lazarus was again alive. The astonishment and dread had to be broken by the order of Jesus that they should meet the restored man with their needed assistance.* The mind of many a Jew was convinced beyond all resistance by this sublime exhibition of the presence of God in the life and actions of Jesus, while there were some present at this scene who still were sufficiently hardened to run as tell-tales to the members of the Sanhedrim, and give the news as fuel to the hatred and persecuting spirit of the rulers. A meeting of the Sanhedrim was called at once, in which the miracles were acknowledged, and the danger of a let-alone policy dwelt upon. Such a policy would * Compare the action, when the daughter of Jairus was raised. THE RAISING OF LAZARUS. ' , 333^ - , o. S allow all the people to become his followers, and gnc^ag crisis would induce the Romans to extinguish their fca'fcion- ality, as they would necessarily consider Jesus to .b