ms vox CLAMANTIS. THE GIFT OF .(%^^^^^-, -, 3 >1 3 (L) o f>1 c e T3 ' 0) C3 c o a. 3 t^ ID T3 0! ni j:: ^ 3 'o _c 0) o 6 >, ."' ni 1 o ■i-i ■""' o ni T3 >, •4-1 n! c >-, (U H nJ a >1 J^ u, — ] a la 3 o a B o >1 XI in ni m "3 O ■4-J (U u U ;_ r— tn ^H ri P (U o O s o ^ Ci >1 S CJ o c U '$ 6 3 I20 THE SON OF MAN. watch, and their prompt measures to prevent its gaining ground. Hence also the heart-broken words of the two sad travellers to Emraaus — " But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel." How could they believe that he could be God-sent when God had permitted him to come under the curse pronounced on every one who hangs on a tree ? 2. At the very beginning of his ministry a most significant act occurred. We have seen the uncom- promising character of John Baptist and his call to repentance. Jesus began his ministry with the same call : " The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand ; repent and believe in the good news." But as his training had been different, so also was the outward form of his ministry. John had grown up in the deserts : Jesus was bred in Nazareth. And now the third day after John had pointed him out, he was a guest at a wedding feast near his own home, at which the wine began to run short. His mother pointed this out to Jesus. Doubtless the tenderest sympathy existed between them, for in spite of the rough answer Mary receives, she turns to the servants of the house and says to them, '' What- soever he saith unto you do it." Accordingly, when Jesus said, " Fill the water-pots with water," they filled them up to the brim, doubtless wondering at the strange order from a guest. But the guest sat apparently indifferent to what they were doing until THE SON OF MAN. 121 the water-pots were full. Then he turned to them again and said : " Draw out now, and bear to the master of the ceremonies." And doubtless their wonder was great, to draw out better wine than any which had yet been offered to the guests from the pots they had filled just before with water.* This we are told was the beginning of his ministry, and a worthy beginning was it for him who delighted to call himself son of man. 3. What a contrast is here to John's ministry ! Yet the two mutually supported and complemented each other. Accordingly afterwards we find Jesus drawing attention to the contrast, and reproaching the Jews with childish inconsistency. Both preached the same gospel of repentance. John did no miracle, he came neither eating nor drinking, i.e., he paid no attention to these things, but drew such sustenance as he needed from the desert in which he lived, and the Jews said, " He hath a devil ! " Jesus came eating * " The conscious water knew its Lord and blushed," says a favourite Christian poet, but this hardly seems more than superficial. Chemists but a few years ago would have said new elements must be imported into the jars before water could become wine. The most recent science, however, inclines to believe that all the elements are reducible to one, hydrogen. If this be so, then all that would be necessary for such a transformation would be a rearrangement of the atoms contained in the water-pots. The heaven, yea the heavens, are the Lord's : but the earth hath he given to the cliildren of men. The heart of the son of man endured not that the joy of the wedding feast should be checked, and in response to the need of his heart, the particles of a small portion of his inheritance re-arranged themselves, and the water became wine. Such was his lordship over dead matter. Shall human hearts be less tractable ? 122 THE SON OF MAN. and drinking : he was often a guest at their feasts and lived among the people, who often so pressed upon him that he had no leisure for his meals. He was accessible to all, gracious and friendly to all who sought his help, and the help he gave was often miraculous, and they said, " Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners." What pretence could such inconsistency make to wisdom ? They were like children sitting in the market-place and saying, " We have piped to you and you have not danced ; we have mourned to you and you have not wept.'' Did they expect the Almighty to respond to their whims and fancies, to conform himself to their childish stature ? * 4. Yet another reference to John's ministry may be inserted here. A time came when the chief priests and the elders came to Jesus as He taught in the temple and asked him, as they had asked John before, " By what authority doest thou these things ? and who gave thee this authority ? " And his answer is characteristic of him, and shows his strength of character and his method of appealing to the con- sciences of men. He is not overawed by the weight and dignity of the questioners, but treats them with equal dignity and courtesy, not denying their right to question his authority, nor yet for a moment conceding an atom of that authority. " I also will * He that can please nobody is not so much to be pitied as he whom nobody can please. THE SON OF MAN. 123 ask you one thing, which if ye will tell me, I in like wise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John whence was it ? From heaven or of men ? " See the dilemma in which they were placed. They came as the leaders of the people, the expounders of the law, to whom the people must look for guidance in such a question. Jesus receives them as such, and asks them of John's baptism. But they had never instructed the people concerning John's baptism, even if they had formed an opinion. Nor did they dare to pronounce upon it now. But the decision concerning John's baptism involved the answer to their present question, and they were compelled to retire in manifest defeat. 5. This was no isolated instance. Over and over again his enemies sought to entangle him in his talk, or to force him into a position of disadvantage, but they could never do so. The effortless ease with which he turns aside the malice of the most learned and powerful Jews is apt to make us underrate the power, and readiness, and resource involved, just as the ease of a practised athlete disguises the real difficulty of his efforts. Yet this was the one charac- teristic which drew upon him the enmity of the influential among the Jews ; and Pontius Pilate seems to be almost the only powerful man who was moved by it, not to envy but to admiration. 6. It was foretold of him : " He shall not cry, nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the 124 THE SON OF MAN. street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench : he shall bring forth judgment unto truth." There is one incident which illustrates this prophecy wonderfully, as well as the hatred and persecution of the chief Jews. Doubtless the prophecy has a larger interpretation than is put upon it here. Yet, if it was to be true in great things, it must be true equally in small. The bruised reed, the smoking flax, may be identified with the whole human race, or with the Jewish nation. In this particular connection, however, it must be taken to mean the Scribes and Pharisees who sat in Moses' seat, and should have been invested with the majesty and power of the law given from Sinai. These should have been the first at the cradle of the infant Jesus, yet they were troubled with Herod by the approach of the Magi. They should have recognised John and have proclaimed him — as he could not pro- claim himself — as the Elias. Had they done so, or had they even gone so far as the multitude did, in recognising his ministry and accepting his baptism, they would have been ready to receive and rejoice in the ministry of the greater one who came after him. 7. Instead of this they stooped to pursue the pro- mised Deliverer with their envy, to persecute him with their spite, and even to degrade their own man- hood to get an advantage of him — as in the incident which we proceed to examine. Only let it be re- membered that, if they had fallen from their dignity. THE SON OF MAN. 125 the very intensity of their hatred and persecution rendered it most formidable. So formidable indeed was it in the end that it prevailed over the power of Rome, and compelled her Governor, against his will and judgment, to stoop to condemn an innocent man and act as his executioner on behalf of the Jews. Yet this powerful organised enmity, which in three hours overcame Pontius Pilate and compelled him unwilhngly to pass the sentence of execution, was endured for years by the solitary prophet of Naza- reth — solitary because unprotected, at times almost deserted, by His most ardent disciples. 8. The incident chosen well illustrates the malig- nity of these persecutors; They knew well how compassionate the prophet was, how keenly he sym- pathised with the weak and suffering : so that even unconsciously to himself virtue flowed out of him to their assistance, as when the woman with the issue of blood was healed merely by touching the hem of his garment. Well, they arranged to trade upon this noble weakness, and thought to prevail through it. They brought to him, as he taught in the temple, a woman taken in adultery, proclaiming aloud her crime, saying she was taken in the very act ! — " Now Moses in the law commanded that such should be stoned ; but what sayest thou ? " 9. What could be said to men capable of such an act ? The accusers were quite right in thinking he 126 THE SON OF MAN. would wish both to deliver the woman and to respect the law. Had he not said, " I came not to destroy but to fulfil ! " Yet how was the woman to be saved and the law justified ? Was he then to outrage his own sense of compassion by condemning the woman, and so endorse the brutal conduct of her accusers ? Or was he, on the other hand, to set himself above Moses and condemn God's law ? Well might he, while inculcating obedience to the Scribes and Phari- sees, as sitting in Moses' seat, warn his disciples not to do after their works. We take time to realise all the difficulty of the situation. Here was the woman, a bruised reed indeed, which might be broken by the least hesitation on the prophet's part. Here was smoking flax, men zealous to vindicate Moses' law — against whom ? Against a frail woman who was in their power, and whom they had not the decency to stone at once, if it was to be done at all ? Or were they anxious to vindicate it against the prophet whom they felt to be so infinitely superior to themselves ? See the burning zeal for Moses' law by which they were actuated. Was it possible to regard it even as smoking flax ? Yet Jesus so treated it, and extin- guished it not. He performed the impossible, and how ? lo. When the repulsive deputation came up with their unfortunate captive, he was teaching in the temple. They came up and put the case before him. But he treated them with manifest contempt, or, THE SON OF MAN. 127 rather, with dignified forbearance. He turned from them, and, stooping down, wrote upon the ground as though he heard them not. There must have been no small stir in the group who were listening to his teaching, and in that pause doubtless many left the place. Meanwhile these terrible zealots for Moses' law had time for reflection and to realise the position in which they stood. The prophet's know- ledge of human nature was not deceived : brutal as their action had been, even these men were not in- capable of better things. But they had not yet come to their senses ; probably they thought that their enterprise was successful, and that it was shame for the unfortunate woman that silenced him. They were not deceived as to his sentiments towards the woman ; but they had yet to learn that he had a shame on their account, and to learn to feel that shame and to see in it a nobler spirit than their present attitude was capable of : so they continued asking him. II. At last he stood up and faced them; and who shall tell what his face, nay, his whole attitude and gesture, spoke to their hearts ? And then the majestic rebuke of that dignified forbearance, which reached even their sin against all good taste and genuine human feeling which Moses' law had been powerless to provide for 1 " He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her ! " The burden of action is now cast upon them ; and again 128 THE SON OF MAN. the prophet stooped down, and wrote upon the ground, as who should say, " Have I said enough, or do you require more to awake you to a sense of manhood, and to a remembrance that you had mothers." But no more was needed. The judge had spoken and said, " Let the law take its course, and be you the executioners, if indeed you are so zealous for its letter." No more question was possible. The Mosaic law demanded not only the woman's death, but in the first place that of the more guilty man. By their own showing they had let the chief offender go. Moreover, it demanded that the hand of the accuser should be first upon the guilty parties in cases of this penalty, exemplified by the action of the witnesses at the execution of Stephen, who stripped for the pur- pose of the exertion demanded of them, and gave their outer garments into the custody of a young man named Saul, who thereby became identified with their action, and only second to the chief actors themselves. 12. However, nothing further was needed. While the prophet wrote on the ground, the accusers, one by one, left the place. The law was vindicated by the prophet, and they were brought to a better mind. Even their zeal for Moses' law and their anxiety to see how this prophet — if such indeed he were — would act in such a case were justified. The smoking flax was not quenched, rather were they made to feel what a miserable pretence was the zeal for Moses THE SON OF MAN. 129 which could take such a form — and now for the bruised reed ! How could that woman face her fellows again ? Heavy at best must be her load, at least for a time. But the prophet is not at a loss even here. He rises and turns to her as if in astonishment. " Woman, where are those thine accusers ? Hath no man condemned thee ? " Fancy the situation : she had been overwhelmed with shame and apparently lost under that cruel action, but lo ! her accusers, who a few minutes before were hauling her along proclaiming her sin aloud, have been trans- formed into her justifiers. They have been made to say, if not that they are at least equally guilty, yet that they cannot, and will not, lift a finger against her. And the prophet himself too, who was pro- minent before men at that time, what does he say ? " Neither do I condemn thee : go and sin no more." She had been brought to trial under the worst possible conditions before the most severe tribunal, and she has found in the prophet a greater than Moses ; he has shamed her accusers and made them bear witness against themselves, while the prophet's own spotless purity has bidden her depart uncondemned and in peace. And will not all who read the narrative endorse his action, and say he brought forth judg- ment unto truth ? 13. Such, then, was this prophet of Nazareth. Such his readiness of resource in the presence of the bitterest and most unscrupulous enemies ! Sur- I 130 THE SON OF MAN. rounded by such men as these He taught daily in the temple, even up to the very end of his ministry, and so comported himself that, when he was be- trayed into their power, they could not, even with the aid of false witnesses, bring any accusation against him. CHAPTER V. THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. I. After attending the marriage in Cana, he went down to Capernaum and began his ministry, teaching in their synagogues, and bidding them to repent, because the kingdom of heaven was at hand ; or, as it is elsewhere stated, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease * among the people. If we would know his own account of his mission, we may find it recorded in his own words : " And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and entered according to his custom on the sabbath day into the synagogue, and stood up to read. And there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah, and he opened the book and found the place where it is written : ' The spirit of the Lord is upon me, by which he has anointed me to preach t good tidings to the poor ! He has sent me to proclaim deliverance to the captives, J recovery of sight to the * Disease. This word suggests to most of us the repulsive side of infirmity, the outward marlis rather than the essence. Yet etymolpgi- cally it is almost synonymous with discomfort, + The word indicates a messenger of good. J The word means prisoners of war captured with tlie spear. 132 THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. blind, to set the bruised at liberty, to proclaim * the acceptable t year of the Lord ; ' and he shut the book and gave it to the attendant, and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon him, and he began to say to them : ' To-day is this Scripture fulfilled, fulfilled in your ears.' And all bore him witness, and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, 'Is not this Joseph's son?'" 2. We are of course not to suppose that he said only what is recorded in the above account. The opening words only of his discourse are given, and then the narrative goes on to describe the efiect upon his hearers. Instead of rejoicing that their village should have produced one capable of such things, they argued mentally that he could not be any one remarkable because his parents were familiar fellow-villagers. He then proceeded to make an un- mistakable claim to prophetic power and authority. At this they were so incensed that they rose up and thrust him out of their city, with the intention of casting him from the brow of the hill on which their city was built. 3. Such is the natural outcome of unbelief. Man * The word denotes the office of a herald. + This word is very difficult to render in English. It may be ren- dered in Latin nearly by accipiendus, " the year to be received," or, as we say, "the year of grace." THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. 133 believes with the heart, and to true discernment apparent obstacles offer no difficulty. There was one man, an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile, to whom the same objection occurred. This man's brother came and told him : " We have found him of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets wrote, Jesus Josephson, of Nazareth." Nathanael says, " Can anything good come out of Nazareth ? " His brother said, " Come and see." Accordingly Na- thanael went, and was received by the prophet with words of the heartiest approbation. 4. Shortly after this he went up to Jerusalem to the Passover. This was the first feast he attended after the commencement of his prophetic work, and he did what must have appeared a strange thing. He turned out of the temple the dealers in oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money. These men, be it understood, were not in the temple itself, but in the outer courts ; they in no way in- terfered with the due performance of the ritual, but rather assisted it ; nevertheless their presence excited his righteous indignation and roused him to action as nothing else ever did, and when they did not remove their wares at his bidding, he plaited a scourge of small cords and drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overthrew the tables, and said even to the dove-merchants : " Take these things hence ; make not my Father's house a house 134 THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. of merchandise." This action seldom receives the attention it deserves. It was not a little singular, for it is not to be supposed that these dealers were engaged in anything usually counted even doubtful. Their offence was that they made God's house a house of merchandise, even in its outer courts. How strange must have appeared that consuming zeal which burnt so hotly against these honest traders — as they doubtless esteemed themselves — in one whose anger it seemed impossible to provoke. And what an exhibition of power ! The plaiting of the scourge was deliberate, and doubtless intended to give the traders at once a plain intimation of the prophet's intention, and time to remove their wares in an orderly manner. And how great must have been the authority of his manner, which made these traders submit to be driven out by a single man ! It is not to be supposed that physical force was the means employed for their expulsion, though it was not wanting as an expression of the prophet's zeal, at least when the tables of the money-changers were upset and their money strewed about the ground. None who know the prophet of Nazareth as he is represented in the gospels, could imagine him capable of hasty and undignified action, nor would such action have produced the. desired effect. Yet he who came to bear witness to the truth would not plait a scourge unless its use were appropriate, though the feebleness of the implement indicated that nothing more violent was needed. These traders were not THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. 135 prepared to offer any strenuous resistance to zeal like the prophet's, which carried a power of its own, just as his love of humanity carried a virtue to heal their sicknesses, and his hatred of evil a power to expel devils. What power that zeal carried in its manifestation is evident from the effect it produced on all who were there. The traders submitted to expulsion. His disciples remembered how it was written : " The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." The Jews came and asked him : " What sign do you show us, since you do these things ? " The prophet's answer to this question shows us the secret of that holy indignation : " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The beloved disciple gives us the key : he spoke of the temple of his body; the prophet's thought passed from the material temple, which was his Father's house, to the living temple of his own body, which he ever kept with all the power of his being, and with what conflict none can tell, free from all touch of defilement. The Jews were answered ; the power which drove the traders out of the temple held them too in check, for they contented themselves with saying : " This temple took forty-six years to build, and will you raise it in three days ? " 5. To these early days belongs the sermon on the mount. Great multitudes followed him, and seeing this he went up into the high ground and sat down, and those who were anxious to hear him came up, 136 THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: " Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the king- dom of the heavens. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." Here we find him preaching the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, which John had taught the Jews to believe at hand, and which he himself had announced at the opening of his ministry. Let us see these beatitudes, as they are called, and what they mean. They are outwardly paradoxes. Those whom the prophet pronounces blessed are the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry and thirsty. Why is this ? The first effect on his hearers would be one of astonishment. Why does he pronounce the poor blessed ? Am I poor in spirit ? — such would be the thoughts of those who heard his opening words. And what would be the answer ? A superficial man would be repelled, but even so he might be stirred up to curiosity. The singular words would be apt to recur to him if he had any depth of character, and some time or other he would be likely to feel his poverty and helpless- ness, and so be a recipient of the blessing. Consider the circumstances under which the prophet came. The Jews whom he found in the promised land were the representatives of one or two tribes who had returned from the captivity. Where were the rest of the twelve tribes ? The royal race of David and THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. 137 his kingly sceptre, where were they ? What could even the most prosperous of his hearers boast of? — The rebuilt temple ? But where was the Sheldnah ? — The zeal of the Scribes and Pharisees ? But they could not even pronounce on John's Baptism, or say if it were from heaven or of men. To those who saw their poverty the prophet said, " Do not be troubled, for the kingdom of heaven is yours." Or, looking further afield, what was man at his best estate ? Cursed of God for his disobedience ; eating bread in the sweat of his brow ; laying up treasures, if he laid them up at all, only where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break through and steal, and through fear of death all his lifetime subject to bondage. Blessed are they who reckon themselves poor at their best estate, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And what did this mean ? Well ! those who felt their need should know. To make them feel their poverty was the first step. 6. Blessed are they that mourn, not in rebellion and in discontent because of their own sufferings, but because of their alienation from God, and because they lie under His disapprobation. 7. Blessed are the meek ! If we would know what meekness is in God's sight we see it in Moses, who was the meekest man of his own time, and still more in the prophet like unto Moses, who delivered this sermon. 138 THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. 8. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness — Why ? To the prophet's eye the whole human race were sick, feeble, perishing for want of sustenance, lacking even the desire for better things. But in a company, such as this, those were blessed who were hungry, for they could take and assimilate food. The prophet came not to mock mankind : he had meat for their spiritual hunger, drink for the spiritually thirsty. Ay ! and medicine for their sickness. But there must be appetite, or the food would not even be sought. There must be consciousness of their infirmity, or even medicine would not be desired. His teaching was mirrored in his outward action. Because of his miracles of healing great multitudes followed him, and even abode with him three days till all their food was exhausted, and then he made them sit down on the green grass, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them, and likewise of the fishes, as much as they desired. 9. Not otherwise was his action in the spiritual. Those who followed him, and continued with him, came to know what it was to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and to them he gave to eat and to drink. Do you say this is impossible ? Hear the words of his beloved disciple written many years afterwards : " If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. 139 and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.'' Observe that He does not forgive us our sins because of any- thing in us, but because He is faithful and just; and for the same reason does he cleanse the penitent from all unrighteousness. So, when the self-righteous asked his disciples why they and their master ate with publicans and sinners, he replied : " They that are whole need not a phy- sician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." He had help for all save for those who knew not their need. 10. It is not the purpose of the writer to go seriatim through the sermon on the mount, but merely to mark some salient points. Prominent among these is the thoroughness inculcated ; " Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" — such was his teaching ; and if in that search your right eye offends or hinders you, pluck it out. Rather go one- eyed into that kingdom than be cast whole into hell. And if your right hand be an obstacle, if it make you stumble in the path thitherward, cut it off and cast it away. Better go maimed into the kingdom of heaven than keep both hands and be cast into hell. If any object to this teaching, that it is beyond human capacity ; that no one ever did or could pluck out his eye or cut off his hand for such a reason, the answer is plain. If any one were sufficiently in earnest to prefer losing his eye or his hand to being made to stumble in his road to that kingdom, he would soon 140 THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. find easier means of avoiding such stumbling-blocks. He would learn to use his eyes to see obstacles and avoid them, and not let them wander away from the road, so that he fell over the obstructions he happened to meet. If he would rather lose his right hand than that it should hinder him in the work God had given him, he would soon find work for it in God's service. The one thing this prophet could not tolerate was hypocrisy and double-dealing. The spring of all action was to be the love of God and of one's neigh- bour ; and when a scribe said, " Well, Master ! thou hast said the truth, for there is one God, and there is none other but He ; and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." Jesus, seeing he answered discreetly, said unto him : " Thou art not far from the kingdom of God." And no man after that durst ask him any more questions. II. Yet his teaching must have been strange in the ears of many. Why were you to turn your cheek to the smiter ? Well ! this must not be taken alone, but with other passages. You are not to resist evil. True ! Yet, on the other hand, the same teacher said : " Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Like many hard sayings of this prophet it can only be said : " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." The essence of an action lies in its motive. It is of no use to give alms to be seen of THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. 141 men unless you are satisfied with that reward. To turn the other cheek in ostentatious pride and reproach would not be to obey the prophet's precept. Neither would it do to turn it in suUenness and hatred, or to be seen of men, and so put your brother in the wrong. The key is to be found elsewhere, even in the prophet's deep knowledge of human nature. His teaching is well exemplified in the incident of the woman taken in adultery. The Scribes and Pharisees who brought her dealt the prophet a cruel blow, and they acted deliberately. And he stooped down, apparentl}' overcome with shame under it, and gave them the opportunity of repeating it. And they did repeat it by pressing upon him for a decision. And what did he reply ? " Well," he said, " stone her, I will not forbid you ! " Only in the wording of his answer he appealed to their consciences. " He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone." The prophet forbade them not, but yet he triumphed, not allowing himself to be overcome of evil, but overcoming evil with good. 12. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Con- demn not, and ye shall not be condemned. Give and it shall be given to you; good measure, pressed down and shaken together, and running over shall men give into your bosom ; for with the same measure ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. Yes ! human nature, fallen as it is, lacks not a divine jealousy if one knows how to call it forth. It will 142 THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. not willingly be a debtor, but will pay back good measure for good if it have time to reflect, but it is prone to suspect evil motives, and act hastily and revengefully. It feels that it is better to give than to receive, and the motive for theft is rather the pleasure of carrying off a jealously guarded treasure than mere covetousness. Who would steal what he might have for the asking — unless indeed he were too proud to ask ? 13. Yet the prophet must not be understood to inculcate indiscriminate almsgiving. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. For instance, it will not do to demoralise him by injudicious gifts, nor to give in careless easy liberality which seeks its own gratification and not its neighbour's good. 14. Again, it must not be forgotten that amour propre is universal.* How then will you say to your brother : Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye ? Thou hypocrite ! cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote out of thy brother's eye. If you should see such a thing you will only offend your brother by offering to remove it, * Readers of "The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" will recognise these words, as also the quotation which accompanies them : " Quoi qu'elle est tv^s solidement mont^e, il ne faut pas brutaliser la machine." THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. 143 but if he sees you trying to help him in secret, out of love to him, and not with any ulterior motive, that is different. But why do you see it at all? Any man who is not blinded by self-conceit will find far more faults in himself than in his neighbour. 15. And so comes the gospel of peace which Jesus of Nazareth preached to those that hear : " Love your enemies, do good to those that hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who maltreat you. To him who strikes you upon the cheek turn also the other, and if any take away your surtout, deny him not your coat. Give to every one who asks of you, and if any take away your goods ask them not again. And as you wish men to do to you, so do you to them." 16. And observe in all this how the prophet ap- peals to the common sense of his hearers, not to selfish consideration for their own souls, still less to the fear of hell, which has been so common an argument among preachers who profess to be his followers. He does indeed mention Gehenna, but rather with a view of laying before his hearers the folly of doing otherwise than as he said, than as appealing to their fears. He knew men too well to think to win them by appealing to their fears of Gehenna. It is true the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and so he says : " Fear not them that kill the body and 144 THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. can do no more, but rather fear Him * who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna ; " but this is an appeal not to men's fears — unless they are small enough to be moved to such fear — but to their common sense. Some indeed may be moved by a fear of Gehenna.t " Well ! " wc may imagine the prophet saying : " So be it. Let them only do what I say, and they will soon forget all about hell fire." The one incurable evil is folly. If by any means they can be induced to think and reflect all will be well. 17. Again he warns his hearers that it is not so easy to keep the right road. The gate they have to enter is a narrow one and needs no little exertion to enter it. Yet a gate there * " What man is he that feareth the Lord ? him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease and his seed shall inherit the earth." + Two words are translated by the word hell in the New Testa- ment. One is Hades, the other Gehenna. Hades is almost synonymous with the grave, and denotes the place of departed spirits iuto which Lazarus and the rich man alike went at their death. The other is Gehenna, which occurs only in the following passages, to which reference may be made : — Matt V. 22, 29, 30. X. 28. xxiii. IS, 33. Mark ix. 43i 45. 47- Luke .... . xii. 5. James iii. 6. In one passage the word hell represents another place, Tartaru?. 2 Pet. ii. 4. THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. 145 is, and though it be narrow, yet the road is open, so he exhorts them : " Come in through the narrow gate, for wide is the gate and broad the way which leads to destruction, and many pass in through it ; because narrow is the gate and confined is the way which leads to life, and few are they who find it." 18. Again he appeals to their common sense. He says : " No man can serve two masters." It is not a question of what one would like to do ; the thing is impossible, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And since this is so, why waste yourself with vain anxieties in trying to serve both ? Serve God and cast your care on Him. Has He given you life, and shall He not feed and clothe you ? Surely the birds of the air and the flowers of the field might teach you so much wisdom ! 19. Here we find the crux of the prophet's teaching. On the one hand, to enter into the king- dom of heaven you must be in earnest. If you have any perception whatever of the entire desirability of the object set before you, you will be ready to pluck out your eye or cut off your hand rather than they shall be obstacles in your way. Nay 1 he that loveth his life shall lose it. On the other hand, to the single-hearted there is no difficulty. For them there is but one condition. Ask, and you shall K 146 THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. receive. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. Your own paternal instincts must tell you that your Heavenly Father will refuse nothing to His children, if they will but obey Him. The path of obedience may be narrow, but there is no obstruction. It is just as easy to go in through a narrow gate as through a wide one, if men will only choose aright. 20. Above all, Christianity is a practical thing. " Why do you call me Lord ! and Master ! and not do the things I bid you do ? Any one who hears these sayings of mine, and does not act in accordance with them, is like a man who without a foundation builds upon the sand. When the storm comes, as assuredly it will, the floods will carry away the foundations of his house, and down it will come. But if any one hears and does them he is like a man who digs down to the rock, and lays thereon the foundation safe and sure, before building the superstructure. And no flood shall ever carry it away, though it be battered by the most violent storms." 21. When the discourse was ended the people were astonished at his method, for he taught them as one having authority and not as their own leaders of religion, who acted as expounders merely of a law, which they themselves did not grasp. The reason for this he did not give in this discourse, but it is to THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. 147 be found afterwards in teaching his own disciples. " Leave them alone," he said, " they are blind leaders of the blind, and they and their followers will together fall into the ditch." He -could act as an efficient and trustworthy guide because he could see. CHAPTER VI. FAITH. I. When the prophet came down to the plain, after dehvering the discourse which was considered in the last chapter, a leper came and kneeled down in front of him, saying : " Sir, if you will, you can make me clean." Thereupon the prophet stretched out his hand and touched him : " I will, Be clean : " and immediately his leprosy departed from him. And Jesus said : " Now tell no man of this, but go straight to the priests in accordance with the law." He did not his works to be seen of men, and so stopped the mouth of the grateful man. On another occasion ten lepers stood afar off and besought his mercy. In reply to their appeal he simply said, " Go, show your- selves to the priests," and they turned and went, and, as they went, in obedience to the prophet's word and in faith in him, their leprosy also departed from them. Nine continued their road, doubtless with thankful hearts. But one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell on his face at the prophet's feet thanking him. This man was a Samaritan, and the incident moved the prophet greatly, that out of ten men, only. M8 FAITH. 149 one, and he not of the chosen seed, returned to give glory to God. But he entirely disclaims any share in the healing and bids the man: "Get up and go, your faith has saved you." Or, as if he said : " Don't stay there any longer. You are quite right to give glory to God. I am but an instrument ; your own faith, co-operating with God's love and power, have wrought the cure." 2. However, this is a digression. After cleansing the leper and dismissing him, a Roman centurion came to the prophet, saying : " I have a servant lying paralysed at home, terribly tormented." Jesus says, " I will come and heal him." This man had faith, and the prophet recognised the fact, and did not even let him finish his speech. His proposal, however, did not please the centurion : he sought not to trouble the prophet so far, and was quite unworthy of the honour of receiving him under his own roof. He, like the prophet, was a man under power, — to wit, the power of the Roman Government, — arid his orders were carried out in obedience, not to him (the centurion), but to the power of the Government he served. The prophet had but to speak the word and the cure would be wrought.. The humility and faith of this man won the prophet's emphatic approbation. He was astonished, and said to those who followed, " I tell you truly, not even in Israel have I found such faith. And I say to you that many shall come from the east and west and take their places with ISO FAITH. Abraham * and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens : and the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness, and there shall they lament and gnash their teeth." Then he turned to the centurion and said : " Go, as you have believed so be it to you." Here we see the true son of man taking advantage of the centurion's conduct to enforce on his hearers that the kingdom of heaven is the reward of individual faith and obedience, not an inheritance t of the Jews exclusively. 3. Soon after, seeing the crowds which had assembled, Jesus got into a boat to cross to the other side of the lake, and one of the scribes wished to accompany him, professing his readiness to follow the teacher wherever he went. Jesus would have him count the cost, and says to him : " The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air their nests, but the son of man has not where to lay his head." An- other said : " Sir, suffer me first to go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him : " Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead." 4. And on the voyage a sudden squall arose and * The father of the faithful of all nationalities. t The Jews were an election out of the nations, and heirs of the promises. True ! yet not for any good thing in them, but in order that through them all mankind might be blessed, according to the promise made to Abraham. God is no respecter of persons, and when the Jews arrogated the promise to themselves, to the exclusion of the Gentiles, they ceased to be suitable instruments in God's hand, and He turned to the Gentiles. Let the Gentiles take warning, for God changes not : He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. FAITH. 151 nearly sunk the boat ; but he was asleep, like Jonah in a similar case, yet how different ! And as in Jonah's case so in this, they came and awoke him, saying : " Lord, save us, we are perishing." But he said : " Why are you afraid ? How little is your faith ! " Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. But the men wondered, saying : " What sort of man is this that the winds and the sea obey him ? " 5. These five incidents will serve to illustrate the prophet's way of dealing with men. It was character- istic of him always to take men on their own ground. He was never at a loss, whatever demands the ingenuity, the hatred, the faith or love of another might make on him. And the greater the demands they made, so only they were the outcome of faith or love, the better was he pleased. So he did not shrink from the leper whose touch was defilement to others, but just as if he had made the most natural appeal possible, he put out his hand, and saying simply, " I will. Be clean," he delivered him from the grasp of his incurable disease. 6. In the case of the centurion there was no question, at least to the prophet, of the man's faith, and he no sooner heard the trouble than he said : " I will come and heal him," To the prophet of Nazareth the cry of suffering humanity never came in vain. He delighted to call himself the son of man. 152 FAITH. and thus claim kinship with all. But what most delighted him was when he found some response of faith or love in those whom he helped. The humility and faith of the centurion moved him to wonder — hard as that was ; — his humility in not daring to entertain the prophet in his house, his faith whereby he accepted the prophet — as the prophet always accepted others — on the ground adopted by him, as a man under authority, doing his works and speaking his words, not in his own power, but in that of another. 7. In the last case his disciples came to him and awoke him, saying : " Master ! we are perishing ; have you no care for us ? " Care ! Of course he cared, save that no anxiety could touch his constant faith in the heavenly Father's presence and care. So, rather than they should be distressed, he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and they were still, and said: "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith ? " But their fear was not diminished by these words ; they could not rise to such a stature of faith ; and it was long before the best of them even attained to any conception of it. 8. This voyage was undertaken because of the crowds which had collected. It was necessary for their sake, and the preservation of order, that they should not collect in greater numbers, so the prophet gave commandment to cross the lake. One of the FAITH. 153 scribes was so taken with his teaching that he wished, as doubtless many others wished, to go with him, and prayed to be allowed to accompany him every- where. This was the right spirit, but the man had mistaken his own depth of feehng; he was but a stony ground hearer after all ; so Jesus told him that he little knew the demands humanity can make on any one who acknowledges the relationship, and the obligations under which that relationship would place him if he recognised it. If he confessed himself a son of man he would not have a resting-place for his head. 9. But when the other man said : " Let me first bury my father," his thought took a new direction. To the man it seemed an unfeeling and reprehensible thing to be wanting in such a case, and so no doubt he thought it would appear to the prophet. However, he who preached the gospel of the kingdom sought to awake him to the transcendent claims that kingdom makes on all who seek it. If he were indeed awake to the kingdom of God, and proposed to enter upon such a quest, let him leave the dead man, who could not profit by his care nor be hurt by his neglect, to the care of those who were as insensible as himself to the higher aims and objects and interests to which the prophet sought to awake men. 10. Arrived at the other side of the sea, an inci- dent occurred ■ which exemplified the power of the 154 FAITH. prophet over the spirits which torment men, how, we know not, and in those days often obtained such complete possession of men as to enslave them entirely. Whether the case is widely different now, for those who have discernment of anything outside the range of their natural animal perceptions, need not be discussed here. For those who deny the existence, enmity, and power of such spirits of course the tale is absurd, and one eminent man of science is especially fond of ridiculing it. Whereby instigated to such conduct, probably he is less able to discern than any one. We leave the story to him, since he delights in it, and proceed to some more pleasant subject of study. II. The prophet now returned to his own city, Nazareth. On a previous occasion they had sought to throw him headlong from the brow of the hill, yet he feared not to go there again, and the crowds which now followed him so pressed upon him, that some people who brought with them a paralytic could not get into the house. They were not, however, to be baulked of access, and went up on the flat roof, and broke it up, and let down the bed on which the sick man lay into the room in which the prophet was. This conduct met the entire approval of the prophet, who, seeing the faith whereby they were moved, said to the sick man : " Son, be of good cheer ; your sins are forgiven you." It is not to be doubted that the man himself was FAITH. 155 distressed because of his sins, and attributed his sickness to them, and mourning for them in true penitence was precisely one for whom the prophet's blessing* was intended. That prophet proclaimed himself the light of the world, and testified that every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. So he comforted the sick man first with the assurance of the divine forgiveness. This, how- ever, at once aroused some of the scribes, who were present, to indignation. The prophet's words seemed to them blasphemy, and he immediately perceived the effect his words produced upon them. It was right that they should be jealous for God, but they should rather have rejoiced that God should give — if indeed He had given — such power to men. So he turns to them and says : " Why do you think evil in your hearts ? You think this too great a thing for a man to say ; you think my words spoken presumptuously and without power. But, as far as words go, it is just as easy to say : ' Arise and walk ; ' and you shall see that, when I say that, the power will not be wanting." And turning to the sick man, he says : "Arise, and take up your couch, and go to your house." And he arose and departed to his house, and the multitudes marvelled, and glorified God, Who had given such power to men. * "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." 156 FAITH. 12. Now this case serves to illustrate a very im- portant truth. The prophet said : " I will show you that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sins." He delighted to call himself a son of man, and as man, as a son of man, he did all and everything which he did. True he was none other than the Eternal Son of God ; but when he chose to be born of a woman, he emptied himself and took the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Not in outward form merely, but in all his capacities he made use of his human nature and faculties which he inherited from his mother. 13. It is true that he none the less acted in the power of the Holy Ghost ; but it is recorded of John Baptist that he was moved to joy of the Holy Ghost before his birth, and that he was filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb. And if such was the case with the forerunner, how much more with the prophet himself. But to suppose that he put forth his own divine power at any time, or in any way, is to misunderstand his whole action and mini- stry, the essence of which lay in the very fact that he did all as a very son of man, and so showed forth, to men as man, a pattern, an example, of how God would have them to walk, and how God would bless those who so walked. Others indeed walked largely by faith, and received the Holy Ghost according to their capacity. But Jesus of Nazareth alone of men walked wholly and entirely by faith, and in all his FAITH. 157 acts as man was wholly pleasing to God. Accord- ingly God gave to him the Spirit without measure, and proclaimed him by a voice from heaven : " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." So he does not tell them that the Son of God has power to forgive sins. They knew that. What he proves is that the son of man has the power, and so the multitudes understood it and glorified God accord- ingly. 14. In this connection another incident is very in- structive, viz., when he went to his disciples walking on the sea. They were troubled, saying : It is a spirit, and cried out for fear. But forthwith * Jesus spoke to them, bidding them be of good cheer : " It is I, be not afraid." Then occurred a thing which to our blindness and shortsightedness seems wonderful indeed. One of his disciples said : " Master ! if it is you bid me come to you on the water." This speech was wholly pleasing to the prophet. Here was a man who recognised, if but for a few brief minutes, the great fact that his actions, when they seemed most marvellous, were those of a man, and such as others might do. Accordingly he said : " Come." Just one word, no more was needed. And so Peter felt, and came down out of the ship, and walked on the water to go to his beloved Master. * Note the promptness of the prophet's response, which was char- acteristic of him, and so such words 7i.s, forthwith, immediately, &c., are in constant requisition in relating his doings. 158 FAITH. Where was now the fear of a spirit which had just before made them cry out ? Alas ! the fear was not far off, though now it had a different object — Peter saw the wind was boisterous ! What an anticlimax ! ! Yet such is man ; and so Peter was afraid ; and be- ginning to sink, he cried, saying : " Master ! save me." And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said to him: "Oh! man of little faith ! Why were you afraid ? " Peter's courage re- turns to him at the touch of that beloved hand, and at the accents of that gentle rebuke, and he walks back beside his Master, and gets into the boat with him. 15. Here two things are worthy of note. One is the ready response of the prophet to the faith of his disciple in the first instance. He does not treat it as a strange request ; that was the very last thing in his thought ; his very object was to teach them of how great things they were capable, to convince them that he acted as a very son of man. Another is that as soon as ever Peter appeals to him for help, immediately he stretches forth his hand. And how does he help him ? With a rebuke : " Oh ! man of little faith ! Why did you doubt ? " The whole object of the prophet is to take away the feeble standard by which men were wont to walk, and substitute for it his own standard of measureless faith. 16. So when on one occasion perceiving to some FAITH. 159 extent their Master's object, they besought him to increase their faith, he said : " If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, nothing would be impossible to you." As if to say : " You are men, use your privilege as such. If you find anything impossible, it is simply from want of faith." 17. So well was the prophet known now, that as soon as ever they recognised him, they sent out into all the country round about, and brought to him all that were diseased, and besought him that they might only touch the hem of his garment. And as many as touched were made perfectly whole. They had learned a lesson of faith which gave them the power by so simple an action to recover their health. 18. There is an account of one suppliant who seemed to plead in vain. She was a woman of Canaan, and addressing him as Lord, and Son of David, besought him to have mercy on her : " For my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil." In striking contrast to his usual conduct the prophet ignored her, and answered her not a word : and when his disciples came and besought him on her behalf, he said : " I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." He knew that this woman's maternal love was too strong to be denied, and wished to teach his disciples a lesson which it was very hard to instil into them, though they knew it not. So he ignored the poor woman till their compassion i6o FAITH. was excited, and they besought him on her behalf — or was it on their own ? " Send her aWay for she crieth after us " — hoping that they would be shocked by such an exhibition of Jewish exclusiveness, and see and advocate the larger claims of humanity. But after their one speech they were silent, and she came and kneeled to him, saying: "Lord, help me." Again he repulses her more cruelly than before : " It is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs." But the children who stood by were still unmoved ; they saw not that the prophet was rebuk- ing them, and it was left for the unfortunate woman to say — and what faith must she have had in the prophet ! what discernment of his real sympathy under his outwardly forbidding aspect ! what humility before those unfeeling Jews must she have had to say it ! — " Truth, Lord ! Yet the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their master's table." And so she earned her reward, for the prophet could no longer withhold the boon she craved, though he could not get a single one of his disciples to abjure their unfeeling attitude. So he cries out : " Oh, woman ! Great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." 19. And what effect did this prophet produce on the men of light and leading among the Jews ? They came to him and tempting him desired that he would show them a sign from heaven. A sign from heaven ! ! Whence, then, in the name of the FAITH. i6l merest common sense, did they suppose this abund- ance of signs came ? ! ! But he treated them with marked forbearance, saying : " When it is evening you say : Fine weather ! for the sky is red. And in the morning : Bad weather to-day, for the sky is red and lowering. You hypocrites ! You can discern the face of the sky and interpret the signs of the weather ; can you not discern the signs of the times ? " Their incredulity he met with equal incredulity, in- timating that they could see very well if they chose, and that their blindness was the merest pretence. And, when they were not content with this, he went on to say : " An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, and no sign shall be given to it but' the sign of Jonah." And he left them and went away. 20. But this was not the end of the matter. The hard-heartedness of these men moved him as nothing else could have done ; and some time after he broke forth to his disciples, saying : " Take heed and be- ware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees." They were astonished ! What was it that so moved their Master ? And measuring him by them- selves, and knowing that a hungry man is ever an angry man, they said : " It is because we have taken no bread." But they were soon undeceived, for he went on unquestioned of them : " Oh ! men of little faith ! Why are you concerned about a lack of bread ? When I fed five thousand men with five loaves, how many baskets did you fill with the L 1 62 FAITH. fragments ? And when I distributed seven loaves among four thousand, how many baskets did you gather ? How is it that you do not understand that I have no reason to be troubled about bread, and that the leaven against which I warned you is a very different thing ? " Then they saw that it was not of mere physical leaven, or defilement, that he spoke, but of that which leaven typified in the spiritual region to which he ever sought to raise them. 21. And they were gradually learning the lesson which yet they could acquire only by slow degrees. However, a great step was soon after made. He began to ask his disciples how others regarded him. To which they replied : " Some say you are John Baptist, others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." Such was the prevalent opinion, but his disciples must be led to higher ground ; so he asked them how they regarded him. And from the disciple who had walked with him upon the water came the response : " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And this unhesitating confession drew forth the emphatic approval : " Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonas ; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." It was not in vain that this man's faith had triumphed so far as to enable him to walk, if it were but a few steps, on the Sea of Galilee. He had learned something of what faith meant, and its power. FAITH. 163 It was often to fail, as it did when he saw the wind was boisterous and began to sink ; but little by little his Master would lead him on, never letting him rest where he was, ever ready to stretch out a helping hand to stay his tottering steps, and encourage him by his presence, till he grew from his present infant efforts to manly strength and confidence in things spiritual. 22. He had made a great advance that day when he made that confession ; and his Master gave him a gracious response, for he went on to tell him that he (Peter) was a stone, even a living stone in the temple he purposed to rear on the foundation of apostles and prophets ; and the truth he had that day uttered in his good confession was the rock on which that temple should be built, against which the gates of the grave should not prevail. And to Peter should be given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, which the prophet preached, and power to bind and loose so effectually, that what he bound on earth should be bound in heaven, and what he loosed on earth should be loosed in heaven. 23. This was the starting-point of an inner teach- ing which his disciples were very slow to receive and understand, and which it is no purpose of the present work to follow. They were forbidden even to utter this important truth to which Peter had attained, and of which even he as yet doubtless had 1 64 FAITH. but an inadequate conception. In pursuance of this training occurred the transfiguration, of which the effect did not so entirely pass away on the mount as to miss the notice of the people below. For from that mount he brought something which greatly amazed the people so that they ran to him and saluted him. 24. Then, too, he found a man with a lunatic son whom his disciples had been unable to heal, and even the Master seemed at a loss ; not that he lacked power, but that they wanted faith, so that he was constrained to cry out : " Oh ! faithless and perverse generation ; how long shall I be with you ? How long shall I suffer you ? " and bade his father bring him. He had come for the purpose, but he made no request ; he merely said that the disciples could not cast him out. So the prophet — whose teaching was : Ask and receive ; seek and find ; knock and it shall be opened to you ; and whose great object was to teach men their own power, and how easily help was to be had for the asking, but how imperative it was to ask — held him in conversation over the child's symptoms until the man was induced to' say : " If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." No need to appeal to the prophet's compassion ; the lesson to be learned was a different one : If you can believe, all things are possible to him that believes. How astonished the man was ! Was it possible that he was the hindrance to the child's cure? the unconscious FAITH. 165 cause of the prophet's hesitation ? Did the matter rest with him ? No wonder the distressed man cried out with tears : " Lord, I beheve, help thou mine unbelief." That was enough : feeble as the man's faith was, he had appealed to the prophet for help ; he had at least so much faith, and the devil was cast out, and the boy healed. CHAPTER VII. WHO ART THOU? 1. It is not the purpose of this book to attempt any exhaustive review of the life and work of the prophet of Nazareth. Much has been written, good, bad, and indifferent, on the subject, but it shows no signs of exhaustion. All that it is proposed to do is to give a sketch of him as he appeared to his con- temporaries, and the impression he made upon some of them. Many asked the question which stands at the head of this chapter. We have already reviewed some of the answers he gave. 2. In the first chapter we saw Pilate ask in vain whence his prisoner was. In the second we have seen how his birth as king of the Jews was made known to three influential men of the East ; and how they made a long journey to offer him homage; as also the reception they met on their arrival at the capital, and how Herod was troubled and all Jeru- salem with him. To these men was given light through the channels of approach which they re- cognised, and when on their arrival at Jerusalem, those at the head of the chosen nation could not, or i66 WHO ART THOU? 167 would not, help them further, the heavenly host, un- seen, unheard of them — but not unfelt, for they rejoiced with exceeding great joy in sympathy with them — led them, by means of a guiding star, to the very house where the young child lay. 3. We have seen how the same heavenly host announced his birth to a few obscure shepherds of Israel, not by means of a guiding star, nor by silent sympathy merely, but by their manifested presence and verbal announcement, followed by audible songs of joy. We have seen the trouble of these poor men changed into confidence by the word of the seraph, and afterwards into joyful sympathy with their anthem of glory, peace, and good-will. Let us not miss the commentary these things afford upon the opening words of his memorable sermon, " Blessed are the poor in spirit," but try to imagine the glorious scene of joy which might have taken place in Jewry that night, if all the poor remnant of the chosen nation who had returned from the Babylonish captivity, had manifested the true poverty of spirit which the suffer- ings of the chosen seed should have taught them. 4. In the third chapter we have seen him, at the age of twelve years, astonishing the learned in the law by his understanding and answers. We have not noticed his answer to his mother — " Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business ? " — because it does not belong to his public, but to his i68 WHO ART THOU? family life. But we have sought to give some account of John's ministry, the herald sent before his face to prepare the way for his public life and work. 5. In the fourth chapter we have endeavoured to draw out and exhibit the marvellous characteristics of this son of man, as he delighted to call himself. On the one hand, his intense sympathy, alike with human joy and human sorrow and suffering. On the other, the amazing strength of his character, which never permitted him to be unmanned, or to be at a loss, by anything that he saw others suffer, or endured him- self, through the malice of his enemies or their hard- heartedness. 6. In the fifth chapter we have seen the beginning of his public ministry, and the reception he met among his fellow-townsmen who knew ! * his father and mother, and therefore 1 could not believe in his prophetic mission and authority. We have seen how at Jerusalem, where they were not put at a dis- advantage by any undue familiarity with his family and relations, his prophetic zeal drove the traders out of his Father's house, and stopped the mouths of his would-be critics among the leaders of religious thought among the Jews. And we have reviewed some of the leading points of his celebrated discourse on the Mount, delivered to those who felt sufficiently interested to climb the hill in order to listen to him. * Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. WHO ART THOU? 169 7. In the sixth chapter we have tried to follow the prophet's teaching concerning faith, and see how he tried to cultivate this grace among all who approached him. How he commended the public exhibition of it in the case of the centurion, and took advantage of the faith of the woman of Canaan to try to teach his disciples something of what was meant by the title Son of Man, in which he delighted, but failed entirely at the time to produce the least effect on their Jewish exclusiveness. 8. It should be noticed how constantly Gentiles, in various ranks of life, showed a greater perception of his real character and power than did his own nation. How entirely was fulfilled the prophecy : " he came to his own, and his own received him not ! " The Gentiles were poor in spirit, because they had received no promises, and never for a moment thought themselves endowed with any gifts in the spiritual region. The Jews were prone to think of themselves as children of Abraham and heirs of the promises ; * and John warned them what a snare this would be to them, if they put any confi- dence in it and let it blind them to their real state of spiritual destitution. This feeling led them into the Pharisaical attitude of thinking themselves righteous and despising others, which the Son of Man had to rebuke so often, as in the story of the Pharisee and * Moses instructed them how to show a proper spirit of humility before God. See Deut. xxvi. 170 WHO ART THOU? the Publican, and their way of behaving in God's house ; and again in the story of the Samaritan who rescued the unfortunate Jew, who fell among thieves on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was left unassisted by two men of his own nation who passed him by. This story is so characteristic that it may reward a few minutes' consideration here, often as it has been dealt with before. 9. A man stood up to try the prophet, and asked him what he should do to inherit eternal life. This man was a professed student of Moses' law, and no mean student of it, for when the prophet asks him what is written in the law, how he understands what Moses wrote, he replies at once : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself." The prophet replies : " You have answered quite right. Do this and you shall live." The man was not content. Perhaps he felt how impossible it is for human frailty to comply with such demands, or perhaps some trace of a smile lurking around the corners of the prophet's mouth made him reflect, and warned him that he had not so far achieved much. So he says : " And who is my neighbour ? " It was a dangerous question to ask of the Son of Man. However, nothing in the prophet's manner indicated anything unusual or portentous. He quietly began telling the story we know so well ; and at the end he asked the lawyer which of the three men was WHO ART THOU? lyr neighbour to him who fell among thieves. The lawyer said : " He who had pity on him." " Just so," said the prophet. " Go you also and do likewise." 10. This was doubtless enough for the lawyer, at least at the time, and no more is recorded for us ; but it will be well to see what a large admission the Jewish lawyer was induced to make. At that time the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, such was their exclusiveness. The Samaritans were very differently disposed, as we see in the instance before us, and in the Samaritan leper who alone of ten returned to give glory to God. Yet here the Jewish lawyer had been made to confess that this barrier of exclusiveness had no foundation in Moses' law, and that the readiness to help a brother man in distress, which was shown by the Samaritan towards the unfortunate Jew, was the very essence of that law. We are nowhere told whether the unfortunate Jew ever met afterwards the Samaritan who had rescued him when he was half-dead. But if the lawyer reflected on the story which he had heard, he must have seen that the Jew in that case would be at a great disadvantage through this very habit of Jewish exclusiveness, which the prophet so often tried to break down. 11. The writer has seen a picture in which the incident is represented. The place is drawn from a photograph of a spot on the road which is supposed 172 WHO ART THOU? to be the actual place of the occurrence. The road skirts along the side of a hill, into the substance of which it is cut, after the manner of roads in steep country. The unfortunate traveller lies feet upwards on the slope below the road, while the Samaritan has just come to the edge of the road above him, and is looking down at him. This is eminently character- istic of such a character. The sight of the man in distress, if it had moved the priest and the Levite at all, had only served to remind them of the dangers of the spot, and of the advisability of hurrying on their waj', lest they should suffer the like. The Samaritan is very differently affected. His whole attention is at once claimed by the unfortunate figure there below, and if he has any selfish fears he promptly stifles them, as also the thoughts of the trouble and expense involved in helping him. 12. The story recalls a well-known incident in the prophet's own life, which may well serve as a pendant to his treatment of the Canaanitish woman, referred to in a previous chapter. But before proceeding to it, let us consider the preface to it given in St. John's Gospel. A question arose between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came to John, and told him the prophet of Nazareth, to whom John had borne witness, was baptizing, and all men were flocking to him. 13. Then came a further and most wonderful WHO ART THOU? 173 testimony on the part of the forerunner, for which reference should be made to the text. John's words may be paraphrased thus : A man can receive nothing save by gift from heaven. I told you, as you must remember, that I am not the Christ, but merely a forerunner. He is the bridegroom. I am but best man, and have no share in his pre-eminent joy. He must increase, and I must decrease, for he comes from above, and is above all. I am but of the earth and speak of the earth. He comes from heaven and is above all, and bears witness to what he has seen and heard there, and no one receives his testimony. He who receives his testimony has set to his seal that God is true. For God sent him, and he speaks the words of God, for he receives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. He who believes the Son has eternal life ; but he who is not persuaded of the Son shall not see life, but the anger of God rests upon him. 14. When the prophet of Nazareth knew that the Pharisees had heard how he was making and bap- tizing more disciples than John, although, be it understood, Jesus himself baptized no one, for Christian baptism was not yet possible, neither when it was instituted did Jesus ever baptize in person, unless the breathing upon the Twelve, or the cloven tongues of Pentecost, be taken as instances. When he knew that this report had reached the Pharisees, 174 WHO ART THOU? he left Judaea to go to Galilee. And his road took him to Samaria itself, which he reached at mid-day, and sat down to rest by Jacob's well, while his disciples went to get food. While he was there a woman came, and the prophet, knowing nothing of that Jewish exclusiveness which he strove so hard to break down, said to her, " Give me to drink." * Such a request on the part of a Jew at once aroused her attention, and she asked him how he came to make it. She forgot the man's need in sheer astonishment at his humility. And the prophet as promptly forgot his need in the opportunity of satisfying the woman's far greater need. " If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who asks you for drink, you would have asked of him, and he would have given you living water.'' She says : " Why, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep ! Whence then have you this living water ? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and was quite content with its water for himself, his household, and his flocks ? " Jesus says to her : " Every one who drinks this water shall thirst again ; but he who drinks of the water of which I shall give him shall not thirst for ever, but the water which I will give him shall become in him a spring of water, welling up into life eternal." The woman says to him : " Sir, * There are many of the prophet's would-be imitators who know nothing of the mavvellous tact of the prophet of Nazareth in dealing with those whom they would benefit but often merely offend, little remembering the Woe ! pronounced against those by whom offences come. WHO ART THOU? 175 give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw " — a hard request this, seeing she had not the faintest notion of his meaning. But the prophet is not at a loss. He has come to bear witness to the truth, and every truthful man or woman recognised his kinship — so to speak. Ac- cordingly he says : " Go, call your husband, and come here." Here was a witness to the truth that a woman should stand under her husband's headship in things spiritual. The woman was of the sinners whom the prophet came to save ; but she loved the truth, and promptly said, " I have no husband." Jesus said to her, " You have spoken well in saying that. For you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. Herein you spoke truly." The woman says to him : " Sir, I see you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain ; and you say that the right place for worship is Jerusalem." He says to her : " Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither this place nor Jerusalem shall be places of worship. You worship you know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth ; for the Father also seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." The woman says, " I know that Messiah comes, who is called Christ. When he comes he will tell us all things." Jesus says to 176 WHO ART THOU? her : "I am he, I who speak to you." * As he said this his disciples came, wondering to see him in conversation with the woman, but not venturing any remark. The woman left her water-pot ; she had forgotten alike her own errand and the stranger's thirst. Away she went to the city. Trust a woman to hurry when she has news to tell ! " Come," she says, " come and see a man who has told me every- thing I have ever done ! Is not this the Christ ? " 15. Considering the brevity of the conversation, and the few points it had touched upon, this was perhaps a rather large statement ; but it obviously expressed the impression produced upon her mind by the prophet's insight and knowledge. It brought her neighbours, as might be expected. Meanwhile the disciples had brought provisions and prayed him to eat, but the prophet said, " I have food of which you know nothing." His disciples, slow as men always are to believe in the spiritual, asked if anj' one had brought him aught. But Jesus said to them, " My meat is to do the will of Him who sent me, and to finish His work. Say not there are four months before harvest time. Look, 1 tell you ! Lift up your eyes and behold the fields how they are white for harvest. He who now reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit unto eternal life, that the * When we consider the wonderful reticence the prophet observed on this point, this communication is not a little singular. It was only to those who could hear that he spoke thus. WHO ART THOU? I77 sower and the reaper may rejoice together. For here is an instance of the true word : one sows and another reaps. I have sent you to reap that on which you have bestowed no labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours." And many of that city believed on him, because of the woman's testimony that he had told her every- thing she had done. So they came and besought him to stay with them ; and he remained there two days. And many more believed * through his word and said to the woman, " We no longer believe because of your speech ; for we have heard him our- selves, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world." 1 6. This incident seldom receives the notice it deserves. It has many points worthy of considera- tion. The one we now wish to remark on is, that the prophet in this instance departed from his usual practice of reticence, and told this Samaritan woman, after a very brief conversation, that he was the Messiah. Another is the inimitable method of the prophet ; how under his delicate touch and skilful manipulation human nature is moulded like clay under the hand of the potter to the issue he desires. The simple request for a drink of water arouses her attention instantly. The woman is evidently an ad- mirable specimen of her sex — perceptive, impulsive, * Or, as we might say, "developed faith" — that spiritual faculty wliich the prophet ever sought lo cultivate. M 178 WHO ART THOU? to a degree. Here is a Jew that is not as other Jews, and, inquisitive as Eve herself, she must solve the mystery. Her first question evokes a mention of living water and a possible assumption on the part of the Jew which she was not prepared to allow. However, it is put with such delicacy of manner by the tired man, and in such entire self-forgetfulness — he is in no hurry for the drink he had asked her for and evidently needs — that she thinks aloud as fast as her tongue can talk. There is no water about here except in the well, and the man can't get at that. Can he mean something else by his living water ? Isn't he content with the water that was good enough for father Jacob ? Had there been the least touch of assumption in the manner of this Jew, she was evidently prepared to resent it at once. But he is so obviously a thirsty wayfarer, driven to talk by her questions and speaking in simple sincerity, that all her nascent suspicions are lulled ; and the prophet's next speech carefully avoids all compari- sons, and still further excites her curiosity about the living water. It is something different, the prophet says, and better than the water in the well, and whoever drinks it will never thirst again ! The woman seizes at once the obvious road to a solution of the mystery, by asking the stranger to give her this living water. But the iete-a-tetc has lasted long enough ; the prophet has played the part of the serpent * to this * " Be ye wise as serpents, harmless as doves," said the prophet of Nazareth to those whom he sent before his face. WHO ART THOU? 179 daughter of Eve till she has asked the boon he offers her ; but she has no business to do anything of the sort ; it was by this very mistake that the mother of all women came to grief: Go, call your husband, and come to me here. By this time the woman has quite forgotten that she is talking to a perfect stranger ; the entire absence of any assumption on his part has disarmed all her suspicions ; and his evident sincerity has carried conviction to her mind. The man has some living water, whatever that may mean, and she means to get some, or unmask him if he is simply mocking her. Her keen feminine per- ceptions warn her that nothing will avail her but plain naked truth in dealing with this man. More- over, it is quite easy to tell him the truth, and yet not obey him. There is a hardly perceptible pause while she makes her decision, ere she says : I have no husband. But perfect as her mastery is of all her natural weapons, they are of no avail in this case. She receives a counter for which she was little prepared. The stranger commends the truthfulness of her reply, and startles her by showing a knowledge of her past life which is simply incredible if she had not heard it with her own ears. There is but one solution, and that the woman grasps at once, and woman-like determines to use her knowledge : * Sir, I perceive you are a prophet. — Her self-possession under such a trial is admirable. — What is the true * Or is she merely seeking to recover the advantage the stranger lias- wrested from her? i8o WHO ART THOU? solution about the rival claims of this mountain and Jerusalem to be the true place of worship ? This gives the prophet the opportunity of speaking at some length. The woman has recognised him as a prophet, and as such he speaks to her, with the result that when he is silent the woman utters her thought at once : " No one but Christ could tell us more than this man has done. If He were here He would settle all our difficulties." Jesus says : " I am he ; " and the woman believes him, and, prompt in action as in speech, hurries off to tell her neighbours all about the wonderful stranger she has been talk- ing to. 17. The next remarkable thing is the effect on the prophet himself. Tired, hungry, thirsty, he had sat down. Now the woman is gone, and his disciples bring him food and pray him to eat. But mere physical hunger and thirst have no power over him ; they are forgotten. The Saviour of the world sees hungry folk flocking to him, and he turns away the eyes of his disciples from things temporal and tran- sient merely, and directs their attention to the harvest before them. Let them set to work with him and earn wages in the spiritual harvest-field in which the wages and fruit ahke are eternal and heavenly. 18. And have we come any nearer to the answer to the question at the head of the chapter ? In Article 13, we have reviewed John's final and WHO ART THOU? i8i emphatic testimony. In the last article we have seen the Samaritans recognise him as the Saviour of the world. In the case of his own disciples he made no claim, but left them to find out for them- selves, as he always did where this was possible. Yet he questioned them until he drew forth Peter's noble confession. No sooner was that confession made, however, than he stopped their mouths, bid- ding them tell no man. They had much to learn before they could be fitted to proclaim this truth before men, and act as became those who carried such tidings. 19. We have seen the learned men of the Jews seeking by every means to induce him to claim indi- vidual authority and set aside Moses' law. Instances of this are numerous for any one who takes up the gospel narrative. Yet so carefully did the prophet guard himself from speaking unadvisedly with his lips that when at last he was arraigned before the Sanhedrim, they sought in vain for some plausible charge against him. Neither could they provoke him now to anything : he remained a silent spectator of their baffled malice seeking to trump up an accu- sation. 20. At last the High Priest stood up and put to him the same question which Pilate afterwards put in a very different spirit : " Do you answer nothing ? What is the meaning of all these witnesses?" But i82 WHO ART THOU? Jesus maintained an unbroken silence. They of all men should have known what it meant. And they did know, as was evident from the next words of the High Priest : " I adjure you by the Living God, that you tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus says to him : " You have said : * Moreover, I tell you, you shall yet see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming upon the clouds of heaven." " Wt'tk joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." vox CLAMANTIS. * SiJ tiTras — "Thou hast said." This appears to be, as commenta- tors describe it, a Hebrew form of assent literally translated into Greek. When Pilate asked him : Are you the king of the Jews ? his reply was Zi> Xiyn^ ; and the subsequent narrative shows clearly that this was a question : " Do you ask ? " and was understood, by Pilate at any rate, as disclaiming any kingly authority, for when, later on, he speaks of his kingdom, Pilate says in astonishment. Are you a king then? VOLUME III, HIS NAME. Ibis IRame sball be calleb Mon&erful, Counsellor, tbe /IDigbtg (BoD, tbe Everlasting ffatber, tbe prince of ipeace. ilbere is none otber IRame imber beaven given among men wberebB we must be saveb. 5 am tbe goob SbepberS anb ftnow ms sbeep anJ) am f?nown ot mine. iSi^ sbeep f?now ms voice, Daughter of Zion, from the dust Lift up thy drooping head, Again in thy Redeemer trust, He calls thee from the dead. Awake, awake, put on thy strength, Thy beautiful array ; The day of freedom dawns at length. The Lord's appointed day. Rebuild thy walls, thy bounds enlarge, And send thy heralds forth ; Say to the South, " Give up thy charge," And " Keep not back, O North." For soon the ransomed of the Lord Shall come with joy and praise, And in thy courts, with one accord, Their endless anthems raise. Amen. O GOD, Who didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful people by sending to them the light of Thy Holy Spirit, grant unto us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His Holy Comfort ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. ^rtr^ r-l— r :^ : -^ — 1 ^^M^ .#1^ 1— ^* -1 i 1 -^-^-»-»- :l^^'" ^^b-^ -:-J- -^- S -'— ^ le=.=t?u fe^^ggg iz^4^ 53E ^? i^j?^ ■-b-- '^^^Uig: ' *rz:^t U T^L ig^ y^ 'e^ ^^=F=1= -^-^ 1 1— 3 3 ^: CHAPTER I. RBGENERA TION. As thou knowest not the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child : even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. Kai lir'r)veffev 6 Ktjptos rbv otKovdfioit TTJs dSt/ci'as, 6tl ho; of St. Peter is identical with the Father of the lights of James i. 17 and with the Dayspfing of Job xxxviii. 12. But the Lord Jesus Christ has many names. One of these is the "Sun of Righteousness;" another is "The Morning Star. " And just as in the natural heavens the morning star || appears at or before dawn, preceding the sun, so are these two figures found in close conjunction in Holy Writ. H So here the term " Light-bearer " is pregnant with meaning, and calls to mind at once the Morning Star, herald of day ; the Sun of Righteousness ; and the Father of the Lights. 19. Then the term " Dayspring " is used in the Authorised Version in Luke i. 78, and this is doubtless in accordance with * It must be remembered that the spoken word of prophecy abounded exceedingly in the early Church, and to this St. Peter here refers. Compare I Cor. xiv. 26-33 ; Acts xi. 27, 28 ; xxi. 8-ii, &c. + So much did prophecy abound that St. Paul had to issue a warning on the subject in even stronger terms. See i Thess. v. 19, 20. + St. Peter nppears here to contrast written prophecy — e.g. , his own epistle wliich lie was writing — with the spoken prophecy already alluded to. § Holman Hunt's picture, " The Light of the World," links together in a marvellous manner the present times with this passage of St. Peter and Rev, iii. 20, l| Sometimes Jupiter, sometimes Venus. ^ So in Job xxxviii. 12. The Septuagint ii.is *H eiricrou avvrh'axO' THE MUSTARD SEED. 29; the analogy of faith, for John Baptist was the harbinger of the Father of the Lights, when He was born of a virgin and made man for our salvation ; and this is clearly referred to in the words 'r:po(^riTni roD h-^iaTou (Luke i. 76) and a.mToXr\ sS. u-v)/oi); (Luke i. 78). 20. There is another remarkable reference to this type in Isaiah xiv., where the word Lucifer is used in the Authorised Version, being the Latin equivalent of the word used by St. Peter (ia(!6piic). In the Septuagint the word is identical with that translated Day spring in Job xxxviii. 12. In this passage (Isa. xiv. 4-23) we have a prophecy concerning the king of Babylon. Now it is well known that Rome is the spiritual antitype of Babylon,* and it will be seen that the " Father of the Lights " is a very appropriate symbol of the Pope of Rome, who claims universal dominion, temporal and spiritual ; and whose bishops, cardinals, and other dignitaries are indeed lights of the Catholic Church, whose true scriptural symbol is found in the fixed stars. (See Rev. i. 20. "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches "). Moreover the Septuagint has -is 'li^imisvi sk ri.u oupaioO 6 ' Ei>iscl>ipog 6 -rrpyf aiaziXXm ; which may be rendered : — " How is the Day- spring fallen out of heaven, the Dayspring that rose before dawn?" And this exactly describes the Pope of Rome, who teaches that the kingdom of God has come and has only to increase; so anticipating in his own person the rising of the Sun of righteousness. 21. But the sin of Babylon is not confined to Rome, for Babylon is not only the but also the Mother of harlots, and conspicuous among these is the Daughter of Tyre, concerning whom are many marvellous prophecies, notably in Isaiah xxiii., where, however, distinction must be carefully made between Tyre, Zidon, and Tarshish. The most pro- * For an exposition of this type see "The Purpose of God in Creation and Redemption," 3rd edition — Thomas Laurie, Edinburgh ; Hamilton, Adams, & Co., London. 296 THE MUSTARD SEED. bable interpretation seems to be thus, Tyre : Britain, that is to say, little Britain,* commonly called Great Britain. Tar- shish : the greater Britain, perhaps including the United States of America, though they have set up housekeeping for them- selves. Zidon : France for many reasons, but Isaiah xxiii. 4 seems especially to point to the nation that in the beginning of the present century contended with England for the mastery of the sea, and has long had a stationary population apparently incapable of increase, as well as a dearth of men of power in the political world. Ezekiel xxviii. appears again clearly to point to the horrors of the Revolution. If this be so then the prophecy concerning the king of Tyre contained in Ezekiel xxviii. has especial interest for the men of light and leading f in Britain at the present time. 22. It has been said that this book is intended for those that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are wrought — where ? Shall we say in Jerusalem, or in the land that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt? "Whatever be the spiritual name, however, there is no doubt of the thing signified — namely, modern Christendom. If any fear on reading the terrible indictment let him take courage and turn to Isaiah Ixvi. ; and let him, because of that fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom, repent and turn, and for counsel let him turn and see what the Spirit wrote to the Church of the Laodiceans, Rev. iii. 14-22. The mills of God grind slowly, But ihey grind exceeding small ; Though with patience He stands waiting With exactness grinds He all. * Old Neptune one day Did to Liberty say, ' ' If ever I lived upon dry land, The spot I should hit on Would be little Britain ; For oh ! it's a right little island.' f Whether any reference to two notable men of this century is to be found in this chapter, lis., Benjamin Disraeli, vv. 2- 10, W. E. Gladstone, II- 19, readers must judge. I saw as in a dream sublime The Balance in the hand of Time. O'er East and West the scale impended And Day with all its hours of light Was slowly sinking out of sight, While opposite the scale of Night Silently with the stars ascended. And like the Astrologers of old In that bright vision I beheld Greater and deeper mysteries. I saw with its celestial keys, Its chords of air, its frets of fire, The Samian's great ^olian lyre Rising through all its sevenfold bars, From earth unto the fixM stars. And in the dewy atmosphere Not only could I see but hear Its wondrous and harmonious strings In sweet vibration, sphere by sphere, From Dian's circle light and near, Onward to vaster and wider rings. Where chanting through his beard of snows, Mysterious, mournful, Saturn goes, And down the sunless realms of space Reverberates the thunder of his bass. A TRANSLATION OF JOB XXXVIII. FROM THE SEPTUAGINT. 1. And after Elihu ceased speaking, the Lord said to Job through hurricane and clouds : 2. Who is this that hides counsel from me,* and keeps back words in his heart, and thinks that I conceal ? t 3. Gird thy loins like a man ; I will ask of thee, and do thou answer me. 4. Where wast thou when I was laying the foundations of the earth ? Proclaim to me thy sagacity if thou compre- hendest. I 5. Who laid out its measures if thou knowest? Or who stretched out the line upon it ? 6. On what have its sockets § been made to sink ? Or who is the mason that used the plummet and square upon it ? 7. When siars were born all my angels praised me with * The exact translation of this verse is especially difficult. The words seem intended to show Job how near he had been to charging his Maker with folly. t The Almighty seeks ever to reveal Himself, and if men do not perceive Him nor understand, it is for the reason given in Rom. i. 21-23. t The object of the Almighty in this and the following chapters — and indeed in the whole book of Job — appears to be to hide pride from man's heart for ever : to show him that though a man should keep the whole law of God, in the spirit as well as in the letter, he could only say in the presence of God, " We are unprofitable servants, we have done but our duty." § The Greek is rather ' ' To what have its eyelets been made fast ? " which suggests the erection of a tent or the stretching of a sail, whereas the con- text demands an architectural metaphor which Piazzi Smyth seems to supply with wonderful ifropos, in his books on the Great Pyramid. 298 A TRANSLATION OF JOB XXXVIII. 299 a loud voice (subintellige : — Silet una gens humana, nee reddit ob terrain gratias.) 8. And I enclosed the sea with isthmuses,* when it burst forth issuing from its mother's womb. 9. And I gave it garments of cloud, and swathed it in a swaddling band of mist. 1 o. And assigned it bounds, and set strongly barred gates t about it. 11. And said to it: — Hitherto shalt thou come, and shall not pass beyond, but in thyself shall thy waves dash themselves to pieces. 12. Or have I arranged the light of the dawn with refer- ence to f/ie^ ? And does the Dayspring | know his place in the appointed order, 13. To lay hold of the wings of the earth, to shake the impious out of it. 14. Or hast thou taken earth as clay, and moulded the living creature, and when it spoke,§ placed it upon the earth? 15. Hast thou taken away the light from the impious,|| or dashed to pieces the arm of the arrogant ? IT * TTiJXat first double-doors. Also a pass as Thermo-pylcs. Also straits, as Gibraltar and the Bosphorus. Also an isthmus, as of Corinth (bimarisve Corinthi). Observe that straits are really mountain passes submerged. The same conformation at an intermediate level constitutes an isthmus. The term ttiJXoi includes all three. t One of these gates has been opened for the passage of ships, and is kept open by continual labour. The bars of the Panama gates have so far defied the attacks of man. + Probably identical with " the Father of the Lights " of James i. 17, -a. type of our Lord Jesus Christ, with reference to Whom (and not to Job or another) the light of the dawn, has been arranged; and Who does know His place in the appointed order, and will take hold of the wings of the earth and shake the impious out of it. § i.e. manifested life and individual consciousness. II Compare verse 7 with Rom. i. 18-21. The human race all over the world fails in due worship of the Almighty Creator, Who therefore hides The light from them so that they grope on in darkness. IT Compare the treatment of Nebuchadnezzar, and of Herod, Acts xii. 21-23. 300 A TRANSLATION OF JOB XXXVIII. 1 6. Hast thou come upon the spring of the sea, or walked in the tracks of the fathomless ? 1 7. * Are the gates of death opened to the fear of thee, or have the warders of Hades crouched down on seeing ihee 1 18. Hast thou perceived the breadth of the whole t earth, Declare to me ; How much is it ? 19. On how much land J does the light dwell? And what is the extent § of the place of darkness ? 20. If thou wouldst lead me to their bounds, and if thou also understoodest || their ways, 21. Then I should know that thou wert living at the time, and that the number of thy years is great. 22. And hast thou come upon the treasures of snow, or seen the treasures of hail ? 23. Hast thou stored itH against the hour of thine enemies, against the day of wars and of battle ? 24. Whence does the hoar frost proceed, or whence is the south wind scattered abroad under heaven ? 25. Or who prepared a course for the boisterous rain- storm, and a way for its uproar, 26. So as to wet the earth where there is no man, the desert where man exists not at all, 27. To feed the untamed and houseless,** and to cause the young green shoot to spring up ? * Another prophecy of Christ. \ "The breadth of that which is under heaven." Piazzi Smyth's books on the Great Pyramid supply a marvellous comment on this passage, as well as on verses 4, S, 6. X Again Piazzi Smyth's books supply a wonderful commentary. See his chart of the world showing the great Pyramid marking the central point of the land of the whole globe. § Taking the two questions of this verse together we have what would be an unanswerable enigma without the knowledge of the spherical shape of the earth and the method of its illumination. II The illumination of the globe supplies an answer, but only a small and subsidiary one, to this sublime enigma. IT Supply : "as I have done." ** i.e. the wild animals. A TRANSLATION OF JOB XXXVIII. 301 28. Who is the father of the rain ? Or who has begotten the drops of dew ? 29. Is the ice born from the womb of any one ; or the hoar frost in heaven, has any one engendered it, 30. Or does it descend like flowing water? Who has made the impious * fearful ? 31. Hast thou forged the bond of the Pleiades t and burst open the fort of Orion ? 32. Or wilt thou expound Mazouroth in his season, and the evening star upon his hair ; % wilt thou lead them ? 33. Dost thou understand the turnings of heaven, or the coincidences of earthly life ? § 34. Wilt thou summon cloud with thy voice, and will it hear thee with fear of rushing || water? 35. Wilt thou send lightnings, and will they go? Will they say to thee. What is it ? 36. Who gave to women the wisdom of the web, or their science of embroidery ? * The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous are bold as a lion. + A picturesque writer once compared the Pleiades to " a group of fire- flies in a silver net." Seeing the importance attached to them in Professor Piazzi Smyth's theory of the Great Pyramid and the attention they have always attracted, one is tempted to ask whether this wonderful constellation can be " The Father of the lights." X The meaning of this verse is obscure. If by Mazouroth we understand the twelve signs of the Zodiac — which seems the most probable meaning — then the second clause may refer to the eveiiing star appearing in his appointed place in Mazouroth; or "his hair" [Kd/jLi;, compare the Latin coma) may be a poetical expression for his brilliant rays. § The revolution of the celestial spheres was ihe problem of astronomy previous to the establishment of the present theory. Now the motions of double stars, of the whole visible universe and other "turnings of heaven " supply it. The coincidences of earthly life are ike theme of the poets and romance- writers of all ages. II i.e. will clouds burst and fall in a storm of rain at your word? 302 A TRANSLATION OF JOB XXXVIII. 37. Who is he that numbers clouds in wisdom, and spread the earth as a couch for heaven ? * 38. And dust is poured out for the earth ; t I have set it as the pip J on the die. 39. Wilt thou hunt prey for lions, or satisfy the souls of huge snakes ? 40. For they fear in their lairs, and sit lurking in the forests. 41. Or who prepared food for the raven? For his brood have cried to the Lord as they wander, seeking their food. XXXIX. 1 . If thou knewest the season of birth of goat-stags § of the rock ? or hast thou guarded the throes of deer ? 2. Hast thou counted the number of their months of gestation, or loosed the pangs of their travail ? 3. Hast thou reared their young without fear,|| or wilt thou dissipate their pangs ? IT * This again is difficult to render with certainty. It might be rendered "and turned the vault of heaven upon (or over) the earth" — i.e. as a builder turns the vaults of a cathedral roof over the nave. But this in- terpretation is open to two objections, ist. The vault of heaven does not really rest on supports, so that the simile appears hardly worthy of the context. 2nd. We miss then the allusion which seems certainly intended to the fruitfulness of the earth under the healthful and life-giving influences of the natural heavens. + Or "as earth." The meaning is obscure, but one intention seems plainly to be to intimate that dust is as intimately and iudissolubly iden- tified with the earth, as the pips (or dots on the several faces) with the die on which they are engraved. J Is it possible the- pip alluded to is the great Pyramid ? § Probably alluding to some of the huge animals, Ovis Poll, &c., of the roof of the world. II i.e. " Have you trained them to fearlessness." H Or perhaps, "Wilt thou ciiuse their youngjto be born.' A TRANSLATION OF JOB XXXVIII. 303 4. They will wean * their fawns, they will be multiplied in birth ; they will go forth and will not return to them. 5. Or who let go the wild ass free, and who loosed his bonds ? 6. I gave him the desert for his abode, and the salt land for his quarters ; 7. Laughing to scorn the crowds of the city, and not hearing the reproof of the tax-gatherer, 8. He will reconnoitre mountains for his pasture, and^he seeks after every green thing. 9. Or will single-horn be willing to serve thee or to lie down at thy manger ? 10. Wilt thou bind his yoke in traces ; or will he plough thee furrows in the plain? 1 1 . Dost thou trust him because his strength is great ; wilt thou leave thy works to him ? 12. Wilt thou believe that he will render thee thy pro- duce ; will he carry it into thy threshing floor ? 13. The wing of the joyous the bird of paradise,t if he take it, the stork j and the ostrich.§ 14. For she will lay her eggs into earth, and hatch them on a mound ; * Literally, " break off." In this chapter the Almighty seems at once to express His own tender care for and delight in the animal creation, and to call upon Job to sympathise in His ovm delight in these expressions of his character. + veiXaaiTa. Not found in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon. The context indicates a bird pre-eminent for delightful wing-plumage. J ialSa. Also not found in L. and S. The A. V. gives Siork in the margin, a bird conspicuous for long and untiring flight in migration. § viaffa. Also not found in L. and S. The A. V. gives Ostrich, whose habits are said to correspond to the description which follows. All three show forth the beauty or power of flight in some form. As previously remarked, the Almighty appears in this chapter to call upon Job to see how He expresses His own mind and character in the different members of the animal creation — asking him if he would not like to have a tame rhinoscerous to plough for him and bring"in hisharvest,' &c.- &c. 304 A TRANSLATION OF JOB XXXVIII. 15. And forgets that the foot will scatter them, and beasts of the field trample them. 16. She is hardened against her brood, just as if they did not belong to her ; she labours in vain without fear. 17. For the Almighty hath stilled for her the voice of wisdom, and hath not apportioned her the faculty of com- prehension.* 18. Upon occasion she will raise herself on high, she will laugh to scorn t the horse and his rider. 19. Or hast thou endowed the horse with mettle and clothed his neck with terror ? J 20. Hast thou clothed him in armour ?§ The glorious courage of his heart ! || 2 r. He paws upon the ground, IT he prances, he rushes forth into the battle-plain in might ; 22. Meeting a king he laughs him to scorn, and he will not turn aside for cold steel. 23. Upon his prancings dance the bow** and the sword. * tnjveai.% : a hitting, coming together, union. Also tJie faculty of com- prehension; evidently alluding to her lack of sympathy with her brood, which is part of the loving care of the Almighty for her, in striking contrast with the strong maternal instincts of some birds, — the common barn-door fowl, for instance, whose distress on hatching a duckling is proverbial. t Here we see the wing of the Joyous, X Here there may well be a double allusion, — rst, to the natural timidity of the horse, whereby he avoids his enemies ; and, to the terror he in turn inspires when taken and trained for use in war. Compare the familiar, though almost obsolete, simile of a bent bow ("with necks like the bended yew"). In order to realise the full force of the simile, it is necessary to remember that the bow was no toy in those days, and that the modern action corresponding to the bending of a bow is to pick up a rifle and take aim. § It is doubtful if Job knew anything of this particular use of the horse, for though he had 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 she-asses, and a great household, no mention whatever is made of horses. II Compare the description of the behaviour of the trained war-horse in " Ivanhoe " and elsewhere. TT Literally, " He digs in the plain." ** Of course the modern equivalent is the carbine. A TRANSLATION OF JOB XXXV III. 305 24. And his anger spirits away the ground ; and he will not obey until the trumpet sound. 25. But at the blast of the trumpet he says, Yoicks ! and snuffs the battle from afar, and bounds and screams with delight. Victory. Victory ! Word that ennobles. Iris. The rainbow of hope, long deferred. Crown. Of the victor, won through long troubles. Temple. Of God, God incarnate, the Word. Ophaz. The land of gold, gold the most precious. Rest. For the weary, abode of the blest. Iris. Again, second symbol most gracious. Army. Blest Mahanaim, East meeting West. V LOOK ON THIS PICTURE " The heavens, even the heavens are the Lord's ; but the earth hath He given to the children of men." "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations." " My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways My ways." AND ON THAT. " The world is mine oyster that with my sword I'll open." " ' Good friend,' quoth he, ' say the firm Roman to great Egypt sends this treasure of an oyster ; at whose foot, to mend the petty present, I will piece her opulent throne with kingdoms.' So he nodded, and soberly did mount an arm-gaunt steed, who neighed so high that what I would have said was beastly dumbed by him." PBINTED BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND OO. KDINBUROH AND LONDON.