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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

Quiet Talks About Jesus,

QUIET TALKS
ABOUT JESUS.

BY
S. D. GORDON
Author of "Quiet Talks on Power,"
"Quiet Talks on Prayer."

NEW YORK

A.
C.
ARMSTRONG
&
SON
3&5
West 1 8th Street, near 51b
Avenue
J 906
Copyright, 1906, by
A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON
Published, August, 1906
Entered at Stationer' s Hall. London

I A 11 rights reserved]

Printed by the Publishar'a Printing Co., Naw York, U. 5 A.

ERRATA
Page 1 8, second line from bottom should be "Man is a
spirit". Page 72, eighth line from bottom, first word, "blessings",
should be "blessing."
Page 167, first line, where "winter" should read "autumn".

Printed by tbe Publtaher's Printing Co , New York, U. 3. a

CONTENTS PAGE
A Bit Ahead . . .... 9
I. The Purpose of Jesus. ii
l The Purpose in Jesus' Coming .... 13
2. The Plan for Jesus' Coming . . . . 59
3. The Tragic Break in the Plan ... 80
4. Some Surprising Results of the Tragic Break 128
II. The Person of Jesus. 143
1. The Human Jesus  145
¦i.. The Divine Jesus  156
3. The Winsome Jesus .... . 171
III. The Great Experiences of Jesus' Life. 179
1. The Jordan: The Decisive Start . . . .181
2. The Wilderness: Temptation . . 192
3. The Transfiguration: An Emergency Measure 214
4. Gethsemane: The Strange, Lone Struggle 227
5. Calvary: Victory  236
6. The Resurrection- Gravity Upward . 259
7. The Ascension: Back Home Again Until  274
IV. Study Notes  277

"Show me, I pray thee, Thy glory." — Moses.
"When I could not see for the glory of that light." — Paid.
"But we all with open face beholding as in a mirror the
\ glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image from
glory to glory." — Paul.
"The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ."— Paul.
"Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus,
I've lost sight of all beside,
So enchained my spirit's vision,
Looking at the Crucified." — From Winnowed Hymns.

A BIT AHEAD

So far as I can find out, I have no theory about
Jesus to make these talks fit into. I have tried
to find out for myself what the old Book of God
tells about Him. And here I am trying to tell
to others, as simply as I can, what I found. It
was by the tedious, twisting path of dbubt that
I climbed the hill of truth up to some of its sum
mits of certainty. I am free to confess that I am
ignorant of the subject treated here save for the
statements of that Book, and for the assent within
my own spirit to these statements, which has
greatly deepened the impression they made, and
make. There is no question raised here about
that Book itself, but simply a taking and grouping
up together of what it says.
Most persons simply read a book. A few study
it, also. It is good to read. It is yet better to
go back over it and study, and meditate. Since
learning that the two books on power and prayer
have been used in Bible classes I have regretted
not including study notes in them. For those who
may want to study about Jesus there has been
added at the close a simple analysis with refer
ences. The reading pages have been kept free
9

io A Bit Ahead
of foot-notes to make the reading smooth and
easier. The analysis is so arranged that one can
quickly turn in reading to the corresponding
paragraph or page in the study notes.
A great musician strikes the key-note of a
great piece of music, and can skilfully keep it
ever sounding its melody through all the changes
clear to the end. It has been in my heart to wish
that I could do something like that here. If
what has come to me has gotten out of me into
these pages, there will be found a dominant note
of sweetest music — the winsomeness of God in
Jesus. It is in my heart, too, to add this, that I have a
friend whose constant presence and prayer have
been the atmosphere of this little book in its
making.

I. THE PURPOSE OF JESUS

i. The Purpose in Jesus' Coming.
2. The Plan for Jesus' Coming.
3. The Tragic Break in the Plan.
4. Some Surprising Results of the Break.

The Purpose in Jesus' Coming

God Spelling Himself out in Jesus.
Jesus is God spelling Himself out in language
that man can understand. God and man used
to talk together freely. But one day man went
away from God. And then he went farther
away. He left home. He left his native land,
Eden, where he lived with God. He emigrated
from God. And through going away he lost his
mother-tongue. A language always changes away from its na
tive land. Through going away from his na
tive land man lost his native speech. Through
not hearing God speak he forgot the sounds of
the words. His ears grew dull and then deaf.
Through lack of use he lost the power of speaking
the old words. His tongue grew thick. It lost
its cunning. And so gradually almost all the
old meanings were lost.
God has always been eager to get to talking
with man again. The silence is hard on Him.
He is hungry to be on intimate terms again with
his old friend. Of course he had to use a language
that man could understand. Jesus is God spelling
Himself out so man can understand* He is the
J3

14 Quiet Talks About Jesus
A and the Z, and all between, of the Old Eden
language of love.
Naturally enough man had a good bit of bother
in spelling Jesus out. This Jesus was something
quite new. When His Hfe spoke the simple
language of Eden again, the human heart with
selfishness ingrained said, "That sounds good,
but of course He has some selfish scheme behind
it all. This purity and simphcity and gentleness
can't be genuine." Nobody yet seems to have
spelled Him out fully, though they're all trying:
All on the spelling bench. That is, all that have
heard. Great numbers haven't heard about Him
yet. But many, ah! many could get enough,
yes, can get enough to bring His purity into their
lives and sweet peace into their hearts.
But there were in His days upon earth some
sticklers for the old spelling forms. Not the
oldest, mind you. Jesus alone stands for that.
This Jesus didn't observe the idioms that had
grown up outside of Eden. These people had
decided that these old forms were the only ones
acceptable. And so they disliked Him from the
beginning, and quarrelled with Him. These
idioms were dearer to them than life — that is,
than His life. So having quarrelled, they did
worse, and then — softly — worst. But even in
their worst, Jesus was God spelling Himself out
in the old simple language of Eden. His best
came out in their worst.
Some of the great nouns of the Eden tongue —
the God tongue — He spelled out big. He spelled

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 1 5
out purity, the natural life of Eden ; and obedience,
the rhythmic harmony of Eden; and peace, the
sweet music of Eden; and power, the mastery
and dominion of Eden; and love, the throbbing
heart of Eden. It was in biggest, brightest
letters that love was spelled out. He used the
biggest capitals ever known, and traced each in
a deep dripping red, with a new spelling —
s-a-c-r-i-f-i-c-e.Jesus is God following us up.
You see, the heart of God had been breaking —
is breaking over the ways things have been going
down on this planet. Folk fail to understand
Him. Worse yet, they misunderstand Him, and
feel free to criticize Him. Nobody has been so
much slandered as God. Many are utterly
ignorant of Him. Many others who are not
ignorant yet ignore Him. They turn their faces
and backs. Some give Him the cut direct. The
great crowd in every part of the world is yearning
after Him: piteously, pathetically, most often
speechlessly yearning, blindly groping along,
with an intense inner tug after Him. They know
the yearning. They feel the inner, upward tug.
They don't understand what it is for which they
yearn, nor what will satisfy.
For man was made to live in closest touch with
God. That is his native air. Out of that air
his lungs are badly affected. This other air is
too heavy. It's malarial, and full of gases and
germy dust. In it he chokes and gasps. Ye'

1 6 Quiet Talks About Jesus
he knows not why. He gropes about in the night
made by his own shut eyes. He doesn't seem to
know enough to open them. And sometimes he
will not open them. For the hinge of the eye-lid
is in the will. And having shut the light out, he
gets tangled up in his ideas as to what is light.
He puts darkness for light, and light for darkness.
Once man knew God well; closeup. And that
means loved, gladly, freely. For here to know
is to love. But one day a bad choice was made.
And the choice made an ugly kink in his will.
The whole trouble began there. A man sees
through his will. That is his medium for the
transmission of light. If it be twisted, his seeing,
his understanding, is twisted. The twist in the
will regulates the twist in the eye. Both ways,
too, for a good change in the will in turn changes
the eyes back to seeing straight. He that is will
ing to do the right shall clearly see the light.
But that first kink seems to have been getting
worse kinked ever since. And so man does not
see God as He is. Man is cross-eyed Godward,
but doesn't know it. Man is color-blind toward
God. The blue of God's truth is to him an
arousing, angering red. The soft, soothing green
of His love becomes a noisy, irritating yellow.
Nobody has been so much misunderstood as God.
He has suffered misrepresentation from two
quarters: His enemies and His friends. More
from — which? Hard to tell. Jesus is God try
ing to tell men plainly what He is really hke.
The world turned down the wrong lane, and

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 17
has been going that way pell-mell ever since.
Yet so close is the wrong lane to the right that
a single step will change lanes. Though many
results of being in the wrong lane will not be
changed by the change of lanes. It takes time
to rest up the feet made sore by the roughness of
the wrong lane. And some of the scars, where
men have measured their length, seem to stay.
The result of that wrong turning has been
pitiable. Separation from God, so far as man
could make separation. There is no separation
on God's part. He has never changed. He re
mains in the world, but because of man's turning
his face away, He remains as a stranger, unrecog
nized. He remains just where man left Him.
And any one going back to that point in the road
will find Him standing waiting with an eager
light glistening in His eyes. Nol That's not
accurate. He is a bit nearer than ever He was.
He is following us up. He is only a step off.
Jesus is God eagerly following us up.
The Early Eden Picture.
But one will never get to understand this Jesus
until he gets a good look at man as he was once,
and as he is now. The key to understanding
Jesus is man, even as Jesus is the key to God.
One must use both keys to get into the inner
heart of God. To get hold of that first key one
must go back to the start of things. The old
Book of God opens with a picture that is fascinat
ing in its simplicity and strength. There is an

1 8 Quiet Talks About Jesus
unfallen man. He is fresh from the hand of God,
free of scar and stain and shrivelling influence.
He is in a garden. He is walking hand in hand
with God, and working side by side with God:
friendship and partnership. Friends in spirit:
partners in service.
The distinctive thing about the man is that he
is like God. He and God are alike. In this he
differs from all creation. He is God's link be
tween Himself and His Creation. Particular
pains is taken by repetition and change of phrase
to make clear and emphatic that it was in the very
image of God that man was made. Just what
does it mean that we men were made in God's
likeness? Well, the thing has been discussed
back and forth a good bit. Probably we will not
know fully till we know as we are known. In
the morning when we see Him we shall be like
Him fully, again. Then we'll know. That morn
ing's sun will clear up a lot of fog. But a few
things can be said about it now with a positive-
ness that may clear the air a bit, and help us
recognize the dignity of our being, and behave
accordingly. Man came into being by the breath of God.
God breathed Himself into man. The breath
that God breathed out came into man as Ufe.
The very life of man is a bit of God. Man is of
the essence of God. Every man is the presence-
chamber of God.
God is a Spirit. Man is a Spirit. He lives in
a body. He thinks through a mind. He is a

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 1 9
spirit, using the body as a dwelling-place, and
the mind as his keenest instrument. All the im
measurable possibilities and capacities of spirit
being are in man.
God is an infinite spirit. That is, we cannot
understand Him fully. He is very close to us.
The relationship is most intimate, and tender, yet
His fulness is ever beyond our grasp and our ken.
Man is infinite in that he knows that God is in
finite. Only like can appreciate like. He can
appreciate that he cannot appreciate God, except
in part. He understands that he does not under
stand God save in smaller part. He knows enough
to love passionately. And through loving as well
as through knowing he knows that there is in
finitely more that he does not know. Only man
of all earth's creation knows this. In this he is
like God. The difference between God and man
here is in the degree of infinity. That degree
of difference is an infinite degree. Yet this is
the truth. But more yet: man has this same
quality wawward. He is infinite in that he cannot
be fully understood in his mental processes and
motives. He is beyond grasp fully by his fellow.
Even one's most intimate friend who knows most
and best must leave unknown more than is
known. God is an eternal spirit. He has always lived.
He will live always. He knows no end, at either
end. All time before there was time, and after
the time-book is shut, is to Him a passing present.
Man is an eternal spirit, because of God. He

20 Quiet Talks About Jesus
will know no end. He will live always because
the breath of God is his very being.
God is love. He yearns for love. He loves.
And more, He is love. Man is like God in his
yearning for love, in his capacity for love, and in
his lovableness. Man must love. He lives only
as he loves. True love, and only that, is the real
life. He will give up everything for love. He is
satisfied only as he loves and finds love. To
love is greater than to be loved. One cannot
always have both. God does not. But every one
may love. Every one does love. And only as
there is love, pure and true — however overlaid
with what is not so — only so is there Hfe.
God is holy. That word seems to include
purity and righteousness. There is utter absence
of all that should not be. There is in Him ail
that should be, and that in fulness beyond our
thinking. Man was made holy. There is in the
Genesis picture of Eden a touch that for sim
plicity and yet for reveaHng the whole swing of
moral action is most vivid. In the presence of
conditions where man commonly, universally,
the world around, and time through, has been
and is most sensitive to suggestion of evil there is
with this first man the utter absence of any thought
of evil.1 In the light of after history there could
be no subtler, stronger statement than this of his
holiness, his purity, at this stage.
And in his capacity for holiness, in that intensest
longing for purity, and loathing of all else, that
'Genesis 2: 25.

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 2 1
comes as the Spirit of God is allowed sway, is
revealed again the capacity for God-likeness.
It is the prophetic dawn within of that coming
Eden when again we shall see His face, and have
the originaHikeness fully restored.
God is wise, all-wise. Among the finest pas
sages of the Christian's classic are those that
represent God as personified wisdom. And here
wisdom includes all knowledge and justice. That
the Spirit of God breathed into man His own
mental Hfe is stated most keenly by the man who
proverbially embodied in himself this quaHty of
wisdom. "The spirit of man is the lamp of the
Lord searching out the innermost parts." The
allusion is clearly to intellectual powers. There
is in man the same quality of mental keenness
that searches into things as is in God. It is often
dulled, gripped by a sort of. stupor, so overlaid
you would hardly guess it was there. But, too,
as we all know, it often shines out with a startling
brilHance. It is less in degree than with God,
but it is the same thing, a bit of God in man.
This explains man's marvellous achievements in
literature, in invention, in science, and in organi
zation. Two light master-strokes of the etching point
in the Eden picture reveal the whole mental
equipment of the man. The only sayings of
Adam's preserved for us are when God brought to
him the woman. She is the occasion for sayings
that reveal the mental powers of this first man.
Fittingly it is so. Woman, when true to herself,

22 Quiet Talks About Jesus
has ever been the occasion for bringing out the
best in man. "And the man said, this time it is
bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; this
shall be called woman, because out of man was
this one taken. Therefore doth a man leave his
father and his mother and cleave unto his wife,
and they become one flesh." . . . "And the
man called his wife's name Eve; because she was
the mother of all Hving." Here is revealed at
a glance the keen mental powers at work. Here
is the simplicity of statement that marks the speech
of strong men. The whole forest is in a single
acorn. The whole of a human Hfe is in the
primal cell. The chemist knows the whole body
by looking into one drop of blood. Here is
revealed in one glance the whole man. Mark
the keen sense of fitness in the naming of woman —
the last and highest creation. Adam was a phil
ologist. His mind was analytical. Inferential
ly the same keen sense of fitness guided in all
the names he had chosen. Here is recognition
of the plan for the whole race, a simple unlabored
foresight into its growth. A man's relation to his
wife, his God-chosen friend, as being the closest
of life, and above all others is recognized, together
with the consequent obhgation upon him. She
comes first of all. She becomes the first of all
his relationships. The man and the woman —
one man and one woman — united, make the true
unit of society. Any disturbance of that strikes
at the very vitals of society.
And God is a Sovereign — the sovereign of the

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 23
vast swing of worlds. Man likewise is a sover
eign in the realm of nature, and over all the low
er creation. He was given dominion, kingship,
over all the earth-creation. Man is a king. He
is of the blood royal. He was made to command,
to administrate, to reign. He is the judge of
last appeals on the bench of earth.
But there is more here. The chief characteristic
of an absolute sovereign is the imperial power to
choose, to decide. Man was made an absolute
sovereign in his own wfll. God is the absolute
sovereign. He has made man an absolute sover
eign in one realm, that of his will, his power of
choice. There is one place where man reigns
alone, an absolute autocrat, where not even God
can come save as the autocrat desires it, that is in
his will. And if that "can" bother you, remem
ber that it was God's sovereign act that made it
so. So that God remains sovereign in making
man a sovereign in the realm of his will. There
every man sits in imperial soHtude.
Here then is the picture of man fresh from the
hand of God. A spirit, in a body, with an unend
ing Hfe, partly infinite, Hke God in his capacity
for love, for hoHness, and wisdom, with the gift
of sovereignty over the lower creation, and in his
own will. Like Him too in his capacity for
fellowship with God. For only Hke can have
fellowship with Hke. It is only in that in which
we are alike that we can have fellowship. These
two, God and man, walking side by side, working to
gether : friendship in spirit; partnership in service.

24 Quiet Talks About Jesus
This man is in a garden of trees and bushes, with
fruit and flowers and singing birds, roses with no
pricking thorns, soft green with no weeds, and no
poison ivy, for there is no hate. And he is walk
ing with God, talking famiHarly as chosen friend
with choicest friend. Together they work in the
completion of creation. God brings His created
beings one by one to man to be catalogued and
named, and accepts his decisions. What a win
some picture. These two, God and a man in His
Hkeness, walking and working side by side;
likeness in being; friendship, feUowship in spirit;
partnership, comradeship in service. And this is
God's thought for man!
Man's Bad Break.
Then come the cUmax and the crisis. A
chmax is the cHmbing to the top rung of the
ladder. A crisis is the meeting place of possible
victory and possible disaster. A single step
divides between the two — the precipice-height,
and the canon's yawning gulf.
It was a chmax of opportunity; and a crisis
of action. God's cUmax of opportunity to man.
Man's crisis of action. God made man sover
eign in his power of choice. Now He would go
the last step and give him the opportunity of
using that power and so reaching the topmost
levels. God led man to the hUl of choice. The
man must climb the hiU if he would reach its top.
Only the use of power gives actual possession
of the power. What we do not use we lose. The

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 25
pressure of the foot is always necessary to a clear
title. To him that hath possible power shall be
given actual power through use.
This opportunity was the last love-touch of
God in opening up the way into the fulness of
His image. With His ideal for man God went to
His Umit in giving the power. He could give the
power of choice. Man must use the power given.
Only so could he own what had been given. God
could open the door. Man must step over the
door-sill. Action reaUzes power.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil was the
tree of choice. Obedience to God was the one
thing involved. That simply meant, as it always
means, keeping in warm touch with God. AU
good absolutely is bound up in this — obeying God,
keeping in warm touch. To obey Him is the
very heart of good. All evil is included in dis
obeying Him. To disobey, to faU to obey is the
seeded core of all evil.
Whichever way he chose he would exercise his
God-Hke power of choice. Whichever way he
chose, the knowledge would come. If he chose
to obey he would know good by choosing it, and
evil by rejecting it. He knew neither good nor
evU, for he had not yet had the contact of choice.
Knowledge comes only through experience. In
choosing not to obey, choosing to disobey, he
would know evil with a bitter intimacy by choos
ing it. He would become acquainted with the
good which he had shoved ruthlessly away.
With the opportunity came the temptation:

26 Quiet Talks About Jesus
God's opportunity; Satan's temptation. Satan
is ever on the heels of God. Two inchned planes
lead out of every man's path. Two doors open
into them side by side. God's door up, the
tempter's door down, and only a door-jamb
between. Here the spHt hoof can be seen sticking
from under the cloak's edge at the very start.
Satan hates the truth. He is afraid of it. Yet
he sneaks around the sheltering corner of what
he fears and hates. The sugar coating of his
gaU piUs he steals from God. The devU bare
faced, standing only on his own feet, would be
instantly booted out at first approach. And right
well he knows it.
A cunning half-lie opens the way toafuU-fledged
lie, but stiU coupled with a half-truth. The sugges
tion that God was harshly prohibiting something
that was needful leads to the further suggestion
that He was arbitrarily, selfishly holding back the
highest thing, the very thing He was supposed to
be giving, that is, likeness to Himself. Eve was
getting a course in suggestion. This was the first
lesson. The school seems to be in session stiU.
The whole purpose is to slander God, to misrep
resent Him. That has been Satan's favorite
method ever since. God is not good. He makes
cruel prohibitions. He keeps from us what we
should have. It is passing strange how every
one of us has had that dust in his eyes. Some of
us might leave the "had "'out of that sentence.
See how cunningly the truth and the lie are
interwoven by this old past-master in the sooty

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 27
art of lying. "Your eyes shall be opened, and
ye shaU be as God knowing good and evil." It
was true because by the use of this highest power
of choice he would become like God, and through
choosing he would know. It is cunningly impHed
with a sticky, sHmy cunning that, by not eating,
that likeness and knowledge would not come.
That was the lie. The choice either way would
bring both this element of likeness to God in the
sovereign power of choice, and the knowledge.
Then came the choice. The step up was a
step down: up into the use of his highest power;
down by the use of that power. In that wherein
he was most Hke God in power, man became
most unHke God in character. First the woman
chose: then the man. Satan subtly begins his
attack upon the woman. Because she was the
weaker? Certainly not. Because she was the
stronger. Not the leader in action, but the-
stronger in influence. He is the leader in action:
she in influence. The greater includes the less.
Satan is a master strategist, bold in his cunning.
If the citadel can be gotten, all is won. If he
could get the woman he would get the man. She
includes him. She who was included in him
now includes him. The last has beco me first.
She was deceived. He was not deceived. The
woman chose unwarily for the supposed good.
The man chose with open eyes for the woman's
sake. Could the word gallantry be used? Was
it supposed friendship? He would not abandon
her? Yet he proved not her friend that day, in

28 Quiet Talks About Jesus
stepping down to this new low level. Man's
habit of giving smoothly spoken words to woman,
while shying sharp-edged stones at her, should
in all honesty be stopped. Man can throw no
stones at woman. If the woman failed God that
day, the man failed both God and the woman.
If it be true that through her came the beginning
of the world's sin, through her, too, be it grate
fully and reverently remembered, came that which
was far greater — the world's Saviour.
The choice was made. The act was done.
Tremendous act! Bring your microscope and
peer with awe into that single act. No fathom
ing Une can sound its depth. No measuring rod
its height nor breadth. No thought can pierce
its intensity. That reaching arm went around a
world. Millenniums in a moment. A miUion
miles in a step. An ocean in a drop. Volumes
in a word. A race in a woman. A heU of suffer
ing in an act. The depths of woe in a glance.
The first chapter of Romans in Genesis three,
six. Sharpest pain in softest touch. God mis
trusted — distrusted. Satan embraced. Sin's
door open. Eden's gate shut.
Mark keenly the immediate result that came
with that intense rapidity possible only to mental
powers. At once they were both conscious of
something that had not entered their thoughts
before. To the pure aU things are pure. To
the imagination hurt by breaking away from God,
the purest things can bring up suggestions directly
opposite. Through the open door of disobe-

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 29
dience came with Ughtning swiftness the sugges
tion of using a pure, holy function of the body
in a way and for a purpose not intended. Making
an end of that which was meant to be only a
means to a highest end. Degrading to an animal
pleasure that which held in its pure hallowed
power the whole future of the race. There is
absolutely no change save in the inner thought.
But what a horrid heredity in that one flash of the
imagination! Every sin Hves first in the imagi
nation. The imagination is sin's brooding and
birth-place. An inner picture, a lingering glance,
a wrong desire, an act — that is the story of every
sin. The first step was disobedience. That
opened the door. The first suggestion of wrong
doing that followed hot on the heels of that first
step, through that open door, struck at the very
vitals of the race — both its existence and its
character. That first suggested unnatural action,
with its whole brood, has become the commonest
and shmiest sin of the race.
Here, in the beginning, the very thought
shocked them. In that lay their safety. Shame
is the recoil of God's image from the touch of sin.
Shame is sin's first checkmate. It is man's van
tage for a fresh pull up. There are only two
places where there is no shame: where there is
no sin; where sin is steeped deepest in. The
extremes are always jostling elbows. Instantly
the sense of shame suggested a help. A simple
bit of clothing was provided. It was so adjusted
as to help most. Clothing is man's badge of

30 Quiet Talks About Jesus
shame. The first clothing was not for the body,
but for the mind. Not for protection, but for
concealment, that so the mind might be helped
to forget its evil suggestions. It is one of sin's
odd perversions that draws attention by color and
cut to the race's badge of shame. It would seem
strongly suggestive of moral degeneracy, or of
bad taste, or, let us say in charity, of a lapse of
historical memory.
Mark the sad solUoquy of God: "Behold the
man has become as one of us: He has exercised
his power of choice." He tenderly refrains from
saying, "and has chosen wrong! so pitiably
wrong!" That was plain enough. He would
not. rub in the acid truth. He would not make
the scar more hideous by pointing it out. "And
now lest he put forth his hand and take of the
tree of Ufe." "Lest!" There is a further danger
threatening. In his present condition he needs
guarding for his own sake in the future. "Lest"
— wrong choice Hmits future action. Sin narrows.
With man's act of sin came God's act of saving.
Satan is ever on the heels of God to hurt man.
But God is ever on the heels of Satan to cushion
the hurt and save the man. It is a nip-and-tuck
race with God a head and a heart in the lead.
Something had to be done. Man had started sin
in himself by his choice. The taint of disobe
dience, rebelUon, had been breathed out into the
air. He had gotten out of sorts with his sur
roundings. His presence would spoil his own
heaven. The stain of his sin would have been

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 3 1
upon his eternal Ufe. The zero of selfishness
would have been the atmosphere of his home.
The touch of his unhallowed hand must be taken
away for his own sake. That unhaUowed touch
has been upon every function and relationship
of Ufe outside those gates. Nothing has escaped
the sHmy contact.
Sin could not be allowed to stay there. Its
presence stole heaven away from heaven. Yet
sin had become a part of the man. The man and
the wrong were interwoven. They were insep
arable. Sin has such a tenacious, gluey, sticky
touch! Each included the other. It could not
be put out without his being put out. So man
had to be driven out for his own sake to rid his
home-spot of sin. The man was driven out that
he might come back — changed. Love drove him
out that later it might let him in. The tree of
Hfe was kept from him for a time that it might
be kept for him for an eternity.
When he had changed his spirit, and changed
sides in the fight with evil started that day, and
gotten victory over the spirit, now dominant with
in himself, those gates would swing again.
When the stain of his choice would be taken out
of his fibre it would be his right eagerly to retrace
these forced steps, and the coming back would
find more than had been left. Love has been
busy planning the home-coming. The tree of
Ufe has been grown in his absence to a grove
of trees. The Hfe has become Ufe more abun
dant.

32 Quiet Talks About Jesus
Outside the Eden Gate.
The story of what took place outside that
guarded gate makes clear the love, the wise far-
sighted love that showed the man the way out
that day. To teU the story one must use a pen
made of the iron that has entered his own soul,
and though the pen be eased with baU point, it
scratches and sticks in the paper for sheer reluc
tance. And only the tears of the heart wiU do
for ink.
That was a costly meal. That first bite must
have been a big one. Its taste is stiU in the mouth
of the race. If that fruit were an apple it must
have been a crab. There has been a bad case of
indigestion ever since. If you think there were
no crab-apples in Eden, then the touch of those
thickening Hps must have soured it in the eating —
man's teeth are still on edge. The fruit became
tough in the chewing. It's not digested yet.
That Garden of Eden must have been on a hiU,
with lowlands below, and high hiUs above, and
roads both ways. The man seems to have gotten
into the lowland road, and after a bit, struck some
marshes and swamps, with a good bit of thick
gray fog.
The first result of the break with God was in
the man himself. Man has two doors opening
into himself from God — the eye and the ear.
Through these God comes into the man and makes
Himself known. Through these comes aU man
knows of God. Both have their hinges in the

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 3 3
wUl, the heart. Man gave both doors a slam
shut that day in Eden. Yet they went shut grad
ually. That was the God-side of their shutting.
He quickly sHpped in an air cushion so the shut
ting might be softened and delayed, and mean
while His presence be appeaHng to the man.
Refusing to obey God was equal to hearing
without being willing to listen. It was the same
thing as looking' with that reluctance that won't
see, and then doesn't see. Hearing and seeing
Ue deeper than ears and eyes, down in the purpose,
the will, the desire of the heart. UnwilUngness
dulls, and'then deafens the ears. It blurs, and then
bUnds the eye. An earnest, loving purpose gives
pecuhar keenness to the ears, and opens the eye of
the eye. Ears and eyes are very sensitive organs.
If their messages be not faithfully attended to
they sulk and pout and refuse to transmit mes
sages. It is a remarkable fact that habitual
inattention to a sound or sight makes one prac
tically deaf or blind to it; and that close attention
persisted in makes one's ears and eyes almost
abnormaUy keen and quick. Love's ears and eyes
are proverbially acute.
One may be so wholly absorbed in something
that he absolutely does not see the thing on which
his eyes are turned. He does not hear the sounds
that are plainly coming to his ear because his
thought, back of that his heart, is elsewhere.
Hearing, seeing is with the heart back of ears and
eyes. God is spoken of as silent. Yet His silence
may be simply our deafness. Tim tru|Ji js, IJe t

34 Quiet Talks About Jesus
is speaking all the time, but we are so absorbed
that we do not hear. He is ever looking into our
faces with His great, tender, deep eyes, but we
are so wrapped up in something else that the
gaze out of our eyes is vacant to that Face, and
with keenest disappointment, so often repeated,
He gets no answering glance.
Let anybody in doubt about the strict accuracy
of this do some experimenting on himself, either
with outer things or regarding God. Let him
obey the inner voice in some particular that may
perhaps cut straight across some fixed habit, and
then watch very quietly for the result. It wiU
come with surprising sureness and quickness.
And the reason why is simple. The man is simply
moving back into his native air, and of course aU
the powers work better.
This truth about the nerves of the ears and
eyes running down into the heart is constantly
being sounded out in the old Book. A famous
bit in Isaiah puts it very clearly, and becomes a
sort of pivot passage of aU others of this sort.
That fine-grained, intense-spirited young Hebrew
was caught in the temple one day by a sight of
God. That wondrous sight held him with un
yielding grip through aU the after years. With
the sight came the voice, and the message for the
nation: "Tell these people — you are continuaUy
hearing, but you do not Hsten, nor take in what
you hear. Your eyes are open, they look, but they
do not see." Then the voice said, "Make their
heart fat, and their ears heavy, and their eyes shut."

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 35
That is to say, by continuaUy telUng them what
they wiU continuaUy refuse to Hear because it does
not suit the habit of their Uves, he would be setting
in motion the action that would bring these results.
The ears that won't hear by and by can't hear.
The heart that will not love and obey gets into
a state of fatty degeneration. The valves that
refuse to move in loving obedience wiU get too
heavy with fat to move at aU. The fat clogs the
hinges. There is the touch of a soft irony in the
form of the message. As though Isaiah's talking
would affect their ears, whereas it is their refusal
to hear that stupefies the hearing organ. In
faithfulness God insists on telUng them the truth
even though He knows that their refusal to do wiU
make things worse. But then God is never held
back from good by the possible bad that may
work out of it.
When Jesus came, the Jews, to whom His
messages to the world were directly spoken, were
in almost the last stages of that sort of thing. So
Jesus, with the fine faithfulness of love blending
with the keenest tact, spoke in language veUed by
parable to overcome the intense prejudice against
plainly spoken truth. They were so set against
what He had to tell that the only way to get any
thing into them at all was so to veil its form as to be
fool them into thinking it over. Toward the close,
His keenness, for which they were no match, join
ing with the growing keenness of their hate, made
them see at once that the sharp edge of some of
those' last parables was turned toward themselves.

36 Quiet Talks About Jesus
In explaining to His puzzled disciples about
this form of teaching, with a sad irony that reveals
both His heart's yearning and His mental keen
ness, He uses more than once with variations this
famous bit from Isaiah. He makes the truth
stand out more sharply by stating the opposite
of what He desires, making the contrast between
His words and His known desires so strong as not
only to make plain the meaning intended, but
to give it a sharper emphasis.
The result that began with ears and eyes quickly
affected the tongue. That is nature's path. The
inner road from ear and eye is straight to the
tongue. The tongue is the index of man's whole
being. Whue through ear and eye he receives
aU that ever gets in, through the tongue his whole
being is revealed. Of course his personaUty re
veals itself very much otherwise. In the carriage
of the body. Strikingly so in the look of the eye.
The body itself, especiaUy the face, becomes in
time the mould of the spirit within. Yet the
tongue — what is said, how it is said, what is not
said, the tone of voice — the tongue is the index
of the spirit.
There is no stronger indication of mastery
over one's powers than in control of the tongue.
When God would break up man's first great
ambitious scheme of a self-centred monopoly on
the Shinar plains, He simply touched his tongue.
The first evidence of God's touch in the re-making
of man on that memorable Pentecost day was
upon his tongue.

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 37
The effect upon his tongue of the break with
God has been radical and strange. Dumbness,
and slowness or thickness of speech alternate with
an unnatural sharpness. Sometimes the spittle
has a pecuUar oiUness that results in a certain
sUpperiness of statement. Sometimes it . has a
bitter, poisonous, acid quaUty that eats its way
into the words. There is a queer backward
movement in biting sometimes. Withal a strange
looseness of speech regarding the hoUest things,
and the most awesome truths, and the Holy One
Himself. The moment a man gets a vision of God he is
instantly conscious of something the matter with
his tongue. The sight that comes to his eyes,
the sound to his ears makes him painfully self-
conscious regarding the defect in his tongue.
Moses found himself slow-tongued. Isaiah felt
the need of the cleansing coal for his tongue.
But man's whole inner mental process was
affected. A pecuUar sense of fear, of dread, is wo
ven inextricably into the very fibre of man's being.
His first reported word after that break was, " I was
afraid." That sense of fear — a horrid, haunting,
nightmare thing — has affected all his thinking
and planning and every-day speech. No phrase
is oftener on man's tongue than "I'm afraid."
Isaiah's classic utterance about ears and eyes has
a counterpart equally classic from Paul's pen,
about the effect of sin upon man's mental proc
esses. A few lines in the letter to the Ephesian
circle of churches give a sort of biU of details of

38 Quiet Talks About Jesus
the mental steps down that slope from the Eden
gate. Paul is urging these friends to Hve no longer
as they, in common with aU the races, had been
living, in " the vanity of their mind, being darkened
in their understanding, aHenated from the Ufe
of God, because of the ignorance that is in them,
because of the hardening of their hearts; who,
being past f eeUng, gave themselves up to lascivious-
ness to make a greedy trade of aU uncleanness."
Here are seven steps down. The first five are
put in reverse order. Beginning where they have
been, he traces the five steps back to the starting
point, and then adds the two Hkely to foUow with
any who persist past this point.
The start of aU sin is in the setting of one's self
against God. Choosing some other way than His.
It is caUed here "hardening of the heart." The
native juices of the heart are drawn away from
God and dry up. In this Book the heart is the
seat of both affection and wiU. It is the pivotal
organ of Hfe. Any trouble there quickly and
surely affects the whole being. Then foUows
"ignorance." Of course. The heart controls both
ear and eye, the two great channels inward of
knowledge. The hardening of the heart locks
both doors. And hard on the heels of that comes
"Alienated from the Ufe of God." That is, cut
off, shut out of fellowship and intimacy. Life is
union with God. Through union God's Ufe flows
into us. Union is rooted in knowledge and in
sympathy, fellow-feeling, a common desire and

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 39
purpose. The man snapping that tying cord cuts
himself off.
The next step is pecuUarly pathetic — "darkened
in their understanding." The man has shut the
shutters close, and puUed the shades down tight.
Of course it's dark inside. He is unable to see.
First unwiUing, now unable. If the only thing
that can be gotten for use as Ught be darkness,
how intense is that darkness! Then comes the
pitiable result of acting as if darkness were man's
native air — "the vanity of the mind." That
word vanity means aimlessness. The mind is
stiU keen, even brilHant, but the guiding star is
shut out, and that keen mind goes whirring aim
lessly around. Sometimes a very earnest aim
lessness. The man's on a foggy sea without sun
or star. The compass on board is useless.
But more pitiable and pathetic yet; indeed
utterly laughable if it were not so terribly serious
and pathetic: — this man in the dark proceeds
gravely to decide that this darkness of his own
making is a superior sort of Ught, and bows low
in worship of its maker. He has even been known
to write brilHant essays on the Ught-giving power
of bunding darkness, with earnest protests at the
evU of this thing commonly caUed Hght. Some
times having carefuUy cottoned up the shutters
that no scrap of sun Ught or sun warmth may get
in, he strikes a friction match, and sits warming
himself, and eloquently sets forth his own great
ness as shown by the match, friction match. Most
of this sort of Ught and heat is of the friction sort.

40 Quiet Talks About Jesus
Then with reluctant hand, one who knows
Paul's tender heart can weU beUeve, the curtain
is drawn aside for the last two stages; the grosser,
gutter, animal stages, which, not always by any
means, but aU too commonly foUow. "Past
feeHng!" The deHcate sense of feeling about
right and purity duUs and goes. The fine inner
judgment blunts and leaves. The shrinking
sensitiveness toward the dishonorable and im
pure loses its edge and departs. Then — peU meU,
Hke a pack of dogs down a steep hiU, foUows the
last — "lasciviousness," the purest, hoUest things
in the gutter-sHme, and then, cold-blooded, greedy
trading in these things. That's the picture paint
ed in shadows of Rembrandt blackness, newly
blackened, of the effect in man himself of turn
ing away from God.
Now Jesus is the music of God's heart sounding
in man's ears anew, that he may be wooed back
the old road to the Eden life. Jesus is the face
of God, close up, looking tenderly, yearningly,
into man's face, that his eye may be caught and
held, and his heart be enchained.
Sin's Brood.
The second great result of that Eden break
has been in the growth of sin. In the seventeenth
century after that it was said that man's heart
was a breeding place of thoughts whose pictured
forms were bad, only bad, with no spots of good,
nor spurts of good. A thousand years later,
Moses giving the Hebrew tribes the ten command-

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 41
ments, adds a crowd of particulars, some of them
very grewsome, which serve as mirrors to reveal
the common practice of his age. The slant down
of those first centuries has evidently been increas
ing in its downward pitch.
More than a thousand years later yet, there is
a summary made by Paul that reveals the stage
reached by sin in his day. Probably no one knew
the world of his time, which has proved to be the
world's crisis time, as did Paul the scholar and
philosopher of Tarsus. Himself a city man,
weU bred and weU schooled, a world traveller,
with acute, discipUned powers of observation,
and a calm scholarly judgment, he had studied
every phase of life cultured and lowly.
He pitched upon the great city centres in his
active campaigning, and worked out into the
country districts. He was a world-bred man.
He knew the three over-lapping worlds of his
time: the Hebrew, with its ideals of purity and
rehgion; the Greek, with its ideals of culture;
and the Roman, with its ideals of organization
and conquest. He is writing from Corinth, then
the centre of Greek life, to Rome, the centre of
the world's life. His letter is the most elaborate
of any of his writings preserved to us. In its
beginning he speaks of man, universally, morally,
as he had come to know him. His arraignment
is simply terrific in its sweep and detaU.
Let me pause and be measuring the words cau
tiously and then put this down: — the description of
the latter half of the first chapter of Romans is a

42 Quiet Talks About Jesus
true description of man to-day. At first flush that
sounds shocking, as indeed it is. It seems as if this
description can apply only to degraded savages
and to earth's darkest corners. But the history
of Paul's day, and before, and since, and an under
view of the social fabric to-day, only serve to make
clear that Paul's description is true for aU time,
and around the world.
There is a cloak of conventionaUty thrown
over the blacker tints of the picture to-day in
advanced Christian lands. It is considered proper
to avoid speaking of certain excesses, or, if speech
must be used, modestly to say "unnamable."
And it is a distinct gain for moraUty that it is so.
Better a standard recognized, even though broken.
But commonly the conditions are not changed.
The differences found in different civilizations
to-day are differences only of degree. In the most
advanced cities of Christendom to-day may be
found every bit of this chapter's awful details,
but properly cloaked. In European lands the
cloaks are sewed with the legal-stitch, which is
considered the proper finish. In lands where our
Christian standards are not recognized the thing
is as open as in this chapter.
In four short paragraphs containing sixty-six
lines in the American Revision, Paul packs in
his terrific phiHppic. He swings over the ground
four times. Nowhere does he reveal better his
own fidehty to truth, with the fineness of his own
spirit. Here, deUcacy of expression is rarely
blended with great plainness. No one can fail

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 43
to understand, and yet that sense of modesty native
to both man and woman is not improperly dis
turbed, even though the recital be shocking.
Here is paragraph one: Man knew God both
through nature and by the direct inner Ught.
But he did not want him as God. It bothered
the way he wanted to Hve. The core of aU sin
is there. AU its fruitage grows about that core.
He became vain in his reasonings. He gave
himself up to keen, brilHant speculation. Having
cut the cord that bound him to God, unanchored,
uncompassed, on a shoreless, starless sea, he
drifts brilUantly about in the dense gray fog.
Then he befooled himself further by thinking
himself wise. He preferred somebody else to
God.. Whom? Himself! Then — birds; then —
beasts on aU fours with backbone on a Une with
the earth, nose and mouth close to the ground;
then — gray-black, sUmy, crawUng, creeping
things. He traded off the truth of God for a He;
the sweet purity of God for rank impurity. He
dethroned God, and took the seat himself. He
bartered God for beasts and grew Hke that he
preferred. God's gracious restraint is with
drawn when he gets down to the animal stage.
Only here man out-animaUed the animals. The
beasts are given points on beastUness. The Ufe
he chose to Hve held down by the throat the truth
he knew so weU. That's the first summary.
The next two paragraphs are devoted to that
particular sort of unnatural sin first suggested to
man after his disobedience, and which in aU time

44 Quiet Talks About Jesus
and all lands has been and is the worst, the most
unnatural, the most degrading, and the most
common. It came first in the imagination.
It came early in the history of actual sin.
It is put first by Paul in his arraignment
here. He gives it chief place by position and by
particularity of description. First was the using
of a pure, natural function to gratify unnatural
desires. Then with strange cunning and lustful
ingenuity changing the natural functions to uses
not in the plan of nature. Let it aU be said in
lowest, softest voice, so sadly awful is the recital.
Yet let that soft voice be very distinct, that the
truth may be known. Then lower down yet the
commerciaUzing of such things. Unconcerned
barter and trade in man's holy, most potent
function. Putting highest price on most ingenious
impurity. Then foUows the longest of these paragraphs
running up and down the grimy gamut of sin.
Beginning with all unrighteousness, he goes on to
specify depravity, greedy covetousness, maUcious-
ness. Oozing out of every pore there are envy,
murder, strife, deceit, maHgnity. Men are whis
perers, backbiters, God-haters, and self-lovers,
in that they are insolent, haughty, boastful. They
are inventors of evil things, without understand
ing, breakers of faith, without natural affection,
ruthlessly merciless.
The cUmax is reached in this, that though they
know God, and what He has set as the right rule
of Ufe, they not only do these things named, but

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 45
they deHght in the fellowship of those who habit-
uaUy practise them. The stage of impulsiveness
is wholly gone. They have settled down to this
as the deUberate choice and habit of Hfe. Man
is stiU a king, but all bemired. He is the image
and glory of God, but how shrivelled and with
ered; obscured, all overgrown with ugly poison
vines. Let it be remembered at once that this is a
composite picture of the race. Many different
sorts of men must be put together to get such
a view. Sin works out differently in different
persons. A man's activities take on the tinge
of his personaUty. So sin in a man takes on the
color and tone of his individuaUty.
One man has the inner disposition against God,
accompanied by no excesses at aU. These things
disgust him. He is refined in his tastes, perhaps
scholarly and intellectual in his thinking. That
inner disposition may be a sort of refined ignoring
of God either defiant or indifferent. In another,
the' animal nature swings to the front, stronger
perhaps by heredity, and, yielded to, it runs to
the excess of riot. Then there is the man with
the strange yellow fever, whose love for the bright-
colored precious metal burns in his blood and
controls every impulse and purpose. And the
man with intense love of power, of controlUng
men and things for the sake of the immense power
involved, with himself as the centre of all.
There is every imaginable degree of each of these,
and every sort of combination among them. The

46 Quiet Talks About Jesus
Unes cross and re-cross at every possible angle in
various persons. A man is apt to get money-
drunk, then society-drunk (with a special definition
for the word society in this connection), then lust-
drunk. Or, he may swing direct from money-
intoxication into power-intoxication. Please no
tice keenly that each of these four grows up out
of a perfectly normal, natural desire. Sin always
foUows nature's grooves. There is nothing wrong
in itself. The sin is in the wrong motive under
neath, or the wrong relationship round about an
act. Or, it is in excess, exaggeration, pushing
an act out of its true proportion. Exaggeration
floods the stream out of its channel. Wrong
motive or wrong relationship sends a bad stream
into a good channel.
But sift down under the surface and always is
found the same thing. The upper growth is
varied by what it finds on the surface to mingle
with, but the sub-stuff is ever the same. The
root always is self. The whole seed of sin is in
preferring one's own way to God's way; one's self
to God. The stream of Ufe is turned the wrong
way. It is turned in. Its true direction is up.
The true centre of gravity for man is not down
ward, nor inward, but upward and outward.
God's Treatment of Sin.
God's treatment of sin lets in a flood of Ught
on the sort of thing it is. Three times over in this
summary Paul says that God "gave them up."
As they cast out all acknowledgment of God,

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 47
He gave them up to an outcast mind. When
they turned God out-of-doors, God left them in
doors to themselves. It was the worst thing He
could do, and the best. Worst — to be left alone
with sin. Best, because the sin would get so
vile that the man in God's image would want
to turn it out, and get God back. Man never
turns from sin until he feels its vileness to the
sickening point. When things get to the Acute
stage, and a sharp Crisis is on, then as a rule
there wiU be an eager turning to the One who
can cleanse and make over new; but usuaUy not
until then.
Sin has a terrific gait. Give it a loose rein
and man will get winded and ready to drop.
Only then is he ready to drop it. Sin can't be
patched up or mended. Nursing only helps it
to its feet for a fresh start. The whole trouble
is in the nature of the thing. The heart pumps
the hot blood of rebelUon. Its lungs can breathe
only self-willed air. The worst punishment of
sin is that left alone it breeds more sin, and worse
sin. The worst of sin is in its brood. It is very
prolific. Every sin is a seed-sin. The breeding
process gets the sort more refined in its coarse
ness. " This is the very curse of evil deed,
That of new sin it becomes the seed."1
And the plain statements of the Book, and the
inevitable working of man's nature, reveal aU
the bad results of sin intensifying indefinitely
1 Schiller.

48 Quiet Talks About Jesus
in the after-Ufe. Jesus is God letting sin do its
worst, upon Himself, that man might see its utter,
stubborn damnableness, and eagerly turn from
it, and back to Him.
A Bright Gleam of Light.
Yet be it keenly marked, there is a very bright
gleam of Ught across this dark picture. In going
over the story of sin with its terrific results now
and afterward, one needs to be very tender, for
he is talking about men — his brothers. And to
be very careful not to say things that are not so.
Some good, earnest people have been tbinking
that the whole race except a smaU minority were
given over to eternal misery. The vast majority
of men has never heard the name of Jesus. And
some very godly people have seemed to think that
these are lost forever.
Yet the old [Book of God speaks very plainly
here. Its meaning can be gotten without any
twisting of words. Neither the Jewish nation
nor the Christian Church can be regarded as
favorites of God. God has no favorites for sal
vation. The Jewish nation was chosen for
service' sake. Through it there came a special
after-revelation of God. Through it came the
world's new Man. The Church is the repository
of God's truth to-day, with its window panes not
always quite clear. Its great mission is to teU
the whole race of Jesus. Both were chosen for
service. Every nation knew God directly at the first.

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 49
And be it said thoughtfully, every man has enough
of revelation and of inner light to lead him back
to God. A man's choice in this Hfe is his choice
always. Any student of the ordinary working
of man's mind can certify that. Whatever sort
of being a man de.Uberately, persistently chooses
to be here and now, he wiU be always. The only
change possible in the after-life will be in the
degree. Never in the sort.
The Gospels speak of believing on Jesus, and
of the bad results for those who decUne or refuse
to have anything to do with Him. Of course
it is speaking of those who have heard of Him.
There can be no beUeving on Jesus without
hearing, and of course in simple fairness no
condemning on any such grounds. The gospel
message is wholly concerned with those who hear.
But there is clear and plain teaching about the
great outside majority of past generations and of
our own who have never heard. It was a mem
ber of both Jewish nation and Christian Church,
whose tongue, touched by the Spirit of God, said,
"God is no respecter of persons: but in every
nation he that feareth Him and worketh right
eousness is acceptable to Him." That is a simple
standard, yet a searching one. Anybody, any
where, with a truly reverential thought upward,
and a controlUng purpose to be right in his Ufe,
wiU find the door swinging wide. No other
badges or tickets required. This would include
that remarkable woman of India, Chundra Lelah,1
' " An Indian Priestess. ' ' Published by Hodder & Stoughton.

50 Quiet Talks About Jesus
aU those weary years before the simple story of
Jesus brought its flood of Ught and peace, and
aU of her innumerable class.
Paul puts it as simply and a Httle more fuUy in
the letter to the Romans, that careful treatise
which sums up with marveUous fulness and
brevity the gospel he preached to the world.
In chapter two, he says, "to them who by patience
in well-doing seek for glory and honor and in
corruption (He will give) eternal Hfe." Note
that in his review thus far he has not yet gotten
to Jesus the Saviour.
These people of whom he is now speaking
have never heard of Jesus. They are the great
majority. Mark keenly the simple description
of them. It is a description, not of an achieve
ment, but of a purpose. The absorbing aim in
their Hves is seeking upward. The seeking con
trols the Hfe. The mastering spirit of these
seekers is patience, steadfastness. They are seek
ing for the highest thing. They are doing what
seems to them to be right, while seeking. They
are doing right patiently.
Patience! What a world of conflicting experi
ences in a word ! Misunderstandings, breaks, sUps,
stumbUngs, failures, falls ; but in all, through aU,
patience, steadfastness. Taking a fresh hold at every
turn. And the gripping fingers ever learning a new
tenacity. PulUng steadily up a steep mountain side,
in a blazing hot sun, bUnded by dust, struck by
loosened rocks above roUing down, but — patiently,
steadily, with dust-bUnded eyes, tugging up. To

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 5 1
such is given the heart's desire — eternal Ufe.
Ah! God judges aman by his direction, by the
set of his face. He may not be far up, but
his face is turned up. His heels show their
backs. His toes point toward the top. That re
veals the purpose, the desire of the man inside.
His choice is to be up. And it is choice that
makes character as well as reveaUng it. And
the one thing that concerns God is the character
as revealed in the purpose.
There is a simple, pathetic story from mission
lands, variously told, and well vouched for, of
a missionary pausing long enough in a village to
teU the story of Jesus to the crowd that gathered,
and then pushing on. This was the first visit
of a missionary to this place and so the first
news of Jesus. The crowd Ustened eagerly with
various results. There was one Ustener, an old
man, held in repute for his wisdom, who at once
accepted the missionary's story, and announced
his acceptance of Jesus. His neighbors expressed
their surprise at his prompt acceptance of such
a new thing. The old man's quiet answer in
effect was this: "Oh, I have long trusted this
Jesus, but I never knew His name before." There
was no change of purpose with this man, but,
in the story of Jesus, the burst of Hght that brought
unspeakable peace as he kept on in his upward
tug. Yet all this wiU not hold back from glad sacri
fice, from free giving, from eager going to foreign
mission lands a single man or woman who has

5 2 Quiet Talks About Jesus
been caught by Jesus' Spirit. The Master said,
"Go ye." That's enough. For the largest wealth
that may be given, for the keenest sacrifice that
may be endured, for the strongest Ufe that may be
devoted — that is quite enough. And if more
were needed — then to go, to give, to sacrifice for
the sake of helping our struggUng brothers yonder
know Jesus, and His wondrous sacrifice and His
great peace. To make them conscious of the
disgustingness of sin, to bring to them a vision
of Jesus' face to aUure, and enchain, to give a
man's wiU an earnest boost, when he would choose,
but cannot seem to for the suction of sin, inherit
ed and ever growing upon his choosing powers,
God sent His best. Jesus sacrificed His aU in
going. We'll gladly foUow in such a train.
Jesus is God sending His best, sacrificing His
dearest, giving His most, going Himself to get
men started up the hiU out of the bog.
The Broken Tryst.
Man's break back in Eden was very hard on
God. That evening early, in the twiUght, God
came walking in the garden to have the usual
talk with His friend. He came to keep tryst. It
was the usual trysting place and trysting hour,
and God had the trysting spirit. We may think
He came early for this bit of feUowship. He
was prompt. Nothing would be allowed to dis
turb this appointment. But God was disap
pointed. It was His first disappointment. The
first one to be disappointed on this earth was God.

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 53
Adam had always met Him before. We may
easily think met Him eagerly, jubilantly, with
glad, free, open face and cUnging hands.
But the man was not there this time. He failed
God. He broke tryst. He stayed away. Indeed
he had gone away. God didn't fail. He was
there. The man failed. They had a long dis
tance talk. God called Adam. He was not
content to come to the trysting place. He must
find the missing tryster. Some folk would make
God a sort of hard and dry keeper of His word :
A sort of trim syllogism, dry as punk. Some
seem to think Him to be as they seem to be.
How our poor God has been slandered by His
supposed defenders! God was not satisfied to
keep the appointment. He wanted the man.
He hungered for His friend, upon whom He had
imprinted His own image. His heart was hun
gry for fellowship. He wanted the comfort of
a bit of talk. So He starts at once eagerly, in
sistently to find the man.
That voice of God spoke out, tender, gentle,
plaintive, pleading. You can just hear the soft,
very soft woodsman's cry, " Hello-alo, hello,
Adam, A-a-dam — here I am — waiting for you —
I've kept my tryst — where are you ? — hello-o —
heUo — where — are — you ? " The voice that spoke
worlds into being, that brought Hfe and beauty
to aU creation, that brought instant reverence
and adoration from myriads of the upper world,
that voice now speaks to one, two : two who were
one. All the heart of God, all the power of

54 Quiet Talks About Jesus
God, in the soft voice talking to one mail. God
has always been after the one man, and stiU is.
And the breezes hushed to hear that voice with
its new pleading tone. The birds stiUed their
song for this new music in minor meUowing tone.
Silence for a moment, the breezes hushed, the
birds stilled, the creation near by held its breath,
God held His heart still, that He might catch the "
first response to its cry. The twihght of that day
had a pathetic sight. It saw a broken tryst; a
lonely God; words of feUowship unspoken. A
man and woman hiding. Skulking behind trees.
Trees served a new purpose that evening, not a
good purpose. They never were meant to hide
behind. Sin perverts the use of aU things.
All these weary years God has been standing
wherever men are: standing; waiting, calling man
back to his tryst. Among the trees, in the crowded
city of man's making, He is ever caUing, and
eagerly, wondrously, helping every one who an
swers. He is so near that a reaching hand always
touches Him. The voice of the heart never misses
His ear. But His love and grief shine out most
on that bit of a hill, outside a city waU, on the
east coast of the middle-of-the-earth sea. That
is earth's tallest hill. It can be seen farthest
away of any. Jesus up on that hiU is God
calUng man back to his broken tryst.
God's Wooing.
God seems to have fairly outdone Himself to
get man to turn toward the old trysting place.

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 55
For when a man will turn around enough to get
even a gUmpse of that God-Face, and a whisper
of that God-Voice, he can withstand no longer.
God has taxed all the ingenuity of His love to
let man know about Himself. He revealed Him
self directly to the whole race at the start. He
has in every generation, and in every cHme, on
every hiUtop and valley, in every village and
crowded city, been reveaUng Himself to the
heart of every man. There cannot be found
one anywhere who has not heard the quiet inner
voice drawing up, and away from wrong.
In this world of wondrous beauty God is speak
ing. The glory-telUng heavens, the winsome col
oring of trees and all growing things, the soft
round hills, the subUme mountains, the sea with
its ever-changing mood but never-changing benefi
cence upon the Hfe of the whole earth, the great
blue and gray above, the soothing green below,
the brighter colors in their artistic proportion,
the wondrous blendings — surely every bush and
other green thing, every bright twinkler in the
blue, everything is aflame with the presence that
burns but in great love consumes not. His eyes
are indeed badly bothered that cannot see; his
ears in queer fix that do not hear. Yet some
times the empty shoes seem few enough. But
they are ever increasing, and wiU yet more and
more, by retail method, with wholesale result.
But God comes closer yet in His wooing. The
web of Ufe's daily run, with its strange mixing and
blending, shadings and tints, is of His weaving.

56 Quiet Talks About Jesus
He sits at Ufe's loom ever watching and weaving.
Were He but recognized oftener and His hand
allowed to guide the skein, how different the
weaving! " Children of yesterday,
Heirs of to-morrow,
What are you weaving —
Labor and sorrow ?
Look to your looms again;
Faster and faster
Fly the great shuttles
Prepared by the Master.
Life's in the loom,
Room for it — room I
" Children of yesterday,
Heirs of to-morrow,
Lighten the labor
And sweeten the sorrow:
Now — while the shuttles fly
Faster and faster,
Up and be at it —
At work with the Master.
He stands at your loom,
Room for Him — room I
" Children of yesterday,
Heirs of to-morrow,
Look at your fabric
Of labor and sorrow.
Seamy and dark
With despair and disaster,
Turn it — and lo,
The design of the Master.
The Lord's at the loom,
Room for Him — room." '
1 Mary A. Lathbury.

Purpose in Jesus' Coming 57
When men's eyes seemed unable to see clearly
these revelations of Himself, God picked out a
smaU tribe, and through long, patient, painstaking
discipUne, gave to it, for the whole world, a special
revelation of Himself. In it, in the Book which
preserves its records, in the Man who came
through it, God came nearer yet.
In Jesus, God told out His greatness most,
and His love most tenderly. Man is the fairest
flower of earth's creation. It was love's fine
touch that to him God should reveal Himself
best and most in the fairest flower of the eternal
creation. Only man could fully appreciate Jesus,
God's Man, and man's Brother.
But Jesus was known only to one generation —
His own generation — to one narrow strip of coun
try, one peculiarly exclusive tribe, the very small
majority of all to whom He had come. So there
came to be a Book that all after-generations might
know Him too. We of later generations know
of Jesus through the Book, in some shape or other,
before we can come to know Himself direct.
And so we prize the Book above all others. Not
for the Book's sake, at all, of course, but because
through it we come to know Jesus. With loving
reverence we handle it, for it tells of Him, our
God-brother. Some learned folk have been much taken up
with the make-up of the Book, its paper and type,
and punctuation, and binding. And they have
done good service in clearing away a lot of dust
and cobwebs that had been gathering on it for

5 8 Quiet Talks About Jesus
a long time. But we plain folk, absorbed in
getting things done, do not need to wait on their
conclusions. If in those pages we have found
Jesus, and God in Jesus, the Book has fulfiUed
its mission to us.
To aU directly, in nature's voice, and in our
common daily Ufe; to a nation chosen for the
special purpose, and through that nation and its
books; through Jesus to those who knew Him,
and, by a Book telUng of Him, to aU following,
God came, comes in His wooing, and looked,
looks tenderly into man's face. Each of these
paths leads straight to God, and each comes to
include the others.
But chiefly in Jesus God came. Jesus is God
going out in the cold black night, over the moun
tains, down the ravines and guUies, eagerly
hunting for His lost man, getting hands, and face,
and more, torn on the brambly thorn bushes,
and losing His Ufe, in the darkness, on a tree
thrust in His path, but saving the man.

The Plan for Jesus' Coming
The Image of God.
Man is God's darUng — the king and crown of
creation. The whole creation was made for him
to develop and rule over and enjoy. He is in a
class by himself. When he made his bad break
there was just one thing left to do. God must
get a new leader for His man to lead him back
into aU the original plan for himself. Of the
whole earth man stood next to God Himself. God
could not find that leader lower down. So He
went higher. Jesus is God giving the race a new
Leader who would withstand the lure of tempta
tion and reaUze the ambition of God's heart for
His dariing.
The man was made in the image of God, for
self-mastery, and through self-mastery for do
minion over all of God's creation. That was the
plan for the man. That, too, is the plan for the
new Man. There is only one place to go to find
God's plan for the coming One. That is in the
Hebrew half of the Bible. One can hardly be
heve, unless he has been through the thing, how
hard it is to get out of the Old Testament its vision
of the coming One without any coloring from the
New getting into his eyes. 59

60 Quiet Talks About Jesus
We have been reading the Old Testament through
the events of the New for so long that it gives a
severe mental wrench to try to do anything else.
Yet only so, be it sharply marked, can the plan
for the coming of Jesus be gotten, and, further,
only so can Jesus be understood. One must
attempt to do just that to understand at aU fairly
what a reverent Hebrew in prophetic times ex
pected; what such earnest Hebrews as Simeon
and Anna were looking for.
I have tried to make a faithful effort to shut
severely out of view the famiHar facts of the gospel
story for my own sake, to try to understand God's
plan as it stood before there was a gospel story.
This old Hebrew picture is so full of details
that are found in the reahty that one who has not
actually gone studiously over the Old separately
will be very Hkely to think that the New Testament
details are being read into the Old. If that be so,
it is urgently requested that such an opinion be
held off until the old Hebrew pages have been
carefuUy examined as outUned in the study notes,
that you may get the refreshment of a great sur
prise. It must be kept keenly in mind that there is a
difference between God's plan and that which He
knows ahead will occur. Sovereignty does not
mean that everything God plans comes to pass.
Nor that everything that comes to pass is God's
plan. Clearly it has not been so. It does mean
that through very much that is utterly contrary
to His plan He works out, in the long run, His

Plan for Jesus' Coming 61
great purpose. He works His own purpose out
of a tough tangled network of contrary purposes ;
but in doing it never infringes upon man's Hberty
of action. He yields and bends, and, with a
patience beyond our comprehension, waits, that
in the end He may win through our consent. And
so not only is His purpose saved, but man is saved
and character is made in the process.
The plan is a detail of the purpose. There is
one unfaiHng purpose through continual break
ings of the plan. God's purpose remains un
changing through all changes. Yet here not only
is His purpose unbroken, but His plan is to work
out in the end unbroken too, though suffering a
very serious break midway.
The plan goes back to the first broken plan.
There was dominion or kingship of the earth by
a masterful man bearing the image and imprint
of God. AU this was lost. Through loss of con
tact with God came the blurring of the image and
the loss of self-mastery. Through loss of these
came loss of dominion. These are to be restored
— aU three. This is the key to the plan for the
coming of Jesus. A universal dominion, under
the lead of a Master-Man, in God's image, and
through these a restoration of blessing to all the
earth of men. This is the one continuous theme
of the old Hebrew writings. The emphasis
swings now to one aspect, now to another, but
through all the one thought is a king, a world
wide kingdom bringing blessing to all creation.
But if Jesus was to lead man back He must first

62 Quiet Talks About Jesus
get alongside, close up, on the same level. This
was the toughest part of the whole thing. The
hardest part in saving a man is getting the man's
consent to be saved. There is no task tougher
than trying to help a man who thinks he doesn't
need help, even though his need may be extreme.
You may throw a blanket over a horse's head and
get it out of a burning stable or barn; or a lasso
over a bull's head to get it where you want, but
man cannot be handled that way. He must be
led. The tether that draws must be fastened in
side his will. He must be lifted from inside.
That is a bit of the God-image in him. And so
God's most difficult task was getting inside the
man that had shut Him out.
Fastening a Tether Inside.
And a long time it took. That it took so long,
measured by the calendar, suggests how great was
the resistance to be overcome. A long round
about road it does seem that God took. Yet it
was the shortest. The circle route is always the
shortest. It is nature's way. Nature always
follows the Une of least resistance. The eagle,
descending, comes in circles, the Une of least re
sistance. Water running out of a bowl through
the hole in the bottom foUows the circuitous
route — the easiest.
God's longest way around was the shortest way
into man's heart. Standards had to be changed.
New standards made. Yet in making a standard
there must be a starting point. God's bother

Plan for Jesus' Coming 63
was to get a starting point. When man was too
impure in his ingrained ideas to receive any idea
of what purity meant, things were in bad shape.
When he was grubbing content in the gutter, how
was he ever to be gotten up to the highlands, when
you couldn't even lift his eyes over the curbstone?
AU the prohibitions of the Mosaic code are but
faithful mirrors of man's condition. A wholly
new standard had to be set up. That was God's
task. It must be set up through men if they
were to be attracted to it. So God started on
His longest-way-around-shortest road into man's
heart. A man is chosen. Through this man, by the slow
processes of generations, a nation is grown. Yet
a nation only in numbers at first; in no other
sense ; a mob of men. Then this mob is worked
upon. They are led through experiences that
will make them soft to new impressions. Then
slowly, laboriously, by child-training methods, the
new standard is brought to them. Yet after cen
turies the best attained is only that their tena
cious fingers have hold of a form, not yet the spirit.
Yet this is an immense gain.
By and by this is the pedigree : A man, a family,
tribes, a nation, a strong nation, a broken nation,
a Uterature, ragged remnants of a nation, an ideal
the Uke of which could not be found anywhere on
earth, and a book embodying that ideal written as
with acid-point in metal, as with sharpest chisel
in hardest stone.
At last a start was made. God had gotten a

64 Quiet Talks About Jesus
hook inside man's will to which He could tie His
tether, and draw, lovingly, tenderly, tenaciously,
persistently, draw up out of the mire, toward the
highlands, toward Himself.
The First Touches on the Canvas.

This old Hebrew picture is found to be a mosaic
made up of bits gathered here and there, scattered
throughout the Book. Some of the bits are of
very quiet sober colors found in obscure corners.
Others are bright. When brought together aU
blend into one with wondrous, fine beauty. The
first bit is of grave hue. It comes at the very be
ginning. There is to be sharp enmity, then a
crisis, resulting in a fatal wound for the head of
evil, with scars for the victor.
After this earHest general statement there are
three distinct groups or periods of prediction re
garding the coming One. During the making of
the nation, during its high tide of strength and
glory under David and his son, during the time
of its going to pieces. As the national glory is de
parting, the vision takes on its most glorious color
ing. The first of these is during the making of
the nation. As the man who is to be father of the
chosen family is called away from his kinfolk to
a preparatory isolation, he is cheered with the
promise that his relationship is to be a relation
ship of leadership and of great blessing to the
whole earth. This is repeated to his son and to
his grandson, as each in turn becomes head of the
family. As his grandson, the father of the twelve

Plan for Jesus' Coming 65
men whose names become the tribe names, is
passing away he prophetically sees the coming
leadership narrowed to Judah, through whom the
great Leader is to come.
Later yet, in a story of divination and supersti
tion characteristic of the time, a strange prophet
is hired by an enemy to pronounce a curse upon
the new nation. This diviner is taken possession
of by the Spirit of God, and forced to utter what
is clearly against his own mercenary desires. He
sees a coming One, in the future, who is to smite
Israel's enemies and rule victoriously.
During the last days of Moses that man, great
to the whole race, speaks a word that sinks in
deep. In his good-bye message he says there is
some One coming after him, who will be to them
as he had been, one of their own kin, a deUverer,
king, lawgiver, a wise, patient, tender judge and
teacher. The nation never forgot that word.
When John the Baptist came, they asked, "Art
thou the prophet?"
The second group of predictions is found dur
ing the nation's strength and glory. To David
comes the promise that the royal house he has
founded is to be forever, in contrast with Saul's,
even though his successors may fail to keep faith
with God. It is most striking to note how much
this meant to David. He accepts it as meaning
that the nation's Messiahand the world's King is
to be of his own blood. "Thou hast spoken also
of thy servant's house for a great while to come."
Then follows this very significant sentence : "And
5

66 Quiet Talks About Jesus
this is (or, must be) the law of the man (or, the
Adam)." This promise must refer to the plan of
God concerning the woman's seed, the man, the
Adam.
At the close, when the tether of Hfe is sHpping
its hold, this vision of the coming greater Heir
promised by God evidently fills his eye. He says:
" There shall be One that ruleth over men;
A righteous One, that ruleth in the fear of God.
And it shall be then as the light of the morning,
When the sun ariseth,
A morning without clouds,
The tender grass springing out of the earth through
clear shining after rain."
"Verily, my own house has not been so with God;
Yet f ath He made with me an everlasting covenant,
Ordered in aU things and sure.
For this covenant is now all my comfort and aU my
desire,
Although he has not yet brought it to pass.'-
This seems to be the setting of those psalms of
his referring to the coming One. It was to be
expected that his poetical fire would burn with
such a promise and conception. In the Second
Psalm he sees this coining Heir enthroned as God's
own Son, and reigning supremely over the whole
earth despite the united opposition of enemies.
In the One Hundred and Tenth Psalm this Heir is
sharing rule at God's right hand while waiting the
subduing of all enemies. He is to be divine, a
king, and more, a priest-king. Surrounded by a
nation of volunteers full of youthful vigor He wiU

Plan for Jesus' Coming 67
gain a decisive victory over the head of the aUied
enemies, and yet be Himself undisturbed in the
continual freshness of His vigor. And all this
rests upon the unchanging oath of Jehovah.
David's immediate heir found his father's pen,
and in the Seventy-second Psalm repeats, with his
own variations, his father's vision of the coming
greater Heir. While there is repetition of the
kingdom being world-wide and unending, with
aU nations in subjection, the chief emphasis is put
upon the blessing to that great majority; — the
poor. They are to be freed from all oppression,
to have f uU justice done them, with plenty of food
to eat, and increased length of Ufe.
That David's expectation had thoroughly per
meated his circle is shown in the joyous Forty-
fifth Psalm, written by one of the court musicians.
It addresses the coming One as more than human,
having great beauty and graciousness, reigning in
righteousness, victoriously, with a queen of great
beauty, and a princely posterity for unending gen
erations.A Full-length Picture in Colors.
These are but the beginnings. It is in the pro-
' phetic books, the third of the groups, that the full
picture with its brightest coloring is found. The
picture is not only winsome beyond all compari
son and glorious, but stupendous in its concep
tion and its sweep. It is most notable that, as the
flood-tide of the nation's prosperity ebbs from its
highest mark, the vision to the prophetic eye of a

68 Quiet Talks About Jesus
coming glory grows steadily in brightness and in
distinctness. As the great kings go, the great
prophets come. It is to them we must turn for
the full-length picture.
The one continuous subject of the prophets is
the coming King and kingdom and attendant
events. Immediate historical events furnish the
setting, but with a continual swinging to the com
ing future greatness. The yeUow glory Ught of
the coming day is never out of the prophetic sky.
Its reflection is never out of the prophetic eye.
Jeremiah is the one most absorbed in the boiling
of the poHtical pot of his own strenuous time, but
even he at times Ufts his head and gets such
gHmpses of the coming glory as make him mix
some rose tincture with the jet black ink he uses.
The common thread running through the fab
ric of the prophetic books clear from Isaiah to
Malachi is the phrase "in that day." Some
times it thickens into "the day of the Lord," "the
great day of the Lord," "Jehovah hath a great
day," "at that time." About this thread is
woven in turn the whole series of stirring scenes
and events that are to mark the coming time.
Sometimes it is of local appUcation; most times
of the future time, and a few times the meaning
slides from one to the other, touching both.
Over all of these pages is the shadow of Some
body coming down the aisle of the ages, who is to
be the world's Master. The figure of a man,
large to gigantic size, majestic, yet kindly as well
as kingly, looms out through these Unes before

Plan for Jesus' Coming 69
the reader's face. The old idea of God Himself
dweUing'in the midst of the people, sharing their
Ufe, made famiUar by Eden, by the flame-tapped
mount and the glory-fiUed tent, comes out again.
For this coming One is said to be God Himself.
But more than that He is to be a man, and a son
of man; man bred of man. The blending of the
two, God and man, is pointed to in the unprece
dented thing of a pure virgin birth for this one.
God and a pure maiden join themselves in His
coming. He is to be of native Hebrew stock, in
direct descent from the great David, and born in
David's native viUage. Of course He is to be a
king as was David, but unlike that ancestor, to be
not only a king, but a priest, and a preacher and
teacher. The kingdom he will set up will be like Himself
in its blending of the human and divine. Its
origin is not human, but divine. The capital is
to be Zion or Jerusalem. It wiU be marked by
the glorious presence of God Himself visibly pres
ent to aU eyes. The characteristics of the king
dom are of pecuUar attractiveness, at any time,
to any people of this poor old blood-stained, gun-
ploughed battle-field of an earth. The stronger
traits that men commonly think of as desirable
are combined with traits that have been reckoned
by men of aU generations as absurdly, unpracti-
caUy ideaUstic.
There will be vengeance upon all enemies, who
have been using Israel as a common football, and
great victory. Yet, strangely, these wiU be gotten

70 Quiet Talks About Jesus
without the use of violent force, and wiU be foUowed
by great peace. The kingdom is to be estabUshed
in loving-kindness and marked to an unparaUeled
degree by a sense of right and justice to all. This
feature is emphasized over and over again, with
refreshing frequency to those so eager for such a
revolutionary change in their affairs. Absolute
gentle fairness and impartiaUty will decide all dif
ficulties arising. Even the most friendless and
the most obnoxious thing wiU be fairly judged.
That great universal majority, the poor, wiU
be especiaUy guarded and cared for. There wiU
be no hungry people, nor cold, nor poorly clad;
no unemployed, begging for a chance to earn a dry
crust, and no workers fighting for a fair share of
the fruit of their sweat-wet toU. But there are
tenderer touches yet upon this canvas. Broken
hearts wiU be healed up, prison doors unhung,
broken family circles complete again. It is to be
a time of great rejoicing by the common people.
Yet all this wiU be brought about, not immedi
ately, but graduaUy, foUowing the natural law of
growth; though the beginning wiU be marked
by a great crisis, coming suddenly.
The effect upon Israel nationally is to be tre
mendous, sweepingly reversing the conditions
under which most of these predictions are made.
Israel is to become a Spirit-baptized nation, whol
ly swayed by the Spirit of God, and that gra
cious sway never to be withdrawn. All judg
ments for her sins are removed and all impurity
thoroughly cleansed away. Possession of their

Plan for Jesus' Coming 71
own land is assured. And the capital city is to
become a holy place from which, in common with
the whole land, aU impurity has been cleansed
away. AU weakness and disability are gone, and
fuU freedom from the exactions of her former
enemies to be enjoyed. Not only is Israel to be
at peace with all nations, but, far more, is to
have the leadership of the nations of the earth,
and leadership of the highest sort — in a world
wide spiritual movement, in the day when the
Spirit of God is to be poured out upon all flesh.
This leadership is to be a glorious and absolute
supremacy among all the nations of the earth.
And yet this is not to be by man's method of con
quest, but of their own earnest accord all nations
wiU come a-running eagerly, voluntarily, with all
their wealth and resources for the upbuUding and
service of Israel. In that time the Hebrew capital
Jerusalem will likewise be the capital of the earth.
No less radical and sweeping wUl be the changes
in Israel personally, individually. The people are
to be made over new within. The modern word
for this sort of thing is regeneration. The old-
fashioned word is a new heart — a new spirit. The
change is to be at the core; a change of the sort.
With this wiU come a marked spirit of devotion
to God, and a pecuUar open-mindedness to the
truth. There wiU be an absence of all sickness
and a decided increase in length of Hfe and great
increase in numbers. There wiU be no longer
any disappointment in plans, and the sense of
slavish fear, which is universal, not only with aU

72 Quiet Talks About Jesus
the race, but through all time, wiU be utterly ab
sent. Israel is to be a nation of persons with
thrilled hearts and radiant faces.
Back to Eden.
The effect upon all the nations of the earth is
a large part of the background of the picture.
Through Israel's advancement under the new
order, every other nation is to come back to God.
The outpouring of the Spirit upon Israel is to be
followed by an outpouring upon all flesh. There
are the two outpourings of God's Spirit in these
old prophetic pages. This wiU be foUowed by a
universal, voluntary coming to Israel for reUg-
ious instruction. She becomes the teacher of
the nations regarding God, until by and by the
whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of
the only God. Her influence upon them for good
will be as the heavy f ertiUzing eastern dews and
the Ufe-giving showers are to vegetation.
But further yet, Israel is to be the only medium
of God's blessing upon the nations — the only
channel. Those refusing her leadership wiU, for
lack of vital sap, die of dry rot. The wondrous
blessings enjoyed by this central nation, the un-
hingeing of dungeon doors, the opening of bUnd
eyes, the mellowing of all the hard conditions of
Ufe, the reign of simple, full justice to aU,is to be
shared with all the nations. Israel's peace with
aU nations is to become a universal peace between
and among all nations.
But there's still more. There are to f oUow cer-

Plan for Jesus' Coming 73
tain radical changes in the realm of nature.
Splendid rivers of water are to flow through Je
rusalem, necessitating changes in the formation
of the land there. The fortress capital of the
Jews strongly entrenched among the Judean hiUs
is to become, as the world's metropoUs, a mighty
city, with rivers to float the earth's commerce.
The Ught of the sun and moon will be greatly in
creased, and yet this greatly intensified Ught wiU
become at Jerusalem a shadow cast by the greater
Ught of the presence of God. A devout Hebrew
would associate this back with the Ught of the
Presence-cloud in the Arabian barrens. While
the devout Christian wiU Hkely, quickly think
forward from that to the Hght that was one time
as the sun, and, again, above the sun's bright
ness. Naturally, with this comes a renewed fer-
tiUty of the earth's soil, and the removal of the
curse upon vegetation. Before the heahng Ught
and heat the poisonous growth, the bUght of
drought and of untempered heat disappear.
There is to be a new earth and above it a new
heaven. To complete the picture, the animal creation is
to undergo changes as radical as these. Beasts
dangerous because of ferocity and because of
treachery and poisonous quaUties wiU be wholly
changed. Meat-eating beasts will change their
habit of diet, and eat grain and herbs. There
wiU be a mutual cessation of cruelty to animals
by man and of danger to man from animals, for
all violence will have ceased.

74 Quiet Talks About Jesus
And then the cUmax is capped by repeated
assurances that this marvellous kingdom wiU be
as extensive as the earth and absolutely unending.
The whole thing, be it keenly noticed, is simply
a return to the original condition. In the Eden
garden was the presence of God, a masterful man
in the Hkeness of God, with fuU dominion over
aU creation. There was fuU accord in aU nature,
and perfect fellowship between man and nature.
AU this is to come to pass through the corning
One. He is the key that unlocks this wondrous
future. Through aU, above aU, growing ever
bigger, is the shadowy majestic figure of a Man
coming. His personal characteristics make Him
very attractive and winsome. He wiU be of un
usual mental keenness both in understanding and
in wisdom, combined with courage of a high
order, and, above aU, dominated by a deep rever
ential, a keenly alert, love for God. He wiU be
beautiful in person and, in sharp contrast with
earth's kings, while marked personally with that
fine dignity and majesty unconscious of itseU,
wiU be gentle and unpretentious in His bear
ing. His relations with God are direct and very
intimate, being personally trained and taught by
Him. Backed by aU of His omnipotence, He wiU
be charged with the carrying out of His great plans
for the chosen people and through them for tbe
world. In a fine touch it is specially said that "He wiU
judge the poor." Poor folk, who haven't money
to employ lawyers to guard their interests, and

Plan for Jesus' Coming 75
haven't time for much education to know better
how to protect themselves against those who
would take advantage of them — the poor, that's
the overwhelming majority of the whole world —
He wiU be their judge. They will have a friend
on the bench. But He will have this enormous
advantage in judging all men, poor and otherwise,
that He will not need to decide by what folk teU
Him, nor by outside things. He wiU be able to
read down into the motives and back into the Hfe.
Such is the plan for the coming One outUned
in these old pages. To many a modern all this
must seem Hke the wildest dream of an utterly
unpractical enthusiast. Yet, mark it keenly,
this is the conception of this old Hebrew book
that has been, and is, the world's standard -of
morals and of wisdom. The book revered above
aU others by the most thoughtful men, of all shades
of behef. It is striking how the parts of this stu
pendous conception fit and hold together. There
is a mature symmetry about the whole scheme.
For instance, the changes in the Hght of sun and
moon run paraUel with the changes in growth
and in the healthfulness and longer Uves of man.
Increased Ught removes both disease and its cause,
and gives new Hfe and lengthened Hfe.
Surely these Hebrews are a great people in their
visions. And a vision is an essential of great
ness. Yet this subUme conception of their future
is not regarded as a visionary dream, but calmly
declared to be the revealed plan of God for them,
and through them for the earth. And that, too,

76 Quiet Talks About Jesus
not by any one man, but successively through
many generations of men. The prophetic spirit
of the nation in the midst of terrible disaster and
of moral degradation never loses faith in its ulti
mate greatness, through the fulfiUing of its mis
sion to the nations of the earth.
Is it to be wondered at that the devout IsraeUte,
who beheved in his book and its vision, pitched
his tent on the hilltop, with his eye ever scanning
the eastern horizon, for the figure of the coming
One? And when eyes grown dim for the long
looking beheved that at last that figure was seen,
the heart breathed out its grateful reUef in "Now
lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for my
eyes have seen."
Strange Dark Shadowings.
But, too, there is in this vision of glory some
thing very different, so mixed in that it won't
come out. There are dark shadows from tbe
first touch upon the canvas. Always there is a
bitter, maUgnant enemy1. There is decisive vic
tory, but it comes only after sharp, hard, long-
continued fighting. But in the latter parts, that
is, in David's time, and intensifying in the later
pages, there is something darker yet. Through
these Unes run forebodings, strange, weird, sad
forebodings of evil. There are dark gray threads,
inky black threads, that do not harmonize with
the pattern being woven. And the weavers
notice it, and wonder, and yet are under a strange
impulse to weave on without understanding.

Plan for Jesus' Coming jy
Their coming One is to be a king, but there is
the distinct consciousness that there would be for
Him terrible experiences through which He must
pass, and to which He would yield on His way to
the throne. The very conception seems to in
volve a contradiction which puzzles these men
who write them down. Like a lower minor strain
running through some great piece of music are
the few indications of what God foreknew, though
He did not foreplan, would happen to Jesus. A
sharp Une must always be drawn between what
God plans and what He knows will happen. The
soft sobbing of what God could see ahead runs
as a minor sad cadence through the story of His
plans. Sometimes these forebodings are acted out. In
the Ught of the Gospels we can easily see very strik
ing Ukenesses between the experiences in which
keen suffering precedes great victory, of such na
tional leaders as Joseph and David, and the ex
periences of Jesus. Here is God's plan of atone
ment by blood, involving suffering, but with no
such accompaniments of hatred and cruelty as
Jesus went through. Read backward, Jesus'
experience on the cross is seen to bear striking
resemblances, in part, to this old scheme of atone
ment; yet only in part: the parts concerning
His character and the results; but not the man
ner of his death, nor the spirit of the actors.
Then there are the few direct specific passages
predicting a stormy trip for the king before the
haven is reached. There is a vividness of detail

7 8 Quiet Talks About J esus
in the very language here, that catches us, fa
miUar with after events, as it could not those who
first heard. There is the Twenty-second Psalm,
with its broken sentences, as though blurted out
between heart-breaking sobs; and then the won
drous change, in the latter part, to victory through
this terrible experience. And the scanty but
vivid Unes in the Sixty-ninth Psalm. There is
that great throbbing fifty-third of Isaiah, with
its beginning back in the close of the fifty-second,
and tbe striking ahead of its key-note in the fiftieth
chapter. Daniel Hstens with awe deepening ever more as
Gabriel tells him that the coming Prince is to be
"cut off." To the returned exiles rebuilding the
temple Zechariah acts out a parable in which
Jehovah is priced at thirty pieces of silver, the
cost of a common slave. And a bit later God
speaks of a time when " they shaU look upon Me
(or Him) whom they have pierced." And later
yet, a stiU more significant phrase is used, as iden
tifying the divine character of the sufferer, where
God speaks of a sword being used "against the
man that is My Fellow," adding, "Strike the
shepherd, and the sheep shaU be scattered." It
is God's FeUow — one on a par with Himself —
against whom the opposition is directed.
Such is the great vision in these Hebrew pages
of the plan for the coming One. There is a throne
on a high mountain peak bathed in wondrous
subUme glory, but the writers are puzzled at a

Plan for Jesus' Coming 79
dark vaUey of the shadow of death through which
the king seems to be obUged to pick His way up
to the throne.
Jesus is to be God's new Man leading man
back on the road into the divine image again, with
fuU mastery of his masterly powers, and through
mastery into fuU dominion again; but the road
back seems to be contested, and the new Man gets
badly scarred as He fights through and up to
victory.

The Tragic Break in the Plan

The Jerusalem Climate.
Then Jesus came. His coming was greeted
with great gladness above, and great suence
below. Above, the stars sent a special messenger
to bid Him welcome to the earth they Ughtened
and brightened. Below, the rusty hinges of
earth's inn refused to swing for Him. So man
faihng, the lower creation shared room with Him.
Above, was the sweetest music, the music of
heaven. Three times the music of heaven is
mentioned: at the creation, at this coming of
Jesus, at the coming crowning of Jesus in John's
Revelation. Below, the only music was that of
the babe's holy young mother, God's chosen one
to mother His Son, crooning to her babe; and
the gentle lowing in minor key of the oxen whose
stall He shared. Above, the great glory shining,
the messenger of God speaking a message of peace
and love. Below, only darkness and silence.
Among the cultured leaders of the city of David,
and of Solomon, and of God's once glorified temple,
there were no ears for the message, nor eyes
for the glory. They had gone deaf and bUnd
Godward long before. To them came no mes
sage, for no door was open. To simple men of
80

Tragic Break in the Plan 81
nature who Hved with the stars and the hills and
the sheep, came the new shining of the glory, and
the wondrous messenger and message. Their
doors were open. They practised looking up.
Of course neither 'city nor country mattered, nor
matters. God always speaks into the upturned
ear and looks into the upturned face.
And so Jesus came. With all of its contrasts
it was a winsome coming. A pure young mother
nursing her babe; the babe with its sweet won
drous face, a fresh act of God indeed ; the simple
unselfish cattle; the bright stars; the Glory shin
ing; the sudden flood of music; the Lord's mes
senger; the message — a very winsome coming.
He came into the pecuUar cHmate of Jerusa
lem. Jerusalem is Judea. Out of the Babylonian
remnant of Israel had come great men, true lead
ers, with great zeal for the city, and the temple, and
the temple service, and for the law. They made
the mould in which this later Jerusalem was cast.
But that mould retaining its old form, had now be
come fiUed with the baser metals. The high ideals
of the new makers of the city had shrunk into
mere ideas. The smaU, strongly entrenched ruHng
circle were tenacious sticklers for traditions as
interpreted by themselves. That fine old word
conservative (with an underneath meaning of
"what we prefer") was one of their sweetest
morsels. Underneath their great pride as Moses'
successors, the favored custodians of the nation's
most sacred treasures, was a passionate love for
gold. The temple service was secretly organized
6

82 Quiet Talks About Jesus
on the profit-sharing plan, with the larger share,
as usual, for the organizers.
That hardest thing in the whole range of human
action to overcome, either by God or man or the
devil — prejudice — they had, in the Simon-pure
form, superlatively refined. The original treas
ure of God's Word was about as much overlaid
and hidden away by writings about it as — it has
been in some other times. Of course they were
looking for a Messiah, the one hope of their sa
credly guarded literature. But He must be the
sort that they wanted, and — could use.
Herod the King was a man of great abiHty,
great ambition, great passion, and great absence
of anything akin to conscience. But the virtual
ruler was the high priest. His oflice was bar
gained for, bought and sold for the money and
power it controlled in the way aU too famiUar to
corrupt poUtical Ufe in aU times, and not whoUy
unknown in our own. The old spiritual ideals
of Moses, and Samuel, preached amid degeneracy
by Elijah and Isaiah, were buried away clear out
of sight by mere formaHsm, though stiU burning
warm and tender in the hearts of a few. This
was the atmosphere of the old national capital
into which Jesus came.
The Bethlehem Fog.
Then it was that Jesus came. Strange to say,
there is a shadow over His coming from the be
ginning. A gray chining shadow of the sort of gray
that a stormy sky sometimes shows, gray tingeing

Tragic Break in the Plan 83
into slaty black. Yet it was the coming that made
the shadow. It takes light, and some thick thing
Hke a block, and some distance for perspective, to
make a shadow. The nearer the Ught to the
block thing the blacker the shadow. Here the
Ught came close to some thick blocks; of stupid
thickness; human blocks grown more roughly
thick by the persistent resisting of any such trans
parent thing as Hght.
This was a foggy shadow. A fog is always
made by influences from below. A lowering
temperature chills the air, and brings down its
moisture in the shape of a gray subtle pervasive
mist, that blurs the outlook, and often gathers and
holds black smoke, and mean poisonous odors and
gases from bog and swamp. Such a fog en
dangers both health and life. This was just
such a shadowing fog. There was a decided
drop in the temperature, a sudden chill, a fog
formed that sucked up the poison of the marshes,
and threatened to stifle the baby breath of the
new-born King.
A subtle, intangible, but terribly sure something
haunts and hunts the King from the first. His
virgin mother is suspected by the one nearest her
of the most serious offense that can be charged
against a woman. The shadow that later grew
to inky blackness came ahead of the man, and,
under the stable eaves, waited grimly His arrival.
The feverish green of Herod's eyes wiU be con
tent with nothing but a new, bright, running red,
and plenty of it. Satan's plan of kilUng was

84 Quiet Talks About Jesus
started early. He was not particular about the
way it was done. The first attempt was at
Bethlehem. The venomous spittle oozed out
there first. But he must move along natural
channels: just now, a murderous king's jealous
dread of a possible rival.
The first hint of the actual coming of the long
expected One is from the star-students of the east.
Their long journey and eager questioning bring the
birth of Jesus before the official circle of the nation.
It is most significant that His birth causes at once
a special meeting of the nation's ruhng body.
Herod was troubled, of course. But — aU Jerusa
lem was troubled with him. Here is a surprising
sympathy. It reflects at once vividly the situation.
It was strangely suggestive that news of their
King coming should trouble these national leaders.
These devout star-watchers are wise in the source
of information they came to. These leaders
knew. They quickly pointed out the spot where
the coming One should be born.
A pure virgin under cruel suspicion, a roomless
inn, a viUage filled with heart-broken mothers, a
quick flight on a dark night to a foreign land
by a young mother and her babe, the stealthy
retirement into a secluded spot away from his
native province, a fellow feeUng between a red-
handed king and the nation's leaders — ugh! an
ugly, deadly fog.

Tragic Break in the Plan 85
The Man Sent Ahead.
A high fence of silence shuts out from view the
after years. Just one chink of a crack appears
in the fence, peering through which, one gets a
suggestion of beautiful simphcity, of the true,
natural human growing going on beyond the
fence. When mature years are reached, the royal
procession is formed. A man is sent ahead to
tell of the King's coming. John was Jesus'
diplomatic representative, His plenipotentiary
extraordinary; that is, the one man specifically
sent to represent Him to the nation whose King
He was. Treatment of John was treatment of
Jesus. A shght done him was sUghting his
sovereign Master. If Sir Henry Mortimer Du-
rand were to be . sUghted or treated discour
teously by the American authorities, it would be
felt at London as a sUght upon the King, the
government, and the nation they represent. Any
indignity permitted to be done on American soil
to von Stuckenburg would be instantly resented
by Kaiser WiUiam as personal to himself. John
was Jesus' Durand, His von Stuckenburg, His
Whitelaw Reid. And no diplomat ever used
more tactful language than this John when ques
tioned about his Master. In Jesus' own simile,
John was His best man. Jesus was a bridegroom.
John stood by His side as His most intimate
friend. Jesus and John are constantly interwoven in the

86 Quiet Talks About Jesus
events of Jesus' career. We moderns, who do
everything by the calendar, have been puzzled in
the attempt to piece together these events into an
exact calendar arrangement. And the beautiful
mosaic of the Gospels has been cut up to make a
new, modern, calendar mosaic. But these writers
see things by events, not by dates. They have in
mind four great events, and about these their
story clusters. And in these Jesus and John
are inextricably interwoven. First is John's
wilderness ministry, heading up in his presenting
Jesus to the nation. Then John's violent seizure,
and Jesus' withdrawal from the danger zone.
Then John's death, and Jesus' increased caution
in His movements. Then Jesus' death. John
comes, points to Jesus, and goes. Jesus comes,
walks a bit with John, reaches beyond him and
then goes, too.
John baptized. That is, he used a purifying
rite in connection with his preaching. It helps
to remember the distinction between baptism as
practised in the Christian Church, and as practised
by John, and by Jesus in His early ministry.
In the church, baptism has come to be regarded as
a dedicatory rite by some, and by others an initial
and confessional rite. But in the first use of it,
by John and Jesus, it was a purifying rite. It
was a confession too, but of sin, and the need of
cleansing, not, as later, of faith in a person, or a
creed, although it did imply acceptance of a man's
leadership. To a Hebrew mind it was preaching
by symbol as well as by word. The official depu-

Tragic Break in the Plan 87
tation sent from Jerusalem to look John up asked
why he should be using a purifying rite if he were
neither the Christ, nor EUjah, nor the prophet.
They could understand the appropriateness of
either of these three persons using such a rite in
connection with his preaching as indicating the
national need of cleansing. And in the beginning
Jesus for a time, through His disciples, joined in
John's plan of baptizing those who confessed sor
row for sin.
Jesus acknowledged John as His own repre
sentative, and honored him as such, from first to
last. He gives him the strongest approval and
backing. The national treatment of John al
ways affects Jesus' movements. When, toward
the close, His authority is challenged, He at once
calls attention to the evident authority of His
forerunner and refuses to go farther.
A trace of that ominous, puzzUng foreboding
noticed in the Old Testament vision of the coming
One creeps in here. Pointing to Jesus, John
says, "Behold the lamb of God, who beareth
(away) the sin of the world." Why did John say
that ? We read his words backward in the light
of Calvary. But he could not do that, and did not.
He knew only a King coming. Why ? Even as
Isaiah fifty-third, and Psalm twenty-second were
written, the writers there, the speaker here,
impelled to an utterance, the meaning of which,
was not clear to themselves.
This relation and intimacy between these two,
John and Jesus, must be steadily kept in mind.

88 Quiet Talks About Jesus
The Contemptuous Rejection.
From the very first, though Jesus was accepted
by individuals of every class, He was rejected by
the nation. This is the twin-fact standing out in
boldest outline through the Gospel stories. The
nation's rejection began with the formal presen
tation of Him to it by John. First was the simple
refusal to accept, then the decision to reject, then
the determination that everybody else should
reject too. First, that He should not be admitted
to their circle, then that He should be kept out of
their circle, and then that He should be kept out
of every circle. There are these three distinct
stages in the rejection from the Jordan waters
to the Calvary Hill.
First came the contemptuous rejection. John
was a great man. Made of the same rugged
stuff as the old prophets, he was more than they
in being the King's own messenger and herald.
In his character he was great as the greatest,
though not as great in privilege as those Hving
in the kingdom. He preached and baptized.
With glowing eyes of fire, deep-set under shaggy
brows, and plain vigorous speech which, if pricked,
would ooze out red Hfe, he told of the sin that
must be cleaned out as a preparation for the
coming One. And to all who would, he apphed
the cleansing rite.
He had great drawing power. Away from
cultured Jerusalem on the hiUtops down to the
river bottoms, and the stony barrens of the Jordan;

. Tragic Break in the Plan 89
from the Judean hill country, away from the
stately temple service with its music and impres
sive ritual, to his simple open-air, plain, fervid
preaching, he drew men. All sorts came, the proud
Pharisee, the cynical Sadducee, the soldiers, the
pubHcans, farmers, shepherds, tradespeople—
aU came. His daily gatherings represented the
whole people. The nation came to his call. It
was the unconscious testimony of the nation to his
rugged greatness and to his divine mission. They
were impeUed to come, and listen, and do, and
questioningly wonder if this can be the promised
national leader.
One day a committee came from the Jewish
Seriate to make official inquiry as to who he claimed
to be. With critical, captious questions they
demand his authority. True to his mission and
his Master, he said, "I am not the One, but sent
to teU you that He's coming, and so near that
it's time to get ready." Then the next day, as
Jesus walks quietly through the crowd, probably
just back from the wilderness, he finishes his
reply to the deputation. With glowing eyes in
tently riveted upon Jesus, and finger pointing,
before the alert eyes of his hundreds of hearers —
Pharisees, Sadducees, official committee, Roman
soldiers, and common folk — he said in clear, ring
ing tones, " That is He: the coming One!"
No more dramatic, impressive presentation could
have been made of Jesus to the nation. To their
Oriental minds it would be peculiarly significant.
Mark keenly the result. On the part of the

90 Quiet Talks About Jesus
leaders utter silence. There could be no more
cutting expression of their contempt. With
eyebrows uplifted, eyes coldly questioning, their
Hps slightly curling, or held close together and
pursed out, and shoulders shrugging, their con
tempt, utter disgusted contempt, could not be '
more loudly expressed. If they had had the
least disposition to believe John's words about
Jesus, even so far as to investigate patiently and
thoroughly, how different would their conduct
have been ! But — only silence. And sUence long
continued. Jesus gave them plenty of time be
fore the next step was taken. No sUence ever
spoke in louder voice. That same day five
thoughtful men of that same throng did investi
gate, and were satisfied, and gave at once loyal,
loving allegiance.
A few months later, the Passover Feast drew
crowds from everywhere to Jerusalem. Jesus
coming into the temple areas, with the crowds, one
day, is struck at once with the strange scene.
Instead of reverent, holy quiet, as worshippers
approached the dwelling-place of God, with their
offerings of penitence and worship, the busy
bustle of a market-place greets His ears. The
noise of cattle and sheep being driven here and
there, the pavement like an unkempt barnyard,
loud, discordant voices of men handHng the
beasts and bargaining over exchange rates at the
brokers' tables — strange scene. Is it surprising
that His ear and eye and heart, perhaps fresh
from a bit of quiet morning talk with His Father,

Tragic Break in the Plan 91
were shocked ? Here, where everything should
have caUed to devotion, everything jarred.
Quietly and quickly putting some bits of
knotted string together, He started the stock out,
doubtless against the protests of the keepers.
With flashing Ught out of those keen eyes, He
tipped over the tables, spilling out their precious
greedy coins, and ordered the crates of pigeons
removed. But all with no suggestion of any
violence used toward anybody. Reluctantly, per
haps angrily, wholly against their plans and
wishes, the crowd, impelled by something in this
unknown Man, with no outer evidence of authority,
goes. It is a remarkable tribute, both to the
power of His personal presence and to His execu
tive faculty.
Of course -the thing made trouble. It was the
talk of the town, and of all the foreigners for days
after. The leaders were aroused and angered,
deeply angered. This stranger had kicked up a
pretty muss with His inconvenient earnestness
and inconsiderate quoting of Scripture. It
was a practical assumption of superior authority
over them. It was an assumption of the truth
of John's ignored claim that He was the promised
King. Was not this arrangement in the temple area
a great convenience for the many strangers, who
were their brothers and guests; a real kindly
act of hospitaHty? Yes — and was it not, too,
a finely organized bit of business for profiting
by these strangers, a using of their proper author-

92 Quiet Talks About Jesus
ity over the temple territory to transfer their
brothers' foreign coins safely over to their own
purses ? Aye, it was a transmuting of their holy
offices into gold by the alchemy of their coarse,
greedy touch.
Jesus' conduct was the keenest sort of criticism
of these rulers, before the eyes of the nation and of
the thousands of pilgrims present. These leaders
never forgave this humiHating rebuke of them
selves. It made their nerves raw to His touch
ever after. Here is the real reason of aU their
after bitter disHke. They had a sensitive pocket-
nerve. It was a sort of pneumogastric nerve so
close did it come to their Hves. Jesus touched it
roughly. It never quit aching. Scratch aU their
later charges against Him and under aU is this
sore spot. The tree of the cross began growing
its wood that day. Their hot, captious demand
for authority, meant as much for the ears of the
crowd as for His, brought from Jesus, who read
His future in their hearts, a reply which they
could not understand. They asked their ques
tion for the crowd to hear, He repUed for His
disciples to remember in the after years. There
could be no evidence of authority more significant
than this temple incident.
His first pubUc work was done at this time.
The great throng of pilgrims from around the
world, attracted to Him by this simple daring
act of leadership, witnessed a group of mighty
acts during these Passover days. The angry
leaders had critically asked for "signs" of

Tragic Break in the Plan 93
His authority. He gave them in abundance,
not in response to their captious demand, but
doubtless, as always, in response to pressing
human needs. The result was that many per
sons accepted Him, but the nation in its rulers
maintained their attitude of angered, contemp
tuous silence. But underneath that surface the
pot is beginning to boil.
Of all the members of the national Senate, one,
just one, comes to make personal inquiry, and sift
this man's claim sincerely and candidly. And
he, be it marked, chooses a darkened hour for
that visit. That night hour speaks volumes of
the smouldering passion under their contempt.
That Jesus recognized fully their attitude and
just what it meant comes out in that quiet even
ing talk. To that sincere inquirer, He frankly
says, "You people won't receive the witness that
John and I have brought you." He was pleading
before a court that stubbornly refuses testimony
of fact. And to this honest seeker, whom we
must all love for his sincerity, He reveals His
inner consciousness of a tragic break coming,
with a pleading word for personal trust, and a
saddened "men love darkness."
With the going away of the Passover crowds,
Jesus leaves the national capital, and assists in
the sort of work John was doing. His power to
draw men, and men's eagerness for Him, stand
out sharply at once. John had drawn great crowds
of all classes. Jesus drew greater crowds. Mul
titudes eagerly accepted John's teaching and

94 Quiet Talks About Jesus
accepted baptism from him. As it turned out,
greater multitudes of people, under the very eyes
of these ignoring, contemptuous leaders, accepted
Jesus' leadership. John baptized. Jesus baptized
through His disciples. These leaders in their
questioning of John had tacitly acknowledged
the propriety of "the Christ" using such a rite.
Jesus follows the Une of least resistance, and
fitted into the one phase of His work which they
had recognized as proper.
The pitiable fact stands out that the only result
with them is a wordy strife about the relative
success of these two, Jesus and John. The most
that their minds, steeped in jealousies and rivalries,
ever watching with badger eyes to undercut some
one else, could see, was a rivalry between these
two men. John's instant open-hearted disclaimer
made no impression upon them. They seemed
not impressionable to such disinterested loyalty.
A Uttle later, probably not much, John's rug
gedly honest preaching against sin came too close
home to suit Herod. He promptly shuts up the
preacher in prison, with no protest from the na
tion's leaders. These leaders had developed
pecuUar power in influencing their civil rulers
by the strenuousness of their protests. That they
permitted the imprisonment of John with no
word of protest, was a tacit throwing overboard
of John's own claims, of John's claims for Jesus,
and of, Jesus' own claim.
Here is the first sharp crisis. From the first,
the circle of national leaders characterized by

Tragic Break in the Plan 95
John, the writer of the Gospel, as "the Jews,"
including the inner cUque of chief priests and the
Pharisees, ignored Jesus; with silent contempt,
coldly, severely ignored. This was . before the
temple-cleansing affair. That intensified their
attitude toward the next stage. They had to
proceed cautiously, because the crowd was with
Jesus. And full well these keen leaders knew
the tickUshness of handHng a fanatical Oriental
mob, as subsequent events showed. Now John is
imprisoned, with the consent of these leaders,
possibly through their connivance.
Jesus keenly and quickly grasps the situation.
First ignored, then made the subject of evil gossip,
the temple clash, and now His closest friend
subjected to violence, His own rejection is pain-
fuUy evident. He makes a number of radical
changes. His place of activity is changed to a
neighboring province under different civil rule;
His method, to preaching from place to place;
His purpose, to working with individuals. There's
a pecuUar word used here by Matthew to teU
of Jesus' departure from Judea to a province
under a different civil ruler; "He withdrew."
The word used imphes going away because of
danger threatening. We will run across it again,
and each time at a crisis point.
The leaders refused Jesus because He was not
duly labelled. It seems to be a prevaiHng char
acteristic to want men labelled, especiaUy a char
acteristic of those who make the labels. There
is always an eager desire regarding a stranger to

96 Quiet Talks About Jesus
learn whom he represents, who have put their
stamp upon him and accepted him. And if the
label is satisfactory, he is acccepted in the degree
in which the label is accepted. Others are marked
with a large interrogation point. Inherent worth
has a slow time. But sure? Yes, but slow.
Jesus bore no label whose words they could speU
out or wanted to. They were a bit rusty in the
language of worth. How knoweth this man
letters, having never learned! He seems to know,
to know surprisingly weU. He seems keenly
versed in the law, able quickly to turn the tables
upon their catch questions. But then it can't
be the real article of learning, because He hasn't
been in our estabhshed schools. He has no sheep
skin in a dead language with our learned doctors'
names learnedly inscribed. How indeed! An
upstart!! Yet always to the earnest, sincere inquirer there
was authority enough. In His acts, an open-
minded doctor of the law could read the stamp
of God's approval. The ear open to learn, not
waxed up by self-seeking plans, or fiUed with
gold dust, heard the voice of divine approval
out of the clouds, or in His presence and acts.
The Aggressive Rejection.
Then came the second stage, the aggressive
rejection. This is the plotting stage. Their hot
passion is coohng now into a hardening purpose.
This has been shaping itself under the surface
for months. Now it is open. This was a crowded

Tragic Break in the Plan 97
year for Jesus, and a year of crowds. The Gali
leans had been in His southern audiences many
a time and seen His miracles. The news of His
coming up north to their country swiftly spread
everywhere. The throngs are so great that the
towns and villages are blockaded, and Jesus has
recourse to the fields, where the people gather in
untold thousands.
An ominous incident occurs at the very begin
ning of this GaUlean work. It is a fine touch of
character that Jesus at once pays a visit to His
home viUage. One always thinks morevof Him
for that. He never forgot the home folk. The
synagogue service on the Sabbath day gathers the
villagers together. Jesus takes the teacher's
place, and reads, from Isaiah, a bit of the prophecy
of the coming One. Then with a rare gracious
ness and winsomeness that wins all hearts, and
fastens every eye upon Himself, He begins talking
of the fulfilment of that word in Himself.
Then there comes a strange, quick revulsion
of feehng. Had some Jerusalem spy gotten in
and begun his poisoning work already? Eyes
begin to harden and jaws become set. "Why,
that is the man that made our cattle-yoke." —
"Yes, and fixed our kitchen table." — "He — the
Messiah ! " Then words of rebuke gently spoken,
but with truth's razor edge. Then a hot burst
of passion, and He is hustled out to the jagged
edge of the hill to be thrown over. Then that
wondrous presence awing them back, as their
hooked hands lose hold, and their eyes again
7

98 Quiet Talks About Jesus
fasten with wonder, and He passed quietly on
His way undisturbed. Surely that was the best
evidence of the truth of His despised word.
Seven outstanding incidents here reveal the
ever-hardening purpose of the leaders against
Jesus. First comes another clash in the temple.
Their ideas of what was proper on the Sabbath
day receive a shock because a man enslaved by
disease for years was healed with a word from
Jesus' lips. Could there be a finer use of a
Sabbath day! We can either think them reaUy
shocked, or hunting for a reUgious chance to
fight Him. Jesus' reply seems so to enrage that
a passion to kill Him grips them. It is notable
that they had no doubt of the extent of Jesus'
claim; "He called God His own Father, making
Himself equal with God." On these two things,
His use of the Sabbath, and His claim of divinity,
is based the aggressive campaign begun that day.
The incident draws from Him the marveUous
words preserved by John in his fifth chapter.
In support of His claim He quietly brings forward
five witnesses, John His herald, His own miracu
lous acts, His Father, the Scriptures entrusted to
their care, and Moses, the founder of the nation.
That was a great line of testimony. This first
thought of kilUng Him seems to have been a
burst of hot, passionate rage, but graduaUy we
shall find it cooled into a hardened, deUberate
purpose. At once Jesus returns to the northern province.
And now they begin to follow Him up, and spy

Tragic Break in the Plan 99
upon His movements and words. In Capernaum,
His northern headquarters, a man apparently
at unrest in soul about his sins, and palsied in
body, is first assured of forgiveness, and then
made bodily whole. Their criticism of His for
giving sins is silenced by the power evidenced in
the bodily heahng. But their plan of campaign
is now begun in earnest, and is evident at once.
Later criticism of His personal conduct and
habits with the despised classes is mingled with
an attempt to work upon His disciples and under
mine their loyalty. The Sabbath question comes
up again through the disciples satisfying their
hunger in the grain fields, and brings from Jesus
the keen comment that man wasn't made for the
Sabbath, but to be helped through that day, and
then the statement that must have angered them
further that He was "Lord of the Sabbath."
Another Sabbath day in the synagogue they
were on hand to see if He would heal a certain
man with a whithered hand whom they had gotten
track of, "that they might accuse Him." They
were spying out evidence for the use of the Jerusa
lem leaders. To His grief they harden their hearts
against His plea for saving a man, a life, as against
a tradition. And as the man with fuU heart and
fuU eyes finds his chance of earning a Uving
restored, they rush out, and with the fire spitting
from their eyes, and teeth gritting, they plan
to get their political enemies, the Herodians, to
help them kill Jesus. A number of these inci
dents give rise to these passionate outbursts to

ioo Quiet Talks About Jesus
kUl, which seem to cool off, but to leave the rem
nants that hardened into the cool purpose most
to be dreaded.
A second time occurs that significant word,
"withdrew." Jesus with drewto the sea, foUowed
by a remarkable multitude of GaHleans, and others
from such distant points as Tyre and Sidon on
the north, Idumea on the extreme south, beyond
the Jordan on the east, and from Jerusalem.
He was safe with this sympathizing crowd.
The crowds were so great, and the days so
crowded, that Jesus' very eating was interfered
with. His friends remonstrate, and even think
Him unduly swayed by holy enthusiasm. But
it is a man come down from Jerusalem who
spread freely among the crowds the ugly charge
that He was in league with the devil, possessed
by an unclean spirit, and that that explained His
strange power. No ugHer charge could be made.
It reveals keenly the desperate purpose of the
Jerusalem leaders. Clearly it was made to in
fluence the crowds. They were panic-stricken
over these crowds. What could He not do with
such a backing, if He chose! Such a rumor would
spread Hke wildfire. Jesus shows His leadership.
He at once calls the crowds about Him, speaks
openly of the charge, and refutes it, showing the
evident absurdity of it.
Then a strange occurrence takes place. While
He is teaching a great crowd one day, there is an
interruption in the midst of His speaking. Oddly,
it comes from His mother and her other sons.

Tragic Break in the Plan 101
They send in a message asking to see Him at once.
This seems very strange. It would see; 1 probable
from the narrative that they had access to Him
constantly. Why this sudden desire by the one
closest to Him by natural ties to break into His
very speaking for a special interview? Had
these Jerusalem men been working upon the fears
of her mother heart for the safety of her Son?
She would use her influence to save Him from
possible danger threatening? There is much in
the incident to give color to such a supposition.
Perhaps a man of such fineness as He could be
checked back by consideration for His mother's
feeUngs. They were quite capable of puUing
any wire to shut Him up, however ignorant they
showed themselves of the simple sturdiness of
true character. But the same man who so ten
derly provides for His mother in the awful pain
of hanging on a cross reminds her now that a
divine errand is not to be hindered by nature's
ties; that clear vision of duty must ever hold
the reins of the heart.
Then comes the most terrible, and most sig
nificant event, up to this time, in the whole gospel
narrative — the murder of John. This marks
the sharpest crisis yet reached. For a year or
so John had been kept shut up in a prison dun
geon, evidence of his own faithfulness, and of the
low moral tone, or absence of moral tone, of the
time. Then one night there is a prolonged,
debased debauchery in a magnificent palace;
the cunning, cruel scheme of the woman whose

102 Quiet Talks About Jesus
wrong relation to Herod John had honestly con
demned. The dancing young princess, the drunk
en oath, the terrible request, the glowing-coal
eyes closed, the tongue that held crowds with its
message of sin, and of the coming One stiUed,
the King's herald headless — the whole horrible,
nightmare story comes with the swiftness of
aroused passion, the suddenness of a Hghtning
flash, the cold cruelty of indulged lust.
Instantly on getting the news Jesus "with
drew" — for the third time withdrew to a retired
desert place. This had tremendous personal
meaning for Him. Nothing has occurred thus
far that speUs out for Him the coming tragic
close so large, so terribly large, as does this. He
stays away from the Passover Feast occurring at
this time, the only one of the four of His pubhc
career He failed to attend.
The Murderous Rejection.

This crisis leads at once into the final stage,
the -murderous rejection. Jesus is now a fugitive
from the province of Judea, because the death plot
has been deUberately settled upon. The southern
leaders begin a more vigorous campaign of harry
ing Him up in GaUlee. A fresh deputation of
Pharisees come up from Jerusalem to press the
fighting. They at once bring a charge against
Jesus' disciples of being untrue to the time-hon
ored traditions of the national rehgion. Yet it is
found to be regarding such trivial things as washing
their hands and arms clear up to the elbows each

Tragic Break in the Plan 103
time before eating, and of washing of cups and
pots and the Hke. Jesus sharply calls attention
to their hypocrisy and cant, by speaking of their
dishonoring teachings and practices in matters
of serious moment. Then He caUs the crowd
together and talks on the importance of being
dean inside, in the heart and thought. Before
all the crowds He caUs them hypocrites. It's
a sharp clash and break. Jesus at once "with
drew." It is the fourth time that significant
danger word is used. This time His withdrawal
is clear out of the Jewish territory, far up north
to the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon, on the seacoast,
and there He attempts to remain unknown.
After a bit He returns again, this time by a
round-about way, to the Sea of GaUlee. Quickly
the crowds find out His presence and come; and
again many a Ufe and many a home are utterly
changed by His touch. With the crowd come the
Pharisees, this time in partnership with another
group, the Sadducees, whom they did not love espe
ciaUy. They hypocritically beg asignfrom heaven,
as though eager to follow a divinely sent messenger.
But He quickly discerns their purpose to tempt
Him into something that can be used against Him.
The sign is refused. Jesus never used His power
to show that He could, but only to help somebody.
The f aU of that year found Him boldly return
ing to the danger zone of Jerusalem for attendance
on the harvest-home festival called by them the
Feast of Tabernacles. It was the most largely
attended of the three annual gatherings, attracting

1 04 Quiet Talks About Jesus
thousands of faithful Jews from aU parts of the
world. The one topic of talk among the crowds
was Jesus, with varying opinions expressed; but
those favorable to Him were awed by the keen
purpose of the leaders to kiU Him. When the
festival was in fuU swing, one morning, Jesus
quietly appears among the temple crowds, and
begins teaching. The leaders tried to arrest Him,
but are held back by some hidden influence,
nobody seeming wiUing to take the lead. Then
the cUque of chief priests send officers to arrest
Him. But they are so impressed by His presence
and His words/that they come back empty-handed,
to the disgust of their superiors. Great numbers
listening believe on Him, but some of the leaders,
mingHng in the crowd, stir up discussion so sharp
that with hot passion, and eyes splashing green
light, they stoop down and pick up stones to hurl
at Him and end His life at once. It is the first
attempt at personal violence in Jerusalem. But
again that strange restraining power, and Jesus
passes out untouched.
As he quietly passes through and out, He stops
to give sight to a bHnd man. Interestingly enough
it occurs on a Sabbath day. Instantly the leaders
seize on this, and have a time of it with the man
and his parents in turn, with this upshot, that
the man for his bold confession of faith in Jesus is
shut out from all synagogue privUeges, in accord
ance with a decision already given out. He
becomes an outcast, with aU that that means.
It's a fine touch that Jesus hunts up this outcast

Tragic Break in the Plan 105
and gives him a free entrance into His own circle.
After this feast-visit to Jerusalem, Jesus prob
ably returns to Galilee, as after previous visits
there, and then one day leads His band of dis
ciples up to the neighborhood of snow-capped
Hermon. Here probably occurs the transfig
uration, the purpose of which was to tie up these
future leaders of His, against the events now
hurrying on with such swift pace. From this
time begins the preparation of this inner circle
for the coming tragedy so plain to His eyes.
Then begins that memorable last journey from
GaUlee toward Jerusalem through the country
on the east of the Jordan. With marvellous
boldness and courage He steadfastly set His face
toward Jerusalem. The ever-tightening grip of
His purpose is in the set of His face. The fire
burning so intensely within is in His eye as He
tramps along the road alone, with the disciples
foUowing, awestruck and filled with wondering
fear. Thirty-five deputations of two each are
sent ahead into all the villages to be visited by
Him. What an intense campaigner was Jesus!
He was thoroughly, systematicaUy stumping the
whole country for God.
As He approaches nearer to the Jerusalem
section the air gets tenser and hotter. The
leaders are constantly harrying His steps, tempt
ing with catch questions, seeking signs, poisoning
the crowds — mosquito warfare! He moves stead
ily, calmly on. Some of the keenest things He said
flashed out through the friction of contact with

106 Quiet Talks About Jesus
them. A tempting lawyer's question brings out
the beautiful Samaritan parable. The old Sab
bath question provokes a fresh tUt with a syna
gogue ruler. There is a cunning attempt by the
Pharisees to get Him out of Herod's territory into
their own. How intense the situation grew is
graphicaUy told in Luke's words, they " began to
set themselves vehemently against Him, and to
provoke Him to speak many things; laying wait
for Him to catch something out of His mouth."
Though unmoved by the cunning effort of the
Pharisees to get Him over from Herod's juris
diction into Judea, despite their threatening
attitude, the winter Feast of Dedication finds Him
again in Jerusalem walking in one of the temple
areas. Instantly He is surrounded by a group
of these Jerusalem Jews who, with an air of ap
parent earnest inquiry, keep prodding Him with
the request to be told plainly if He is really the
Christ His patient reply brings a storm of stones
— almost. Held in check for a while by an in
visible power, or by the power of His presence
shown under such circumstances so often, again
they attempt to seize His person, and again He
seems invisibly to hold their hands back, as He
quietly passes on His way out of their midst.
Then comes the stupendous raising of Lazarus,
which brings faith in Him to great numbers, and
results in the formal official decision of the national
council to secure His death. He is declared a
fugitive with a price set upon His head. Any
body knowing of His whereabouts must report

Tragic Break in the Plan 107
tbe fact to the authorities. This decides Him not
to show Himself openly among them. In a few
weeks the pilgrims are crowding Jerusalem for
the Passover. Jesus' name is on every tongue.
The rumor that He was over the hills in Bethany
takes a crowd over there, not simply to see Him,
but to see the resurrected Lazarus. Then it was
determined to kill Lazarus off, too.
That tremendous last week now begins. Jesus
is seen to be the one masterly figure in the week's
events. In comparison with His calm steady
movements, these leaders run scurrying around,
here and there, Hke headless hens. The week
begins with the most pubhc, formal presentation
of Himself in a kingly fashion to the nation. It is
their last chance. How wondrously patient and
considerate is this Jesus! And how sublimely
heroic! Into the midst of those men ravenous
for His blood He comes. Seated with fine, un
conscious majesty on a kingly beast, surrounded
by ever-increasing multitudes loudly singing and
speaking praises to God, over paths bestrewed
with garments and branches of Hving green,
slowly He mounts the hill road toward the city.
At a turn in the road all of a sudden the city lies
spread out before Him. "He saw the city and
wept over it."
"He sat upon the ass's colt and rode
Toward Jerusalem. Beside Him walked
Closely and silently the faithful twelve,
And on before Him went a multitude
Shouting hosannas, and with eager hands

108 Quiet Talks About Jesus
Strewing their garments thickly in the way.
Th' unbroken foal beneath Him gently stepped,
Tame as its patient dam; and as the song
Of 'Welcome to the Son of David' burst
Forth from a thousand children, and the leaves
Of the waving branches touched its silken ears,
It turned its wild eye for a moment back,
And then, subdued by an invisible hand,
Meekly trod onward with its slender feet.
" The dew's last sparkle from the grass had gone
As He rode up Mount Olivet. The woods
Threw their cool shadows directly to the west;
And the light foal, with quick and toiling step,
And head bent low, kept up its unslackened way
Till its soft mane was lifted by the wind
Sent o'er the mount from Jordan. As He reached
The summit's breezy pitch, the Saviour raised
His calm blue eye — there stood Jerusalem!
Eagerly He bent forward, and beneath
His mantle's passive folds a bolder Une
Than the wont slightness of His perfect limbs
Betrayed the swelling fulness of His heart.
There stood Jerusalem ! How fair she looked —
The silver sun on all her palaces,
And her fair daughters 'mid the golden spires
Tending their terrace flowers; and Kedron's stream
Lacing the meadows with its silver band
And wreathing its mist-mantle on the sky
With the morn's exhalation. There she stood,
Jerusalem, the city of His love,
Chosen from all the earth: Jerusalem,
That knew Him not, and had rejected Him;
Jerusalem for whom He came to die!
" The shouts redoubled from a thousand lips
At the fair sight; the children leaped and sang
Louder hosannas; the clear air was filled
With odor from the trampled olive leaves —

Tragic Break in the Plan 109
But 'Jesus wept!' The loved disciple saw
His Master's tear, and closer to His side
He came with yearning looks, and on his neck
The Saviour leaned with heavenly tenderness,
And mourned, 'How oft, Jerusalem! would I
Have gathered you, as gathereth a hen
Her brood beneath her wings — but ye would not!'
" He thought not of the death that He should die —
He thought not of the thorns He knew must pierce
His forehead — of the buffet on the cheek —
The scourge, the mocking homage, the foul scorn!
" Gethsemane stood out beneath His eye
Clear in the morning sun; and there, He knew,
While they who 'could not watch with Him one
hour'
Were sleeping, He should sweat great drops of blood,
Praying the cup might pass! And Golgotha
Stood bare and desert by the city wall;
And in its midst, to His prophetic eye
Rose the rough cross, and its keen agonies
Were numbered all — the nails were in His feet —
Th' insulting sponge was pressing on His lips —
The blood and water gushed from His side —
The dizzy faintness swimming in His brain —
And, while His own disciples fled in fear,
A world's death agonies all mixed in His! •
Ah! — He forgot aU this. He only saw
Jerusalem — the chosen — the loved — the lost!
He only felt that for her sake His Ufe
Was vainly given, and in His pitying love
The sufferings that would clothe the heavens in
black
Were quite forgotten. " Was there ever love,
In earth or heaven, equal to this?"1
1 Nathaniel Parker Willis.

1 1 o Quiet Talks About Jesus
And so the King entered His capital. It was
a royal procession. Mark keenly the result.
Again that utter, ominous, loud silence, that
greeted His ears first, more than three years before.
He had come to His own home. His own kins
folk received Him not !
Then each day He came to the city, and each
night, homeless, slept out in the open, under the
trees of OUvet, and the blue. Now, He rudely
shocks them by clearing the temple areas of the
market-place rabble and babble, and now He is
heahng the lame and maimed in the temple itseU,
amid the reverent praise of the multitude, the
songs of the children, and the scowhng, muttered
protests of the chief priests. Calmly, day by day,
He moves among them, while their itching fingers
vainly clutch for a hold upon Him, and as surely
are held back by some invisible force. By every
subtle device known to cunning, crafty men, they
lay question-traps, and Ue in wait to catch Hrs
word. He foils them with His marveUous, simple
answers, lashes them with His keen, cutting,
parables and finally Himself proposes a question
about their own scriptures which they admit
themselves unable to answer, and, utterly defeated,
ask no more questions. Then follows that most
terrific arraignment of these leaders, with its
infinitely tender, sad, closing lament over Jeru
salem. That is the final break.
Then occurs that pathetic Greek incident that
seems to agitate Jesus so. This group of ear
nest seekers, from the outside, non- Jewish world

Tragic Break in the Plan 1 1 1
brings to Jesus a vision of the great hungry heart
of the world, and of an open-mindedness to truth
such as was to Him these days as a cool, refreshing
drink to a dusty mouth on a dry hot day. But
— oo — the Father's wiU — simple obedience — only
tbat was right. The harvest can come only
through the grain giving out its Ufe in the cold
ground. Before the final act in the tragedy Jesus retires
from sight, probably for prayer. Some dear
friends of Bethany in whose home He had rested
many a time, where He ever found sweet sympathy,
arranged a Httle home-feast for Him where a few
congenial friends might gather. While seated
there in the quiet atmosphere of love and feUow
ship so grateful to Him after those Jerusalem
days, one of the friends present, a woman, Mary,
takes a box of exceeding costly ointment, and
anoints His head. To the strange protests
made, Jesus quietly explains her thought in the
act. She alone understood what was coming.
Alone of all others it was a woman, the simple-
hearted Bethany Mary, who understood Jesus.
As none other did she perceive with her keen
love-eyes the coming death, and — more — its
meaning. It is one of the disciples, Judas, who protests
indignantly against such waste. This ointment
would have brought at least seventy-five dollars,
and bow much such a sum would have done
for the poor! Thoughtless, improvident woman!
Strange the word didn't bHster on his canting

H2 Quiet Talks About Jesus
Ups. John keenly sees that his fingers are clutch
ing the treasure bag as he speaks the word, and
that his thoughts are far from the poor. Jesus
gently rebukes Judas. But Judas is hot tem
pered, and sullenly watches for the first chance
to withdraw and carry out the damnable purpose
that has been forming within. He hurries over
the hiU, through the city gate, up to the palace
of the chief priest.
Within there was a company of the inner cUque
of the leaders, discussing how to get hold of Jesus
most easily. They sit heavily in their seats,
with shut fists, set jaws, and that pecuUar yeUow-
green Ught spitting out from under their lower
ing, knit brows. These bothersome crowds had
to be considered. The feast-day wouldn't do.
The crowd would be greatest then, and hardest
to handle. Back and forth they brew their
scheme. Then a knock at the door. Startled,
tbey look alertly up to know who this intruder
may be. The door is opened. In steps a man
with a hangdog, guilty, but determined look.
It is one of the men they have seen with Jesus!
What can this mean? He glances furtively from
one to another.
Then he speaks: "How much' 11 you give if I
get Jesus into your hands?" Of all things this
was probably the last they had thought might
happen. Their eyes gleam. How much indeed
— a good snug sum to get their fingers securely
on his person. But they're shrewd bargainers.
That's one of their specialties. How much did

Tragic Break in the Plan 113
he want? Poor Judas! He made a bad bargain
that day. Thirty pieces of silver! He could
easily have gotten a thousand. Judas did love
money greedily, and doubtless was a good bar
gainer too, but anger was in the saddle now, and
drove him hard. Without doubt it was in a hot
fit of temper that he made this proposal. His
descendants have been coining money out of
Jesus right along : exchanging Him for gold.
Only a Uttle later, and the Master is closeted
with His inner circle in the lupper room of a faith
ful friend's house in one of the Jerusalem streets,
for the Passover supper. A word from Him and
Judas withdraws for his dark errand. Then
those great heart- talks of Jesus, in the upper room,
along the roadway, under the fuU moon, maybe
passing by the massive temple structure, then
under the oHve trees. Then the hour grows late,
the disciples are drowsy, the Master is off alone
among those trees, then weird uncertain Ughts of
torches, a rabble of soldiers and priests, a man
using friendship's cloak, and friendship's greeting
— then the King is in the hands of His enemies.
An awful night, followed by a yet more awful day,
and the plan of the kingdom is broken by the
tragic kilUng of the King.
Suffering the Birth-pains of a New Life.
Why did Jesus die ? It's a pretty old question.
It's been threshed out no end of times. Yet
every time one thinks of the gospel, or opens the
Book, it looks out earnestly into his face. And
8

114 Quiet Talks About Jesus
nothing is better worth whfle than to have an
other serious prayerful go at it. The whole nub
of the gospel is here. It clears the ground greatly
not to have any theory about Jesus' death, but
simply to try thoughtfuUy to gather up all the
statements and group them, regardless of where it
may lead, or how it may knock out previous ideas.
It can be said at once that His dying was not
God's own plan. It was a plan conceived some
where . else, and yielded to by God. God had a
plan of atonement by which men who were willing
could be saved from sin and its effects. That
plan is given in the old Hebrew code. To tbe
tabernacle, or temple, under prescribed regula
tions, a man could bring some Hve animal which
he owned. The man brought that which was his
own. It represented him. Through his labor
the beast or bird was his. He had transferred
some of his Ufe and strength into it. He identified
himself with it further by close touch at the time
of its being offered. He offered up its life. In
his act he acknowledged that his own Ufe was
forfeited. In continuing to Hve he acknowledged
the continued life as belonging to God. He was
to Hve as belonging to another. He made, in
effect, the statement made long after by Paul:
"I am offering up my life on this altar for my sin;
nevertheless I am Hving: yet the life I Hve is no
longer mine, but another's. Mine has been taken
away by sin." There was no malice or evU
feeUng in the man's act, but only penitence, and
an earnest, noble purpose.

Tragic Break in the Plan 1 1 5
The act revealed the man's inner spirit. It
acknowledged his sin, that life is forfeited by sin,
his desire to have the sin difficulty straightened
out, and to be at one again with God. He ex
pressed his hatred of sin and his earnest desire
to be free of it. I am not saying at aU that this
was true of every Hebrew coming with his sacri
fice. I may not say it of aU who approach God
to-day through Jesus. But clearly enough, aU
of this is in the old Hebrew plan devised by God.
It was the new choice that brought the man back
to God, even as the first choice had separated him
from God. And the explicit statement made
over and over is this, "and it shaU make atone
ment." Clearly Jesus' dying does not in any way fit
into the old Hebrew form of sacrifice, nor into the
spirit of the man who caused the death of the
sacrifice, though in spirit, in requirement it
far more than fills it out. The Old Testament
scheme is Jewish. The manner of Jesus' death
is not Jewish, but Roman. As a priest He was
not of the Jewish order, but of an order non- Jewish
and antedating the other by hundreds of years.
In no feature does He fit into the old custom.
But every truth taught by the old is brilliantly
exempUfied and embodied in Him.
The epistle to the Hebrews was written to Jews
who had become Christians, but through persecu
tion and great suffering were sorely tempted to
go back to the old Jewish faith. They seemed
to be saying that Jesus filled out neither the king-

1 1 6 Quiet Talks About Jesus
dom plan, nor the Mosaic scheme of sacrifice.
The writer of the epistle is showing with a masterly
sweep and detail the immense superiority of what
Jesus did over the old Mosaic plan. Read back
ward, these provisions are seen to be vivid fllus-
trations of what Jesus did do, not in form, not
actuaUy, but in fact, in spirit, in a way vastly ahead
of the Hebrew ritual. The truth underneath the
old was fully fulfilled in Jesus, though the form
was not.
One needs always to keep sharply in mind the
difference between God's plan and that which
He clearly saw ahead, and into which He deter
mined to fit in carrying out His purpose. There
is no clearer, stronger statement of this than that
found in Peter's Pentecost sermon: "Him being
dehvered up by the determinate counsel and fore
knowledge of God, ye by the hands of men with
out law did crucify and slay." God knew ahead
what would come. There was a conference held.
The whole matter talked over. With fuU knowl
edge of the situation, the obstinate hatred of men,
the terrific suffering involved, it was calmly,
resolutely advised and decided upon that when
the time came Jesus should yield Himself up
pUantly into their hands. That is Peter's state
ment. This in no way affects the fact that Jesus dying
as He did is the one means of salvation. It does
not at aU disturb any of Paul's statements, in their
plainest, first-flush meaning. It does explain the
kingdom plan, and the necessity for Jesus finish-

Tragic Break in the Plan 117
ing up the kingdom plan some day. For though
God's plan may be broken, and retarded, it always
is carried through in the end. It explains
too that evil is never necessary to good. Hatred,
evil never helps God's .plans. The good that
God brought out of the cross is not through the
bad, but in spite of the bad.
The preaching of the Acts is absorbed with
the astounding, overshadowing, appalling fact of
the killing of the nation's King. But through it
aU runs this strain of reasoning: the kingdom
plan has been broken by the murder of the King.
He has been raised from the dead in vindication
of His claim. This marveUous power that is so
evident to aU eyes and ears is the Holy Spirit whom
the killed King has sent down. It proves that He
is now enthroned in glory at God's right hand.
He is coming back to carry out the kingdom
plan. Now the thing to do is to repent, and so
there wiU come blessing now, and by and by the
King again.
When the first church council is held to discuss
the matter of letting non- Jewish outsiders into
their circle, the clear-headed, judicial-tempered
James, in the presiding chair, puts the thing
straight. He says: "Peter has fuUy told us how
God first visited the outside nations to take out
of them a people for Himself. And this fits into
the prophetic plan as outhned by Amos, that
after that the kingdom will be set up and then all
men will come."
This brings out in bold reUef the fact that the

1 1 8 Quiet Talks About Jesus
horrible features of Jesus' dying, the hatred and
cruelty, were no part of the plan of salvation, and
not necessary to the plan. The cross was the
invention of hate. There is no cross in God's
plan of atonement. It is the superlative degree
of hate, brooded and born, and grown lusty in
hell. It was God's master touch that, through
yielding, it becomes to aU men for aU time the
superlative degree of love. The ages have soft
ened all its sharp jagged edges with a halo of
glory. It is perfectly clear, too, that Jesus died of His
own accord. He chose the time of His death and
the manner of it. He had said it was purely
voluntary on His part, and the record plainly
shows that it was. AU attempts to kiU Him
failed until He chose to yield. There are ten
separate mentions of their effort, either to get hold
of His person or to kiU Him at once before they
finally succeeded. He was kiUed in intent at
least three times, once by being dashed over a
precipice, and twice by stoning, before He was
actually killed by crucifixion. Each time sur
rounded by a hostile crowd, apparently quite
capable of doing as they pleased, yet each time
He passes through their midst, and their hooked
fingers are restrained against their will, and their
gnashing teeth bite only upon the spittle of their
hate. This makes Jesus' motive in yielding explain
His death. The cross means just what His pur
pose in dying puts into it. If we read the facts

Tragic Break in the Plan 1 1 9
of the gospel stories apart from Jesus' words,
the cross spells out just one word — in large, pot-
black capitals — Hate.
What was Jesus' motive or purpose in dying?
His own words give the best answer. The earlier
remarks are obscure to those who heard, not
understood. And we can understand that they
could not. At the first Passover He speaks of
their destroying "this temple," and His raising
At in three days. Naturally they think of the
building of stone, but He is thinking of His body.
To Nicodemus He says that the Son of Man must
"be lifted up": and to some critics that when
the "bridegroom" is "taken away" there will be
fasting among His foUowers.
Later, He speaks much more plainly. After
John has gone home by way of Herod's red road,
at the time of the feeding of the 5,000 there is
the discussion about bread, and the true bread.
Jesus speaks a word that perplexes the crowd
much, and yet He goes on to explain just what He
means. It is in John, sixth chapter, verses fifty-
three to fifty-seven inclusive, He says that if a
man eat His flesh and drink His blood he shall
have eternal Hfe. The Hstening crowd takes the
words Uterally and of course is perplexed. Clearly
enough it is not meant to be taken literally.
Read in the light of the after events it is seen to
be an aUusion to His coming death. Such a
thing as actuaUy eating His flesh and drinking
His blood would necessitate His death.
We men are under doom of death written in

120 Quiet Talks About Jesus
our very bodies, assured to us by the unchange
able fact of bodily death. Now if a man take
Jesus into his very being so that they become one
in effect, then clearly if Jesus die the man is freed
from the necessity of dying. Through Jesus dying
there is for such a man life. That is the statement
Jesus makes.
In five distinct sentences He attempts to make
His meaning simple and clear. The first sen
tence puts the negative side: there is no life with
out Jesus being taken into one's being. Then
the positive side : through this sort of eating there
is life. And with this is coupled the inferential
statement that they are not to be spared bodily
death, because they are to be raised up. The
third sentence, that Jesus is the one true food of
real Ufe. The fourth sentence gives a paraUel
or interchangeable phrase for eating and drinking,
i.e., "abideth in me and I in Him." A mutual
abiding in each other. The food abides in the
man eating it. The man abides in the strength
of the food He has taken in. Eating My flesh
means abiding in Me. The last sentence gives
an iUustration. This Hving in Jesus, having Him
Hve in us as closely as though actuaUy eaten, is
the same as Jesus' own Ufe on earth being Hved
in His Father, dependent upon the Father. And
when the crowds take His words UteraUy and
complain that none can understand such state
ments, He at once explains that, of course, He
does not mean Hteral eating — " The flesh profiteth
nothing" (even if you did eat it): "it is the Spirit

Tragic Break in the Plan 121
that gives Hfe:" "the words ... are Spirit
and life." The taking of Jesus through His words
into one's Ufe to dominate — that is the meaning.
A few months later, in Jerusalem, He speaks
again of His purpose, in John's tenth chapter,
"The good shepherd layeth down His Hfe for the
sheep." " I lay down my Ufe for the sheep." The
death was for others because of threatening danger.
"Other sheep I have which are not of this fold:
them also I must lead. " Here is clear foresight
of the wide sweep of influence through His death.
"I lay down my Ufe that I may take, it again."
The death was one step in a plan. There is
something beyond. "I lay it down of myself.
I have the right to lay it down, and I have the
right to take it again. This commandment I
received from my Father." The dying was vol
untary and was agreed to between the Father and
Himself. To the disciples He speaks of the need
of taking up a "cross" in order to be followers,
and to the critical Pharisee asking a sign, He
aUudes to Jonah's three days and nights in the
beUy of the sea monster. Neither of these aUu-
sions conveyed any definite idea to those Ustening.
Then the last week when the Greeks came;
"Except a grain of wheat faU into the earth and
die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it
beareth much fruit." The dying was to have
great influence upon others. "And I if I be Ufted
up from the earth will draw aU men unto myself."
The dying was to be for others, and to exert tre
mendous influence upon the whole race.

122 Quiet Talks About Jesus
In that last long talk with the eleven, "that the
world may know that I love the Father and as the
Father gave me commandment even so I do."
The dying was in obedience to His Father's wish,
and was to let men know of the great love between
Father and Son. "Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his Ufe for his
friends." This dying was for these friends. And
in that great prayer that lays His heart bare, " for
their sakes I sanctify myseff that they also may
be sanctified in truth." The dying is for others,
and is for the securing in these others of a certain
spirit or character. The reference to the dying
being in accord with the Father's wish comes out
again at the arrest, "The cup that the Father
hath given me, shaU I not drink it?"
To these quotations from Jesus' Hps may be
added a significant one from the man who stood
closest to Jesus. Referring to a statement about
Jesus made by Caiaphas, John adds: "being
high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus
should die for the nation ; and not for the nation
only, but that He might gather together into one
the children of God that are scattered abroad."
As John understood the matter, the death was
not simply for others, but for the Jewish nation
as a nation, and beyond that for a gathering
into one of all of God's children. Jesus was to
be God's magnet for attracting together aU that
belong to Him. The death was to be a roadway
through to something beyond.
From His own words, then, Jesus saw a necessity

Tragic Break in the Plan 123
for His dying. He "must" be Ufted up. That
"must" spells out the desperateness of the need
and the strength of His love. Sin contains in
itself death for man as a logical result. And by
death is not meant the passing of Ufe out of the
body. That is a mere incident of death. Death
is separation from God. It is gradual until
finaUy complete. Love would plan nothing less
radical than a death that would be for man the
death of death. His death was to be for others,
it was purely voluntary, it was by agreement
with His Father, in obedience to His wishes, and
an evidence of His filial love. The death is a
step in a plan. There is something beyond,
growing out of the death.
Jesus plans not merely a transfer of the death
item, but a new Hfe, a new sort of Ufe, in its place.
The dying is but a^tep. It is a great step, tre
mendously great, indispensable, the step that sets
the pace. Yet but one step of a number. Be
yond the dying is the living, Hving a new Hfe.
He works out in Himself the plan for them — a
dying, and after that a new Ufe, and a new sort
of Hfe. Then according to His other teaching
there is the sending of some One else to men to
work out in His name in each of them this plan.
That plan is to be worked out in each man choos
ing to receive Him into his Ufe. He will send
down His other self, the Holy Spirit, to work this
out in each one. Jesus' death released His life
to be re-Uved in us. Jesus plans to get rid of
the sin in a man, and put in something else in its

124 Quiet Talks About Jesus
place. The sin must be gotten out, first washed
out, then burned out. Then a new seed put in
that will bear Ufe. What a chemist and artist
in one is this Jesus! He uses bright red, to get a
pure white out of a dead black.
In addition to the plan for man individuaUy,
the dying is to produce the same result in the
Jewish nation. There is to be a national new-
birth. A new Jewish people. And then the
dying is to have a tremendous influence upon
all men. On the cross Jesus would suffer the
birth-pains of a new Ufe for man and for the
world. Such, in brief, seems to be the group
ing of Jesus' own thought about His dying. Its
whole influence is manward.
The value of Jesus' dying Ues whoUy in its be
ing voluntary. Of deUberate purpose He allowed
them to put Him to death. Otherwise they could
not, as is fully proven by their repeated faUures.
And the purpose as well as the value of the death
Ues entirely in His motive in yielding. Ii they
could have taken His Ufe without His consent,
then that death would have been an expression
of their hate, and only that. But as it is, it for
ever stands an expression of two things. On their
part of the intensest, hottest hate; on His part of
the finest, strongest love. It makes new records
for both hate and love. Sin put Jesus to death.
In yielding to these men Jesus was yielding to
sin, for they personified sin. And sin yielded to
quickly brought death, its logical outcome.
Jesus' dying being His own act, controUed en-

Tragic Break in the Plan 125
tirely by His own intention, makes it sacrificial.
There are certain necessary elements in such a
sacrifice. It must be voluntary. It must involve
pain or suffering of some sort. The suffering
must be undeserved, that is, in no way or degree a
result of one's own act, else it is not sacrifice, but
logical result. It must be for others. And the
suffering must be of a sort that would not come
save for this voluntary act. It must be supposed
to bring benefit to the others. Each of these
elements must be in to make up fully a sacrifice.
There are elements of sacrifice in much noble
suffering by man. But in no one does aU of these
elements perfectly combine and blend, save in
Jesus. To this agree the words of the philosopher
of the New Testament writers. It would be
so, of course, for the Spirit of Jesus swayed
Paul. The epistle to the Romans contains a
brief packed summary of his understanding of
the gospel plan. There is in it one remarkable
statement of the Father's purpose in Jesus' death.
In the third chapter, verse twenty-six, freely
translated, "that He might be reckoned righteous
in reckoning righteous the man who has faith."
"That He might be reckoned righteous" — that
is, in His attitude toward sin. That in aUowing
things to go on as they were, in holding back
sin's logical judgment, He was not careless or
indifferent about sin or making Ught of it. He
was controUed by a great purpose.
God's great difficulty was to make clear at

1 26 Quiet Talks About Jesus
once both His love and His hate: His love for
man : His hate for the sin that man had grained
in so deep that they were as one. For the man's
sake He must show His love to win and change
him. For man's sake He must show His hate of
sin that man, too, might know its hatefulness and
learn to hate it with intensest hate. His love for
man is to be the measure of man's hate for sin. The
death of Jesus was God's master-stroke. At one
stroke He told man His estimate of man and His
estimate of man's sin; His love and His hate.
It was the measureless measure of His hate for
sin, and His love for man. It was a master-stroke
too, in that He took sin's worst — the cross — and
in it revealed His own best. Out of what was
meant for God's defeat, came sin's defeat, and
God's greatest victory.
And the one simple thing that transfers to a man
aU that Jesus has worked out for him is what is
commonly called "faith." That is, trusting God,
turning the heart Godward, yielding to the inward
upward tug, letting the pleasing of God dominate
the Ufe. This, be it keenly marked, has ever
been the one simple condition in every age and
in every part of the earth.
Abraham believed God and it was reckoned
to him for righteousness. The devout Hebrew,
reverently, penitently standing with his hand on
the head of his sacrifice, at the tabernacle door,
believed God and it was reckoned to him for
righteousness. The devout heathen with face
turned up to the hill top, and feet persistently

Tragic Break in the Plan 127
toiUng up, patiently seeking glory and honor and
incorruption believes God, though he may not
know His name, and it is reckoned to him for
righteousness. The devout Christian, with his
hand in Christ's, believes God, and it is counted
to him for righteousness.
The devout Hebrew, the earnest heathen, and
the more enhghtened beUever in Jesus group
themselves here by the common purpose that
grips them ahke. The Hebrew with his sacrifice,
the heathen with his patient continuance, and
tbe Christian who knows more in knowing Jesus,
stand together under the mother wing of God.

Some Surprising Results of the
Tragic Break

The Surprised Jew.
God proposes. Man disposes. God proposed
a king, and a world-wide kingdom with great
prosperity and peace. Man disposed of that plan
for the bit of time and space controUed by his wiU,
and in its place interposed for the king, a cross.
Out of such a radical clashing of two great wills
have come some most surprising results.
The first surprise was for the Jew. Within a
few weeks after Jesus' final departure, Jerusalem,
and afterward Palestine, was fiUed with thousands
of people beHeving in Him. A remarkable cam
paign of preaching starts up and sweeps every
thing before it. Jesus' name was on every tongue
as never before. But there were earnest Jews
who could not understand how Jesus could be the
promised Messiah. He had not set up a king
dom. Their Scriptures were f uU of a kingdom.
The Jew, whether in their largest colony in
Babylon, or in Jerusalem, or in Rome, or Alexan
dria, or the smaUer colonies everywhere, was fuU
of the idea, the hope, of a kingdom. He was ab
sorbed with more or less confused and material-
128

Results of the Break

129

ized, unspiritual ideas of a coming glory for his
nation through a coming king. But among the
foUowers of this Jesus there is something else
coming into being, a new organization never even
hinted at in their Scriptures. It is called the
church. It is given a name that indicates that it
is to be made up of persons taken out from among
all nations.
There comes to be now a three-fold division of
all men. There had been with the Jews, always,
a two-fold division, the Jew and the Gentiles, or
outside nations. Now three, the Jew, the outsiders,
and the church. The church is an eclectic society,
a chosen out body. Its principle of organiza
tion is radically different from that of the Hebrew
nation. There membership was by birthright.
Here it is by individual choice and beUef .
Foreigners coming in were not required to be
come Jews, as under the old, but remained essen-
tiaUy as they have been in all regards, except the
one thing of relationship to Jesus in a wholly
spiritual sense. There is constant talk about
"the gospel of the kingdom," but the kingdom
itself seems to have quite shpped away, and the
church is in its place. Such a situation must have
been very puzzUng to any Jew. His horizon was
fuU of a kingdom — a Jew kingdom. Anything
else was unthinkable. These intense Orientals
could not conceive of anything else. It had taken
a set of visions to swing Peter and the other church
leaders into Une even on letting outsiders into the
church.

130 Quiet Talks About Jesus
This Jesus does not fiU out this old Hebrew
picture of a king and a kingdom. How can He
be the promised Messiah? This was to thou
sands a most puzzHng question, and a real hin-
derance to their acceptance of Jesus, even by those
profoundly impressed with the divine power being
seen. This was the very question that had puzzled
John the Baptist those weary months, tiU finaUy
he sends to Jesus for some Hght on his puzzle.
Jesus fills out part of the plan, and splendidly,
but only part, and may be what seems to some
the smaller part. Can it be, John asks, that there
is to be another one coming to complete the pict
ure? To him Jesus does not give an answer,
except that he must wait and trust. He would
not in words anticipate the nation's final rejec
tion, though so well He knew what was coming.
Their chance was not yet run out for the accept
ance of Jesus that would fiU out John's picture.
God never lets His foreknowledge influence one
whit man's choice. It was a most natural and
perplexing difficulty, both for John and later for
these thousands.
The answer to all this has its roots down in that
tragic break. In the old picture of the Messiah
there are two distinct groups of characteristics
of the coining king, personal and official. He
was to have a direct personal relation to men and
an official relation to the nation, and through it
to the world. The personal had in it such matters
as heaUng the sick, reUeving the distressed, rais-

Results of the Break i 3 1
ing the dead, feeding the hungry, easing heart
strains, teaching and preaching. It was wholly
a personal service. The official had, of course,
to do with establishing the great kingdom and
bringing all other nations into subjection. Now, it
was a bit of the degeneracy of the people and of
the times, that when Jesus came the blessings to
the individual had sUpped from view, and that
the national conception, grown gross and coarse,
had seized upon the popular imagination, and
was to the fore.
Jesus filled in perfectly with marvellous ful
ness the individual details of the prophetic pict
ure. Of course fining in the national depended
upon national acceptance, and failure there meant
failure for that side. And, of course, He could
not fiU out the national part except through the
nation's acceptance of Him as its king. Rejec
tion there meant a breaking, a hindering of that
part. And so Jesus does not fill out the old He
brew picture of the Messiah. He could not
without the nation's consent. Man would have
used force to seize the national reins. But, of
course, God's man could not do that. It would
be against God's plan for man. Everything must
be through man's consent.
Out of this perplexity there came to be the four
Gospels. They grew up out of the needs of the
people. Mark seems to have written his first.
He makes a very simple recital, setting down the
group of facts and sayings as He had heard Peter
telUng them in many a series of talks. It is the

132 Quiet Talks About Jesus
simplest of the four, aiming to teU what he had
gotten from another. But it offers no answer to
these puzzUng questions.
Matthew writes his account of the gospel for
these great numbers of perplexed, earnest Jewish
questioners. They are Palestinian Jews, thor
oughly famiUar with Jewish customs and places.
Sitting backward on the edge of the Hebrew past,
thoroughly immersed in its Uterature and atmos
phere, but with his face fastened on Jesus, he
composes out of the facts about Jesus and. the old
prophetic scriptures a perfect bit of mosaic
There is the fascination of a serpent's eye in turn
ing from the prophetic writings to the Gospel of
Matthew. Let a man become immersed and
absorbed in the vision of the Hebrew prophetic
books and then turn to Matthew to get the in
tense impression that this promised One has come,
at last has actually come, and — tragedy of trag
edies — is being rejected.
This is the gap gospel. It bridges the gap
between the prophetic books and the book of
Acts, between the kingdom which has sHpped out
and the church which has come in. It explains
the adjournment of the kingdom for a specified
time, the church fining a sort of interregnum in
the kingdom. The kingdom is to come later
when the church mission is complete. It tells
with great care and with convincing power
that Jesus filled perfectly the prophecy of the
Messiah in every detail personally, and did
not fill out the national features because of the

Results ofthe Break 133
nation's un villingness. That is the Matthew
Gospel. Paul was the apostle to the outside nations.
His great work was outside of Palestine. He
dealt with three classes, Jews, outsid(rs who in
reUgious matters had alUed themselves with tbe
Jews, but without changing their nationaUty, and
then the great outside majority, chiefly the great
crowds of other nationalities. These people
needed a gospel of their own. Their standpoint
is so whoUy different from the Jews' that Matthew's
gospel does not suit, nor Mark's. Paul, through
Peter and Barnabas and others, has absorbed the
leading facts and teachings of those three years,
and works them over for his non- Jewish crowds.
He omits much that would appeal pecuUarly to
Jews, and gives the setting and coloring that would
be most natural to ' ds audiences.
His studious companion, Doctor Luke, under
takes to write down this account of Jesus' Hfe as
Paul teUs it, and for Paul's audience and territory,
especially these great outside non- Jewish crowds
of people. He goes to Palestine, and carefuUy
studies and gathers up all the details and facts
available. He adds much that the two previous
writers had not included. One can easily under
stand his spending several days with Mary,
the now aged mother of Jesus, in John's home in
Jerusalem, and from her Hps gleaning the ex
quisite account of the nativity of her divinely con
ceived Son. He largely omits names of places, for
they would be unknown and not of value or inter-

134 Quiet Talks About Jesus
est. When needed, he gives explanation about
places. These three gospels follow one main Une; they
teU the story of the rejection of Jesus. Then
there arose a generation that did not know Jesus,
the Jesus that- had tramped Jerusalem's streets
and Galilee's roads. Some were wondering, pos
sibly, how it was that 'these gospels are absorbed
in telUng of Jesus' rejection. There surely was a
reason for it if He was so sweepingly rejected.
So John in his old age writes. His chief thought
is to show that from the first Jesus was accepted
by individuals as weU as rejected by the nation.
These two things run neck and neck through his
twenty-one chapters, along the pathway he makes
of witnessed, estabhshed facts regarding Jesus.
The nation — the smaU, powerfuUy entrenched
group of men who held the nation's leadership in
their tenacious fingers — the nation rejects. It's
true. But the ugly reason is plain to aU, even the
Roman who gave final sentence. From the first,
Jesus was accepted by men of aU classes, includ
ing the most thoughtful and scholarly.
He is writing to the generation that has grown
up since Jesus has gone, and so to aU after gen
erations that knew of Him first by hearing of Him.
He is writing after the Jewish capital has been
leveled to the ground, and the nation utterly de
stroyed as a nation, and to people away from
Palestine. So he explains Jewish usages and
words as well as places in Palestine, to make the
story plain and vivid to all. And the one point at

Results of the Break 135
which he drives constantly is to make it clear to aU
after generations that men of every sort of Jesus'
own generation beheved; questioned, doubted, ex
amined, weighed, believed, with whole-hearted
loving loyalty followed this Jesus.
This decides the order in which, with such rare
wisdom, the churchmen later arranged the four
gospels in grouping the New Testament books.
The order is that of the growth of the new faith
of the church from the Jewish outward. Next
to the Hebrew pages Ues the gap gospel, then the
earHest, simplest telUng, then the outsiders' gos
pel, and then the gospel for after generations.
The Surprised Church.
Man proposes. God disposes. Man may for
a time set aside God's plan, but through any
series of contrary events God holds steadily to His
own plan. Temporary defeat is only adjourn
ment, paving the way for later and greater vic
tory. Another surprise is for the church, that is,
the church of later generations, including our
own. The old Jew saw only a triumphant king,
not a suffering king. He saw only a kingdom.
There was no hint of any such thing as a church.
The church to-day, and since the day of Con
stantine, sees only a church. The kingdom has
merged into the church or sUpped out of view.
There seems to be a confused mixing of church
and kingdom, but always with the church the big
thing, and the kingdom a sort of vague, indefinite
— folks don't seem to know just what — an ideal,

136 Quiet Talks About Jesus
a spiritual conception, or something Uke that.
The church is supposed to have taken the place
of the kingdom. Its mission seems to be sup
posed to be the doing for the world what the king
dom was to do, but, being set aside, failed to do.
In reading the old Book there is a handy sort
of explanation largely in use that appUes aU that
can be fitted into the theory in hand, and calmly
ignores or conveniently adjusts the rest. The
Old Testament blessings for the Jewish kingdom
are appropriated and apphed to the church. The
curses there are handed over to the Jews or ig
nored. There seems to be a plan of interpreting
one part of the Bible one way and another part
in a different way. This part is to be taken Uter
ally. This other not UteraUy, spirituaUy, the
only guiding principle being the man's precon
ceived idea of what should be. The air seems
quite a bit foggy sometimes. A man has to go
off for a bit of fresh air and get straightened out
with himself inside.
A whiff of keen, sharp air seems needed to clear
the fog and bring out the old outhnes — a whiff ?
— a gale! Yet it must needs blow, Hke God's
wind of grace always blows, as a soft gentle breeze.
The common law among folk in aU other mat
ters for understanding any book or document is
that some one rule of interpretation be appUed
consistently to all its parts. If we attempt to
apply here the rule of first-flush, common sense
meaning, as would be done to a house lease or an
insurance poUcy, it brings out this surprising

Results of the Break 137
thing. The church is distinct from the kingdom.
It came through the kingdom faiUng to come.
It fits into a gap in the kingdom plan. It has a
mission quite distinct from that of the kingdom.
The church is to complete its mission and go.
The kingdom, in the plain meaning of the word
kingdom, is to come, and be the dominant thing
before the eyes of aU men. The church goes up
and out. The kingdom comes in and down.
Later the church is to be a part of the executive
of the kingdom. This seems to be the simple
standpoint of the Book.
The tragic break does not hinder the working
of the plan. It simply retards it awhile. A long
while? Yes— to man, who counts time by the
bulky measurement of years, and can't seem to
shake off the time idea; who gets absorbed in
moments and hours and loses the broad swing of
things. To God? — No. He Uves in eternities,
and reckons things by events. His eye never
loses tbe whole, nor a single detail of the whole.
But yet more. That break leads to an enrich
ing of the plan. Out of hate God reveals love.
Not a greater love, but a greater opportunity for
greatly reveaHng love. Man's unwilUngness and
opposition may delay God's plan, but cannot hin
der it. A man can hinder it for his own self if he
so insist. But for others he can only delay, not
hinder. Though God may patiently yield His
own plan, for a time, to something else, through
which meanwhile His main purpose is being
served, yet He never loses sight of His own plan

138 Quiet Talks About Jesus
— the highest expression of His love. And when
He does so yield, it is that through the interrup
tion He may in the long run work out the higher
and the highest.
And so in the fulfilment of God's plan as given
by His Hebrew spokesmen, there is a sort of sUd-
ing scale. A partial fulfilment takes place, leav
ing the full fulfilment for the fuU working out of
the plan. The fulfilment takes place in two
stages, the first being only less fuU than the final.
Thus Ehjah is to come. But first comes John, a
man with most striking resemblance to Ehjah.
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit prophesied in
Joel is to be upon all flesh. But before that takes
place, comes the Pentecost outpouring, fining out
the Joel prophecy in spirit, but not in the fuU
measure. As a matter of good faith the King must come
back and carry out the kingdom plan in f uU. And
judging simply by the character of God and of
Jesus, I haven't a bit of doubt that He wiU do it.
No amount of disturbance ever alters the love of
God, nor His love-plan in the long run, however
patiently He may bear with breaks.
Even this phase is in the minor strain of the
old Hebrew. "They shaU look upon Him whom
they have pierced; and they shall mourn for Him,
as one mourneth for his only son." There is a
future meeting of the rejected King and His re
jecting people, and this time with sorrow for their
former conduct, which imphes different conduct
at this meeting time. And to this agrees the

Results of the Break

!39

whole swing of the New Testament teaching. Peter
says the going away of Jesus is to be "until the
restitution of all things." He is to return and
carry out the old plan.
It's a bit unfortunate that some earnest, lov
able people have pushed this phase of truth so
much to the front as to get it out of its proportion
in the whole circle of truth. Truth must always
be kept in its place in the circle of truth. Truth
is fact in right proportion. Out of that it begins
to breed misstatement and error. Jesus' coming
back is not to wind things up. It is to begin
things anew. There will be certain phases of judg
ment, doubtless, a clearing of the deck for action,
but no general judgment till long after. The
kingdom is to swing to the front, and bring a new
Ufe to the earth for a very long time. Then after
that the wind-up.
The gospel preached in the Acts is the "gospel
of the kingdom." They are always expecting it
to come. Paul constantly alludes to the Master's
return as the great thing to look forward to, as
distinctly at the close as at the beginning of his
ministry. The book of Revelation is distinctly
a kingdom book, and however it may, with the
versatiUty of Scripture to serve a double purpose,
foreshadow the characteristics of history for the
centuries since its writing, plainly its first mean
ing has to do with the time when "the kingdom
of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord
and of His Christ." The King is coming back to
straighten matters out, and organize a new run-

140 Quiet Talks About Jesus
ning of things. This is the church's surprise,
and a great surprise it wiU apparently be to a great
many folks, though not to aU.
The Surprising Jew.
There is a third surprise growing out of this
tragic break, the greatest of aU — the Jew. The
first surprises were for the Jew, the later surprise
for the church; this surprise has been and is for
all the world. The Jew has been the running
puzzle of history. A strange, elusive, surprising
puzzle he has been to historians and aU others.
Not a nation, only a people, flagless, countryless,
without any semblance of organization, they have
been mixed in with aU the peoples of the earth,
yet always distinctly separate.
They have been persecuted, bitterly, crueUy,
persistently persecuted, as no other people has
ever been, yet with a power of recovery of none
other too. With an astonishing vitaUty, resource
fulness, and leadership, they have taken front
rank [in every circle of life and every phase of
activity, in art, music, science, commerce, philan
thropy, statesmanship; holding the keys of gov
ernment for great nations, of treasure boxes, and
of exclusive social circles; making their own
standards regardless of others, and with the pe-
cuUarity of strongest leadership, pushing on,
whether followed or not.
And now the past few years comes a new thing.
This surprising Jew is surprising us anew. From
aU corners of the earth they are gathering as not

Results of the Break 141
since the scattering to the Assyrian plains, gather
ing to discuss and plan for the getting into shape
as a nation again on the old home soil. Jews of
every sort, utterly diverse in every other imagina
ble way, except this of being Jews, men who hate
each other intensely because of divergent beUefs
in other matters, yet brushing elbows in annual
gatherings to plan with aU their old time inten
sity a new Jewish nation. Along the highways
of earth, made and controlled by Christian peo
ples, they come. What does it mean? They
continue to be, as they have been, the puzzle of
history. This tragic break of the kingdom and the per
sistency of the King's plan regardless of the break
hold the key to the puzzle. The Jew has been
preserved, divinely preserved, against every at
tempt at his destruction. For he is the keystone
in the arch of the King's plan for a coming world
wide dominion.
Jesus is God's spirit-magnet for the Jew and
for aU men. Around Him they wiU yet gather,
: with the new Jewish nation in the lead, the church
J closest to the person of the king, and aU men drawn.
1 Jesus is God's organizer of the social fabric of the
world. In response to His presence and touch,
each in his own place wiU swing into Une and
make up a perfect social fabric.
With the new zeal for pure, holy Hving now in
the church, the clearer vision coming to her of the
Lord's purpose of evangeUzing the world, the evi
dence in aU parts of the world of men turning

142 Quiet Talks About Jesus
their thought anew to God, this remarkable Jew
ish movement toward national Ufe, it is a time
for earnest men to get off alone on bent knees, and
with new, quietly deep fervor, to pray " Thy king
dom come." "Even so come, Lord Jesus."

II. THE PERSON OF JESUS

i. The Human Jesus.
2. The Divine- Jesus.
3. The Winsome Jesus.

The Human Jesus

God's Meaning of "Human."
Jesus is God becoming man's feUow. He
comes down by his side and says, "Let's puU up
together." Jesus was a man. He was as truly
human as though only human. We are apt to
go at a thing from the outside. God always
reaches within, and fastens His hook there. He
finds the solution of every problem within itseU.
When He would lead man back the Eden road
to the old trysting place under the tree of Ufe He
sent a man. Jesus takes His place as a man and
refuses to be budged from the human level with
His brothers.
That word human has come to have two mean
ings. The first true meaning, and a second, that
has grown up through sin, and sin's taint and
trail. The second has become the common pop
ular meaning; the first, the forgotten meaning.
It wiU help us Hve up to our true possible selves
to mark keenly the distinction. The first is God's
meaning, the true. The second is sin's, the hurt
meaning. Constantly we read the effect and re
sult of sin into God's thought as though that were
the real thing. This is grained in deep, woven
IO 145

146 Quiet Talks About Jesus
into the adages of the race. For instance, "To
err is human, to forgive divine." Yet this catchy
statement is not true, save in part. To forgive
is human — God's human — as weU as divine.
Not to forgive is deviUsh. It is not human to err.
It is possible to the human being to err, as it is
with angels, but, in erring, man is leaving the
human level and going lower down.
To understand what it means to say that Jesus
is human we must recall what human meant orig
inally, and has properly come to mean. Man as
made by God before the hurt of sin came had
certain powers and Hmitations. His powers,
briefly, were, mastery of his body, of his mental
faculties, and powers in the spirit realm so lost to
us now that we cannot even say definitely what
they are. And mastery means poised, mature
control, not misuse, nor abuse, nor lack of use,
but full proper use. Possibly there were powers
of communication between men in addition to
speech unknown to us. Then, too, he had domin
ion over nature, over all the animal creation, over
all the forces of nature, and not only dominion,
but fellowship with the animal creation and with
the forces of nature : dominion through feUowship.
He had certain Umitations. Having a body
was a Umitation. The necessity for food, sleep,
rest, and for exertion in order to move through
space acted as a constant check upon his move
ments and achievements. He could not go into
a building except through some opening. The
law of growth, of such infinite value to man un-

The Human Jesus 147
der his conditions, was Hkewise a check. Only
by slow laborious effort and appUcation would
there come the discipUne of mental powers and
the knowledge necessary to Ufe's work.
The Hurt of Sin.
Now, in addition to these natural Umitations
sin has made other changes. It has lessened the
powers and increased the Umitations. There has
been immense loss in the power over the forces of
nature, though now, by slow and very laborious
efforts, after centuries, much is being regained.
Instead of feUowship there has been an estrange
ment between man and the lower animals and
between man and the forces of nature. AU of
this has immensely added to man's Umitations,
though it is true that most men do not know of
what has been lost, so complete has' the loss been.
The natural Umitations have been added to.
Sin affects the judgment. It brings ignorance
and passion, and they affect the judgment. There
results lack of care of the body, improper use of
the strength, and ignorant and improper use of
the bodily functions. Then come weakness and
disease and shortened Ufe, not to speak of the
misery included in these and the enjoyment
missed. In the chain of results comes the toil
that is drudgery. Not work, but excessive work,
more than one should do, with less strength than
one should have. Work itself under natural con
ditions is always a deUght. But through sin has
come strain, tugging, friction, unequal division.

148 Quiet Talks About Jesus
The changes wrought in nature by sin caU for
greater effort with less return. Toil becomes
slavish and grinding. Then poverty adds its tug.
And sorrow comes to sap the strength and take
away the buoyancy. And then man's inhumanity
to his brothers and sisters. These are some of
the Umitations added by sin and ever increasing.
Our Fellow.

Now, Jesus was human; truly naturaUy hu
man, God's human, and then more because of the
conditions He found. The love act of creation
brought with it self-imposed Hmitations to God.
And now the love act of saving brings stiU more.
God made man in His own image. In His hu
manity Jesus was in the image of God, even as
we are. Adam was an unfaUen man. Jesus
was that and more, a tested and now matured
unfallen man, and by the law of growth ever grow
ing more. Adam was an innocent, unfaUen man
up to the temptation. Jesus was a virtuous un
fallen man. The test with Him changed inno
cence to virtue.
In His experiences, His works, His temptations,
His struggles, His victories, Jesus was clearly
human. In His abihty to read men's thoughts and
know their Uves without finding out by ordinary
means, His knowledge ahead of coming events,
His knowledge of and control over nature, He
clearly was more than the human we know. Yet
until we know more than we seem to now of the
proper powers of an unfallen man matured and

The Human Jesus 149
growing in the use and control of those powers
we cannot draw here any Une between human
and divine. But the whole presumption is in
favor of beUeving that in aU of this Jesus was
simply exercising the proper human powers which
with Him were not hurt by sin but ever increasing
in use.
Jesus insisted on Hving a simple true human
Ufe, dependent upon God and upon others. He
struck the key-note of this at the start in the wil
derness. Everything He taught He put through
the test of use. He was what He taught. As a
man He has gone through all He calls us to. He
blazed the way into every thicket and woods, and
then stands ahead, softly, clearly calUng, "Come
along after Me."
He was a normal man, God's pattern un
changed. AU the powers of body and mind and
spirit were developed naturaUy and held in poise,
no lack of development, no over development of
some part, no misuse of any power, nor abuse, but
each part perfectly fitting in and working natu
raUy with each other part.
He experienced all the proper Hmitations of
human Ufe. He needed food and sleep and rest
and needed to give His body proper thought and
care. He was under the human Hmitations re
garding space and material construction. He got
from one place to another by the slow process of
using His strength or joining it with nature or that
of a beast. He entered a building through an
opening as we do. Both of these are in sharp

150 Quiet Talks About Jesus
contrast with the conditions after the resurrec
tion. His stock of knowledge came by the law
of increase, the natural way; some, and then
more, and the more gaining more yet.
But there's more than this. There's a bit of a
pull inside as one thinks of this, as though Jesus
in His humanity after all is on a level above us,
hardly alongside giving us a hand. Ah! there
is more. He had fellowship with us in the Umi
tation that sin has brought. He shared the ex
periences that men were actuaUy having. He
knew the bitterness of having one's Ufe plan
utterly broken and something else — a rude jagged
something else — thrust in its place. But the bit
terness of the experience never got into His
spirit or affected His conduct. The emergency
He found down here wrought by sin affected
Him. He was hungry sometimes without food at hand
to satisfy His hunger. He always showed a pe
cuUar tender sympathy with hungry people. He
couldn't bear the sight of the hungry crowds with
out food. He would go out of His way any time
to feed a man. He makes the caring for hun
gry folks a test question for the judgment time.
There's a great note of sympathy here with the race.
Every night hundreds of thousands of our brothers
and sisters go hungry to bed. It was said at one
time that the death rate of London rises and falls
with the price of bread. If true when said it prob
ably is more intensely true to-day. Jesus ate the
bread of the poor, the coarsest, plainest bread.

The Human Jesus 151
But then, that may have been simply His good
common sense.
Jesus got tired. Could there be a closer touch!
He feU asleep on a pillow in the stern of the boat
one day crossing the lake. And the sleep was
Hke that of a very tired man, so sound that the
wild storm did not wake Him up. It was His
tiredness that made Him wait at Jacob's well
while the disciples push on to the village to get
food. He wouldn't have asked them to go if they
were too tired, too. Was He ever too tired — over
tired — Hke we get? I wonder. There was the
temptation to be so ever tugging. Probably not,
for He was wise, and had good self-control, and
then He trusted His Father. Yet He probably
went to the full Umit of what was wise. Certainly
He Uved a strenuous Hfe those three and a half
years. Jesus knew the pinch of property. He was the
eldest in a large family, with the father probably
dead, and so Hkely was the chief breadwinner,
earning for Himself and for the others a living by
His trade. He was the viUage carpenter up in
Nazareth, an obscure country village. I do not
mean abject grinding poverty, of course. That
cannot exist with frugahty and honest toil. But
the pinch of constant management, rigid economy,
counting the coins carefully, studying to make
both ends meet, and needing to stretch a bit to get
them together. It is not unlikely that house rent
was one of the items.
The ceaselessness of His labors those pubhc

152 Quiet Talks About Jesus
years suggests habits of industry acquired during
those long Nazareth years. He was used to work
ing hard and being kept busy. It would seem
that He had the care of His mother after the home
was broken up. At the very end He makes pro
vision for her. John understands the aUusion
and takes her to his own home. He must have
thought a great deal of John to trust His mother
to his care. Could there be finer evidence of
friendship than giving His friend John such a
trust? Jesus was a homeless man. Forced from the
home village by His feUow townsmen, for those
busy years he had no quiet home spot of His own
to rest in. And He felt it. How He would have
enjoyed a home of His own, with His mother in
it with him! No more pathetic word comes
from His Hps than that touching His homeless-
ness — foxes have holes, and the birds of the air
nests, but the Son of Man hath neither hole nor
nest, burrowed or built, in ground or tree.
And Jesus knew the sharp discipUne of waiting.
He knew what it meant to be going a common
place, humdrum, tread-miU round while the fires
are burning within for something else. He knew,
and forever cast a sweet soft halo over aU such
labor as men caU drudgery, which never was such
to Him because of the fine spirit breathed into it.
Drudgery, commonplaceness is in the spirit,
not the work. Nothing could be commonplace
or humdrum when done by One with such an un
common spirit.

The Human Jesus 153
There's More of God Since Jesus Went Back.
I have tried to think of Him coming into young
manhood in that Nazareth home. He is twenty
now, with a daily round something Hke this : up
at dawn Hkely — He was ever an early riser —
chores about the place, the cow, maybe, and the '
kindUng and fuel for the day, helping to care for
the younger children, then off down the narrow
street, with a cheery word to passers-by, to the
Httle low-ceiUnged carpenter shop, for — eight
hours? — more Hkely ten or twelve. Then back in
tbe twihght; chores again, the evening meal, help
ing the children of the home in difficulties that
have arisen to fill their day's small horizon, a bit
of quiet talk with His mother about family mat
ters, maybe, then Hkely off to the hiUtop to look
out at the stars and talk with the Father; then
back again, sUpping quietly into the bedroom,
sharing sleeping space in the bed with a brother.
And then the sweet rest of a laboring man until
the gray dawn broke again.
And that not for one day, every day, a year of
days — years. He's twenty-five now, feeHng the
thews of his -strength; twenty-seven, twenty-
nine, stiU the old daily round. Did no tempta
tion come those years ta chafe a bit and fret and
wonder and yearn after the great outside world ?
Who that knows such a Hfe, and knows the tempter,
thinks he missed those years, and their subtle
opportunity ? Who that knows Jesus thinks that
He missed such an opportunity to haUow forever,

154 Quiet Talks About Jesus
fragantly hallow, home, with its unceasing round
of detail, and to cushion, too, its every detail with
a sweet strong spirit? Who thinks He missed
that chance of fellowship with the great crowd of
His race of brothers?
"In the shop of Nazareth
Pungent cedar haunts the breath.
'Tis a low Eastern room,
Windowless, touched with gloom.
Workman's bench and simple tools
Line the waUs. Chests and stools,
Yoke of ox, and shaft of plow,
Finished by the Carpenter
Lie about the pavement now.
"In the room the Craftsman stands,
Stands and reaches out His hands.
"Let the shadows veil His face
If you must, and dimly trace
His workman's tunic, girt with bands
At His waist. But His hands —
Let the Ught play on them;
Marks of toil lay on them.
Paint with passion and with care
Every old scar showing there
Where a tool supped and hurt;
Show each caUous; be alert
For each deep Une of toil.
Show the soil
Of the pitch; and the strength
Grip of helve gives at length.
"When night comes, and I turn
From my shop where I earn
Daily bread, let me see

The Human Jesus 155
Those hard hands; know that He
Shared my lot, every bit:
Was a man, every whit.
" Could I fear such a hand
Stretched toward me? Misunderstand
Or mistrust? Doubt that He
Meets me fuU in sympathy ?
" Carpenter! hard like Thine
Is this hand — this of mine;
I reach out, gripping Thee,
Son of Man, close to me,
Close and fast, fearlessly." *
To-day up yonder on the throne there's a Man
— kin to us, bone of our bone, heart of our heart,
toil of our toil. He — knows. If you'U Hsten
very quietly, you'U hear His voice reaching clear
down to you saying, with a softness that thrills;
"Steady — steady — I know it all. I'm watch
ing and feeling and helping. Up yonder is the
hill top and the glory sun and the wondrous air.
Steady a bit. Stay up with Me on the glory side
of your cloud, though your feet scratch the clay."
Surely there's more of God since Jesus went back!
1 Arthur Peirce Vaughn.

The Divine Jesus

Jehovah — Jesus.
Of all the men who knew Jesus intimately John
stands first and highest. He misunderstood for
a time. He failed to understand, as did tbe others.
He did not approach the keen insight into Jesus'
being and purpose that Mary of Bethany did.
But, then, she was a woman. He was a man.
Other things being equal (though they almost
never are), woman has keener insight into the
spirit and motives than has man. But John
stood closer to Jesus than any other. Jesus drew
him closer. And that speaks volumes for John's
fineness of spirit. He alone of the inner twelve
did not forsake in the hardest hour that Thurs
day night, but went in "with Jesus." How grate
ful must Jesus have been for the presence of His
sympathetic friend that black night, with its long
intense shadows !
Now John writes about Jesus. And what this
closest friend says will be of intensest interest to
aU lovers of Jesus. But it is of even intenser in
terest to note keenly when John writes. He waits
until the end. He gets the longest range on Jesus
that his lengthening years wiU permit. Distance
156

The Divine Jesus 157
is essential to perspective. You must get far
away from a big thing to see it. The bigger the
thing to be seen, the longer the distance needed for
good perspective. John shows his early apprecia
tion of the size of Jesus by waiting so long, when
aU his mental faculties are most matured. When
any heat of mere youthful attachment has cooled
off, when the eye of the spirit is clearest and keen
est, when the facts through long sifting have fallen
into right place and relation in the whole circle of
truth, then the old man settles to his loving task.
He had been looking long. His perspective has
steadily lengthened with the looking years. The
object has been getting bigger and bigger to his
eyes. He is getting off as far as possible within
his earthly span. At last he feels that he has ap
proximately gotten the range. And with the deep
glow of his heart gleaming up out of his eyes, he
picks up a freshly-sharpened quill to tell folk
about Jesus.
As he starts in he takes a fresh, long, earnest
look. And so he writes, Hke a portrait artist
working, with his eyes ever gazing at the vision
of that glorified Face. He seems to say to him
self, "How shall I — how can I ever begin to teU
them — about Him!" Then with a master's
skiU he sets out to find the simplest words he can
find, put together in the simplest sentences he can
make, so simple folk everywhere may read and
get something of a gUmpse of this Jesus, whose
glory is fining his eyes and flooding his face and
spilling out aU over the pages as he writes.

158 Quiet Talks About Jesus
He is seeing back so far that he is getting be
yond human reach. So he fastens his Une into
the farthest of the far-reaches of human knowl
edge, the creation, and then flings the Une a bit
farther back yet. He must use a human word,
if human folk are to understand. So he says
"beginning." "In the beginning," the begin-
ningless beginning, away back of the Genesis
beginning, the earHest known to man.
Then he recaUs the tremendous fact that when,
in the later beginning man knew about, the
worlds came into existence, it was by a word being
spoken, a creative, outspoken word. The power
that created things revealed itself in a few simple
words. Then he searches into the depths of lan
guage for the richest word he knew to express
thought outspoken. And taking that word he
uses it as a name for this One of whom he is try
ing to teU. The scholars seem unable to sound
the depths of the word that John in his own lan
guage uses. It means this, and beyond that, it
means this, deeper yet, and then this. And then
all of these together, and more. That is John's
word. " In the beginning was the Word."
Then with a few swift touches of his pen he
says, "This was Jesus before He came among
men, the man Jesus whom we know." In the
earUest beginning the whole heart and thought of
God toward man was outspoken in a person.
This person, this outspeaking God, it was He
who later became known to us as Jesus. Jesus,
away back before the farthest reach of our human

The Divine Jesus 159
knowledge, was God speaking out of His inner
heart to us. This Jesus is God speaking out His
innermost heart to man. Did you ever long to
hear God speak? Look at Jesus. He's God's
speech. This One was with God. He was God.
It was He who spoke things into being, that crea
tive span of time. Only through Him could any
thing come into being. AU Ufe was in Him, and
this Hfe was man's Ught. It is He who came into
our midst, shining in the darkness that could
neither take Him in nor hold Him down from
shining out.
Every now and then as he writes John's heart
seems near the breaking point, and a sob shakes
his pen a bit, as it comes over him all anew, and
almost overcomes him, how this wondrous Jesus,
this throbbing heart of God, was treated. Listen :
"He came to His own possessions, and they who
were His — own — kinsfolk — and the quiver of
John's heart-sob seems to make the type move
on the page — His own kinsfolk received him not
into their homes, but left Him outside in the
cold night; but — a gUmpse of that glorious
Face steadies him again — as many as did receive
Him, whether His own kinsfolk or not, to them
He gave the right to become kinsfolk of God, the
oldest family of all."
God's Spokesman.
John has a way of reaching away back, and then
by a swift use of pen coming quickly to his own
time, and then he keeps swinging back over the

160 Quiet Talks About Jesus
ground he has been over, but each time with some
added touch, Hke the true artist he is.
John's statement, "the world was made by
Him," takes one back at once to the early Genesis
chapters. There the creating One, who, by a
word, brings things into existence is caUed God.
And then, that we may identify Him, is caUed by
a name, Jehovah. The creator is God named
Jehovah. And this Jehovah, John says, was the
One who afterward became a Man, and pitched
His tent among men. And as one reads the old
chapters through, this is the God, the Jehovah,
who appears in varying ways to these Old Testa
ment men, one after another. He talked and
walked and worked with Adam in completing the
work of creation, and then broken-hearted led
him out of the forfeited garden.
Then to make his standpoint unmistakably
plain to every one, before starting in on the witness
borne by the herald, he makes a summary. AU
that he has been saying he now sums up in these
tremendous words, "God — no one ever yet
has seen; the only begotten God,1 in the bos
om of the Father, this One has been the spokes
man." In what He was, and in what He did as
well as in what He said, He hath been the spokes
man. Here is a difference made between the
Father God, whom no one has seen, and the only
begotten God, who has been telUng the Father out.
Now God revealed Himself to men in the Old
Testament times. Repeatedly in the Old Testa-
iSo the best manuscripts.

The Divine Jesus 161
ment it distinctly speaks of men seeing God in
varying ways and talking with Him. Adam
walked with Him, and Enoch, and Noah. Abra
ham had a vision, and talked, and talked with the
three men whose spokesman speaks as God.
Isaac has a night-vision and Jacob a dream and
a night meeting with a mysterious wrestler.
Moses spoke with Him "face to face" and "mouth
to mouth," and is said to have seen His "form."
Yet after that first forty days on the mount when
Moses hungrily asks for more, He is told that no
man could endure the sight of that great glory of
God's face. And he is put in to a cleft of the
rock, and God's hand put over the opening (in the
simple language of the record), and then only
the hinder part of God passing is seen, while the
wondrous voice speaks. Yet the impression so
made upon Moses far exceeds anything previous
and completely overawes and melts him down.
The elders of Israel "saw God," yet the most
distinct impression of anything seen is of the
beautiful pavement under His feet. Isaiah's most
definite impression, when the great vision came to
him, was of a train of glory, seraphim and smoke
and a voice. Ezekiel has rare power in detailed de
scription. He has overpowering visions of the
glory of Jehovah." Yet the most definite tbat
he can make the description is a storm gathering,
a cloud, a fire, a centre spot of brightness, a clear
ness as of amber, and four very unusual Hving
creatures. These men "saw" God. He "appeared" to

1 62 Quiet Talks About Jesus
them. Evidently that means many different
things, yet the word is always honestly used. It
never means as we gaze into another man's face.
But always there is that profound impression of
having been in God's own presence. They met
Him. They saw Him. They heard His voice.
Yet John says here, "God — no one ever yet
at any time has seen; the only begotten God,
in the bosom of the Father — this One has been
the spokesman." Clearly John, sweeping the
whole range of past time, means this : they saw
Him whom we call Jesus. Jesus is Jehovah, the
only begotten God. To all these men the only
begotten God was the spokesman of the Father.
Sometimes it was a voice that came with soft
ness but unmistakable clearness to the inner spirit
of man, a soundless voice. Sometimes in a dream,
a more reaUstic vision of the night or of the day
time; again, in the form of a man, thus fore
shadowing the future great coming. This One
who came to them in various ways, this Jehovah
has come to men as Jesus. This is John's state
ment. This is the setting of His gospel. The
setting becomes a part of the interpretation of
what the gospel contains. It explains what this
that follows meant to John.
Is it surprising that John's Gospel has been
pitched upon as the critics' chief battle-field
of the New Testament ? Battle-field is a good
word. The fire has been thick and fast, needle-
guns — sharp needles — and machine-guns — Gat-
Ung guns and rattUng — but no smokeless pow-

The Divine Jesus 163
der. The cloud of smoke of a beautiful schol
arly gray tinge has quite filled the air. Men
have been swinging away from a man, the Man
to a book. But no critic's deUcately shaded and
shadowing cloud of either dust or smoke, or both,
can hide away the Man. He's too taU and big.
The simple hearted man who wiU step aside from
the smoke and noise to the shade of a quiet tree,
or the quiet of some corner, with this marveUous
bit of manuscript from John's pen for his keen,
Spirit-cleared eye, wiU be enraptured to find a
Man, the Man, the God-Man.
Whom Moses Saw.

What did Jesus say about Himself ? The crit
ics of the world, including the skeptical, infidel
critics, seem to agree fully and easily on a few
things about this Jesus on whose dissection they
have expended so much time and strength. They
agree that in the purity of His Ufe, the moral
power of His character, the wisdom of His
teachings, the rare poise of His conduct and judg
ment, the influence exerted upon men, He clear
over-tops the whole race. Surely His own opin
ion of Himself is weU worth having. And it is
easy to get, and tremendous when gotten. It fits
into John's conception with unlabored simphcity
and naturalness.
According, then, to Jesus' own words, He had
come down out of heaven, and, by and by, would
go back again to where He was before. He had
come on an errand for the Father down into the

164 Quiet Talks About Jesus
world, and when the errand was finished He would
go back home to the Father again. He had seen
the Father, and He was the only one who had ever
seen Him. He was the Son of God in a sense
that nobody else was, a begotten Son, and the only
Son who had been begotten. Therefore He natu
raUy caUed God His Father, and not only that, but
His own Father, making Himself equal with the
Father. This statement it was that swung the leaders
over from silent contempt to aggression in their
treatment of Him. The Jews understood this
perfectly and instantly. They refused to accept
it. Reckoning it blasphemous, they attempted
to stone Him. They were partly right. If it
were not true, it was blasphemous, and their law
required stoning. Yet they were fools in their
thought, and not even keen fools. For no blas
phemous man could have revealed the character
and moral glory that Jesus constantly revealed
before their eyes.
Then foUows one of John's exquisite reports of
Jesus' words in reply. In it run side by side the
essential unity of spirit between Father and Son,
with the absolute Uf e-giving or creative power in
vested in the Son. A sweet, loving, loyal unity of
spirit is between the two. It is love unity. There
can be none closer. In this unity the Son has fuU
control of Ufe for all the race of men, and final
adjustment of the character wrought out by each.
At His word all who have gone down under death's
touch will come into Ufe again, and each by the

The Divine Jesus 165
character he has developed wiU go by a moral
gravitation to his natural place.
And then foUows the bringing forward of wit
nesses, John, the Father, the works, the Script
ures, and the cUmax is reached in the one whose
name was ever on their Hps — Moses. And this
is the significant reference to Moses, "He wrote
of Me." Sift into that phrase a bit. It cannot
mean, he wrote of me in the sacrifices provided
for with such minute care. For Moses clearly
had had no such thought. It might be supposed
to mean that unconsciously to himself there was,
in his writings about the sacrifices, that which
would be seen later to refer to Jesus in His dying.
And there is the resemblance in purity between
Moses' sacrifices and the great Sacrifice. Yet
where there is so much plain meaning lying out
on the face of the thing, this obscure meaning
may be dropped or checked in as an incidental.
There is a single aUusion in Moses' writing to a
prophet coming Hke himself.
But Moses is ever absorbed in writing about a
wondrous One who revealed Himself to him in
the burning bush, the pillar of cloud and fire, the
Httle peaked tent off by itself on the outskirts of
the camp, and the soft distinct voice. There was
the One with whom He had twice spent forty
days in the mount, and whose great glory left its
traces in his face. Ever Moses is writing of this
wondrous Jehovah. Jesus quietly says, "He
wrote of Me."
Another time He said, "I and the Father are

1 66 Quiet Talks About Jesus
one," provoking another stoning. Invisibly hold
ing back their hands He said, "The Father is in
Me, and I in the Father," and again they are
aroused. In connection with this word "Father,"
it may be noted that the Old Testament has been
caUed the "dispensation of the Father." But
this seems scarcely accurate. God speaking, ap
pearing, there is spoken of as Father very rarely,
and then chiefly in the great promises of the future
glory. The common name for Him is Jehovah.
Jesus practicaUy gives us the name Father for
God. He constantly refers to God as His Father.
It was He who taught us to caU God Father. He
never speaks of Jehovah, but of the Father. His
language in this always fits in perfectly, as of
course it would, with John's standpoint, that
Jesus is the Jehovah of the Old Testament times.
A Httle later Jesus says, "Moses gave you not the
manna from heaven, but — my Father giveth
(note the change in the time element of the
word) — giveth you the true bread." It is a
sort of broken, readjusted sentence, as though
He was going to say who it was that gave the
manna, and then changes to speaking of the
Father and the present. He does not say who it
was that did give that manna. It is plain enough
from John's standpoint what he understands
Jesus to mean as he puts the incident into his
story.

The Divine Jesus 167

Jesus is God Wooing Man.
During the winter before His death, while in
attendance on one of the Jerusalem feasts, the
leaders are boasting of their direct descent from
Abraham, and attacking Jesus. On their part the
quarrel of words gets very bitter. They ask
sharply, "Who do you pretend to be? Nobody
can be as great as Abraham; yet your words sug
gest that you think you are." Then came from
Jesus' Hps the words, spoken in aU probabiHty
very quietly, "Your father Abraham exulted
that he might see my day; and he saw it, and was
glad." It is a tremendous statement, staggering
to one who has not yet grasped it.
In attempting.to find its meaning, some of our
writing friends have supposed it means that, after
Abraham's death, when he was in the other world,
at the time of Jesus being on the earth, he was
conscious of Jesus having come and was glad.
But this hardly seems Hkely, else it would read,
"He sees, and is glad." The seeing and gladness
were both in a day gone by. Others have sup
posed that it refers to the scene on Moriah's top,
when the ram used as a sacrifice instead of Isaac
enabled Abraham to see ahead by faith, not actu
aUy, the coming One. But this, too, seems a bit
far-fetched, because Abraham was surprised by
the occurrences of that day. He fuUy expected
to sacrifice his son, apparently, so there could be
no exultant looking forward to that day for him.

1 68 Quiet Talks About Jesus
And deeper yet, the coming One was not expected
to be a sacrifice, but a king.
The natural meaning seems to He back in Abra
ham's own Ufe. Abraham was Israel's link with
the idolatrous heathen, as weU as the beginning
of the new Ufe away from idolatry. He grew up
among an idolatrous people, yet in his heart there
was a yearning for the true God. Back in his
old home there came to him one day the
definite inner voice to cut loose from these people,
his own dear kinsfolk, and go out to a strange un
known land, with what seemed an indefinite goal,
and there would come to him a vision of the true
God. It was a radical step for a man of seventy-five
years to take. He was Hving among his own kins
folk. His nest was feathered. It meant leaving
a certainty for an uncertainty. It meant break
ing his habit of Hfe, a very hard thing to do, and
starting out on a wandering roaming Hfe. Not
unUkely his neighbors thought it a queer thing,
a wild goose chase, this going off to a strange land
in response to a caU of God that he might see a
vision of the true God. Decidedly visionary.
But the old man was clear about the voice. The
fire burned within to know God, the real true
God. All else counted as nothing against that.
He would see God. And a warming glow fiUed his
heart and shone in his eyes and kept him steady
during the break, the good-byes, the start away,
the journeying among strangers. Into the strange
land he came, and pitched his tent. And — one

The Divine Jesus 169
night — in his tent — among these strange Canaan
ites, there came the promised vision. " Jehovah
appeared unto Abraham," and tied up there
anew with him the promise made back in his
native land. This seems to be the simple expla
nation of these words about Abraham. "He ex
ulted that he might see my day. He saw . . .
and was glad."
With a contemptuous curl of the Up instantly
they come back with: "Thou art not yet fifty
years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" More
quietly than ever, with the calmness of conscious
truth, come those tremendous words, emphasized
with the strongest phrase He ever used, "Verily,
verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was born,
I am." The common version omits "born," and
so the sharp contrast is not made clear. Abra
ham was born. He came into existence. Jesus
says "I am." That "I am" is meant to mean
absolute existence. An eternal now without be
ginning or ending. Their Jewish ears are in
stantly caught by that short sentence. Jesus was
identifying Himself with the One who uttered
that sentence out of the burning bush! Again
stones for speech. Again the invisible power
holds their feverish impotent hands. That "I
am" explains the meaning of the expression "my
day." It stretches it out backward beyond
Abraham's day. It lengthens it infinitely at
both ends.
This is Jesus' point of view, this marvellous
Jesus. He is the Jehovah in Genesis' first chap-

170 Quiet Talks About Jesus
ters. It is with Him that Adam broke tryst that
day, and with Him that Enoch renewed the tryst
after such a long wait, and took those long walks.
It is His voice and presence in the black topped,
flaming mount that awed the Israel crowd so.
His voice it was that won and impressed so win-
somely the man waiting in the hand-covered cleft
of the rock that early morning, and long after,
that other rugged, footsore man, standing with
face covered in the mouth of a cave. Isaiah saw
His glory that memorable day in the temple. It
was He who rode upon the storm before Ezekiel's
wondering eyes and who walks with His faithful
ones on the seven times heated coals, and reveals
to Daniel's opened ears the vision of his people's
future. Jehovah — He comes as Jesus. Jesus —
He is Jehovah. No sending of messengers for
this great work of winning His darHng back to
the original image and mastery and dominion
will do for our God. He comes Himself. Jesus
is God coming down to woo man up to Himseff
again.

The Winsome Jesus
The Face of Jesus.
Jesus was God letting man see the beauty of
His face and listen to the music of His voice, and
feel the irresistibly gentle drawing power of His
presence. Jesus was very winsome. He drew
men. He said that if He were Uf ted up He would
draw men. They who heard that could beUeve
it, for He drew them before He was Ufted up.
He drew the crowds. Yet many a leader that has
drawn the crowds has led them astray. He drew
men — men of strongest mentaUty, scholarly, cult
ured, thoughtful men, and every other sort. Yet
men have often been befooled in their leaders.
He drew women. Here is a great test. Men
may be deceived in a man. But woman, true
strong woman, pure womanly woman, because
of her keen discernment into spirit and motive,
cannot be deceived, when true to her inner con
viction. He drew children. This was the highest test.
The child, fresh from the hand of God, before it
is appreciably hurt by parents or surroundings, is
drawn to the pure and good. They are repelled
by selfishness and badness. They draw out the
171

172 Quiet Talks About Jesus
best. They are drawn only by the true and beau
tiful and good. That is, in the early years, before
the warping of a selfish, sinful atmosphere has
hurt them. This is an infalHble test. This told
most His winsomeness.
Bad people were drawn to Him. That is, bad
in their Uves. Rarely indeed is a human so
whoUy bad as to be untouched by true goodness,
by sincere love. Here is the touchstone of service.
He touched that spot in the lowest, and by His
presence increased the hunger of their hearts for
purity and for sympathy up toward purity.
His enemies — a very smaU group, but in a posi
tion of great power, holding the national reins —
His enemies were drawn to Him, by a drawing
they fought, but could not resist. They admired
Him while hating Him. His presence disturbed
because it accused the opposite in them. They
recognized the purity, the love, the rugged hon
esty, the keen insight, the poised wisdom, and
they hated Him the more intensely, so committed
were they in the practice of their Uves to the op
posite of these. Jesus was very winsome. It
was to be expected of Him, for He was a man un
stained and unhurt by sin. Man, God's sort of
man, is winsome, for he is in the image of God.
It was to be expected of Him, for He was God.
And God is winsome. Did men but know God
they would throw themselves at His feet in the
utter abandon of strong love.
Jesus' personality must have been very attrac
tive, because of the man Hving within. He found

The Winsome Jesus 173
expression in it. The spirit of a man finds ex
pression in his presence. He goes out to others
through his presence. From what we know of
Jesus His presence must have had something dis
tinctly impressive about it. He would have a
gently majestic bearing. He walked upright
Hke the king He was. He had the true dignity
that is not conscious of its dignity.
Jesus must have had a remarkable face. One's
presence centers pecuUarly in the face. It comes
to bear the imprint of the man inside. A man
cannot keep out of his face the dominant spirit
of his Ufe. The sin of the Ufe, the purity of the
heart, is always stamped on the face. The finer
the nature the plainer is the facial index. That
is the reason women's faces reveal the inner spirit
more than men's. Quite apart from His features,
the inner spirit of Jesus must have made His face
beautiful with a manly fascinating beauty. Yet
inaU UkeHhood those features were finely chiselled
and the skin clear, and with the transfiguring
power of the spirit within, that face must have
been a great face in its beauty.
Jesus' face must have borne the impress of His .
experiences. The early home experience would
bring out patience and simphcity and sympathy.
Those forty days in the wilderness would intensify
the purity and strength, and bring evidence of
struggle and of victory. The Jordan waters,
with the voice of approval, would deepen the
mark of peace. Constant contact with the sick
and suffering would bring out yet more the ten-

174 Quiet Talks About Jesus
derhess and gentleness. Constant teaching of
undisciphned folk would intensify the patience.
Constant contact with sin would intensify the un
flinching sternness of purity. The Transfigura
tion would deepen the spirituaUty, with possibly
an added glory-touch. Gethsemane wrote in the
deep Unes of intense suffering, with the intangible
spirituaUty of victory and great peace. And, at
the last, Calvary with its scars marked in a
beauty of suffering and of spirituaUty refined
beyond description. A marveUous face that
human face of Jesus.
Indeed, the glory of God was in the face of Jesus
as He walked quietly among men. Looking
into that face men saw God. That simple, gentle,
patient, pure face, with its deep peace and victory
and yet its yearning — that was God looking out
into men's faces.
The Music of God in the Voice of Jesus.
The face of that face was the eye. The eye is
the soul of the face. Through it the man looks
out and shows himself. Through it we look in
and see him. Where the fires of self-ambition
burn the flame is always in the eye. Only where
those fires are out or never Ut does the real beauty-
Ught of God come into the eye. Great leaders
have ever been noted for their eyes, before whose
glance strong men have cowed and quailed, or
eagerly coveted the privilege of service:
Those must have been matchless eyes of Jesus,
keen, kindly, flashing out bhnding Hghtning,

The Winsome Jesus 175
sending out softest subdued Ught. The Naza
reth mob couldn't stand the look of those eyes,
nor the bolder Jerusalem mob reaching down for
the stones, nor the deputation sent to arrest, nor
even the reckless Roman soldiers at the garden
gate. The disciples who were closest sometimes
foUowed him afraid and amazed because of the
look of those eyes. And yet the Httle children
put their arms around His neck, and looked up
fearlessly and lovingly. And the crowd Ustened
by the hour with their eyes fastened upon His.
The voice of Jesus must have been music itself.
It speaks once of His singing a hymn. How we
would aU have loved to hear Him sing! But that
voice was music at all times, whether in song or
speech. Low, modulated, rhythmic, gentle, rich,
resonant — wondrous music. Those who have
heard Spurgeon and Gladstone almost always
speak of the rare musical quaHty in their voices.
So, and more would it be with this Jesus. It has
been said that the personahty reveals itself in the
speech. It reveals itself yet more, and more
subtly, in the sound of the voice. The power or
weakness of a man is felt in the sound of his voice.
The bUnd have unusual skill in reading character
in the voice. Were we wiser we could read men's
character much more quickly in the voice. Chil
dren and animals do. The voice that stiUed the
waves and spoke forgiveness of sins, that drew
the babes, and talked out to thousands at once,
must have been fuU of sweetest music and thrill
ing with richest power.

176 Quiet Talks About Jesus
Jesus made much of the personal touch, an
other means whereby a man's power goes out to
his fellow. He beUeved in close personal touch.
He drew men into close contact with Himself.
He promised that when gone Himself, Somebody
else was to come, and Hve as He had done right
with us in close touch. He touched those whom
He helped, regardless of conditions. There was
power in His touch. Some of Himself went out
through that touch of His. The fever, the weak
ness, the disease fled before His touch.
Is it to be wondered at that everywhere, in the
temple yards, on Judean hills or GaUlean, by the
blue waters of GaUlee or the brown waters of the
Jordan, men crowded to Jesus ? They couldn't
help it. He was irresistible in His presence, His
face, His eye, and voice and touch. It could not
be otherwise. He was God on a wooing errand
after man. Moses' request of Jehovah, "Show
me . . . Thy glory," was being granted now
to the whole nation. In Jesus they were gazing
on the glory of God. A veiled glory? Yes,
much veiled, doubtless, yet not as much as when
Moses looked and Ustened.
Jesus draws men. AU classes, aU nations, aU
peoples are drawn to Him. It is remarkable how
all classes in Christendom quote Jesus, and claim
Him as the leader of their own particular views.
They wiU selfishly claim Him who will not foUow
Him. Jesus draws us. "Let us each yield to His draw
ing. That is the sincerest homage and honor we

The Winsome Jesus 177
can give Him. That will draw out in us to fuUest
measure the original God-Ukeness obscured by sin.
Let us Hft this drawing Jesus up by our Uves of
loyalty to Him, by our modest, earnest testimony
for Him, by our unselfish love for the men He
loved so. Up let us Hft Him before men's eyes;
up on the cross, transfigured by His love ; up on
the OUves' Mount, Victor over aU the forces of
sin and death; up at the Father's right hand in
glory, waiting the fullness of time for the com
pletion of His plan for man.
Thou great winsome God, we have seen Thy
beauty in this Jesus. We have heard Thy music
in His voice. We feel the strong pull upon our
hearts and wills of Thy presence in Him. We
cannot resist Thee if we would. We would not
if we could. We are coming a-running to keep
tryst with Thee under the tree of Ufe thou art
planting down in our midst. We wiU throw our
selves at Thy feet in the utter abandon of our
strongest love, Thy volunteer slaves.

III. THE GREAT EXPERIENCES
OF JESUS' LIFE

i. The Jordan: The Decisive Start.
2. The Wilderness: Temptation.
3. The Transfiguration: An Emergency
Measure.
4. Gethsemane: The Strange, Lone Strug
gle.
5. Calvary: Victory.
6. The Resurrection: Gravity Upward.
7. The Ascension: Back Home Again
Until 

The Jordan: The Decisive Start

The Anvil of Experience.
Experience is going through a thing yourself,
and having it go through you. And "through"
here means not as a spear is thrust through a
man's body, piercing it, but as fire goes through
that which it takes hold of, permeating; as an
odor goes through a house, pervading it.
A man knows only what he experiences; what
he goes through; what goes through him. He
knows only what he is certain of. And he is
certain of only that which he experiences.
It is one of the natural Umitations of our hu
manity that it is so. Even the primary knowl
edge of space, and time, and so on comes in this
way. A man knows space only by seeing or
thinking through space. He knows time only by
Hving consciously through some moments of
time. Such knowledge is primary only in point
of time.
Experience is weaving fact into the fabric of
your Hfe. The swift drive of the double-pointed
shuttle, the hard push of the loom back and forth
goes through you.
Experience is sowing truth in actual personal

1 82 Quiet Talks About Jesus
occurrences. The cutting, upturning edge of
the plow, the tearing teeth of the harrow, go on
inside your very being, while perhaps the moments
drag themselves by, slow as snails.
Experience is hammering truth into shape upon
the anvil of your Ufe, while the pounding of the
Ughtning trip-hammer is upon your own quivering
flesh. It is seeing that which is most precious
to you, so dear as to be your very Ufe, seeing that
in a furnace, seven times heated, while you,
standing helplessly by, hope and trust perhaps,
and yet wonder, even while trusting, wonder if —
(shall I say it the way your heart talks it out
within?), or, at most, wonderingly watch with
heart almost stopped, and eyes big, to see if the
form of the Fourth wiU intervene in your case,
or whether something else is the Father's wiU.
Experience is the three young Hebrews stepping
with quiet, fuU, heel-to-toe tread into the hotly
flaming furnace, not sure but it meant torture
and death, only sure that it was the only right
thing to do. It is the old Babylonian premier
actuaUy lowering nearer and nearer to those
green eyes, and yawning jaws, and ivories pol
ished on many a bone, clear of duty though not
clear of anything else.
A man having a financial understanding with
his church, or a contract with his employer, or
a comfortable business, may be an earnest Chris
tian, Uving a Hfe of prayer and reaUzing God's
power in his Ufe, but he cannot know the meaning
of the word trust as George MueUer knew it

The Jordan 183
when he might waken in the morning with not
enough food in hand for the breakfast, only an
hour off, of the two thousand orphans under his
care, and in answer to his waiting prayer have
them aU satisfied at the usual breakfast hour.
George MueUer himself did not know the mean
ing of "trust" before such experiences as he did
afterwards. No one can. We know only what
we experience.
Now Jesus became a perfect man by means of
the experiences He went through. He is an older
Brother to us, for He has gone through ahead
where we are now going, and where we are yet to
go. He was perfectly human in this, that He did
not know our human experiences, save as He Him
self went through those experiences. With fuU
reverence be it said of the divine Jesus, it was
necessarily so, because He was so truly human.
The whole diapason of human experience,
with its joyous majors and its sobbing minors,
He knew. Except, of course, the experiences
growing out of sin. These He could not know.
They belong to the abnormal side of Hfe. And
there was nothing abnormal about Him. It
was fitting that Jesus, coming as a man to save
brother men, should develop the full human
character through experience. And so He did.
And forever He has a feUow-feeUng with each of
us, at every point, for He Himself has felt our
feelings. Jesus' experiences brought Him suffering ; keen,
cutting pain; real suffering. Where there is

184 Quiet Talks About Jesus
possible danger or pain in an approaching ex
perience there is shrinking. It is a normal
human trait to shrink from pain and danger.
Jesus' experiences in the suffering they brought
to Him far outreach what any other human has
known. He shrank in spirit over and over again
as the expected experiences approached. He
shrank back as none other ever has, for He was
more keenly aUve to the suffering involved. He
suffered doubly: in the shrinking beforehand;
in the actual experience.
But, be it keenly remembered, shrinking does
not mean faltering. Neither suffering in antici
pation nor actually ever held Him back for a
moment, nor an inch's length, nor in the spirit
of full-tilted obedience to His Father's plan.
This makes Jesus' experiences the greatest
revealers of His character. He was sublime in
His character, His teachings, His stupendous
conceptions. He was most subhme in that where
in He touches us most closely — His experiences.
With a new, deep meaning it can be said,
knowledge is power. We humans enter into
knowledge and so into power only through ex
perience. Experiences are sent, or when not
directly sent are aUowed to come, that through
these may come knowledge, through knowledge
power, through both the Ukeness of God, and so,
true service in helping men back to God.
Let us, you and I, go through our experiences
graciously, not grudgingly, not balking, cheerily,
aye, with a bit of joy in the voice and a gleam

The Jordan 185
of Ught in the eye. And remember, and not
forget, that alongside is One who knows the
experience that just now is ours, and, knowing,
sympathizes. There were with Jesus the commoner expe
riences and the great outstanding ones : the moun
tain range with the foot-hills below and the tower
ing peaks above. From His earHest consciousness
until the cross was reached, Jesus ran the whole
gamut of human experiences common to us aU,
with some greater ones, which are the same as
come to aU men, but with Him intensified clear
beyond our measurements.
These greater experiences were tragic until
the great tragedy was past. Each has in it the
shadow of the greatest. The Jordan waters
meant turning from a kingdom down another
path to a cross. . The Wilderness fight pointed
clearly to successive struggles, and the greatest.
The Transfiguration mount meant turning from
the greatest glory of His divinity which any earthly
eye had seen to the Httle hfll of death, which was
to loom above the mount. Gethsemane is Cal
vary in anticipation. Calvary was the tragedy
when love yielded to hate and, yielding, conquered.
There love held hate's cUmax, death, by the
throat, extracted the sting, drew the fang tooth,
and drained the poison sac underneath. Love's
surgery. And the tinge of the tragedy remains in the
Resurrection and Ascension in Hngering scars.
They are stiU in that face. It is a scale ascending

1 86 Quiet Talks About Jesus
from the first. In each is seen the one thing from
a different angle. The cross in advance is in
each experience, growing in intensity till itself
is reached, and casting its shadow as it is left
behind. Our Brother.
m Through the crowds at the Jordan River,
there quietly walked one morning a Man who
came up to where John stood. He took a place
in the Une of those waiting to be baptized, so
indicating His own intention. John is absorbed
in his work, but as he faces this Man, next in
order, he is startled. This is no ordinary man.
That face! Its wondrous purity! That intan
gible something reveaHng the man! That spirit
looking through those eyes into his own! In
tha* presence he feels his own impurity. It is
the instant unpremeditated recognition by this
fine-grained Spirit-taught John of his Master,
his Chief. The remonstrance that instinctively
springs to his Hps is held in check by the obedience
he at once feels is due this One. Whatever He
commands is right, however unexpected it may be,
or however strange it may seem.
Why did Jesus go to John for baptism ? The
rite was a purifying one. It meant confession
of sin, need of cleansing, a desire for cleansing,
a purpose to turn from wrong and sin and lead
a new Hfe. How could Jesus accept such a rite
for Himself? Why did He? Read in the Ught
of the whole story of Jesus the answer seems

The Jordan 187
simple. Jesus was stepping down into the ranks
of man as His Brother. The kingdom He was to
estabhsh among men was to be set up and ruled
over by man's Brother. The salvation was to be
by One, close up, alongside. The King will brush
elbows with His subjects, for they are brothers
too. No long-range work for Jesus, but personal
touch. In accepting John's baptism, Jesus was allying
Himself with the race of men He had come to
lead up, and out, as King. He was allying Him
self with them where they were. It was not the
path always trodden by man in cHmbing to a
throne. But it was the true path of fellowship
with them in their needs. He was getting hold
of hands, that He might be their leader up to
the highlands of a new Ufe. He steps to their
level. He would Uft from below. He would
get by the side of the man lowest down. It
was clear evidence at the start that He was the
true Messiah, the King. He was their Brother.
He would get down alongside, and pull up with
them side by side out of the ditch of sticky mud
up to good footing.
And mark keenly — and the heart glows a bit
at the thought — the point He chooses for getting
into that contact with His brothers. It is th$
point where they are turning from sin. John's
baptism meant turning from sin. It is at that
point that Jesus comes forward. A man can
always be Uve-sure of Jesus meeting him there,
close up, with outstretched hand. He is waiting

1 88 Quiet Talks About Jesus
eagerly, and steps up quickly to a man's side as
in his heart he turns from sin.
But there's more yet. Read in the after Hght
cast upon it there is much more. This was the
voluntary path away from the kingdom. It was
the beginning of aU that came after. The road
up the hill of the cross not far away led out of
those waters. This was the starting point. Jesus
calmly turned His face for the time being — a
long time it has proved — away from the promised
Kingdom of His Father and toward the planned
cross of Satan.
It meant much, for it was the first step into the
path marked out. What the Father had chosen
for Him, He now chooses out for Himself. So
every bit of service, every plan, must be twice
chosen: by God for a man; by the man for himself
as from God. He entered eagerly, for this was
His Father's plan. That itself was enough for
Jesus. But, too, it was the path where His needy
brothers were. That would quicken His pace.
It was the road wherein He would meet the
enemy. And with a fresh prayer in His heart
and a quiet confidence in His eye He steps into
the road with that calmness that strong purpose
gives. As it proved there was danger here for Him.
This was not the way approved by man's estab
hshed ideals for starting a kingdom. He was
driving straight across the carefuUy marked out
roads of man's usage. He was disregarding the
" No trespassing " signs. There was danger here.

The Jordan 189
A man cutting a new path right across old ones
meets stubborn undergrowth, and ugly thorn
hedges. Jesus struck the thorns early, and right
along to the last getting sharper. And they tore
His face badly, as He cut the way through for His
brothers. Yes, there were dangers as He pushed His way
through the undergrowth down to the water.
Poison ivy thick, and fanged snakes darting
guiltily aside from fear even while wanting to
strike in, tangled, gnarly roots hugging the ground
close, and bad odors and gases, and the Ught
obscured — dangers thick! And these Jordan
waters prove chill and roily. His stepping in
stirs the mud. The storm winds sweep down the
-vaUey. A bit of a hill up above to the west casts
a long sinister shadow out over the water.
And He must have known the dangers. No
need of supernatural knowledge here. His famil
iarity with David and Jeremiah and other Hebrew
¦writers, His knowledge of human nature as it had
grown to be, His knowledge of a foe subtler than
human, the fine sensitiveness of His finely organ
ized sensitive spirit — these would lead Him to
scent the danger.
But He falters not. The calmness of His will
gives steadiness to His step down the river's
bank. Aye, the dangers lured Him on. He
had a keen scent for danger, for it was danger to
His race of men, whose King He was in right
and would prove Himself in fact. He would draw
the thorn points by His own flesh that men might

190 Quiet Talks About Jesus
be saved their stinging prod and slash. He would
neutralize the burning acid poison of the under-
. growth by the red alkaUne from His own veins.
He would use the thorns to draw the healing
salve for the wounds they had caused. He would
put His firm foot on the serpent's head that His
brothers might safely come along after. This
was the meaning of His plunge into the swift
waters by John's side.
The intense significance of this decisive step
by Jesus is brought out strikingly by what foUows.
What foUowed is God's comment upon it. Quick
as the act was done came the Father's approval.
John's crowds were not the only intent lookers-on
that day. Jesus stands praying. Since He is
going this road it must be a-knee. Then the
rift in the upper blue, the Holy Spirit straight
from the Father's presence comes upon the waiting
Man and the voice of pleased approval. And
the heart of Jesus thriUed with the sound of that
approving voice. He could go any length, down
any steep, if He might pnly ever hear that voice
in approval. Then the Holy Spirit took posses
sion of Him for the earth-mission. In the path
way of obedience down that rough steep came the
coveted power of God upon Him.
Three times in His Hfe the Father's voice came,
and each time at a crisis. Now at the plunge
into the Jordan waters, which meant brotherhood
with the race, and meant, too, a frostier chUl of
other waters later on. At the opening of the
Greek door through which led an easy path to a

The Jordan 191
great following, and away from a cross, when
Jesus, with an agony intensified by the intensified
nearing of those crossed logs, turned His step
yet more steadily in the path He had chosen that
first Jordan day. And between these two, on
the mountain top, when the whole fabric of the
future beyond the cross hung upon three poor
wobbUng, spirituaUy stupid, mentaUy untrained
GaUlean fishermen.
This is the meaning of that step into the Jordan.
It was the decisive start.

The Wilderness: Temptation

The University of Arabia.
The Jordan led to the Wilderness by a straight
road. A first step without sUpping leads to the
second. Victory opens the way to fresh struggles
for higher victories. The perfect naturalness of
Jesus is revealed here, His human naturalness.
He had taken the decisive step into the Jordan
waters. And whUe absorbed in prayer had be
come conscious of a new experience. The Spirit
of God came upon Him in unusual measure.
The effect of that always is to awaken to new
alertness and vigor every mental power, as weU
as to key up every moral resolve. Jesus is caught
at once by the grasp, the grip of this new experi
ence of the wondrous Spirit's control. Keenly
ahve to its significance, awakened anew to the
part He was to perform, and to a consciousness
of His pecuUar relation to God and to man, He
becomes wholly absorbed in this newly intensified
world of thought.
Under the Spirit's impulse, He goes off into the
solitude of the wilderness to think. And in this
mood of deep absorption, with every faculty
fully awake and every high moral impulse and
192

The Wilderness: Temptation 193
purpose in full throb, came the temptation with
the recorded cUmax at the close.
There came an intensifying of all His former
consciousness, and convictions, regarding His
own personaUty and His mission to mankind,
as absorbed from the Hebrew parchments, with
the undercurrent, lying away down, of a tragedy
to be met on the way up to the throne.
Jesus was a man of great intensity. He could
become so absorbed as to be unconscious of other
things. As a boy of twelve, when first He caught
fire, He was so taken up with the flood of thoughts
poured into His mind by the temple visit, that for
three days and two nights He remained away
from His parents, simply absorbed in the world
of thought awakened by that visit. He could
remain forty days in the wUderness without being
conscious of hunger. The impress of that forty
days mentally remain with Him during the re
mainder of His human Ufe. Intensity is possible
only to strong mentaUty. The child's mind, the
undisciphned mind, the mind weakened by sick
ness or fatigue goes quickly from one thing to
another. The finest mental discipline is revealed
in the greatest intensity, while yet all the facul
ties remain at normal, not heated, nor disturbed
by the discoloration of heat.
He withdrew into the wilderness to think and
pray. He wanted to get away from man that He
might reaUze God. With the near flaming foot-
Hghts shut out, He could see clearly the quiet
upper Ughts, His sure guides. These forty days
13

194 Quiet Talks About Jesus
gave Him the true perspective. Things worked
into proportion. He never lost this wUderness
perspective. The wilderness means to Him
alone with God, the false perspective, the flaming
of near Ughts, the noise of men's shuffling feet
aU gone. And when He went out among men
for work, that wUderness atmosphere went with
Him. And when the crowds thickened, and
work piled up, and dangers intensified, off He
would go for a fresh bit of improvised wUderness.
The temptation foUows the natural Unes of
man's powers. Man was made with mastery of
himself, kingship over nature and aU its forces,
and utter dependence, even for his very breath,
upon God. While made perfect in these, he would
know them fuUy only through growth. He had
three relationships, to God, his feUows, and him
self. His relation to God would keep true the
relation to himself, and adjust the relation to his
feUows. Keeping God in proper proportion in
the perspective keeps one's self in its true place
always. Utter dependence by every man upon
God would make perfect harmony with his fel
lows. The dominion of nature was through self-
mastery, and this in turn would be only through
the practice of utter dependence upon God.
Now aU sin comes under this grouping, the
relation to God, the relation to others, within
one's self. Temptation foUows the Une of ex
aggeration, misuse, misadjustment, wrong mo
tive. It pushes trust over into unwarranted
presumption. Dominion over nature crosses the

The Wilderness : Temptation 195
Une into the relation to other men. Fellow-feeUng
gives way to an ambition to get ahead of the other
man and to boss him. Proper appetite and
desire become lust and passion. The dominion
that man was to have over nature, he seeks also
to have over his brothers, so crossing the Une of
his own proper dominion and trespassing on
God's. Only God is to have dominion over all
men. Where a man is lifted to eminence of rule
among his fellows he is simply acting for Some
body else. He is not a superior. He is a servant
of God, in ruhng over his fellows.
John's famous grouping of all sin as "the lust
of the flesh, lust of eye and pride of life," refers
to what is out "in the world." It touches only
two of these three: sin in one's self and in relation
to his fellows, with the dominion Une out of adjust
ment. Out in the world God has been left clean
out, so the phase of trust isn't touched upon by
John. Jesus' temptation follows these natural lines.
Improper use of power for the sake of the bodily
appetite; to presume on God's care in doing
something unwarranted; to cross the Une of
dominion over nature and seek to control men.
For, be it remembered, Jesus was here as a man.
The realm of the body, the realm of religion, the
realm of wrong ambition, these were the temp
tation Unes followed then, and before, and ever
since. The going into the wilderness was planned by
the Holy Spirit. He was in charge of this cam-

196 Quiet Talks About Jesus
paign of Jesus to win back the aUegiance of man
and the dominion of the earth. Jesus yielded
Himself to the control of the Holy Spirit for His
earthly mission, even as later the Holy Spirit
yielded Himself whoUy to the control of the
exalted Jesus for His earthly mission.
Here the Spirit proves Himself a keen strate
gist. He drives hard at the enemy. He forces
the fighting. A decided victory over the chief
at the start would demoraHze aU the forces. It
would be decisive of the whole conflict, and pro
phetic of the final outcome. Every demon pos
sessing a man on the earth heard of his chiefs
rout that day, and recognized his Victor, and
feared Him, and knew of his own utter defeat in
that of his chief. Having gotten the chief devil
on the run, every sub-devil fled at Jesus' approach.
The Spirit would show to man the weakness
of the devil. The devil can do nothing with the
man who is calmly set in his loyalty to God.
This new Leader of the race was led up to the
dreaded devil that men might know for aU time
his weak spot. The poison of those fangs is
completely neutraHzed by simple, steady loyalty
to God. But the rattles do make a big scary
noise. It is safe to go where the Spirit of God leads,
and not safe to go anywhere else. The wilderness,
any wilderness, becomes a place of victory if the
Spirit of God be leading there. Any temptation
is a chance for a victory when the Spirit leads the
way. A man's controlUng motive determines the

The Wilderness : Temptation 1 97
attractiveness or ugHness of any place. To Jesus
this wilderness barren was one of the mountain
peaks. Its forbidding chasms and ugly guUies
and darting snakes ever afterwards speak to Him
of sweet victory. The first great victory was
here. He made the wilderness to blossom with
the rose of His unswerving loyalty to His Father.
And its fragrance has been felt by all who have
foUowed Him there. To the tempter it was a
wUderness indeed, barren of anything he wanted.
He quit it the first chance he could make. He
would remember the -beasts and serpents and
dreary waste. For here he received his first
death-thrust. Every man whom God has used has been in
the wilderness. The two great leaders before
Jesus, and the great leader after Him, had each
a post-graduate course in the University of Arabia.
A degree in that school is required for those who
would do vaUant service for God. Only so can
the eyes and ears be trained away from the glare
and blare of the crowd. They needed it, we need
it, for discipUne. He, the matchless Man, for
that too, and that He might make it a place of
sure victory for us.
Earth's Ugliest, Deepest Scar.
Jesus is the only One of whom we are told that
He was led up to be tempted. He was the leader
of the race for the Tegaining of the blurred image,
the lost mastery and dominion. He Himself
bade us pray not to be so tempted. He out-

198 Quiet Talks About Jesus
matched the tempter. Any one of us, alone, is
clearly out-matched by that tempter. But we may
always rest secure in the victory He achieved that
day. Only so are we safe.
It is noteworthy that the place of the temptation
was chosen by the Spirit, and what place it is
He chooses ? Mark keenly, the tempter did not
choose it. He was obUged to start in there, but
he seized the first chance to get away to scenes
more congenial to himself.
The wilderness is one of the most marked
spots on the earth's crust. That remarkable
stretch of land going by swift, steep descents
almost from Jerusalem's very door down to the
Dead Sea. It was once described as "the garden
of God," that is, as Eden, for beauty and fer
tility, like the fertUe Egyptian bottoms. For
long centuries no ghastlier bit of land can be found,
haggard, stripped bare, its strata twisted out of
aU shape, blistering peeHng rocks, scorching fur
nace-heat reflected from its rocks, swept by hot
desert winds, it is the land of death, an awful
death; no life save crawUng scorpions and vipers,
with an occasional hyena and jackal. Here sin
had a free line and ran riot. It ran to its logical
conclusion, till a surgical operation — a cauteriza
tion — was necessary to save the rest. Earth's
fairest became earth's ugUest. It is the one spot
where sin's free swing seamed its mark deepest
in. The story of sin's worst is burned into the
crust of the earth with letters over a thousand
feet deep. This is sin's scar: earth's heU-scar.

The Wilderness: Temptation 199
There is no talk of the glory of the kingdom
here. Yet there had been once. This is the very
spot where that proposition on smaller scale
was made to a man in a crisis of his Ufe, and
where, lured by the attractive outlook, he had
chosen selfishly. This is the wilderness, sin's
wilderness, whither the Holy Spirit led Jesus
for the tempter's assault. No man does great
service for God till he gets sin into its proportion
in his perspective.
Jesus was tempted. Temptation, the sugges
tion to wrong, must find some point of contact
within. Therein consists the temptation to the
man. Without doubt there was a response within
to the temptations that came to Jesus. Satan
always throws his Une to catch on a hook inside.
The physical sense of hunger responded to the
suggestion of getting hold of a loaf. The unfail
ing breath of Jesus' Hfe was trusting His Father.
For the way a thing should be done, as well as
for getting the result, He trusted His Father.
This trust, underlying and permeating His whole
Hfe, furnishes the point of contact for the second
temptation. The ruHng of a world righteously — not for the
glory of reigning, ingrained in us, but for the
world's good and betterment — was ingrained in
Jesus by His birth, and fostered by His study of
the Hebrew scriptures, and by the consciousness
of His mission. Here is the point of contact with
the third temptation. At once it is plain that
there is nothing wrong here in the inward response.

200 Quiet Talks About Jesus
For instantly it was clear that a response of His
will to these outer propositions would not be
right, would be wrong, and so these points of
contact were instantly held in check by His wiU.
"Every temptation" was brought, we are told:
"tempted in all points." This does not mean
that every particular temptation came to Jesus,
but the heart, the essential, of every temptation.
Every temptation that comes to us is along the
Une of the three that came to Him. By rejecting
the first of each Une He shut out its successors.
By accepting the first of a series of temptations
a man opens the way for the next, and so on.
Temptations come on a scale descending. There
are the first, the initial temptations, and then
aU that foUow in their train. Rejecting the first
stops the whole Une. Not only that, but stops
also the momentum, terrific, downward momen
tum of the whole Hne.
The first temptation is the door through which
must pass all other temptations of that sort. If
that door be opened these other temptations have
a chance. If that door be kept shut, all these
others are kept waiting. Temptation is always
standing with its pointed toe at the crack of the
door, waiting the shghtest suggestion of an open
ing. This first temptation is always the HkeUest
of its class to get in. It is not always the same,
of course. It is subtly chosen to suit the man.
Jesus kept these doors rigidly shut, key turned,
bolts pushed, bar up, chain hooked. So may we.
The tempting is to be done by "the devil."

The Wilderness: Temptation 201
That is his strong point, tempting people. It is
one way of recognizing some of his kin. It is a
mean, contemptible sort of thing. He had faUen
into a hole of his own digging, and would puU
in everybody else. He is never constructive in
his work, always destructive. Best at tearing
down. Never builds up. His aUies can often
be told by their resemblance to him here. Jesus
is to be tempted by this master-tempter. He is
going to prove to all his brothers that the tempter
has no power without the consent of the tempted.
The door into a man has only the one knob.
And that's on the inside.
Waiting the Father's Word.
Quite likely the form of the tempter's words
suggests the upper current of Jesus' thought.
"If thou be the Son of God." Jesus was Hkely
absorbed with His pecuUar relation to His Father,
with all that that involved. The tempter cun
ningly seeks to sweep Him off of His feet by work
ing on His mood. It is ever a favorite method
with the tempter to rush a man. A flush of feel
ing, the mood of an intense emotion tipped
over the balance with a quick motion of
his, has swept many a man off his feet. But
Jesus held steady. There was no unholy heat
of ambition to disturb the calm working of His
mind. Why " if" ? Did Satan doubt it ? Is he asking
proof? He gets it. Jesus did not need to prove
His divinity except by continuing to be divine.

202 Quiet Talks About Jesus
He proved best that He was Son of God by being
true to His Sonship. He naturaUy acted the part.
We prove best that we are right by being right,
not by accepting captious, critical propositions.
The stars shine. We know they are stars by
their shine. Satan would have Jesus use His
divinity in an undivine way. He was cunning.
But Jesus was keener than the tempter was cun
ning, " Get a loaf out of this stone. Don't go hun
gry. Be practical and sensible." The cold
cruelty of Satan! He makes no effort to reHeve
the hunger. The hunger asked for bread and he
gave it a stone. That is the best he has. He
is a bit short on bread. He would use the physical
need to break down the moral purpose. He has
ever been doing just that. Sometimes he in
duces a man to break down his strength in
reUgious activity. And then he takes advantage
of his weakened condition. Even reUgious ac
tivity should be refused save at the leading of
God's Spirit. It will not do simply to do good.
The only safe thing is to do God's will, to be tied
fast to the tether of the Spirit's leading.
Jesus could have made a loaf out of the stone.
He did that sort of thing afterwards. It was not
wrong to do it, since, under other circumstances,
He did it. But it is wrong to do anything, even
a good thing, at the devil's suggestion. He
would shun the counsel of the ungodly. The
tempter attacks first the neediest point, the hunger,
and in so far the weakest, the HkeUest to yield.

The Wilderness : Temptation 203
Yet it was the strongest, too, for Jesus could
make bread. The strongest point may become
the weakest because of the very temptation the
possession of strength gives to use it improperly.
Strength used properly remains strength; used
improperly it becomes weakness. The strong
points always need guarding, that the balance
be not tipped over and lost. Strength is never
greater than when used rightly; never greater
than when refused to the improper use. The
essence of sin is in the improper use of a proper
thing. The first step toward victory over temptation
is to recognize it. Jesus' quick, quiet reply here
touches the human heart at once, and touches it
at its neediest and most sensitive point, the need
of sympathy, of a fellow feeUng. He said, " Man
shaU not Hve." The tempter said, "God."
Jesus promptly said, "Man." He came to be
man, the Son of man, and the Brother of man.
He took His place as a man that day in the Jordan
water. He will not be budged from man's side.
He will stay on the man level in full touch with
His feUows at every step of the way.
He was giving to every man, everywhere in
the world, under stress of every temptation; with
every rope tugging at its fastenings, and threaten
ing every moment to sUp its hold, and the man
be lost in the storm, to every man the right, the
enormous staying power to say, " Jesus — a man
— such a one as I — was here, and as a man re
sisted — and won. He is at my side. I'll lean on

204 Quiet Talks About Jesus
Him and resist too, — and win too — in the
strength of His winning."
Jesus says here, " My life, my food, the supply
ing of my needs is in the hands of my Father.
When He gives the word, I'U do: not before.
I'll starve if He wishes it, but I'U not mistrust
Him; nor do anything save as He leads and
suggests. I'll not act at your suggestion, nor
anybody's else but His. Starving doesn't begin
to bother me like faiHng to trust would do. But
I haven't the faintest idea of starving with such
a Father." " Not by bread alone, but by every word . . .
of God." Not by a loaf, but by a word. When
a man is where God would have him, he can
afford to wait patiently tiU God gives the word.
A man is never unsteadier on his feet than when
he has gone where he was not led. "J go al my
Father's word." "I wait for my Father's word."
Jesus' study of the parchment rolls in Nazareth
was standing Him in good stead now. Through
many a prayerful hour over that Word had come
the trained ear, the waiting spirit, the doing of
things only at the Father's initiative. He could
make bread, but He wouldn't, unless the Father
gave the word. It was not simply that He would
not act at the tempter's suggestion, but He would
not act at aU except at the Father's word. And
to this Jesus remained true, whether the request
for evidence came from the tempter direct, or
from sneering Pharisee at the temple's cleansing,
or from unbelieving brothers.

The Wilderness: Temptation 205
Life comes not through what a man can make,
but through the Father's controlUng presence:
not through our effort, but through the Father's
power transmitted through the pipe Une of our
ready obedience. " Just to let thy Father do
As He will.
Just to know that He is true,
And be still.
Just to follow hour by hour
As He leadeth.
Just to draw the moment's power
As it needeth.
Just to trust Him. This is aU.
Then the day will surely be
Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall,
Bright and blessed, calm and free." '
Jesus held every activity, every power subject to
the Father's bidding. Not only obedient, but
nothing else. Waiting the Father's send-off at
every turn: this is the message from Jesus that
first tug, and first victory. Jesus had held true
in the realm of the body, in His relationship to
HimseU. Love Never Tests.
Satan shifts the scene. These wilderness
surroundings grate on his nerves. The setting
of this place, once first class, is now rather worn.
He's famous at that. It's a favorite device of
His; quick scene-shifting. A man wins a victory
1 Frances Ridley Havergal.

206 Quiet Talks About Jesus
over temptation, but a quick change of surround
ings finds him unprepared if he isn't ever alert
for it, and down he goes before the new, unex
pected rush, before he can get his wind. The
tempter is not a fool, as regards man. That is,
as a rule he is not. In the Ught of aU facts obtain
able about his career, that word might be thought
of. Yet no man of us may apply the word to him.
Not one of us is a match for him. We're not in
the same class. In his keen subtlety and cunning
he can outmatch the keenest of us; outwit and
befool without doing any extra thinking. I am
not using the word wisdom of him. We are safe
only in the wisdom of our big Brother who drew
his fangs in the wilderness that day.
He chooses shrewdly the spot for each foUowing
temptation. He's a master stage manager. He
always works for an atmosphere that wiU help
his purpose. He took Jesus up to one of the
wings of the temple in the holy city. The holy
city, and especiaUy its temple, would awaken
hoUest emotions. Here it was that Jesus, as a boy,
years before, had probably first caught fire. It
is Hkely that He never forgot that first visit. Here
everything spoke to Him of His Father. The
tempter is skilfully foUowing the leading of Jesus'
reply. Jesus had given a reUgious answer. So
He is given a reUgious atmosphere, and taken to
a reUgious place. He would trust the Father
impHcitly. Here is an opportunity to let men see
that beautiful spirit of trust. Here is a chance
for a master-stroke. A single simple act wiU

The Wilderness: Temptation 207
preach to the crowds. "You'U come down in the
midst of an open-mouthed, admiring crowd."
The devil loves the spectacular, the theatrical.
He is always working for striking, stagy effects.
How many a man has yielded to the religious
temptation! He is taken up in the air, and seems
to float among ethereal clouds. It is better for
us to Hve in the strength of Somebody else's vic
tory, and keep good hard earth close to the soles
of our feet, or we may Come into contact with
it suddenly with feet and head changing places.
The devil "taketh" Jesus. How could he?
He could do it only by Jesus' consent. Jesus
yields to his taking. He has a strong purpose in it.
He was going for the sake of HisPbrothers. The
tempter cannot take anybody anywhere except
with his fuU consent. He tries to, and often
befools men into thinking he can. It's a He.
He cannot. Every man is an absolute sovereign
in his will, both as regards God and Satan. God
wiU not do anything with us without our ready
consent. And be it keenly remembered that the
tempter cannot. Here Jesus gave consent for
His brothers' sake.
The tempter acts his part Hke an old hand.
The proper thing here is some scripture, repeated
earnestly in unctuous tones. Was it from this
tempter that all of us reUgious folks and every
body else have gotten into the inveterate habit
of quoting verse and sentence entirely out of con
nection? Any devil's He can be proven from the
Scriptures on that plan. If it was he who set the

208 Quiet Talks About Jesus
pace, certainly it has been foUowed at a Uvely
rate. It was a cunning quotation, cunningly
edited. The angels are ministering spirits. On their
hands they do bear us up. It is aU true, blessedly
true. But it is only true for the man who is Hving
in the first verse of that ninety-first psalm, "in
the secret place of the most High." The tempter
threads his way with cautious skiU among those
unpleasant aUusions to the serpent, and the
dragon, and getting them under our feet, and then
twisting and trampUng with our hard heels. He
knew his ground weU, and avoids such rough,
rude sort of talk. It was a cunning temptation,
cunningly staged and worded and backed. He
was doing his best. One wonders if he reaUy
thought Jesus could be tripped up that way.
So many others have been, and are, even after
Jesus has shown us the way. A dust cloth would
help some of us — f or our Bibles — and a Httle more
exercise at the knee-joint, and a bit of the hard
common sense God has given every one of us.
Did Jesus' wondrous, quiet calm nettle the
tempter? Was He ever keener and quieter? He
would step from the substantial boat-deck to the
yielding water, He would cut Himself off from
His Nazareth HveUhood and step out without any
resources. He would calmly walk into Jerusalem
when there was a price upon His head, for so
He was led by that Spirit to whose sovereignty
He had committed Himself. But He would do
nothing at the suggestion of this tempter. Jesus

The Wilderness: Temptation 209
never used His power to show He had it, but to
help somebody. He could not. It is against
the nature of power to attempt to prove that you
have it by using it. Power is never concerned
about itseU, but wrapped up in practical service.
There were no theatricals about Jesus. He was
too intensely concerned about the needs of men.
There are none in God-touched men. EUsha
did not smite the waters to prove that EUjah's
power rested upon him, but to get back across the
Jordan to where his work was needing him and
waiting his touch. Jesus would wear Himself
out bodily in ministering to men's needs, but He
wouldn't turn a hair nor budge a step to show
that He could. This is the touch-stone by which
to know aU Jesus-men.
He rebukes this quotation by a quotation that
breathes the whole spirit ofthe passage where it
is found. Thou shalt not test God to see if He
wiU do as He promises. These Israelites had
been testing, criticizing, questioning, doubting
God. That's the setting of His quotation. Jesus
says that love never tests. It trusts. Love
does not doubt, for it knows. It needs no test.
It could trust no more fully after a test, for it
trusts fuUy now. Aye, it trusts more fully now,
for it is trusting God, not a test. Every test of
God starts with a question, a doubt, a misgiving
of God. Jesus' answer to the second temptation
is: love never tests. It trusts. Jesus keeps
true in His relation to His Father.

14

21 o Quiet Talks About Jesus
The Devil Acknowledges the King.
Another swift shift of the scene. Swiftness is
a feature now. In a moment of time, aU the
kingdoms, and all the glory of aU the earth.
Rapid work! This is an appeal to the eye.
First the palate, then the emotions, now the eye.
First the appetites, then the reUgious sense, now
the ambition. The tempter comes now to the
real thing he is after. He would be a god. It
is weU to sift his proposition pretty keenly, on
general principles. His reputation for truth
fulness is not very good, which means that it is
very bad. Who wants to try a suspicious egg?
He could have quite a number of capitals after
his name on the score of mixing Ues and the truth.
He has a distinct preference for the flavor of
mixed Ues.
Here are the three statements in his proposal.
All these things have been dehvered unto me.
I may give them to whom I will. I wiU give them
to you. The first of these is true. He is "the
prince of this world." The second is not true,
because through breach of trust he has forfeited
his rule, though still holding to it against the
Sovereign's wish. The third is not true. Clearly
he hadn't any idea of rehnquishing his hold, but
only of swamping Jesus. Two parts He: one
part truth — a favorite formula of his. The He
gets the vote. A bit of truth sandwiched in be
tween two lies.
He asks for worship. Did he really think that

The Wilderness : Temptation 211
possibly Jesus would actually worship him?
The first flush answer is, surely not. Yet he is
putting the thing in a way that has secured
actual worship from many a one who would be
horrified at such a blunt putting of his conduct.
We must shake off the caricature of a devil with
pointed horns, and spUt hoof, and forked tail, and
see the real, to understand better. From aU ac
counts he must be a being of splendor and beauty,
¦of majestic bearing, and dignity. His appeal in
effect is this: — These things are all mine. You
have in you the ingrained idea of a world-wide
dominion over nature, and of ruUng aU men as
God's King. Now, can't we fix this thing up
between us? Let's be friendly. Don't let's
quarrel over this matter of world dominion.
You acknowledge me as your sovereign. You
rule over aU this under me. I'U stand next to
God, and you stand next to me. It's a mere
technical distinction, after all. It'U make no
real change in your being a world-wide ruler,
and it will make none with me either. Each wiU
have a fair share and place. Let's pull together. —
The thing sounds a bit familiar. It seems to me
I have heard it since somewhere, if I can jog up
my memory. It has raised a cloud of dust in
many a man's road, and blurred the clear outUnes
of the true plan — has raised ? — is raising.
Jesus' answer is imperative. It is the word of
an imperator. He is the King already in His
Father's plan. He rephes with the sharp, im
perial brevity of an emperor, a king of kings,

212 Quiet Talks About Jesus
" Get thee hence ! " Begone ! The tempter obeys.
He knows his master. He goes. Biting his teeth
upon his hot spittle, utterly cowed, he sUnks away.
Only one Sovereign, Jesus says. AU dominion
held properly only by direct dependence upon
Him, direct touch with Him, fuU obedience to
Him. No compromise here. No mixing of
issues. Simple, direct relation to God, and every
other relation through that. No short cuts for
Jesus. They do but cut with deep gashes the
man who cuts. The "short" describes the term
of his power, a short shrift.
When the devil has used up aU his ammuni
tion — . That's a comfort. There is an end to the
devil if we will but quietly hold on. Every arrow
shot. Not a cartridge left. Yet he is not en
tirely through with Jesus. He has retired to re
form the broken Unes. He'U melt up the old
buUets into different shape. They have been
badly battered out of all shape by striking on
this hard rock. He's a bit shaken himself. This
Jesus is something new. When he can get his
wind he wiU come back. He came back many
times. Once through ignorant Peter witb the
loaf temptation in new shape, once through His
mother's loving fears with the emotional temp
tation, and through the earnest, hungry Greeks,
and the bread-full thousands with the kingdom
temptation. Yet the edge of His sword is badly
nicked, and never regains its old edge.
But now he goes. He obeys Jesus. The
tempter resisted goes, weakened. He is a coward

The Wilderness : Temptation 2 1 3
now. JHe fights only with those weaker than
himself. He doesn't take a man of his own size.
Temptation resisted strengthens the man. There
is a new resisting power. There is the fine fettle
that victory gives. Jesus is Victor. The Jordan
experience has left its impress. Every act of
obedience is to the tempter's disadvantage. In
Jesus we are victors, too. But only in Him.
Through Jesus we meet a fangless serpent.
The old glare is in the eye, the rattles are noisy,
but the sting's out. He is stUl there. He still
can scare; but can do not even that to the man
arm-in-arm with Jesus. Jesus keeps true the
relationship to aU men and to nature by keeping
true the relationship to His Father.
Our Father, lead us not into temptation as
Jesus was led. We're no match for the tempter.
Help us to keep arm-in-arm with Jesus, and Uve
ever in the power of His victory.

The Transfiguration: An Em
ergency Measure

God in Sore Straits.
The darkest hour save only one has now come
in Jesus' Ufe. And that one which was actuaUy
darkest, in every way, from every view-point
darkest, had in it some gleams of Ught that are
not here. Jesus is now a fugitive from the prov
ince of Judea. The death plot has been settled
upon. There's a ban in Jerusalem on His fol
lowers. Already one man bas been cut off from
synagogue privileges, and become a reUgious and
social outcast. The southerners are pushing the
fight against Jesus up into GaUlee.
Four distinct times that significant danger word
"withdrew" has been used in describing Jesus'
departure from where the Judean leaders had
come. First from Judea to GaUlee, then from
GaUlee to distant foreign points He had gone,
for a time, tiU the air would cool a bit. The bold
return to Jerusalem at the fall Feast of Tabernacles
had been attended, first by an official attempt to
arrest, and then by a passionate attempt to stone
Jesus to death.
And now the Galilean foUowers begin to ques-
214

The Transfiguration 215
tion, and to leave. His enemies' northern cam
paign, together with His own plain teaching, has
affected the GaUlean crowds. They come in as
great numbers as ever to hear and to be healed.
But many that had alhed themselves as Jesus'
foUowers decide that He is not the leader they
want. He is quite too unpractical. The king
dom that the Galileans are eager for, that the
Roman yoke may be shaken off, seems very un-
Ukely to come under such a leader. Many desert
Him. Jesus felt the situation keenly. The kingdom
plan in Jerusalem had failed. And now the
winning of individuals as a step in another plan
is sUpping its hold. These people are glad of
bread and the easing of bodily distress, but the
tests of discipleship they puU away from. He
turns to the Httle band of His own choosing, with
a question that reveals the keen disappointment
of His heart. There's a tender yearning in that
question, "Will ye also go away?" And Peter's
instant, loyal answer does not blind His keen
eyes to the extremity. With sad voice He says,
" One of you, my own chosen friends, one of you
is a — devil." Things are in bad shape, and
getting worse.
It was a time of dire extremity. God was in
sore straits. The kingdom plan was clearly gone
for the . present. The rub was to save enough
out of the wreckage to get a sure starting-point
for the new plan, through which, by and by, the
other original plan would work out. There can

21 6 Quiet Talks About Jesus
be no stronger evidence of God's need of men
than this transfiguration scene. Just because He
had made man a sovereign in his wiU, God must
work out aU of His plans through that sovereign
wiU. He would not lower one whit His ambition
for a man free in his own wiU. He Himself would
do nothing to mar the divine image in man. For
man's sake, and through man's wiU — that is ever
God's law of deahng.
Fire and Anvil for Leaders.
The great need just now was not simply for
men who would be loving and loyal, but men
who would be leaders. It has ever been the
sorest need. Men are not so scarce, true-hearted
men, wilUng to endure sacrifice, but leaders have
always been few, and are. Nothing seems to be
less understood than leadership; and nothing so
quickly recognized when the real thing appears.
Peter was a leader among these men. He had
dash and push. He was fuU of impulse. He
was always proposing something. He acted as
spokesman. He blurted out whatever came.
The others followed his lead. There were the
crude elements of leadership here. But not true
leadership of the finer, higher kind.
The whole purpose of the transfiguration was
to get and tie up leaders. It was an emergency
measure, out of the regular run of things. Good
ness makes character. It takes goodness plus
abiUty to make true leadership. The heart can
make a loving follower. It takes a heart, warm

The Transfiguration 217
and true, plus brains to make a leader. Char
acter is the essential for Ufe. For true leadership,
there needs to be character plus abiUty: the
abiHty to keep the broad sweep of things, and not
be lost in details, nor yet to lose sight of details;
to discern motive and drifts; to sift through the
incidentals which may be spectacular and get to
the essential which may be in Quaker garb.
There are two sorts of leadership, of action,
and of thought. By comparison with the other,
leaders of action are many, leaders of thought
few. Peter was the leader in action of the dis
ciples, and in the eariier church days. John
became the leader in thought of the later years
of the early church. Paul was both, a very
unusual combination. Leaders are born, it is
true. But the finest and truest and highest
leaders must be both born leaders, and then born
again as leaders. There needs to be the original
stuff, and then that stuff hammered into shape
under hard blows on the anvU of experience.
The fire must burn out the clay and dirt, and
then the hammer shape up the metal. Leaders
must have convictions driven in clear through
the flesh and bone, and riveted on the] other
side. Simon loved Jesus, but there needed to be
more before Peter would arrive. It took the
transfiguration to put into the impulsive, unsteady,
wobbUng Simon the metal that would later be
come steel in Peter. Yet it took much more,
and finally the fire of Pentecost, to get the needed

2 1 8 Quiet Talks About Jesus
temper into the steel. These same Hps could give
that splendid statement that has become the
church's foundation; and, a bit later, utter
boldly foolish, improper words to Jesus; and,
later yet, utter vulgar profanity, and words far
worse, aye, the worst that could be said about a
friend, and in that friend's need, too.
This was a fair sample of the clay and iron,
the Simon and the Peter in this man. Yet it was
with painful slowness that he had been brought
up to where he is now. Two years of daUy con
tact with Jesus. Slow work! No, rapid work.
Nobody but Jesus could have done it in such a
short time. Nobody but Jesus could have done
it at aU. And, mark you keenly, this man is the
leader of the band of men that stand closest to
Jesus. This is the setting of the great transfig
uration scene.
An Irresistible Plan.

Jesus goes off, away from the crowds, to have a
bit of quiet time with this inner band of His.
Here is the strategic point, now. The key to the
future plan is in this smaU group. If that key can
be filed into shape, cleaned of rust, and gotten to
fit and turn in the lock, aU may yet be weU. The
nub of aU future growth is here. With simple,
keen tact He begins His questionings, leading on,
untU Peter responds with his splendid declaration
for which the church has ever been grateful to
him. "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Hving
God." It comes to Jesus' ears as a grateful

The Transfiguration 219
drink of cold water to a thirsty man on a hot day
in a dusty road.
Then to this leader and to the inner circle, He
reveals the changed plan. For the first time the
word church is used, that pecuUar word which
later becomes the name of the new organization,
"a company of persons called out." He is going
to build up a church upon this statement of faith
from Peter's Ups, and this church will hold the
relation to the kingdom of key^holder, adminis
trator. The church is to be a part of the admin
istration of the coming kingdom.
And so Jesus begins His difficult, sad task of
preparing this band for the event six months off
in Jerusalem. There is to be a tragedy before
the building of the church which will hold the
kingdom keys. So thoroughly does Peter fail to
understand Jesus, that with stupid boldness he
attempts to "rebuke" Him. Peter "took" Jesus.
A great sight surely! He sHps his hand in Jesus'
arm and takes Him off to one side to — straighten
— Him — out. This Jesus is 'being swept off His
feet by undue emotional enthusiasm. Peter
would fix it up and save the day. It would
take Peter to do that.
And this is a sample of the best leadership in
this inner group. Things were in bad shape.
AU the machinery hung upon a Httle pin holding
two parts together. That pin threatens to bend
and break for lack of temper. The Son of God
leaves aU else and turns aside to attend to a pin.
The futur-e of the kingdom hung upon three un-

220 Quiet Talks About Jesus
discipHned country fishermen. The transfigura
tion spells out God's dire extremity in getting
a footing in human hearts and brains for His plans.
Something must be done.
Mark what that something was to be: so simple
in itself, so tremendous in its results. They were
to be aUowed to see Jesus. That would be
enough. The Jesus within would look out
through the body He was using. The real Jesus
within looked out through the Jesus they knew.
He let these men see Himself a few moments;
simply that. AU of that, yet simply that. They
were His lovers. They were to be sorely tried
by coining events. They were to be the leaders.
To love, for a time of sore need, for service's sake,
for the sake of the multitudes whose leaders they
were to be, for the saving of the church plan, and
beyond of the kingdom plan, the Jesus within
looked out for a few moments into their faces.
It was the same plan used later in getting
another leader. Jesus had to go outside these
men for a man with quahfications needed by
the situation that these men did not have. The
human element again in evidence. Paul says,
"When I could not see for the glory of that Hght."
That Hght bothered his eyes. The old ambitions
were blurred. He couldn't see them. The out-
Hnes dimmed, the old pedigree and plans faded
out. They could no longer be seen for the glory
of that Hght. It is the plan the Master has ever
used, and still does. It is irresistible.

The Transfiguration 221
" The Glory of that Light."
It was six days, or eight counting both ends,
after the first telUng of the coming tragedy that
shook them so. Here is a bit of practical psychol
ogy. Jesus lets the brain impression made by
that strange announcement deepen before making
the next impression. Jesus went up into the
mountain "to pray." Prayer never failed Him.
It was equal to every need with Jesus. It was
whUe praying that the wondrous change came.
Changed while praying. When Moses came down
from that long time alone with God, his face was
fuU of the glory reflected from God's presence.
Stephen's face caught the Hght of another Face
into which he was intently looking.
Jesus was changed from within. It was His
own glory that these men saw. He had wrapped
Himself up in a bit of human tapestry so He could
move among men without blinding their eyes.
Now He looks out through the strands. They
are astonished and awed to find that face they
know so well now shining as the sun, and the
garments made transparent as Hght, gHstening
Hke snow, by reason of the great brilUance of
the Hght within. Yet Jesus let out only a part of
the glory. When Paul saw, on the Damascus
road, the Hght was above the shining of the sun.
When their eyes get over the first daze, the
disciples come to see that besides Jesus there are
two others, two of the old Hebrew leaders. There
is Moses, the great maker of the nation, the greatest

222 Quiet Talks About Jesus
leader of all. And rugged EUjah, who had boldly
stood in the breach and saved the day when the
nation's king was proposing to replace the wor
ship of Jehovah with demon-worship. They are
talking earnestly together, these three, about —
what? The great sacrifices Jesus had been en
during? The disappointment in the kingdom
plan? The suffering and shame to be endured?
The bitter obstinacy of the opposition? The
chief priests' plotting ? Listen ! They are talking
about the departure, the exodus, the going out
and up, Jesus is about to accomplish. They are
absorbed in Jesus. He was about to execute
a master-stroke. He is going to accomplish a
great move. They are whoUy absorbed in Him,
this Moses, and Elijah, and in this great move
of His for men.
Meanwhile these men lying on the ground are
waking up and rubbing their eyes. The only
jarring note is a human note. John and James
look with awe, reverent awe. It is an insight into
their character that nothing is said about them.
Their sense of reverence and power of control
are to the front. It is dear, impulsive old Peter
who can't keep still, even amid such a scene.
His impulsive heart is just back of his lips, with
no check-valves between. He must offer a few
remarks. This great vision must be duly recog
nized. What a sensation it would make in
Jerusalem to get these two men to stay and come
down and address a meeting! That would turn
the tide surely. Luke graciously explains that

The Transfiguration 223
he did not know what he was saying. No, prob
ably not. The tongue seemed to be going me
chanically, rather than by the controlUng touch of
the will. Peter seems to have a large posterity,
some of whom abide with us to this day.
Then the vision is shut out by the intervening
cloud. This human interference disturbs the
atmosphere. For Peter's sake, the glory is hidden
that the impression of it may not be rubbed out
even sHghtly by his own speech. We blur and
lose the impression God would make upon us,
by our speech, sometimes. A bit of divine prac
tical psychology, this movement of the cloud.
Then the quiet voice that thriUed them with the
message of the Jordan, "This is My Son; My
Chosen One : hear ye Him." Then it is all over.
It is most striking that this wondrous vision
of glory is for these three obscure, untutored men,
of lowly station. Not for the nation's leaders.
Yet the reason is plain. They had gladly accepted
what Ught had come. To them came more.
Their door was open. . It is these men who had
obeyed Ught that now received more. To him
that hath received what Ught has come shaU
be given more. From him that hath no Hght,
because he won't let it in, shaU be taken away
even what Ught he has. Shut fists will stifle
what is already held, and the Ufe of it oozes out
between the fingers.
In each of the three Gospels recording this
scene it is introduced by the same quotation from
Jesus' Ups. There were some persons in His

224 Quiet Talks About Jesus
presence who would not die until they had seen
the kingdom of God. The writers' reference
is clearly to the vision that foUows. It is said to
be a vision of the coming kingdom. Jesus, with
the divine glory within, no longer concealed, but
shining out with an indescribable splendor, up
above the earth, with two godly men, one of whom
had died, and the other had been caught up from
the earth without death, talking earnestly about
men and affairs on the earth, and in direct com
munication with the Father — that is the vision
here of the kingdom.
A Vision of Jesus.
And so the darkest hour save only one was
filled with the brightest Ught. The after, darker
hour of Calvary had gleams of Hght from this
transfiguration scene. There was faithful John's
sympathetic presence all through the trial. John
never flinched. And Peter had tears that caught
the Ught from Jesus' eyes, and reflected their
ghstening rays within. Those tears of Peter's
were a great comfort to Jesus that night and the
next day. The two greatest leaders were sure.
The transfiguration served its purpose fuUy.
The memory of it saved Peter out of the wreckage
of Simon, else Judas' hemp might have had double
use that night. Under the leadership of these
men, the Httle band hold together during that day,
so awful to them in the killing of their leader
and the dashing of aU their fondest hopes on which
they had staked everything. Two nights later

The Transfiguration 225
finds them gathered in a room. Could it have
been the same upper room where they had eaten
with Him that never-to-be-forgotten night, and
Ustened to His comforting words ? Only Thomas
does not come. Everybody swings in but one.
That shows good work by these leaders. But
another week's work brings him, too, into the
meeting and into the Ught.
These three men never forgot the sight of that
night. John writes his Gospel under the speU
of the transfiguration. "We beheld His glory,"
he says at the start, and understands Isaiah's
wondrous writings, because he, too, "saw His
glory." The impression made upon Peter deep
ened steadily with the years. The first impression
of garments ghstening beyond any fuller's skill
has grown into an abiding sense of the "majesty"
of Jesus and "the majestic glory." I think it
whoUy Hkely, too, that this vision of glory was in
James' face, and steadied his steps, as so early
in the history he met Herod's swordsman.
It was a vision of Jesus that turned the tide.
There's nothing to be compared with that. A
man's Hfe and service depend wholly on the vision
of Jesus that has come, that is coming. When
that comes, instinctively he finds himself ever
after saying, without planning to,
" Since mine eyes were fixed on Jesus,
I've lost sight of aU, beside.
So enchained my spirit's vision,
Looking at the Crucified."
With the Damascus traveller he will be saying,
is

226 Quiet Talks About Jesus
"When I could not see for the glory of that Hght."
May we each with face open, uncovered, aU
prejudice and self-seeking torn away, behold the
glory of Jesus, even though for the sake of our
eyes it come as a reflected glory. Then we shaU
become, as were Moses and Stephen, unconscious
reflectors of that glory. And the crowd on the
road shall find Jesus in us and want Him. Then,
too, we ourselves shaU be changing from glory to
glory, by the inner touch of Jesus' Spirit, as we
continue gazing.

Gethsemane: The Strange,
Lone Struggle

The Pathway In.
Great events always send messengers ahead.
There is a movement in the spirit currents. A
sort of tremor of expectancy affects the finer
currents of air. The more sensitively organized
one is, that is to say, the more the spirit part of
a man dominates body and mind, the more
conscious wiU he be of the something coming.
Jesus was keenly conscious ahead of the coming
of Calvary. Apart from the actual knowledge,
there was a painful thriU of expectancy, intensi
fying as the event came nearer. The cross cast
long, dark shadows ahead. The darkest is Geth
semane. It would be, for it was nearest. But
there were other shadows before that of the
oUve grove. Jesus plainly reveals in His behavior,
in His appearance, that He felt keenly, into the
very fibre, so sensitively woven, of His being, that
the experience of the cross would be a terrific one
for Him. It was deUberately chosen by Him,
and the time of its coming chosen in the fuU
knowledge that it would be an awful ordeal. It
would estabhsh the earth's record for suffering,
never approached before or since.
227

228 Quiet Talks About Jesus
As He turns His face for the last time away
from GaUlee, and to Judea, it is with the calmness
of strong deUberation. Yet the intenseness of
the inner spirit, in its look ahead, is shown in His
face, His demeanor. As He comes to a certain
Samaritan village on the road south, the usual
invitation to stop for rest and a bit of refresh
ment is withheld out of respect to His evident
purpose. It is clear to these viUagers that His
face is set to go to Jerusalem. In Luke's striking
language, "His face was going to Jerusalem."
What going to Jerusalem meant to Him had no
meaning to them. They saw only that face, and
were so caught by the strong, stern determination
plainly written there that they felt impeUed not
to offer the usual hospitaUty.
They were Samaritans, it is true, a half-breed
race, hated by Jews, and hating them, but in
variably they had been friendly to Jesus. That
must have been a marked face that held back
these homely country people from pressing their
smaU attentions upon Jesus. They are keener
to read the meaning of that face than are these
disciples who are more famiUar with the sight of
it. The impress already made upon the inner
spirit by the great event toward which Jesus had
determinedly set Himself was even thus early
marked in His face.
Later, on that journey south, as the time and
place are nearing, He strides along the road, with
such a look in His face as makes these men, who
had lived in closest touch, "amazed," that is,

Gethsemane

229

awed and frightened. And as they foUowed
behind, they were "afraid." It is the only time
it is said that the sight of His face made them
afraid. Then He explains to them what is in
His thoughts, with fuU details of the indignities
to be heaped upon His person. The sternness
of His purpose, perhaps not only the terrible
experience of knowing sin at such close range,
but, not unUkely, an anger, a hot indignation
against sin and its ravages, which He was going
to stab to death, flashed bUnding Ughtning out
of those eyes.
It was, not unUkely, something of the same
feeUng as made Him shake with indignation as
He reaHzed His dear friend Lazarus in the cold,
dinging embrace of death, sin's cUmax. The
determination to conquer . sin, give it a death
thrust, mingled with His acute consciousness of
that through which He must go in the doing of it,
wrote deep marks on His face. It is the beginning
already of Gethsemane, as that, in turn, is of
Calvary. EarHer in the last week occurs the incident which
agitates Jesus so, of the Greeks' request for an
interview. These earnest seekers for truth, from
outside the Jewish nation, seem to bring up to
His mind the great outside world, so hungry for
Him, and for which He was so hungry. But,
quick as a flash, there faUs over that the inky
black shadow of a cross in His path, and the
instant realization that only through it could He
get out to these great outside crowds.

230 Quiet Talks About Jesus
As though unaware of the presence of the crowds,
He begins talking with Himself, out of His heart,
saying words which none understand. "Now is my
innermost being agitated, aU shaken up; and what
decisive word shaU I speak ? ShaU I say, 'Father,
save me from this experience'? He can. No, I
cannot say that, for for this purpose I have deUber
ately come to it. This is what I wiU say — and
the agitation within His spirit issues in the vic
torious tightening of every rivet in His purpose —
'Father, glorify Thy name.'" This is Geth
semane already, both in the struggle and in the
victory through loyalty to the Father's wiU.
The Climax of Jesus' Suffering.
And now comes Gethsemane. Both hat and
shoes quickly go off here, for this is hoUest ground.
One looks with head bowed and breath held in,
and reverential awe ever deepening. The shadow
of the cross so long darkening His path is now
closing in and enveloping Jesus. The big trees
cast black shadows against the brilUance of the
full moon. Yet they are as bright Ughts beside
this other shadow, this inky shadow cast by the
tree up yonder, just outside the Jerusalem waU,
with the huge Umb sitting sharply astride the
trunk. The scene under these trees has been spoken of
by almost all, if not by all, as a strange struggle.
With a great variety of explanations men have
wondered why He agonized so. It was a strange
struggle, and ever will be, not understood, strange

Gethsemane

231

to angels and to men and to demons. It is strange
to angels of the upper world, for they do not know,
and cannot, the terrific meaning of sin as did Jesus.
It is strange to aU other men except Jesus, for
we do not know the meaning of purity as Jesus did.
And it was strange to demons, for in the event of
the morrow sin was working out a new degree of
itself, a new superlative, in its final attack on
Jesus. Sin was trying to strangle God. Even
demons stared.
Purity refined beyond what angels knew, and
sin coarsened beyond what demons knew were
coming together. Purity's finest and sin's coarsest
were coming together in the closest touch thus
far, in this Man under those old brown-barked
gray-leaved, gnarly trees. The shock of such
extremes meeting would be terrific. It was
terrific here under the trees. It was yet more so
on the morrow. Here was the cross in antici
pation. Calvary was in Gethsemane.
Man never wiU understand the depth of Geth
semane. We are incapable of sympathizing with
Jesus here. Yet it is true that as the Holy Spirit
within a man increases the purity, and the horror
of sin, there comes an increasing sense of sympathy
with Him, and an increasing appreciation that we
cannot go into the depths of what He knew here.
In the best of us sin is ingrained. Jesus was
whoUy free from taint or twist of sin. He knew it
only in others. Now He, the pure One, purity per
sonified, was coming into closest contact with
sin, and sin at its worst. He had been in contact

232 Quiet Talks About Jesus
with sin in others. He had seen its cruel ravages
and been indignant against it.
Now, on the morrow, He is to know sin by a
horrid intimacy of contact, and sin at a new
worst. He was yielding to its tightest hold.
Sin at its ugliest would stretch out its long, bony
arms and gaunt hands, and fold Him to itself
in closest embrace and hold Him there. And
He was allowing this, that so when sin's worst
was done, He might seize it by the throat and
strangle it. He would put death to death. Yet
so terrific is the struggle that He must accept in
Himself that which He thereby destroys. This
is the agony of Gethsemane. It may be told,
but not understood. Only one as pure as He
could understand, and then only under circum
stances that never will come again.
The horror of this contact with sin is intensified
clear out of our reach by this : it meant separation
from His Father. The Father was the life of
Jesus. The Father's presence and approving
smile were His sunshine. From the earliest con
sciousness revealed to us was that consciousness
of His Father. Only let that smile be seen, that
voice heard, that presence felt by this One so
sensitive to it, and all was well. No suffering
counted. The Father's presence tipped the scales
clear down against every hurting thing.
But — now on the morrow that would be
changed. The Father's face be — hidden — His
presence not felt. That was the chmax of aU to
Jesus. Do you say it was for a short time only ?

Gethsemane 233
In minrtes y-e-s. As though experiences were
ever told by the clock! What bulky measure
ments of time we have! WiU we never get away
from the clocks in telUng time ? No clock ever
can tick out the length to Jesus of that time the
Father's face was hidden. This hiding of the
Father's face was the chmax of suffering to
Jesus.
Alone.

It was a very fuU evening for Jesus. In the
upper room of a friend's house they meet for the
eating of the Passover meal. There is the great
act of washing His disciples' feet, the eating of
the old Hebrew prophetic meal, the going out of
Judas into the night of his dark purpose, the new
simple memorial meal. Then come those long
quiet talks, in which Jesus speaks out the very
heart of His heart, and that marveUous prayer
so simple and so bottomless.
Very Hkely He is talking, as they move quietly
along the Jerusalem streets, out of the gate leading
toward the Kedron brook, and then over the brook
toward the enclosed spot, fuU of the great old
oUve trees. The moon is at the full. This is
one of His favorite praying places. He is going
off for a bit of prayer. So He approaches this
great crisis. There is a friendly word spoken to
these men that they be keenly alert, and pray,
lest they yield to temptation. It is significant,
this word about temptation. Then into the woods
He goes, the disciples being left among the trees,

234 Quiet Talks About Jesus
whUe He goes in farther with the inner three,
then farther yet, quite alone. Intense longing
for fellowship mingles with intense longing to be
alone. He would have a warm hand-touch, yet
they cannot help Him here, and may do some
thing to jar.
Now He is on His knees, now prone, fuU length,
on His face. The agony is upon Him. Snatches
of His prayer are caught by the wondering three
ere sleep dulls their senses. "My Father — if it
be possible — let — this — cup — pass — from — me —
Yet — Thy — will — be done." The words used to
teU of His mental distress are so intense that
the translators are puzzled to find EngHsh
words strong enough to put in their place. A
frenzy of fright, a nightmare horror, a gripping
chiU seizes Him with a terrible clutch. It is as
though some foul, poisonous gas is filling the
air and fining His nostrils and steadUy choking
His gasping breath. The dust of death is getting
into His throat. The strain of spirit is so great
that the Hfe tether almost sHps its hold. And
angels come, with awe stricken faces, to minister.
Even after that, some of the Ufe, that on the mor
row is to be freely spiUed out, now reddens the
ground. The earth is beginning to feel the ferti-
Uzing that by and by is to bring it a new life.
By and by the mood quiets, the calm returns
and deepens. The changed prayer reveals the
victory : " My Father, if this cup cannot pass away
except I drink it — if only through this experience
can Thy great love-plan for the race be worked

Gethsemane

235

out — Thy — wiU" — slowly, distinctly, with the
throbbing of His heart and the iron of His wiU
in them, come the words — "Thy — will — be —
done." In between times He returns to the
drowsy disciples with the earnest advice again
about being awake, and alert, and praying
because of temptation near by.
And gentle reproach mingles in the special
word spoken to Peter. " Simon, are you sleeping ?
Could you not be watching with me one hour? "
Yes, this was Simon now, the old Simon. Jesus'
new Peter was again sUpping from view. Then
the great love of His heart excuses their conduct.
What masterly control in the midst of unutterable
agitation ! Back again for a last bit of prayer,
and then He turns His face with a great calm
breathing aU through those deep Unes of suffering,
and with steady step turns toward the cross.

Calvary: Victory
Yielding to Arrest.
It is probably close to midnight when Jesus
steps out from among the trees to meet the crowds
headed by the traitor. He knew they were com
ing, and quietly goes to meet them. There is a
great rabble that the chief priests had drummed
up, a city rabble with Roman soldiers, some of
the chief priests' circle, and in the lead of aU, Judas.
Judas keeps up the pretense of friendship, and,
advancing ahead of bis crowd, greets Jesus with
the usual kiss. Jesus dispels the deception at
once with His question of reproach, "Betrayest
thou with a kiss?" Damnable enough to be
tray, but to use love's token in hate's work made
it so much worse. Then He yields to Judas'
Hps. It was the beginning of the indignities He
was to suffer that night. Jesus quietly adds,
"Friend, do what you have planned. Let there
be no more shamming." But Judas' work is
done. The silver secured under his belt is earned.
He drops back into the crowd.
Jesus steps out into the clear moonHght, and
faces the crowd pressing eagerly up. His is the
one masterly, majestic presence. Quietly He
236

Calvary: Victory 237
asks, "Whom are you hunting for?" Back
comes the reply, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus at
once repUes, "I am He." Again, that strange
power of Jesus' presence is felt, but now more
marked than ever before. The crowd f aUs back
ward and down to the ground. Soldiers, priests,
crowds, Judas lying prone before Jesus! Again
the question and the answer, and then the word
spoken on behalf of His foUowers. This mani
festation of power is for others this time.
Recovering themselves, the crowds press forward.
The bewildered Peter makes an awkward stroke
with a sword he had secured and cuts off the right
ear of a man in the front of the crowd. Jesus
gently stops the movement with a word. The
Father would even then send twelve legions of
angels if He were but to give the word. But He
was not giving words of that sort, but doing what
the. Father wished. With a word of apology for
His impetuous follower, the man's ear is restored
with a touch. Surely he never forgot Jesus.
The leaders, now satisfied that Jesus will not
use His power on His own behalf, seize Him and
begin to bind His hands. As He yields to their
touch, Jesus, looking into the faces of the Jewish
leaders, said, "You hunt me and treat me as
though I were a common robber. I have never
tried to get away from you. But now for a while
things are in your control, the control of the
powers of night."
Meanwhile the disciples forsook Him and fled,
except two, John and Peter. Peter followed at

238 Quiet Talks About Jesus
what he thought a safe distance. John kept
along with the crowd, and went in "with Jesus."
Mark tells about the attempted arrest of a young
man who seemed friendly to Jesus, but in the
struggle he escaped, leaving his garments behind.
And so they make their way, a torch-Ught proces
sion through the darkness of the night, back across
the brook, up the steep slope to the city gate, and
through the narrow streets to the palace of the
high priest.
The Real Jewish Ruler.
Here Jesus is expected. Late as it is He is at
once brought before Annas. Annas was an old
man who had been high priest himseff once, years
before, and who had afterwards absolutely con
trolled that office through the successive terms of
his sons and now of his son-in-law. He was the
real leader of the inner cUque that held the na
tional reins in a clutching grip. Caiaphas was the
nominal high priest. The old man Annas was
the real leader. He controUed the inner finances
and the temple revenues. To him first Jesus is
taken. He begins a quizzical, critical examina
tion of Jesus about disciples and teaching. Pos
sibly he is trying to overawe this young Galilean.
Jesus calmly answers. "I have taught openly,
never secretly ; everybody knows what my teach
ing has been. Why ask Me? These people all
around have heard aU my teaching." He was
ever in the open, in sharp contrast with these
present proceedings. One of the underUngs of

Calvary: Victory 239
the high priest — struck — Jesus — in the face, say
ing, "Answerest thou the high priest so ? " Jesus
quietly repUes, " If I have spoken something wrong
teU me what it is, but if not, why do you strike
Me?" Annas ignores the gross insult by one of
his own men, and, probably with an exultant sneer
that the disturber of the temple revenues is in his
power at last, gives order that Jesus be bound and
taken to his chief underHng, Caiaphas.
This is the first phase of the condemnation de
termined upon beforehand, and the real settHng
of the Jewish disposition of Jesus. Still the forms
had to be gone through. So Jesus is sent with
the decision of Annas in the thongs on His hands
to Caiaphas, high priest that year by the grace of
the old intriguer Annas, and by Roman appoint
ment. The thing must be done up in proper
shape. These folks are great sticklers for proper
forms. Probably it is across a courtyard they go to an
other part of the same pile of buildings or palace.
Caiaphas, too, is ready, unusual though the hour
is. With him are several members of the senate,
the official body in control of affairs. The plans
have been carefuUy worked out. This night
work will get things in shape before the dreaded
crowds of the morrow can be aroused. Now
begins the examination here. These plotters
have been so absorbed in getting Jesus actuaUy
into their power that they seem to have over
looked the details of making out a strong case
against Him. They really didn't need a case to

240 Quiet Talks About Jesus
secure their end, yet they seem to want to keep up
the forms, probably not because of any remnants
of supposed conscience left unseared, but to
swing the bothersome, fanatical crowds that must
always be reckoned with. Now they deUberately
try to find men who wiU Ue about Jesus' words,
and swear to it. They find some wilUng enough
— money would fix that — but not bright enough
to make their stories hang together. At last
some one brings up a remark made three years
before by Jesus about destroying the temple and
rebuilding it in three days. It is hard to see how
they might expect to make anything out of that,
for in the remark, as they understood it, He had
proposed to undertake the rebuilding of the fam
ous structure if they should destroy it. And then
they can't even agree here. Clearly they're hard
pushed. Something must be done. Precious
time is sUpping away. The thing must be in
shape by dawn if they are to get it through before
the crowds get hold of it.-
AU this time Jesus stands in silence, doubtless
with those eyes of His turned now upon Caiaphas,
now on the others. His presence disturbed them
in more ways than one. That great calm, pure
face must have been an irritant to their jaded con
sciences. Suddenly the presiding officer stands
up and dramatically cries out, as though aston
ished, "Answerest thou nothing? Canst thou
not hear these charges against Thee ?" Still that
sUence of Up, and those great eyes looking into
His enemies' faces. Then comes the question

Calvary: Victory 241
lurking underneath aU the time, put in the form
of a solemn oath to the prisoner, " I adjure Thee
by the Hving God, that Thou teU us whether Thou
art the Christ, the Son of God." Thus appealed
to, Jesus at once repUes, "I am." And then,
knowing full weU the effect of the reply, He adds,
"Nevertheless — notwithstanding your evident pur
pose regarding Me — the Son of Man wUl be sitting
at the right hand of Power, and coming in the
clouds of heaven, and ye shaU see it."
In supposed righteous horror Caiaphas tore his
garments, and cried, "What further need is there
of witnesses? Behold you have heard His- blas
phemy. What verdict do you give ? " Back come
the eager cries, "He deserves death — GuUty."
So the second session closes with the verdict of
guUty agreed upon. Yet this was not official.
The senate could meet only in dayhght hours.
The propriety of form they were so eager for re
quires them to wait until dawn should break, and
then they could technically give the decisive ver
dict now agreed upon. While they are waiting,
the intense hatred of Jesus in their hearts and
their own cruel thirstings find outlet upon Jesus'
person. They — spat — in — His — face, and struck
Him, with open hand and shut fist. He is blind
folded, and then struck by one and another with
derisive demands that He use His prophetic skUl
to teU who had been hitting Him. And this
goes on for possibly a couple of hours before
dawn permits the next step, soldiers vying with
senators in doing Him greatest insult.
16

242 Quiet Talks About Jesus
Held Steady by Great Love.
Meanwhile a scene is being enacted within ear
shot of Jesus that hurts Him more than these vul
gar insults. Peter is getting into bad shape.
John was acquainted in the high priest's house
hold, and, going directly in without striking his
colors, is not disturbed. Peter gets as far as the
gateway, leading through a sort of aUey into the
open courtyard, around which on the four sides
the palace was built. Here, as a stranger, he was
refused admittance, until John comes to speak a
word for him. In the center of the open court a
fire was burning to reUeve the cold of the night,
and about this was gathered a mixed crowd
of soldiers and servants and attendants. Peter
goes over to the fire, and, mingUng with the others,
sits warming himself, probably with a studied
carelessness. The maid who let him in, coming
over to the fire, looks intently into his face, and
then says, "You belong to the Nazarene, too."
Peter stammers out an embarrassed, mixed up
denial, "I don't know what you mean — I don't
understand — what do you say?"
Taken unawares, poor Peter mingles a He with
the denial. As soon as possible he moves away
from the fire toward the entrance. It's a bit
warm there — for him. He remembered after
wards that just then the crowing of a cock feU
upon his ear. Again one of the serving-maids
notices him and says to those standing about,
"This man was with Jesus." This time the

Calvary: Victory 243
denial comes sharp and flat, "I don't know
the man." And to give good color to his words,
and fit his surroundings, he adds a bit of pro
fanity to it.
An hour later, as he moves uneasily about, he is
standing again by the fire. Something about him
seems to make him a marked man. Evidently
he has been talking, too. For now a man look
ing at him, said, "You belong to this Jesus. I
can tell by the twist of your tongue." Peter
promptly says, "No." Lying comes quicker
now. But at once another speaks up, who was
kin to the man that temporarily lost his ear
through Peter's sword. "Why," he said, "cer
tainly I saw you with Him in the garden." Again
the denial that he knew Jesus mingled freely
with curses and oath. And even as he spoke the
air was caught again with the cock's shriU cry.
And then Jesus, in the midst of the vulgarity being
vented upon Him, turned those wondrous eyes
upon Peter. What a look must that have been
of sorrow, of reproach, and of tenderest love. It
must surely have broken Peter's heart. The hot
tears rushing up for vent were his answer. Those
tears caught the light of love in that look, as he
goes away into the night and weeps bitterly.
Those bitter tears were as small, warm rain to a
new growth within.
An Obstinate Roman.
And now the impatient leaders detect the first
streaks of gray coming up in the east. The national

244 Quiet Talks About Jesus
council can now properly meet. Like their two
chiefs, these men are prompt. The whips had
been out over the city drumming up the members
for this extraordinary session. There seems to
have been a full attendance. Jesus, stiU bound,
is led through the streets, foUowed by the mixed
rabble, to the meeting haU, probably in the neigh
borhood of the temple. He is brought in and
faces these men. How some of those eyes must
have gloated out their green leering! Here are
the men He had not hesitated to denounce openly
with the severest invective ever spoken.
Some time is spent in consultation. The dif
ficulty here is to fix upon a charge upon which
they can themselves agree, and which wiU also be
sufficient for the desired action by the Roman
governor. It was a tough task. They faU in it.
These men divided into groups that were ever at
swords' points. There were utter opposites in
beUefs and poHcies. But their common hate of
Jesus rises for the time above their hatred for
each other. The charge must appeal to PUate,
for only he has power of capital punishment, and
nothing but Jesus' blood wiU quench their thirst.
Their consultation results in another attempt
to question Jesus in the hope of getting some word
that can be used. The president goes back to his
former question, "If Thou art the Christ, tell us."
Jesus reminds them of the lack of sincerity in
their questionings. They would not beheve Him,
nor answer His questions. Then He repeats
the solemn words spoken in the night session,

Calvary: Victory 245
" From henceforth shall the Son of Man be seated
at the right hand of the power of God." Eagerly
they all blurt out, "Art Thou then the Sonof God?"
Back comes the quiet, steady reply, "Ye say that
I am," equal to a strong yes. Instantly they de
cide fully and formally upon His condemnation.
So closes the third phase of the Jewish examina
tion. The death sentence is fixed upon. The
thing has been formally fixed up. The ground is
now cleared for taking Him to Pilate for His death
sentence. It is still early morning when Jesus is taken to
Pilate. It was an imposing procession of the
leading men of the nation, headed very likely by
Caiaphas, that now led Jesus across the city,
through its narrow streets, up to the palace of
the Roman governor. Jesus is conducted into
Pilate's hall of judgment within, but, with their
scrupulous regard for the letter of their law, these
principals would not enter his palace on that day,
but remained without. They seem to be expect
ing Pilate to send the prisoner back at once with
their death sentence endorsed.
To their surprise and disguest, Pilate comes
out himseU and wants to know the charge against
the prisoner. They are not prepared for this. It
is their weak point, and has been from the first.
Their bold, sullen answer evades the question,
while insisting on what they want, "If He were
not a criminal we would not have brought Him
to thee." They didn't want his opinion, but his
power, his consent to their plot. But Pilate

246 Quiet Talks About Jesus
doesn't propose to be used as such a convenience.
With scorn he tells them that if they propose to
judge the case they may. This wrings from them
the humiliating reminder that the power of capital
punishment is withheld from them by their Roman
rulers, and nothing less wiU satisfy them here.
Then they begin a series of verbal charges. They
are all of a poUtical nature, for only such would
this Roman recognize. This man had been per
verting the nation, forbidding tribute to Caesar
and calUng Himself a King.
It takes no keenness for Pilate to see the hoUow-
ness of this sudden loyalty to Caesar. He returns
to the beautiful marble judgment haU, and has
Jesus brought to him again. He looks into Jesus'
face. He is keen enough to see that here is no
poUtical schemer. At most probably a reUgious
enthusiast, or reformer, or something as harm
less from his standpoint. "Art Thou the King
ofthe Jews?" he asks. Jesus' answer suggests
that there was a kindUness in that face. If there
be a desire for truth here He wiU satisfy it. This
poUtical charge had been made outside whUe He
was within. " Do you reaUy want to know about
Me, or are you merely repeating something you
have heard?" He asks, with a gentle earnestness.
But Pilate at once repudiates any personal
interest. "Am I a Jew?" he asks, with plain
contempt on that word. "Thine own people are
accusing thee. What hast Thou done?" Then
comes that great answer, "My kingdom is not of
this world, if so I would be resisting these leaders

Calvary : Victory 247
and these present circumstances would aU be dif
ferent. But my kingdom is not of your sort or
theirs." Again there Hkely came a bit of soften
ing and curious interest in Pilate's face, as he asks,
"Art Thou reaUy a King then?" Jesus repUes,
"To this end have I been born, and to this end
am I come into the world, that I should bear wit
ness to the truth. Every one that is of the truth
heareth my voice." Pilate wonders what this
has to do with being a king. With a weary, im
patient contempt, he says, "Truth? What is
that?" The accused seems to be an enthusiast,
a dreamer, yet withal there certainly was a fine
nobiHty about Him. Certainly He was quite
harmless poUticaUy.
Leaving Him there, again he goes to the leaders
waiting impatiently outside. To their utter aston
ishment and rage he says, "I find no fault in this
man." It is the judgment of a keen, critical,
worldly Roman; an acquittal, the first acquittal.
The waiting crowd bursts out at once in a hot,
fanatical tumult of shouted protests. Is all
their sleepless planning to be disturbed by
this Roman heathen? The prisoner was con
stantly stirring up the people all through Judea
and GaUlee. He was a dangerous man. Look
ing and Hstening, with his contempt for them
plainly in his face, and yet a dread of their wild
fanaticism in his heart, Pilate's ear catches that
word GaUlee. " Is the man a GaUlean ? " "Yes."
WeU, here's an easy way of getting rid of the
troublesome matter. Herod, the ruler of GaUlee,

248 Quiet Talks About Jesus
was in the city at his palace, come to attend the
festival. It would be a bit of courtesy that he
might appreciate to refer the case to him, and so
it would be off his own hands. And so the order
is given.
A Savage Duel.
Once more Jesus is led through these narrow
streets, with the jeering rabble ever increasing in
size and the national heads in the lead. They
are having a lot of whoUy unexpected trouble, but
they are determined not to be cheated of their
prey. And now they are before Herod. This is
the murderer of John. He is glad to see Jesus.
There has been an eager curiosity to see the man
of whom so much was said, and he hoped to have
his morbid appetite for the sensational satisfied
with a display of Jesus' power. He phes Him
with questions, while the chief priests with fierce
vehemence stand accusing Him, and asking for
His condemnation.
But for this red-handed man Jesus has no word.
To him rare light had come and been recognized,
and then had been deliberately put out beyond
recall. He has gone steadily down into slimiest
slush since that. Now, with studied insolence,
he treats this silent man with utmost con
tempt. His soldiers and retainers mock and de
ride, dressing Him in gorgeous apparel in mockery
of. His kingly claims. When they weary of the
sport He is again dismissed to Pilate, acquitted.
It is the second mocking and the second acquittal.

Calvary: Victory 249
Again the weary tramping of the streets, with
the chief priests' rage burning to the danger point.
Twice they have been foiled. Now the matter
must be forced through, and quickly, too, ere the
crowd that are friendly have gotten the news.
They hurry Jesus along and make all haste back
to Pilate. Now begins the sixth and last phase
of that awful night. Things now hasten to a
cUmax. The character of Pilate comes out
plainly here. He really feared these wildly fanati
cal Jews whom he ruled with a contemptuous dis
gust undisguised. Three times since his rule be
gan their extreme fanaticism had led to open riot
and bloodshed, and once to an appeal to the em
peror, by whose favor he held his position. His
hold of the office was shaky indeed if the emperor
must be bothered with these superstitious details
about their religion. The policy he pursued here
was but a piece of the whole Roman fabric. Yet
had he but had the rugged strength to Hve up to
his honest conviction  . But then, that is the
one question of Hfe everywhere and always. He
failed in the test, as do thousands. Unconsciously
he was touching the quivering center of a whole
world's Hfe, and so his action stands out in bold
est outhne.
He comes out now and sums up the case. He
had examined the prisoner and found no fault
touching their charges of perverting the people.
Herod, their own native ruler, who was supposed
to know thoroughly their peculiar views, had also
fully acquitted Him. Now, as a concession to

250 Quiet Talks About Jesus
them, he will disgrace this man by a pubhc scourg
ing and let him go as harmless. Instantly the air
is filled with their fierce shriU cries, "Away with
Him: Away with Him."
But Pilate seems determined to do the best he
can for Jesus, without risking an actual break
with these fanatical Orientals such as might en
danger his own position. It was usual at feast
times to release to the people some one who had
been imprisoned for a poUtical offense. The
crowds, prompted by the chief priests, doubtless,
begin to ask for the usual favor. Pilate brings
forward a man named Barabbas, who was a rob
ber and murderer and charged with leading an
insurrection against Roman rule. MeanwhUe, as
he waits, a messenger comes up to him and re
peats a message from his wife. She has been suf
fering much in dreams and urges that he have
nothing to do with "that righteous man."
Apparently Pilate brings forward the two men,
the one a robber and murderer, the other with
purity and goodness stamped on every Une of His
face. It is a dramatic moment. "Which of the
two wiU you choose?" he asks. It is the appeal
of a heathen to the better nature of these Jews,
called the people of God. Quick as a flash of
Ughtning the word shot from their Hps and into
his face, "Barabbas!" "What, then, shaU I do
with Jesus, who is caUed Christ ? " He is weaken
ing now. His question shows it. They are keen
to see it and push their advantage. Again the
words shoot out as bullets from their hot Hps,

Calvary: Victory 251
"Crucify Him: crucify Him." Still he with
stands them. "Why? What evil has He done?
I find no fault in Him. To please you I will chas
tise Him and release Him." But they have him
on the run now. At once the air is filled with a
confused jangle of loud shrill voices, "Away with
Him! Give us Barabbas! Crucify! Crucify."
Apparently he yields. Barabbas is released.
Jesus is led away to be scourged by the soldiers.
His clothing is removed, and He is bent over,
with thongs on the wrists drawn down, leaving
the bare back uppermost and tense. The scourg
ing was with bunches of leather strips with jagged
pieces of bone and lead fastened in the ends. The
blows meant for the back, even if laid on by a
reluctant hand, would strike elsewhere, includ
ing the face. But reluctance seems absent here.
Then occurs another, a third of those scenes of
coarse vulgarity, horrid mockings, based on His
kingly claims. The whole band of soldiers is
caUed. Some old garments of royal purple are
put upon Jesus. One man plaits a% crown of the
thorns that grow so large in Palestine, and with
no easy gesture places it upon His head. A reed
is placed in His hand. Then they bow the knee
in turn, with "Hail! King of the Jews," and spit
in His face, and rain blows down upon the thorn-
crown. All the while their coarse jests and shouts
of derisive laughter fill the air. Surely one could
never teU the story were he not held in the grip
of a strong purpose.
But now Pilate springs a surprise. The scourg-

252 Quiet Talks About Jesus
ing might be preliminary to crucifixion or a
substitute. Again Jesus is brought forward, as
arrayed by the mocking soldiers. There must have
been an unapproachable majesty in that great
face, as so bedecked, with the indescribable suf
fering Unes ever deepening, He stands before them
with that wondrous calm stiU in those sleepless
eyes. Pilate seems caught by the great spirit of
Jesus dominant under such treatment. He points
to Him and says, "Behold the Man!" Surely
this utter humiliation wiU satisfy their strange hate.
Realizing that their fight is not yet won as they
had thought, they make the air hideous with their
shouts, " Crucify — crucify — crucify." Anger and
disgust crowd for place in Pilate, as, with a con
temptuous sneer, he says, "You crucify Him. I
find no fault in Him." It would be Ulegal, but it
would not be the first illegal thing. But these men
are bound to get aU they want from their weak
ening governor. One of the leaders sharply spoke
up, "We have a law, and by our law He ought to
die because He pretends to be the Son of God."
The Roman custom was to respect the laws of their
subject-peoples. All pretense of a poUtical charge
is now gone.
Pilate is startled. The sense of fear that has
been strong with him intensifies. That face of
Jesus had impressed him. His wife's message
disturbed him. Now that inward feeUng that
this man was being wronged grips him anew. At
once he has Him led into his judgment haU for
another private interview. Looking into that

Calvary: Victory 253
face again with strangely mingUng emotions, he
puts the question, "Whence art Thou?" But
those Hps refuse an answer. The time for speech
is past. Angered by the silence on the part of the
man he had been moved to help, Pilate hotly says,
" Speakest Thou not to Me ? Knowest Thou not
I have the power to release or to crucify ? " Then
this strangely masterful Man speaks in very quiet
tones, as though pitying His judge, "Thou wouldst
have no power against Me, except it were given
thee from above: therefore he that delivered Me
unto thee hath greater sin."
Again Pilate comes out to the waiting crowd
more determined than ever to release Jesus. But
the leaders of the mob take a new tack. They
know the governor's sensitive nerve. "If thou
release this man thou art not Caesar's friend.
Every one that maketh himself a king speaketh
against Caesar." That word "Caesar" was a
magic word. Its bur catches and sticks at once.
It was their master-stroke. Yet it cost them dear.
Pilate instantly brings Jesus out and sits down on
the judgment seat. The thing must be settled
now once for all. As Jesus again faces them he
says, "Behold! — your King." Again the hot
shouts, "Away — Away — Crucify — Crucify." And
again the question. " ShaU I crucify your King ? "
Now comes the answer, wrung out by the bitter
ness of their hate, that throws aside all the tradi
tional hopes of their nation, " We have no king but
Ceesar." Having forced that word from their
Hps, Pilate quits the prolonged duelling.

254 Quiet Talks About Jesus
Yet to appease that inner voice that would not
be stilled — maybe, too, for his wife's sake, he in
dulges in more dramatics. He washes his hands in
a basin of water, with the words, " I am innocent
of the blood of this righteous man. See ye to it."
Back come the terrible words, "His blood be on
us and on our children." Surely it has been!
Then Jesus is surrendered to their wiU. They
have gotten what they asked, but at the sacrifice
of their most fondly cherished national tradition
and with an awful heritage. Pilate has yielded,
but held them by the throat in doing it to compel
words that savagely wounded their pride to utter.
The savage duel is over.
Victory. Jesus is turned over to the soldiers forthe execu
tion of the sentence. His own garments are re
placed, and once more He is the central figure in
a street procession, this time carrying the cross to
which He has been condemned. His physical
strength seems in danger of giving way under the
load, after the terrible strain of that long night.
The soldiers seize a man from the country pass
ing by and force him to carry the cross. As they
move along, the crowd sweUs to a great multitude,
including many women. These give expression
to their pitying regard for Jesus.
Turning about, Jesus speaks to them in words
that reveal the same clear mind and masterly con
trol as ever. " Daughters of Jerusalem, be weep
ing for yourselves and your babes, rather than for

Calvary: Victory 255
Me. The days are coming when it shall be said,
' Blessed are the barren, and the womb that never
bare, and the breasts that never gave suck.' If
they have done these things while the sap of na
tional Ufe still flows, what will be done to them
when the dried-up, withered stage of their national
Ufe is reached!"
Now the chosen place is reached, outside the
city wall, probably a rise of ground, Hke a mound
or smaU hill. And the soldiers settle down to
their work. There are to be two others crucified
at the same time. A drink of stuff meant to stu
pefy and so ease the pain of torture was offered
Jesus, but refused. And now the cross is gotten
ready. The upright beam is laid upon the ground
handy to the hole in which the end of it will sHp,
and the cross-piece is nailed in place. Jesus is
stripped and laid upon the cross with His arms
outstretched on the cross-piece. A sharp-pointed
spike is driven through the palm of each hand
and through the feet. The hands are also tied
with ropes as additional security. There is a
smaU piece half-way up the upright where some
of the body's weight may be supported.
As the soldiers drive the nails, Jesus' voice is
heard in prayer, "Father, forgive them; they
know not what they do." Then strong arms
seize the upper end, and, Ufting, shift the end of
the cross into the hole, and so steady it into an
upright position. It is nine o'clock, and the deed
has been done. The soldiers, having finished
their task, now go after their pay. Jesus' gar-

256 Quiet Talks About Jesus
ments are divided up among them, but when the
outer coat is reached it is found to be an unusuaUy
good garment, woven in one piece. It was the
love gift of some friend Hkely. So they pitch dice,
and in a few moments one of them is clutching it
greedily as his own.
As quickly as the cross is in position the crowds
are reading the inscription which has been naUed
to the top to indicate the charge against the man.
It was in three languages, Latin the official tongue,
Greek the world tongue, and Aramaic the native
tongue. Every man there read in one or other
of these tongues, " The King of the Jews." In
stantly the Jewish leaders object, but Pilate con
temptuously dismisses their objection. This in
scription was his last fling at them. And so Jesus
was crucified as a King. There He is up above
them all, while the great multitude stands gazing.
Now begins the last, coarse, derisive jeering.
Some of the crowd caU out to Jesus, "Thou that
destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days,
save Thyself; if Thou art the Son of God, come
down from the cross." The chief priests have
dignified the occasion with their presence. Now
they mockingly sneer out their taunts, "He saved
others; but He can't save Himself. He is the
King of Israel. Let Him come down from the
cross and we wiU beUeve on Him." The two
others hanging by His side, in their pain and dis
tress, join in the taunting cries, and the soldiers
add their jibes.
But through it aU Jesus is sUent. There He

Calvary: Victory 257
hangs with those eyes watching the people to
whom His great heart was going out, for whom
His great Ufe was going out, calm, majestic, mas
terful, tender. The sight affects at least one of
those before unfriendly. The man hanging by
His side is caught by this face and spirit. He
rebukes the other criminal, reminding him that
they were getting their just deserts, but "This
Man hath done nothing amiss." Then turning
so far as he could to Jesus, he said, with a sim
phcity of faith that must have been so grateful to
Jesus, " Jesus, remember me when Thou comest
in Thy kingdom." Instantly comes the reply,
"Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with
Me in Paradise."
In the crowds were many of Jesus' personal
acquaintances, including women from GaUlee.
Close by the cross stood His mother and aunt and
faithful John and a few others of those dear to
Him. Most Hkely John is supporting Jesus'
mother with his arms. Turning His eyes toward
the group, Jesus speaks to His mother in tones
reveahng His love, "Woman, behold thy son;"
and then to John, "Behold thy mother." So He
gives His mother a son to take His own place in
caring for her, and to His friend John this heritage
of love. John understands, and from that hour
the ties between these two were of the closest and
tenderest sort.
So the hours drag along until noon. And now
a strange thing occurs that must have had a start-
ling effect. At the time of day when the sunUght

258 Quiet Talks About Jesus
is brightest a strange darkness came over aU the
scene, the sun's light being obscured or faihng
wholly. And for three hours this strange, weird
spectacle continues. Then the hushed sUence is
broken by an agonizing cry from the Hps of Jesus,
"My God— My God— why— didst— Thou— for
sake — Me?" One of the bewUdered bystanders
thinks He is caUing for EHjah, and another won
ders if something starthng wiU yet occur.
Jesus speaks again — "I — thirst" and some
one near by with sponge and stick reaches up
to moisten His Hps. Then a shout, a loud cry
of victory bursts in one word from those Hps,
"It is finished." Then softly breathing out the
last words, "Father, into Thy hands I commend
My spirit," and bowing His head, Jesus, master
ful, kingly to the last, yielded up His spirit.

The Resurrection: Gravity
Upward

A New Morning.
It was near the dawning of a new morning,
the morning of a new day destined to be a great
day. While yet dark there come a number of
women out of the city gate toward the tomb where
Jesus' body had been laid. They carry spices
and ointment. With woman's ever tender thought-
fulness they are bent upon some kindly service
for that precious body. They had followed up
the burial and noted the arrangements with a
view to this morning's early service. Their whole
thought is absorbed with a tomb and a body and
a bit of loving attention. They wonder as they
come along whom they can get to roll the heavy
stone over into its groove at the side of the open
ing. Mary Magdalene is in the lead. With her
in the darkness is hen friend Mary, the mother of
John and James. Others come along a little be
hind, in small groups.
As they get near to the place the keen eyes of
Mary Magdalene notice at once with a quick
start that the stone is rolled away. Somebody
has been tampering with the tomb in the night.
Leaving her companion, she starts back on a run
259

260 Quiet Talks About Jesus
into the city and finds Peter, and teUs him that
the Lord has been taken away, and they don't
know where He has been laid. Peter, too, is
startled. He gets John, and the two start back
on a run.
Meanwhile the other women have gone on
toward the tomb. As they approach they are
startled and awed to find a man there, with the
glorious appearance of an angel, sitting upon the
stone. To these awe-stricken women this angel
being quietly said, "Do not be afraid. I know
you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.
He is not here. He is risen, as He told you.
Come and see the place where He lay." And
as they gaze with wide open eyes, he adds,
" Go quickly and teU His disciples, and be sure
you tell Peter, that He is risen from the dead,
and lo, He goeth before you into Galilee.
You will meet Him there. Lo, I have told
you." But the women were panic-stricken, and
ran away down the road, and told no one except
some of the apostles. And to them their story
seemed ridiculous. They refused to beUeve such
talk. And now Peter and John come breathless to
the tomb. John is in the lead. Either he is
younger or swifter of foot. As he comes up he
stops at the opening of the tomb, and, with a bit
of reverential awe, gazes within. He can see the
Hnen cloths lying; but the body they had en
cased is clearly not in them. Peter comes up,
and steps at once inside for a closer inspection.

The Resurrection 261
There the Hnen cloths are, just as they had en-
swathed the body, but flattened down, showing .
the absence of anything inside their folds. The
napkin that had been about the head was folded
up neatly and laid over to one side. Then John
enters, and as he continues looking conviction
comes to him that Jesus has indeed risen. Won
dering greatly at this thing, wholly unexpected by
them, they go off to their homes in the city.
And now another Httle group of the women
come up, and are perplexed in turn as the others,
the stone away, the body of Jesus not there. As
they stand with staring eyes and fearing hearts,
two men unexpectedly appear in clothing that
dazzles the women's eyes. Frightened, they bow
down before these men, who seem to be angels.
But the men quickly reassure them with their words.
Why were they seeking a Hving One in a tomb?
Jesus was not there. He was risen. And they
remind the women of Jesus' own words about
being killed and then rising again. As the men
talk the women remember the Master's words,
and wonderingly see their meaning now, and
hurry away to tell their friends the great news.
Jesus Seeking Out Peter.
And now Mary Magdalene has gotten back to
the tomb. In her zeal for the safety of that pre
cious body, she had made quite a journey into the
city and back. Her zeal took her quickly to
Peter. Her sorrow makes the way back longer.
She had been first to come, but had not heard the

262 Quiet Talks About Jesus
news that came to her companions. Now she
stands at the open tomb weeping. She stoops
and looks in to see if it can be reaUy true that He
is not there. To her surprise two angel beings
are seated, one at each end of where Jesus' body
had been lying. They say to her, "Why are you
weeping?" She repUes, "Because they have
taken away my Lord, and I know not where they
have laid Him." Turning back in her grief as
the words are spoken, she sees some one else
standing. Again the same question by this One.
Why was she weeping ? Whom was she looking
for? Her eyes are bUnded with the rain of tears.
This is Hkely the man in charge of the garden
wherein this family tomb was.
With earnest tones she says, " Sir, if thou didst
carry Him away, teU me where thou didst lay Him
and I will have Him taken away." Then that one
word came to her ears, her name, in that unmis
takable voice, "Mary." Quicker than a flash
came the response, "Oh, my Master! " That
same wondrous, quiet voice continues, "Do not
continue to be dinging to Me. I am not yet
ascended to my Father. Be going to my brethren
and tell them I ascend to My Father and your
Father, My God and your God." And Mary
quickly departs on her glad errand for Him. She
was the first to see His face and hear His voice,
and have her hand upon His person, and do some
thing at His bidding.
And now the other women who had been at the
tomb in the garden and fled away are on the road

The Resurrection 263
approaching the city. As they hurry along, to
their utter amazement — here is Jesus in the
road approaching them. With a glad smile
in His eyes, the old, sweet voice speaks out in rich
tones the usual simple salutation of greeting,
"Good morning." At once they are down on
their knees and faces, holding His feet and wor
shipping. And Jesus softly says, "Do not be
afraid. Go tell my brethren to meet Me in GaU
lee, up by the old blue waters of the sea."
While these incidents were occurring, aU in
such short time, something else is going on of a
different sort. The Roman soldiers guarding
that tomb had had a great shock. They had
been suddenly displaced by another guard. The
sacred Roman seal had been ruthlessly broken,
the stone rolled back from the opening, and some
one sat upon it. Their bewildered, stupefied
senses heard the movements and were aware of a
strange, bHnding Hght. Then they knew that the
body they were to guard was no longer within.
That was about as much as they could get to
gether. They hurry to town and tell the chief
priests. Quickly the chief priests gather their
cUque to confer about this new phase. Was there
ever such muHsh obstinacy ? No thought of can
did investigation seems to enter their mind. The
way of covering this new difficulty is after aU easy.
Money wiU buy the soldiers, and they will do as
they are bid. It took a good bit of gold. The
soldiers probably were keen to know how to work
so good a mine. And the story was freely circu-

264 Quiet Talks About Jesus
lated that the body was stolen while the soldiers
slept. Peter has gone down the road from the garden
toward the city after having satisfied HimseU that
Jesus was not in the tomb. He was wondering
what all this meant. John, Ughter of foot, had
hurried ahead to his home in the city, very Hkely
to teU the news to Jesus' mother, his own new
mother. Peter' plods slowly along. There is no
need of haste now. He is thinking, wondering,
thinking. It was stiU early morning, with the
sweet dew on the ground, and the air so stiU.
Down past some big trees maybe he was walking,
deeply absorbed, when — Somebody is by his side.
It is the Master! But we must leave them alone
together. That was a sacred interview, meant
only for Peter.
Made Known in the Breaking of Bread.
The news now quickly spread; the two stories,
that of the soldiers, that of the disciples. Folks
Ustened to the one they preferred. Everybody
was discussing this new startUng appendix to the
crucifixion. A bit later in the day two others were
walking along one of the country roads leading
out of the city, toward a viUage a few miles away.
They jog along slowly as men who are heavy
footed with disappointment. They are intently
absorbed in conversation, eagerly discussing and
questioning about something that clearly puzzled
them. A Stranger, unrecognized, overtakes them and

The Resurrection 265
joins in their conversation. He asks, "What is
this that you are so concerned about?" So ab
sorbed are they with their thoughts, that at His
question they stand stiU, looking sad and unable
for a moment to answer. Where would they be
gin where there was so much ? Then one of them
says, " Do you lodge by yourseff in the city, and
even then do not know the things that have been
going on there ?" The Stranger draws them out.
"What things?" He says. Thus encouraged,
they find reUef in unburdening their hearts. It
was all about Jesus, a man of great power in
word and deed, before God and all the people;
the great cruelty with which the rulers had
secured a sentence of death for Him — and —
crucified — Him.
"We were, however, hoping," they said, "that
He was the One who was about to redeem the
nation. And now it is the third day since these
things occurred. And most surprising word was
brought by certain women that has greatly stirred
us. They went early to the tomb, and did not
find His body, but saw a vision of angels who
positively said that He was aUve. And some of
our party went there and found it true as
the women said. But — they did not see
Him."
Then the Stranger began speaking in a quiet,
earnest way that caught them at once. " O fool
ish men, so slow you are in heart to beheve the
messages of the old prophets! Was it not needful
that the Christ should suffer these very things and

266 Quiet Talks About Jesus
to enter into His glory?" Then He began freely
to quote passages from aU through their sacred
writings. As they walk along Ustening to this
wonderful explanation, which now sounds so sim
ple from this Man's Hps, they come up to their
home in the village. The Stranger seemed in
clined to go on. But they earnestly urge Him to
come in and get some refreshment and stay over
night. He may talk more. They have heard no
such winsome -talk since Jesus was with them.
He yields. And, as they gather over the sim
ple evening meal, the Stranger picks up the loaf,
and looking up repeats the simple grace, and
breaking the loaf reaches the pieces over. But
as their hands go out for the bread, their eyes
turn toward the Stranger's face. Instantly they
are speU-bound — that face — why — it is the Master! !
Then He is not there. And they said to each
other, "Did you ever hear such talking?" "My
heart was burning aU the time He was talking."
"And mine, too." Then they hasten back to the
city. Those miles are so much shorter now! They
go straight to the house where they have been
meeting. "Even So Send I You."
Here were gathered most of the apostles and
several others. Eagerly they were discussing the
exciting news of the day. Some know that Jesus
has risen. Mary Magdalene, with eyes dancing,
says, "I saw Him." But some are fuU of doubt
and questionings. How could it be ? The door

The Resurrection 267
is guarded, for if the frenzy of the national leaders
should spread, they come next. There's a knock
at the door. Cautiously it is opened. Two
dusty but radiant faces appear. "The Lord is
risen indeed," they exclaim. And then they teU
the story of the afternoon and His wondrous ex
planation and of that meal.
As they are talking, all at once — who's that ? —
right in their midst. — It looks Uke Jesus. There
is that face with those unmistakable marks. And
you can see their eyes quickly searching between
the sandal straps. Yes, it looks Uke Him.
But it can't be. Their eyes befool them. It's
been a hard day for them. It must be a spirit.
As they start back, there comes in that voice they
can never forget, the old quiet "Good evening."
— "Peace unto you." Then He holds out His
hands and feet, saying, " Do not be troubled—
it is I Myself — handle Me, and make sure. A
spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that
I have." Then He said, "Have you something
to eat?" and He ate a bit of broiled fish.
Reassured by such simple practical evidence, a
glad peace fiUs their hearts and faces. They talk
together a bit. Then Jesus rising, said again,
"Peace unto you — as the Father hath sent Me,
even so send I you." Then He breathed strongly
upon them, saying in very quiet, solemn tones,
"Receive ye the Holy Spirit — Whosesoever sins
ye forgive they are forgiven. Whosesoever ye
retain they are retained." And again, as they
look, He is not there.

268 Quiet Talks About Jesus
But one man was absent that new Sabbath
evening hour. Thomas simply could not be
heve, and would not, without the most sane, com
mon-sense evidence. He missed much by not
being at that meeting. The next Sabbath eve
ning he is present with the others. Again the
Master comes as before, unexpectedly standing in
their midst, as they talk together about Him. And
now Thomas is fuUy satisfied after his week of
doubting. Some of us folks wiU always be grate
ful for Thomas.
Some time later, there occurs that second won
drous draught of fishes, at the command of the
unrecognized Stranger, ' one morning at the
breaking of the day, and the talk with Peter and
the others as they walk along the old shore of the
sea. And to James, who seems to have been a
leader by dint of a strong personaHty, He appears.
And one day when there was an unusuaUy large
meeting of His foUowers, as many as five hundred,
He came as before and was recognized. And
then at the last upon OUves' top came the good
bye meeting and message.
It is surely worthy of remark that the Bethany
home is not represented at either cross or tomb.
Many of His dear friends are named in connec
tion with both, but not these. Here are some of
those dearest to Him, and to whom He is most
dear. Here is one, a woman, who had discerned
more keenly ahead than any other that He was to
die and why. She had understood the minor
strains of the old Hebrew oratorio as none other.

The Resurrection 269
She had learned at His feet. And here, too, was
one who knew death, and the Ufe beyond, and
then a return again to this Ufe. It was not in
difference that kept them away. They loved ten
derly, and were tenderly loved. Their absence is
surely most significant. Mary's ointment had
already been used. This morning in glad ecstasy
of spirit she and her brother and sister wait. They
know.
Gravity Upward.
Two things stand out very clearly about Jesus'
resurrection. It was not expected by these fol
lowers, but received at first with increduUty and
doubt and stubborn unwilUngness to accept it
without clear undisputable proof. And then that
they were thoroughly satisfied that He was actuaUy
back again with them, with His personal identity
thoroughly estabUshed; so satisfied that their
Uves were wholly controUed by the consciousness
of a risen Jesus. Sacrifice, suffering, torture, and
violent death were yielded to gladly for His sake.
A new morning broke that morning, the
morning of a new day, a new sort of day. That
resurrection day became a new day to them and
to aU Jesus' followers. The old Sabbath day was
a retf-day. God Sabbathed from His work of
creation. This new day is more, it is awcfory-day.
Every new coming of it speUs out Jesus' victory
over sin and death and our victory in Him. The
old Hebrew rest-day came at the week's close.
The new victory-day comes at the week's begin-

270 Quiet Talks About Jesus
ning. With the fine tingle of victory in our spirits
we are ever at the beginning of a new Ufe and new
victory and great things to come.
Did Jesus rise? Or, was He raised? Both
are said of Him. Both are true. He was raised
by the power of the Father. Every bit of His
human Ufe was under the direction and control
of His Father. Every act of His from first to last
was in the strength of the Father. This last act
was so. The Father's vindication of His Son was
seen in the power that raised Him up from out of
the domain of death. He was raised.
Jesus rose from the dead. The action was in
accord with the law of His Hfe. He rose at wiU
by the moral gravity of His character. He had
gone down, now He lets HimseU rebound up.
The language used of His death is very striking.
No one of the four descriptions of the death upon
the cross says that He died. The words com
monly used to describe the death of others are not
used of Jesus. Very different language is used.
Matthew says, "He dismissed His spirit." Mark
and Luke each say, "He breathed out" His Hfe.
John says, "He dehvered up His spirit."
His dying was voluntary. Not only the time of
it and the manner of it, but the fact of it was of
His own choosing. The record never suggests
that death overcame Him. He yielded to it of
His own strong accord. He was not overcome by
death. He could not be, for sin having no hold
within His being, death could have none. Phys
ical death is one of the logical results of the sin

The Resurrection

271

within. Jesus yielded up His spirit. It was a
free, voluntary act. He had explained months
before that so it would be. "I lay down My life
that I may take it again. No man taketh it from
Me, but I lay it down of MyseU. I have the power
to lay it down, and I have the power to take it
again. This commandment I received from My
Father." This being so, the return to Hfe fol
lowed the same voluntary course. Having accom
phshed the purpose in dying, He now recalled His
spirit into the body and rises by His own choice.
Man's true gravity is toward a center upward.
Sin's gravity is toward a center downward. When
an ordinary man, a sinful man, dies, he is over
come by the logical result of the sin in himseU.
He is overcome by the moral gravity downward
of His sin. He has no choice. His own moral
gravity apart from sin is upward. But that is
overbalanced by the downward pull of the sin in
grained in his very being. And this quite apart
from his attitude toward the sin.
In Jesus there was no sin. Being free of it, He
rose at will. " It was not possible that He should
be held by death," for it had no hold upon Him.
His gravity was upward. For a purpose, a great
strong purpose, He yielded to death's embrace.
Now that purpose being achieved, He quietly
lets Himself up toward the natural center of grav
ity of His Hfe. /

272 Quiet Talks About Jesus
The Life Side of Death.
Clearly Jesus' body had undergone changes
through death and resurrection. It is the same
to outer appearance, so far as personal identity is
concerned. The doubting, questioning disciples
handle His person, they know His face, they recog
nize His voice. He eats with them and talks with
them and moves in their midst as before. Even
the doubter, stubborn in his demand for tangible,
physical evidence, is convinced by the feel of his
hands that this is indeed Jesus back again.
Further, He moves about among them unrecog
nized tiU He chooses to be known. Yet this may
have been His power over them rather than any
changed quaUty in His person.
But mark that the Hmitations of space and of
material obstructions are gone after the resurrec
tion. He no longer needs to get that body through
space by physical strength or management, but
seems to go where He wiU by choosing to be there.
He is no longer affected in His movements by the
waUs of a building or other such material obstruc
tion, but comes and goes at wiU. The arrange
ment of the Hnen cloths in the tomb, as marked
so keenly by Peter and John, is significant. They
are found lying as they were when enfolding that
body, as though He had in rising risen up through
them. Clearly the body is the same so far as personal
identity is concerned. But the Umitations are
gone. The control of spirit over body seems fuU,

The Resurrection

273

without any Umitations. As one of us can, in
spirit, be in a place far removed as quick as
thought, so He seems to have been able to be actu
ally, bodily, where He wanted to be as quickly. All
the old powers remain. AU the old Hmitations
are gone, never to return. Jesus had moved over
to the Hfe side of death. He had gone down into
death's domain, given it a death blow, and then
risen up into a [new Eden Hfe, where neither sin
nor death had power to touch. Those forty days
were sample days of the new Eden life on earth.
Jesus has become the leader of a new sort of
Hfe Hved on the earth, mingUng in its activities,
but free of its power, controlled from above. He
asks every one who will to come along after Him.
We can, for He has. It is possible, because of
Him. We may, for He asks us to. It is our
privilege. Let us go.

18

The Ascension: Back Home
Again Until 

Tarry Ye — Go Ye.
One day the disciples and foUowers of Jesus
had met in Jerusalem, when Jesus HimseU came
again in their midst and talked with them quite a
bit. He said particularly that they were not to
leave Jerusalem, but wait there. In a few days
the Holy Spirit would come upon them, and they
were to wait until He came. Then He asked
them to go with Him for a walk. And they walk
together along those old Jerusalem streets, out
the gate and off past Gethsemane toward the top
of OUves over against Bethany. On the way they
ask Him if it was His plan to set up the kingdom
then. He turns their thought away from Pales
tine toward the world, away from times and sea
sons toward telUng a race about HimseU.
And now they are standing together on the
Mount of OUves. There is Peter, the new man
of rock, and John and James, the sons of thunder,
and Httle Scotch Andrew, and the man in whom
is no guile, and the others. But one's eyes quickly
go by these to the Man in the center of the group.
These men stand gazing on that face, Ustening for
274

The Ascension

275

His words. There is a consciousness that the
goodbye word is about to be spoken. Yonder
they can see the bit of a depression and the tops
of some old trees. That is Gethsemane. And
over beyond that is the city wall and the Httle knoll
near by outside. That is Calvary. With memories
such as these suggest they Usten with eyes as well
as ears. "Ye shall receive power," the Master is
saying, "and ye shaU be My witnesses here in
Jerusalem and in aU Judea, your brothers, and
in Samaria, the nearby people you don't Uke, and
unto the uttermost part of the earth, everybody
else." They are held by the words and by that
face. Then He Hfts up His hands in blessing
upon them. And as they gaze they notice He is
rising, His feet are off the earth, then higher and
higher. Then a shining glory cloud sweeps down
out of the blue, and now they see Him no more.
Coming Again.
They continue gazing, held spellbound by the
sight, thinking maybe they may get another look.
Then two men in white apparel are in their midst
and speak to them : " Men of GaUlee, why do you
stand gazing up into the heavens? This Jesus
who was received up into heaven shall so come in
Hke manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven."
That word at once sends them back to the waiting-
place of which the Master had spoken. From
that time they never lost the upward glance, but
they were ever absorbed in obeying the Master's
command.

276 Quiet Talks About Jesus
Jesus' ascension was a continuation of the resur
rection movement. The resurrection was the
beginning of the ascension. Having finished the
task involved in dying, Jesus responded to the
natural upward movement of His Hfe. On His
way up from the tomb to His Father's home and
throne, He tarried awhile on the earth for the sake
of these disciples and leaders, then yielded again
to the upward movement. The two men in white
apparel give the key to the ascension. Jesus wiU
remain above until the next great step in the king
dom plan. Then He will return to carry out in
full the Father's great love-plan for man and for
the earth.
His last act with these men was conducting
them to the Mount of OUves. That is ever to be
the point of outlook for His foUower. Yonder
in full view is Gethsemane and Calvary. FoUow
ing the Hne of His eyes and pointing finger, as the
last word is spoken, leads us ever to the man near
est by, to the uttermost parts of the earth, and to
aU between. FoUowing His disappearing figure
keeps us ever looking upward to HimseU and for
ward to His return.

Study Notes
Analysis and References
The spirit-key to an understanding of God's Word is sur
render of will and life to His mastery. "He that is willing to
do His will will know of the teaching." The mental-key to a
grasp of the contents of that Book is habitual broad reading. It
cannot be too insistently insisted upon that wide reading from
end to end of the Book, and from end to end of the year, is the
simple essential to a clear understanding and a firm grasp of the
Bible. It is the only possible salvation from the piece-meal,
microscopic study of sentences and verses that has been in com
mon use clear out of all proportion. Such disproportionate
study steals away very largely the historical setting, and the
simple meaning in the mind of speaker and writer. Wide read
ing habitually indulged in should come first, and out of that will
naturally grow the closer study. This is the true order. In
giving references it is needful to mark particular verses. Yet
this is to be regretted because of our inveterate habit of reading
only the marked verses instead of getting the sweep of their con
nection. The connection is a very large part of the interpretation
of any passage. The references here are meant to be indices to
the whole passage in connection. They are not meant to be
full, but simply to start one going. They should be supplemented
by others suggested by one's own reading, by marginal refer
ences (those of the American Revision are specially well se
lected), and by concordance and topical text-book. What a
student digs out for himself is in a peculiar sense his own. It
is woven into his fibre. It helps make him the man he comes to
be. Those who may want a course to follow rigidly without
independent study will find these notes disappointing. For
those who want a daily scheme of study the allotment for the

278 Sec. I, Chap. 1
day can be by certain designated pages of reading with the
corresponding paragraphs in the Study Notes. The para
graphing will be found to be in some measure, though not
wholly, a sub-analysis. The American Revision is used here.
I. THE PURPOSE OF JESUS.
1. The Purpose in the Coming op Jesus.
God Spelling Himself out in Jesus: change in the original
language — bother in spelling Jesus out — sticklers for the old
forms — Jesus' new spelling of old words.
Jesus is God following us up: God heart-broken — man's
native air — bad choice affected man's will — the wrong lane —
God following us up.
The Early Eden Picture, Genesis 1:26-31. 2:7-25: un
fallen man — like God — the breath of God in man — a spirit,
infinite, eternal — love — holy — wise — sovereign over creation,
Psalm 8:5-8 — in his own will — summary — God's thought
for man.
Man's Bad Break, Genesis 3. the climax of opportunity —
the tree of choice — the temptation — blended lies — the tempter '»
strategy — the choice made — the immediate result — safety in
shame — the danger of staying in Eden — guarding man's home
— the return, Rev. 2:7. 22:14, ¦*. John 10:10.
Outside the Eden Gate: a costly meal — result in the man
himself — ears and eyes affected — looking without seeing — a
personal test — Isaiah's famous passage, Isaiah 6:9-10, see
Isaiah 42:18, 20, 23. 43:8. 29:10. Jeremiah 5:21. 6:10.
7:26. Ezekiel 12:2. Psalm 69:23. Micah 3:6. Acts 7:51. —
Jesus' use of parables — Jesus' irony — Matthew 13:10-15.
Mark 4:10-12. Luke 8:9-10. See John 12:40. Acts 28:26,
27. Romans 11:8. John 9:39-41 — tongue affected — the
tongue man's index — effect of seeing God — whole mental
process affected — sense of dread — Paul's seven steps down in
mental process, Ephesians 4:17-19 — Jesus the music of God,
the face of God.
Sin's Brood: result in the growth of sin — three stages, flood,
Moses, Paul — Paul's Summary, Romans 1:18-32, see Matthew

Sec. I, Chaps, i, 2 279
15:19. Galatians 5:19-21. 2 Timothy 3:2-5. — Paul's Out
look — a summary of to-day — the conventional cloak — four
great paragraphs — man still a king, Genesis 9:6. r Corin
thians 11:7. James 3:9. — a composite picture — analysis of
sin — the root of sin.
God's Treatment of Sin: "gave them up," Romans 1:24,
26, 28. see Job 8:4. 1 Kings 14:16. Psalms 81:12. Acts
7:42. Romans 9:22 (endured). — the worst thing and the
best — sin's gait — Jesus is God letting sin do its worst upon
Himself. A Bright Gleam of Light: the non-Christian world —
God has no favorites — all know God directly, Romans 1:20,
32. John 1:9 — believing on Jesus — the outside majority —
Peter's statement, Acts 10:34, 35. — Paul's statement, Rom
ans 2:7. — persistent climbers — trusting the unknown Jesus —
the Master's command — to help our brothers — Jesus is God
sacrificing His best.
The Broken Tryst, Genesis 3 :8-9 : God keeping tryst —
man not there — God's search — a lonely God — still calling —
Jesus is God calling man back to the broken tryst.
God's Wooing: direct revelation to all — the inner light,
John 1:9. Acts 17:26-28. Job 12:10. Psalms 139:1-16. —
— through nature, Psalms 19:1-6. — in the daily weave of life,
Acts 17:28. — "The Lord's at the loom" — a special revelation,
Romans 3:2. Deuteronomy 4:8. — in Jesus, Heb. 1:1-3. — the
Book — the mission of the Book, John 20:31. — summary —
chiefly Jesus.
*. The Plan for the Coming of Jesus.
God's Darling, Psalms 8:5-8. — the plan for the new man —
the Hebrew picture by itself — difference between God's plan
and actual events — one purpose through breaking plans — the
original plan — a starting point — getting inside.
Fastening a Tether inside: the longest way around — the
pedigree — the start.
First Touches on the Canvas: the first touch, Genesis
3:15. — three groups of prediction — first group: to Abraham,
Genesis 12:1-3; to Isaac, Genesis 26:1-5; to Jacob, Genesis

280 Sec. I, Chap. 2
28:10-15; through Jacob, Genesis 49:9-11. through Ba
laam, Numbers 24:17-19; through Moses, Deuteronomy
18:15-19, see Matthew 21:11. John 1:21. 6:14. Acts 3:22.
7:37. — second group: David, 2 Samuel 7:16, 18, 19. 23:3-5.
Psalms 2nd, 1 10th. Solomon in 72nd Psalm. Forty-fifth Psalm.
A Full Length Picture in Colors: third group in pro
phetic books — one continuous subject — " day of the Lord,' '
134 times, — Somebody coming — His Person," divine, Isaiah
7:14. 9:6. 33:22. Micah 4:7. 5:2. Haggai 2:9. hu-
man, Isaiah 32:2. Daniel 7:13. manner oj birth, Isaiah 7:14
of native stock, Isaiah 9:6. Ezekiel 29:21. of David's line
Isaiah 9:7. 11:1. 16:5. Jeremiah 23:5. 33:15,17,21,26
Amos 9:11. Zechariah 3:8. 6:12. a branch oj Jehovah
Isaiah 4:2. a King, Isaiah 9:6. 32:1. 33:17. Jeremiah
23:5. Zechariah 6:13. 9:9. called David, Jeremiah 30:9
Ezekiel 37:24, 25. Hosea 3:5. a priest-king, Zechariah 6:13
a preacher, Isaiah 61:1-3. a teacher, Isaiah 9:6 (counsellor)
— the kingdom, Daniel 2:34, 44. Obadiah :2r (Jehovah's).—
the capital, Isaiah 2:3. 4:5. 33:20,21. 59:20. 65:18, 19
Joel 3:16, 17, 20, 21. Micah 4-7, 8. — the presence of God,
Ezekiel 37:27. Joel 3:21. Zechariah 2:10, n. Zephaniah
3:17. — visibly present, Isaiah 4:5, 6. — characteristics, ven
geance, Isaiah 61:2. 63:1—6. Zephaniah 3:19. — great victory,
Zechariah 9:9. — but without force, Isaiah 11:4. Zechariah
9:10. — peace, Isaiah 2:4. 9:6, 7. — established in loving
kindness, Isaiah 16:5. — justice and right, Isaiah 9:7. 16:5.
32:1. Jeremiah 23:5. 33:15. — the poor and meek, Isaiah
11:4, 5. — broken-hearted, poor and imprisoned, Isaiah
61:1-3. — protection from all ills, Isaiah 32:2. — impartiality
in judging even the most weak and obnoxious, Isaiah 42 -.3, 4. —
gradual increase, Isaiah 9:7. 42:4. a great crisis, Zeph
aniah 4:1. Habakkuk 3:1-15. with unexpected suddenness,
Malachi 3:1 — effect upon Israel nationally; Spirit-baptized,
Isaiah 44:2. Ezekiel 37:9-14. 39:29. — never withdrawn,
Isaiah 59:21. — judgments removed, Zephaniah 3:14, 15. —
impurity cleansed, Isaiah 4:4. Malachi 3:2, 3. — possession
of land, Zephaniah 2:7. — capital holy, Joel 3:17. — weakness
gone, Micah 4:6, 7. freedom from enemies, Isaiah 33:18,

Sec. I, Chap. 2 281
19. — Jeremiah 30:8-10. Joel 3:17. Zechariah 14:11. Micah
5:6. — at peace, Isaiah 33:20. Micah 5:5. — leadership,
Isaiah 2:2. Micah 4:1, 3. 5:8. — spiritual leadership, Joel
2:28, 29. — supremacy, etc., Isaiah 60:1-22. ir:io. 2:2.
Micah 4:1, 3. 5:8. Zechariah 2:10. — Jerusalem center,
Isaiah 60:10-14. Zechariah 14:16. effect upon Israel per
sonally; made over new, Ezekiel 11:17-20. 36:25-27.. Jere
miah 31:31-34. Isaiah 4:3.— devotion and openmindedness,
Isaiah 32:3-4. 44:5. — sickness absent, Isaiah 33:24. —
longer lives, Isaiah 65:20. — increase in numbers, Jeremiah
33:22. Ezekiel 37:26. Isaiah 44:4. — no disappointed plans,
Isaiah 65:21-23. Amos 9:14. — fear gone, Micah 4:4. —
thrilled hearts, Isaiah 60:5. effect upon other nations;
to come back to God, Micah 5:3 (see John 10:16). — Spirit
upon all, Joel 2:28. — voluntary coming to Israel for instruc
tion, Isaiah 2:3. Micah 4:2. — earth rilled with knowledge,
Isaiah 11:9. — her influence as the dew, Micah 5:7. — the
only medium, Isaiah 60:12. wondrous blessings shared
with all, Isaiah 42:1, 6, 7. 49:6. 51:4. 61:1. — universal
peace, Micah 4:3-4. Zechariah 9:10. changes in nature;
at Jerusalem, Isaiah 33:21. Joel 3:18 I.e. Zechariah 14:8.
Ezekiel 47:1-5. Zechariah 14:4. — increased light, Isaiah
30:26. — overshadowed by presence of God, Isaiah 60:19
(Presence cloud, Exodus; as sun, Matthew 17:2 with paral
lels; above sun Acts 26:13). — renewed fertility, Ezekiel
36:29, 30. Hosea 2:21. Joel 3:18. Amos 9:13. Zechariah
14:10. Isaiah 4:2. — removal of curse upon earth, Zechariah
14:11. Isaiah 65:17. — the animal creation, Isaiah 11:6-9.
65:25. Hosea 2:18 (see Romans 8:20-22). — without limit,
Isaiah 2:2. 9:7. Daniel 2:44. 7:14. Micah 4:1. 5:4.
Zephaniah 3:20. Zechariah 9:10. Joel 3:20. — a return to
original conditions — characteristics of the coming One — men
tal equipment, Isaiah 11:2. 42:1. 61:1. — personal beauty
and dignity, Isaiah 4:2. 33:17. Daniel 7:14. Micah 5:14.
— unpretentious, Zechariah" 9:9. — direct touch with God,
Isaiah 49:1-3. 50:4. — backed by power of God, etc., Isaiah
42:1, 6. 49:3. 52:13. 53:11- 59:20. Zechariah 3:8. Mal
achi 3:1. — the poor cared for righteously, Isaiah 11:3-5. —
divine insight, Isaiah 11:3.

282 Sec. I, Chaps. 2, 3
Back to Eden: a wild dream — the Hebrew Book's con
ception — Simeon and Anna, Luke 2:25-38.
Strange Dark Shadowings: weird forebodings — acted out,
Joseph and David — Psalms 22. 69:20, 21. Isaiah 50:6, 7.
52:13-53:12. Daniel 9:24-26. Zechariah 11:4-14. 12:10.
13:7. a valley-road to the throne.
3. The Tragic Break in the Plan.
The Jerusalem Climate: the contrasting receptions, Luke
2. the music of heaven, Job 38:6, 7. Luke 2:13, 14. pick
out the choruses of Revelation, the crowning book. — the
after-captivity leaders, see Ezra and Nehemiah — ideals and
ideas — present leaders — Herod — the high priest — the faithful
few, Luke 2:25, 38. 23:51.
The Bethlehem Fog: Matthew 1 and 2. Luke 2. a foggy
shadow- — suspicion of Mary — a stable cradle — murder of
babes — star-students — senate meeting — a troubled city —
flight— Galilee.
The Man Sent Ahead: the growing boy — John's rela
tion to Jesus— trace passages in gospels referring to John.
The Contemptuous Rejection: accepted by individuals,
rejected by nation — John's drawing power — a dramatic
presentation. John 1:19—34. — ominous silence — five satisfied
seekers, John 1:35-51. — cleansing of temple, John 2:13-22. —
first public work, John 2:23-25. — Nicodemus, John 3:1-21. —
helping John, John 3:22, 23. 4:1 with Matthew 3:5-7.
Luke 3:7-14. the dispute about the two men, John 3:25-30
(note American Revision) — John's arrest — effect upon Jesus,
Matthew 4:12-25. — "withdrew."
The Aggressive Rejection: the second stage — Nazareth,
Luke 4:16-30. — seven incidents, i.e. (1) healing at pool of
Bethesda, John 5:1-47. (2) forgiving and healing palsied
man, Matthew 9:2-8 with parallels. (3) criticizing Jesus'
personal conduct, Matthew 9:10-17 with parallels. (4) grain
fields on the Sabbath, Matthew 12:1-8 with parallels. (5)
healing whithered hand, Matthew 12:9-14 with parallels. —
second "withdrew," Mark 3:7-12 with parallels. (6) charge
of having an unclean spirit, Mark 3:20-30 with parallels.

Sec. I, Chap. 3 283
(7) interruption by his mother, Matthew 12:46-50 with
parallels. — the murder of John, Matthew 14:1-12 with
parallels. — third "withdrew," Matthew 14:13 with paral
lels. — staying in Galilee during fourth Passover, John 6:4, 5.
The Murderous Rejection: a fugitive from Judea, John
7:1. — fresh attack by southern leaders, Matthew 15:1-20
with parallel in Mark.— fourth "withdrew" — outside na
tional Unes, Matthew, 15:21 with parallel in Mark. —
return to Sea of Galilee and request for sign, Matthew 15:29-
16:4 with parallel in Mark. — Feast of Tabernacles, John 7:
2-8:59. — the blind man cured, John 9:1-40. — Transfigura
tion, Matthew 17:1-8 with parallels. — the beginning of the
last journey, Luke 9:51. Mark 10:1, 32. Matthew 19:1. —
the Seventy, Luke 10:1-17. — getting nearer to Jerusalem,
divorce question, Mark 10:2-12. Matthew 19:3-12. —
Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37. Beelzebub, "vehemently,''
Luke 11. fresh tilt over Sabbath question, Luke 13:10-17. —
cunning attempt to get Him into Judea, Luke 13:31. — Feast
of Dedication, John 10:22-40. — Lazarus, John 11:1-46. for
mal decision against Him, John 11:47-53. a fugitive, John
11:57. no more openly, John 11:54. crowding pilgrims,
John 11:55, 56. Lazarus again, John 12:9-11. the last
week; triumphal entry, Matthew 21:1-17 with parallels,
daily visits and return to Olivet, Luke 21:37-38; cleansing
temple, Matthew 21:12-17 with parallels; duel of question
ings, Matthew 22. Mark 11:27-12:34. Luke 20:1-44;
His terrific arraignment, Matthew 23:1-39 with parallels;
Greeks, John 12:20-36. Bethany feast, Matthew 26:6-13
with parallels, Judas, Matthew 26:14-16 with parallels;
with the inner circle, Matthew 26:17-46 with parallels.
Suffering the Birih-pains of a New Life: why did Jesus
die? — God's plan of atonement, Leviticus 1:3-9- — Paul's
statement in effect, Galatians 2 :2c — Jesus' dying does not fit
into Hebrew ritual — standpoint of Hebrews — what God coun
selled, Acts 2:23. — this affects only the form not the virtue of
Jesus' death — preaching of Acts, 2:14-36, 38, 39. 3:12-26.
4:8-12. 5 =29-32, and on. first church council, Acts 15:13-18
with Amos 9:11-12. — the superlative of hate — Jesus' death

284 Sec. I, Chaps. 3, 4
voluntary, John 10:17, 18. — ten attempts before the cross;
three to kill at once, Luke 4:30. John 8:59. 10:31. other
attempts, Matthew 12:14. John 5:18. 7:1, 30, 32. 10:39.
11:53. Jesus' own explanation: — the temple, John 2:19.
lifted up, 3:15. Matthew 9:15 with parallels. His flesh,
John 6:53-57. with Jesus' own interpretation, good Shep
herd, John 10:11; for the sheep, :is; other sheep, :i6; take
it again, :i7; of Myself, :i8. cross, Matthew 10:38 with
parallels. Jonah, Matthew 12:39, 40. 16:4 with parallel
in Luke. Greeks, John 12:24-33. the Father's command,
John 14:31. for friends, John 15:13. sanctified, John
17:19. the Father's cup, John 18:11. John's comment,
John 12:47-52. — the necessity for dying — a step in a wider
plan — for the nation — wholly voluntary — six elements in a
perfect sacrifice — Jesus alone is a perfect sacrifice — Paul's
comment, Romans 3:26. — God's master-stroke — faith — He
brew heathen and Christian grouped.
4. Some Surprising Results of the Break.
The Surprised Jew: a clash of wills — thousands of be
Ueving Jews — the church displacing kingdom — two-fold
division of men formerly — now three-fold — church different
in organization from kingdom — the Baptist puzzled — Jesus
did not fill out Hebrew prophecy — two characteristics, personal
and official — personal details fulfilled — official not because of
rejection — out of situation grew four gospels — Mark — Mat
thew's the gap gospel — Paul's audiences — Luke's gospel —
these three tell of rejection mainly — John's gospel — the order
of the gospels in canon.
The Surprised Church: God holds to His plan — mixed
ideas of kingdom and church — a handy principle of in
terpretation — one law consistently apphed — the church to
fulfil its mission and go — the kingdom simply retarded,
yet to come — the plan enriched — shding scale of fulfil
ment — the King must come — even this in Hebrew pict
ure, Zechariah 12:10. New Testament teaching. Peter,
Acts 3:21. — keeping truth in proportion — the gospel of the
kingdom — Paul, 1 Thessalonians 1:10. 2:19. 3:13. 4:13-
18. 5:10-23. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. 2:1-9. * Cor-

Sec. I, Chap. 4. Sec. II, Chaps. 1, 2 285
inthians 1:7, 8. 3:13. 5:5. 15:23, 25, 51, 52. 16:22.
2 Corinthians 1:14. 5:2-4. Romans 8:18, 19, 23. 11:12-
29. 13:11, 12. 16:20. Colossians 3:4. Ephesians 1:10,
14, 18. 4-4, 30. 5:27. Philippians 1:6, 10. 2:16. 3:20.
4:5. 1 Timothy 1:1 (note Paul's use of "hope" throughout).
6:14: Titus 2:13. 2 Timothy 1:12, 18. 2:12. 4:1, 8. —
The book of Revelation — the coming surprise.
The Surprising Jew: greatest surprise — for aU — the puzzle
of history — divinely preserved — the keystone of the coming
kingdom — Jesus the spirit magnet for Jew and all.
II. THE PERSON OF JESUS.
1. The Human Jesus.
God's meaning of "Human": man's fellow — two mean
ings of word human — original meaning — natural limitations.
The Hurt oj sin: sin's added Umitations.
Our Fellow: Jesus truly human — up to first standard —
His insistence — perfect in His humanness — fellowship in sin's
Umitations — hungry, Matthew 16:5. John 4:6-8. — tired,
John 4:6. Mark 4:38. — poverty, Matthew 13:55. Mark
6:3. — hard toil, John 19:25-27. — homeless, Luke 4:16-30.
Matthew 8:20. Luke 9:58. — discipline of waiting.
There's More of God since Jesus Went Back: the Nazareth
home — feUowship with His brothers — "In the shop of Naza
reth" — a Man on the throne.
*. The Divine Jesus.
Jehovah-Jesus: John 1:1-18. the intimacy of John,
John 13:23. 19:26. 20:2. 21:7,-20. "with Jesus," John
18:15. — John writes of Jesus — when he wrote — getting the
range — his Uterary style — the beginning — the Word — this was
Jesus — the tragic tone.
God's Spokesman: the Creator was Jehovah — Jehovah is
Jesus — the Spokesman — Old Testament revelations, Adam,
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the elders
of Israel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, — Whom these saw — various ways
of speaking— John's Gospel a battlefield— finding the Man.

286 Sec. II, Chaps. 2,3. SedII,Chap. 1
Whom Moses Saw: Jesus' own standpoint — "down from
heaven," John 3:13, 31. 6:38. 8:42. would go back again,
John 6:62. John 16:5, 10. 13:1. come on an errand, then
going back, John 16:28 13:3. He only had seen the Father,
John 6:46. only begotten Son, John 3:16, 18. His own
Father, John 5:17, 18. 10:32-33. 19:7. — Jesus' answer to
Jews' objection, John 5:19-47. — "He wrote of Me," the true
meaning — I and the Father one, John 10:30. — the Father in
Me, John 10:38. the name Father in Old Testament, -t Sam
uel 7:14. 1 Chronicles 17:13. 22:10. Psalm 68:5. 89:26.
103:13. Isaiah 63:16. 64:8. Jeremiah 3:4, 19. Malachi 3:17. —
Jehovah the common name — trace Jesus' use of Father
about 180 times — manna, John 6:32.
Jesus is God Wooing Man: "Abraham — saw and was
glad," John 8:33-59 — supposed meanings — natural mean
ing — " I am" — Jesus is Jehovah come Himself to woo man.
3. The Winsome Jesus.
The Face of Jesus: Jesus d ew crowds, men, women,
children, bad people, enemies — His personaUty — face— im
press of experiences — the glory of God in that face, 2 Corin
thians 4:6. Hebrews 1:3.
The Music oj God in the Voice of Jesus: the eye — Jesus'
eyes, Luke 4:16-30. John 8:59. 10:31. 7:32, 45, 46. 18:6.
Mark 10:32. 9:36. 10:13-16. Luke 19:48. — His voice,
Matthew 26:30. personal touch, Matthew 8:3, 15. 9:29.
17:7. 20:34. Mark 1:41. 7:33. Luke 5:13. 22:51. (John
14:16-20). His presence irresistible. Moses' request, Exo
dus 33:18. Jesus draws men — yielding to His power.
III. THE GREAT EXPERIENCES OF JESUS' LIFE.
1. The Jordan: The Decisive Start. Matthew 3:13-17.
Mark 1:9-11. Luke 3:21-22.
The Anvil of Experience: knowledge only through -ex
perience — the Fourth, Daniel 3:25. — three Hebrews, Daniel
3. — Babylonian premier, Daniel 6:16-23. — George Mueller —
Jesus made perfect through experience, Hebrews 2:10. 5:8,
9. 7:28, I.e. — all our experiences, Hebrews 2:14-18. Phil-

Sec. Ill, Chaps, i, 2 287
ippians 2:7. Hebrews 4:15, except through sin, Hebrews
4:15, I.e. 7.26. 2 Corinthians 5:21, f.c. 1 Peter 2:22.
1 John 3:5, I.e. — Jesus' suffering, Philippians 2:6-8. He
brews 2:9, 17, 18. 4:15. His obedience, Luke 2:51. Mat
thew 26:39. J°hn 10:18. 14:31. Philippians 2:8. Ro
mans 5:19. Hebrews 5:8. knowledge through experience-
common experiences— mountain peaks — the tragic in each.
Our Brother: Jesus coming for baptism — John's objec
tion — why baptized — getting in touch — the point of contact —
choosing for Himself the Father's choice — the dangers — His
strong purpose — the Father's approval — three times the
voice, here, transfiguration, Matthew 17:5. Mark 9:7.
Luke 9:35. Greeks, John 12:28. the decisive start.
2. The Wilderness: Temptation. Matthew 4:1-11.
Mark 1:12, 13. Luke 4:1-13.
The University of Arabia: Jesus' naturalness — the Spirit's
presence — intensity, Luke 2:45-51.- — a true perspective —
the temptation's path — sin's path — John's grouping, 1 John
2:16. — the Spirit's plan — why — the devil's weakness — the
Spirit's leading — a wilderness for every God-used man,
Moses, EUjah, Paul.
Earth's Ugliest, Deepest Scar: Jesus the only one led up
to be tempted — the wilderness — its history, Genesis 13:10-13.
18:16-19:38. — Jesus really tempted — no wrong here in inner
response — every temptation — by the devil.
Waiting the Father's Word: the tempter's skill — acting
divinely — a stone for hunger — not wrong in itself — recog
nizing temptation — "man" — waiting the Father's word — the
trained inner ear — not our power but God's through our
obedience. Love never tests: a more agreeable setting — touching
tender chords — the Teligious temptation — only through con
sent — bad scripture quoting, Psalm 91 — a helpful dust-cloth — ¦
using power only to help — a true quotation, Deuteronomy
6:16. The Devil acknowledges the King: a dazzUng scene — an
alyzing the tempter's proposition — a common cunning trap

3-

288 Sect III, Chaps. 2, 3, 4
— Jesus' kingly conduct — the devil obeys Him — but to re
turn — a coward — our safety in Jesus — lead us not into temp
tation. The Transfiguration: An Emergency Measure.
Matthew 16:28-17:1-8. Mark 9:1-8. Luke 9:27-36.
God in Sore Straits: the darkest hour save one, fugitive,
John 7:1. ban, John 9:22, 34. pushing, Matthew 15:1.
Mark 7:1. — the danger zone, "withdrew," Matthew 4:12.
12:15. I4:i3- rS:al- Tabernacles, John 7:32. 8:59. —
GaUleans desert, John 6:60-66. — the inner circle infected,
John 6:67-71. — God needs men.
Fire and anvil for Leaders: mental strength — seasoned
leadership — Simon and Peter.
An Irresistible Plan: alone with the twelve — the changed
plan, Matthew 16:18-21. — Peter's stupid boldness, Matthew
16:22, with Mark 8:32. — the best available stuff — to see the
Jesus within — getting Paul, Acts 9:1-9. 22:6-11. 26:12-18.
The Glory of that Light: while praying — changed from
within — absorbed with Jesus' master-stroke — the jarring
human note — the glory obscured — through an opened door —
the kingdom.
A Vision oj Jesus: gleams of Ught — the purpose se
cured, John 20:19, 24> 26-29. — an indeUble impress, John
1:14. 12:41. Mark 9:3 with 1 Peter 1:16-17. Acts 12:2. —
changed while looking, Acts 22:11. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
4. Gethsemane: The Strange, Lone Struggle. Mat
thew 26:36-46. Mark 14:32-42. Luke 22:39-46.
Hebrews 5 17.
The Pathway in: messengers ahead — Jesus felt the cross
drawing near — the look of His face, Luke 9:51-55. — His
disciples afraid, Mark 10:32. — indignation against sin, John
II:33> 3^- marginal reading American Revision. — the Greeks,
John 12:20-28.
The Climax oj Suffering: the darkest shadow — why the

Sec. Ill, Chaps. 4, 5 289
struggle is strange — shock of extremes — His purpose in
yielding — separation from the Father — Matthew 27:46.
Mark 15:34 margin. — the superlative degree of suffering.
Alone: a full evening, Matthew 26:17-19 with parallels.
John, chapters 13 to 17. — for prayer — on knees and face —
the changed prayer — ready for the worst.
5. Calvary: Victory. Matthew 26:47-27:61. Mark 14:
43-15:47. Luke 22:47-23:56. John 18:1-19:42.
Yielding to Arrest: the betrayal — protecting the disciples
— checking Peter's violence — the arrest — the disciples forsake
Him — except two, John 18:15, J6-
The Real Jewish Ruler: Annas the intriguer — an unre-
buked insult — the case settled at once — before Caiaphas —
difficulty in fixing a charge — the dramatic question and
solemn answer — second condemnation — gross insults.
Held Steady by Great Love: Peter gains entrance through
John, John 18:16. — the stammering denial — the bolder —
with oaths and curses — Jesus' look — Peter's tears.
An Obstinate Roman: before the senate — trying to make
a case — the formal condemnation — before Pilate — an un
expected set-back — alone with Pilate — acquitted — shriU pro
tests — off to Herod.
A Savage Duel: before Herod — no word for him — more
insults — a second acquittal — back to Pilate — his character —
his summing up — their protests — his wife's message — Bar
abbas or Jesus — Pilate weakening — the scourging and coarse
mocking — Pilate's surprise — a new charge — the governor
startled — alone again with Pilate — the use of Caesar's name —
renunciation of national hopes — the defeated governor's
small revenge — the duel over.
Victory: out to Calvary — the pitying women — crucified —
praying for the soldiers — pitching dice for His clothes — the
inscription — coarse taunts and jests — winning a man at the
very last — providing for His mother the darkness — the
agonizing cry — the shout of victory.
19

290 Sec. Ill, Chaps. 6, 7
6. The Resurrection: Gravity Upward. Matthew 28:
1-15. Mark 16:1-8. Luke 24:1-49. John 20:1-
21:25. 1 Corinthians 15:4-7.
A New Morning: early visit to the tomb— Mary Mag
dalene's alarmed caU for Peter — the message of the angels —
Peter and John come — another group of women get an an
gelic message.
Jesus seeking out Peter: Mary Magdalene meets Jesus —
He meets other women — the soldiers' story — alone with Peter.
Made Known in the Breaking oj Bread: the Emmaus
travellers — the Stranger's explanation — the evening meal —
the Master!
Even so Send I you: the meeting in Jerusalem — the Mas
ter's unexpected presence — the sure proofs — breathing on
them — Thomas' stubborn doubts — a week later — a second
great catch of fish — to James — to five hundred — on OUves'
top — the Bethany home not represented.
Gravity Upward: the resurrection not expected — fuUy as
sured — the new victory-day — Jesus was raised — He rose at
will — His dying voluntary, so the rising — man's true gravity —
sin's gravity — Jesus' gravity upward.
The Life Side of Death: bodily changes in Jesus — personal
identity unchanged — Umitations gone — the Leader of a new
sort of Ufe.
7. The Ascension: Back Home Again Unto. 
Tarry ye — Go ye: the Jerusalem meeting — the walk to
OUves — not Palestine only, but a world — the last word — up
ward — seen no more.
Coming again: gazing upward, Acts 1:10, 11. — a continu
ation upward — the OUvet outlook.

1142